A community of teachers: Using Activity Theory to investigate the implementation of ICTE in a remote Indigenous school

In 2001-2002, an innovative project entitled Reach In-Reach Out has been conducted in Far North Queensland. Its aim was to use telecommunications and Internet tools to facilitate communication between the children of Lockhart River who attend secondary school in such centres as Cairns, Townsville and Herberton and their families. This study was the first (of three) to investigate the impact of this project. Its focus is on the teachers of Lockart River State School and the changes made to their practice by the implementation of the project. The study described in this paper was conducted in Lockhart River which is situated on Kanthanumpu (Southern Kuuku Ya'u) land in Far North Queensland. The current population is estimated between 650 (Education Queensland, 2001a) and 800 (Lockhart River Land and Sea Management Agency, 2001) residents. The student population of Lockhart River State School in 2001was 26 (Kindy), 105 (Primary) and 30 (Alternate secondary/VET) programs) (Education Queensland, 2001a). At the end of 1999, the secondary school of Lockhart River was closed following a community decision to do so. This necessitated the majority of post-primary students having to leave Lockhart River to continue their education at boarding school. At the beginning of 2002, 38 students left the Lockhart River Community to attend boarding schools (and 8 remained to take part in the Alternate Secondary/VET program offered at the school). Table 1 details the secondary enrolments of Lockhart River students from 1998 to 2001, including the period covered by this study (2001)

What makes good feedback good?

HE institutions persistently seek to increase student engagement and satisfaction with assessment feedback, but with limited success. This study identifies the attributes of good feedback from the perspective of recipients. In a distinctive participatory research design, student participants were invited to bring along actual examples of feedback that they perceived as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to 32 interviews with student researchers. Findings highlight the complex interdependency and contextual nature of key influences on students’ perspectives. The feedback artefact itself, its place in assessment and feedback design, relationships of the learner with peers and tutors, and students’ assessment literacy all affect students’ perspectives. We conclude that standardising the technical aspects of feedback, such as the feedback artefact or the timing or medium of its delivery is insufficient: a broader consideration of all key domains of influence is needed to genuinely increase student engagement and satisfaction with feedback

Enhancement of Medical Interns\u27 Levels of Clinical Skills Competence and Self-Confidence Levels via Video iPods: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Designing and delivering evidence-based medical practice for students requires careful consideration from medical science educators. Social Web (Web 2.0) applications are a part of today’s educational technology milieu; however, empirical research is lacking to support the impact of interactive Web 2.0 mobile applications on medical educational outcomes.Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine whether instructional videos provided by iPod regarding female and male urinary catheter insertion would increase students’ confidence levels and enhance skill competencies.Methods: We conducted a prospective study with medical trainee intern (TI) participants: 10 control participants (no technological intervention) and 11 intervention participants (video iPods). Before taking part in a skills course, they completed a questionnaire regarding previous exposure to male and female urinary catheterization and their level of confidence in performing the skills. Directly following the questionnaire, medical faculty provided a 40-minute skills demonstration in the Advanced Clinical Skills Centre (ACSC) laboratory at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. All participants practiced the skills following the demonstrations and were immediately evaluated by the same faculty using an assessment rubric. Following the clinical skill evaluation, participants completed a postcourse questionnaire regarding skill confidence levels. At the end of the skills course, the intervention group were provided video iPods and viewed a male and a female urinary catheterization video during the next 3 consecutive months. The control group did not receive educational technology interventions during the 3-month period. At the end of 3 months, participants completed a follow-up questionnaire and a clinical assessment of urinary catheterization skills at the ACSC lab.Results: The results indicate a decline in skill competency over time among the control group for both male and female catheterizations, whereas the competency level was stable among the experimental group for both procedures. Interaction results for competency scores indicate a significant level by group and time (P = .03) and procedure and group (P = .02). The experimental group’s confidence level for performing the female catheterization procedure differed significantly over time (P \u3c .001). Furthermore, confidence scores in performing female catheterizations increased for both groups over time. However, the confidence levels for both groups in performing the male catheterization decreased over time.Conclusions: Video iPods offer a novel pedagogical approach to enhance medical students’ medical skill competencies and self-confidence levels. The outcomes illustrate a need for further investigation in order to generalize to the medical school population

Interlibrary loan and document delivery in North American health sciences libraries during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: The study purpose was to understand how early months of the COVID-19 pandemic altered interlibrary loan (ILL) and document delivery (DD) in North American health science libraries (HSLs), specifically the decision-making and workflow adjustments associated with accessing their own collections and obtaining content not available via ILL. Methods: Researchers distributed an online 26-question survey through 24 health science library email lists from January 6-February 7, 2021. Respondents reported their library’s ILL and DD activities from March-August 2020, including ILL/DD usage and policies, collection access, decision-making, and workflow adjustments. In addition to calculating frequencies, cross-tabulation and statistical tests were performed to test a priori potential associations. Two researchers independently and thematically analyzed responses to the 2 open-ended questions and reached consensus on themes. Results: Hospital libraries represented 52% (n=226/431) of respondents, along with 42% academic (n=179) and 6% (n=26) multi-type or other special. Only 1% (n=5) closed completely with no remote services, but many, 45% (n=194), ceased ILL of print materials. More than half (n=246/423; 58%) agreed that ILL requests likely to be filled from print remained unfilled more than is typical. Open-ended questions yielded 5 themes on ILL/DD staffing, setup, and systems; 6 on impacts for libraries and library users. Conclusion: Lack of communication regarding collection availability and staffing resulted in delayed or unfilled requests. Hospital and academic libraries made similar decisions about continuing services but reported different experiences in areas such as purchasing digital content. Hybrid ILL/DD workflows may continue for managing these services

