Cultural factors affecting the adoption of e-learning in Turkey

This paper reports findings from an ethnographic study of e-learning adopters in Turkey and examines ways in which cultural factors shape the adoption and use of information technology for online teaching. This research focuses on influential early adopters in the tertiary education sector in Turkey who have become change-agents by inspiring small networks of their peers. The study examines the operation of trust and inspiration in networking and teamwork in the Asian academic environment. The key findings of this research are that the early adopters become change agents in small groups and networks and that the process of adoption relies heavily on social networks and connections. Findings from this research can assist individuals and institutions to better understand ways in which to optimize the online teaching and learning experience for staff.

Cultural factors behind the growth of e-learning in Malaysia Academic guanxi

This paper aims to discover and examine ways in which cultural factors shape the adoption and use of information technology for online teaching. This research focuses on influential early adopters in the tertiary education sector in Malaysia who have become change-agents by inspiring small networks of their peers. The study examines the concept of guanxi to understand the operation of trust and inspiration in networking and teamwork in the Asian academic environment. This study points to the importance of developing guanxi, through the middle-down nurturing of peer networks, in developing a rich and rewarding environment for the development of online teaching.

Discursive recontextualization in a public health setting

The authors discuss discursive recontextualization as a process of discursive change in which stable referents may be recombined. As such, discursive recontextualization recognizes the interplay of both stability and instability without necessarily privileging the latter. Drawing on intertextual document analysis of a series of public reports published in the wake of a major health policy initiative in Victoria, Australia— Health to 2050—the authors identify a discursive pattern in which descriptions of a disaggregation from large Health Care Networks to smaller Metropolitan Health Services echo those of an earlier aggregation of individual hospitals into the Health Care Networks. The authors suggest that future research into discourse and organizational change will benefit from greater attention to stabilization and such recontextualization as well as to fluidity and instability. They examine implications for change agents and for researchers in the field.

Case study of e-learning experts in Malaysia : impact of social capital and social networks

This paper examines the experiences of selected academics pioneering e-learning in Malaysian tertiary institutions. It begins with an overview of the broad factors shaping the Malaysian educational environment and then proceeds to examine the experience of individual teachers and e-learning programs. It takes an in-depth qualitative approach to engaging with this case study material drawing heavily on semi-structured interviews with key actors.
Conversations with several respondents suggested that the social networks of mentor relations found in the Malaysian case studies might be aptly described as ‘bamboo networks’. Bamboo, which happens to be plentiful in the Malaysian peninsula where these case studies are based, spreads from clump to clump through a series of underground connections involving a mature clump of bamboo sending out a subterranean runner, often over very long distances that then emerge into the open as a new bamboo clump.
All of those interviewed reported that they have found it difficult to find a support base in their first years of pioneering online developments. Consequently, they tended to fall back on their peer networks linked to the institutions at which they had studied. Prominent individuals championing e-learning in the institutions where they teach tend to form small groups for information sharing and networking. They do look to their management for tacit ‘permission’ rather than direct encouragement. Consequently, the active promotion of e-learning in Malaysia can be described as being ‘middle-down’ rather than ‘top-down’ in nature. That is to say, it is mid-level teachers that inspire those below them to join in the development of e-learning programs. They are internally driven and strongly motivated. In time, their activity should produce new generations of locally developed e-learning experts but this has yet to take place in a substantial fashion. This study shows that both men and women ‘academic guanxi’, or peer networks, play a key role in the adoption of online technologies. Key early adopters become change-agents by inspiring a small network of their peers and via their guanxi networks. It was also discovered that motivation is not simply an individual matter but is also about groups and peer networks or communities of exchange and encouragement. In the development of e-learning in Malaysia, there is very little activity that is not linked to small clusters of developers who are tied into wider networks through personal contacts.
Like clumping bamboo, whilst the local clusters tend to be easily seen, the longer-range ‘subterranean’ personal connections are generally not nearly so immediately obvious. These connections are often the product of previous mentoring relationships, including the relationships between influential teachers and their former postgraduate students. These relationships tend to work like bamboo runners: they run off in multiple directions, subterranean and unseen and then throw up new clumps that then send out fresh runners of their own.

