Creating shareable representations of practice

This paper reports work on the use of asynchronous multimedia conferencing (AMC) to support collaborative continuing professional development. In particular it explores how we may use multimedia communications technologies to enable key elements of real‐world working knowledge, that are tacit and embedded in working practices, to be rendered into shareable forms for professional learning. We believe multimedia communications technology can offer innovative ways of capturing rich examples of working practices and tacit knowledge, and for sharing and subjecting these artefacts to scrutiny, debate and refinement within a community of learners. More explicitly, we see participants in a geographically distributed community of practice being able to create, annotate, discuss and reflect upon videoclips of their working practices within the multimedia conferencing environment. This paper summarizes some studies that cast light on how representations of practice may be captured for use in an AMC environment

The university student experience of face-to-face and online discussions: coherence, reflection and meaning

This paper reports on an investigation into learning through discussions by undergraduate social work students. Second‐year students studying psychology for social work experienced discussions began with face‐to‐face tutorials, and then continued for some time after online. This study used closed‐ended questionnaires to investigate what students thought they were learning through discussions (their concepts), and how they engaged in the discussions face‐to‐face and online (their approaches). Significant associations were found among students’ concepts of discussions, approaches and levels of achievement. The results suggest that students who do not understand how discussions can help them to interrogate, reflect on and revise their ideas tended not to approach either face‐to‐face or online discussions in ways likely to improve their understanding or their levels of achievement. This type of insight is critical for teacher/designers wishing to create university experiences in which discussion is used to promote learning

Networked learning in higher education: Practitioners’ perspectives

There is a growing use of a variety of communications media to provide networked learning in higher education. The practitioners in the field vary from experienced educators who have many years’ experience to early adopters who have begun to use networked technology for teaching and learning recently. Using interviews informed by a phenomenographic approach, this paper investigates the varieties of experience of practitioners of networked learning. It reports initial findings that represent an early stage of analysis. The findings point towards a common philosophy held by current practitioners of networked learning but a lack of ‘rules of thumb’. Practitioners expressed ideas close to a new paradigm in education but were cautious about specific design outcomes meeting expectations. This finding raises questions about design and whether networked learning is yet stable enough a field to provide guidance on best practice. The paper also reflects on criticisms of the phenomenographic method, in particular its reliance on interview data, and offers some possible ways of dealing with the criticisms

Using pattern languages to mediate theory–praxis conversations in design for networked learning

Educational design for networked learning is becoming more complex but also more inclusive, with teachers and learners playing more active roles in the design of tasks and of the learning environment. This paper connects emerging research on the use of design patterns and pattern languages with a conception of educational design as a conversation between theory and praxis. We illustrate the argument by drawing on recent empirical research and literature reviews from the field of networked learning

Researching the impact of the networked information environment on learning and teaching

During the last decade, the focus of innovation and research in the field of computers and education has shifted from strand-alone to networked computers. The rapidly growing educational use of networked computers raises questions about which approaches to research can tell us most about improving educational impact. A key aim of this paper is to stimulate discussion about such research approaches by presenting a methodological case study of the use project logic evaluation methods. The paper draws on our formative evaluation of what is currently the largest learning technology development programme in UK tertiary education. Originally called the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) and more recently re-named the Information Environment (IE), this development is intended to create a managed environment for accessing quality-assured information resources on the Internet (DNER, 2002). These resources are intended for a variety of purposes in tertiary education, including research. However, our focus has been on the use, or likely use, of these resources for teaching and learning – something that was the intended focus of a substantial number of projects funded under the DNER/IE umbrella. The paper illustrates a method for helping project teams articulate their implicit theories about learning and change, which we argue are important in predicting and improving educational impact

