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‘Datafied dividuals and learnified potentials’: The coloniality of datafication in an era of learnification
Get PDFWidespread popular discourse, at the time of writing, is centring on the capabilities of AI technologies, among others, in utilising the readily available mass of data to augment claimed educational problems. These positions often elide the unobjective nature of algorithms and the socio-politically infused assemblages of data available, situated within the neoliberalist scientism dominating educational policy discourse. The simplicity with which datafication treats education has led to a global culture of data-driven techno-rationality that affords ultra-rapid forms of free-floating control settled on an ideology of dataism. Dataism rests on the assumption that sociality and subjectification can be reduced to quantifiable data whereby the student rather than being treated as a subject comes to be treated as data doppelganger. The injustices inherent in datafication and its associated epistemes ignore hidden neoliberal inequalities and maintain the insidious coloniality inherent in advanced capitalism, while simultaneously fuelling the rapid and cyclical stripping of purpose from education itself. There is a need to problematise the hidden logics of coloniality that are both maintained and reproduced within the datafication agenda. The current article draws on decolonial theory to animate the logics of datafication through a Deleuzian reading, situated within the learnification of neoliberal education
Climate Change is Happening and Humans are Responsible
Get PDFWe know Earth is warming. Clear evidence of warming can be seen in observations of the atmosphere, oceans, ice, and living things. Computer simulations can tell us what the world would have looked like without increases in greenhouse gases and other human influences, and Earth would not have warmed up like we have seen. By comparing the changes scientists have observed to computer simulations of the climate including or excluding various potential causes, scientists can work out what or who is responsible for the climate changes. Again and again, it has been shown that these simulations can only explain observed climate changes when historic emissions of greenhouse gases, principally arising from burning coal, oil, and gas, are included. The best estimate is that all the warming we have observed since 1850–1900 is due to greenhouse gas emissions produced by human activities
Smoothness and covariance structure modelling in Bayesian machine learning models
Get PDFBayesian additive regression trees (BART) is a Bayesian tree-based model which can
provide high predictive accuracy in both classification and regression problems. Within
the Bayesian paradigm, regularisation is achieved by defining priors which ensure that
each tree contributes modestly to the overall ensemble, thereby enhancing generalisation.
Consequently, BART has proven to be very useful in a wide array of applications.
However, the standard BART model is limited in certain respects. This thesis introduces
some novel extensions to the BART framework to address certain key shortcomings. The
inherent lack of smoothness, which is intrinsic to the piecewise-constant nature of the
decision trees, is the motivation behind two of our proposals. The first involves the incorporation
of Gaussian processes while the second uses penalised splines in the terminal
nodes. Both of these novel approaches yield demonstrable improvements from the points
of view of predictive accuracy and uncertainty calibration in extensive simulations and
real-world applications.
Another drawback of the standard BART model is that it is designed for predicting
univariate outcomes. We introduce a third extension to embed BART in the seemingly
unrelated regression framework to deal with multiple outcomes and model the covariance
structure arising from their joint distribution. The method is applied in a causal setting
in order to determine the cost-effectiveness of a novel medical intervention.
The incorporation of penalised splines is designed to introduce smoothness to BART’s
predictions. Concurrently, the extension to model multivariate outcomes within a seemingly
unrelated regression framework enhances BART by structuring the covariance
among responses. The synthesis of Gaussian processes with BART exemplifies this
dual enhancement, simultaneously facilitating smooth predictive surfaces and capturing
structured dependency, although the latter is within the feature space
Code-Red: Young People and their Exposure to Gambling Marketing through Media and Sport on the island of Ireland
Get PDFAcademics from Maynooth University and Ulster University have spent two years examining the exposure of young people on the island of Ireland to gambling marketing content while consuming their favourite sports on television and social media.
The project found that young people who lived on both sides of the border in Ireland were exposed to extremely high levels of gambling marketing when consuming some national and international sporting events. Young people are accessing this content on television but increasingly, and repeatedly over time, via social media on their mobile phones.
The research also found that gambling marketing saturation varies considerably across sports, channels and platforms. Gambling marketing was most prevalent in certain sports but was available both on television and social media at all times of the day.
It is clear that current gambling regulations and approaches in both jurisdictions are ineffective in limiting the exposure of young people to gambling marketing, and its frequency, when sports and media organisations are willing to carry them. Further, the health and community benefits of sport are seriously undermined if those sports are reliant on gambling marketing or gambling revenues.
The report concludes with a number of policy recommendations. The research was funded by the Irish government’s North-South Research Programme
Data mobilities: Rethinking the movement and circulation of digital data
Get PDFThe mobility of data has been variously described as data: flows, streams, journeys, threads,
transfers, exchanges, and circulation. In each case, the mobility of data is conceived as a
movement from here to there; that data moves along a chain of receivers and senders.
However, we contend that the metaphor of a data flow (or stream, journey, etc.) does not
reflect well the sharing and circulation of digital data. Rather, data replicate (copies), with the
original source retaining the data and a new source gaining it, and data proliferates
(multiplies) and diffuses across systems and sites when made openly available. As data
replicate and proliferate they are transformed through processes of data cleaning, data
wrangling, data fusion and enrichment, producing new incarnations of the source data.