A study protocol to investigate the management of depression and challenging behaviors associated with dementia in aged care settings

Background: 

Simplifying medical additive manufacturing: making the surgeon the designer

Additive Manufacturing, a technology which has been in existence since three decades, is now successfully being transitioned from a research setting to finding technologically and financially viable end-user applications. A key sector in which Additive Manufacturing is being used is the medical devices and healthcare sector. Drivers in this sector include the ability to create customized, patient specific devices and implants with quick turnaround time in a cost-effective manner. Doctors and surgeons are important change agents and innovators in the creation of new healthcare devices as well as surgical methods. Often times, they may find it necessary at first to build devices and plan surgeries which are not even being thought of or acted upon by the major healthcare companies. In this sense, they perform the roles of designers, creating new ideas and improving on them until they can be implemented and adopted by others. However, the scope for performing this creative activity is often limited in their workplaces, with resource, time and financial impediments often being present. Additive Manufacturing can be helpful to speed up the iterative process of designing such medical devices or planning surgeries as well as help convince people outside of the surgery room of the feasibility and business case for such innovations. This paper proposes to introduce a framework of design, processes and tools which will enable non-engineers (specifically surgeons) to create custom-built products. It is hoped that this paper will motivate more surgeons and non-engineers to get involved in the process of designing for additive manufacturing.

Jornalismo e meio ambiente: a contribuição dos meios de comunicação e o conceito de sustentabilidade

This article is a reflection about the contribution the social communication media can provide to the public debate about the environmental concerns. The Agenda XXI and several other UN documents call to the need to inform and educate the society. On the other hand, the Communication theories always have in common the imperative of the emitter to be understood by the recipient, in such a way that they can become change agents and not only observers. The first step is, therefore, to study the environmental question, adequately focus the theme and convey clarification. It is not what happened, for instance, with some technical concepts from the area, in particular sustainability, that came about in the 70 s to guide public policies at the service of the life preservation and specially, future and today, utilized even as a parameter of preservation of profit and advantage resulting from exploitation of nature.Key-Words Theory of Communication - Environmental Sustainability MCM

Governance and the Capacity to Manage Resilience in Regional Social-Ecological Systems

The sustainability of regional development can be usefully explored through several different lenses. In situations in which uncertainties and change are key features of the ecological landscape and social organization, critical factors for sustainability are resilience, the capacity to cope and adapt, and the conservation of sources of innovation and renewal. However, interventions in social-ecological systems with the aim of altering resilience immediately confront issues of governance. Who decides what should be made resilient to what? For whom is resilience to be managed, and for what purpose? In this paper we draw on the insights from a diverse set of case studies from around the world in which members of the Resilience Alliance have observed or engaged with sustainability problems at regional scales. Our central question is: How do certain attributes of governance function in society to enhance the capacity to manage resilience? Three specific propositions were explored: ( 1) participation builds trust, and deliberation leads to the shared understanding needed to mobilize and self-organize; ( 2) polycentric and multilayered institutions improve the fit between knowledge, action, and social-ecological contexts in ways that allow societies to respond more adaptively at appropriate levels; and ( 3) accountable authorities that also pursue just distributions of benefits and involuntary risks enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable groups and society as a whole. Some support was found for parts of all three propositions. In exploring the sustainability of regional social-ecological systems, we are usually faced with a set of ecosystem goods and services that interact with a collection of users with different technologies, interests, and levels of power. In this situation in our roles as analysts, facilitators, change agents, or stakeholders, we not only need to ask: The resilience of what, to what? We must also ask: For whom?