Patterns, designs and activities: unifying descriptions of learning structures

In this paper, we examine emerging ways to describe and structure learning material, learning tasks and learning situations. In particular, we consider three different approaches, looking at common issues and differences in emphasis. These approaches are: learning patterns, inspired by the architectural patterns of Alexander; learning design, as described in the IMS Learning Design specification and which itself draws on Educational Modelling Language (EML) developed at The Open University of the Netherlands and learning activities as used in the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS)

Blended learning: design and improvisation

‘Blended learning’ is a term that has come to mean ‘appropriate combinations of face-to-face and technology-mediated learning’. This presentation focuses on the very practical question of how best to help teachers in higher education identify and integrate appropriate combinations of learning activity, with and without technology support. It draws on research from the fields of student learning, ergonomics, architecture, teachers’ thinking and educational design to identify some likely candidate solutions. The presentation will offer a perspective on educational design as a realworld activity and will introduce ‘design patterns’ as ways of capturing and sharing educational design experience

Cortisol levels in response to starting school in children at increased risk for social phobia

Background: Research on depression has identified hyperactivity of the HPA axis as a potential contributory factor to the intergenerational transmission of affective symptoms. However, this has not yet been examined in the context of social phobia. The current study compared HPA axis activity in response to a universal social stressor (starting school) in children of 2 groups of women: one with social phobia and one with no history of anxiety (comparison group). To determine specificity of effects of maternal social phobia, a third group of children were also examined whose mothers had generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Method: Children provided salivary cortisol samples in the morning, afternoon and at bedtime across 3 time-blocks surrounding the school start: a month before starting school (baseline), the first week at school (stress response), and the end of the first school term (stress recovery). Child behavioural inhibition at 14 months was also assessed to explore the influence of early temperament on later stress responses. Results: All children displayed an elevation in morning and afternoon cortisol from baseline during the first week at school, which remained elevated until the end of the first term. Children in the social phobia group, however, also displayed an equivalent elevation in bedtime cortisol, which was not observed for comparison children or for children of mothers with GAD. Children in the social phobia group who were classified as 'inhibited' at 14 months displayed significantly higher afternoon cortisol levels overall. Summary: A persistent stress response to school in the morning and afternoon is typical for all children, but children of mothers with social phobia also display atypical elevations in evening cortisol levels when at school - signalling long-term disruption of the circadian rhythm in HPA axis activity. This is the first study to report HPA axis disruption in children at risk of developing social phobia, and future research should aim to determine whether this represents a pathway for symptom development, taking early temperament into account

Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions in TectaY1870C/+ mice reflect changes in cochlear amplification and how it is controlled by the tectorial membrane

Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) recorded from the ear canal in the absence of sound reflect cochlear amplification, an outer-hair-cell (OHC) process required for the extraordinary sensitivity and frequency selectivity of mammalian hearing. Although wild-type mice rarely emit, those with mutations that influence the tectorial membrane (TM) show an incidence of SOAEs similar to that in humans. In this report, we characterized mice with a missense mutation in Tecta, a gene required for the formation of the striated-sheet matrix within the core of the TM. Mice heterozygous for the Y1870C mutation (TectaY1870C/+) are prolific emitters, despite a moderate hearing loss. Additionally, Kimura’s membrane, into which the OHC stereocilia insert, separates from the main body of the TM, except at apical cochlear locations. Multimodal SOAEs are also observed in TectaY1870C/+ mice where energy is present at frequencies that are integer multiples of a lower-frequency SOAE (the primary). Second-harmonic SOAEs, at twice the frequency of a lower-frequency primary, are the most frequently observed. These secondary SOAEs are found in spatial regions where stimulus-evoked OAEs are small or in the noise floor. Introduction of high-level suppressors just above the primary SOAE frequency reduce or eliminate both primary and second-harmonic SOAEs. In contrast, second-harmonic SOAEs are not affected by suppressors, either above or below the second-harmonic SOAE frequency, even when they are much larger in amplitude. Hence, second-harmonic SOAEs do not appear to be spatially separated from their primaries, a finding that has implications for cochlear mechanics and the consequences of changes to TM structure