Implementing use of ICT in teacher education

Teachers in Sweden are still in need of digital literacies to master the pedagogical use of ICT in schools. Teacher education has a key role in adding the use of ICT to the abilities of their students and teachers. At Stockholm Institute of Education the Learning Resource Centre has an important role in providing appropriate technology, supported learning environments and competence development for teachers and students. Competence development programs focus on digital literacies. Continuous self evaluation by participants points to good results. The problems which arise for teachers are mainly dependant on lack of time for training and maintaining digital work patterns.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Great expectations : The computerization of research and educational literature in Swedish university libraries 1960-1980

Searching for information in databases or on the world wide web to enhance our knowledge has become an everyday task. The internet is a major source of information for education. When we want to make new material available in digital form, we examine how contents can be made searchable by the creation and attachment of metadata. We now have expectations that most educational material, literature and research will be described and to a great extent also readable as full-text in digital form. For the benefit of future university research and teaching the digital global university library is a prevailing image. The work of organizing and representing information with metadata and make it searchable and usable for education and research started already in the 1960’s. A vision of the global library was presented during the same period originating from the Library of Congress in Washington DC.(Library of Congress,1963)1 Some of the expectations, discussions and choices which took place during this period can be recognized as having meaning for processes 20-40 years later.2nd IFIP Conference on the History of Computing and EducationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Hur kan man få fler att använda infartsparkerinar?

Problems associated with traffic, such as traffic congestion and pollution, have occurred in major urban areas in particular due to the increased use of cars. One possible way to reduce the use of cars is to replace commuter trips by car with other modes of transport, such as a combination of car and public transport called Park & Ride. The aim of this thesis was to understand more about factors influencing the choice of mode and to find measures that could attract car drivers to Park & Ride. A stated preference survey has been conducted in order to quantify some standard factors. The factors used in this stated choice experiment were: security at the lot, availability of spaces at the parking lot, costs at the parking lot and walking distances between the parking space and the station. The results indicate that security at the Park & Ride facility is important. Both sexes assign a high value to secure parking, but women are more willing to pay for lights at an unguarded parking lot. The results reveal that park-ing facilities, such as free parking and short distance between parking place and work at work, influence people’s choice of mode. A general conclusion is that there is potential for increasing the use of Park & Ride facilities, especially among women and respon-dents over 30 years

Implementing use of ICT in teacher education

Teachers in Sweden are still in need of digital literacies to master the pedagogical use of ICT in schools. Teacher education has a key role in adding the use of ICT to the abilities of their students and teachers. At Stockholm Institute of Education the Learning Resource Centre has an important role in providing appropriate technology, supported learning environments and competence development for teachers and students. Competence development programs focus on digital literacies. Continuous self evaluation by participants points to good results. The problems which arise for teachers are mainly dependant on lack of time for training and maintaining digital work patterns.Education for the 21 st century - impact of ICT and Digital Resources ConferenceRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Great expectations : The computerization of research and educational literature in Swedish university libraries 1960-1980

Searching for information in databases or on the world wide web to enhance our knowledge has become an everyday task. The internet is a major source of information for education. When we want to make new material available in digital form, we examine how contents can be made searchable by the creation and attachment of metadata. We now have expectations that most educational material, literature and research will be described and to a great extent also readable as full-text in digital form. For the benefit of future university research and teaching the digital global university library is a prevailing image. The work of organizing and representing information with metadata and make it searchable and usable for education and research started already in the 1960’s. A vision of the global library was presented during the same period originating from the Library of Congress in Washington DC.(Library of Congress,1963)1 Some of the expectations, discussions and choices which took place during this period can be recognized as having meaning for processes 20-40 years later.2nd IFIP Conference on the History of Computing and EducationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Coastal fish community indicators in Sweden - variation along environmental gradients