Governance and the Capacity to Manage Resilience in Regional Social-Ecological Systems

The sustainability of regional development can be usefully explored through several different lenses. In situations in which uncertainties and change are key features of the ecological landscape and social organization, critical factors for sustainability are resilience, the capacity to cope and adapt, and the conservation of sources of innovation and renewal. However, interventions in social-ecological systems with the aim of altering resilience immediately confront issues of governance. Who decides what should be made resilient to what? For whom is resilience to be managed, and for what purpose? In this paper we draw on the insights from a diverse set of case studies from around the world in which members of the Resilience Alliance have observed or engaged with sustainability problems at regional scales. Our central question is: How do certain attributes of governance function in society to enhance the capacity to manage resilience? Three specific propositions were explored: ( 1) participation builds trust, and deliberation leads to the shared understanding needed to mobilize and self-organize; ( 2) polycentric and multilayered institutions improve the fit between knowledge, action, and social-ecological contexts in ways that allow societies to respond more adaptively at appropriate levels; and ( 3) accountable authorities that also pursue just distributions of benefits and involuntary risks enhance the adaptive capacity of vulnerable groups and society as a whole. Some support was found for parts of all three propositions. In exploring the sustainability of regional social-ecological systems, we are usually faced with a set of ecosystem goods and services that interact with a collection of users with different technologies, interests, and levels of power. In this situation in our roles as analysts, facilitators, change agents, or stakeholders, we not only need to ask: The resilience of what, to what? We must also ask: For whom?

Beyond Bullying: Transforming the Culture of Peer Abuse

Bullying needs to be understood and positioned as a form of child abuse – peer abuse. For too many people, bullying is a benign term. This article will include information collected from a wide-range of researchers and discussions with over 50,000 students that I have facilitated during the past twenty years. The content will focus on new morbidities related to bullying such as depression and suicide, obesity, eating disorders, food allergies, juvenile diabetes, truancy, and substance and alcohol abuse. Making a cultural change in our society will require identified Change Agents, along with recommendations for collaboration, policies, projects and legislation.

Sistemática de transformação: desenvolvimento teórico para o alinhamento entre estratégia e cultura organizacional nos projetos de Lean

Desde o final do Século XX e início do Século XXI, estudos analisam a elevada taxa de insucesso ou insatisfação com os Programas de Lean. Esta taxa tem se demonstrado demasiadamente elevada, variando entre 66% e 90%. Como efeito deste insucesso, tem-se o desperdício de tempo, dinheiro, recursos e, talvez o pior, tem-se a propagação do medo nos agentes de mudança em empreitar novas iniciativas de mudança. Estudos apontam a falta de alinhamento de tais projetos com a Cultura Organizacional como uma das questões fundamentais deste insucesso. Partindo desta temática de pesquisa, este ensaio teórico pode ser caracterizado como uma abordagem qualitativa de análise do problema, de natureza básica de pesquisa buscando gerar conhecimentos novos e úteis às organizações, sem aplicação prática prevista neste primeiro estágio de pesquisa. A fonte de evidências para sustentar o modelo proposto foi revisão dos estudos de caso encontrados na literatura, sendo utilizadas tanto uma Revisão Bibliográfica Sistemática (RBS) quanto Exploratória, de tal maneira a buscar o \"estado da arte\" no campo de estudo. A Fundamentação Teórica do trabalho é baseada na literatura de quatro grandes campos de estudo: (i) Estratégia, (ii) Lean, (iii) Cultura Organizacional e (iv) Gestão de Mudanças. A RBS tem foco nas interseções destes grandes campos, agregando 190 trabalhos internacionais. Por sua vez, a Revisão Exploratória traz algumas das principais referências dos três campos de estudo, como: Edgar Schein, John Kotter, Kim Cameron, Robert Quinn, David Mann, dentre outros. Desta maneira, este trabalho estudou a influência da cultura organizacional nos projetos de transformação e, a partir da ruptura com a teoria atual, construiu e propôs uma sistemática teórica, intitulada de \"Sistemática de Transformação\" (ou simplesmente \"Sistemática T\"), a qual propõe o alinhamento entre três dimensões: Estratégia, Projeto de Transformação e Cultura Organizacional. Fazendo uso desta sistemática, é esperado que os agentes de mudança consigam ter um planejamento mais eficaz do processo de diagnóstico, avaliação e gestão da cultura organizacional alinhado à Estratégia e também ao Projeto de Transformação da organização, com ênfase nos Programas de Lean. A proposição e uso desta sistemática pode favorecer tanto a discussão acadêmica na área de Gestão de Operações sobre o tema, quanto fornecer subsídios para aplicações práticas mais eficazes.