Moreover, data does not replicate and diffuse alone, but with companions, such as other data
(e.g., metadata, derived data) and information (e.g., documentation, visualisations). The
replication, proliferation and diffusion of data is facilitated by seams (interface/connection points between systems) and aided by metadata, standards and protocols, and hindered by
frictions and vulnerabilities. We illustrate our argument through a case study of the planning
data ecosystem in Ireland
Data on the saturation behaviour of the 63-90 µm quartz from the Carpathian Basin
Get PDFThis dataset offers valuable insights into the luminescence saturation behaviour of 63–90 μm quartz grains sourced from the Carpathian Basin, as examined under controlled laboratory conditions. Its significance lies not only in shedding light on the luminescence properties specific to this region but also in facilitating comparative analyses with quartz samples from other geographic areas. Moreover, the dataset contributes novel findings to the ongoing investigations concerning the upper dating limit of quartz grains, which holds implications for refining luminescence dating methodologies. Grounded in the framework of several previous studies which underscore the challenges associated with utilizing quartz from certain regions for precise dose measurements,the dataset addresses the crucial aspect of setting upper dose limits for accurate luminescence dating. Consequently, the study conducts a series of tests to assess the proximity of natural sensitivity-corrected luminescence signals to laboratory saturation levels, particularly focusing on quartz samples from the Kisiljevo loess-palaeosol sequence. The dataset includes data from OSL saturation experiments conducted on sample 23019, along with associated calculations encompassing all 19 collected samples. This comprehensive serves as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners engaged in luminescence dating studies, offering detailed insights into saturation behaviours and dose-response characteristics of quartz grains from the Carpathian Basin. Beyond its immediate research implications, the dataset holds significant potential for reuse in various contexts. Researchers exploring luminescence properties of geological materials, particularly quartz grains, can leverage this dataset to compare saturation behaviours across different regions, thus enriching our understanding of luminescence dating methodologies on a broader scale. Additionally, the dataset could inform future studies on refining dose limits and calibration protocols, ultimately enhancing the accuracy and reliability of luminescence dating techniques. In summary, this dataset not only advances our understanding of luminescence saturation behaviours in quartz grains from the Carpathian Basin but also fosters collaborative research efforts aimed at refining luminescence dating methodologies and addressing broader questions in geochronology and palaeoenvironmental studies
A Formative Study Towards the Inclusion of Indigenous Technologies and Knowledge Practices in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) Curriculum Settings
Get PDFThis work on STEAM and education for sustainable development was undertaken across a series of collaborative case studies as formative research on the inclusion of Indigenous technologies and knowledge practices in teacher education. We noted that, despite the current academic imperative to decolonise southern African education, one seldom finds the inclusion of Indigenous technologies and Indigenous heritage practices in the contemporary classroom. Teachers we worked with were highly interested in their Indigenous knowledge heritage. Yet, they reported that they, and the young teachers they work with, simply do not have the heritage knowledge capital to include Indigenous knowledge systems in their teaching. Other challenges they face are the time it takes to engage community knowledge holders, and to find knowledge relating to school subject disciplines. The teachers observed that students prioritise modernity over Indigenous heritage and technologies, often undervaluing the latter as a forgotten past. Three exploratory cases delved into teacher education's response to challenges through co-engaged work, and this paper synthesises the emerging evidence-aiming to refine pedagogical tools for integrating Indigenous knowledge into STEAM education. A cultural-historical approach was used to frame the study and to derive insights and inferences in co-engaged lesson design research with teachers
Identification of the Storegga event offshore Shetland
Get PDFThe Shetland Islands (UK) are a seminal location for investigating palaeo-tsunami deposits. Onshore evidence suggests three tsunami have occurred during the Holocene: the Storegga tsunami ca. 8150 cal yr BP, the Garth tsunami ca. 5500 cal yr BP and the Dury Voe tsunami ca. 1500 cal yr BP. However, little research has been published on the impact of tsunami on the subtidal shelf where a large amount of North Sea hydrocarbon infrastructure is located. Here, we test the hypothesis that Holocene tsunami impacted shelf sediments, using radiocarbon dating and sedimentological characterization of cores recovered from the Fetlar Basin, offshore east Shetland. The cores contain distinct sand and shell lenses within a Holocene mud sequence, indicating a sudden change in hydrodynamic conditions. Radiocarbon dates bracketing the sand lenses overlap with the published dates for the Storegga event. Dates within the deposit are older (>9 cal. yr BP) which is consistent with reworking and redeposition of earlier sediments. Particle size analysis, ITRAX and MSCL data evidence increases in mean grain size, a reduction in sorting capacity, increased shell concentrations and peaks in associated elements (log(Ca/Fe), log(Ca/Ti) and Sr). These attributes indicate transport of allochthonous material from the inner shelf, and are typical of tsunami backwash-generated submarine debris flows. No evidence was found within the cores for any later Holocene tsunami, which may be due to either bioturbation, active currents, or lack of an initial deposit. The disturbance of sediments, and generation of a submarine debris flow within the Fetlar Basin by the Storegga event highlights the need to assess the potential impact of any future tsunami on planned and existing infrastructure at seabed. Erosion and deposition of allochthonous older marine sediment by the Storegga event also has consequence for interpretation of the coeval 8.2 ka cold event in marine sedimentary records in the tsunami affected region
How can we research social movements? An introduction
Get PDFThis introductory chapter is written for beginning researchers, whether in movements or universities, for people from non-traditional academic backgrounds and non-native English speakers. We share some of our own complicated and messy routes to movement research. We also explain why researching social movements matters, and how it can genuinely help movements. This is the first methods handbook for movement researchers that takes a genuinely global perspective, rather than focussing on researchers and movements in the global North. Understanding movements means not being restricted to knowing about one movement or one academic discipline. The chapter introduces the book’s themes - the methodologies and politics of knowledge of movement research; different methods of data collection/analysis; and the uses of research for movements - followed by a chapter-by-chapter overview, highlighting the specific movements studied. The chapter concludes with reflections on the future of social movements research and a call for solidarity