Creative Commons Olympics. How Big Media is Learning to License From Amateur Authors

NBC Universal’s decision to use Creative Commons-licensed photographs in an Olympic broadcast is an example of how media conglomerates are experimenting with collaboration with amateurs, but it also reveals potential problems of letting non-lawyers negotiate copyright licensing agreements. In the process, NBC’s producers nearly opened the door for a multimillion-dollar infringement law suit. To avoid such pitfalls, media companies need to adopt policies and best practices for using amateur licensed works. These guidelines should instruct how a production can attribute collaborating authors and how the Open Content licensing terms affect the licensing of the productions. The guidelines should also instruct how producers can seek alternative licensing arrangements with amateurs and contribute back to the Open Content community.

Mobile Learning – Begriff, Modelle, Forschung

Der vorliegende Übersichtsartikel betrachtet Mobile Learning aus einer pädagogisch-psychologischen und didaktischen Perspektive. Mobile Learning (M-Learning), das seit Mitte der 1990er in unterschiedlichsten Kontexten Einzug in den Bildungssektor hielt, ist ein dynamisches und interdisziplinäres Feld. Dynamisch, weil M-Learning durch die rasche Entwicklung im Bereich der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie, wie kaum ein anderes Forschungsfeld, einem derart großen Wandel unterworfen ist. Interdisziplinär, weil durch das Zusammentreffen von mobiler Technik und Lernen auch unterschiedliche Fachdisziplinen betroffen sind. Die verschiedenen Sichtweisen und auch die Komplexität des Feldes haben dazu geführt, dass bis heute keine einheitliche Definition des Begriffs besteht. Ziel dieses Übersichtsartikels ist es, den aktuellen Forschungsstand aus didaktischer und pädagogisch-psychologischer Sicht aufzuzeigen. Dazu werden zunächst wichtige Komponenten des M-Learning-Begriffs herausgearbeitet und daran anschließend didaktisch bedeutsame theoretische Ansätze und Modelle vorgestellt sowie kritisch betrachtet. Basierend auf dieser theoretischen Ausgangslage wird dann ein Rahmen gezeichnet, der verdeutlichen soll, wo empirische Forschung aus didaktischer und pädagogisch-psychologischer Sicht ansetzen kann. Entsprechende empirische Studien werden ebenfalls vorgestellt, um einen Eindruck des aktuellen empirischen Forschungsstandes zu geben. Dies alles soll als Ausgangspunkt für den zukünftigen Forschungsbedarf dienen.

Constructing a user experience user experience-based mobile learning environment

Mobile learning, in the past defined as learning with mobile devices, now refers to any type of learning-on-the-go or learning that takes advantage of mobile technologies. This new definition shifted its focus from the mobility of technology to the mobility of the learner (O'Malley and Stanton 2002; Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez et al. 2009). Placing emphasis on the mobile learner’s perspective requires studying “how the mobility of learners augmented by personal and public technology can contribute to the process of gaining new knowledge, skills, and experience” (Sharples, Arnedillo-Sanchez et al. 2009). The demands of an increasingly knowledge based society and the advances in mobile phone technology are combining to spur the growth of mobile learning. Around the world, mobile learning is predicted to be the future of online learning, and is slowly entering the mainstream education. However, for mobile learning to attain its full potential, it is essential to develop more advanced technologies that are tailored to the needs of this new learning environment. A research field that allows putting the development of such technologies onto a solid basis is user experience design, which addresses how to improve usability and therefore user acceptance of a system. Although there is no consensus definition of user experience, simply stated it focuses on how a person feels about using a product, system or service. It is generally agreed that user experience adds subjective attributes and social aspects to a space that has previously concerned itself mainly with ease-of-use. In addition, it can include users’ perceptions of usability and system efficiency. Recent advances in mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies further underline the importance of human-computer interaction and user experience (feelings, motivations, and values) with a system. Today, there are plenty of reports on the limitations of mobile technologies for learning (e.g., small screen size, slow connection), but there is a lack of research on user experience with mobile technologies. This dissertation will fill in this gap by a new approach in building a user experience-based mobile learning environment. The optimized user experience we suggest integrates three priorities, namely a) content, by improving the quality of delivered learning materials, b) the teaching and learning process, by enabling live and synchronous learning, and c) the learners themselves, by enabling a timely detection of their emotional state during mobile learning. In detail, the contributions of this thesis are as follows: • A video codec optimized for screencast videos which achieves an unprecedented compression rate while maintaining a very high video quality, and a novel UI layout for video lectures, which together enable truly mobile access to live lectures. • A new approach in HTTP-based multimedia delivery that exploits the characteristics of live lectures in a mobile context and enables a significantly improved user experience for mobile live lectures. • A non-invasive affective learning model based on multi-modal emotion detection with very high recognition rates, which enables real-time emotion detection and subsequent adaption of the learning environment on mobile devices. The technology resulting from the research presented in this thesis is in daily use at the School of Continuing Education of Shanghai Jiaotong University (SOCE), a blended-learning institution with 35.000 students.

