Richard Arias-Hernandez - Co-construction of Information Systems Designs and Social Values: An Ethnographic Study

Richard Arias-Hernandez – Co-construction of Information Systems Designs and Social Values: An Ethnographic Study

January 27, 2014

Scholarly work usually characterizes engineers as politically and socially conservative individuals; instruments of the expansion of capitalism and neoliberalism. It also portrays them as supporters of both the State and the big corporations that employ them. This talk reports on an ethnographic study that documented the work of a group of information technology (IT) engineers in Colombia who decided to create a space of exception to neoliberalism in the form of a Non-Governmental Engineering Organization (NGEO). These engineers found that running their own NGEO provided them with some degrees of freedom to pursue social justice goals in their IT work in ways not usually found in the corporate or neoliberal governmental worlds. However, these opportunities do not come without outstanding challenges, such as funding dependencies from a neoliberal government, which create contradictions that hinder the pursue of social justice goals in the construction of information technology.

Richard Arias-Hernandez is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s iSchool. He obtained a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2008. His research has centred around the study of the co-construction of information technology and society, especially those constructions that aim to advance social justice in capitalist societies.

 

Select Articles and Books Available at UBC Library

Fisher, B., Green, T. M., & Arias‐Hernández, R. (2011). Visual analytics as a translational cognitive science. Topics in Cognitive Science, 3(3), 609-625. doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2011.01148.x. [Link]

Arias-Hernandez, R. (2004). Learning communities that build appropriate technology. World Futures, 60(1-2), 81-90. [Link]

Arias-Hernandez, R. (2008). Engineering the network society: A social worlds/arenas analysis of engineering in government and non governmental organizations in Colombia. [Link]

Arias-Hernandez, R., & Fisher, B. (2013). The “tunnel vision” effect: Structuring of attention and use of digital technologies in emergency operation centers. Paper presented at the 195-198. doi:10.1109/CogSIMA.2013.6523847. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Library, Archival, and Information Science

Information Visualization

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UBC Health Information Series Presents Dr. Linda Siegel on Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities

January 25, 2014

Dr. Linda Siegel’s latest research in Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities addresses how our educational system has failed to identify many children with learning disabilities and calls for the adoption of straightforward diagnostic techniques so that treatment options can be implemented at a young age. Many children who struggle with learning become discouraged in the classroom and isolated from their peers. Many adults whose learning disabilities were not recognized in school suffer from deep feelings of inadequacy that often prevent them from developing close relationships, finding rewarding employment, or living happily.

In this talk, Linda Siegel challenges the use of complex and time-consuming testing that is currently used to diagnose learning disabilities. In their place, she outlines simple and pragmatic techniques for testing for disabilities in reading, mathematics, spelling, and writing. Dr. Siegel gives first-hand accounts of people living with learning disabilities, case studies from literature, and profiles of highly accomplished individuals who have achieved success despite their learning disabilities. Their stories encourage people with learning challenges and those who support them to recognize and nurture each person’s special talents. Understanding Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities implores families, teachers, and other educational professionals to provide resources and services for all those struggling with learning so that no more lives are compromised.

Speaker Bio: Linda Siegel is the Dorothy Lam Chair in Special Education at the University of British Columbia.   Linda Siegel is an eminent psychologist and educator and is an internationally respected authority on reading and learning disabilities.

This event is now over.  It took place at the Richmond Public Library (Brighouse Branch), 7700 Minoru Gate #100 Richmond, BC V6Y 1R8.

Partner

RPL 1

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The Road to the OED: A History of English-Language Dictionaries

January 22, 2014

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The BC Research Libraries Group Presents Denise Koufogiannakis MA, MLIS, PhD

January 22, 2014

Image courtesy: University of Alberta

Image courtesy: University of Alberta

The BC Research Libraries Group is proud to present
Denise Koufogiannakis MA, MLIS, PhD
Collections & Acquisitions Coordinator, University of Alberta Libraries
who will be speaking about
Evidence based library and information practice
Vancouver
February 7, 2014, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Lillooet Room (Rm 301), Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia
  • Coffee and refreshments will be served prior to the talk so be sure to arrive early for some mingling, and feel free to socialize after the talk as well.
  • Register to attend in person HERE
  • Participate online via webcast HERE
The need for academic libraries to seek out evidence for decision-making around collections and services has always existed, but is there a way we can do this better? Join Denise Koufogiannakis, Collections & Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Alberta Libraries, who will share insights into evidence-based library and information practice both from a philosophical as well as practical approach.  She draws on experiences from many years involvement with evidence based practice, as well as the research she conducted for her PhD in Information Studies from Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK.
About the Speaker:
Denise Koufogiannakis is the Collections & Acquisitions Librarian at the University of Alberta where she manages activities associated with the Libraries’ acquisition of print and electronic materials and represents the Libraries through various consortia. Her main research interest is evidence based library and information practice (EBLIP), a field in which she has published extensively. Her other professional interests include open access, publishing, and new collection formats. She is the founding editor, and currently Associate Editor of the open access journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP

