| 1. |
- Creelman, Alastair, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
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The Nordic Alliance for Open Education - State of the art, challenges and opportunities
- 2013
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Ingår i: <em>The Joy of Learning</em> <em>Enhancing Learning Experience - Improving Learning Quality</em>. - Oslo : European Distance and E-Learning Network. - 9789638955937
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Are the Nordic countries forerunners in Open Education? What is the state of the art, barriersand opportunities of Open Education in the Nordic countries? What are necessary actions onpolicy, institutional and individual levels? These are the main questions of this paper.Open Educational Resources are discussed widely on a global, European and even Nordiclevel. UNESCO, which has coined the term Open Educational Resources (OER) some 10 yearsago, published in June 2012 a global agenda for OER, the Paris Declaration (adopted by OERWorld Congress). The Declaration shows the importance of Open Educational Resources andgives recommendations to governments and institutions around the globe. The EuropeanUnion has started a large-scale initiative on “Opening Up Education”(http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/documents/consult/open_en.pdf).The concept of OER seems promising, potentially leading to educational collaborations,having potential for stimulating innovation in education, reducing cost of education, andbroadening access to education for all. However, the awareness on the opportunities of usingOERs is still low in the Nordic countries. In contrast to Open Access (for publications) orOpen Source (for software development), OER are not yet broadly known and accepted /adopted. It is highly necessary to combine the initiatives and ideas of open approaches. This isthe case at a user level as well as on policy level (see also Clements & Pawlowski, 2012).Therefore, it is important to promote OER to governments at all levels as well as toinstitutions.The Nordic countries seem to be a good ground for openness and sharing: the Nordiccountries share many values related to education and technology development; the political and governmental institutions are quite similar – there is also a tradition for exchange ofknowledge and solutions between the countries.In this paper, we briefly give an introduction to OER and reflect on the state if the art of OpenEducation in the Nordic countries. In expert workshops by the Nordic Open EducationAlliance, barriers and possible interventions to overcome them were explored. Based on these,we formulate recommendations as well as propose implementation actions. This study isbased on a position paper from the Nordic Open Education Alliance(http://www.nordlet.org/?=position).
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| 2. |
- Pawlowski, Jan, et al.
(författare)
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Towards a Nordic Alliance for Open Education – a Position Paper
- 2013
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Annan publikation (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- The paper outlines the current situation of Open Education / Open Educational Resources in the Nordic country. We show examples and practices - based on expert workshops, we discuss barriers and necessary actions to overcome those. The paper is meant to be dynamic and will be improved and further developed - be part of the process at http://www.nordlet.orgOpen Educational Resources are discussed widely on a global, European and even Nordic level. UNESCO coined the term Open Educational Resources (OER) some 10 years ago and published in June 2012 a global agenda for OER, the Paris Declaration (adopted by OER World Congress). The Declaration shows the importance of Open Educational Resources and givesrecommendations to governments and institutions around the globe. The European Union has started a large-scale initiative on “Opening Up Education" (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/documents/consult/open_en.pdf). Both the Nordic Council and the Nordic University Co-operation (NUS) will discuss OER in 2013. These developments inspired a Nordic initiative on promoting and utilizing Open Education in the Nordic countries with a focus on creating a strong base for OER and Open Educational Practices (OEP) in the region, also with a global outreach in mind. The Nordic countries have the potential to become a forerunner in OEP and the use of OER activities in Europe: 1 The Nordic countries share many values related to education and technology development; the political and governmental institutions are quite similar and there is a tradition for exchange f knowledge and solutions between the countries. Focusing on arelatively homogeneous region llows the newly-formed group to come up with specific recommendations that can reach the ears of policy makers, be implemented in policies and practice, and be used in new project proposals. 2 Open Educational Resources could potentially be a change agent in schools as well as in universities and vocational education. Having OER as scope allows the group to use one strong prism to reflect the crossroads the educational systems have to navigate in the target countries. In this document, we will briefly give an introduction to OER and reflect on the main recommendations as well as propose implementation actions for governments and institutions.
