1.
Technology-Enhanced Learning: a new digital divide - Watling, Sue
Powerful national and institutional drivers have embedded technology into the learning experience for students in all higher educational institutions. New learning technologies are often perceived as providers of exciting opportunities for enhancement and innovation. They are seen as tools for helping to break down barriers and increasing opportunities for flexible and open learning. The institutionally led virtual learning environment has become a mainstream component of delivery both on and off campus. This chapter will look at the ways in which its singularity is being challenged by the mobility of social networking and user generated software. It will suggest that the...
2.
Educational development units: the challenge of quality enhancement in a changing environment. - Beckton, Julian
Reviews the role of the Educational Development Unit and suggests that such units should focus primarily on building a learning environment appropriate to its host university, rather than paying a disproportionate amounts of attention to externally imposed targets. A unit should not of course ignore those targets, rather it should endeavour to manage them in a way that meets the work patterns of its own institution.
3.
Academic freedom in Europe: time for a Magna Charta? - Karran, Terence
This paper is a preliminary attempt to establish a working definition of academic freedom for the European Union states. The paper details why such a definition is required for the European Union and then examines some of the difficulties of defining academic freedom. By drawing upon experience of the legal difficulties beset by the concept in the USA and building on previous analyses of constitutional and legislative protection for academic freedom, and of legal regulations concerning institutional governance and academic tenure, a working definition of academic freedom is then derived. The resultant definition which, it is suggested, could form the...
4.
Academic freedom: in justification of a universal ideal - Karran, Terence
This paper examines the justification for, and benefits of, academic freedom to academics, students, universities and the world at large. The paper surveys the development of the concept of academic freedom within Europe, more especially the impact of the reforms at the University of Berlin instigated by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Following from this, the paper examines the reasons why the various facets of academic freedom are important and why the principle should continue to be supported.
5.
The student as producer: reinventing the student experience in higher education - Neary, Mike; Winn, Joss
In this chapter, we set out to provide an overview of recent critical responses to the corporatisation of higher education and the configuration of the student as consumer. We also discuss the relationship between the core activities of teaching and research and reflect on both nineteenth century discourse and more recent efforts to re-establish the university as a liberal humanist institution, where teaching and research are equal and fundamental aspects of academic life. While recognizing recent efforts which acknowledge and go some way to addressing the need for enquiry-based learning and constructivist models of student participation, we argue that a...
6.
Academic freedom in Europe: reviewing UNESCO’s recommendation - Karran, Terence
This paper examines the compliance of universities in the European Union with the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher–Education Teaching Personnel, which deals primarily with protection for academic freedom. The paper briefly surveys the European genesis of the modern research university and academic freedom, before evaluating compliance with the UNESCO recommendation on institutional autonomy, academic freedom, university governance and tenure. Following from this, the paper examines the reasons for the generally low level of compliance with the UNESCO Recommendation within the EU states, and considers how such compliance could be improved.
7.
A spatially distributed model for foreground segmentation - Dickinson, Patrick; Hunter, Andrew; Appiah, Kofi
Foreground segmentation is a fundamental first processing stage for vision systems which monitor real-world activity. In this paper we consider the problem of achieving robust segmentation in scenes where the appearance of the background varies unpredictably over time. Variations may be caused by processes such as moving water, or foliage moved by wind, and typically degrade the performance of standard per-pixel background models.
Our proposed approach addresses this problem by modeling homogeneous regions of scene pixels as an adaptive mixture of Gaussians in color and space. Model components are used to represent both the scene background and moving foreground objects. Newly...
8.
Oceans and coastal tourism: integrating tourism into bioeconomic models - Bull, Adrian
Models of resource sustainability and exploitation have developed as an important management tool for both scientific debate and policy development. Most models are developed to reflect a single resource such as oil, or a single environment such as a river. Bioeconomic modeling of ocean environments has become a major tool for the evaluation and management of fish stocks and fisheries, but
rarely incorporates an interrelationship with other economic activities. This article extends a bioeconomic fisheries model by incorporating the economic and physical interrelationships with coastal and marine tourism. Tourists are classified into three basic types (general, water sports, and recreational fishing)...
9.
Using decision analysis: connecting "classroom" and "field" - O'Sullivan, Terence
This paper reports on the findings of a small-scale research project investigating the views of social work students on the use of decision analysis. After giving the context of the research, the article reports on what was found when students, who had just completed a Decision Making and Risk module, were asked for their opinions on the component parts of decision analysis, its use as a practice tool and their attitudes to using it on placement. The research found that the respondents in general took a critical and supportive stance towards the use of decision analysis in social work and,...
10.
