Investigating the quality of interactions and public engagement around scientific papers on Twitter

This study explores science communication on Twitter by investigating a sample of tweets referring to academic papers in five different scientific fields. The specifications of science communicators on Twitter, the characteristics of those who initiate actions (by tweeting), the extent and quality of reactions (retweeting), individual and group interactions, and the distribution of tweets across types of engagement in the process of science communication (i.e., dissemination, consultation, and evaluation) were explored. A broad array of actors is involved in the communication of science on Twitter, with individual citizens and individual researchers playing an important role. In principle, this is promising for creating direct interaction, which can be difficult through more traditional mass media. The vast majority of communication activities regarding academic papers is undigested dissemination with almost no sign of debate, contestation, or collective reflection. Another general finding of this study is that bot accounts play a major role in the science communication landscape on Twitter.     

The beginning television course

All too often, strong opinions are held without regard to detailed knowledge of the subject involved. Current controversies show that the question of course content in professional broadcasting education is no exception. Regardless of the viewpoint held, a supply of adequate data relevant to the question should be welcomed by all. The Journal undertakes to supply as much data as possible relevant to broadcasting education, the most recent example being Harold Niven's “Fourth Annual Survey of Colleges and Universities Offering Course Work in Radio and Television, 1958–1959”; published in the Fallissue.     

The student experience of piloting multi-modal performance feedback tools in health and social care practice (work)-based settings

The aim of this study was to evaluate newly developed performance feedback tools from the student perspective. The tools were innovative in both their mode of delivery and the range of stakeholders they involved in the feedback process. By using the tools in health and social care settings, students were able to engage in interprofessional assessment of common competences and obtain performance feedback from a range of stakeholders not commonly involved in work-based learning; these included peers and service users. This paper discusses the ways in which the performance feedback tools were developed by a collaborative programme and compares their delivery, across a wide range of professions and work-based settings, in paper-based, web-based and mobile formats. The tools were evaluated through a series of profession-specific focus groups involving 85 students and 7 professions. The data were analysed thematically and reduced to three key categories: mode of delivery, assessment tool dynamics and work-based issues. These will be discussed in detail. The students agreed that the structured way of capturing and documenting feedback from several sources would support their practice placement learning. The reflective nature of the tools and the capacity for guiding reflection was also welcomed. The concepts of gaining service user, peer and/or interprofessional feedback on performance were new to some professions and evoked questions of reliability and validity, alongside appreciation of the value they added to the assessment process.     

Sample design for international studies of educational achievement

Author of numerous publications on the use of social indicators to guide decisions concerning resource allocation within education systems. Co-editor of Planning the Quality of Education (IIEP-UNESCO and Pergamon Press). His research interests are focused on indicators of the quality of basic education in developing countries.     

Has lead‐in lost its punch? An analysis of primetime inheritance effects: Comparing 1992 with 2002

Abstract

Recognizing the recent dramatic increase in the number of channels available to the typical American household coinciding with an equally dramatic decrease in audience ratings for the major broadcast networks, there was reason to hypothesize that, in recent years, lead‐in or inheritance effects have diminished. However, an analysis of prime time ratings comparing 1992 with 2002 for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox showed no support for this notion, suggesting that, despite the recent upheavals in the television industry, lead‐in has not lost its punch.     

Inquiry-based Learning and Digital Libraries in Undergraduate Science Education

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe robust rationales for integrating inquiry-based learning into undergraduate science education, and to propose that digital libraries are potentially powerful technological tools that can support inquiry-based learning goals in undergraduate science courses. Overviews of constructivism and situated cognition are provided with regard to how these two theoretical perspectives have influenced current science education reform movements, especially those that involve inquiry-based learning. The role that digital libraries can play in inquiry-based learning environments is discussed. Finally, the importance of alignment among critical pedagogical dimensions of an inquiry-based pedagogical framework is stressed in the paper, and an example of how this can be done is presented using earth science education as a context.     

A method for transcribing signed and spoken language

Transcribing sign communication used simultaneously with spoken English presents investigators with a unique problem: the singular quality of the bimodal communicative interactions cannot be accurately depicted using accepted conventions for recording either spoken or signed language samples. This article proposes guidelines for transcribing such data. The need for guidelines arose during an earlier study of the language development of a hearing child of deaf parents. To meet the immediate needs of that study, rules and conventions from previous studies were combined with newly generated ones, resulting in the guidelines proposed in this article. The guidelines can be applied to data in which intermodal linguistic influence is suspected.     

Embedded programming and real-time signal processing of swimming strokes

The research outlined in this paper was conducted to allow real-time processing, transmission and presentation of data to swimming coaches and subsequently their swimmers in a training environment, focused on providing information relevant to strokes in free swimming. This was achieved using a wearable wireless sensor and embedded programming techniques, using accelerations involved in the swimming stroke to provide relevant features for coaches. Current methods used do not offer real-time response to coaches, which results in the lack of real-time feedback and significantly increased post-session analysis time. Filtering and signal processing algorithms are described here, which allow real-time data analysis to be embedded within a wireless sensor node. The system significantly reduces the time for processing acquired data and has delivered a novel monitoring device suitable for operation within the harsh environment of the pool.