Improving collaboration in blended learning environments through differentiated activities and mobile-assisted language learning tools

© 2019 IADIS Press. All rights reserved. Recent trends in higher education have initiated an increase in the attention given to the quality of teaching offered to the students, and significant changes in student populations since 2000, such as increasing social diversity (Biggs & Tang, 2011), have required educators to relook at their teaching and instructional practices. As diversity in higher education increases and accelerating technology adoption impacts on teaching, improving the quality of the instructive-educational process becomes fundamental based on understanding, observing, and re-evaluating the differences amongst our students. At the higher education level, our students are even more diverse than K-12 students due to their academic experiences and professional interests. Our learners differ not only culturally or linguistically, but also in their cognitive abilities, learning preferences, background knowledge, and have various levels of strengths and weaknesses in the area of multiple intelligences; hence a rethinking of the structure and management of the classroom, modifying curricula and maximizing classroom interactions are necessary. Differentiated activities together with Web 2.0 tools and mobile-assisted language learning applications can enhance collaborative learning where learners actively participate in groups to explore a topic or discuss to finalize a project. Differentiation or academically responsive instruction concentrates on teaching strategies that provide students with multiple pathways in the teaching and learning process to meet their needs. Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is a subarea of mobile learning in which integration of new mobile technologies into teaching and language learning has been a primary focus, and numerous mobile applications and online Web 2.0 tools have been developed to support academic English language learning, including reading, listening, writing, speaking, functional grammar and vocabulary. Web 2.0 refers to a huge array of web-based tools such as blogs, wikis, folksonomies, social networking sites and content-sharing sites which can offer numerous instructional opportunities like active engagement, personalized learning and innovation, and can empower and enable learners to participate in a variety of ways. This qualitative study explored the integration of MALL applications and Web 2.0 tools in differentiated EAP classes and sought to understand how they can assist in improving collaboration of EAP students to achieve higher levels of cognitive learning in higher education in UAE. The findings suggest that the usage of MALL apps and Web 2.0 tools in differentiated EAP classes in higher education assist students in terms of feedback, motivation, collaboration, pace, multi-modality and research skills; gives them an opportunity to choose the activity and the type of assessment that corresponds to their needs and abilities

Organization and coordination: An intra-and inter performance perspective

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The Culture of Resistance featuring Pleasure, Leisure, and Joy

Black students within predominantly white institutions (PWIs) have a unique experience due to the fact that they reside in higher learning institutions that were never meant to hold Black, queer bodies. Residentially, academically, and structurally PWIs display a quality of lacking which consists of failing to provide appropriate resources, acknowledge structural barriers, and address complaints made by students of queer identities, namely Black students, in meaningful and effective ways. Through examining the history of Black student-led movements within the five Claremont Colleges (5Cs) using a Black Existentialism lens, this paper seeks to understand the positionality of this quality of lacking within the culture of resistance which is formulated by the specific conditions of Black students within PWIs and the interventions of pleasure, leisure, and joy which add a crucial affective component to the culture of resistance. By studying the first major instances of Black resistance in 1969 using old newspaper clippings and photographs, this paper is able to establish a connection between the demands made by students in the sixties and current movements led by Black students which often are documented through Instagram posts. It is through personal moments recorded and shared as well as Instagram pages of Black Student Unions (BSUs), that the queer-making potential stifled by the lack of physical space for queer identities with PWIs is fueled and able to showcase the pleasure, joy, and leisure that allows Black, queer students to demand their own autonomous, physical space on campus

USAFRICOM: An Analysis of the United States Africa Command and the Forces that Legitimize and Justify US Military Presence in Africa

This essay analyzes the United States of America’s military presence on the African continent through the US Africa Command or AFRICOM. I hope to contextualize the creation of AFRICOM by outlining the events and reasonings for establishing the military command center. Moreover, I analyze the discourses of humanitarianism and securitization on the African continent and the producers and distributors of such ideological discourses in academia, media, government and private corporations. While situating these discourses within a larger framework of colonial and imperial ventures, I plan on investigating how such ideological narratives work to legitimize and preempt military operations and presence in Africa. Finally, using Libya as a reference and case study of when claims of humanitarianism and securitization intersect and result in military action, causalities, regime change, and a worsened state of affairs for the invaded country

