Synergia Project

February 10, 2014, 3:53 pm

≫ Next: Representing Race in the Public Sphere – Contrasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with research presented via Edmonton Public Library Theatre

≪ Previous: Using home-laboratory kits to teach general chemistry

$

0

0

Title: Synergia Project

Authors: Synergia

Abstract: The Synergia Project is a new initiative whose purpose is to promote online learning technology to support the diffusion of co-operative knowledge (both formal and tacit) and practice to meet the challenges of building a sustainable, equitable, and socially just future. A key aim of the project is to bridge the international co-operative movement with the emerging movement for a new commons and the global movement for sustainability. Housed at the Athabasca University (AU) and supported by the participation of British Columbia-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA) in Canada, Co-operatives UK, Schumacher College, and the P2P Foundation, the project commenced in December 2013 with a dialogue process that engages key innovators and experts from the co-op, new commons and sustainability fields to participate in the design and content of an online learning platform using MOOC technology. The project is funded by the AU Research Fund. The completion of the program design and the confirmation of the MOOC content comprise Stage 1 of the project. Stage 2 entails the completion of the MOOC “curriculum” and the launch of the Synergia MOOC with links to concrete development opportunities on the ground. The project is being co-ordinated by Mike Gismondi at the Centre for Social Science at AU. John Restakis, Research Associate with Co-operatives UK and Research Investigator with the FLOK Project, is Lead Researcher for the Project and Pat Conaty, Research Associate with Co-operatives UK, is the Research Lead for the UK.

---

Representing Race in the Public Sphere – Contrasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with research presented via Edmonton Public Library Theatre

March 11, 2014, 3:29 am

≫ Next: Final Mapping Report: Environmental Organizations

≪ Previous: Synergia Project

$

0

0

Title: Representing Race in the Public Sphere – Contrasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with research presented via Edmonton Public Library Theatre

Authors: Spencer, Bruce

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which “race” or ethnicity has been, and can be, represented in Canada and to make a number of other observations that challenge the “Central/Eastern” representation of the formation of “two-nations” Canada. Therefore this is not just a critique of how the CBC ignored ethnicity in a major piece of “public pedagogy” but a lament for a missed opportunity to present the multi-ethnic, multicultural origins of Canadian experience – a missed opportunity which is sadly repeated almost daily. Finally, we will discuss how community engagement as “public pedagogy” can be a major component of university research. The paper discusses the failure of the CBC to use a black actor to portray Sir James Douglas (known as a “Scotch-West Indian”) and sets this failure within the history of racialization in Canada. The paper also discusses “race” theory, identity, and culture together with the social, civil and educational intersections that can be explored through research and public representation – all of which can help illuminate issues of hybridity and complexity when considering community and nation-building. The latter section of the paper explores how educators can engage community in developing a play about their experience in coming to Canada, forming a community, and becoming Canadians of Caribbean descent (African Canadians). It also records the success of the 3 performances of the play before a total audience of 400 – a local example of an alternative public pedagogy portraying race and representation.

Final Mapping Report: Environmental Organizations

March 12, 2014, 2:48 pm

≫ Next: Supporting Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Co-occurring Mental Illness: An Action Research Project

≪ Previous: Representing Race in the Public Sphere – Contrasting the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) with research presented via Edmonton Public Library Theatre

$

0

0

Title: Final Mapping Report: Environmental Organizations

Authors: Gismondi, Mike; Ross, Lynda; Marois, Juanita

Abstract: In 2010 the BALTA Mapping Team completed their survey of social economy organizations in Alberta and British Columbia. An important finding of this Mapping research was that a subsection of the population indicated that they fulfilled an environmental mission alongside their social mission. This reports describes these organizations in terms of their complementary missions, organizational structures and impacts on society.

