New shadow professionals and infrastructures around the datafied school: Topological thinking as an analytical device

2021 ◽  
pp. 147490412110074
Author(s):  
Steven Lewis ◽  
Sigrid Hartong
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Federal Department ◽  
Data Infrastructures ◽  
Software Platforms ◽  
Contemporary Schooling ◽  
Analytical Device ◽  
Topological Thinking

Drawing upon the growing datafication of contemporary schooling, our purpose in this article is to use topological thinking as an analytical device to better understand the professionals and practices within emergent data infrastructures. We address this by attending to an influential national (and subnational) data infrastructure of school monitoring in the United States, managed by the federal Department of Education, known as EDFacts. Informed by policy documents relating to EDFacts, as well as by various related software platforms and portals, we explore the whom and how of datafication, and expose the increasing presence and influence of otherwise ‘hidden’ technology mediators, or ‘shadow professionals’. In particular, we argue that the increasing dependency of EDFacts on data has necessitated the introduction of new professional roles associated with optimising the flow of data, and thus stabilising and normalising the topological space of the infrastructure. We conclude by suggesting that EDFacts encourages teaching professionals and shadow professionals alike to engage in acts of data submission; that is, providing data to EDFacts and, at the same time, positioning themselves as wholly responsive to the infrastructure and its datafied renderings of schooling.

scholarly journals A Transatlantic Secular Divide? The Representation of Religion in EU and US Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Jenichen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Eu And Us ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Eu

AbstractIt is a common—often stereotypical—presumption that Europe is secular and America religious. Differences in international religious freedom and religious engagement policies on both sides of the Atlantic seem to confirm this “cliché.” This article argues that to understand why it has been easier for American supporters to institutionalize these policies than for advocates in the EU, it is important to consider the discursive structures of EU and US foreign policies, which enable and constrain political language and behavior. Based on the analysis of foreign policy documents, produced by the EU and the United States in their relationship with six religiously diverse African and Asian states, the article compares how both international actors represent religion in their foreign affairs. The analysis reveals similarities in the relatively low importance that they attribute to religion and major differences in how they represent the contribution of religion to creating and solving problems in other states. In sum, the foreign policies of both international actors are based on a secular discursive structure, but that of the United States is much more accommodative toward religion, including Islam, than that of the EU.

‘KILLER BEES’ BLAMED IN TEXAS MAN'S DEATH

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-118
Author(s):  
J. F. L.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Honey Bees ◽  
The United States ◽  
South Texas ◽  
First Person ◽  
Department Of Agriculture ◽  
Federal Department ◽  
Africanized Bees ◽  
Insect Stings

Harlington, TX, July 19 (AP)—Federal agricultural officials say that the honey bees that killed an 82-year-old rancher last week were the Africanized variety known as "killer bees." "Our lab has confirmed that the bees are Africanized," said Kim Kaplan, a Spokeswoman for the Federal Department of Agriculture in Greenbelt, MD. Final autopsy results are not yet available, but the pathologist who did the autopsy listed the preliminary cause of death as acute fluid buildup in the lungs caused by insect stings. If the cause of death is confirmed, the rancher, Lino Lopex, would be the first person killed by Africanized bees in the United States since the aggressive variety migrated into Texas in 1990. Harlington, TX, in South Texas, is about 15 miles from the Mexican border. Mr. Lopez apparently tried to drive the bees out of a wall in an abandoned house by poking the hive with a stick wrapped with a burning burlap sack. He was dead on arrival at the hospital, with about 40 stingers still attached to his body, officials said.

scholarly journals Implementing an open source spatio-temporal search platform for Spatial Data Infrastructures

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Corti ◽  
Benjamin G Lewis ◽  
Athanasios Tom Kralidis ◽  
Ntabathia Jude Mwenda
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
National Endowment ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Advanced Search ◽  
Data Infrastructures ◽  
Spatio Temporal

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users and tools intended to provide an efficient and flexible way to use spatial information. One of the key software components of an SDI is the catalogue service which is needed to discover, query, and manage the metadata. Catalogue services in an SDI are typically based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) standard which defines common interfaces for accessing the metadata information. A search engine is a software system capable of supporting fast and reliable search, which may use “any means necessary” to get users to the resources they need quickly and efficiently. These techniques may include features such as full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, fuzzy tolerance results, faceting, hit highlighting, recommendations, feedback mechanisms based on log mining, usage statistic gathering, and many others. In this paper we will be focusing on improving geospatial search with a search engine platform that uses Lucene, a Java-based search library, at its core. In work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Centre for Geographic Analysis (CGA) at Harvard University is in the process of re-engineering the search component of its public domain SDI (WorldMap http://worldmap.harvard.edu ) which is based on the GeoNode platform. In the process the CGA has developed Harvard Hypermap (HHypermap), a map services registry and search platform independent from WorldMap. The goal of HHypermap is to provide a framework for building and maintaining a comprehensive registry of web map services, and because such a registry is expected to be large, the system supports the development of clients with modern search capabilities such as spatial and temporal faceting and instant previews via an open API. Behind the scenes HHypermap scalably harvests OGC and Esri service metadata from distributed servers, organizes that information, and pushes it to a search engine. The system monitors services for reliability and uses that to improve search. End users will be able to search the SDI metadata using standard interfaces provided by the internal CSW catalogue, and will benefit from the enhanced search possibilities provided by an advanced search engine. HHypermap is built on an open source software source stack.

scholarly journals Implementing an open source spatio-temporal search platform for Spatial Data Infrastructures

