Determining organizational readiness for an ILS migration—A strategic approach

In 2013, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries embarked on a strategy to determine its readiness for a migration from its existing Integrated Library System (ILS) to a new cloud-based Library Services Platform (LSP). This article discusses a process for determining whether the time is right for an organization to move to a cloud-based LSP, and it will focus on the process undertaken at UNLV Libraries, describing the outcomes and lessons learned.     

Surveillance,Governmentality and moving the goalposts: The influence of Ofsted on the work of schools in a post-panoptic era

This paper asks the question: to what extent do inspection regimes, particularly the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), influence the work of a school, and how might that influence be conceptualised? It draws on an ESRC-funded study of ‘policy enactments in secondary schools’, which was based on case-study work in four ‘ordinary’ schools. Here the data set is re-examined to understand the extent to which Ofsted had an ongoing influence on the work of the leadership, management and teachers in these schools. We undertook a process of secondary analysis of the data from the project and found that the influence of the inspection agenda was strong in the schools, policy decisions were often being made to conform to Ofsted’s expectations and the influence on leadership and management was clearly apparent. In resisting this agenda we also found that schools to some extent performed ‘the good school’ for inspections. Finally, we relate this empirical evidence to conceptions of governmentality and post-panopticism to shed new light on their theoretical relevance to contemporary inspection regimes.     

Theorising partnerships for site-based education development in vocational education and workplace learning

Abstract

Site-based education development now constitutes a common approach to preparing learners for particular occupations, enabling them to secure employment and at the same time achieve broader social, economic and personal outcomes. New forms of partnerships, other than traditional vendor–client relations, are necessary to achieve such multi-faceted goals. This can be achieved by recognising and appropriately integrating pedagogical contributions in different sites to cater for learning needs. Accordingly, professionals from educational institutions need to actively collaborate and engage with a range of key personnel to form partnerships for the purposes of harnessing and facilitating learning opportunities within the constraints of given sites. An action research process enables participating partners to work towards and achieve agreed outcomes. Outcomes addressing areas causing concern are developed and discussed ‘on site’, forming site-based education development. Using a collaborative action research methodology that addresses issues identified by those in particular sites, solutions can be made visible and problems worked through. This enables the partners to achieve agreed outcomes developed during the life of the partnership. Outcomes and possible training areas are developed and discussed by key partners, particularly those in workplaces. In this article, we draw on intersecting sets of understandings around the philosophy of site-based education development, founded mainly on two overarching theories of workplace learning and practice architectures, to theorise partnerships for site-based education development. Some findings and ideas from two exemplar action research projects are presented to exemplify the key concepts.     

A characterization of a unified notion of mathematical function: the case of high school function and linear transformation

In this paper, we draw on the contemporary perspective of inclusive materialism offered by de Freitas and Sinclair to contribute to current discussions on the role of the body in the learning of mathematics. Using the notions of distributed agency and assemblage, we illustrate the way in which three students engage with a patterning task. We discuss this as an example to show how the mathematics activity involves, besides the students’ bodies, other materialities that populate the classroom, and how all the human and non-human bodies form a moving assemblage that constantly reconfigures and reorients learning. The inclusive materialism helps us talk about learning as a dynamic assemblage rather than in terms of individual achievements and directs attention to the material learning environment.     

CROSS-CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS AS A WAY OF OVERCOMING XENOPHOBIA

International Review of Education -     

Peer Networking as a Dynamic Approach to Supporting New Faculty

This article presents a dynamic method of supporting new faculty through a peer support group led by a facilitator. Group members participate in ongoing self-assessment, individualized goal setting, and activities that reflect the changing needs of the group. We explain the history and activities of the group and also the benefits for institutions considering developing a support mechanism for new faculty.     

Promoting Internet-Based Teaching and Learning Worldwide

The author, who has spent many years transforming the University of Aalborg, Denmark, into a modern Net-based university, reflects on how the information and communications technologies (ICTs) should be introduced into traditional universities so that the resulting transformations will be irreversible and successful in the broadest possible sense. The introduction of the ICTs and the resulting institutional transformation, she argues, must involve all institutional constituencies. The leadership in each case must be aware of the successes and failures of other institutions in regard to ICT adoption through the information resources of such international organizations as the International Association of University Presidents, the International Association of Universities, UNESCO, etc. Consultants representing such organizations must make an effort to understand the cultural and economic frameworks of the institutions that they advise and assist. The successful adoption of the ICTs in a higher education institution is a complex process.     

Didactising: Continuing the work of Leen Streefland

In this paper we present three cases of instructional design that illustrates both horizontal didactising, the activity of using already established principles to design instruction, and vertical didactising the activity of developing new tools and principles for instructional design. The first case illustrates horizontal didactising by elaborating how the constructs chains of signification and models were used to design an instructional sequence involving linear growth. The second and third cases illustrate vertical didactising by developing argumentation analyses and generative listening, respectively, as instructional design tools. In the second case, argumentation analyses emerge as a tool that other designers can use to anticipate the quality of conversations that can occur as students engage in tasks prior to implementing the instructional sequence. The third case develops the notion of generative listening as a conceptual tool within the context of designing differential equations instruction to gain insights into what are, for students, experientially-real starting points that are mathematical in nature and to provide inspirations for revisions to instructional sequences. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Participation in Online Problem‐based Learning: Insights from postgraduate teachers studying through open and distance education

This article reports on work undertaken within Phase 2 of a pilot study concerned with the design, development, and evaluation of online resources. Drawing on recent developments in the application of technology within open and distance education, these resources were structured around the principles of problem‐based learning (PBL) for use with postgraduate teachers. The article explores the responses of one cohort of students studying on a programme for teachers of children with visual impairment, to learning through the use of these resources. In line with recent literature in this area, the findings demonstrate that with the appropriate design and use of technology, PBL, traditionally viewed as a campus‐based approach, can be adapted for use with students in higher education studying through open and distance education. The findings highlight a number of potential barriers to learning and participation that can serve to reduce effective participation in the online PBL activities. Future planned research by the authors will explore the extent to which each of these barriers can be reduced through appropriate planning and design, and provisional recommendations are included to assist in this process.