Information literacy and its interplay with AI

Information literacy (IL) – and similarly digital literacy – want to convey skills to handle information and data, its use and the creation of new information and services. It emphasizes to teach competencies that enable learners to adapt to new environments and thus foster life-long learning. Artificial intelligence systems (AI) enter all kinds of areas, specifically the educational sector on all levels. For example, learning analytics and learning supportive services are established. Learners might see the opportunities of those services that promise to foster individual learning and skill development. At the same time, they need to develop novel kinds of literacy to understand and to apply AI. Thus, IL teaching and literacy frameworks need to consider an adaptation to recent changes that come with AI. Our contribution wants to start a discussion within the IL expert field on how IL teaching needs to prepare learners for the new era of AI. We will discuss if IL teaching frameworks need to be adapted to foster AI literacy and moreover, how IL teaching concept can benefit from developments in AI. Based on ascoping review in AI in education, we will introduce current ideas of AI technology and applications and discuss them in relation to IL teaching schemes. Following up the dialog of our IL working group, we want to contribute to current discussions on AI in education and the potential influence it might have on IL teaching, and reversely. (DIPF/Orig.

Reflecting open practices on digital infrastructures. Functionalities and implications of knowledge. [Preprint]

Open practices in education focus on the actions of learners and teachers regarding openness. The sharing and collaborative creation of open educational resources is at the core of such practices. Digital infrastructures do not only provide environments for these kinds of practices but reflect ide-as and implications of open practices through the functionalities they offer. Those infrastructures can be seen as drivers for enabling open practices to become default. However, a common understanding of open practices has yet to be defined. As such, designing digital infrastructures that foster open prac-tices might be a challenge. This chapter shows the relation between open practices and digital infrastructures. (DIPF/Orig.

Potenziale von Open Educational Resources in der Informationswissenschaft?

Open Educational Resources (OER) werden durch ihre offene Lizenzierung und den damit verbundenen Möglichkeiten zur Nachnutzung Potenziale zur Verbes- serung von Lern-/Lehrsituationen zugeschrieben. In unserer Mixed-Methods-Studie erheben wir die Einschätzung zum Nutzen von OER für die Lehrpraxis von Lehrenden der deutschsprachigen Informationswissenschaft. Außerdem fragen wir nach Umsetzungsmöglichkeiten eines gemeinsamen OER-Pools und den Einstellungen zu gemeinschaftlichen Erstellungsprozessen von Lern-/Lehrmaterial. Im folgenden Posterbeitrag werden erste Ergebnisse einer qualitativen Befragung ausgewählter Lehrender vorgestellt, die Basis für eine darauf aufbauende quantitative Befragung unter Lehrenden der deutschsprachigen Informationswissenschaft ist

Mutations in the Neuronal Vesicular SNARE VAMP2 Affect Synaptic Membrane Fusion and Impair Human Neurodevelopment

VAMP2 encodes the vesicular SNARE protein VAMP2 (also called synaptobrevin-2). Together with its partners syntaxin-1A and synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP25), VAMP2 mediates fusion of synaptic vesicles to release neurotransmitters. VAMP2 is essential for vesicular exocytosis and activity-dependent neurotransmitter release. Here, we report five heterozygous de novo mutations in VAMP2 in unrelated individuals presenting with a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by axial hypotonia (which had been present since birth), intellectual disability, and autistic features. In total, we identified two single-amino-acid deletions and three non-synonymous variants affecting conserved residues within the C terminus of the VAMP2 SNARE motif. Affected individuals carrying de novo non-synonymous variants involving the C-terminal region presented a more severe phenotype with additional neurological features, including central visual impairment, hyperkinetic movement disorder, and epilepsy or electroencephalography abnormalities. Reconstituted fusion involving a lipid-mixing assay indicated impairment in vesicle fusion as one of the possible associated disease mechanisms. The genetic synaptopathy caused by VAMP2 de novo mutations highlights the key roles of this gene in human brain development and function

AMPA receptor GluA2 subunit defects are a cause of neurodevelopmental disorders.

AMPA receptors (AMPARs) are tetrameric ligand-gated channels made up of combinations of GluA1-4 subunits encoded by GRIA1-4 genes. GluA2 has an especially important role because, following post-transcriptional editing at the Q607 site, it renders heteromultimeric AMPARs Ca2+-impermeable, with a linear relationship between current and trans-membrane voltage. Here, we report heterozygous de novo GRIA2 mutations in 28 unrelated patients with intellectual disability (ID) and neurodevelopmental abnormalities including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Rett syndrome-like features, and seizures or developmental epileptic encephalopathy (DEE). In functional expression studies, mutations lead to a decrease in agonist-evoked current mediated by mutant subunits compared to wild-type channels. When GluA2 subunits are co-expressed with GluA1, most GRIA2 mutations cause a decreased current amplitude and some also affect voltage rectification. Our results show that de-novo variants in GRIA2 can cause neurodevelopmental disorders, complementing evidence that other genetic causes of ID, ASD and DEE also disrupt glutamatergic synaptic transmission

EduArc. A FAIR and user-centred infrastructure for learning resources

The project EduArc aims at conceptualising a user-centred infrastructure that allows access and use of learning and teaching material for higher education, specifically Open Educational Resources (OER), from diverse relevant sources like learning management systems and existing university repositories. (Author

Teaching as Part of Open Scholarship – Scientometric Indicators for Open Educational Resources

<p>Scientometric indicators for recording Open Educational Resources (OER) could provide a way of quantitatively representing openness in higher education teaching. They could serve science policy monitoring and lead to greater visibility of higher education teaching in the recognition and reward system which is currently not the case. In order to explore opportunities and risks as well as potential effects of such OER indicators, focus group discussions with experts from the OER and/or scientometric community were conducted in summer 2022. This paper presents the results. In the group discussions, the complexity of OER materials became clear and participants also highlighted that their representation through scientometric indicators has to take into account specificities. The participants rated usage of OER indicators on an individual level, e. g. in the context of appointment procedures for academic staff, as highly problematic and not desirable. Scientometric indicators in general represent a reduction of complexity in this respect and do not reflect quality adequately. Institutional applications and applications to identify a cultural change towards open teaching practices, on the other hand, are rated rather positively. By such applications, the implementation of OER policies could be monitored and universities could develop a teaching profile based on openness.</p&gt

Designing open informational ecosystems on the concept of open educational resources

Open informational ecosystems play a crucial role in fostering open educational resources (OER) and allow new opportunities to share and collaborate in the learning and teaching environment. Such ecosystems containing interoperable infrastructures and open interfaces aim at fulfilling user needs and fostering practices related to the concept of OER and the five user rights (5 Rs). To fully embrace this role, those ecosystems need to be designed carefully. In this paper, we discuss implications for open informational ecosystems to fully comprise the concept of OER and related user needs. We carried out literature reviews to analyse recent aspects of the 5 Rs in relation to user behaviour and infrastructures. We will introduce the results from these reviews and illustrate upcoming questions and challenges for the design of an ecosystem respecting the 5 Rs conceptual ideas. With our recommendations, we aim at contributing to a better understanding of the concept of OER to improve ecosystem development and implement useful and user-friendly functions. (DIPF/Orig.

Designing Open Informational Ecosystems on the Concept of Open Educational Resources

Open informational ecosystems play a crucial role in fostering open educational resources (OER) and allow new opportunities to share and collaborate in the learning and teaching environment. Such ecosystems containing interoperable infrastructures and open interfaces aim at fulfilling user needs and fostering practices related to the concept of OER and the five user rights (5 R’s). To fully embrace this role, those ecosystems need to be designed carefully