Technology enhanced learning as transformative innovation: a note on the enduring myth of TEL

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical insight into the ubiquity of technology enhanced learning. The use of technology in higher education is underpinned by a promise that technology will enhance teaching and learning despite an apparent lack of systematic evidence. This raises questions of how this enhancement agenda persists, and of how technology has established a position of dominance within higher education. This orthodoxy is evident across a range of relevant actors, from commercial interests, universities, government, academics, and technologists. This paper utilises a critical logics approach, which problematises the competing interests of these different actors, exploring ways in which the social, political and fantasmatic practices between these actors contribute to the ubiquity and dominance of technology enhanced learning. This paper argues that the technology enhanced project resists in-depth critique, with the repeated failure of technology to transform education attributed towards academics, students and institutions

Does technology really enhance nurse education?

Technology has clearly impacted upon our working lives, and the purpose of this paper is to offer a critical insight into the ubiquitous presence of technology in nurse education. This paper argues that technology enhanced learning is predicated on the promise of potential and purported transformation of teaching and learning. It suggests that there is a lack of critical engagement in the academic field of technology enhanced learning, and adds a critical voice to some of the emerging arguments in this area. There is also a lack of systematic evidence supporting the enhancement offered by technology, and yet the technology enhanced project continues to persist. The discourse surrounding technology enhanced learning has become so dominant, so pervasive, that those of us within it can no longer see alternatives. But there are alternatives, and this paper argues that we need to challenge the dominance of technology enhanced learning, and become aware of its contingent nature

The nuclear envelope localization of DYT1 dystonia torsinA-ΔE requires the SUN1 LINC complex component

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DYT1 dystonia is an autosomal dominant neurological condition caused by a mutation that removes a single glutamic acid residue (ΔE) from the torsinA (torA) AAA+ protein. TorA appears to possess a nuclear envelope (NE) localized activity that requires Lamina-Associated-Polypeptide 1 (LAP1), which is an inner nuclear membrane localized torA-binding partner. Although hypoactive, the DYT1 dystonia torA-ΔE isoform often concentrates in the NE, suggesting that torA-ΔE also interacts with an NE-localized binding partner.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We confirm that NE-localized torA-ΔE does not co-immunoprecipitate with LAP1, and find that torA-ΔE continues to concentrate in the NE of cells that lack LAP1. Instead, we find that variability in torA-ΔE localization correlates with the presence of the SUN-domain and Nesprin proteins that assemble into the LINC complex. We also find that siRNA depletion of SUN1, but not other LINC complex components, removes torA-ΔE from the NE. In contrast, the LAP1-dependent NE-accumulation of an ATP-locked torA mutant is unaffected by loss of LINC complex proteins. This SUN1 dependent torA-ΔE localization requires the torA membrane association domain, as well as a putative substrate-interaction residue, Y147, neither of which are required for torA interaction with LAP1. We also find that mutation of these motifs, or depletion of SUN1, decreases the amount of torA-WT that colocalizes with NE markers, indicating that each also underlies a normal NE-localized torA binding interaction.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data suggest that the disease causing ΔE mutation promotes an association between torA and SUN1 that is distinct to the interaction between LAP1 and ATP-bound torA. This evidence for two NE-localized binding partners suggests that torA may act on multiple substrates and/or possesses regulatory co-factor partners. In addition, finding that the DYT1 mutation causes abnormal association with SUN1 implicates LINC complex dysfunction in DYT1 dystonia pathogenesis, and suggests a gain-of-function activity contributes to this dominantly inherited disease.</p

Foresight and action learning supporting transition: An account of practice

Integrating foresight into corporations has proved to be challenging. This account of practice reports on the introduction of futures and foresight (FF) teaching content into an executive Masters programme. The FF contentwas further linked to and provided a background for action learning sets. The purpose was to identify how introducing distant time horizons would help participants to adapt and change their perspectives in problem solving and professional development. The report describes how FF was incorporated across the programme and used to develop insightful conversations in the action learning sets. Citing two case examples, the authors reflect on how participants responded to these new elements and offer insights into the value of introducing FF as an interdisciplinary element in a programme

Who is the key decision maker in the structural frame selection process?