Supporting Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Co-occurring Mental Illness: An Action Research Project

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Dubjection: A Node (Reflections on Web-Conferencing, McLuhan, and Intellectual Property)

≪ Previous: Final Mapping Report: Environmental Organizations

$

0

0

Title: Supporting Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Co-occurring Mental Illness: An Action Research Project

Authors: Melrose, Sherri; Wishart, Paul M.; Urness, Carol; Forman, Bill; Holub, Meghan; Denoudsten, Alison

Abstract: This paper presents findings from a naturalistic action research project that implemented a WrapAround mental health promotion activity with six individuals dually diagnosed with a developmental disability and mental illness. The project was framed from a strengths based conceptual perspective and questioned how caregivers could better prepare developmentally disabled clients to anticipate and prevent a psychiatric mental health crisis before hospitalization occurs. Facilitators provided monthly health promotion meetings where clients at risk of experiencing a psychiatric crisis were helped to create a team of family members and paid caregivers to ‘wrap around’ them. The teams met regularly and facilitators guided discussions to focus on clients’ strengths, their goals and strategies for success. Data collected from 13 interviews with clients and members of their teams was analyzed to reveal three themes, our findings. First, regular meetings where clients seek and receive support from individuals they value can help address escalating symptoms of mental illness. Second, constant caregiver turnover heightens client anxiety, which in turn exacerbates illness. Third, limited paid in-service and networking opportunities are available to caregivers. These findings invite nurses in the psychiatric field to create similar opportunities to support PDD clients and those who care for them.

Dubjection: A Node (Reflections on Web-Conferencing, McLuhan, and Intellectual Property)

March 19, 2014, 8:37 pm

≫ Next: Mutual Caring-Resolving Habituation through Awareness: Supporting Meaningful Learning from Projects

≪ Previous: Supporting Persons with Developmental Disabilities and Co-occurring Mental Illness: An Action Research Project

$

0

0

Title: Dubjection: A Node (Reflections on Web-Conferencing, McLuhan, and Intellectual Property)

Authors: McCutcheon, Mark A.

Abstract: From the editors' introduction to the book in which this chapter appears, _McLuhan's Global Village Today_ (Pickering & Chatto, 2014): "Mark A. McCutcheon’s contribution, ‘Dubjection: A Node (Reflections on Web-Conferencing, McLuhan and Intellectual Property)’, offers a more practical take on contemporary media theory. It is very McLuhanesque for several reasons: first, it comments on McCutcheon’s contribution to our McLuhan conference via the internet, probably the most typical way of communicating in the global village of the twenty-first century. But in addition to insightful technological remarks, McCutcheon also comments on the development of media communication on the web and its legal and copyright repercussions. He creates the innovative term dubject in order to refer to the new situation of the subject in twenty-first-century communication networks such as Twitter and Facebook, and in internet teaching and web-conferencing set-ups" (3).

Mutual Caring-Resolving Habituation through Awareness: Supporting Meaningful Learning from Projects

March 29, 2014, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: test

≪ Previous: Dubjection: A Node (Reflections on Web-Conferencing, McLuhan, and Intellectual Property)

$

0

0

Title: Mutual Caring-Resolving Habituation through Awareness: Supporting Meaningful Learning from Projects

Authors: Jugdev, Kam; Wishart, Paul

Abstract: This study used Grounded Theory methodology and developed an emergent theory of Mutual Caring. The main concern was Habituation to ineffective lessons learned sharing practices. Habituation is resolved through Mutual Caring, a socially and psychologically adaptive process. Mutual Caring involves comfortable conversations, engaging / sharing, and developing self-confidence, resulting in an enhanced wisdom pool. This paper extends the emphasis on tangible knowledge-sharing mechanisms. Mutual Caring could lead to better outcomes, such as more accessible and usable knowledge, a project management wisdom pool, and criteria for improved dyadic relationships to enhance project learning.

test

April 17, 2014, 8:44 am

≫ Next: When the Worst Imaginable Becomes Reality: The Experience of Child Custody Loss in Mothers Recovering from Addictions

