Yule Heibel's Library tagged research →  View Popular, Search in Google

Hoping there's a good follow-up online about Head's research findings; the topic is intriguing:
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Our findings indicate that nearly all students intentionally use a small compass for navigating the ever-widening and complex information landscape they inhabit. These and other findings of Project Information Literacy have profound implications for teaching, learning, work, and play in the 21st century.
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education research berkman alison_head socialtheory

Couldn't agree more with Aaron Swartz and fellow activists:
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"We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file-sharing networks," wrote Swartz.
Maxwell says he released the papers for similar reasons. He says the papers come from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and were published before 1923, which means they're in the public domain (his claim has not been independently verified). "This knowledge belongs to the public," he argues. For the sake of scientific progress, Maxwell says, such databases shouldn't keep research under lock and key at all, let alone beyond their copyright expiration, as is the current practice. "Progress comes from making connections between others' discoveries, from extending them, and then from telling people," he says.
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mit_techreview commons creative_commons copyfight patents aaron_swartz harvard research

Interesting nuggets on studying and study habits and techniques. For example:

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...individual learning is another matter, and psychologists have discovered that some of the most hallowed advice on study habits is flat wrong. For instance, many study skills courses insist that students find a specific place, a study room or a quiet corner of the library, to take their work. The research finds just the opposite. In one classic 1978 experiment, psychologists found that college students who studied a list of 40 vocabulary words in two different rooms - one windowless and cluttered, the other modern, with a view on a courtyard - did far better on a test than students who studied the words twice, in the same room. Later studies have confirmed the finding, for a variety of topics.

The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say, regardless of whether those perceptions are conscious. It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the wasted fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard. Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding.

"What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting," said Dr. Bjork, the senior author of the two-room experiment.
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nyt studying research learning education

Useful site with upcoming and archived webcasts; this is the section on Architecture, Construction, and Engineering.

research design brighttalk webcasts video reference architecture urban_design ecological_urbanism

Portal page for the Digital Youth Research :: Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media project.
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"Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures" is a three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley, the digital youth project explores how kids use digital media in their everyday lives.
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web2.0 research socialtheory youth danah_boyd education learning

AURP (Association of University Research Parks) "offers a series of urgent recommendations for the U.S. Government, so that it can more precisely support American innovation and American innovators with both economic and policy-based changes." (See article for proposal targets.)

Does this apply to university research parks in Canada, too?

Interesting references to the importance of place and the creative class.

See this PDF for "The Power of Place": http://www.aurpcanada.ca/pdf/AURP%20The%20Power%20of%20Place_Final.pdf (via www.aurpcanada.ca)

aurp innovation research university technology_parks creative_class place_making

Intro page from the Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds (RSPB) to a report by a Dr. William Bird (ha!) called "Natural Thinking," available as a PDF download. Bird's report is an "investigating [of] the links between the natural environment, biodiversity and mental health."

This could be a useful reference for urbanist writing, insofar as it underscores the importance of amenities as a necessary complement to density. You don't want to have density while simultaneously "automating" everything (no more walking, driving only, no interaction with nature, etc.). Even small "hot spots" of natural interaction will work, or more walking with actual natural elements at hand.

health mental_health nature amenities stress research rspb

"Are the arts elitist? This report shows that cultural experiences are more important than demographic factors in four cultural activities:

* Reading a book;
* Attending live performances;
* Visiting art galleries; and
* Movie theatre attendance."

Includes links to PDFs of relevant research and findings.

art_reception arts_development canada reference research

Think tanks are apparently a booming industry, as Elizabeth Bumiller's article shows. Richard Florida ("Tanked," see http://tinyurl.com/35apn9) observes: "A DC insider once told me these so-called think tanks don't so much create new intellectual capital as repackage and recycle it - or as he put it, they run it down. Candidly, I was shockingly disappointed during my time in DC by the inability of most think tanks to tackle big questions in an open-minded, globally-oriented (that is not American-centric) way. And while there always are individual exceptions, I was also dismayed by the quality of much of the work. My hunch is the increased giving is being fueled by partisan agendas - actually, I have been told many time this is the way think tanks increasingly are funded - as political actors seek to lend credibility and legitimacy to desired actions." Bumiller closes her article with this: "'Institutions like this don’t possess power,' said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. 'You’re one of many voices in the political marketplace. It’s up to those in the marketplace who possess power — congressmen, people in the executive branch — to run with one of your ideas.'” That's something to think about for everyone in every local context, too.

elizabeth_bumiller nyt politics research richard_florida think_tanks washington_dc

The Internet Research Conference in Copenhagen (October 2008) lays out its call for papers. The theme is " Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place."
Synopsis:
In the past few years, new forms of net-based communities are emerging, distributed on various websites and services, and making use of several media platforms and genres to stay connected. Now, as mobile and location-based technologies are reintroducing "place" as an important aspect in the formation of communal and social activities, it is time to consider and rethink the concept of online or virtual communities. Not forgetting the lessons we have learned from studying the early virtual communities, how do we describe, analyse, theorise and design the communities and social formations of the early 21st century? How do we address the blurring of boundaries between places and communities on- and offline.

We call for papers, panel proposals, and presentations from any discipline, methodology, and community, and from conjunctions of multiple disciplines, methodologies and academic communities that address the conference themes.

Sessions at the conference will be established that specifically address the conference themes, and we welcome innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on those themes. We also welcome submissions on topics that address social, cultural, political, economic, and/or aesthetic aspects of the Internet beyond the conference themes. In all cases, we welcome disciplinary and interdisciplinary submissions as well as international collaborations from both AoIR and non-AoIR members.

call_for_papers conference copenhagen internet media reference research socialtheory

SDTC = Sustainable Development Technology Canada; this particular page describes the Innovation Chain, particularly in Canada. Points out its weak spots, very interesting.

canada funding innovation research sustainability technology