ABSTRACT: Selecting the correct structural frame is crucial to a project’s feasibility and success, but this de-cision can have profound implications for the future performance of a building project. In practice, the even-tual choice of a frame may involve various parties including client, project manager, cost consultant, structural engineer, architect, main contractor, etc. This paper presents research findings on the levels of influence of these project team members on the structural frame selection process. It describes the results of a two-year study in which various research methods were undertaken including a state-of-the-art literature review, semi-structured interviews and a postal questionnaire survey. The interviews showed that cost consultants, project managers and clients were found to be the most influential people in the structural frame decision-making pro-cess, so a postal questionnaire survey was sent to a sample of UK companies operating in these areas to further examine their priorities and views in detail. The data collected was subsequently analyzed and produced a rank ordering of project team members in relation to the influence they have on the choice of frame type at each stage of design process. In fact, they agreed that the structural engineer was the most influential deci-sion-maker in the structural frame selection process. So, this paper asks the question ‘who really is the key de-cision maker?’ The conclusions will be of interest to all those concerned with project teams, structural frame design and selection and effective leadership in decision making

Communities in university mathematics

This paper concerns communities of learners and teachers that are formed, develop and interact in university mathematics environments through the theoretical lens of Communities of Practice. From this perspective, learning is described as a process of participation and reification in a community in which individuals belong and form their identity through engagement, imagination and alignment. In addition, when inquiry is considered as a fundamental mode of participation, through critical alignment, the community becomes a Community of Inquiry. We discuss these theoretical underpinnings with examples of their application in research in university mathematics education and, in more detail, in two Research Cases which focus on mathematics students' and teachers' perspectives on proof and on engineering students' conceptual understanding of mathematics. The paper concludes with a critical reflection on the theorising of the role of communities in university level teaching and learning and a consideration of ways forward for future research

Geospatial information infrastructures

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Geospatial information infrastructures (GIIs) provide the technological, semantic,organizationalandlegalstructurethatallowforthediscovery,sharing,and use of geospatial information (GI). In this chapter, we introduce the overall concept and surrounding notions such as geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial datainfrastructures(SDI).WeoutlinethehistoryofGIIsintermsoftheorganizational andtechnologicaldevelopmentsaswellasthecurrentstate-of-art,andreflectonsome of the central challenges and possible future trajectories. We focus on the tension betweenincreasedneedsforstandardizationandtheever-acceleratingtechnological changes. We conclude that GIIs evolved as a strong underpinning contribution to implementation of the Digital Earth vision. In the future, these infrastructures are challengedtobecomeflexibleandrobustenoughtoabsorbandembracetechnological transformationsandtheaccompanyingsocietalandorganizationalimplications.With this contribution, we present the reader a comprehensive overview of the field and a solid basis for reflections about future developments

Exploring passenger rail markets using new station catchment size and shape metrics

This paper presents a novel spatial market segmentation method to determine key user groups of a train station (such as gender, age and access mode), based on the size and shape of the station catchment area of each group. Two new indices–area ratio and composite ratio–are developed to quantify the importance of user groups for a train station. This method is applied to identify key user groups at seven train stations in Perth, Western Australia. The study offers a new way to explore the travel behaviour of train users and provides insights for rail transport planning and marketing

A Survey of Volunteered Open Geo-Knowledge Bases in the Semantic Web

Over the past decade, rapid advances in web technologies, coupled with innovative models of spatial data collection and consumption, have generated a robust growth in geo-referenced information, resulting in spatial information overload. Increasing 'geographic intelligence' in traditional text-based information retrieval has become a prominent approach to respond to this issue and to fulfill users' spatial information needs. Numerous efforts in the Semantic Geospatial Web, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), and the Linking Open Data initiative have converged in a constellation of open knowledge bases, freely available online. In this article, we survey these open knowledge bases, focusing on their geospatial dimension. Particular attention is devoted to the crucial issue of the quality of geo-knowledge bases, as well as of crowdsourced data. A new knowledge base, the OpenStreetMap Semantic Network, is outlined as our contribution to this area. Research directions in information integration and Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) are then reviewed, with a critical discussion of their current limitations and future prospects