Editorial - Introduction to the special issue on deliberation with computers: exploring the distinctive contribution of new technologies to collaborative thinking and learning

Abstract not available

An advanced telerobotic system for shuttle payload changeout room processing applications

To potentially alleviate the inherent difficulties in the ground processing of the Space Shuttle and its associated payloads, a teleoperated, semi-autonomous robotic processing system for the Payload Changeout Room (PCR) is now in the conceptual stages. The complete PCR robotic system as currently conceived is described and critical design issues and the required technologies are discussed

Towards a dialogic theory of how children learn to think

notes: IF of journal 1.708publication-status: Publishedtypes: Articl

Paper Session I-B - Development of Columbia Leading Edge Reconstruction System

After the loss of Columbia in 2003, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and NASA KSC directed personnel at the Launch Equipment Test Facility to design and build high fidelity mock-ups of Columbia\u27s left wing leading edges. These leading edge segments, constructed of reinforced carbon-carbon, were a major point of inquiry by the investigation team. The LETF engineers developed a concept of building a clear Lexan panel with an aluminum support structure ten percent larger than the original panel. The leading edge debris are attached to the Lexan panels and both the front and back side of each panel are visible for inspection. The entire assembly can be rotated, to provide visual access to the entire panel. Ten carts were fabricated to support the seventeen panels. These carts could be set up in order, next to each other, to provide the desired inspection access. The carts and attached debris are currently located in the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC

Paper Session I-B - Development of Equipment to Support Shuttle Operations

A variety of equipment was recently developed to assist in processing of the space shuttle and assist in its launch process . These tasks include the following development tasks: • A mini OTV Camera system, which is a small camera designed for use in hazardous environments, allowing them to be placed in environments which existing facility cameras cannot fit; • An OTV camera window retainer and de -fog assembly, which blows a continuous air stream over the lens to prevent fogging and improve image quality; • An Orbiter Center-of-Gravity measurement system, which replaces older methods and eliminates their inherent deficiencies; • A telescoping tool to assist the ice crew in removing ice which may endanger the vehicle or crew on the pad; • An inflating bellows which provides an enclosure for cryogenic connectors to prevent ice build-up and allowing de-mating/re-mating. These products were developed and tested at KSC\u27s Launch Equipment Test Facility and some are currently in use at various locations at KSC

Computers, talk and learning : using computers to help coach reasoning through talk across the curriculum

The main theme of this thesis is the role of computers as a support for reasoning through talk in the classroom. A second, closely linked, theme is the role of reasoning through talk in general intellectual development.In the first part of the thesis the two areas of the teaching of thinking skills and the use of computers as a support for cooperative work in classrooms are explored through critical reviews of the literature and through two empirical studies. The findings of this exploratory research lead to the development of a theoretical framework for the use of computers in classrooms. This theoretical framework consists of the characterisation of a type of talk that is effective in promoting general intellectual development, a model of the structure of educational activities in which groups of children work with computers and a set of principles for the design of software to support reasoned discussion.In the second part of the thesis the theoretical framework is explored and tested through the development and implementation of an intervention programme. A new methodology is developed to evaluate this intervention programme integrating a quasi-experimental method with both qualitative discourse analysis and computer-based discourse analysis. The findings of the evaluation support four key hypotheses which emerge from the theoretical framework. First, that there is a link between the coaching of reasoning through talk and performance on tests of general reasoning ability. Second, that the quality of computer-supported collaborative learning can be enhanced through the off-computer coaching of exploratory talk. Third, that group work at computers can in turn be used effectively to extend an educational programme designed to coach exploratory talk across the curriculum. Fourth, that computer-based collaborative learning can - be used to integrate active peer-learning with directed teaching. These findings have significant implications for educational theory and practice

