Big Data – What is it and why it matters

Big data, like MOOCs, altmetrics and open access, is a term that has been commonplace in the library community for some time yet, despite its prevalence, many in the library and information sector remain unsure of the relationship between big data and their roles. This editorial explores what big data could mean for the day‐to‐day practice of health library and information workers, presenting examples of big data in action, considering the ethics of accessing big data sets and the potential for new roles for library and information workers.     

With the eyes of others: an ethnography of an academic office

The author raises questions about ethnographic methodology through exploring the implications of using observations produced by his colleagues about his office as data for his research. This process blurred the boundaries between researcher, method and the object and subject of research. It meets some criteria for ethnography and not others, and does not evidence clear definitional boundaries for any sub-genre such as autoethnography or collaborative authoethnography. Besides raising definitional challenges and the blurring of roles in research, the study also illustrates how the methodology revealed tensions over collegial trust, boundaries and privacy. The author's colleagues exposed aspects of the author's identity that were opaque and even invisible to the author. The author accordingly raises questions about the locus of ethical concern. Thus, issues of roles, definition, trust, boundaries, privacy and method were entwined.     

Children’s emotional and behavioral responses to peer provocation and early school adjustment

ABSTRACT

Even very young children think about their own and others’ behavior, including emotions. Such cognitions and emotions about the self and others convey information that is crucial to social interactions and relationships. The current study based on an integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing (SIP) aimed to explore students’ emotional and behavioral responses in SIP choices, and their association with teacher-reported early school adjustment. Two-hundred and thirty pre-school and first-grade primary school students were interviewed using the Challenging Situations Task (CST). CST assessed students’ emotional and behavioral responses to 12 unambiguous hypothetical peer provocation situations. Children’s preschool and first-grade primary teachers rated children’s early school adjustment with the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE-30) measure. The results revealed that children chose mainly sad and angry emotions and socially competent and passive behaviors. We found a relationship both between sad emotions and socially competent behavior choices, and between angry emotion and aggressive behavior choices. Sad emotions and aggressive behavior choices were the main predictors of school adjustment. Children’s responses to peer provocation situations varied depending on how the children interpreted the situations. The results address the importance of children’s SIP and school adjustment.     

略论高校学籍管理

本结合学籍管理在高校工作中的地位和作用，探讨了学籍管理应遵循的基本原则，并针对性地提出学籍管理工作中应注意的若干问题。     

Agile administrative choreographies for multimode education at the University of Pretoria

This paper responds in part to a special edition of this journal (39/2) on dual-mode provision. We were concerned that contact providers might drift into distance education provision through extending campus-based online learning without first thinking through the underpinning implications of its administrative systems, an issue that was not addressed in the special edition. Proceeding from a pragmatic and constructivist perspective, while adopting a transactional orientation drawing on systems theory and hermeneutics, this paper focuses on the challenge for administrative staff and systems of the changing nature of provision in terms of both the underpinning learning and business models. Based on experience and reflection, we conclude that the move into dual- and multimode provision is inevitable and that this requires agility on the part of both administrative staff and systems that is often overlooked in planning and review processes.