Projeto – sustentabilidade e matemática

A disciplina matemática e o tema sustentabilidade podem ser muito bem trabalhados pelos docentes da área de exatas. Pois, saber quantificar, calcular e associar o consumo e o impacto ambiental através de dados numéricos é uma possibilidade que pode ser desenvolvida em sala de aula. Saber interpretar e construir gráficos de colunas são outras competências e habilidades presentes na ciência da matemática. Compreender conceitos, estratégias e situações matemáticas numéricas para aplicá-los a situações diversas no contexto das ciências, da tecnologia e da atividade cotidiana se faz necessário. E também, reconhecer, pela leitura de textos apropriados, a importância da Matemática na elaboração de proposta de intervenção solidária na realidade. Dessa forma, conhecer o ambiente em que vivemos, verificar a influência do homem na Natureza e quais ações deverão ser tomadas pensando nas futuras gerações é um despertar para o consumo consciente. O que acarreta como possibilidade o retorno à natureza de recursos utilizados de maneira correta. Conhecer uma conta de luz detalhada, aprender a calcular o consumo mensal de Kwh e diminuir o consumo de energia elétrica através da mudança de hábitos são exemplos cotidianos em que a matemática se faz presente. Relacionar a matemática ao estudo do meio ambiente proporciona através dos números mensurar os prejuízos e projetar soluções, torna a aprendizagem construtiva, podendo se constituir num comportamento cotidiano ou numa ação educativa para formar uma consciência ecológica dentro de indicadores reais. A aprendizagem se torna significativa quando relacionada ao cotidiano do aluno no sentido de mostrar o meio ambiente a que estão inseridos para que possam ser agentes transformadores, através da mudança de hábitos e principalmente desenvolvendo suas habilidades matemáticas. Sendo assim, o processo de ensino aprendizagem matemática-meio ambiente é realizado no sentido de oportunizar o conhecimento do mundo e domínio da natureza, com base nas linguagens matemáticas, criando-se condições de melhorar a capacidade de agir na sociedade, assumindo ações permanentes concentradas em um desenvolvimento sustentável para a continuidade da vida na Terra. Nesse diapasão, é possível desenvolver trabalhos pedagógicos “na trilha da matemática: do raciocínio ao meio-ambiente”. A resolução de situações problemas e assuntos referentes ao meio ambiente fazem com que os alunos tomem os cuidados necessários para com o meio ambiente, aos recursos por ele oferecidos e as consequências das ações errôneas causadas pelo homem.

Saúde e outros : natalidade e fertilidade nos estudantes universitários

Trabalho Final do Curso de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, 2014

"Ignorance was bliss, now I'm ignorant and that is far more difficult":transdisciplinary learning and reflexivity in responsible management education

Purpose – The collapse of world economic systems brought the interconnectedness between business and global events sharply into focus. As Starkey points out: “leading business schools need to overcome their fascination with a particular form of finance and economics […] to broaden their intellectual horizons […] (and to) look at the lessons of history and other disciplines”. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence from three years of research on the Aston MBA suggesting that an emphasis on developing capabilities within a far broader, connected and reflexive business curriculum is what business students and practitioners now recognise as an essential way forward for responsible management education. Design/methodology/approach – This research paper examines the reflective accounts of 300 MBA students undertaking a transdisciplinary Business Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability core module. Findings – As Klein argues, transdisciplinarity is simultaneously an attitude and a form of action. The student reflections provide powerful discourses of individual learning and report a range of outcomes from finding “the vocabulary or the confidence” to raise issues to acting as “change agents” in the workplace. Originality/value – As responsibility and sustainability requires learners, researchers and educators to engage with real world complexity, uncertainty and risk, conventional disciplinary study, especially within business, often proves inadequate and partial. This paper demonstrates that creative and exploratory frames need to be developed to facilitate the development of more connected knowledge – informed by multiple stakeholders, able to contribute heterogeneous skills, perspectives and expertise.