La construcción del concepto de número en el niño de tres y cuatro años, análisis de los procesos intervinientes.

Cubrir el vacio de cómo construye el niño el número antes de los 4 años, dado que J. Piaget realiza su investigación en este campo a partir de los cuatro años. Este estudio trata de analizar los procesos de identificación, asociación, reproducción y ordenación, descubriendo las estrategias cognitivas que utilizan los niños y ls secuencialidad de los procesos. Además pretende ofrecer unas orientaciones didácticas a los educadores que trabajan el número con niños de tres a cuatro años. 40 niños y niñas de tres años de edad media -rango entre 2;11 y 3;10 años y 40 niños y niñas de cuatro años de edad media -rango entre 3;11 y 4;10- 39 eran varones y 41 hembras. La mayoría de clase social media. Se utilizaron siete pruebas. Cinco de ellas relativas al concepto de número -identificación de materiales manipulables, identificación con materiales no manipulable, asociación, reproducción con material manipulable y reproducción con material no manipulable- y las 2 restantes a la ordenación de los números -ordenación propiamente dicha y tarea de contar-. Entrevista individual realizada por la investigadora -no por la profesora-. La construcción de las dimensiones ordinal y cardinal del número no es simultánea. Los niños proceden a la construcción de número mediante estrategias perceptivas. La aparición de nuevas estrategias surge cuando el mecanismo perceptivo resulta insuficiente. Los niños de 4 años desarrollan más estrategias específicas que los niños de 3 años en tareas de identificación, asociación no estructurada, reproducción con material no manipulable y ordenación. La identificación de las cantidades no depende de la manipulabilidad de los elementos, los niños de 4 años utilizan estrategias para contar y para operar con conjuntos conocidos. A los 4 años los niños superan la imitación de los adultos en las tareas de contar por la identificación de las cantidades. De los análisis realizados se desprende un conjunto de sugerencias para la orientación de la actuación educativa. El educador debe estar en disposición de dar muchas explicaciones y que estas sean verdaderas. Además, debe tener una doble sencillez: sencillez para ponerse a la altura del niño y para reconocer que el alumno puede aprender de él, pero también de otros niños. El educador ha de estar siempre en vigilancia, conociendo el momento en que se encuentra el niño para presentarle una situación más dificultosa; esta situación romperá el equilibrio que tenía el niño en ese momento, y a la vez le hará movilizarse para crear estrategias en la búsqueda de soluciones. El educador debe, además, animar al niño a que relacione, haciéndole preguntas en las que pueda comparar objetos o situaciones.

La beneficencia en la ciudad de Burgos : el Colegio de Salda??a : desde los or??genes a la Restauraci??n canovista (1674-1875)

Estudiar la evoluci??n de un establecimiento ben??fico-asistencial pensado en un principio para recoger hu??rfanas y su evoluci??n hasta convertirse en un centro docente femenino. An??lisis de las repercusiones de factores econ??micos, institucionales, etc. sobre lo educativo. La evoluci??n seguida por el Colegio de Salda??a en la provincia de Burgos entre 1674-1875, es el reflejo de lo existente en el ??mbito nacional, dependiente de los distintos est??mulos o falta de ellos emanados de las normativas locales y gubernamentales correspondientes a cada momento hist??rico. Esa evoluci??n en la educaci??n se refleja en las ense??anzas impartidas desde una educaci??n m??s bien artesanal y de habilitaci??n profesional que permitiera a las hu??rfanas emplearse en las faenas del hogar adem??s de la moral y religiosa en el siglo XVIII. Se pasa en la primera mitad del siglo XIX a un cultivo de las labores propias de su sexo como tendencia m??s destacada. Progresivamente se produce una apertura de la educaci??n femenina al campo de lo intelectual y cultural por encima de cualquier otra dimensi??n, salvo la educaci??n moral anteriormente valorada. El cambio de la formaci??n impartida va parejo a un cambio en el alumnado desde las ni??as hu??rfanas de sus comienzos a las se??oritas de clase social media-alta lo que repercuti?? econ??micamente as?? como su vinculaci??n al arzobispado. Se??alar por ??ltimo que durante alg??n tiempo fue el ??nico centro docente espec??ficamente femenino de la zona.

Intereses profesionales según el sexo en un ambiente ciudadano-industrial.

