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The use of storytelling as pedagogic tool in the ESOL classroom.
No full textThere is an Indian proverb which states: Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever. ESOL learners bring stories to the classroom in the form of life experiences from their own cultures, based on their beliefs, customs, and language identity. Storytelling traditions are vital in many discourse communities where the spoken word is relied on to communicate, as access to other forms of literacy are not possible or do not exist. Storytelling is therefore an essential communication tool which can be transferred to the language classroom to generate creativity and imagination in teaching and learning. This paper analyses storytelling as a teaching technique in the English as a Second Language (ESOL) classroom. It discusses the advantages of using storytelling as a pedagogic tool in learning and teaching to enhance learners’ language and literacy skills and to encourage learner engagement and learner interaction in the language classroom. It explores how storytelling activities can be used as a vehicle for improving understanding, motivating oral discussion and increasing and promoting interesting language usage in all four skill areas
A critical review of compliance and call quality monitoring in Phonetic’s insurance tele-marketing campaigns
No full textPhonetic is a tele-marketing agency that focuses on outbound lead generation mainly in the insurance sector. They make appointments and transfer prospects by telephone to their insurance/broker client’s teams for a quote at the time of the insurance renewal.Insurance organisations are authorised and regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) as are Phonetic. As a result, there are certain guidelines that any authorised company needs to interpret and adhere to when making calls to prospects. Increasingly call quality and compliance is becoming a key area of focus alongside hitting traditional quantitative targets.The study examined how Phonetic’s insurance clients interpreted the FCA guidelines into call guides and call quality monitoring requirements for both their internal teams and external outsourcers. It consisted of secondary data analysis of call quality forms as well as questionnaires to key client contacts and semi-structured interviews to compliance contacts with client organisations.The research unveiled that many insurers and brokers have a focus on both qualitative and quantitative measures. However, organisations with both an internal team and external outsourcers performing the same function rarely have an aligned approach to managing all parties. The size of the parent organisation heavily influenced whether a contract was in place, which in turn affected the level of formality agreed regarding call quality monitoring and compliance.Recommendations include a review of all call quality monitoring documents internally within Phonetic as well as facilitating a review amongst clients with multiple teams to ensure they have a consistent approach to managing all teams that perform the same function. In addition, for the compliance and training departments within Phonetic’s clients to become more involved in the campaign and the qualitative targets set. Finally, for Phonetic to create a call quality monitoring system that allows any user to access call quality records for any agent on any campaign allowing greater transparency and knowledge sharing of best practice
Hesiod's 'Proem' and Plato's 'Ion'
No full textPlato's Hesiod is a neglected topic, scholars having long regarded Plato's Homer as a more promising field of inquiry. My aim in this chapter is to demonstrate that this particular bias of scholarly attention, although understandable, is unjustified. Of no other dialogue is this truer than of the Ion
Free from chains? Open access at the University of Bolton and beyond [Poster]
No full textThe Open Access movement has gathered momentum in the 12 years that have passed since the Budapest Open Access Initiative of 2002. Then, it was declared that the only barrier to research should be technical barriers to accessing the Internet itself (described in 2002 as “the new technology”). Since then, open access has become more widespread, with a variety of routes to achieve it, and, moreover, in some cases it has become mandatory to engage in open access initiatives.This poster will examine the various models of open access scholarly communication that are available to authors, including depositing in open access repositories such as the University of Bolton Institutional Repository (UBIR), publishing in open access journals and using APC models to engage in open access. The benefits will be presented, as will concerns and issues, which include concerns over the dilution of scholarly communication, copyright concerns and ease of engagement, among others. It will be seen that although these concerns are valid, they are not insurmountable and the discussion of these can aid to enrich and inform the entire process. The various means of making theses open access will be examined, and will include discussion of depositing theses into open access repositories such as the University of Bolton Institutional Repository (UBIR). Use of the British Library EThOS service will also be discussed, as will open access publishing of other types of research
The design of learner-centred, technology-enhanced education
No full textThis dissertation presents a thesis in the form of three analyses to support creative decision making in the design of learner-centred, technology-enhanced education. The thesis was developed through use and improvement in practice over three decades.The dissertation also describes the action research methodological approach & methods employed and explores a framework based on concepts of design, learner, technology as a foundation for framing the thesis. Finally it evidences the claim for an original contribution to knowledge through an annotated selection from a portfolio of practice.The experience gained through increasingly responsible work rôles, in which the author was expected to guide other designers, shaped the articulation of the three analyses which were made for evaluating designs as a springboard for iterative improvement. These analyses are:• an 'expressive constructivist' model of learning; • an account of how technology can support such learning; • a learner-centred breakdown of questions to focus on progress in education more holistically.This thesis arose from growing tacit and experiential understanding and has been informed by a theoretical and conceptual framework based on academic literature. It is argued that the successful application of these analyses in the practice cited has generated the validity of the thesis, and to a limited extent, reliability
