an article by Lily Sun, Khadidjatou Ousmanou and Matthew Cross published in Information Systems Frontiers Volume 12 Number 3 (2010)
Abstract
The knowledge economy offers opportunity to a broad and diverse community of information systems users to efficiently gain information and know-how for improving qualifications and enhancing productivity in the workplace. Such demand will continue and users will frequently require optimised and personalised information content. The advancement of information technology and the wide dissemination of information endorse individual users when constructing new knowledge from their experience in the real-world context. However, a design of personalised information provision is challenging because users’ requirements and information provision specifications are complex in their representation. The existing methods are not able to effectively support this analysis process. This paper presents a mechanism which can holistically facilitate customisation of information provision based on individual users’ goals, level of knowledge and cognitive styles preferences. An ontology model with embedded norms represents the domain knowledge of information provision in a specific context where users’ needs can be articulated and represented in a user profile. These formal requirements can then be transformed onto information provision specifications which are used to discover suitable information content from repositories and pedagogically organise the selected content to meet the users’ needs. The method is provided with adaptability which enables an appropriate response to changes in users’ requirements during the process of acquiring knowledge and skills.
Hazel’s comment:
To my rather simple brain this sounds like a step too far but who knows? Maybe it really is possible to develop a system which allows for real personalisation. Perhaps those readers who are “real” librarians / information researchers would like to comment?
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Starting a new career at 60
via Entrepreneurial by Reuters Staff
The following is an interesting guest post on Entrepreneurial by Marci Alboher, vice president at Civic Ventures, a think tank making it easier for millions to find encore careers with personal meaning and social impact. This is part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship. The views expressed are the author's own.
Yes, it is American but that does not, at least in this instance, make it irrelevant.
OUCH! I’m not saying that American views are irrelevant but that business and education are very different the other side of the Atlantic and that, therefore, many of the careers articles become irrelevant to UK readers.
Mark Goldsmith created Getting Out and Staying Out, a program that reduces the recidivism rate of young men released from prisons and jails.
Elaine Santore founded Umbrella of the Capital District, a service that pairs retired handy people with aging homeowners who need help with small home repairs.
Adele Douglass created Humane Farm Animal Care, the nation's first programme to certify that farming practices are humane from birth to slaughter.
They are all social entrepreneurs – creative, inventive, enterprising individuals who bring their talent and passion to solving the problems of our day – and they are all over the age of 55.
Read the full post on Reuters blog
The following is an interesting guest post on Entrepreneurial by Marci Alboher, vice president at Civic Ventures, a think tank making it easier for millions to find encore careers with personal meaning and social impact. This is part of the kickoff to a series on social entrepreneurship. The views expressed are the author's own.
Yes, it is American but that does not, at least in this instance, make it irrelevant.
OUCH! I’m not saying that American views are irrelevant but that business and education are very different the other side of the Atlantic and that, therefore, many of the careers articles become irrelevant to UK readers.
Mark Goldsmith created Getting Out and Staying Out, a program that reduces the recidivism rate of young men released from prisons and jails.
Elaine Santore founded Umbrella of the Capital District, a service that pairs retired handy people with aging homeowners who need help with small home repairs.
Adele Douglass created Humane Farm Animal Care, the nation's first programme to certify that farming practices are humane from birth to slaughter.
They are all social entrepreneurs – creative, inventive, enterprising individuals who bring their talent and passion to solving the problems of our day – and they are all over the age of 55.
Read the full post on Reuters blog
Educational relationships in out-of-school-time activities: ...
are children in poverty missing out again?
an article by Kate Bullock, Yolande Muschamp, Tess Ridge and Felicity Wikeley (University of Bath) published in Education, Citizenship and Social Justice Volume 5 Number 2 (July 2010)
Abstract
Poverty may be the major obstacle to positive life chances in the UK. Ennals and Murphy (2005) suggest that escape from the poverty trap is more likely for those who remain in education after the age of 16. However, school life may bring problems for children from low-income families, with learning assuming a lower priority than social acceptance (Ridge, 2005). This article argues that young people in poverty are also less likely to participate in other learning activities. The nature of learning in out-of-school-time settings is explored and the distinctive features of the educational relationships that underpin out-of-school-time learning are discussed. We conclude that children from disadvantaged backgrounds who have acquired an understanding of educational relationships are more likely to develop positive attitudes to learning. Strategies to redress the added disadvantage that non-participation in leisure activities creates for young people in low-income families are suggested.
an article by Kate Bullock, Yolande Muschamp, Tess Ridge and Felicity Wikeley (University of Bath) published in Education, Citizenship and Social Justice Volume 5 Number 2 (July 2010)
Abstract
Poverty may be the major obstacle to positive life chances in the UK. Ennals and Murphy (2005) suggest that escape from the poverty trap is more likely for those who remain in education after the age of 16. However, school life may bring problems for children from low-income families, with learning assuming a lower priority than social acceptance (Ridge, 2005). This article argues that young people in poverty are also less likely to participate in other learning activities. The nature of learning in out-of-school-time settings is explored and the distinctive features of the educational relationships that underpin out-of-school-time learning are discussed. We conclude that children from disadvantaged backgrounds who have acquired an understanding of educational relationships are more likely to develop positive attitudes to learning. Strategies to redress the added disadvantage that non-participation in leisure activities creates for young people in low-income families are suggested.
