Elever syns på nätet : multimodala texter och autentiska mottagare

This study is based on the notion that all students are likely to have a computer of some kind as their primary tool at school within a few years. The overall aim is to contribute to the knowledge of what this development of computer-assisted multimodal text production and communication on and over the net may entail in a school context. The study has an abductive approach drawing on theory from Media and Communication studies and from Pedagogy - particularly on media peda-gogy, multimodality, storytelling, conversation research and deliberative democracy – and is based on a DBR project in three schools. The empirical data are retrieved from four school classes, school years 4 and 5, with good access to computers and digital cameras. The classes have used the class blogs to tell the blog visitors about their school work and Skype to communicate with other classes in Sweden and Tanzania. A variety of research methods was employed: content analysis of texts, observations with field notes and camera documentation, interviews with individual students, group interviews with teachers and students, and a small survey. The study is essentially qualitative, focusing on students’ different perceptions. A small quantitative study was conducted to determine if any factors and variables could be linked to each other and to enable comparisons of the surveyed group with other research results. The results suggest that more computers at school offer more opportunities for real-life assignments and the chance to secure an authentic audience to the students’ production; primarily the students’ parents and relatives, students in the same class and at other schools. A theoretical analysis model to determine the degree of reality and authenticity in various school assignments was developed. The results also indicate that having access to cameras for documenting various events in the classes and to an authentic audience can create new opportunities for storytelling that have not been practiced previously at school. The documentary photo invites a viewer into the present tense of the image and the location where the picture was taken, whoever took the picture. It is used by the students and here too, a model has been developed to describe this relationship. The study also focuses on the freedom of expression and democracy. One of the more unexpected findings is that the students in the study did not see that they can influence other people’s perceptions or change various power structures through communication on the web, neither in nor outside of school.

Vanhusten hyvä kotona asuminen: tutkimusta kuntatuottavuudesta, älykodeista ja apuvälinepalveluprosesseista

The purpose of the research was to investigate operational processes related to home care of the elderly as well as use of assistive devices in smart home environments, and operational processes that are generally related to use of assistive devices – from the point of view of productivity improvement. The themes were looked into from the points of view of both the elderly and care personnel. In addition, perspectives of near relatives of the elderly, of the larger service system as well as of companies that provided assistive devices to the smart homes were taken into consideration. In the study of home care processes, 32 customer interviews and 17 employee interviews were carried out. This report contains a summary that is based on a separate report of the home care study. The study of home care was conducted in 2006. The use of technological and mechanical assistive devices and the related operational processes were investigated with the help of the smart home pilot in 2007–2008. The study is described in this report. The smart home pilot was implemented in four different housing service units for elderly people at Lahti, Nastola and Hollola. They were in use during short-term housing periods related to, for instance, end of hospitalisation, holidays of caring relatives and assessment of living and housing conditions. More than 60 different assistive devices and technologies were brought to the smart homes. During the pilot period, experiences of customers and personnel as well as processes related to the use of assistive devices were investigated. The research material consisted of 20 survey questionnaires of personnel and customers, four interviews with customers, five interviews with personnel, feedback survey responses from 14 companies, and other data that were collected, for instance, in orientation events. The research results highlighted the need for tailored services based on an elderly person’s needs and wishes, while taking advantage of innovative and technological solutions. As in the earlier home care study, also assistive device-related operational processes were looked into with the help of concepts of ‘resource focus’, ‘lost motion’ and ‘intermediate landing’. The following were identified as central operational processes in assistive device-related services (regardless of the service provider): (1) acquisition process of technologies and assistive devices as well as of rearrangement and rebuilding works in the home, (2) introduction and orientation process (of the elderly, their relatives and care personnel), (3) information and communication process, and (4) service and monitoring process. In addition, the research focused on design and desirability of assistive devices as well as their costs, such as opportunity costs. The process-based points of view gave new knowledge that may be used in the future to develop service processes and clarify their ownership so that separately managed cross-functional processes could be built with participants from different sectors to operate alongside organisations of elderly care. Development of functionality of assistive device-related services is a societally significant issue.