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Corti ◽  
Benjamin G Lewis ◽  
Tom Kralidis ◽  
Jude Mwenda
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Advanced Search ◽  
Data Infrastructures ◽  
Spatio Temporal

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users and tools intended to provide the most efficient and flexible way to use spatial information. One of the key software components of a SDI is the catalogue service, needed to discover, query and manage the metadata. Catalogue services in a SDI are typically based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) standard, that defines common interfaces to access the metadata information. A search engine is a software system able to perform very fast and reliable search, with features such as full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, fuzzy tolerance results, faceting, hit highlighting and many others. The Centre of Geographic Analysis (CGA) at Harvard University is trying to integrate within its public domain SDI (named WorldMap), the benefits of both worlds (OGC catalogues and search engines). Harvard Hypermap (HHypermap) is a component that will be part of WorldMap, totally built on an open source stack, implementing an OGC catalogue, based on pycsw, to provide access to metadata in a standard way, and a search engine, based on Solr/Lucene, to provide the advanced search features typically found in search engines.

scholarly journals Implementing an open source spatio-temporal search platform for Spatial Data Infrastructures

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Corti ◽  
Benjamin G Lewis ◽  
Tom Kralidis ◽  
Jude Mwenda
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Search Engine ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Search Engines ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Advanced Search ◽  
Data Infrastructures ◽  
Spatio Temporal

A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a framework of geospatial data, metadata, users and tools intended to provide the most efficient and flexible way to use spatial information. One of the key software components of a SDI is the catalogue service, needed to discover, query and manage the metadata. Catalogue services in a SDI are typically based on the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Catalogue Service for the Web (CSW) standard, that defines common interfaces to access the metadata information. A search engine is a software system able to perform very fast and reliable search, with features such as full text search, natural language processing, weighted results, fuzzy tolerance results, faceting, hit highlighting and many others. The Centre of Geographic Analysis (CGA) at Harvard University is trying to integrate within its public domain SDI (named WorldMap), the benefits of both worlds (OGC catalogues and search engines). Harvard Hypermap (HHypermap) is a component that will be part of WorldMap, totally built on an open source stack, implementing an OGC catalogue, based on pycsw, to provide access to metadata in a standard way, and a search engine, based on Solr/Lucene, to provide the advanced search features typically found in search engines.

Foreign Language Offerings and Enrollments in Public High Schools

PMLA ◽  
1955 ◽  
Vol 70 (4-Part2) ◽  
pp. 52-56 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
State Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
State Department Of Education

The Accompanying table gives the most recent data obtainable on the extent to which foreign languages are offered and studied in public secondary schools in the United States. The last national survey was made by the U. S. Office of Education in 1948–49, and comparisons are made with the results of this survey to show the subsequent gain or loss in each state for which more recent figures could be obtained. For some states the data are incomplete because the state department of education does not know, and apparently does not care to find out, what the pupils in the high schools are currently studying. In seventeen states, the information existed only on reports filed by each high school, and it was assembled through the help of foreign language teachers who went to the state department of education and spent days tabulating the reports.

Definitions of Gifted and Talented Used in the United States

1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-294
Author(s):  
Don Wells
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Gifted And Talented ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
State Department ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Societal Values ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
State Department Of Education

This article examines a survey and analysis of 41 State Department of Education definitions of gifted and talented. A conceptual framework of components is presented as a means of definition analysis. Definitions are examined and discussed in relation to those characteristic components. Current trends in definitions are placed in an historical context revealing the expansion and refinement of expansion components in definitions for the gifted and talented. The definition issue is discussed in relation to societal values and expectations as they pertain to gifted individuals.

What pandemic-related test waiver requests suggest about states’ testing priorities

2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
Paul Bruno ◽  
Dan Goldhaber
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Department Of Education ◽  
Political Support ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
State Test ◽  
Related Test

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened tensions around standardized testing policy and prompted the United States Department of Education to allow states to request waivers from federal standardized testing requirements. Paul Bruno and Dan Goldhaber describe the waivers that states requested and received, what they suggest about how state test results might be used for different purposes and by different people, and what uses of testing seem to be most salient to policy makers. They conclude with recommendations for policy makers about how to design testing policy that can both improve educational outcomes and maintain robust political support, objectives achieved at best imperfectly by existing testing policy.

Geospatial Digital Rights Management

2019 ◽  
pp. 126-142
Author(s):  
Titus M. Ng'ang'a ◽  
Peter M. Wachira ◽  
Tim J. L. Wango ◽  
Joseph M. Ndung'u ◽  
Margaret N. Ndungo
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property Rights ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Digital Rights Management ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Web Mapping ◽  
Digital Rights ◽  
Rights Management ◽  
Mapping Technology ◽  
Data Infrastructures ◽  
Spatial Data Infrastructures

This Chapter introduces the need for general Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements. Further, it intertwines DRM with its spatial counterpart, Geospatial DRM (GeoDRM). However, unlike DRM, GeoDRM is far much complicated due to issues such as the development of Web Mapping technology among other issues. The Chapter discusses the ability of GeoDRM to mitigate transgression of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Highlighting economical and environmental wellbeing and other benefits of Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) geared towards global sustainable developments, the Chapter focuses on challenges of National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDIs) and Regional SDIs and the need to harmonize their standards for the upward mobility of global SDI (GSDI). Emphasizing the undisputed need for Local, Regional and Global Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs), in the presence of various Geo-communities and different GeoDRM models, the Chapter concludes that capacity building need to be urgently but carefully harnessed across all levels in order to develop cohesive GeoDRM policies.

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