Tratar de ver las diferencias, si existen, en la elección profesional entre varones y mujeres en un mismo ambiente y comprobar la influencia de éste. Así mismo, averiguar en una segunda parte, las diferencis profesionales en el mismo sexo que vienen definidas por el distinto ambiente. Muestra tres cuestiones principales: los intereses profesionales, las diferencias sexuales y de ambiente y las relaciones entre intereses profesionales y sexo. Varones y mujeres de 18-22 años. Medio-ambiente industrial de clase social media y medio-ambiente rural. Test RMI de Rothwell-Miller y Test de Intereses Profesionales de Thrstone. Hay diferencias en cuanto al predominio de las actividades elegidas por las mujeres de medio urbano que hacen mayor número de elecciones. En las actividades al aire libre los intereses predominan más en las mujeres de ambiente ciudadano. En cuanto a los varones de ciudad predominan los intereses al aire libre contrario a los varones de ambiente rural que prefieren alejarse de él.

Belonging to a community: the mediation of belonging

This paper introduces the concept of belonging and discusses it in the context of online social networking experience and community experience considering social capital and user’s activities as nuclear concepts to understand collective actions and social relationships mediated by social media. The paper presents an empirical approach based on the study of two local communities and analyses whether interactive social technologies promote greater social involvement and higher production of social capital and participation, that results in a greater sense of belonging within communities. The results indicate a positive relationship between the use of social media and the increase of social capital and sense of belonging. Our work discusses the role and influence of social media in communitarian practices and the relevance social capital theory has as an outcome of media technologies use that result in a greater sense of belonging to a community.

Young caregiving and HIV in the UK: caring relationships and mobilities in African migrant families

Recent research in Sub-Saharan Africa has revealed the importance of children’s caring roles in families affected by HIV and AIDS. However, few studies have explored young caregiving in the context of HIV in the UK, where recently arrived African migrant and refugee families are adversely affected by the global epidemic. This paper explores young people’s socio-spatial experiences of caring for a parent with HIV, based on qualitative research with 37 respondents in London and other urban areas in England. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with young people with caring responsibilities and mothers with HIV, who were predominantly African migrants, as well as with service providers. Drawing on their perspectives, the paper discusses the ways that young people and mothers negotiate the boundaries of young people’s care work within and beyond homespace, according to norms of age, gender, generational relations and cultural constructions of childhood. Despite close attachments within the family, the emotional effects of living with a highly stigmatised life-limiting illness, pressures associated with insecure immigration status, transnational migration and low income undermined African mothers’ and young people’s sense of security and belonging to homespace. These factors also restricted their mobility and social participation in school/college and neighbourhood spaces. While young people and mothers valued supportive safe spaces within the community, the stigma surrounding HIV significantly affected their ability to seek support. The article identifies security, privacy, independence and social mobility as key dimensions of African young people’s and mothers’ imagined futures of ‘home’ and ‘family’.

Memo to marketers: quantitative evidence for change: how user-generated content really affects brands

Developed in response to the new challenges of the social Web, this study investigates how involvement with brand-related user-generated content (UGC) affects consumers’ perceptions of brands. The authors develop a model that provides new insights into the links between drivers of UGC creation, involvement, and consumer-based brand equity. Expert opinions were sought on a hypothesized model, which further was tested through data from an online survey of 202 consumers. The results provide guidance for managerial initiatives involving UGC campaigns for brand building. The findings indicate that consumer perceptions of co-creation, community, and self-concept have a positive impact on UGC involvement that, in turn, positively affects consumer based brand equity. These empirical results have significant implications for avoiding problems and building deeper relationships between consumers and brands in the age of social media.

This is me: digital identity and reputation on the Internet

The chapter reports on the ‘This Is Me’ project, that aimed to help students and the wider public to be aware of the impact that online material, particularly that on the Internet, has on their identity and reputation. The chapter explores practical aspects of Digital Identity, relating to issues such as employability, relationships and even death. For example, understanding the impact a photograph posted on a social networking website might have for different groups of people, ranging from friends or parents to future employers. As part of the ‘This is Me’ project stories were collected from students and others about Digital Identity matters, a grounded methodological approach based on action research was used to establish issues related to Digital Identity particularly relevant to those in academia. Drawing from these issues, resources were developed to help inform and educate people about how they can understand and control their own Digital Identity. A number of these resources are presented here, along with reflections on how they are used and can be adapted.

Customer service 140 characters at a time: the users’ perspective

Electronic word of mouth (eWoM) has been adopted by Internet users as a way of communicating their consumption preferences and experiences. Consumers are able to reach out to others, unknown to them, and have online conversations that can influence their behaviour. Organisations need to understand how to respond to these brand-related conversations conducted via social media. By looking through the lens of social capital, this paper contributes to social media and social capital research by studying the perceptions that 44 social media users have of companies that interact with them online. The users value social networks and support as part of their online relationships. However, several new value categories are identified when compared to previous research. Further research is required to investigate possible segmentation approaches and alternative methodological choices.