Reglering och förvaltning av produktions- och slaktdjurs välbefinnande : en offentligrättslig undersökning

Djur och djurskyddet hör till ett rättsligt regleringsområde som inte varit föremål för omfattande rättsvetenskaplig forskning i vårt land även om intresset för djurs välbefinnande ökat både i samhället och inom EU. Avhandlingen har avfattats som en artikelavhandling och är en offentligrättslig studie om djurskyddslagstiftningen och förvaltningen av djurskyddsärenden i Finland. Tematiken har behandlats både ur djurens och djurens ägares eller innehavares synvinkel med utgångspunkt i djurskyddslagstiftningen och förvaltningen av djurskyddsärenden i Finland. Forskningen är fokuserad huvudsakligen på skyddet av och välbefinnandet hos produktions- och slaktdjur även om bland annat de begrepp som granskas också berör andra djurkategorier. De övergripande frågeställningarna i avhandlingen är två. För det första, vad är det som avses med djurs välbefinnande och skydd i regleringen av djurskyddet och för det andra, hur realiseras dessa i djurskyddsmyndigheternas förvaltningsverksamhet? I forskningen presenteras och diskuteras bland annat en ny begreppskonstruktion: djurs rättsliga välbefinnande. Den empiriska delen i avhandlingen omfattar förvaltningsverksamheten inom området av djurskydd under åren 1996–2006. Sammanlagt 10468 dokument som upprättats av djurskyddsmyndigheten i samband med verkställandet av djurskyddsövervakning ingår i undersökningen. Forskningen utmynnar i en åtgärdsförteckning med förslag till utvecklingen av området för djurskydd.

Composite artistry in the Book of Numbers : a study in biblical narrative conventions

The present thesis discusses the coherence or lack of coherence in the book of Numbers, with special regard to its narrative features. The fragmented nature of Numbers is a well-known problem in research on the book, affecting how we approach and interpret it, but to date there has not been any thorough investigation of the narrative features of the work and how they might contribute to the coherence or the lack of coherence in the book. The discussion is pursued in light of narrative theory, and especially in connection to three parameters that are typically understood to be invoked in the interpretation of narratives: 1) a narrative paradigm, or ‘story,’ meaning events related to each other temporally, causally, and thematically, in a plot with a beginning, middle, and end; 2) discourse, being the expression plane of a narrative, or the devices that an author has at hand in constructing a narrative; 3) the situation or languagegame of the narrative, prototypical examples being factual reports, which seeks to depict a state of affairs, and storytelling narratives, driven by a demand for tellability. In view of these parameters the present thesis argues that it is reasonable to form four groups to describe the narrative material of Numbers: genuine narratives (e.g. Num 12), independent narrative sequences (e.g. Num 5:1-4), instrumental scenes and situations (e.g. Num 27:1-5), and narrative fragments (e.g. Num 18:1). These groups are mixed throughout with non-narrative materials. Seen together, however, the narrative features of these groups can be understood to create an attenuated narrative sequence from beginning to end in Numbers, where one thing happens after another. This sequence, termed the ‘larger story’ of Numbers, concerns the wandering of Israel from Sinai to Moab. Furthermore, the larger story has a fragmented plot. The end-point is fixed on the promised land, Israel prepares for the wandering towards it (Num 1-10), rebels against wandering and the promise and is sent back into the wilderness (Num 13-14), returns again after forty years (Num 21ff.), and prepares for conquering the land (Num 22-36). Finally, themes of the promised land, generational succession, and obedience-disobedience, operate in this larger story. Purity is also a significant theme in the book, albeit not connected to plot in the larger story. All in all, sequence, plot, and theme in the larger story of Numbers can be understood to bring some coherence to the book. However, neither aspect entirely subsumes the whole book, and the four groups of narrative materials can also be understood to underscore the incoherence of the work in differentiating its variegated narrative contents. Numbers should therefore be described as an anthology of different materials that are loosely connected through its narrative features in the larger story, with the aim of informing Israelite identity by depicting a certain period in the early history of the people.