Altichiero in the Fifteenth Century

Altichiero was the dominant north Italian painter of the later Trecento. In Padua, in the 1370s and early 1380s, he worked for patrons close to Petrarch and his circle and perhaps in direct contact with the poet himself. By the time of the second edition of Vasari’s Vite (1568) the memory of Altichiero’s work had suffered significant occlusion, and Vasari’s account of him is little more than an appendix to his life of Carpaccio. Only since the later nineteenth century, and particularly in the last fifty or so years, has Altichiero’s reputation been restored. It is the purpose of this paper to examine aspects of that reputation throughout the century or so after the painter’s death (by April 1393)

Minou Schraven, Festive Funerals in Early Modern Italy: The Art and Culture of Conspicuous Commemoration (Farnham and Burlington, VT, Ashgate, 2014), xviii + 320 pp., 13 tables, 51 b/w illustrations. ISBN: 978-0-7546-6524-3. Price £70 (hardback)

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[Review of] John Lie. Multiethnic Japan

In preparing Multiethnic Japan, sociologist John Lie set out to describe the lives of the new Asian workers in Japan, but ended up demonstrating that Japan has long been and remains very much a multiethnic country

Aboriginal Education in Quebec: A Benchmarking Exercise

Quebec’s Aboriginal poverty is severe, and the large gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal education levels is the most important factor in explaining it. In the report, the author examines the relationship between education levels and employment for Quebec Aboriginals. Comparing outcomes within the province’s Aboriginal identity groups to results for other Quebecers, and for Canadians overall, Richards finds that the province’s Aboriginal education outcomes rank below the Canadian average, which itself is disturbingly low. Richards makes six broad recommendations to address the crisis in Aboriginal education – in Quebec and the rest of Canada.The Education Papers, Canada, Quebec, Aboriginals, education, employment

School Dropouts: Who Are They and What Can Be Done?

While Canada has made progress in the past two decades in terms of lowering high-school dropout rates, those rates remain unacceptably high for boys and certain groups limited by poverty or other factors. In this paper, the author warns that the male share of the dropout population continues to rise, with five males now dropping out for every three females. As well, some groups of immigrants, those living in rural areas and Aboriginals also exhibit a worrisome lack of educational achievement compared with the Canadian average. The author recommends strategies to target groups who are falling between the cracks. Among them: education authorities should collect and use reliable data on student performance in core subjects, and should experiment aggressively on initiatives targeted to improve education outcomes for vulnerable groups of Canadians.Education Papers, Canadian education, school dropouts, dropout rates, Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Reducing Poverty: What has Worked, and What Should Come Next

Anti-poverty initiatives over the last decade have lifted many people out of poverty, mainly through improved employment rates. To make further progress in tackling poverty, targeted interventions are in order that draw on past policy successes.welfare reform, poverty reduction

Dropouts: The Achilles' Heel of Canada's High-School System

The high dropout rate among francophone Quebec students, particularly boys, has recently received considerable attention in that province. Media coverage has been extensive, indicating widespread public concern. However, the high-school dropout-rate problem is not restricted to Quebec. Based on the 2006 census, four provinces – Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Alberta – have higher dropout rates among those aged 20 to 24 than do Quebec francophones.social policy, high school dropout rate

Introducing TU100 ‘My Digital Life’: Ubiquitous computing in a distance learning environment

In this paper we describe the Open University’s progress towards delivering an introduction to ubiquitous computing within a distance-learning environment. Our work is strongly influenced by the philosophy of learning-through-play and we have taken technologies originally designed for children’s education and adapted them for adult learners, many of whom will have no formal experience of computer science or information technology. We will introduce two novel technologies; Sense, a drag-and-drop programming language based on Scratch; and the SenseBoard, an inexpensive hardware device that can be connected to the student’s computer, through which they can sense their environment and display outputs. This paper is not intended as a detailed discussion of individual technologies (they will follow in time), rather it should serve as an introduction to the Open University’s method of teaching and how we hope to continue to recruit new computer scientists and engineers using novel technologies

Learning Experiences in Programming: The Motivating Effect of a Physical Interface

A study of undergraduate students learning to program compared the use of a physical interface with use of a screen-based equivalent interface to obtain insights into what made for an engaging learning experience. Emotions characterized by the HUMAINE scheme were analysed, identifying the links between the emotions experienced during programming and their origin. By capturing the emotional experiences of learners immediately after a programming experience, evidence was collected of the very positive emotions experienced by learners developing a program using a physical interface (Arduino) in comparison with a similar program developed using a screen-based equivalent interface