Coastal fish communities have a central role in both environmental and fisheries management. The following report summarizes the current state (2014) of indicator-based approaches in Sweden, to assess the status of coastal fish communities in relation to internationally agreed directives. Coastal fish is not included as a biological quality element in the European Water Framework Directive (WFD), with the exception of transitional waters, but they are included in the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The report is particularly focused on potential connection points between the MSFD and WFD, in order to facilitate the harmonisation of assessments of different ecosystem components and geographical areas. One important aspect would be to develop geographically based assessment methods, to make better use of data from inventory studies. Key aspects for this development are explored in an example case study, which is based on data with wide geographical coverage. The study addresses general patterns in the distribution of species and indicators among geographical areas in the Baltic Sea, and explores the relationship between indicators and environmental variables. Changes in the indicators were to a large extent attributed to gradients in natural environmental variables, such as temperature, salinity and wave exposure. The results indicate that all these variables should be included in a geographically based assessment. Variables attributed to eutrophication were important for five of the eight studied indicators. This was mainly coupled to a gradient in water transparency. Variables attributed to the mortality of fish were less influential. Possibly, the indicators assessed were not sensitive enough, or the studied gradient was not strong enough for evaluating this pressure. Potentially, also, the explanatory variables that were used were not quantified in an adequate way. A need was seen to update information on the geographical distribution of recreational fisheries and top predators (cormorants, seals), in order to support the assessment of pressure-state relationship, and identify connection points to management measures. All these aspects need to be considered further in the continued indicator development. The environmental variables explained a reasonable part of the observed variation in the data set, although a relatively large part of the variation was left unexplained. The unexplained variability may potentially be reduced by more refined quantitative analyses, which can also explain variation at different geographical scales. The study was also limited by available environmental data. In terms of additional explanatory variables, habitat quality is often expected to have high influence on species abundances, and hence on indicators. However, this variable could not be included, due to a lack of data with sufficient geographical coverage

Föräldrars missbruk och barnets bästa : en dokumentanalys av LVU-mål

The aim of this essay was to examine how the decision-making in LVU cases are motivated in the judicial decisions. How has the principle of whats in the best interest of the child been noticeable in these judicial decisions and how are the child's needs and the consequences for the child of the drug abuse been described? When the parents have been judged to have given a non acceptable consent, how have they been described and how has the parents described the situation? Our research is of a qualitative nature, a document analysis of judicial decisions in LVU cases. We analyzed eight court cases containing decisions from County Court, Fiscal Court of Appeal and The Supreme Administrative Court. Our results showed that parents were described in the judicial argumentation as negative stereotypes and a picture of unreliability were created. What was best for the child were not expressed in words but woven into the children's needs and in most cases the consequences of the abuse of drugs were not made clear

The effects of flooding on railway infrastructure: A literature review

Flooding of railway infrastructure can lead to significant adverse complications, including infrastructural damage and large-scale disruptions. These can lead to increased economic costs and decreased reliability. Due to climate change, flooding is expected to increase in severity and frequency globally. This paperpresents the findings of a systematic literature review surrounding the effects of flooding on railway infrastructure. 24 relevant papers found via the Scopus database were reviewed. We find that studies focus on quantifying the effects of past and or future flooding events on railway infrastructure, while fewer studies mention adaptation strategies to mitigate the impacts. To understand and predict the future impacts of flooding on railway infrastructure and develop appropriate adaptation strategies, it is important to first quantify and understand past events

Improving assessments of coastal ecosystems – Adjusting coastal fish indicators to variation in ambient environmental factors

The application of ecological indictors for assessing the environmental status of ecosystems play an important role for effective management. However, natural variability may limit the indicators’ ability to provide relevant information about anthropogenic pressures and guide management action. Coastal fish species are not only a resource for commercial and recreational fisheries but also key ecosystem components in the Baltic Sea, and is therefore used as management objectives within the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan. A challenge, however, is that the distribution and abundance of coastal fish populations in Baltic Sea is also influenced by spatial and temporal variation in ambient environmental factors. Here, using 16 years of monitoring data, over a latitudinal range of 56 – 66°N along the Swedish Baltic Sea coast, we evaluated the effect of variability in water temperature and depth, and wave exposure for three indicators of environmental status assessment in the Baltic Sea: Abundance of perch, Abundance of Cyprinids, and Abundance of Piscivores. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMM) revealed an overall positive linear relationship between water temperature for all indicators, and overall negative linear relationships to depth and wave exposure. When adjusting indicator values using the parameter estimates from the GLMM models, the variability and 95 % confidence interval for all three indicators were reduced. The adjustment, however, did not have a strong impact on the assessment of the ecological state of the indicator. Our results suggest that adjusting coastal fish indicators to variation in local ambient environmental factors will increase their precision, and hence, the confidence in the assessment of environmental status