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The Vancouver Institute Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Lecture Presents Dr. David Kessler on "The End of Overeating"

January 21, 2014

 

sp18808_0Dr. David Kessler, M.D. is an American pediatrician, lawyer, author, and administrator (both academic and governmental). He was the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 1990 to 1997. He made the agency more efficient, cutting the time needed to approve or reject new drugs, including AIDS drugs, and more vigilant in protecting consumers against unsafe products and inflated label claims. It was also under his watch that FDA enacted regulations requiring standardized Nutrition Facts labels on food. Dr. Kessler is also known for his role in the FDA’s attempt to regulate cigarettes, which resulted in the FDA v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. case. He was awarded the Public Health Hero award on April 2, 2008 by the UC Berkeley School of Public Health for his work in tobacco regulation.  This talk is hosted by the Vancouver Institute, and is a Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Lecture.

Speaker Bio:
After graduating from Amherst College in 1973, David Kessler studied medicine at Harvard University, graduating with a M.D. degree in 1979. While at Harvard Dr. Kessler obtained a law degree J.D. in 1977 from the University of Chicago.[1] While serving his residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, he worked as a consultant to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah, particularly on issues relating to the safety of food additives, and on the regulation of cigarettes and tobacco. From 1984-1990, Kessler simultaneously ran a 431-bed teaching hospital in New York City and taught at the Columbia Law School and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

More Resources Available at UBC Library
Kessler, David A. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite (2009) [Available at Okanagan Library – QU145 .K47 2009]

Eisdorfer, Carl, David A. Kessler, and Abby N. Spector, eds. Caring for the Elderly: Reshaping Health Policy. (1989) [Available at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre – WT30 .C3746 1989]

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alumni UBC Book Club – They called me number one by Bev Sellars

January 17, 2014

They called me number oneXat’sull Chief Bev Sellars spent her childhood in a church-run residential school whose aim it was to “civilize” Native children through Christian teachings, forced separation from family and culture, and discipline. In addition, beginning at the age of five, Sellars was isolated for two years at Coqualeetza Indian Turberculosis Hospital in Sardis, British Columbia, nearly six hours’ drive from home. The trauma of these experiences has reverberated throughout her life.

The first full-length memoir to be published out of St. Joseph’s Mission at Williams Lake, BC, Sellars tells of three generations of women who attended the school, interweaving the personal histories of her grandmother and her mother with her own. She tells of hunger, forced labour, and physical beatings, often with a leather strap, and also of the demand for conformity in a culturally alien institution where children were confined and denigrated for failure to be White and Roman Catholic.

Like Native children forced by law to attend schools across Canada and the United States, Sellars and other students of St. Joseph’s Mission were allowed home only for two months in the summer and for two weeks at Christmas. The rest of the year they lived, worked, and studied at the school. St. Joseph’s mission is the site of the controversial and well-publicized sex-related offences of Bishop Hubert O’Connor, which took place during Sellars’s student days, between 1962 and 1967, when O’Connor was the school principal. After the school’s closure, those who had been forced to attend came from surrounding reserves and smashed windows, tore doors and cabinets from the wall, and broke anything that could be broken. Overnight their anger turned a site of shameful memory into a pile of rubble.

In this frank and poignant memoir, Sellars breaks her silence about the institution’s lasting effects, and eloquently articulates her own path to healing.

Event Details

Meet and Greet:
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
7:00 – 8:00 pm

Book Discussion:
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
7:00 – 9:00 pm

Location:
Cecil Green Park House – Map (http://goo.gl/maps/oRYFB)
University of British Columbia
6251 Cecil Green Park Road
Vancouver, B.C.

Cost:
$10 per person.  Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP online before Friday, February 25th, 2014. For more information, please contact Karolin Konig at 604-822-8939 or at karolin.konig@ubc.ca.

Please Note: Books will not be provided so please make arrangements to obtain a copy to read before the Book Discussion.  Books are available at the UBC Book Store (www.bookstore.ubc.ca/home).

Sign up for your ACard and benefit from a 12% discount at the UBC Book Store. For more information on obtaining an ACard please visit (www.alumni.ubc.ca/services/acard/).

Parking: There is a limited amount of meter parking in the lot on Cecil Green Park Road, the closest parkade is the Rose Garden Parkade (for entry after 5:00 pm and on weekends, a flat rate of $6.00 applies).

