Designing for Student-Directedness: How K–12 Teachers Utilize Peers to Support Projects

Student-directed projects—projects in which students have individual control over what they create and how to create it—are a promising practice for supporting the development of conceptual understanding and personal interest in K–12 computer science classrooms. In this article, we explore a central (and perhaps counterintuitive) design principle identified by a group of K–12 computer science teachers who support student-directed projects in their classrooms: in order for students to develop their own ideas and determine how to pursue them, students must have opportunities to engage with other students’ work. In this qualitative study, we investigated the instructional practices of 25 K–12 teachers using a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews to develop understandings of how they used peer work to support student-directed projects in their classrooms. Teachers described supporting their students in navigating three stages of project development: generating ideas, pursuing ideas, and presenting ideas. For each of these three stages, teachers considered multiple factors to encourage engagement with peer work in their classrooms, including the quality and completeness of shared work and the modes of interaction with the work. We discuss how this pedagogical approach offers students new relationships to their own learning, to their peers, and to their teachers and communicates important messages to students about their own competence and agency, potentially contributing to aims within computer science for broadening participation.

Estimating null and potent modes of feedforward communication in a computational model of cortical activity

Communication across anatomical areas of the brain is key to both sensory and motor processes. Dimensionality reduction approaches have shown that the covariation of activity across cortical areas follows well-delimited patterns. Some of these patterns fall within the "potent space" of neural interactions and generate downstream responses; other patterns fall within the "null space" and prevent the feedforward propagation of synaptic inputs. Despite growing evidence for the role of null space activity in visual processing as well as preparatory motor control, a mechanistic understanding of its neural origins is lacking. Here, we developed a mean-rate model that allowed for the systematic control of feedforward propagation by potent and null modes of interaction. In this model, altering the number of null modes led to no systematic changes in firing rates, pairwise correlations, or mean synaptic strengths across areas, making it difficult to characterize feedforward communication with common measures of functional connectivity. A novel measure termed the null ratio captured the proportion of null modes relayed from one area to another. Applied to simultaneous recordings of primate cortical areas V1 and V2 during image viewing, the null ratio revealed that feedforward interactions have a broad null space that may reflect properties of visual stimuli.

Student Governance and the Academic Minefield During COVID-19 Lockdown in South Africa

Since 1997, the ordinary students at South African universities have depended on the SRC to be at the forefront of student advocacy in relation to resources to support their academic experiences. The onset of the lockdown on the eve of 26th March 2020 had an unprecedented effect on student life, with a change of student governance from cohesion to isolation. Adopting a snowball sampling methodology, 15 students registered at various South African universities were interviewed via WhatsApp about the support they received from their SRC during the COVID-19 lockdown. The impact of the lockdown on student governance is examined through the lens of ordinary students. Findings suggest that the surge to technology-based modes of interaction and self-regulated learning had a resultant effect of a highly compromised academic experience, even though some were able to adapt to online learning. Adjusted approaches to student governance are inevitable as the coronavirus continues to manifest.

On the Use of Large Interactive Displays to Support Collaborative Engagement and Visual Exploratory Tasks

Large interactive displays can provide suitable workspaces for learners to conduct collaborative learning tasks with visual information in co-located settings. In this research, we explored the use of these displays to support collaborative engagement and exploratory tasks with visual representations. Our investigation looked at the effect of four factors (number of virtual workspaces within the display, number of displays, position arrangement of the collaborators, and collaborative modes of interaction) on learners’ knowledge acquisition, engagement level, and task performance. To this end, a user study was conducted with 72 participants divided into 6 groups using an interactive tool developed to support the collaborative exploration of 3D visual structures. The results of this study showed that learners with one shared workspace and one single display can achieve better user performance and engagement levels. In addition, the back-to-back position with learners sharing their view and control of the workspaces was the most favorable. It also led to improved learning outcomes and engagement levels during the collaboration process.

