Online learning in the workplace: a hybrid model of participation in networked, professional learning

The design and conceptualisation of online learning environments for work-related, professional learning was addressed through research with users of an online environment for social workers. The core questions for the research were to identify the nature of participation in the online environment, the relationship between online participation and the offline context, and the implications for conceptualisation of online learning environments to support work-related learning. Key areas of the research literature in technology-enhanced and work related learning are discussed in order to position the study, to inform the research methods used and interpretation of the findings. Online participation needs to be understood as a hybrid concept, in that it is a reflection of offline roles, opportunities and pressures, as well as the usefulness, usability and relevance of what is online. Online participation was diverse, from short browsing for information to more reflective engagement that supported movement across the boundaries between roles and areas of work practice and a focus on practice skills and underlying values. Online sites intended to support work-related learning should start from the perspective of the socio-technical interaction network, with its emphasis on building in the social context at all stages in the life of a site

How do Social Workers use Evidence in Practice?

Aims of the research: Scotland's 21st Century Review of Social Work, 'Changing Lives', told us that, 'If we are serious about developing social work as a profession and having practitioners able to practise safely and innovatively, then we need to both develop and use evidence to inform practice' (Scottish Executive, 2006: 55). This research investigates how social work practitioners make use of research, inquiry, and other forms of knowledge evidence to inform their practice. The study uses a 'critical best practice' approach (Ferguson, 2003) to learn from the analysis of detailed examples of how social workers use knowledge in their day to day practice with service users and carers. A best practice approach offers an opportunity to move away from the 'climate of negativity' experienced by social work in the UK (Jones et al., 2008:1), and to celebrate some of the achievements of skilled social work practitioners. At the same time taking a critical lens to practice offers potential to gain a better understanding what such practice actually 'looks like' as it happens, promoting positive learning about social work and, ultimately, better outcomes for service users and carers (Jones et al., 2008: 15). This research has been conducted under the umbrella of the Critical Best Practice social work research group at the Open University, and has benefited from the discussions and contributions of other members of this group. Its findings are intended to complement a small but growing literature about critical best practice in the UK. The study also aims to contribute to current debates about how social work practitioners understand and use knowledge evidence, an area of research in which the perspectives of social worker practitioners themselves have received remarkably little attention (Trevethick, 2008). The subject is highly topical, both in Scotland, which is currently consulting on both its Research and Development and Knowledge Management Strategies (IRISS, 2008; IRISS/NES, 2009), as well as in the health and social care sector in the UK as a whole. It is also hoped that findings of the research will be able to make a helpful contribution to social work and other practicebased education through more tangible outputs, such as learning materials for students and practitioners. </br

Rigorous Bounds to Retarded Learning

We show that the lower bound to the critical fraction of data needed to infer (learn) the orientation of the anisotropy axis of a probability distribution, determined by Herschkowitz and Opper [Phys.Rev.Lett. 86, 2174 (2001)], is not always valid. If there is some structure in the data along the anisotropy axis, their analysis is incorrect, and learning is possible with much less data points.Comment: 1 page, 1 figure. Comment accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

Discrete Choices under Social Influence: Generic Properties

We consider a model of socially interacting individuals that make a binary choice in a context of positive additive endogenous externalities. It encompasses as particular cases several models from the sociology and economics literature. We extend previous results to the case of a general distribution of idiosyncratic preferences, called here Idiosyncratic Willingnesses to Pay (IWP). Positive additive externalities yield a family of inverse demand curves that include the classical downward sloping ones but also new ones with non constant convexity. When j, the ratio of the social influence strength to the standard deviation of the IWP distribution, is small enough, the inverse demand is a classical monotonic (decreasing) function of the adoption rate. Even if the IWP distribution is mono-modal, there is a critical value of j above which the inverse demand is non monotonic, decreasing for small and high adoption rates, but increasing within some intermediate range. Depending on the price there are thus either one or two equilibria. Beyond this first result, we exhibit the generic properties of the boundaries limiting the regions where the system presents different types of equilibria (unique or multiple). These properties are shown to depend only on qualitative features of the IWP distribution: modality (number of maxima), smoothness and type of support (compact or infinite). The main results are summarized as phase diagrams in the space of the model parameters, on which the regions of multiple equilibria are precisely delimited.Comment: 42 pages, 15 figure

Child labor, education, and children's rights

Child labor is widespread, and bad for development, both that of the individual child, and of the society and economy in which she, or he lives. If allowed to persist to the current extent,child labor will prevent the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty, and achieving Education for All. Nearly all of the world's governments have ratified international human rights conventions, which call for the elimination of child labor, and the provision of universal primary education. Fulfilling these commitments is of critical importance for development. This paper reviews the international legal framework relating to child labor, and access to education, and, provides a statistical portrait of child labor and education participation. It looks at why children work from the perspective of household decision-making. Various policy options are considered, including those which improve the incentives to education relative to labor, remove constraints to schooling, and increase education participation through legislation. Conclusions are drawn in the final section.Children and Youth,Child Labor,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Street Children,Youth and Governance

Neighborhood effects in aging and aphasia

Word-retrieval difficulty becomes increasingly common with age, and is virtually always compromised in aphasia. In addition to these individual factors, characteristics of the word, e.g.  length, frequency, and phonological neighborhood density, also influence the likelihood of word retrieval success. We assessed how these factors influenced naming and lexical decision tasks. Younger and older non-brain-damaged participants were tested, as well as individuals with aphasia. Lexical frequency was found to influence responses most strongly, although there were differences across tasks and participant groups. Results are discussed with reference to stages of lexical retrieval, and how these are affected by aging and aphasia

Word retrieval in aging: An exploration of task effects

Word retrieval difficulties are the hallmark of aphasia, but they also occur in healthy aging. In the current study, word retrieval in healthy adults between the ages of 30 and 90 years was examined in three tasks—picture naming, semantic (animal) fluency, and letter (F,A,S) fluency. Naming accuracy was found to show minimal effects of age, but the time-sensitive measures (naming latency and verbal fluency) showed age effects. These were unrelated to a measure of word knowledge, reinforcing the hypothesis that age-related declines in word retrieval are due to access deficits, particularly when speeded access is emphasized