Extreme drought events have the potential to cause dramatic changes in ecosystem structure and function, but the controls upon ecosystem stability to drought remain poorly understood. Here we used model systems of two commonly occurring, temperate grassland communities to investigate the shortterm interactive effects of a simulated 100-year summer drought event, soil nitrogen (N) availability and plant species diversity (low/high) on key ecosystem processes related to carbon (C) and N cycling. Whole ecosystem CO2 fluxes and leaching losses were recorded during drought and post-rewetting. Litter decomposition and C/N stocks in vegetation, soil and soil microbes were assessed 4 weeks after the end of drought. Experimental drought caused strong reductions in ecosystem respiration and net ecosystem CO2 exchange, but ecosystem fluxes recovered rapidly following rewetting irrespective of N and species diversity. As expected, root C stocks and litter decomposition were adversely affected by drought across all N and plant diversity treatments. In contrast, drought increased soil water retention, organic nutrient leaching losses and soil fertility. Drought responses of above-ground vegetation C stocks varied depending on plant diversity, with greater stability of above-ground vegetation C to drought in the high versus low diversity treatment. This positive effect of high plant diversity on above-ground vegetation C stability coincided with a decrease in the stability of microbial biomass C. Unlike species diversity, soil N availability had limited effects on the stability of ecosystem processes to extreme drought. Overall, our findings indicate that extreme drought events promote post-drought soil nutrient retention and soil fertility, with cascading effects on ecosystem C fixation rates. Data on above-ground ecosystem processes underline the importance of species diversity for grassland function in a changing environment. Furthermore, our results suggest that plant–soil interactions play a key role for the short-term stability of above-ground vegetation C storage to extreme drought events.
The Experience API (xAPI) allows us to collect data about any type of learning experience or activity, but does that mean we should? Should we generate massive amounts of xAPI data for every possible type of interaction and then expect to make sense of it all later? This approach can be costly in terms of data storage, but also in terms of your time.
Sunday Blake dives into the latest in learning analytics and engagement data, and asks how universities can act upon it to make our interactions with students more human.
Dashboard is a prominent artefact that users interact with when it comes to learning analytics. What is a learning analytics dashboard ? Who is it for? What is the key to effective adoption of learning analytics dashboard? Listen to Martin Hlosta and Fabio Campos sharing their experience in supporting the use of learning analytics dashboard on a large scale.
Jon Udell on 21 JUL 2021
Suppose you're a member of a team that runs a public web service. You need to help both internal and external users make sense of all the data that's recorded as it runs. That's been my role for the past few years, now it's time to summarize what I've learned.
In this lecture series Bart Rienties (Professor of Learning Analytics, head of Academic Professional Development) will discuss how from the safety of your home you could use existing trace data to explore interactions between people (e.g., Twitter data, engagement data in a virtual learning environment, public data sets), and what the affordances and limitations of these trace data might be.
Trusted Learning Analytics beruhen auf vertrauensvollen Beziehungen zwischen Anwendern und Nutzern
FRAGEN AN (II/II) Hendrik Drachsler, Professor an der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt und Leiter des Arbeitsbereichs „Educational Technologies“ am DIPF | Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation, der sich nicht nur mit Bildungstechnologien auseinandersetzt, sondern auch daran arbeitet Learning Analytics an deutsche Hochschulen zu bringen.
This post is some thinking around Col's PhD resulting from some conversations and presentations from this year’s wonderful ALASI2018 conference held recently in Melbourne.
If you do research in the field of learning science there is almost certainly one point in which you realise how difficult is to model and describe a learning process.
Did you know that users are more likely to choose, buy and use products that meet their needs as opposed to products that just meet their wants? An Empathy map will help you understand your user’s needs while you develop a deeper understanding of the persons you are designing for. There are many techniques you can use to develop this kind of empathy. An Empathy Map is just one tool that can help you empathise and synthesise your observations from the research phase, and draw out unexpected insights about your user’s needs.
An Empathy Map allows us to sum up our learning from engagements with people in the field of design research. The map provides four major areas in which to focus our attention on, thus providing an overview of a person’s experience. Empathy maps are also great as a background for the construction of the personas that you would often want to create later.
