Learning | Jotup

What cities can learn from Seattle’s racial and social justice law

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Racism, Health, Culture, Learning, United States census, Social justice, Research, Policy, University, Native, Civil and political rights, Woman, City, Social, Housing, Government, Frustration

In this landscape, Seattle is marking a milestone of sorts – the first anniversary of adopting its Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance.

Key Points:

In this landscape, Seattle is marking a milestone of sorts – the first anniversary of adopting its Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance.
Other cities have adopted equity-focused policies for specific programs related to housing access or police conduct, for example.
Based on our current and recent research as scholars of urban policy, Seattle’s race and social justice law offers critical lessons for other cities looking to create more equitable places.
It’s our belief that more commitments like Seattle’s are needed if the U.S. is to make substantive progress on racial equity.

Developing the Race and Social Justice Initiative

Seattle’s persistent racial wealth and income gap – and its impact on housing, health, education outcomes and other significant social components of daily life – was part of the reason that Seattle officials launched the Race and Social Justice Initiative 20 years ago.
Then-Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels called for the development of the initiative after learning more about how race impacted people’s experiences in Seattle.
A critical part of the Race and Social Justice Initiative has been creating professional development trainings to ensure common understandings of how racism affects city government.

Seattle’s racial justice commitment

Another way racial justice efforts are integrated throughout Seattle’s city government is with step-by-step guides that show how to put racial equity into practice.
In April 2023, a former white municipal government employee sued the city because of alleged racial harassment.
Other community members have voiced frustration with the differences between the daily discrimination experienced by people of color and the stated commitment from city officials for racial justice.

Lessons for other cities

This has been possible through a 20-year commitment to create a culture that makes achieving equity integral to city government.
Working to end institutional racism is part of every employee’s job and the functioning of municipal government.
What Seattle officials have learned is that robust professional development trainings for employees create common understandings and shared knowledge.

Instead, it is a central part of how all decisions are made in city government.
Finally, and arguably most important, we recognize the uniqueness of different cities and towns and caution against the impulse to wholesale copy Seattle’s efforts.
Crafting and sustaining municipal programs that focus on racial equity is possible for cities seeking a more just future.

This research included interviewing government employees and community members, gathering data in the municipal archives, and conducting participant observation.
Houston and Trudeau maintain a commitment to the highest ethical and academic standards.

MeerKAT: the South African radio telescope that’s transformed our understanding of the cosmos

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

In the heart of this landscape, near the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory operates a technological marvel that has transformed our understanding of the cosmos.

Key Points:

In the heart of this landscape, near the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory operates a technological marvel that has transformed our understanding of the cosmos.
The MeerKAT radio telescope has unlocked cosmic mysteries.
Read more:
How the SKA telescope is boosting South Africa's knowledge economy
Over the past five years, MeerKAT has made remarkable contributions to both South African and international science.
Here are just four of MeerKAT’s major breakthroughs that I’ve been involved in, and why the findings matter for our understanding of the Universe.

Fascinating findings

This allowed our team to see for the first time magnetic filaments that surround the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy.
A supermassive black hole is an extremely dense object with the mass of a million suns.
The research provided valuable insights into the dynamic processes that shape the galactic environment.
The Laduma, Mightee and Mhongoose surveys aim to map the distribution of galaxies and neutral hydrogen gas.

Growth and learning

Members of local communities around the site have been employed during both the construction and operation stages.
Engagements with those communities, and particularly with schools in the area, are breaking down barriers to participation in astronomy.
For instance, I have been able to collaborate with astronomers from the UK, Australia, the Netherlands and the US.

Ed Elson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Young people in Britain aren’t bad at learning languages – but the school system doesn’t make it easy for them

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Immersion, Multilingualism, Motivation, Learning, Environment, Climate, Research, University, Politico, Student, Brexit, Curriculum, Language, Linguistics, Government

But are the British really bad at learning foreign languages?

Key Points:

But are the British really bad at learning foreign languages?
This comparatively short period of formal language learning is likely to have a substantial impact on language attainment amongst school leavers.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have native languages which are taught both as second languages and through bilingual or immersion schooling.
UK students’ learning of these native languages shows that when given significant exposure to a language, they can achieve fluency.

Choosing to learn

Another factor to consider is why students learn languages, and how this affects their achievement.
There will certainly be young people who feel that language learning is something they have to do, rather than something they want to take part in.
However, other students are motivated to learn languages which they feel a personal connection to or see personal value in.

English has become a global lingua franca, and consequently Anglophones can feel like foreign language skills are less needed.
This also means that English language skills are a useful extra for many people around the world and allow them to get by in many countries – that’s a strong motivation to learn.
Read more:
The UK is poorer without Erasmus – it's time to rejoin the European exchange programme
There is no evidence that British young people have an inability to learn foreign languages.