≪ Previous: Mutual Caring-Resolving Habituation through Awareness: Supporting Meaningful Learning from Projects

$

0

0

Title: test

Authors: test, test

When the Worst Imaginable Becomes Reality: The Experience of Child Custody Loss in Mothers Recovering from Addictions

October 29, 2012, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Frankenstein as a figure of globalization in Canada’s postcolonial popular culture

≪ Previous: test

$

0

0

Title: When the Worst Imaginable Becomes Reality: The Experience of Child Custody Loss in Mothers Recovering from Addictions

Authors: Janzen, Katherine J.; Melrose, Sherri

Abstract: This article describes findings from a qualitative study that investigated the lived experiences of four mothers recovering from crack cocaine addictions who lost custody of their children. The project was guided by feminist interpretive inquiry, van Manen’s approach to hermeneutic phenomenology, and involved thematic analysis of in depth interview data. By telling the stories of these women and using their own words as well as interpretive poetry written by one of the authors to describe their suffering, our research offers important insights to professionals involved in the field of addictions.

---

Frankenstein as a figure of globalization in Canada’s postcolonial popular culture

September 28, 2011, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Rspace proposal

≪ Previous: When the Worst Imaginable Becomes Reality: The Experience of Child Custody Loss in Mothers Recovering from Addictions

$

0

0

Title: Frankenstein as a figure of globalization in Canada’s postcolonial popular culture

Authors: McCutcheon, Mark A.

Abstract: This essay analyzes the cultural functions of Frankenstein as a figure of globalization in postcolonial popular culture. Focusing on the case of Canadian film production, I begin by contextualizing Canadian film as a postcolonial site of globalized popular culture, characterized by ‘technological nationalism’. In this context, I consider three Canadian films that adapt Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to represent globalization. David Cronenberg’s Videodrome (1983) borrows from Frankenstein and Marshall McLuhan to critique new media in the ‘global village’; Robert Lepage’s Possible Worlds (2000) quotes from the Universal Frankenstein film; and Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbot’s The Corporation (2003) uses Frankenstein as a recurring analogy for the modern corporation. This essay signals a starting point for a more interculturally and transnationally comparative investigation of how Frankenstein adaptations provide a powerful repertoire of representational devices for a postcolonial theory of globalization.

Rspace proposal

October 23, 2014, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: testing document

≪ Previous: Frankenstein as a figure of globalization in Canada’s postcolonial popular culture

$

0

0

Title: Rspace proposal

Authors: tony, tin

Abstract: The report describes the set up of Rspace.

testing document

October 9, 2014, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Terms of Reference for BALTA Partners

≪ Previous: Rspace proposal

$

0

0

Title: testing document

Authors: tin, tony

Abstract: This is a testing document

Terms of Reference for BALTA Partners

October 29, 2014, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Subjectivity and the Labour Process: A Case Study in the Food and Beverage Industry

≪ Previous: testing document

$

0

0

Title: Terms of Reference for BALTA Partners

Authors: BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA)

Abstract: This document outlines the operating principles and values of the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance (BALTA).

Subjectivity and the Labour Process: A Case Study in the Food and Beverage Industry

October 29, 1995, 2:58 pm

≫ Next: Nurturing Neighbourhoods: Parent Outreach Worker Program, Guelph, Ontario.

≪ Previous: Terms of Reference for BALTA Partners

$

0

0

Title: Subjectivity and the Labour Process: A Case Study in the Food and Beverage Industry

Authors: Sosteric, Michael

Abstract: This study focuses on the work experiences of employees, and on the changing relationships between employees and managers, in a mid-sized popular dance nightclub in a small western Canadian city. This nightclub had, in many ways, a unique organisational environment. Normative expectations about the quality of work in the food and beverage industry (de-skilled, highly standardised) did not initially hold. Employees developed an articulate and sophisticated culture that placed much of the training and decision-making responsibility squarely on their hands. However, internal and external pressures on management prompted the shift from a form of organising the workplace that could have been characterised as responsible autonomy to a more direct and autocratic form of control. This shift had the effect of destroying the organizational culture and stripping the employees of much of their responsibility for employee socialisation and customer service. The impact of these management initiatives on the employees, clientele and `bottom line' of the nightclub is the major concern of this paper.

