Transfer of spatial knowledge from a virtual environment to reality: Impact of route complexity and subject’s strategy on the exploration mode

The use of virtual reality as tool in the area of spatial cognition raises the question of the quality of learning transfer from a virtual to a real environment. It is first necessary to determine with healthy subjects, the cognitive aids that improve the quality of transfer and the conditions required, especially since virtual reality can be used as effective tool in cognitive rehabilitation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the exploration mode of virtual environment (Passive vs. Active) according to Route complexity (Simple vs. Complex) on the quality of spatial knowledge transfer in three spatial tasks. Ninety subjects (45 men and 45 women) participated. Spatial learning was evaluated by Wayfinding, sketch-mapping and picture classification tasks in the context of the Bordeaux district. In the Wayfinding task, results indicated that active learning in a Virtual Environment (VE) increased the performances compared to the passive learning condition, irrespective of the route complexity factor. In the Sketch-mapping task, active learning in a VE helped the subjects to transfer their spatial knowledge from the VE to reality, but only when the route was complex. In the Picture classification task, active learning in a VE when the route was complex did not help the subjects to transfer their spatial knowledge. These results are explained in terms of knowledge levels and frame/strategy of reference [SW75, PL81, TH82].

Policy Contexts of Social Work in Britain: the wider implications of 'New' Labour and the 'New Legal Regime'

Several commentators have expressed disappointment with New Labour's apparent adherence to the policy frameworks of the previous Conservative administrations. The employment orientation of its welfare programmes, the contradictory nature of the social exclusion initiatives, and the continuing obsession with public sector marketisation, inspections, audits, standards and so on, have all come under critical scrutiny (c.f., Blyth 2001; Jordan 2001; Orme 2001). This paper suggests that in order to understand the socio-economic and political contexts affecting social work we need to examine the relationship between New Labour's modernisation project and its insertion within an architecture of global governance. In particular, membership of the European Union (EU), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) set the parameters for domestic policy in important ways. Whilst much has been written about the economic dimensions of 'globalisation' in relation to social work rather less has been noted about the ways in which domestic policy agenda are driven by multilateral governance objectives. This policy dimension is important in trying to respond to various changes affecting social work as a professional activity. What is possible, what is encouraged, how things might be done, is tightly bounded by the policy frameworks governing practice and affected by those governing the lives of service users. It is unhelpful to see policy formulation in purely national terms as the UK is inserted into a network governance structure, a regulatory framework where decisions are made by many countries and organisations and agencies. Together, they are producing a 'new legal regime', characterised by a marked neo-liberal policy agenda. This paper aims to demonstrate the relationship of New Labour's modernisation programme to these new forms of legality by examining two main policy areas and the welfare implications they are enmeshed in. The first is privatisation, and the second is social policy in the European Union. Examining these areas allows a demonstration of how much of the New Labour programme can be understood as a local implementation of a transnational strategy, how parts of that strategy produce much of the social exclusion it purports to address, and how social welfare, and particularly social work, are noticeable by their absence within policy discourses of the strategy. The paper details how the privatisation programme is considered to be a crucial vehicle for the further development of a transnational political-economy, where capital accumulation has been redefined as 'welfare'. In this development, frameworks, codes and standards are central, and the final section of the paper examines how the modernisation strategy of the European Union depends upon social policy marked by an employment orientation and risk rationality, aimed at reconfiguring citizen identities.The strategy is governed through an 'open mode of coordination', in which codes, standards, benchmarks and so on play an important role. The paper considers the modernisation strategy and new legality within which it is embedded as dependent upon social policy as a technology of liberal governance, one demonstrating a new rationality in comparison to that governing post-Second World War welfare, and which aims to reconfigure institutional infrastructure and citizen identity.

Rollout of CampusContent

CampusContent (CC) is a DFG-funded competence center for eLearning with its own portal. It links content and people who support sharing and reuse of high quality learning materials and codified pedagogical know-how, such as learning objectives, pedagogical scenarios, recommended learning activities, and learning paths. The heart of the portal is a distributed repository whose contents are linked to various other CampusContent portals. Integrated into each portal are user-friendly tools for designing reusable learning content, exercises, and templates for learning units and courses. Specialized authoring tools permit the configuration, adaption, and automatic generation of interactive Flash animations using Adobe's Flexbuilder technology. More coarse-grained content components such as complete learning units and entire courses, in which contents and materials taken from the repository are embedded, can be created with XML-based authoring tools. Open service interface allow the deep or shallow integration of the portal provider's preferred authoring and learning tools. The portal is built on top of the Enterprise Content Management System Alfresco, which comes with social networking functionality that has been adapted to accommmodate collaboration, sharing and reuse within trusted communities of practice.