The direction and autonomy of interdisciplinary study and research paths in teacher education

This paper presents a case study of didactic infrastructures to direct Study and Research Paths (SRP) in teacher education within the context of interdisciplinary inquiry. The disciplines of school mathematics and school biology, and their didactics, are made to interconnect through the investigation of a generating question concerning the illness diabetes. The resulting interdisciplinary knowledge as evidenced through students written diaries is analysed using the Anthropologic Theory of the Didactic and shows the challenge of combining two disciplines and their didactics at the same time. Two particular forms of didactic infrastructure to guide the self-sustained process of SRP are proposed and scrutinized: Selective picking and Side questions. Selective picking is shown to be a promising, yet indirect, infrastructure to steer the SRP without taking away the desired autonomy of the students. Side questions, initially proposed by Ives Chevallard, are considered in light of the case, and a number of suggestions for their characteristics and use are put forward

Lektionsstudier fra metode til tankegang – forståelser og misforståelser omkring lektionsstudier i Danmark

Lektionsstudier vinder mere og mere frem i Danmark i uddannelse og arbejde med udvikling og tilegnelse af viden om undervisning og læring. Særligt de sidste fem år har der været flere store projekter med lektionsstudier som et centralt element, og det er nu på tide at fremsætte et bud på en status over hvorledes det går med lektionsstudiernes udbredelse og modtagelse i Danmark. Artiklen diskuterer og giver et overblik over karakteristiske opfattelser og forståelser såvel som hvad der må betegnes som misforståelser eller uhensigtsmæssige forsimplinger af lektionsstudier

Pointer og lektionsstudier

Kommentar til artiklen “Når pointer styrer matematikundervisning” i MONA, 2012(3

Instrumenting gait with an accelerometer: A system and algorithm examination

Gait is an important clinical assessment tool since changes in gait may reflect changes in general health. Measurement of gait is a complex process which has been restricted to the laboratory until relatively recently. The application of an inexpensive body worn sensor with appropriate gait algorithms (BWM) is an attractive alternative and offers the potential to assess gait in any setting. In this study we investigated the use of a low-cost BWM, compared to laboratory reference using a robust testing protocol in both younger and older adults. We observed that the BWM is a valid tool for estimating total step count and mean spatio-temporal gait characteristics however agreement for variability and asymmetry results was poor. We conducted a detailed investigation to explain the poor agreement between systems and determined it was due to inherent differences between the systems rather than inability of the sensor to measure the gait characteristics. The results highlight caution in the choice of reference system for validation studies. The BWM used in this study has the potential to gather longitudinal (real-world) spatio-temporal gait data that could be readily used in large lifestyle-based intervention studies, but further refinement of the algorithm(s) is required

GeoHealth:a location-based service for home healthcare workers

We describe a map-based location-based service ‘GeoHealth ’ for home healthcare workers who attend patients at home within a large geographical area. Informed by field studies of work activities and interviews with care providers, we have designed a mobile location-based service prototype supporting collaboration through information sharing and distributed electronic patient records. The GeoHealth prototype gives the users live contextual information about patients, coworkers, current and scheduled work activities and alarms adapted to their geographical location. The application is web-based and uses Google Maps, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Web 2.0 technology to provide a lightweight, dynamic and interactive representation of the work domain supporting distributed collaboration, communication and peripheral awareness among nomadic workers. Through a user-based evaluation, we found that the healthcare workers were positive towards the use of location-based services in their work, and that the dynamic and interactive geospatial representation of the work domain provided by GeoHealth supported distributed collaboration, communication and peripheral awareness. We also identified areas for improvements