Moving outside the box: Researching e-learning in disruptive times

Indexación: Scopus.The rise of technology’s influence in a cross-section of fields within formal education, not to mention in the broader social world, has given rise to new forms in the way we view learning, i.e. what constitutes valid knowledge and how we arrive at that knowledge. Some scholars have claimed that technology is but a tool to support the meaning-making that lies at the root of knowledge production while others argue that technology is increasingly and inextricably intertwined not just with knowledge construction but with changes to knowledge makers themselves. Regardless which side one stands in this growing debate, it is difficult to deny that the processes we use to research learning supported by technology in order to understand these growing intricacies, have profound implications. In this paper, my aim is to argue and defend a call in the research on ICT for a critical reflective approach to researching technology use. Using examples from qualitative research in e-learning I have conducted on three continents over 15 years, and in diverse educational contexts, I seek to unravel the means and justification for research approaches that can lead to closing the gap between research and practice. These studies combined with those from a cross-disciplinary array of fields support the promotion of a research paradigm that examines the socio-cultural contexts of learning with ICT, at a time that coincides with technology becoming a social networking facilitator. Beyond the examples and justification of the merits and power of qualitative research to uncover the stories that matter in these socially embodied e-learning contexts, I discuss the methodologically and ethically charged decisions using emerging affordances of technology for analyzing and representing results, including visual ethnography. The implications both for the consumers and producers of research of moving outside the box of established research practices are yet unfathomable but excitinghttp://www.ejel.org/volume15/issue1/p5

Brave Forms of Mentoring Supported by Technology in Teacher Education

Indexación: Web of ScienceQuality education is undoubtedly a global concern, tied closely to preoccupations with economic and social development. Increasingly, the adoption and effective use of current technology tools are being recognized as visible signs of that quality. Scholars are providing increasing evidence of the kinds of empowered teacher identities that will adopt the effective use of technology tools in teaching. Less is being discussed about how technology can support the processes needed to mediate such identities. The context of Teacher Education is a strategic place to begin to initiate such processes. Our aim in this article is twofold: 1) to describe two recent examples of innovative, technology - supported mentoring processes that were conducted in the context of an EFL Teacher Education program in Chile; 2) to revisit the findings of these studies in light of new evidence from participants who have moved on in their careers. This evidence is viewed in the framework of recent scholarship on the responsibilities that Teacher Education plays in their development. The first 16-month study examined the influences of a guided reading program involving e-readers on the identities and literacy skills of pre-service teachers. The second was a student-conceived study. That inquiry sought to determine the influence of upper year students' peer mentoring, made available partly through a social media site (SMS), on the identities and investment in learning of 12 firs-year students in the pedagogy program. The initial evidence from ethnographic tools used in both studies indicated that the participants were struggling with confidence and doubting themselves as knowledgeable, effective future teachers - not predictive of a potential for quality teaching. Positive signs at the end of both studies and more recent reports from participants suggest that the mentoring had longitudinal benefits for some, although not uniformly. The potential of apprenticeship and mentoring in a technology-supported environment requires rethinking Teacher Education mandates if we are to empower emerging teachers to be quality teachers.http://www.ejel.org/issue/download.html?idArticle=48

Internal Time Formalism for Spacetimes with Two Killing Vectors

The Hamiltonian structure of spacetimes with two commuting Killing vector fields is analyzed for the purpose of addressing the various problems of time that arise in canonical gravity. Two specific models are considered: (i) cylindrically symmetric spacetimes, and (ii) toroidally symmetric spacetimes, which respectively involve open and closed universe boundary conditions. For each model canonical variables which can be used to identify points of space and instants of time, {\it i.e.}, internally defined spacetime coordinates, are identified. To do this it is necessary to extend the usual ADM phase space by a finite number of degrees of freedom. Canonical transformations are exhibited that identify each of these models with harmonic maps in the parametrized field theory formalism. The identifications made between the gravitational models and harmonic map field theories are completely gauge invariant, that is, no coordinate conditions are needed. The degree to which the problems of time are resolved in these models is discussed.Comment: 36 pages, Te