Nurturing Neighbourhoods: Parent Outreach Worker Program, Guelph, Ontario.

October 29, 2014, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Mobile Wellness Innovation: Qi Gong App to Improve Wellness and Cognitive Resiliency in Older Adults

≪ Previous: Subjectivity and the Labour Process: A Case Study in the Food and Beverage Industry

$

0

0

Title: Nurturing Neighbourhoods: Parent Outreach Worker Program, Guelph, Ontario.

Authors: Case, Robert; Haanstra, Sarah

Abstract: The "Parent Outreach Worker Program" (POW program) aims to identify, reach out to, and assist families with children who may be isolated or otherwise struggling by providing them with increased access to services and support. The POW program is currently being piloted in two priority neighbourhoods of Guelph, Ontario. The POW program is part of a cross-sectoral, community-based "Nurturing Neighbourhoods" initiative that is grounded in the philosophies and principles related to the social determinants of health, health equity, and early help in child welfare. This report details the findings of an evaluation that was conducted in 2013-2014 to determine whether the POW program is being delivered as planned and the extent to which it is achieving its intended outcomes. Evidence used for the evaluation include program implementation data inputted by the Parent Outreach Workers (POWs) and a series of interviews and focus groups conducted with program stakeholders including the POWs, parents who use the POW program, and a variety of associated service providers and community resource people. This early evaluation evidence indicates clearly that the POW program is generating very significant outcomes for priority families as direct supports and as intermediaries between those families and the community resources they need. The POWs occupy an important space in marginalized communities, the evaluation evidence shows, between formal services, informal community supports, and the families most in need of support. Also emerging from the evaluation data are some key "Impact Pathways" through which the POW program is generating results. These Impact Pathways reflect many of the strategies found to be effective in research literature on other outreach programs, and as such may serve as a best practices framework for the establishment of similar programs in other neighbourhoods.

Mobile Wellness Innovation: Qi Gong App to Improve Wellness and Cognitive Resiliency in Older Adults

October 29, 2014, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: The Battle for Open

≪ Previous: Nurturing Neighbourhoods: Parent Outreach Worker Program, Guelph, Ontario.

$

0

0

Title: Mobile Wellness Innovation: Qi Gong App to Improve Wellness and Cognitive Resiliency in Older Adults

Authors: McMillan, Colleen; Tin, Tony

Abstract: This pilot project explored the utility of a mobile health and wellness app to older adults interested in using low impact exercise as a protective factor against memory and mood loss. While it is known that exercise is a protective factor in preventing further cognitive regression, it is shown that adults 55 and older spend ten hours or more each day sitting or lying down, leaving the latter group even more compromised (Cavill, 2013). The piloting of a health and wellness self management tool through a mobile app featuring the Chinese exercise of Qi Gong represents an innovative, visual and accessible tool that supports daily physical activity while fostering a sense of personal empowerment and enhancing the quality of life.

---

The Battle for Open

March 13, 2015, 2:57 pm

≫ Next: The Campus Alberta Open Educational Resources Initiative

≪ Previous: Mobile Wellness Innovation: Qi Gong App to Improve Wellness and Cognitive Resiliency in Older Adults

$

0

0

Title: The Battle for Open

Authors: Weller, Martin

Abstract: Open approaches in education have started to move into the mainstream, with the success of open access, MOOCs, and open scholarship approaches. After this initial success comes the period when the real direction of openness is determined. Open is now a term with commercial interest. This talk will look at some of the successes of openness in education, and explore some of the issues it now faces.

