Nurturing global collaboration and networked learning in higher education

We consider the principles of communities of practice (CoP) and networked learning in higher education, illustrated with a case study. iCollab has grown from an international community of practice connecting students and lecturers in seven modules across seven higher education institutions in six countries, to a global network supporting the exploration and evaluation of mobile web tools to engage in participatory curriculum development and supporting students in developing international collaboration and cooperation skills. This article explores the interplay of collaboration and cooperation, CoP and networked learning; describes how this interplay has operated in iCollab; and highlights opportunities and challenges of learning, teaching and interacting with students in networked publics in higher education

Open Educational Practices

Open educational practices (OEP) is an umbrella term that includes the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER); pedagogical practices encouraging peer learning, collaborative knowledge creation, sharing, and empowerment of learners; and systemic and structural initiatives to support and embed openness. The underlying values of OEP match those of open education more broadly, i.e. enabling educational access, ensuring inclusivity, and furthering equity. Examples of OEP include using OER, renewable/non-disposable assignments (where students publish work openly), collaborative annotation, Wikipedia editing, open courses, and engaging in open learning/teaching communities, among many others. Some people use the terms 'OEP' and 'open pedagogy' interchangeably, while others consider OEP to be a broader concept, inclusive of open pedagogy, as the latter focuses primarily on teaching practices (see Open Pedagogy). OEP can be enacted at the level of individual artifacts, modules or programs (via OER, open pedagogy, open textbooks, open learning design) as well as systemically across institutional structures (via open education policies, open publishing practices, reward/recognition structures). Recent OEP research focuses on the importance of critical and social justice approaches, reflecting wider trends in digital and higher education. Such approaches acknowledge the importance of context and power relations and encourage diverse, inclusive, and equitable approaches to openness

Virtual Laboratory Enabling Collaborative Research in Applied Vehicle Technologies

The virtual laboratory is a new technology, based on the internet, that has had wide usage in a variety of technical fields because of its inherent ability to allow many users to participate simultaneously in instruction (education) or in the collaborative study of a common problem (real-world application). The leadership in the Applied Vehicle Technology panel has encouraged the utilization of this technology in its task groups for some time and its parent organization, the Research and Technology Agency, has done the same for its own administrative use. This paper outlines the application of the virtual laboratory to those fields important to applied vehicle technologies, gives the status of the effort, and identifies the benefit it can have on collaborative research. The latter is done, in part, through a specific example, i.e. the experience of one task group

Agree or not agree? The role of cognitive and affective processes in group disagreements

We develop and test a theoretical framework for understanding how cognitive and affective processes (cognitive and affective integration) influence the way in which disagreements (task and process) among group members affect their performance (individual and group level performance). We use this framework to explain how and why diversity may be either beneficial or detrimental to group process and outcomes. Specifically, we examine how group faultlines may hinder members\u27 ability to create a shared understanding of the problem (cognitive integration) and a shared motivation to synthesize their knowledge (affective integration). If this happens, then groups will fail to share and process information, which will hinder group performance and satisfaction. We test this theory on 321MBA students in 88 five to six person teams from a prestigious East Coast university

Keeping warm with sickle cell disease research project

Sickle cell disease (SCD) can lead to frequent hospitalisation for extremely painful sickle crisis and to several severely disabling secondary conditions or even death. 12,000-15,000 people in the UK have SCD and it affects people of all ages. One of the main triggers for a crisis is getting cold. Therefore staying warm, as well as eating well, drinking plenty and avoiding stress, is recommended by healthcare professionals as a preventative strategy. As SCD is most common among Black British, Black African and Black Caribbean groups, who are already at higher risk to fuel poverty than the general population, combined with increasing fuel costs, maintaining a home warm enough to avoid a crisis may be extremely challenging. This research looks at challenges people with SCD have in staying warm enough to prevent a painful sickle crisis

Cold Snaps - children’s health in a cold, damp home : influencing policy and practice