Governing individual learning in the transition phase of software maintenance offshoring: a dynamic perspective

Prior studies suggest that clients need to actively govern knowledge transfer to vendor staff in offshore outsourcing. In this paper, we analyze longitudinal data from four software maintenance offshore out-sourcing projects to explore why governance may be needed for knowledge transfer and how governance and the individual learning of vendor engineers inter-act over time. Our results suggest that self-control is central to learning, but may be hampered by low levels of trust and expertise at the outset of projects. For these foundations to develop, clients initially need to exert high amounts of formal and clan controls to enforce learning activities against barriers to knowledge sharing. Once learning activities occur, trust and expertise increase and control portfolios may show greater emphases on self-control.

Learning software-maintenance tasks in offshoring projects: a cognitive-load perspective

Individual learning is central to the success of the transition phase in software mainte-nance offshoring projects. However, little is known on how learning activities, such as on-the-job training and formal presentations, are effectively combined during the tran-sition phase. In this study, we present and test propositions derived from cognitive load theory. The results of a multiple-case study suggest that learning effectiveness was highest when learning tasks such as authentic maintenance requests were used. Con-sistent with cognitive load theory, learning tasks were most effective when they imposed moderate cognitive load. Our data indicate that cognitive load was influenced by the expertise of the onsite coordinator, by intrinsic task complexity, by the degree of specifi-cation of tasks, and by supportive information. Cultural and semantic distances may in-fluence learning by inhibiting supportive information, specification, and the assignment of learning tasks.

Learning by the Dendritic Prediction of Somatic Spiking

Recent modeling of spike-timing-dependent plasticity indicates that plasticity involves as a third factor a local dendritic potential, besides pre- and postsynaptic firing times. We present a simple compartmental neuron model together with a non-Hebbian, biologically plausible learning rule for dendritic synapses where plasticity is modulated by these three factors. In functional terms, the rule seeks to minimize discrepancies between somatic firings and a local dendritic potential. Such prediction errors can arise in our model from stochastic fluctuations as well as from synaptic input, which directly targets the soma. Depending on the nature of this direct input, our plasticity rule subserves supervised or unsupervised learning. When a reward signal modulates the learning rate, reinforcement learning results. Hence a single plasticity rule supports diverse learning paradigms.

Perceptual learning of motion discrimination by mental imagery.

Perceptual learning can occur when stimuli are only imagined, i.e., without proper stimulus presentation. For example, perceptual learning improved bisection discrimination when only the two outer lines of the bisection stimulus were presented and the central line had to be imagined. Performance improved also with other static stimuli. In non-learning imagery experiments, imagining static stimuli is different from imagining motion stimuli. We hypothesized that those differences also affect imagery perceptual learning. Here, we show that imagery training also improves motion direction discrimination. Learning occurs when no stimulus at all is presented during training, whereas no learning occurs when only noise is presented. The interference between noise and mental imagery possibly hinders learning. For static bisection stimuli, the pattern is just the opposite. Learning occurs when presented with the two outer lines of the bisection stimulus, i.e., with only a part of the visual stimulus, while no learning occurs when no stimulus at all is presented.

DAT1 polymorphism determines L-DOPA effects on learning about others' prosociality.

Despite that a wealth of evidence links striatal dopamine to individualś reward learning performance in non-social environments, the neurochemical underpinnings of such learning during social interaction are unknown. Here, we show that the administration of 300 mg of the dopamine precursor L-DOPA to 200 healthy male subjects influences learning about a partners' prosocial preferences in a novel social interaction task, which is akin to a repeated trust game. We found learning to be modulated by a well-established genetic marker of striatal dopamine levels, the 40-bp variable number tandem repeats polymorphism of the dopamine transporter (DAT1 polymorphism). In particular, we found that L-DOPA improves learning in 10/10R genoype subjects, who are assumed to have lower endogenous striatal dopamine levels and impairs learning in 9/10R genotype subjects, who are assumed to have higher endogenous dopamine levels. These findings provide first evidence for a critical role of dopamine in learning whether an interaction partner has a prosocial or a selfish personality. The applied pharmacogenetic approach may open doors to new ways of studying psychiatric disorders such as psychosis, which is characterized by distorted perceptions of others' prosocial attitudes.