Feeding Dar es Salaam: a symbiotic food system perspective

This thesis is a sociological analysis of the agri-food system that feeds most of the over four and a half million residents of the fast-growing city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. It is based on qualitative research that has generated a picture of the food system that supplies the important foods for the majority of residents of the city. The research took an actor orientated approach and started from urban eaters and then followed the food back through retailers, processors and transporters to the primary producers. Methodological lessons are derived from this process in particular the elaboration of the ‘ride-along’ as a research method. Foods followed include maize, rice, potatoes, green vegetables, eggs and milk. Other foods such as beef and chicken have also been touched on especially in relation to marketing and slaughtering operations. Instead of dismissing what has been found as ‘informal’ or trying to fit it into structuralist paradigms, from orthodox economic or political economy perspectives, I have applied a grounded theory approach in seeking to understand the core ordering principles and rationality of this system that has shown a remarkable resilience over many years. Of particular interest, especially when looking at the functioning of market places and how new actors enter into the food system, is that more important to the food system than competition are various forms of collaboration. This study comes at a time when global food production and distribution is dominated by powerful transnational corporations through an agro-industrial food system that is widely critiqued for its negative environmental and social impacts. Many argue that this industrial food system is unsustainable, yet its expansion can seem inevitable and alternatives are seen by many as incapable of feeding the world’s growing and increasingly urban population. ‘Value chain’ interventions have become popular among ‘development’ practitioners and policy makers seeking to integrate more producers into the global industrial food system rather than challenging that food system. What I have found, and present in this thesis, is a ‘symbiotic food system’ made up of multitudes of small-scale and interdependent actors that produce the food and get it to urban eaters at a city feeding scale. They do this without any vertically - or horizontally -integrated corporate structures nor with government planning and organization of the food system. This food system responds well to the needs of urban eaters, especially those in poverty, and to the interests and circumstances of small scale food producers. It is a food system that outperforms value chain interventions in returns to producers and value to eaters and has social, economic and environmental advantages when compared to the agro-industrial and corporate dominated system. This challenges assumptions that corporate food chains are necessary, or desirable, to feed cities sustainably. The symbiotic food system that feeds Dar es Salaam is not perfect, but it is working and I believe worthy of further research and interventions to create a more enabling environment for such foods systems to flourish in Tanzania and elsewhere.</p

Dialogue on ‘dialogic education’: has Rupert gone over to ‘the Dark Side’?

ArticleThis is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.This email dialogue that we record and report here between Eugene Matusov and Rupert Wegerif, exemplifies Internet mediated dialogic education. When Eugene emailed Rupert with his initial (mis)understanding of Rupert's position about dialogic pedagogy Rupert felt really motivated to reply. Rupert was not simply motivated to refute Eugene and assert his correctness, although Rupert is sure such elements enter into every dialogue, but also to explore and to try to resolve the issues ignited by the talk in New Zealand. Through this extended dialogue Rupert's and Eugene's positions become more nuanced and focussed. Rupert brings out his concern with the long-term and collective nature of some dialogues claiming that the – "dialogue of humanity that education serves is bigger than the interests of particular students and particular teachers.…" – and so he argues that it is often reasonable to induct students into the dialogue so far so that they can participate fully. On the other hand, Eugene's view of dialogue seems more focussed on personal responsibility, particular individual desires, interests and positions, individual agency and answering the final ethical "damned questions" without an alibi-in-being. Rupert claims that dialogic education is education FOR dialogue and Eugene claims that dialogic education is education AS dialogue. Both believe in education THROUGH dialogue but education through dialogue is not in itself dialogic education. For Rupert dialogic education can include ‘scaffolding’ for full participation in dialogue as long as dialogue is the aim. For Eugene dialogic education has to be a genuine dialogue and this means that a curriculum goal cannot be specified in advance because learning in a dialogue is always emergent and unpredictable. Our dialogue-disagreement is a relational and discursive experiment to develop a new genre of academic critical dialogue. The dialogue itself called to us and motivated us and flowed through us. This dialogue is much bigger than us. It participates in a dialogue that humanity has been having about education for thousands of years. We hope that it also engages you and calls you to respond