An Empathy Map consists of four quadrants. The four quadrants reflect four key traits, which the user demonstrated/possessed during the observation/research stage. The four quadrants refer to what the user: Said, Did, Thought, and Felt. It’s fairly easy to determine what the user said and did. However, determining what they thought and felt should be based on careful observations and analysis as to how they behaved and responded to certain activities, suggestions, conversations, etc.
A flipped classroom approach to using video for igniting student discussion and engagement. Available on iOS, Android, Chromebook, and all major browsers.
B-2, Reading_2, Unit 1, Vygotsky, L.S. (1994 [1978]) ‘Interaction between learning and development’ in Stierer, B. and Maybin, J., (eds) Language, Literacy and Learning in Educational Practice, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters Limited.
This paper describes a differing representation of the term scaffolding, with particular emphasis on spoken language as a tool to learning. Discussion examines difficulties faced by practitioners when transforming the theoretical aspects of scaffolding to more practical application, and in particular observes the value of involvement in the learning process. Discourse assesses how the child is led towards becoming an independent learner and how they subsequently reach a predetermined goal, set by the practitioner. It highlights therefore, the importance of evidence to support how scaffolding contributes towards increased competence, and examples provided demonstrate the transition from teacher support to that of independent problem solving. The paper concludes that the notion of scaffolding benefits greater understanding of both teaching and learning, which ultimately contributes to greater knowledge by the learner.
This paper discusses Halliday’s thoughts on three, natural components of language development; that of learning language, that of learning through language, and that of learning about language. Halliday discusses how language is a constant process, often complex, often instinctive, which begins before birth and continues throughout life. Demonstration of how language is constructed draws attention to the child not being a solitary individual, but one who is involved in interaction, and so becomes actively immersed with others. Establishment of how language is created from meaning, then transmitted between humans, emphasises this interactive process as a requirement for communicative success, and further draws upon the significance of context as a means of learning. Adapting language to various functions supports the building of reality and so allows transition from the use of language for doing, to the use of language for learning.
Ne vous fiez pas à son apparence : si le terme « Transmédia » a tout l’air d’un néologisme tendance, le concept apparaît dans les années 60 pour désigner une façon innovante de raconter des histoires, de transmettre un message au public. On ne se contente plus de l’oeuvre originale, on l’élargit et on décline sur plusieurs supports.
Eric Viennot, créateur d’Alt-Minds et invité de notre dossier, décrit le transmédia comme « une fiction dont vous êtes le héros ». Mais comment ça marche précisément ? Comment, nous lecteurs, spectateurs, internautes et fans, interagissons ou étendons-nous une œuvre ? Quels sont les productions les plus représentatives, les événements à ne pas manquer ? Les réponses à ces questions vous attendent dans notre dossier !
Cet ouvrage a pour ambition de retracer l'apparition du genre documentaire à la radio. Avec le numérique, le genre s'est "démocratisé" : jamais techniquement il n'a été aussi facile de réaliser un documentaire sonore. Sa diffusion est aussi favorisée par l'écoute en différé (podcast, streaming). A l'heure de cette mutation, cet ouvrage propose une définition des principaux types de documentaires à la radio: documentaire d'interaction, documentaire poétique, documentaire d'observation et documentaire-fiction.
In this article Halliday, questions the approach of language acquisition (syntax)with construction/semantics. He highlights that language is learnt through meaningful interaction with other people and making sense of the world in which we live is achieved through language. They key goal of interaction/making meaning is functional and communicative.
Drawing
on sociocultural theory, the present study investigated how children in an intensive elementary
level Grade 6 class for English as a second language (ESL) scaffolded each other while carrying
out cooperative learning tasks.
NWChem is an electronic structure package that features MC-SCF, MPn, CC, CI, and DFT methods. Properties, solvation models, QM/MM, and MD simulations are also possible.
GAMESS-US is a full-featured electronic structure software package with MC-SCF, CC, DFT, and CI wave functions. QM/MM, FMO, solvation, and MD calculations are also possible.
COLUMBUS is a collection of programs for high-level ab initio molecular electronic structure calculations. The programs are designed primarily for extended multi-reference (MR) calculations on electronic ground and excited states of atoms and molecules.
A. Girgensohn, und A. Lee. CSCW '02: Proceedings of the 2002 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, Seite 136--145. New York, NY, USA, ACM Press, (2002)