A regional CO 2 containment assessment of the northern Utsira Formation seal and overburden, northern North Sea

From Wiley via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-12-31, accepted 2021-01-05, pub-electronic 2021-03-08, pub-print 2021-06Article version: VoRPublication status: PublishedFunder: Natural Environment Research Council; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000270Abstract: Upscaling Carbon Capture and Storage requires identification of suitable storage sites, with robust reservoir seals. The Utsira Formation in the northern North Sea has been flagged as a target for further storage. However, there are no regional studies of seal variability addressing heterogeneities that could facilitate seal bypass. This study aims to: (a) identify, assess and map the elements that promote or restrict fluid migration, (b) develop a matrix to regionally map containment confidence (CC) and (c) rank the different areas for CO2 containment across the Utsira Formation. The seal and overburden were mapped using a high‐resolution, pre‐stack depth‐migrated 3D broadband seismic reflection dataset and 141 exploration wells. Seal geometry, sandstone presence and sandstone connectivity in the seal and overburden were assigned relative CC scores, which were summed to map overall CC of the Utsira Fm. Indicators for shallow gas and migration were mapped and correlated with the other elements. Areas with the lowest CC are in the west of the Utsira Fm. Here, sandstones within the Seal Interval are connected through the overburden via sandy submarine fans. In the southeast, dipping stratigraphy downlaps onto the Utsira Fm., increasing the potential for connection with glacially‐derived channel‐lobe systems in the overburden. The areas with the highest CC are the central and northeast parts of the Utsira Fm., where the Seal Interval is mudstone‐dominated and parallel to the reservoir, and channel‐lobe systems identified in the Overburden Interval are disconnected from the reservoir. This area coincides with a thick depocentre of the northern Utsira Fm. These results can be used to inform CO2 storage site selection and constrain future CO2 plume simulation analyses for the Utsira Fm. The CC matrix outlined here can also be adapted and applied to regionally assess the containment of other potential CO2 storage reservoirs in any setting

The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Moral Injury in the Canadian Armed Forces

Background: There is increasing evidence that moral injuries (MIs) may affect the mental health of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members and veterans. Despite knowledge suggesting that MIs are related to multiple negative mental health outcomes, including the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it is unknown whether pre-traumatic variables, including the presence of childhood abuse, are related to MIs. Objective: This study seeks to investigate the potential relationship between adverse childhood experiences and later onset MI in military members. Methods: Thirty-three patients newly admitted to an inpatient unit for treatment of trauma-related disorders received a standardized self-assessment package, including the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), the Moral Injury Events Scale (MIES; adapted for the Canadian context), and the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q), which is a retrospective measure of childhood abuse. Results: Analyses revealed a significant relation between childhood emotional abuse and the presence of MI in adulthood. Specifically, emotional abuse during childhood was correlated with total score on the MIES (p = 0.006) and with its two subscales, perceived betrayals (p = 0.022) and perceived transgressions (p = 0.016). These correlations remained significant when controlling for age and gender. Conclusions: Among CAF members and veterans, childhood events are related to the presence of MI during adulthood. These preliminary data are provocative in suggesting that emotional abuse during childhood may increase the likelihood of endorsing MI during adult military service. Further work is needed to identify pre-traumatic variables that may serve to increase risk or enhance resilience to the development of MI in military members

Alternative models for academic family practices

BACKGROUND: The Future of Family Medicine Report calls for a fundamental redesign of the American family physician workplace. At the same time, academic family practices are under economic pressure. Most family medicine departments do not have self-supporting practices, but seek support from specialty colleagues or hospital practice plans. Alternative models for academic family practices that are economically viable and consistent with the principles of family medicine are needed. This article presents several "experiments" to address these challenges. METHODS: The basis of comparison is a traditional academic family medicine center. Apart of the faculty practice plan, our center consistently operated at a deficit despite high productivity. A number of different practice types and alternative models of service delivery were therefore developed and tested. They ranged from a multi-specialty office arrangement, to a community clinic operated as part of a federally-qualified health center, to a team of providers based in and providing care for residents of an elderly public housing project. Financial comparisons using consistent accounting across models are provided. RESULTS: Academic family practices can, at least in some settings, operate without subsidy while providing continuity of care to a broad segment of the community. The prerequisites are that the clinicians must see patients efficiently, and be able to bill appropriately for their payer mix. CONCLUSION: Experimenting within academic practice structure and organization is worthwhile, and can result in economically viable alternatives to traditional models

Population policies and education: exploring the contradictions of neo-liberal globalisation

The world is increasingly characterised by profound income, health and social inequalities (Appadurai, 2000). In recent decades development initiatives aimed at reducing these inequalities have been situated in a context of increasing globalisation with a dominant neo-liberal economic orthodoxy. This paper argues that neo-liberal globalisation contains inherent contradictions regarding choice and uniformity. This is illustrated in this paper through an exploration of the impact of neo-liberal globalisation on population policies and programmes. The dominant neo-liberal economic ideology that has influenced development over the last few decades has often led to alternative global visions being overlooked. Many current population and development debates are characterised by polarised arguments with strongly opposing aims and views. This raises the challenge of finding alternatives situated in more middle ground that both identify and promote the socially positive elements of neo-liberalism and state intervention, but also to limit their worst excesses within the population field and more broadly. This paper concludes with a discussion outling the positive nature of middle ground and other possible alternatives