This seat in front of the window: thinking age through Louise Bourgeois's works on paper - Burge, Catherine
Publication ISBN 1 860502 09 1. This output relates to Burge’s art-historical research on French-American sculptor Louise Bourgeois. Burge’s research rationale is to voice narratives other than the dominant psycho-biographical and psycho-analytical approaches to Bourgeois’s work. These dominant approaches foreground the relationship between the sculptured objects and Bourgeois’s, or our, emotional states and psychic structures. In contrast, Burge’s research draws on her experience as a sculptor to re-engage with Bourgeois’s objects and their conversation with modern and post-modern sculptural debates. This output was part of a conference held at The University of Lincoln, part of the Lincoln School of Art...
11.
Conscientious objection to termination of pregnancy: the
competing rights of patients and nurses - Kane, Ros
Aims To highlight the potential difficulties in the management of staff with a
conscientious objection to abortion, in light of expanding role of nurses.
Background Recent years have seen changes in the provision of abortion services.
Medical procedures are now gaining popularity and some areas are seeing the integration
of outpatient clinics into ward settings. This may involve nurses being
required to provide care to women undergoing termination of pregnancy, which
may not have previously been within their remit. This has implications for staff with
a conscientious objection.
Methods A review of the academic literature.
Results The advent of medical abortion has led to changes in the way in...
12.
Pre Registration Opportunities for Social Work Degree Students - Watling, Sue
Opportunity for potential students, with an offer of a place, to access a site on Blackboard PRIOR to induction week with aim to ease the transition process. Site offers preparatory content for academic, social and practical challenges of Higher Education and includes discussion board for contact with staff and existing students for queries, support and reassurance. Project is an example of proactive management of transition to higher education, seen as key to student retention and success.
16.
[seven images from] Lost horizons - Lock, Andy
An international group exhibition curated by Duan Yuting, Artistic Director of the 2007 Lianzhou International Photography Festival, featuring seven photographic prints from Lock’s ongoing series, Lost Horizons. The exhibition explores ‘contemporary photography in terms of its nature as an event taking place in world, its temporality and narrative capacity’. Lost Horizons is a body of photographic work in progress, which depicts marginal acts of intervention and staging in anonymous settings, utilising small crudely made figures and found artefacts. The work was initiated while Lock was artist-in-residence at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, USA (17.09.06 – 18.10.06. This residency was...
17.
Picturing China 1870-1950: photographs from British collections - Bickers, Robert; Ladds, Catherine; Carstairs, Jamie; Foo, Yee-Wah
This book accompanies the exhibition 'Picturing China 1870-1950’, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, 16 October- 15 December 2007. The exhibition showcases artifacts, documents and photographs from the Fu Bingchang collection. These, and all the documentary and historical references concerning Fu Bingchang were provided by Foo. The project is a collaboration with SOAS, Bristol University, and the Institut d’Asie Orientale, Lyon. The exhibition is co-sponsored by the AHRC (‘China Now’ project). A reduced version of the exhibition moves to the Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, December 2007, the Oriental Museum, Durham, April 2008 and Queen’s University, Belfast, thereafter.
18.
Pocket borough to county borough: the landed elite and the middle classes in nineteenth century Grimsby - Shinner, Peter
This article considers the relationship between landed culture and the emergent middle classes in a rapidly expanding urban context substantially removed from the more familiar examples. The port of Grimsby expanded rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century, displaying many facets in common with other industrial centres and boasting a substantial middle-class presence from a relatively early stage. At the same time the extent to which Grimsby's middle classes assumed a leading role in the town's development is questionable and subject to qualification.
19.
The implications of taboos among African diasporas for the African press in the United Kingdom - Ogunyemi, Olatunji
The increased population of African diasporas in the United Kingdom, recently estimated at 618,000, is making them more culturally and linguistically visible than they used to be in the political and socioeconomic landscapes. It has also stimulated the proliferation of particularistic media representing their interests. However, little is known about the effects of their cultural values on the treatment of some issues in the public sphere. This article explores the relevance of taboos among African diasporas and their implications for the African press. A questionnaire was created as an instrument of collecting data about taboo subjects and preferred treatment of...
20.
Architectural reflection for software evolution - Rank, Stephen
Software evolution is expensive. Lehman identifes several
problems associated with it: Continuous adaptation, increasing
complexity, continuing growth, and declining quality. This paper
proposes that a reflective software engineering environment will
address these problems by employing languages and techniques from the software
architecture community.
Creating a software system will involve manipulating a collection of
views, including low-level code views and high-level architectural
views which will be tied together using reflection.
This coupling will allow the development environment to automatically
identify inconsistencies between the views, and support software
engineers in managing architectures during evolution.
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