How social is the virtual design studio? A case study of a third year design studio

With the advent of social networks, it became apparent that the social aspect of designing and learning plays a crucial role in students’ education. Technologies and skills are the base on which learners interact. The ease of communication, leadership opportunity, democratic interaction, teamwork, and the sense of community are some of the aspects that are now in the centre of design interaction. The paper examines Virtual Design Studios (VDS) that used media-rich platforms and analyses the influence the social aspect plays in solving all problems on the sample of a design studio at Deakin University. It studies the effectiveness of the generated social intelligence and explores the facilitation of students’ self-directed learning. Hereby the paper studies the construction of knowledge via social interaction and how blended learning environments foster motivation and information exchange. It presents its finding based on VDS that were held over the past three years

Developing online construction technology resources in tectonic design education

We outline issues of importance in relation to tectonic design within the architectural profession and the relationship to architectural education in Australia. Twelve years of research and curriculum development at Deakin University is discussed, involving the creation of online resources and case studies, digitally-integrated projects relating to building construction and design studio education. The ethos behind the Construction Primer of engaging students as ‘amateur researchers’ in a way that ensures ‘that student research work is worth more than course assessment’ forms the pedagogical foundation of much of this work. A model of Socially Networked Construction Technology education has been developed that integrates social networks and the Internet to engage students in tectonic design within and outside the classroom through authentic curricula. Through the use of Virtual Galleries, Blogs, YouTube and social networks, a culture of peer learning and sharing has been developed. Through shared knowledge facilitated through social networks, great potential lies for expanding the synergies between higher order learning and online resource development for design decision support

Web 2.0 virtual design studio : social networking as facilitator of design education

In 2009, Deakin University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong trailed the use of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance learning outcomes in a third-year architectural design studio that was modelled on the virtual design studios (VDSs) of the past decades. The studio developed the VDS further by integrating a social learning environment into the blended learning experience. The Web 2.0 VDS utilized the social networking site Ning.com, YouTube, Skype and various three-dimensional modelling, video and image processing, and chat software to deliver lectures, communicate learning goals, disseminate learning resources, submitting, providing feedback and comments to various design works, and assessing of students’ outcomes. This research centres on issues of learning and teaching associated with the development of a social network VDS

Statistics and indicators for financial stability analysis and policy

Timely and accurate data are key to the preparation of macro-prudential policy recommendations and decisions by the ESRB, as well as to monitoring policy decisions in terms of their impact on, or transmission to, the financial and non-financial economy. This paper illustrates the work that has been carried out by the European Central Bank, the European Systemic Risk Board and the European Supervisory Authorities over a period of more than two years from 2010 to 2012 to prepare, develop, implement and manage the initial set of statistical and supervisory information necessary to support the European Systemic Risk Board, from its inception in January 2011. The paper also touches on the statistical information that is provided to support the financial stability function of the European Central Bank

Secretory apparatus assessed by analysis of pancreatic secretory stress protein expression in a rat model of chronic pancreatitis

Secretory stress proteins (SSP) are a family of proteins including isoforms of pancreatitis-associated protein (PAP) and pancreatic stone protein (PSP/reg). In vitro exposure to trypsin results in the formation of insoluble fibrillar structures. SSP are constitutively secreted into pancreatic juice at low levels. The WBN/Kob rat is a model for chronic pancreatitis, displaying focal inflammation, destruction of the parenchyma and changes in the architecture of the acinar cell; the synthesis and secretion of SSP are also increased. We have investigated the secretory apparatus by SSP immunohistochemistry at the light- and electron-microscopical (EM) levels. Immunocytochemistry of PSP/reg in Wistar control rats reveals low levels, with individual acinar cells exhibiting high immunoreactivity in zymogen granules. PAP is not detectable. In the WBN/Kob rat, PSP/reg and PAP immunoreactivity is markedly increased. Double immunofluorescence for PSP/reg and PAPI or II demonstrates that these proteins colocalize to the same cell. Acinar cells change their secretory architecture by fusion of zymogen granules and elongation of the fused organelles. The immunogold technique has demonstrated an increase of SSP in zymogen granules in WBN/Kob rats. PSP/reg-positive zymogen granules fuse to form elongated structures with fibrillar contents. An extensive PSP/reg-positive fibrillar network is established in the cytosol. Extracellular fibrils have been observed in several ductules. Thus, SSP-derived fibrils form concomitantly with acinar damage in the WBN/Kob rat. Based on the known tryptic cleavage site of SSP, the in vivo generation of fibrils is presumably the result of premature trypsin activatio

Rethinking parameters

Dissertação de mestrado em Psicologia da Educação, Desenvolvimento e Aconselhamento, apresentada à Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade de CoimbraNas últimas décadas, várias pesquisas na área da Psicologia têm analisado informações sobre diferentes fenómenos relacionados com o constructo da atenção. Sob esta perspetiva, a atenção pode ser classificada tendo como base a capacidade do sujeito centrar-se num estímulo importante, suprimindo de forma deliberada estímulos distratores num determinado tempo (Baños & Belloch, 1995; Zillmer & Spiers, 1998) bem como a capacidade em distribuir a atenção entre diferentes estímulos ao mesmo tempo (Wagner, 2003). Com o objetivo de verificar os ganhos, ao nível da atenção, face à aplicação de alguns módulos de atenção do programa de intervenção REHACOG (Figueira, A. P., & Paixão, R., in press), foi realizado um estudo descritivo e exploratório com 37 crianças e adolescentes, do sexo feminino e do sexo masculino, com idades compreendidas entre os 7 e os 17 anos, com fragilidades atencionais. A amostra foi dividida e analisada em função de ciclos de escolaridade (1º ciclo, 2º ciclo e 3º ciclo). Trata-se de um estudo de pré-teste e pós-teste, com os testes da barragem de 2/3 sinais (Toulouse-Pieron, 1920) e a Versão Reduzida do Teste das Matrizes Progressivas Coloridas de Raven: IA (Amaral, J. Rodrigues do, 1966) após a aplicação de algumas tarefas dos módulos de atenção do programa de intervenção REHACOG (Figueira, A. P., & Paixão, R., in press) Os resultados obtidos revelam algumas diferenças no que diz respeito aos resultados da avaliação pré-teste e pós-teste, relativamente à aplicação do programa de intervenção, nos diferentes ciclos de estudo, e sugerem relações positivas e estatisticamente significativas entre as variáveis de estudo.In the last decades, several studies in the field of Psychology have examined information on different occurrences related to the attention construct. On this perspective, attention can be classified based on the subject's ability to focus on a major stimulus, deliberately suppressing distractor stimuli in a given time (Baños & Belloch, 1995; Zillmer & Spiers, 1998) as well as the ability to distribute the attention between several stimuli at the same time (Wagner, 2003). In order to verify the achievements related to attention, due to the application of some attention modules of REHACOG (Figueira, A. P., & Paixão, R., in press) intervention program, we performed a descriptive and exploratory study with 37 children and adolescents, female and male, with attentional weaknesses, aged between 7 and 17 years. The sample was divided and analysed in terms of courses of studies (elementary and middle school). It is a pre-testing study, applying some attention module tasks from the REHACOG (Figueira, A. P., & Paixão, R., in press) intervention program and subsequently post-testing study, in which the evaluation relapses on the test results of Toulouse- Pieron’s 2/3 signals concentration test (1920) and the reduced version of the Matrix Scale: IA (Amaral, J. Rodrigues, 1966). The results uncover some differences regarding pre-testing evaluation results and post-testing, for the implementation of the intervention program in different courses of studies and suggest positive and statistically significant relationships between the variables