European Union Labour Force Survey
Annual results 2009 – Issue number 35/2010
via Eurostat Statistics in focus
This publication presents annual averages of the main results of the EU Labour Force Survey for the EU-27 and for all Member States.
Indicators presented in this publication are:
via Eurostat Statistics in focus
This publication presents annual averages of the main results of the EU Labour Force Survey for the EU-27 and for all Member States.
Indicators presented in this publication are:
- employment rates
- part-time employment as share of total employment
- number of employed people broken down by economic activity and by occupation of the main job
- average of hours usually worked by week
- percentage of employees with limited duration contract
- unemployment rate
- percentage of unemployed for one year and more
- youth unemployment ratio
Friday, 13 August 2010
Is there still a need for gifted education?
An examination of current research
an article by Sally M Reis and Joseph S Renzullia (Neag School of Education, The University of Connecticut) published in Learning and Individual Differences Volume 20 Issue 4 (August 2010)
Abstract
What recent research has been conducted about gifted and talented students and their learning experiences in school?
As we complete the first decade of the new century we are entering a time when much attention is focused on remediation and test preparation; it only seems appropriate to reflect upon what has been learned about gifted education during the last few decades and consider the compelling evidence that may or may not support special services for gifted and talented. Consensus on which research themes and studies should be included in this type of examination were difficult to reach, but we have identified six important themes that are discussed in the article. This review of research strongly suggests that the need for gifted education programmes remains critical during the current time period in American education when our nation’s creative productivity is being challenged by European and Asian nations.
an article by Sally M Reis and Joseph S Renzullia (Neag School of Education, The University of Connecticut) published in Learning and Individual Differences Volume 20 Issue 4 (August 2010)
Abstract
What recent research has been conducted about gifted and talented students and their learning experiences in school?
As we complete the first decade of the new century we are entering a time when much attention is focused on remediation and test preparation; it only seems appropriate to reflect upon what has been learned about gifted education during the last few decades and consider the compelling evidence that may or may not support special services for gifted and talented. Consensus on which research themes and studies should be included in this type of examination were difficult to reach, but we have identified six important themes that are discussed in the article. This review of research strongly suggests that the need for gifted education programmes remains critical during the current time period in American education when our nation’s creative productivity is being challenged by European and Asian nations.
Investigating the Properties of a Social Bookmarking and Tagging Network
an article by Ralitsa Angelova (Max Planck Institut für Informatik, Germany) and Marek Lipczak, Evangelos Milios and Pawel Pralat (Dalhousie University, Canada) published in International Journal of Data Warehousing and Mining Volume 6 Issue 1 (2010)
Description
Social networks and collaborative tagging systems are rapidly gaining popularity as a primary means for storing and sharing data among friends, family, colleagues, or perfect strangers as long as they have common interests. del.icio.us is a social network where people store and share their personal bookmarks. Most importantly, users tag their bookmarks for ease of information dissemination and later look up. However, it is the friendship links that make del.icio.us a social network. They exist independently of the set of bookmarks that belong to the users and have no relation to the tags typically assigned to the bookmarks. To study the interaction among users, the strength of the existing links and their hidden meaning, we introduce implicit links in the network. These links connect only highly “similar” users. Here, similarity can reflect different aspects of the user’s profile that makes her similar to any other user, such as number of shared bookmarks, or similarity of their tags clouds. The authors investigate the question whether friends have common interests, they gain additional insights on the strategies that users use to assign tags to their bookmarks, and they demonstrate that the graphs formed by implicit links have unique properties differing from binomial random graphs or random graphs with an expected power-law degree distribution.
Description
Social networks and collaborative tagging systems are rapidly gaining popularity as a primary means for storing and sharing data among friends, family, colleagues, or perfect strangers as long as they have common interests. del.icio.us is a social network where people store and share their personal bookmarks. Most importantly, users tag their bookmarks for ease of information dissemination and later look up. However, it is the friendship links that make del.icio.us a social network. They exist independently of the set of bookmarks that belong to the users and have no relation to the tags typically assigned to the bookmarks. To study the interaction among users, the strength of the existing links and their hidden meaning, we introduce implicit links in the network. These links connect only highly “similar” users. Here, similarity can reflect different aspects of the user’s profile that makes her similar to any other user, such as number of shared bookmarks, or similarity of their tags clouds. The authors investigate the question whether friends have common interests, they gain additional insights on the strategies that users use to assign tags to their bookmarks, and they demonstrate that the graphs formed by implicit links have unique properties differing from binomial random graphs or random graphs with an expected power-law degree distribution.
Fancy a job at Google?
Urban myths of the interview process includes the following:
- Why are manhole covers round?
- You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
- How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
- Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.
- In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?
- If you look at a clock and the time is 3.15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands? (The answer is not zero!)
- How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
- Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for 17 minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it's only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in one minute, another in two, the third in five, and the slow poke takes 10 to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?
- How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
- You're the captain of a pirate ship, and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?
blog.seattleinterviewcoach.com via guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited
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