Searching for Resources at UBC Library

With a rich and vast collection, UBC Library encompasses a number of books, videos, and other relevant resources on classical and ancient Greece.  The easiest way to find this material is to use the UBC Library Catalogue (www.library.ubc.ca).   One recommended search strategy is to use Subject search option.   From the catalogue option, select Subject from the drop-down menu, and enter any of the following headings:

Shuswap Indians–Biography.
Indians of North America–British Columbia–Kamloops–Residential schools.
Shuswap Indians–Education–British Columbia–Kamloops.

By Bev Sellars at UBC Library

They called me number one : secrets and survival at an Indian residential school / Bev Sellars (2008).  Winnipeg, Scirrocco.  [Available at Koerner Library – E99.S45 S45 2013]

Scholarly Resources at UBC Library

Behind closed doors: stories from the Kamloops Indian Residential School edited by Agnes Jack.  (2006). Penticton: Theytus Books.  [Koerner Library – E96.6.K34 J32 2006]

Brotherhood to nationhood: George Manuel and the making of the modern Indian movement by Peter MacFarlane.  [Available at Koerner Library – E92 .M35 1993]

Research Guides

English

History

Open Access Learning Resources 

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alumni UBC Book Club – The Wars by Timothy Findley

January 17, 2014

The Wars - Timothy FindleyRobert Ross is a Canadian officer caught up in the nightmare world of World War I trench warfare; a world of mud and smoke, chlorine gas and rotting corpses. In this world gone mad, he performs a last desperate act to declare his commitment to life in the midst of death.

Event Details

Meet and Greet:
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
7:00 – 8:00 pm

Book Discussion:
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
7:00 – 9:00 pm

Location:
Cecil Green Park House – Map (http://goo.gl/maps/oRYFB)
University of British Columbia
6251 Cecil Green Park Road
Vancouver, B.C.

Cost:
$10 per person.  Light refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP online before Friday, February 25th, 2014. For more information, please contact Karolin Konig at 604-822-8939 or at karolin.konig@ubc.ca.

Please Note: Books will not be provided so please make arrangements to obtain a copy to read before the Book Discussion.  Books are available at the UBC Book Store (www.bookstore.ubc.ca/home).

Sign up for your ACard and benefit from a 12% discount at the UBC Book Store. For more information on obtaining an ACard please visit (www.alumni.ubc.ca/services/acard/).

Parking: There is a limited amount of meter parking in the lot on Cecil Green Park Road, the closest parkade is the Rose Garden Parkade (for entry after 5:00 pm and on weekends, a flat rate of $6.00 applies).

Searching for Resources at UBC Library

With a rich and vast collection, UBC Library encompasses a number of books, videos, and other relevant resources on classical and ancient Greece.  The easiest way to find this material is to use the UBC Library Catalogue (www.library.ubc.ca).   One recommended search strategy is to use Subject search option.   From the catalogue option, select Subject from the drop-down menu, and enter any of the following headings:

World War, 1914-1918–Fiction.
Findley, Timothy–Criticism and interpretation. .

Books by Timothy Findley at UBC Library

The Wars (Stage Adaptation) by Dennis Garnhum (2008).  Winnipeg, Scirrocco.  [Available at Koerner Library – PS8613.A77 T54 2008]

The Wars by Timothy Findley; with an introduction by Guy Vanderhaeghe.  (2005).  Toronto: Penguin Canada. [Available at Koerner Library – PR9271.I638 W3 2005]

Stones by Timothy Findley. (1988).  Markham, Viking.  [Available at Koerner Library – PR9271.I638 S78]

Scholarly Resources at UBC Library

Moral metafiction: counterdiscourse in the novels of Timothy Findley by Donna Palmateer Pennee. (1985).  Toronto: ECW Press.  [Koerner Library – PR9271.I638 Z7 1991]

Timothy Findley and the aesthetics of fascism by Anne Geddes Bailey (1998). The Greek Stones Speak: The Story of Archaeology in Greek Lands.  Vancouver: Talon Books.  [Available at Koerner Library – PR9271.I638 Z58 1998]

Research Guides

English

History

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Margaret Munro – Muzzles, Media Offices and Message Control

January 17, 2014

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Open UBC Week. The open system that used to encourage and trust federal scientists to discuss their work has been replaced by a tightly controlled system that churns out “approved lines.” Margaret Munro’s stories exposing how the Harper government has muzzled and silenced its researchers have attracted national and international attention. Her talk will focus on Ottawa’s muzzles, media offices and message control.

Speaker:

Margaret Munro is an award-winning science writer with Postmedia News, which reaches millions of Canadians through its chain of newspapers including the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun and Montreal Gazette. Margaret has been to the Arctic to write about global warming, to Cape Canaveral for space launches and to remote First Nations communities to report on devastating diabetes epidemics. She has also documented the remarkable change in federal communication policy.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Munro, M. (1969). The psychology and education of the young: A guide to the principles of development, learning, and assessment. New York: American Elsevier Pub. Co.

Munro, M. (2011). ‘Talking dictionary’ could help dying languages survive. Geolinguistics, 37, 95-96.