The Gowdy T3 Cosmologies revisited

We have examined, repeated and extended earlier numerical calculations of Berger and Moncrief for the evolution of unpolarized Gowdy T3 cosmological models. Our results are consistent with theirs and we support their claim that the models exhibit AVTD behaviour, even though spatial derivatives cannot be neglected. The behaviour of the curvature invariants and the formation of structure through evolution both backwards and forwards in time is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 6 figures, results and conclusions revised and (considerably) expande

Global existence problem in T3T^3-Gowdy symmetric IIB superstring cosmology

We show global existence theorems for Gowdy symmetric spacetimes with type IIB stringy matter. The areal and constant mean curvature time coordinates are used. Before coming to that, it is shown that a wave map describes the evolution of this system

Insights for community outreach building to promote lifelong learning with higher education alumni in Chile

Indexación: Scopus.Despite conclusive evidence from high performing higher education (HE) institutions worldwide demonstrating the benefits of strong alumni relations, institutions in many evolving countries often neglect their graduates. And this, despite rapid advances in technology that can support ongoing relations. The objective of our year-long project was to address this neglect. We (re)connected with 220 English pedagogy alumni through a digital newsletter. The newsletter provided a forum for building community and mediating professional development among graduates and current faculty. Our qualitative mini case study focused on uncovering the emotions, perspectives and needs of former students through the lens of sociocultural and identity theory using a Likert scale questionnaire, field notes and writing-based interviews to collect data. Positive gains from this initiative were evidenced in clear signs of alumni’s increased recognition of their agency in mediating empowered professional identities through continuous learning. This recognition accompanied a trajectory of their investment in their professional development, characterized by a sense of affinity, then engagement with and support of the institution and community building. We believe these findings speak volumes of the potential of such outreach for all stakeholders in education, including the society at large.https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/hlrc/vol10/iss1/5

Numerical Investigation of Cosmological Singularities

Although cosmological solutions to Einstein's equations are known to be generically singular, little is known about the nature of singularities in typical spacetimes. It is shown here how the operator splitting used in a particular symplectic numerical integration scheme fits naturally into the Einstein equations for a large class of cosmological models and thus allows study of their approach to the singularity. The numerical method also naturally singles out the asymptotically velocity term dominated (AVTD) behavior known to be characteristic of some of these models, conjectured to describe others, and probably characteristic of a subclass of the rest. The method is first applied to the unpolarized Gowdy T$^3$ cosmology. Exact pseudo-unpolarized solutions are used as a code test and demonstrate that a 4th order accurate implementation of the numerical method yields acceptable agreement. For generic initial data, support for the conjecture that the singularity is AVTD with geodesic velocity (in the harmonic map target space) < 1 is found. A new phenomenon of the development of small scale spatial structure is also observed. Finally, it is shown that the numerical method straightforwardly generalizes to an arbitrary cosmological spacetime on $T^3 \times R$ with one spacelike U(1) symmetry.Comment: 37 pp +14 figures (not included, available on request), plain Te

Locally U(1)*U(1) Symmetric Cosmological Models: Topology and Dynamics

We show examples which reveal influences of spatial topologies to dynamics, using a class of spatially {\it closed} inhomogeneous cosmological models. The models, called the {\it locally U(1)$\times$U(1) symmetric models} (or the {\it generalized Gowdy models}), are characterized by the existence of two commuting spatial {\it local} Killing vectors. For systematic investigations we first present a classification of possible spatial topologies in this class. We stress the significance of the locally homogeneous limits (i.e., the Bianchi types or the `geometric structures') of the models. In particular, we show a method of reduction to the natural reduced manifold, and analyze the equivalences at the reduced level of the models as dynamical models. Based on these fundamentals, we examine the influence of spatial topologies on dynamics by obtaining translation and reflection operators which commute with the dynamical flow in the phase space.Comment: 32 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX2e, revised Introduction slightly. To appear in CQ