Aggregating assessment tools in a service orientated architecture

Until recently assessment and other eLearning systems have tended to adopt monolithic architectures and this has restricted integration with other tools. The ELearning Framework (ELF) sets out to address this problem by creating an eLearning environment within which components with discrete purposes communicate via webservices. In order to help co-ordinate the design of the ELF, JISC has recently sponsored a number of Framework Reference Model Projects, and FReMa is the Framework Reference Model for Assessment. In this paper we examine how FReMA is facilitating a common understanding of the components of assessment and their interfaces, and we explain how this information is being elicited from the community by reference to tools which are already contributing to the model. We also present our approach to the adaptive website by which the emerging model is being disseminated to a range of stakeholders

Persistent and polarised global actin flow is essential for directionality during cell migration

Cell migration is hypothesized to involve a cycle of behaviours beginning with leading edge extension. However, recent evidence suggests that the leading edge may be dispensable for migration, raising the question of what actually controls cell directionality. Here, we exploit the embryonic migration of Drosophila macrophages to bridge the different temporal scales of the behaviours controlling motility. This approach reveals that edge fluctuations during random motility are not persistent and are weakly correlated with motion. In contrast, flow of the actin network behind the leading edge is highly persistent. Quantification of actin flow structure during migration reveals a stable organization and asymmetry in the cell-wide flowfield that strongly correlates with cell directionality. This organization is regulated by a gradient of actin network compression and destruction, which is controlled by myosin contraction and cofilin-mediated disassembly. It is this stable actin-flow polarity, which integrates rapid fluctuations of the leading edge, that controls inherent cellular persistence

L’oratie dans les écoles anglaises

Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche menée en 2016 par le Centre for Education and Youth et Voice 21, intitulée The State of Speaking, en s’appuyant également sur les thèmes issus de l’enquête 2020-21 Speak for Change du groupe parlementaire multipartite sur l’oratie. L’article explore la signification du terme « oratie » (oracy) dans le système éducatif anglais, avant d’examiner sa place et son statut au sein du curriculum. Une discussion sur les obstacles qui entravent l’oratie au niveau de la classe et de l’école s’accompagne ensuite d’une description de pratiques de l’oral en usage dans les écoles anglaises. Selon l’auteur, il y a des raisons d’être optimiste quant à l’avenir de l’oratie dans le système scolaire anglais.This article outlines findings from The Centre for Education and Youth and Voice 21’s 2016 research, The State of Speaking, also drawing on themes arising from the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group’s 2020/21 Speak for Change Inquiry. The article explores what the term ‘oracy’ means in the English education system, before examining its position and status in the curriculum. A discussion of barriers impeding oracy at the class- and school-level is accompanied by descriptions of oracy practice in use in English schools. The conclusion asserts we have reasons to be optimistic about oracy’s future in the school system.Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación desarrollada en 2016 por el Centre for Education and Youth y Voice 21, titulada The State of Speaking, y se apoya también en los temas nacidos de la encuesta 2020-21 Speak for Change del grupo parlamentario multipartita sobre la oralidad. El presente estudio explora la significación del término « oracía » (oracy) en el sistema educativo inglés, antes de examinar su lugar y su estatuto en el currículo. La discusión sobre los obstáculos que estorban la oracía a nivel de la clase y de la escuela se acompaña luego de una descripción des las prácticas de oral en uso en las escuelas inglesas. Según el autor, no faltan los motivos para ser optimista en cuanto al porvenir de la oracía en el sistema escolar inglés

Aggregating Assessment Tools in a Service Oriented Architecture

Until recently assessment and other eLearning systems have tended to adopt monolithic architectures, this has restricted integration with other tools. The ELearning Framework (ELF) sets out to address this problem by creating an eLearning environment within which components with discrete purposes communicate via webservices. In order to help co-ordinate the design of the ELF, JISC has recently sponsored a number of Framework Reference Model Projects, and FREMA is the Framework Reference Model for Assessment. In this paper we examine how FREMA is facilitating a common understanding of the components of assessment and their interfaces, and we explain how this information is being elicited from the community by reference to tools which are already contributing to the model. We also present the adaptive website by which the emerging model is being disseminated to a range of stakeholders

(Semantic Web) Services for e-Learning

Service-Oriented Architectures are becoming a popular system paradigm in e-learning, and there are several efforts to create community driven service frameworks. In this paper, we argue that these efforts could benefit if they also drew on Semantic Web technologies to create (Semantic Web) Services – services that use resources described on the semantic web. We present a demonstrator which uses three such services to search over question bank data. We show how the use of semantic web technologies not only promotes high-quality and interoperable metadata, but that it also enables reasoning rules to be declared that make developing new services easier

Clasp-mediated microtubule bundling regulates persistent motility and contact repulsion in <i>Drosophila</i> macrophages in vivo

Drosophila melanogaster macrophages are highly migratory cells that lend themselves beautifully to high resolution in vivo imaging experiments. By expressing fluorescent probes to reveal actin and microtubules, we can observe the dynamic interplay of these two cytoskeletal networks as macrophages migrate and interact with one another within a living organism. We show that before an episode of persistent motility, whether responding to developmental guidance or wound cues, macrophages assemble a polarized array of microtubules that bundle into a compass-like arm that appears to anticipate the direction of migration. Whenever cells collide with one another, their microtubule arms transiently align just before cell–cell repulsion, and we show that forcing depolymerization of microtubules by expression of Spastin leads to their defective polarity and failure to contact inhibit from one another. The same is true in orbit/clasp mutants, indicating a pivotal role for this microtubule-binding protein in the assembly and/or functioning of the microtubule arm during polarized migration and contact repulsion