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| 3. |
- Enoksson, Fredrik, 1977-
(författare)
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Flexible Authoring of Metadata for Learning : Assembling forms from a declarative data and view model
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- With the vast amount of information in various formats that is produced today it becomes necessary for consumers ofthis information to be able to judge if it is relevant for them. One way to enable that is to provide information abouteach piece of information, i.e. provide metadata. When metadata is to be edited by a human being, a metadata editorneeds to be provided. This thesis describes the design and practical use of a configuration mechanism for metadataeditors called annotation profiles, that is intended to enable a flexible metadata editing environment. An annotationprofile is an instance of an Annotation Profile Model (APM), which is an information model that can gatherinformation from many sources. This model has been developed by the author together with colleagues at the RoyalInstitute of Technology and Uppsala University in Sweden. It is designed so that an annotation profile can holdenough information for an application to generate a customized metadata editor from it. The APM works withmetadata expressed in a format called RDF (Resource Description Framwork), which forms the technical basis for theSemantic Web. It also works with metadata that is expressed using a model similar to RDF. The RDF model providesa simple way of combining metadata standards and this makes it possible for the resulting metadata editor to combinedifferent metadata standards into one metadata description. Resources that are meant to be used in a learning situationcan be of various media types (audio- or video-files, documents, etc.), which gives rise to a situation where differentmetadata standards have to be used in combination. Such a resource would typically contain educational metadatafrom one standard, but for each media type a different metadata standard might be used for the technical description.To combine all the metadata into a single metadata record is desirable and made possible when using RDF. The focusin this thesis is on metadata for resources that can be used in such learning contexts.One of the major advantages of using annotation profiles is that they enable change of metadata editor without havingto modify the code of an application. In contrast, the annotation profile is updated to fit the required changes. In thisway, the programmer of an application can avoid the responsibility of deciding which metadata that can be edited aswell as the structure of it. Instead, such decisions can be left to the metadata specialist that creates the annotationprofiles to be used.The Annotation Profile Model can be divided into two models, the Graph Pattern Model that holds information onwhat parts of the metadata that can be edited, and the Form Template Model that provides information about how thedifferent parts of the metadata editor should be structured. An instance of the Graph Pattern Model is called a graphpattern, and it defines which parts of the metadata that the annotation profile will be editable. The author hasdeveloped an approach to how this information can be used when the RDF metadata to edit is stored on a remotesystem, e.g. a system that can only be accessed over a network. In such cases the graph pattern cannot be useddirectly, even though it defines the structures that can be affected in the editing process. The method developeddescribes how the specific parts of metadata are extracted for editing and updating when the metadata author hasfinished editing.A situation where annotation profiles have proven valuable is presented in chapter 6. Here the author have taken partin developing a portfolio system for learning resources in the area of blood diseases, hematology. A set of annotationprofiles was developed in order to adapt the portfolio system for this particular community. The annotation profilesmade use of an existing curriculum for hematology that provides a competence profile of this field. The annotationprofile makes use this curriculum in two ways:1. As a part of the personal profile for each user, i.e. metadata about a person. Through the editor, created from anannotation profile, the user can express his/her skill/knowledge/competence in the field of hematology.2. The metadata can associate a learning resource can with certain parts of the competence description, thusexpressing that the learning resource deals with a specific part of the competence profile. This provides a mechanismfor matching learning need with available learning resources.As the field of hematology is evolving, the competence profile will need to be updated. Because of the use ofannotation profiles, the metadata editors in question can be updated simply by changing the corresponding annotationprofiles. This is an example of the benefits of annotation profiles within an installed application. Annotation Profilescan also be used for applications that aim to support different metadata expressions, since the set of metadata editorscan be easily changed.The system of portfolios mentioned above provides this flexibility in metadata expression, and it has successfullybeen configured to work with resources from other domain areas, notably organic farming, by using another set ofannotation profiles. Hence, to use annotation profiles has proven useful in these settings due to the flexibility that theAnnotation Profile Model enables. Plans for the future include developing an editor for annotation profiles in order toprovide a simple way to create such profiles.
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| 4. |
- Fiore-Donno, Anna-Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Deep Phylogeny and Evolution of Slime Moulds (Mycetozoa)
- 2010
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Ingår i: Protist. - : Elsevier BV. - 1434-4610 .- 1618-0941. ; 161:1, s. 55-70
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mycetozoa, characterized by spore-bearing fruiting bodies, are the most diverse Amoebozoa. They traditionally comprise three taxa: Myxogastria, Dictyostelia and Protostelia. Myxogastria and Dictyostelia typically have multispored fruiting bodies, but controversy exists whether they are related or arose independently from different unicellular ancestors. Protostelid slime moulds, with single-spored fruiting bodies, are possible evolutionary intermediates between them and typical amoebae, but have received almost no molecular study. Protostelid morphology is so varied that they might not be monophyletic. We therefore provide 38 new 18S rRNA and/or EF-1alpha gene sequences from Mycetozoa and related species, including four protostelids and the enigmatic Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa. Phylogenetic analyses support the monophyly of Dictyostelia, Myxogastria, and Ceratiomyxa (here collectively called "macromycetozoa") and show that protostelids are Amoebozoa, mostly related to non-fruiting amoebae of the class Variosea, but may not be monophyletic; some phylogenetic relationships remain poorly resolved. Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, originally regarded as a myxogastrid, but in recent decades included in Protostelia, is a deeply diverging sister to Myxogastria. The protostelids studied here plus varipodid amoebae and the flagellates Phalansterium and Multicilia together probably form the outgroup to macromycetozoa plus Archamoebae. Thus protostelids and Variosea are especially significant for understanding the evolutionary transition from solitary amoebae to macromycetozoa.
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| 5. |
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Pawlowski, Katharina, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Jasmonate biosynthesis in legume and actinorhizal nodules
- 2011
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Ingår i: New Phytologist. - : Wiley. - 0028-646X .- 1469-8137. ; 189:2, s. 568-579
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- • Jasmonic acid (JA) is a plant signalling compound that has been implicated in theregulation of mutualistic symbioses. In order to understand the spatial distributionof JA biosynthetic capacity in nodules of two actinorhizal species, Casaurina glauca and Datisca glomerata, and one legume, Medicago truncatula, we determined thelocalization of allene oxide cyclase (AOC) which catalyses a committed step inJA biosynthesis. In all nodule types analysed, AOC was detected exclusively inuninfected cells. • The levels of JA were compared in the roots and nodules of the three plantspecies. The nodules and noninoculated roots of the two actinorhizal species, andthe root systems of M. truncatula, noninoculated or nodulated with wild-type Sinorhizobium meliloti or with mutants unable to fix nitrogen, did not showsignificant differences in JA levels. However, JA levels in all plant organs examined increased significantly on mechanical disturbance. • To study whether JA played a regulatory role in the nodules of M. truncatula, composite plants containing roots expressing an MtAOC1-sense or MtAOC1-RNAi construct were inoculated with S. meliloti. Neither an increase nor reductionin AOC levels resulted in altered nodule formation. • These data suggest that jasmonates are not involved in the development andfunction of root nodules.
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