Ntu’ologico-Agnostic Reflections on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Premise

This paper proposes an ntu’ologically analytical questioning of the contentious Fourth Industrial Revolution phenomenon, as it suggests that an industrial revolution ought to be appreciated in causation or causality terms. The cause of an industrial revolution is required to comprise ‘adequacy quality causing interactions’ among entities of specific ntu categories. These interactions bring into being nine basic ntu’ological adequacy qualities or industrial revolution criteria. For that reason, nine selected modes of interaction, called in this paper, ntu’ological interactions forms, guide the analytical questioning of the possible existence of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. The aforementioned nine criteria are incontestable in respect of the First, Second and Third Industrial Revolutions. This paper, however, takes the agnostic position that: the Fourth Industrial Revolution may exist, but we cannot prove this with theoretical reason.

Listening to Yourself Listening: The Metaperceptual Approach to Sound Art

<p>This thesis presents a framework for the creation and analysis of metaperceptual sound artworks. Metaperceptual is a term coined herein to describe a range of works that use the perception of the audience as their artistic materials. They provoke their audiences to direct their attention back upon themselves, inviting audiences to observe the nature of their perception and the subjectivity of their experience. A core focus of many contemporary works is the experience of the audience. These works act as ‘experience shapers’, guiding the audience through their materials and creating environments in which the audience can explore on their own terms. Metaperceptual works share this focus by drawing the audience’s attention back upon themselves, provoking them to attend to the subjectivity of their own experience. These works reveal facets of our perception that constantly mediate our experience, yet often go overlooked and unexplored. The framework presents a systematic ordering of different approaches to creating metaperceptual works. Three main categories of works are identified: Deprivation, Perceptual Translation, and Perceptual Hacking. Deprivation works involve the removal, reduction, or denial of the audience’s perceptual field. They intervene in the audience’s everyday modes of interaction by silencing the din of the world, revealing the facets of experience that often go unnoticed or are masked from our awareness. Perceptual Translation works directly interface with the audience’s perceptual apparatus by shifting, extending, and rearranging its orientation and organisation. These works offer the allure of experiencing what it is like to be someone or something else. By allowing us to experience the world through an altered lens, these works give us a new perspective on ourselves and the ways in which our perceptual apparatus mediates our experience. Lastly, Perceptual Hacking works involves a rich variety of perceptual oddities and artefacts. These works creatively misuse facets of the audience’s perceptual apparatus and perceptual processes, and, in doing so, reveal that our perception is not a neutral objective lens through which to perceive the world. Metaperceptual works employ a diversity of materials and techniques, and traverse a variety of media and styles. While these themes have most extensively been explored in the visual arts, their potential for sonic exploration is a key concern subject of this research. The framework maps the artistic terrain of metaperceptual approaches, and speculates on the potential for new metaperceptual works. To this end, a portfolio of new metaperceptual sound artworks is presented. These works test the metaperceptual framework, enacting the artistic avenues identified during its development. The works span a range of the approaches identified in the metaperceptual framework, and are manifestations of the framework as a creative tool.</p>

Listening to Yourself Listening: The Metaperceptual Approach to Sound Art

<p>This thesis presents a framework for the creation and analysis of metaperceptual sound artworks. Metaperceptual is a term coined herein to describe a range of works that use the perception of the audience as their artistic materials. They provoke their audiences to direct their attention back upon themselves, inviting audiences to observe the nature of their perception and the subjectivity of their experience. A core focus of many contemporary works is the experience of the audience. These works act as ‘experience shapers’, guiding the audience through their materials and creating environments in which the audience can explore on their own terms. Metaperceptual works share this focus by drawing the audience’s attention back upon themselves, provoking them to attend to the subjectivity of their own experience. These works reveal facets of our perception that constantly mediate our experience, yet often go overlooked and unexplored. The framework presents a systematic ordering of different approaches to creating metaperceptual works. Three main categories of works are identified: Deprivation, Perceptual Translation, and Perceptual Hacking. Deprivation works involve the removal, reduction, or denial of the audience’s perceptual field. They intervene in the audience’s everyday modes of interaction by silencing the din of the world, revealing the facets of experience that often go unnoticed or are masked from our awareness. Perceptual Translation works directly interface with the audience’s perceptual apparatus by shifting, extending, and rearranging its orientation and organisation. These works offer the allure of experiencing what it is like to be someone or something else. By allowing us to experience the world through an altered lens, these works give us a new perspective on ourselves and the ways in which our perceptual apparatus mediates our experience. Lastly, Perceptual Hacking works involves a rich variety of perceptual oddities and artefacts. These works creatively misuse facets of the audience’s perceptual apparatus and perceptual processes, and, in doing so, reveal that our perception is not a neutral objective lens through which to perceive the world. Metaperceptual works employ a diversity of materials and techniques, and traverse a variety of media and styles. While these themes have most extensively been explored in the visual arts, their potential for sonic exploration is a key concern subject of this research. The framework maps the artistic terrain of metaperceptual approaches, and speculates on the potential for new metaperceptual works. To this end, a portfolio of new metaperceptual sound artworks is presented. These works test the metaperceptual framework, enacting the artistic avenues identified during its development. The works span a range of the approaches identified in the metaperceptual framework, and are manifestations of the framework as a creative tool.</p>