Children living in cold homes experience worse outcomes. This paper considers some of the findings from the Warm Well Families (WWF) study, which aimed to explore factors influencing the abilities of households including children with asthma to keep warm at home in winter. Individual and group interviews with children, families and professionals were conducted and home temperature and humidity measurements were taken. The experience, knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of adults living in households with children with asthma affect the choices they make. The concept of a ‘trade-off’ is used, to describe the complex process by which families in fuel poverty are juggling competing priorities in order to make decisions. The paper explores three participant families in detail, through the use of case studies, to illustrate the trade-offs made and the impact of those trade-offs on a family’s ability to keep warm and well at home. It is argued that policy initiatives and interventions need to engage with the full range of decisions families make, and the constraints on these decisions, in order to reduce the impact of fuel poverty on the wellbeing of families

SNS programming environment user's guide

The computing environment is briefly described for the Supercomputing Network Subsystem (SNS) of the Central Scientific Computing Complex of NASA Langley. The major SNS computers are a CRAY-2, a CRAY Y-MP, a CONVEX C-210, and a CONVEX C-220. The software is described that is common to all of these computers, including: the UNIX operating system, computer graphics, networking utilities, mass storage, and mathematical libraries. Also described is file management, validation, SNS configuration, documentation, and customer services

Pursuing Sustainability with Univeristy of Michigan, Patient Food and Nutrition Services: Aligning Sustainable Practices with Healthcare Delivery

With 45 thousand inpatient stays and 1.9 million outpatient visits in 2012, the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) manages a vast network of patients in constant flux. The Patient Food and Nutrition Services (PFANS) group provides in-room dining services for these patients and delivers meals and supplements to homebound seniors in the community through its Ann Arbor Meals on Wheels program. PFANS is committed to expanding its existing environmental responsibility initiatives and has the potential to serve as an important case study, providing a sustainability roadmap for UMHS and national patient food services. The project objectives included: 1. Reducing waste, water and energy footprints 2. Capturing cost savings 3. Designing a strategy that serves as holistic approach to sustainability for UMHS 4. Aligning sustainable practices with future models of U.S. healthcare delivery The approach to meeting these objectives included a current state assessment through primary research focused on interviews, waste and energy auditing and cost-benefit analysis as well as secondary literature reviews to identify best practices in the industry. Using the findings from these methods and developed criteria for evaluation—environmental, financial, reporting ability and scalability—the report outlines a series of recommendations that respond to the following key findings: 1. Immediate energy savings can be achieved through passive operational changes and additional long-term savings through active behavior changes. 2. Opportunities for reducing water usage would require major investment and PFANS would not directly see these savings. Therefore, PFANS should consider behavior-based reductions in water usage until a time where the case for capital expenditure on new equipment can be made. 3. Further improvements will require PFANS to form partnerships to overcome the challenges of sustainable and local food procurement in a healthcare setting. 4. Implementing an organic waste stream is possible and environmentally preferable. 5. PFANS can better utilize existing waste management infrastructure to increase diversion from landfill. 6. Areas for source reduction can be identified more readily by implementing better food waste tracking procedures. 7. Employee engagement is the lynchpin to successful implementation and to tracking progress against goals. The project is intended to demonstrate how PFANS can support both sustainability and patient care through its operations and services to position the unit as a sustainability leader within UMHS and in the patient food service management space.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97544/1/SNRE Masters Project_701.238_FINAL REPORT.pd

Warm Well Families: Rotherham Final Report

Living in a cold home harms the health of babies, children and teenagers. Growing up in a cold home can impact on weight gain, development and emotional wellbeing. Living in fuel poverty directly affects people’s ability to afford decent food. The likelihood of suffering from respiratory illnesses such as asthma is more than doubled for children living in a cold home. Teenagers are more likely to participate in risk taking behaviours outside the home and their risk of developing multiple mental health problems is increased by cold homes. Educational achievement can be negatively affected as living in overcrowded or damp housing means children are more likely to miss school. Cold homes are also known to impact on resilience and emotional well-being which will ultimately worsen life chances. Ultimately growing up in cold damp homes will have a real effect on a child’s health, learning and enjoyment of life