Social and interactional practices for disseminating current awareness information in an organisational setting

Current awareness services are designed to keep users informed about recent developments based around user need profiles. In organisational settings, they may operate through both electronic and social interactions aimed at delivering information that is relevant, pertinent and current. Understanding these interactions can reveal the tensions in current awareness dissemination and help inform ways of making services more effective and efficient. We report an in-depth, observational study of electronic current awareness use within a large London law firm. The study found that selection, re-aggregation and forwarding of information by multiple actors gives rise to a complex sociotechnical distribution network. Knowledge management staff act as a layer of “intelligent filters” sensitive to complex, local information needs; their distribution decisions address multiple situational relevance factors in a situation fraught with information overload and restrictive time-pressures. Their decisions aim to optimise conflicting constraints of recall, precision and information quantity. Critical to this is the use of dynamic profile updates which propagate back through the network through formal and informal social interactions. This supports changes to situational relevance judgements and so allows the network to ‘self-tune’. These findings lead to design requirements, including that systems should support rapid assessment of information items against an individual’s interests; that it should be possible to organise information for different subsequent uses; and that there should be back-propagation from information consumers to providers, to tune the understanding of their information needs.     

The information seeking behaviour of the users of digital scholarly journals

The article employs deep log analysis (DLA) techniques, a more sophisticated form of transaction log analysis, to demonstrate what usage data can disclose about information seeking behaviour of virtual scholars – academics, and researchers. DLA works with the raw server log data, not the processed, pre-defined and selective data provided by journal publishers. It can generate types of analysis that are not generally available via proprietary web logging software because the software filters out relevant data and makes unhelpful assumptions about the meaning of the data. DLA also enables usage data to be associated with search/navigational and/or user demographic data, hence the name ‘deep’. In this connection the usage of two digital journal libraries, those of EmeraldInsight, and Blackwell Synergy are investigated. The information seeking behaviour of nearly three million users is analyzed in respect to the extent to which they penetrate the site, the number of visits made, as well as the type of items and content they view. The users are broken down by occupation, place of work, type of subscriber (“Big Deal”, non-subscriber, etc.), geographical location, type of university (old and new), referrer link used, and number of items viewed in a session.     

Auto-Graph: considering the utility of student behaviour self-monitoring for inclusive schools

This paper reports the outcomes of a small-scale exploratory study that examined the utility of a novel computer-supported student behaviour self-monitoring procedure called Auto-Graph. The Auto-Graph procedure is a universal classroom behaviour management strategy for responding to disruptive antisocial behaviours. It was designed to provide up-to-date information on student behaviours over time that might alert students and school staff to emerging problematic behavioural patterns. This strategy is consistent with an interest in school-based early intervention. Furthermore, the Auto-Graph design assumes generalised benefits of a continuous cycle of monitoring and feedback/reflection that might inform understandings regarding goodness-of-fit between student needs and educational provision. The present study explored basic questions pertaining to the utility of Auto-Graph as a universal procedure in two 'inclusive' mainstream primary school classrooms. Results suggest a potential utility of the procedure in terms of supporting teachers and students in efforts directed at reducing disruptive antisocial behaviours, and by effect mediating the inclusion of potentially disruptive students in mainstream schools particularly when considering those identified with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD).     

Comments on Holmes

Certain basic moral propositions are unlike basic religious propositions in that it is incoherent to deny them. A community needs a shared set of moral beliefs in a way that it does not need a shared set of religious beliefs. The cultivation of certain types of behaviour is necessary in a community. For these three reasons, bringing up children to adhere to certain basic moral principles is justified in a way that bringing them up to accept basic religious tenets is not.Simon Fraser University     

大学生艾滋病认知状况调查

目的：调查了解现阶段大学生对艾滋病的认知和行为意向以及态度,为进一步加强大学生艾滋病相关教育提供基础依据。方法：研究对象为1460名在校大学生,调查采用自填式调查表进行调查。结果：调查对象对艾滋病的知晓率为100％,对艾滋病有效传播途径的认识较清楚。结论：调查对象对艾滋病的严重性、传染性、易感性、传播途径、致病机理以及预防等知识的认知水平较高,以及对艾滋病的流行趋势有较清楚的认识。大多数大学生对于吸毒的危害有很好的认识;对艾滋病病人或感染者的态度,依然存在恐惧和歧视心理。     

Reviews and Update

Books reviewed:

Bleach, K. Raising Boys’ Achievement in Schools

Farrant, Ann Sibling Bereavement: Helping Children Cope with Loss

Mallon, Brenda Helping Children to Manage Loss: Positive Strategies for Renewal and Growth

Calvert, Mike and Henderson, Jenny (eds) Managing Pastoral Care

Holden, Cathie and Clough, Nick (eds) Children as Citizens: Education for Participation     

以现代化推动音乐教育的发展

音乐教育作为现代教育不可缺少的一种教育形态,必须顺应时代的脉搏。音乐教育的现代化,不仅是教学设施装备的现代化,而且更是教育意识,教学行为模式的现代化。