Creating Books for Use in Language Revitalization Classrooms: Considerations and Outcomes

In this paper, I examine the development, implementation, and results of utilizing three types of storybooks in a language revitalization classroom for students ages 5-12 learning Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec, an indigenous language of southern Mexico. Although each method used for creating books in Zapotec generated a positive reaction from students and parents, I consider the ways in which each method facilitates student learning while also problematizing the cultural authenticity of the classroom. Based on classroom observations, a parent focus group, and student interviews, I conclude that the most effective method for storybook creation involved students creating their own book modeled on a pre-existing book written in the non-indigenous language. This student-created book generated sustained interest in the language and allowed for students to shape the materials into something that was culturally relevant for them personally

Learning with Smartphones: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of Young People’s Everyday Mobile Practices

This study aims to understand how young people in Malaysia use their smartphones for learning and to uncover the meaning of these lived experiences. A review of the research literature reveals an apparent lack of theoretical and conceptual understanding of everyday mobile practices with regard to learning with smartphones. Applying the principles and practices of hermeneutic phenomenology, this study seeks to gain access to a phenomenon that is often subconscious and to interpret the participants’ learning experiences. Hermeneutic phenomenological research methods comprised the use of interviews, and a written reflective exercise. 12 youths ranging from 16-19 years old, participated in 3 rounds of semi-structured interviews over a period of 6 months. The findings reveal that participants’ learning is associated with self-identity and management of their images; dependent on their perception of its value and subject to influences from their peers, parents and the community at large. This study’s contribution lies in the discovery that for the participants, learning embedded in everyday mobile practices can be either serendipitous or purposive. Beyond the serendipitous and fragmentary learning of everyday mobile practices, there is evidence of deep, prolonged and purposive learning activities with the engagement lasting from 30 minutes to 4 hours per day. Both learning practices are characterized by personal agency, satisfaction and joy in the learning. The findings would suggest the importance of understanding more about the different types of learning occurring with the use of smartphones, the values attached by learners to this learning and the transferability of such skills and knowledge across spaces, time and dimensions. Further research including careful qualitative studies is suggested to better theorize the phenomenon. Policy makers and education authorities should support a research agenda developed and aimed at theorizing learning with smartphones and other smart devices using a range of quantitative and qualitative approaches. These studies should relate to one another by focusing on developing knowledge and understanding of learning with smartphones and would enable policy makers and practitioners to develop more well-informed polices and strategies to enhance learning, either in the classroom or outside it

Flower-shaped nanoparticles improve sensitivity of chemical detection

What you need to know: Raman spectroscopy can be enhanced to be more sensitive in detecting chemicals through the use of nanoparticles with sharper edges and cavities. Silver nanoparticle “flowers” developed at Laurier show the most promising results for the optimal enhancement of this diagnostic testing

Applying psychological science to the CCTV review process: a review of cognitive and ergonomic literature

As CCTV cameras are used more and more often to increase security in communities, police are spending a larger proportion of their resources, including time, in processing CCTV images when investigating crimes that have occurred (Levesley & Martin, 2005; Nichols, 2001). As with all tasks, there are ways to approach this task that will facilitate performance and other approaches that will degrade performance, either by increasing errors or by unnecessarily prolonging the process. A clearer understanding of psychological factors influencing the effectiveness of footage review will facilitate future training in best practice with respect to the review of CCTV footage. The goal of this report is to provide such understanding by reviewing research on footage review, research on related tasks that require similar skills, and experimental laboratory research about the cognitive skills underpinning the task. The report is organised to address five challenges to effectiveness of CCTV review: the effects of the degraded nature of CCTV footage, distractions and interrupts, the length of the task, inappropriate mindset, and variability in people’s abilities and experience. Recommendations for optimising CCTV footage review include (1) doing a cognitive task analysis to increase understanding of the ways in which performance might be limited, (2) exploiting technology advances to maximise the perceptual quality of the footage (3) training people to improve the flexibility of their mindset as they perceive and interpret the images seen, (4) monitoring performance either on an ongoing basis, by using psychophysiological measures of alertness, or periodically, by testing screeners’ ability to find evidence in footage developed for such testing, and (5) evaluating the relevance of possible selection tests to screen effective from ineffective screener