Clare Balding: the televisual face of London 2012

This piece discusses the performance of television presenter Claire Balding during her coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics of London 2012. It suggests that her success with viewers was connected with her persona as a television personality, which combined professional skill with intimacy and immediacy. It argues that Balding represented the face of contemporary public service broadcasting – one that bridges both the BBC and Channel 4’s brand identities – through her research and authority, combined with interaction with her audience with social media.

Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out

Social media utilities have made it easier than ever to know about the range of online or offline social activities one could be engaging. On the upside, these social resources provide a multitude of opportunities for interaction; on the downside, they often broadcast more options than can be pursued, given practical restrictions and limited time. This dual nature of social media has driven popular interest in the concept of Fear of Missing Out – popularly referred to as FoMO. Defined as a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, FoMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. The present research presents three studies conducted to advance an empirically based understanding of the fear of missing out phenomenon. The first study collected a diverse international sample of participants in order to create a robust individual differences measure of FoMO, the Fear of Missing Out scale (FoMOs); this study is the first to operationalize the construct. Study 2 recruited a nationally representative cohort to investigate how demographic, motivational and well-being factors relate to FoMO. Study 3 examined the behavioral and emotional correlates of fear of missing out in a sample of young adults. Implications of the FoMOs measure and for the future study of FoMO are discussed.

Teaching programming to beginners in a massive open online course

The University of Reading’s first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Begin Programming: Build your first mobile game” (#FLMobiGame) was offered in Autumn 2013 on the FutureLearn platform. This course used a simple Android game framework to present basic programming concepts to complete beginners. The course attracted wide interest from all age groups. The course presented opportunities and challenges to both participants and educators. While some participants had difficulties accessing content some others had trouble grasping the concepts and applying them in a real program. Managing forums was cumbersome with the limited facilities supported by the Beta-platform. A healthy community was formed around the course with the support of social media. The case study reported here is part of an ongoing research programme exploring participants’ MOOC engagement and experience using a grounded, ethnographical approach.

Viral marketing and the new competitive advantage

The role played by viral marketing has received considerable academic and digital media attention recently. Key issues in viral marketing have been examined through the lens of the mode of marketing message transmission, including self-replicating on the basis of quality difference, individuals’ emotional needs, as well as how users are connected across various social networks. This paper presents a review and analysis of viral marketing studies from 2001 to the present day. It investigates how viral marketing facilitate the diffusion of social media products and the relationship between marketers and these product users by taking a look at the implementation of viral marketing in two European online game firms Jagex Games Studio and Rovio Entertainment. The results from this review and analysis indicate that viral marketing plays an important role in accelerating the interaction between marketers and users (as well as the user groups) in the field of digital media and high tech consumption. Therefore, it is evident that firms should understand the social contagion process and target well-connected users purposefully in order to create its competitive advantage.

Crocodiles in the regulatory swamp: navigating the dangers of outsourcing, SaaS and shadow IT

Corporates are entering the brave new world of the internet and digitization without much regard for the fine print of a growing regulation regime. More traditional outsourcing arrangements are already falling foul of the regulators as rules and supervision intensifies. Furthermore, ‘shadow IT’ is proliferating as the attractions of SaaS, mobile, cloud services, social media, and endless new ‘apps’ drive usage outside corporate IT. Initial cost-benefit analyses of the Cloud make such arrangements look immediately attractive but losing control of architecture, security, applications and deployment can have far reaching and damaging regulatory consequences. From research in financial services, this paper details the increasing body of regulations, their inherent risks for businesses and how the dangers can be pre-empted and managed. We then delineate a model for managing these risks specifically focused on investigating, strategizing and governing outsourcing arrangements and related regulatory obligations

Erythristic leopards Panthera pardus in South Africa

Background. Leopards Panthera pardus show genetically determined colour variation. Erythristic (strawberry) morphs, where individuals are paler and black pigment in the coat is replaced by a red-brown colour, are exceptionally rare in the wild. Historically, few records exist, with only five putative records from India known. Objectives. To record the presence of erythristic leopards in our study site (Thabo Thalo Wilderness Reserve, Mpumalanga), and to collate records from across South Africa. Method. A network of camera traps was used to record individual leopards at Thabo Thalo. We also surveyed local experts, searched the popular South African press and used social media to request observations. Results. Two out of 27 individual leopards (7.1%) recorded in our study site over three years were of this colour morph. We obtained records of five other erythristic leopards in the Waterberg and Mpumalanga region, with no reports outside of this population. Conclusions. Erythristic leopards are widely dispersed across north-west South Africa, predominantly in the Lydenburg region. The presence of this rare colour morph may reflect the consequences of population fragmentation.