Combating bribery as an issue of different dimensions

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Evaluating governance and management in Africa : a utilitarian perspective

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A Network Perspective and Hidden Corruption

This study examines the hidden aspects of corruption from a network perspective. Through networking, we understand the nature and functioning of hidden corruption, because hidden corruption relates to various acts of corruption that are difficult to observe and prosecute legally. The dimensions to understand hidden corruption are structural and institutional corruption, distorted network, and grey corruption. Different types of illegal, criminal, or unethical networks are understood through two dimensions (structural and institutional corruption and distorted network) of hidden corruption. Grey corruption is another dimension of hidden corruption, but has no defined network existence. The main types of hidden, unethical and criminal networks that exist around the world are greed-oriented institutional network, old-boy network, and clandestine network. Emphases on digital expertise and reforms targeting attitudinal, cultural, legal, and institutional changes have been identified as ways of addressing the phenomenon of hidden corruption from a contemporary standpoint, because of emerging events/realities.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

A Study of distorted network : a narrative literature review analysis

This paper’s main objective is to study the nature and operational mode of distorted network. Network studies have become popular in many fields of social science due to different emerging global and national events. Specifically, the network theory has become a key framework in understanding and studying network and collaboration. The network theory offers holistic view on structures of interpersonal and inter-group interactions. Distorted network is a contemporary challenge, which is defined as unethical, illegal and criminal networks that exist to promote defined group objectives. Old-boy network and clandestine network are the two key types of distorted networks that exist and their operational modes also differ. A narrative literature review is adopted a strategy in analyzing selected literature on the issue of distorted network. This strategy reveals that the natures and manifestations of distorted network vary from one nation or society to another. The operational boundary of old-boy network is primarily limited to a nation state, while the operational boundary of clandestine network goes beyond a nation state (often international). The latter is justified by the ability of clandestine network to have clients and members at both home and abroad. Countries with clandestine network as main challenge tend to be more corrupt and unstable, because coercion is often adopted as a method of operation. Findings from this paper also include the difficulty to make specification on what type and operational mode of distorted network that can be found in developed or developing states/societies.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

The effects of ethical governance on public trust : a comparative analysis of anti-corruption policies and procedures in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon

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Culture, Corruption and Public Management Reform: Perspectives on Problem of Ethics in the Nigerian Public Service

Corruption has been adduced in recent past to be synonymous with the culture of developing countries especially African culture by some schools of thought. The primary aim of this research is to see how true this deduction and premise are? Culture, corruption and public management reform are different concepts, how do they affect one another in public service related issues? A broader view becomes a necessary tool in this type of analysis. Culture represents living entity, corruption represents an act and while public management reform represents a state of dissatisfaction that requires a change. Analysis based on a comparative approach on corruption shows that corruption is universal. From one culture to another the causes and effects differ in many ways. Public management reform from cultural interpretation differs in terms of result outcomes. The need to understand a particular cultural environment before public management reform ideas are introduced and applied becomes a key strategy to success. Culture is like force that could aid or limit public management reform ideas. Public management reform ideas are positivism premised to create public good. Corruption could become resilient if a thorough environmental check is not done, especially when public management reform ideas are aimed at removing corruption. However, public management reform ideas have the tendencies of removing traditional structures that encourage the growth of corruption. For the Nigerian public service the complexity emanating from the diversity of the Nigerian state structural arrangements is the major cause of administrative corruption in the public service. Building an ethical filled public service becomes a difficulty because a majority of the populace sees the state as a foreign element. This further creates a problem of loss of trust towards the holistic Nigerian state vision. The Nigerian state is a product of British imperialism that accommodates over 300 different ethnic groups, where some are dominant and others are dominated. The primary aim of capturing the state apparatus which the public service is also a part, for either selfish or ethnic interest becomes the order of the day. A privileged–marginalised dichotomy is therefore created in the Nigerian state that is automatically transferred to the public service. New public management reform ideas especially that of participatory state model becomes a relevant tool in building social capital. An increase in social capital leads to an increase in trust because people from these diverse backgrounds will network with an understanding of the opposite. This in turn will reduce corruption in both the Nigerian state and the public service.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format