Personalised Learning: Developing a Vygotskian Framework for E-learning

Personalisation has emerged as a central feature of recent educational strategies in the UK and abroad. At the heart of this is a vision to empower learners to take more ownership of their learning and develop autonomy. While the introduction of digital technologies is not enough to effect this change, embedding the affordances of new technologies is expected to offer new routes for creating personalised learning environments. The approach is not unique to education, with consumer technologies offering a 'personalised' relationship which is both engaging and dynamic, however the challenge remains for learning providers to capture and transpose this to educational contexts. As learners begin to utilise a range of tools to pursue communicative and collaborative actions, the first part of this paper will use analysis of activity logs to uncover interesting trends for maturing e-learning platforms across over 100 UK learning providers. While personalisation appeals to marketing theories this paper will argue that if learning is to become personalised one must ask what the optimal instruction for any particular learner is? For Vygotsky this is based in the zone of proximal development, a way of understanding the causal-dynamics of development that allow appropriate pedagogical interventions. The second part of this paper will interpret personalised learning as the organising principle for a sense-making framework for e-learning. In this approach personalised learning provides the context for assessing the capabilities of e-learning using Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development as the framework for assessing learner potential and development

Improving Drug Safety: The Importance of Postmarking Drug Surveillance

Improved postmarketing surveillance system may reduce the number of adverse reactions to prescription drugs that under the current system continue to rise as the number of prescriptions written in the U.S. rises

Nonlinearity and chaos in economic models: implications for policy decisions

This survey paper discusses the policy implications that can be expected from the recent research on nonlinearity and chaos in economic models. Expected policy implications are interpreted as a driving force behind the recent proliferation of research in this area. In general, it appears that no new justification for policy intervention is developed in models of endogenous fluctuations, although this conclusion depends in part on the definition of equilibrium. When justified, however, policy tends to be very effective in these models.Macroeconomics ; Economic stabilization

Firmware Development Improves System Efficiency

Most manufacturing processes require physical pointwise positioning of the components or tools from one location to another. Typical mechanical systems utilize either stop-and-go or fixed feed-rate procession to accomplish the task. The first approach achieves positional accuracy but prolongs overall time and increases wear on the mechanical system. The second approach sustains the throughput but compromises positional accuracy. A computer firmware approach has been developed to optimize this point wise mechanism by utilizing programmable interrupt controls to synchronize engineering processes 'on the fly'. This principle has been implemented in an eddy current imaging system to demonstrate the improvement. Software programs were developed that enable a mechanical controller card to transmit interrupts to a system controller as a trigger signal to initiate an eddy current data acquisition routine. The advantages are: (1) optimized manufacturing processes, (2) increased throughput of the system, (3) improved positional accuracy, and (4) reduced wear and tear on the mechanical system

The Government's Impact on the Labor Market Status of Black Americans: A Critical Review

This paper surveys recent evidence on the impact of government programs on the measured labor market status of black Americans. In this paper, we argue that previous studies neglect the impact of recent government policy on the supply side of the labor market, and that the supply side effects of recent policy play an important role in explaining the recent measured increase in the ratio of the wages and incomes of blacks to the wages and incomes of whites.

Preparing for an Aging Nation: The Need for Academic Geriatricians

According to the author of this issue brief, a strong commitment by the government to a regular stream of financial support for geriatrics would encourage medical centers to establish or expand programs, enhance their ability to attract funds from private sources, and ultimately produce a sufficient number of academic geriatricians. Given the impending retirement of the baby boom generation, this process should begin as soon as possible. This issue brief highlights the critical need for academic geriatricians and presents a realistic proposal to help address the problem

Walk to a Healthy Future

Proposes a new national commitment to walking and formation of walking partnerships and clubs to fight the epidemic of overweight Americans

Degradation of Polystyrene Foam under Radiant Heat Flux

As the demand for liquefied natural gas has increased, safety concerns about the performance of transport vessels under fire conditions have been raised. Current codes for the sizing of the pressure relief systems require that the vessels are able to withstand an emmissive heat flux of 108kW/m2 and do not take into account the effects of insulation loss due to thermal decomposition of the insulation materials. To address this possible oversight in the current code models were presented to a working group organized by the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators Ltd. focusing on the decomposition rate of the polystyrene insulation used on many of these shipping vessels under fire conditions. The working group considered a range of heat flux from liquified natural gas pool fires with fluxes up to 300kW=m2. However, without experimental verification of the behavior of the polystyrene insulation under these conditions the working group deferred the concerns stating that, a better understanding of the foam plastic insulation vulnerability to heating is required to adequately assess the hazards that could result from loss of insulation effectiveness with fire exposure . Using an experimental procedure adapted from the work of Braumen, Chen and Matzinger on the thermal response of solid polystyrene under fire conditions, a rod driven apparatus was constructed to measure the regression rates of both solid and foamed samples of polystyrene as a function of external heat flux. From a plot of this data the heat loss to the surroundings and the heat of vaporization of the samples were calculated. Comparisons of the heats of vaporization were made to the values reported here as well as to independent differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis data. It was shown that the mass loss rate of the foamed polystyrene is essentially the same as the solid polystyrene when exposed to high rates of heating. The only significant difference between the two forms of polystyrene is in the linear regression rate which is higher in the foamed polystyrene by approximately the same ratio as the densities, about 40 to 1. The heat of vaporization for the solid polystyrene and the foamed polystyrene were found to be 1592J/g and 1693J/g respectively. The comparison to the differential scanning calorimetry data for the samples was within 10%. The linear regression of the foamed polystyrene was found to be 0:138cm/min for each kW/m2 of absorbed heat

Panel: International Perspectives on Collective Bargaining in Higher Education

The Unsustainable Business Model of the Canadian University

Panel: International Perspectives on Collective Bargaining in Higher Education

The Unsustainable Business Model of the Canadian University