Usability and digital inclusion: standards and guidelines

This article aims at discussing e-government website usability in relation to concerns about digital inclusion. E-government web design should consider all aspects of usability, including those that make it more accessible to all. Traditional concerns of social exclusion are being superseded by fears that lack of digital competence and information literacy may result in dangerous digital exclusion. Usability is considered as a way to address this exclusion and should therefore incorporate inclusion and accessibility guidelines. This article makes an explicit link between usability guidelines and digital inclusion and reports on a survey of local government web presence in Portugal

Learners’ use of communication strategies in text-based and video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication environments: opportunities for language learning

This study investigates the different learning opportunities enabled by text-based and video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) from an interactionist perspective. Six Chinese-speaking learners of English and six English-speaking learners of Chinese were paired up as tandem (reciprocal) learning dyads. Each dyad participated in four kinds of interactions, namely, English text-based SCMC, Chinese text-based SCMC, English video-based SCMC and Chinese video-based SCMC. Their use of communication strategies (CSs) were analyzed along with an after-task questionnaire and with stimulated reflection to explore systematically and comprehensively the differences between text-based and video-based SCMC. In addition to the main role of qualitative analysis, the quantitative analysis was undertaken to provide an overview of the relative frequencies of the occurrence of the different strategies and to understand their distribution in the different conditions. A MANOVA was applied to understand to what extent the differences are likely to have occurred by chance. The results showed that learners used CSs differently in text-based and video-based SCMC and indicated different learning opportunities provided by these two modes of SCMC. While text-based SCMC appears to have greater potential for learning target-like language forms, video-based SCMC seems particularly effective for fluency development as well as pronunciation improvement

Task design for audiographic conferencing: promoting beginner oral interaction in distance language learning

This paper presents the challenges involved in designing a full set of online tutorial materials for a beginners' Spanish course for distance language learners utilising an online audiographic conferencing VLE for synchronous oral interaction. Although much has been written about task design and task-based learning and teaching (TBLT) in language learning (Johnson, 2003; Klapper, 2003; Ellis, 2000; Nunan, 1989, among others), the shift to an audiographic Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) medium presents a number of challenges to task design which are only just beginning to be documented (Hampel 2003, Hampel & Baber 2003, Hampel & Hauck 2004). Here we will discuss what the challenges are for the design and implementation of activities suited to the development of oral skills in a foreign language in such an environment in the light of current theories of SLA (Skehan, 2003; Doughty & Long, 2003; Doughty, 2000; Long, 1996), task design, and CALL (Warschauer, 1997; Chapelle 1998) and how those challenges were met for the production of a full set of materials for a beginners' Spanish distance learning course at the Open University using a tool that had been deemed unsuitable for that level (Kötter, 2001). We will also present the findings of the developmental testing of a sample of these activities and recommend a model for tasks in an audiographic VLE to promote oral interaction at beginner level

"It's making contacts" : notions of social capital and implications for widening access to medical education

Acknowledgements Our thanks to the Medical Schools Council (MSC) of the UK for funding Study A; REACH Scotland for funding Study B; and Queen Mary University of London, and to the medical school applicants and students who gave their time to be interviewed. Our thanks also to Dr Sean Zhou and Dr Sally Curtis, and Manjul Medhi, for their help with data collection for studies A and B respectively. Our thanks also to Dr Lara Varpio, Uniformed Services University of the USA, for her advice and guidance on collating data sets and her comments on the draft manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Lit up and left dark: Failures of imagination in urban broadband networks

The design and deployment of urban broadband infrastructures inscribe particular imaginations of Internet access onto city streets. The different manifestations and locations of these networks, their uses, and access points often expose material excesses of urban broadband networks, as well as failures of Internet service providers, urban planners, and public officials to imagine the diverse ways that people incorporate Internet connection into their everyday lives. We approach the study of urban broadband networks through the juxtaposition of invisible networks that are buried under the streets and have always been “turned off” (dark fiber) versus hypervisible that are “turned on” and prominently displayed on city streets (LinkNYC). In our analysis of these two case studies, we critique themes of visibility and invisibility as indexes of power and access. Our findings are meant to provide a critical analysis of urban technology policy as well as theories of infrastructure, visibility, and access

Critical reflections on the benefits of ICT in education

In both schools and homes, information and communication technologies (ICT) are widely seen as enhancing learning, this hope fuelling their rapid diffusion and adoption throughout developed societies. But they are not yet so embedded in the social practices of everyday life as to be taken for granted, with schools proving slower to change their lesson plans than they were to fit computers in the classroom. This article examines two possible explanations - first, that convincing evidence of improved learning outcomes remains surprisingly elusive, and second, the unresolved debate over whether ICT should be conceived of as supporting delivery of a traditional or a radically different vision of pedagogy based on soft skills and new digital literacies. The difficulty in establishing traditional benefits, and the uncertainty over pursuing alternative benefits, raises fundamental questions over whether society really desires a transformed, technologically-mediated relation between teacher and learner

Children’s rights online: challenges, dilemmas and emerging directions

In debates over internet governance, the interests of children figure unevenly, and only partial progress has been made in supporting children’s rights online globally. This chapter examines how the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is helpful in mapping children’s rights to provision, protection and participation as they apply online as well as offline. However, challenges remain. First, opportunities and risks are positively linked, policy approaches are needed to resolve the potential conflict between protection on the one hand, and provision and participation on the other. Second, while parents may be relied on to some degree to balance their child’s rights and needs, the evidence suggests that a minority of parents are ill-equipped to manage this. Third, resolution is needed regarding the responsibility for implementing digital rights, since many governments prefer self-regulation in relation to internet governance. The chapter concludes by calling for a global governance body charged with ensuring the delivery of children’s rights

Supramolecular networks stabilise and functionalise black phosphorus

The limited stability of the surface of black phosphorus (BP) under atmospheric conditions is a significant constraint on the exploitation of this layered material and its few layer analogue, phosphorene, as an optoelectronic material. Here we show that supramolecular networks stabilised by hydrogen bonding can be formed on BP, and that these monolayer-thick films can passivate the BP surface and inhibit oxidation under ambient conditions. The supramolecular layers are formed by solution deposition and we use atomic force microscopy to obtain images of the BP surface and hexagonal supramolecular networks of trimesic acid and melamine cyanurate (CA.M) under ambient conditions. The CA.M network is aligned with rows of phosphorus atoms and forms large domains which passivate the BP surface for more than a month, and also provides a stable supramolecular platform for the sequential deposition of 1,2,4,5-tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)benzene to form supramolecular heterostructures