COVID-19 significant effect on global international economic relations

The purpose of this paper is to reach the augment of COVID-19 effects on international economic relations. The globe has become a cohesive economic community with interdependence being fuelled by rising economies and the need to exchange technical know-how, goods and services. Globalization has turned the world into one unit with diversified limbs that work in tandem with each other, for instance the lesser the lesser developed countries need raw material to sustain their industries. Now because of the unforeseen emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, social, political and economic modes of interaction have been obstructed normally to curb the spread of the virus which has claimed lives in the hundreds of thousands to millions.This in turn has hindered in some cases brought to a halt certain areas of the economy both internationally and nationally. Economic relations have been stunned by the introduction of COVID-19 measures like travel bans, limiting interactions between individuals and groups and limited time of operations for essential services. A desktop review analysis was used as the research methodology. Data collection methods that were used included observations, focus group discussions and interviews. The targeted population included international, statutory and non-statutory organizations in Zimbabwe. Findings from the study concluded that closure of borders during the COVID-19 pandemic affected imports and exports of trade, COVID-19 led to the loss of labour though massive deaths and quarantine measures and the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on oil dependent counties was severe.` Recommendations from the research affirm that governments and regional organisations should reunite in the global context so as to face pandemics, policy makers should implement effective policies which address economic relations between countries and countries should better prepare for such threats like COVID-19 to economic relations and trade through enhancing technologies.

The Interactions between Nanoparticles and the Innate Immune System from a Nanotechnologist Perspective

The immune system contributes to maintaining the body’s functional integrity through its two main functions: recognizing and destroying foreign external agents (invading microorganisms) and identifying and eliminating senescent cells and damaged or abnormal endogenous entities (such as cellular debris or misfolded/degraded proteins). Accordingly, the immune system can detect molecular and cellular structures with a spatial resolution of a few nm, which allows for detecting molecular patterns expressed in a great variety of pathogens, including viral and bacterial proteins and bacterial nucleic acid sequences. Such patterns are also expressed in abnormal cells. In this context, it is expected that nanostructured materials in the size range of proteins, protein aggregates, and viruses with different molecular coatings can engage in a sophisticated interaction with the immune system. Nanoparticles can be recognized or passed undetected by the immune system. Once detected, they can be tolerated or induce defensive (inflammatory) or anti-inflammatory responses. This paper describes the different modes of interaction between nanoparticles, especially inorganic nanoparticles, and the immune system, especially the innate immune system. This perspective should help to propose a set of selection rules for nanosafety-by-design and medical nanoparticle design.

Gender of the Interface

For many cosmopolitan urban Germans and Europeans in Berlin in the late 2000s, social media platforms were a site where gender and class were enacted through articulations of emergent nerd masculinity or hip, ironic femininity. But these platforms, such as Facebook or Pinterest, encoded normative assumptions about masculinity and femininity in their visual and interaction design, excluding women and acceptable femininity as subjects of technological expertise. Sites that presented themselves as neutral spaces for connection and interaction, like Twitter or Facebook, instantiated gendered understandings of technology that rendered public space implicitly masculine, white, and middle class. Visually based sites like Pinterest and Etsy, in contrast, were marked as domains of feminine domesticity, representing not only a shift to visual communication but to visual modes of interaction that structured gender online. Although many young people resisted hegemonic notions of gender, their social media practices stabilized their class status as aspiring urban cosmopolitans. In this article, I consider how gender and class stabilized temporarily through material-semiotic engagements with technology interfaces.