Social Networking: Changing the way we communicate and do business.

This paper reviews the value of social networking and the impact it can have on small and large businesses. The paper also reviews the Social Networking Business Plan and the power of recommender networks. Examples are given of inbound and outbound marketing techniques. Social Networking is an integral part of inbound marketing. A synopsis of the evolving demographic of social networkers is presented to add clarity and show potential for social networking websites and tools.social networking, business, Facebook, The Social Network Business Plan, Social Networking Strategy, social networking demographics, inbound marketing, outbound marketing, advertising in the 21st century

Barriers and solutions to innovation in teacher education

This article proposes how mobile technologies are being employed innovatively in teacher education across the European Union, contributing to an adjustment in teacher training models. It identifies various barriers and challenges to innovation and illustrates how teacher educators have addressed these in the first year of an Erasmus+ funded project

Under the Cobblestones: Politics and Possibilities of the Art Therapy Large Group.

This paper discusses the politics and possibilities of linking the personal and political with therapeutic and social transformation through a teaching method provided on the art therapy training at Goldsmiths, the art therapy large group (ATLG). Three key ideas of May 68 are related to the ATLG and their relevance to other psychotherapies and psychotherapy trainings is considered. These are: the importance of the ‘capitalist’ university as an essential terrain in the struggle for social change; the Atelier Populaire’s use of art in an anti capitalist critique of the commodification of art and artist in society; and the anti imperialist character of the May events. These ideas are related to the theoretical base of the ATLG in the large verbal group literature, performance art and to the wide international membership of the ATLG creating a forum for engaging with global issues. To illustrate these points, we give an example of the interface of the political and the impact of a real event, the university lecturers’ strike in 2007 and the learning that took place in relation to this through the ATLG. We conclude that through a critical engagement with the university within the global terrain of contemporary neo-liberalism, the ATLG provides a territory that can: integrates the political and therapeutic in arts/psychotherapy trainings; provides a critique and alternative to the commodification of art and artist; engages with issues of difference in the globalized market place. The ATLG prepares the artist/student/therapist/worker to critically engage in the personal and social transformation of the politics of art and psychotherapy provision in the public, private and voluntary sectors

Learning to Produce Speech with an Altered Vocal Tract: The Role of Auditory Feedback

Modifying the vocal tract alters a speaker’s previously learned acoustic–articulatory relationship. This study investigated the contribution of auditory feedback to the process of adapting to vocal-tract modifications. Subjects said the word /tɑs/ while wearing a dental prosthesis that extended the length of their maxillary incisor teeth. The prosthesis affected /s/ productions and the subjects were asked to learn to produce ‘‘normal’’ /s/’s. They alternately received normal auditory feedback and noise that masked their natural feedback during productions. Acoustic analysis of the speakers’ /s/ productions showed that the distribution of energy across the spectra moved toward that of normal, unperturbed production with increased experience with the prosthesis. However, the acoustic analysis did not show any significant differences in learning dependent on auditory feedback. By contrast, when naive listeners were asked to rate the quality of the speakers’ utterances, productions made when auditory feedback was available were evaluated to be closer to the subjects’ normal productions than when feedback was masked. The perceptual analysis showed that speakers were able to use auditory information to partially compensate for the vocal-tract modification. Furthermore, utterances produced during the masked conditions also improved over a session, demonstrating that the compensatory articulations were learned and available after auditory feedback was removed

Perceptual Calibration of F0 Production: Evidence from Feedback Perturbation

Hearing one’s own speech is important for language learning and maintenance of accurate articulation. For example, people with postlinguistically acquired deafness often show a gradual deterioration of many aspects of speech production. In this manuscript, data are presented that address the role played by acoustic feedback in the control of voice fundamental frequency (F0). Eighteen subjects produced vowels under a control ~normal F0 feedback! and two experimental conditions: F0 shifted up and F0 shifted down. In each experimental condition subjects produced vowels during a training period in which their F0 was slowly shifted without their awareness. Following this exposure to transformed F0, their acoustic feedback was returned to normal. Two effects were observed. Subjects compensated for the change in F0 and showed negative aftereffects. When F0 feedback was returned to normal, the subjects modified their produced F0 in the opposite direction to the shift. The results suggest that fundamental frequency is controlled using auditory feedback and with reference to an internal pitch representation. This is consistent with current work on internal models of speech motor control