Teaching style and attitudes towards Facebook as an educational tool
No full textThere is a distinct lack of research that has considered university staff use of and attitudes towards Facebook. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of how teaching staff at one UK university use Facebook, and their attitudes towards Facebook and online professionalism, in terms of the student–staff relationship. An online survey was developed that included the Principles of Adult Learning Scale to explore whether attitudes towards the use of Facebook as an academic tool differed between teaching staff with a teacher-centred style and teaching staff with a learning-centred style. This article offers insight into teaching staff attitudes towards the use of Facebook in an educational context. The results shed light on whether or not teaching style is related to attitudes towards use. Differences in attitude were found which indicate those with a teacher-centred style do not view online and offline identities blurring as much
Thermal annealing effect on ZnO surface acoustic wave-based ultraviolet light sensors on glass substrates
No full textSurface acoustic wave (SAW) based ultraviolet (UV) light sensors have a high sensitivity and have been extensively studied and explored for application. However, all of them were made of piezoelectric (PE) bulk materials or PE thin films on crystalline substrates such as Si and sapphire. This paper reports the fabrication of ZnO thin film SAW UV-light sensors on glass substrates and the effect of post-deposition thermal annealing on the sensing performance. It was found that annealing at temperatures higher than 300 °C can improve the properties of ZnO films and the sensing performance of the UV-sensors remarkably. When the ZnO film annealed at 400 °C was used for sensors, the UV light induced resonant frequency shift increased more than 20 times with the response speed reduced to less than 2.4 s, much better than those made on ZnO films with lower temperature annealing
The potential of metal oxalates as novel flame retardants and synergists for engineering polymers
No full textBased on their known decomposition to carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and the respective oxide, six metal (calcium, manganese (II), iron (II), copper (II), tin (II) and zinc) were synthesised and assessed for their potential flame retardant activity in the absence and presence of selected flame retardants. Initially they were assessed when impregnated on cotton as a screening process and then selectively compounded with polyamide 6.6 (PA66), as a typical engineering polymer. Only manganese (II) and iron (II) oxalates alone reduced the burning rate of cotton, whereas together with ammonium bromide, calcium and iron (II) oxalates showed an apparent additional burning rate reducing effect. Derived synergistic effectivity (Es) values fall within the limits 0<Es<1 indicating a less than additive interaction.TGA/DTA analysis of oxalate/PA66 blends suggested that only zinc oxalate (ZnOx) offers both possible flame retardant activity in terms of enhanced residue formation ≥500oC, coupled with acceptable stability in molten PA66. When compounded with PA66, in the presence and absence of either aluminium diethyl phosphinate (AlPi)-based or selected polymeric bromine-containing flame retardants, LOI values increased in most PA66/ZnOx/flame retardant blends but UL94 test ratings were disappointingly low and more likely than not, “fails”. PA66/ZnOx blends with AlPi and AlPi/MPP gave poor plaques suggesting that thermal interactions were occurring during compounding.The bromine-containing blends had better processibility and both TGA and cone calorimetric studies showed that the PA66/poly(bromopentabromobenzyl acrylate)/ZnOx sample not only yielded the highest residues in air and nitrogen at 500 and 580oC, but also the lowest peak heat release rate value of 398 compared with 1276 kW/m2 for pure PA66. The derived Es value for this blend is 1.17 suggesting a small level of synergy between the zinc oxalate and poly(pentabromobenzyl acrylate) flame retardant. The possible role of zinc bromide is discussed
Souls great and small: Aristotle on self-knowledge, friendship and civic engagement
No full textAristotle’s portrait of the man of great soul (ho megalopsychos) in both the Eudemian and the Nicomachean Ethics has long perplexed commentators. Although his portrait of the man of small soul (ho mikropsychos) has been all but ignored by commentators, it, too, contains a number of claims that are profoundly counter-intuitive to the modern cast of mind. The paper is an attempt at identifying the nature of the discrepancies between Aristotle’s values and our own, and at placing the ethical claims that he makes on greatness and smallness of soul within the context of his ethics and political philosophy. The Aristotelian man of great-soul, it is here contended, is best understood as a man who assesses external and internal goods, both his own and those of others, at their true value. His overall excellence fits him to play a key political role, not only in states where the principle of distributive justice dictates that the best should rule, but also in states with a democratic constitution, in which citizens take it in turn to rule and be ruled. He is therefore paradigmatically capable of engaging in civic friendship, a relationship that Aristotle left largely undefined in spite of holding it to be a powerfully cohesive force in the state. The man of small-soul, by contrast, is best understood as a man whose disinclination to take risks of any kind makes him reluctant to contribute to the well-being of his city and who, as a result, proves incapable of engaging in civic friendship
High performance textiles for wound care
No full textThis chapter discusses the physiology of wounds and their management. The classification of wounds and appropriate dressing selection for successful wound management are outlined. High-tech wound dressings and the current state-of-the-art novel dressings, such as odour adsorbent and antimicrobial dressings, are critically reviewed. The role of compression therapy in the treatment and prevention of venous leg ulceration is discussed. The merits and limitations of the current compression therapy regime, and research into the development of novel orthopaedic padding and compression bandages, are highlighted