The Campus Alberta Open Educational Resources Initiative

March 13, 2015, 2:59 pm

≫ Next: Open education down under: Some national and institutional initiatives.

≪ Previous: The Battle for Open

$

0

0

Title: The Campus Alberta Open Educational Resources Initiative

Authors: Welch, Janet E.

Abstract: The Campus Alberta Open Educational Resources Initiative (AlbertaOER.com) aims to provide publicly funded post-secondary institutions in Alberta the opportunity to apply for funding to support the assembly, use, development, implementation and evaluation of Open Education Resources (OERs) to support teaching, learning and research. Dr. Welch, the project lead, will share the initiative’s progress, next steps, and how the committee ranked such a diverse response into three categories: Awareness, Development and Sustainability.

Open education down under: Some national and institutional initiatives.

March 13, 2015, 3:02 pm

≫ Next: Preparing for the Digital University

≪ Previous: The Campus Alberta Open Educational Resources Initiative

$

0

0

Title: Open education down under: Some national and institutional initiatives.

Authors: Bossu, Carina

Abstract: The Open Education movement is growing and gaining importance within the higher education landscape in many developing and developed nations. Unfortunately, this does not seem the case in Australia, as there is still a limited number of Open Education initiatives and programs at higher education levels compared with other developed countries such as Canada, the US, the UK and some other European countries. This presentation will explore some of the challenges and opportunities of adopting Open Education, particularly open educational resources and open educational practices in Australia. It will also report on some of the existing Open Education initiatives in Australia, including government funding and programs, along with institutional initiatives. Finally, some of the research taking place currently in Australia and at the University of Tasmania will be presented and discussed.

Preparing for the Digital University

March 13, 2015, 3:05 pm

≫ Next: Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice

≪ Previous: Open education down under: Some national and institutional initiatives.

$

0

0

Title: Preparing for the Digital University

Authors: Siemens, George

Abstract: Large sectors of society are digitizing, resulting in changed practices in journalism, entertainment, and business in general. Higher education is not immune to these changes. Digitization processes are well underway and the possibility of new opportunities are significant. Before we can realize these opportunities, we need to better understand the history and current state of research in openness, distance education, and blended and online learning. The research in these fields provides a firm foundation for building tomorrows open education system, one where access and quality are available to all learners.

Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice

April 28, 2013, 3:58 pm

≫ Next: Introducing MOOCs to Africa: New Economy Skills for Africa Program

≪ Previous: Preparing for the Digital University

$

0

0

Title: Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice

Authors: McGreal, Rory; Kinutha, Wanjira; Marshall, Stewart

Abstract: Open Educational Resources (OER) – that is, teaching, learning and research materials that their owners make free to others to use, revise and share – offer a powerful means of expanding the reach and effectiveness of worldwide education. Those resources can be full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, software, and other materials and techniques used to promote and support universal access to knowledge. This book, initiated by the UNESCO/COL Chair in OER, is one in a series of publications by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) examining OER. It describes the movement in detail, providing readers with insight into OER’s significant benefits, its theory and practice, and its achievements and challenges. The 16 chapters, written by some of the leading international experts on the subject, are organised into four parts by theme: OER in Academia – describes how OER are widening the international community of scholars, following MIT’s lead in sharing its resources and looking to the model set by the OpenCourseWare Consortium OER in Practice – presents case studies and descriptions of OER initiatives underway on three continents Diffusion of OER – discusses various approaches to releasing and “opening” content, from building communities of users that support lifelong learning to harnessing new mobile technologies that enhance OER access on the Internet Producing, Sharing and Using OER – examines the pedagogical, organisational, personal and technical issues that producing organisations and institutions need to address in designing, sharing and using OER Instructional designers, curriculum developers, educational technologists, teachers, researchers, students, others involved in creating, studying or using OER: all will find this timely resource informative and inspiring.