The mini-clinical evaluation exercise during medical clerkships: are learning needs and learning goals aligned?

OBJECTIVES The generation of learning goals (LGs) that are aligned with learning needs (LNs) is one of the main purposes of formative workplace-based assessment. In this study, we aimed to analyse how often trainer–student pairs identified corresponding LNs in mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-CEX) encounters and to what degree these LNs aligned with recorded LGs, taking into account the social environment (e.g. clinic size) in which the mini-CEX was conducted. METHODS Retrospective analyses of adapted mini-CEX forms (trainers’ and students’ assessments) completed by all Year 4 medical students during clerkships were performed. Learning needs were defined by the lowest score(s) assigned to one or more of the mini-CEX domains. Learning goals were categorised qualitatively according to their correspondence with the six mini-CEX domains (e.g. history taking, professionalism). Following descriptive analyses of LNs and LGs, multi-level logistic regression models were used to predict LGs by identified LNs and social context variables. RESULTS A total of 512 trainers and 165 students conducted 1783 mini-CEXs (98% completion rate). Concordantly, trainer–student pairs most often identified LNs in the domains of ‘clinical reasoning’ (23% of 1167 complete forms), ‘organisation/efficiency’ (20%) and ‘physical examination’ (20%). At least one ‘defined’ LG was noted on 313 student forms (18% of 1710). Of the 446 LGs noted in total, the most frequently noted were ‘physical examination’ (49%) and ‘history taking’ (21%). Corresponding LNs as well as social context factors (e.g. clinic size) were found to be predictors of these LGs. CONCLUSIONS Although trainer–student pairs often agreed in the LNs they identified, many assessments did not result in aligned LGs. The sparseness of LGs, their dependency on social context and their partial non-alignment with students’ LNs raise questions about how the full potential of the mini-CEX as not only a ‘diagnostic’ but also an ‘educational’ tool can be exploited.

Alignment between learning needs and learning goals of Mini-CEX in clerkships

Background: Defining learning goals (LG) in alignment with learning needs (LN) is one of the key purposes of formative workplace-based assessment, but studies about this topic are scarce. Summary of Work: We analysed quantitatively and qualitatively how often trainer-student pairs identified the same LN during Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercises (Mini-CEX) in clerkships and to what degree those LNs were in line with the recorded LGs. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to predict LGs by identified LNs, controlling for context variables. Summary of Results: 512 trainers and 165 students conducted 1783 Mini-CEX (98% completion rate). Concordantly, trainer-student pairs most often identified LNs in the domains ‘clinical reasoning’ (23% of 1167 complete forms), ‘organisation / efficiency’ (20%) and ‘physical examination’ (20%). At least one ‘defined’ LG was noted on 313 student forms (18% of 1710), with a total of 446 LGs. Of these, the most frequent LGs were ‘physical examination’ (49% of 446 LGs) and ‘history taking’ (21%); corresponding LNs as well as context variables (e.g. clinic size) were found to be predictors of these LGs. Discussion and Conclusions: Although trainer-student pairs often agreed in their identified LNs, many assessments did not result in an aligned LG or a LG at all. Interventions are needed to enhance the proportion of (aligned) LGs in Mini-CEX in order to tap into its full potential not only as a ‘diagnostic’ but also as an ‘educational tool’. Take-home messages: The sparseness of LGs, their dependency on context variables and their partial non-alignment with students’ LNs raise the question of how the effectiveness of Mini-CEX can be further enhanced.

Linking Applied Ethnobotany to Social Learning: A Participatory Tool for the Promotion of Indigenous Plants Use in Matutuíne, Southern Mozambique

In its search for pathways towards a more sustainable management of natural resources, development oriented research increasingly faces the challenge to develop new concepts and tools based on transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinarity can, in terms of an idealized goal, be defined as a research approach that identifies and solves problems not only independently of disciplinary boundaries, but also including the knowledge and perceptions of non-scientific actors in a participatory process. In Mozambique, the Centre for Development and Environment (Berne, Switzerland), in partnership with Impacto and Helvetas (Maputo, Mozambique), has elaborated a new transdisciplinary tool to identify indigenous plants with a potential for commercialization. The tool combines methods from applied ethnobotany with participatory research in a social learning process. This approach was devised to support a development project aimed at creating alternative sources of income for rural communities of Matutuíne district, Southern Mozambique, while reducing the pressure on the natural environment. The methodology, which has been applied and tested, is innovative in that it combines important data collection through participatory research with a social learning process involving both local and external actors. This mutual learning process provides a space for complementary forms of knowledge to meet, eventually leading to the adoption of an integrated approach to natural resource management with an understanding of its ecological, socio-economic and cultural aspects; local stakeholders are included in the identification of potentials for sustainable development. Sustainable development itself, as a normative concept, can only be defined through social learning and consensus building between the local and external stakeholders.

