Captive But Mobile: Privacy Concerns and Remedies for the Mobile Environment

We use the legal framework of captive audience to examine the Federal Trade Commission 2012 privacy guidelines as applied to mobile marketing. We define captive audiences as audiences without functional opt-out mechanisms to avoid situations of coercive communication. By analyzing the current mobile marketing ecosystem, we show that the Federal Trade Commission's privacy guidelines inspired by the Canadian “privacy by design” paradigm fall short of protecting consumers against invasive mobile marketing in at least three respects: (a) The guidelines overlook how, in the context of data monopolies, the combination of location and personal history data threatens autonomy of choice; (b) the guidelines focus exclusively on user control over data sharing, while ignoring control over communicative interaction; and (c) the reliance on market mechanisms to produce improved privacy policies may actually increase opt-out costs for consumers. We conclude by discussing two concrete proposals for improvement: a “home mode” for mobile privacy and target-specific privacy contract negotiation.     

Inequalities in school leavers’ labour market outcomes: do school subject choices matter?

Abstract

Despite a wide international literature on the effect of vocational and general education on school-to-work transition, relatively little is known about the role of having studied specific subjects in explaining inequalities in young people’s labour market outcomes. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining differences in employment chances of young people who left education early, either at the end of compulsory schooling or at the end of secondary school. Using data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a large-scale linkage study created using data from administrative and statistical sources, we found little gender differences but strong parental background differences in school leavers’ employment status and type of occupation entered. Social inequalities in labour market outcomes were only partly explained by curriculum choices. Moreover, after controlling for social origin and grades, only history and business for lower-secondary leavers and maths for upper-secondary leavers were associated with a reduction in the chances of being unemployed/inactive.     

Universities——Drivers for regional innovation culture and competitiveness

The actual infrastructure of the information society sustains the globalization trend and increases the importance of the information and knowledge. The development of the knowledge society is the direct consequence of the mix of economic, social and cultural processes, which involve the knowledge creation and its equitable distribution, access and sharing. Universities, as poles of knowledge, creativity and innovation, play a key part in the regional development and the global competitiveness. The universities are active promoters of the innovation culture at the regional and international level, by increasing the synergy among education, research and innovation. The article focuses on the role of the academic area in the development of the learning and creative society at the regional level, contributing to the design of new knowledge and technology embedded products, services and organizational processes, which represent the premises of the global competitiveness. The most important challenge the academic environment faces in the new economy is to bridge the gap between the political decision, the governance and the labour market, offering innovative solutions and developing the intellectual capital to address the various issues of the knowledge economy. The article highlights the role of the universities as regional development drivers, by analyzing the economic performance of the Bucharest-llfov region and the direct influence of the trinomial equation： education-research-innovation.     

Understanding responsibility in Responsible AI. Dianoetic virtues and the hard problem of context

Ethics and Information Technology - During the last decade there has been burgeoning research concerning the ways in which we should think of and apply the concept of responsibility for Artificial...     

Social origins,academic strength of school curriculum and access to selective higher education institutions: Evidence from Scotland and the USA

This paper analyses the role that different components of the academic strength of the secondary-school curriculum (i.e. number, subjects and grades of advanced academic courses) play in explaining social origin differences in access to prestigious universities (but also to other higher education institutions) in Scotland and the USA. A central aim of the paper is to investigate whether the mechanism behind the studied patterns of inequality differs depending on the characteristics of each educational system. Our results show pronounced social class gaps in entering top higher education institutions in both Scotland and the USA. Academic curriculum plays an important role in explaining these social class differences in both countries. However, while in Scotland type of subjects taken at an advanced level is the strongest mediator for the identified social class differences, in the USA, number of advanced subjects is the strongest. Moreover, taking into account the three academic components combined entirely explains the social class differences in Scotland. Considerable inequalities which are not explained by the strength of academic curriculum remain in the USA.     

Changement et résistance au changement dans le milieu universitaire roumain

December 1989 meant for the Romanian academie world the break off with the communist dogmaticism and the politics of indoctrination and also the possibility of installing a critical analysis and the continuity of the true values of Romanian universities. Two inquiries conducted in 1990 and 1991 among students and Professors revealed a strong contesting pathos (persons, teaching contents and methods. The entire educational System were contested) and also a true desire to find out the critical aspects which enhances a new ideology in the higher education System. Students and a part of the faculty have discovered expressions like “academic freedom” and “academie autonomy”. They started to use concepts like “change”, “academic democracy”, “social responsibility”. New expectations concerning the behavioural offer of Professors occurred. When defining the direction of this change, authors chose the expression “toward normality”. Indices of normality could be the assumption by the university of new functions and value orientations previously forgotten and abandoned, under the dictatorial system such as creation and diffusion of values, introduction of criteria of competence and morality in evaluating both academic status and behaviour of Professors.     

Social inequalities in attaining higher education in Scotland: New evidence from sibling data

Over the last decades, various policies at national and local levels have been implemented to widen participation in higher education (HE) in Scotland and more widely in the UK. Despite this, the acquisition of a HE qualification is still largely determined by the family in which individuals are born. Our study provides new evidence on the extent to which family factors matter by examining sibling data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a large-scale linkage study created using data from administrative and statistical sources. Random effects linear probability models are used to analyse individual and family-level variance in the chances of obtaining a HE qualification. Our results show that about 40% of the variation in the chances of attaining a university degree is explained by siblings’ shared family characteristics and about a third of this share is explained by parental social class, education and housing tenure. A high degree of sibling similarity in the outcome was found across all social-origin classes. However, while siblings of advantaged families are alike because they both graduated from HE, siblings of disadvantaged families are alike because neither of them did. We suggest that parental compensatory strategies in the former families and economic constraints in the latter families may explain such stark patterns of inequality. Finally, we do not find evidence that the availability of sub-degrees makes a difference to these patterns.     

Teaching and learning cycles in a constructivist approach to instruction

This study attempts to analyze and synthesize the knowledge collected in the area of conceptual models used in teaching and learning during inquiry-based projects, and to propose a new frame for organizing the classroom interactions within a constructivist approach. The IMSTRA model consists in three general phases: Immersion, Structuring, Applying, each with two sub-phases that highlight specific roles for the teacher and the students. Two case studies, one for mathematics in grade 9 and another for science in grade 3, show how the model can be implemented in school, making inquiry realistic in regular classes. Beyond its initial purpose, the IMSTRA model proved to be a powerful tool in curriculum development, being used in producing mathematics textbooks, as well as in developing teaching courses for a long-distance teacher-training program.     

Libraries and Financial Literacy: Perspectives From Emerging Markets

The article uses conceptual correlations between information literacy and financial literacy as a basis for arguing that financial literacy services have a place in library settings. The article discusses the general requirements, profile of services, and various challenges related to the introduction of financial literacy programmes in public libraries. An intensified interest in financial literacy matters may be assigned to the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. The interdependencies between financial crisis, financial literacy, and the potential of public libraries is illustrated by the example of one South-Eastern European country whose economic transformations and developments reflect the importance of financial literacy.     

Problem-posing research in mathematics education: new questions and directions

As an introduction to the special issue on problem posing, the paper presents a brief overview of the research done on this topic in mathematics education. Starting from this overview, the authors acknowledge important issues that need to be taken into account in the developing field of problem posing and identify new directions of research, some of which are addressed by the collection of the papers included in this volume.