UBC Library Research Guides

Learning Technology

Learning Through Literacy and Technology

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Paul Stacey – Open Freedoms / Open Practices

January 17, 2014

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Open UBC Week. Contemporary open education practices are based on free software and free culture movements. Join Paul Stacey from Creative Commons as he explores the extent to which Open Educational Resources, MOOC’s, open access, and other open education innovations are embodying and leveraging these movements. Add your ideas to Paul’s as he imagines the possibilities open freedoms and open practices bring to education for faculty, students, and institutions. This wide ranging session will show how open is affecting every aspect of the university’s core mission – teaching, research, data, infrastructure, and community. Open freedoms have a corresponding set of ethical practices. There is growing expectation in the digital age, where the cost of copying and distributing resources is close to zero, that public funds should result in public goods. Governments and funders are increasingly putting in place open policy that requires grantees to openly license research and curricula created with public funds. Join Paul as he explores the ways in which digital technologies and contemporary open education practices are affecting the economics and traditional business models of education. Is open a major transformation of education? Decide for yourself at this Open Freedoms / Open Practices event.

Speaker Bio:

With over 25 years as an educator in adult learning, Paul has delivered high-tech educational programs in the private and public sector around the world. AT BCcampus, Paul led initiatives to forward use of educational technology for online learning, development of open educational resources, and professional development services for educators across all of BC’s public post-secondary institutions. Now at Creative Commons Paul is working to support the build out of an education and culture commons around the world.

 

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Stacey, P. (2013). Government support for open educational resources: Policy, funding, and strategies. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(2), 67-80. [Link]

Stacey, P. (2011). Opening up education: Creative alternatives to access copyright.

Stacey, P. (2008). “Wikivism”: From communicative capitalism to organized networks. Cultural Politics: An International Journal, 4(1), 73-73. doi:10.2752/175174308X266406. [Link]

Chapman, P., Stacey, A., & Stacey, A. (2003). Students internet searching exposed. Library + Information Update, 2(6), 48-50.

UBC Library Research Guides

Learning Technology

Learning Through Literacy and Technology

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David Vogt and Christina Hendricks – The Whys and Hows of Open: Transforming Learning Through Open Pedagogies and Practices

January 17, 2014

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Open UBC Week. Open education can be understood as a collection of practices that utilize online technology to freely share knowledge and to increase access to learning. The creative act of designing an open course or project can also lead to new pedagogical approaches. This session will feature two UBC faculty members who are creating and participating in innovative open projects and courses, including:

M101 – a localized, open online course on mobile education that is designed as knowledge asset and professional network
Why Open? – a facilitated and collaborative course that explores the different meanings of open in various industries as well as the benefits and issues with open
#ooe13 – an open professional development course on educational technologies
DS106 – an open, online course on digital storytelling that is hosted by the University of Mary Washington and that is currently being offered as a “headless” version this term with volunteers in charge of facilitating particular weeks during the course ETEC522, PHIL102, Arts One & More – on campus courses which are incorporating student blogs, wikis, backchannels and more.
In addition to hearing their stories, the session will also explore the motivations, experiences, and challenges in embracing open. We will discuss the impact openness had on their pedagogy and use of technology as well as explore how to determine if these efforts are meeting the instructors goals and improving the student experience.

Speakers:

Christina Hendricks is a Senior Instructor who regularly teaches both in Philosophy and in Arts One. While on sabbatical during the 2012-2013 academic year, she did research on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, particularly on the topics of peer feedback and assessment and learning communities such as Arts One. She also participated in several open online courses (some of them “MOOCs”), including ETMOOC (Educational Technology and Media MOOC: http://etmooc.org) and DS106 (Digital Storytelling 106: http://ds106.us). As a result of these experiences she got involved in planning and facilitating a couple of other open online courses, and has started to make her on-campus courses more open and available to others to view and possibly participate in.

David Vogt is Director of Digital Learning Projects for the UBC Faculty of Education and Director of Innovation Strategy for the UBC MAGIC Lab. He has maintained a career-long interest in harnessing the learning potentials within emerging technologies. His unusual trajectory as an academic, innovator and businessman provides a unique perspective on the future of learning. He is author and instructor of ETEC 522 Ventures in Learning Technology.

 

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Hendricks, C., & Oliver, K. (1999). Language and liberation: Feminism, philosophy, and language. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Hendricks, C. (1997). Fluidizing the mirror – feminism and identity through kristeva’s looking-glass. Philosophy Today, 41, 79-89.

Moulton, J. (2000). Language and liberation: Feminism, philosophy, and language. University of Chicago Press. [Link]

Hendricks, C. (2008). Foucault on freedom (review). The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 22(4), 310-312. doi:10.1353/jsp.0.0048. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Learning Technology

Philosophy

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