Three-year outcomes of Straumann Bone Level SLActive dental implants in daily dental practice: a prospective non-interventional study

OBJECTIVE The aim of this investigation was to evaluate the performance of Straumann Bone Level SLActive implants in various clinical situations in daily dental practice for up to 3 years. METHOD AND MATERIALS This was a prospective, multicenter, non-interventional study in which implants were placed within approved indications in any situation deemed suitable by the treating clinician. No implant placement or loading protocol was specified, and implants were placed according to the routine treatment protocols at each participating center. RESULTS In this analysis, data were available from 342 implants in 233 patients in three countries (USA, Canada, and Switzerland). One or two implants were placed in the majority of patients (70.8% and 19.3%, respectively), mostly in the maxilla (71.3%); almost half (47.7%) were placed in the esthetic zone. Implant placement after 4 to > 16 weeks of healing was preferred in Switzerland (92.0%), while 42.0% of implants were placed immediately in the USA and Canada. A flapless procedure was performed in 25.2% of cases in the USA and Canada, compared to 0.5% in Switzerland. Cumulative implant survival and success rates after 3 years were 97.5% and 93.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION Straumann Bone Level Implants can achieve favorable outcomes and high survival rates after 3 years in daily dental practice. The survival and success rates were comparable with those achieved in formal controlled clinical trials.

Non-rigid Free-Form 2D-3D Registration Using Statistical Deformation Model

This paper presents a non-rigid free-from 2D-3D registration approach using statistical deformation model (SDM). In our approach the SDM is first constructed from a set of training data using a non-rigid registration algorithm based on b-spline free-form deformation to encode a priori information about the underlying anatomy. A novel intensity-based non-rigid 2D-3D registration algorithm is then presented to iteratively fit the 3D b-spline-based SDM to the 2D X-ray images of an unseen subject, which requires a computationally expensive inversion of the instantiated deformation in each iteration. In this paper, we propose to solve this challenge with a fast B-spline pseudo-inversion algorithm that is implemented on graphics processing unit (GPU). Experiments conducted on C-arm and X-ray images of cadaveric femurs demonstrate the efficacy of the present approach.

Let their voices be heard: Understanding the barriers to seeking early prenatal care for low-income non-Hispanic Black women

Background: Receipt of early prenatal care, care during the first three months of pregnancy, is the standard in the United States. Sixty percent of non-Hispanic Black women who had a live birth in the Sunnyside community of Houston did not obtain early prenatal care in 2009. ^ This study's aims were to: 1) Describe the barriers to obtaining early prenatal care in non-Hispanic Black women who live in the Sunnyside community of Houston; and, 2) Describe the actions that could encourage non-Hispanic Black women who live in the Sunnyside Community to obtain early prenatal care. The goal was to provide information to organizations that promote early prenatal care use in non-Hispanic Black women in Harris County that may aid in developing interventions. ^ Methods: The Participatory Learning for Action rapid assessment qualitative method was used in a group setting to answer the research questions on behalf of women in the community. Women who participated in the group sessions also participated in an in-depth interview. Key informants who work in the community with pregnant women, or promote the use of prenatal care services, were also interviewed. An inductive analysis of the data was conducted to identify common themes that address the study's aims. ^ Results: Aim 1: Group participants identified fear of the reaction from family and/or the baby's daddy and shame, not having insurance or money, and lack of knowledge of the pregnancy and resources as the top three barriers to early prenatal care for women in the community. Aim 2: Group participants stated that to help women to overcome these barriers, communication, awareness and support; help, resources and services; and information and early education are needed. Participant in-depth interviewees echoed the themes of fear of the reaction from family and/or the baby's daddy and not knowing of the pregnancy. Key informants mentioned these themes as well, though not at the same priority level. Participants and key informants also mentioned similar themes for helping women to overcome barriers to early prenatal care. ^ Conclusion: A comprehensive approach is needed to improve early prenatal care use in the Sunnyside community. Education efforts must include all members of the community, young and old, to promote support for pregnant women. Community members must be a part of the process for developing education campaigns. Engaging the community builds a relationship with organizations that serve the community, which may promote use of the organizations' services, and build trust with the community. All efforts must be ongoing so that women and men of all ages in the community understand the importance of prenatal care and support women obtaining care early in the pregnancy.^