Abigail Parrish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

What doesn’t kill you makes for a great story – two new memoirs examine the risky side of life

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

HR, Head, Excitable Boy, Monster Energy, Progressivism, Face, Human, Learning, Risk, Memory, Name, Essay, Shock, Education, Travel, Angel, Diary, Politics, Commodore, Bucking horse, Life, Student, Eye, Adolescence, Datsun, Woman, Male, Sydney University Dramatic Society, Peisley, Hachette, Embarrassment, System, Mouth, Injection, Catharsis, Collection, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Instinct, Virtue, Hand, Syndrome, Fear, State, Book

She questions whether women like herself – that is, the well-educated, sexually liberated beneficiaries of second-wave feminism – are really better off than their 1940s counterparts.

Key Points:

She questions whether women like herself – that is, the well-educated, sexually liberated beneficiaries of second-wave feminism – are really better off than their 1940s counterparts.
But it isn’t quite the avant-garde art crowd looking for anonymous vaginas to cast in their latest 16mm masterpieces either.

Reconstructed from the travel diary the author kept at the time, the adventure is everything you could possibly hope for in a road trip – provided you (or your daughter) aren’t the one taking it.
Datsun Angel proves the old adage about time and tragedy making for champagne comedy.
It self-consciously situates itself as a cross between the substance-induced exuberance of Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, and the provincially impassioned politics of Australian novelist Xavier Herbert.

For all her progressivism, there is a note of nostalgia ringing through Broinowski’s recollections.
Datsun Angel harks back to a looser – dare I say, more enjoyable – university experience.
The narrative promises, against well-intentioned assurances to the contrary, that what doesn’t kill you will, at the very least, make for a good story later on.
Broinowski goes part way towards acknowledging as much when she ends her postscript with: “If you’re male and reading this, kudos.

Detachment

Let me borrow one instead from the middle-aged Elmore Leonard fan whom Gordon encounters in the State Library Victoria early in the book: “dickhead”.
Yes, that about captures it: the protagonist of Excitable Boy is an unequivocal, grade-A dickhead.
Fortunately for Gordon (and dickheads more generally), the affliction may be chronic, but it need not be terminal.
This denotes an overriding structure or cohesion that I felt somewhat lacking from the work as a whole.

Detachment characterises much of Gordon’s storytelling as he kicks his younger self around the back alleys of Melbourne like a half-squashed can of Monster Energy Drink.
To be honest, I still haven’t made my mind up if Gordon’s aversion to Aristotelian catharsis is one of the book’s virtues or vices.
Detail has to be controlled by some overall purpose, and every detail has to be put to work for you.
Detail has to be controlled by some overall purpose, and every detail has to be put to work for you.
It is often difficult to gauge what overall purpose the details are serving in these essays, beyond fidelity to memory.

Luke Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Christine Lagarde: Unlocking the power of ideas

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

CHIPS, Reproduction, International Energy Agency, Friends, Face, Learning, Theodore Roosevelt, CIT, The New York Times, Printing, History, Pleasure, Commerce Clause, Frankfurt, Artificial intelligence, Commerce, Wine, Congo, European Commission, Rail transport by country, USD, Inflation, Courage, Speech, Congress, Liberty, Hidden champions, ECB, Gibbons v. Ogden, Shock, Diffusion, Observation, Communication, International Monetary Fund, Ambition, GDP, Coal, IEA, McKinsey & Company, Electricity, EDS, European University Institute, Public policy, CHIPS and Science Act, Research, News, AI, EMU, Competition (economics), Robotics, Oxford University Press, Single market, Machine learning, Book, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Solow–Swan model, European Central Bank, Democratic republic, Brain, Growth, Brookings Institution, European Council, Supreme, Steel, Natural Resources, Society, University of Chicago Press, Literacy, Necessary, Life, Diplomacy, Heart, Optimism, Economic growth, European Investment Fund, Renewable energy

Since 2022 rising housing costs have, on average, largely been offset by growth in household income, leading to stable housing cost to household income ratios.

Key Points:

Since 2022 rising housing costs have, on average, largely been offset by growth in household income, leading to stable housing cost to household income ratios.
The housing cost burden has, however, increased slightly for both renter and mortgage households at the upper end of the income distribution.

Many prisoners go years without touching a smartphone. It means they struggle to navigate life on the outside

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

Interview, Health, Crime, COVID, Face, Learning, Survival, Digital, NSW, Unemployment, Risk, Prison, Education, Ageing, Prisoner, Mortality, Recidivism, Social isolation, Literacy, Anxiety, Food, Male, Rehabilitation, MyGov, Nursing

You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy.

Key Points:

You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy.
We need only to look back ten years to realise how quickly things have changed.
In 2013, we were still predominantly buying paper bus tickets and using Facebook on a desktop computer.

Unfamiliar tech damaging confidence

Prison populations are getting older worldwide for a few reasons, including general population ageing, trends towards people entering prison at an older age, or staying in for longer. At the same time, Australian prisons remain highly technologically restricted environments, mostly for security reasons. We interviewed 15 Australians (aged 47–69 years) about their experiences of reintegration following release from prison.

They described feeling like a stranger thrown into a world where survival depended on their ability to use technology.
Regardless of their experiences before imprisonment, the rapid digitisation of daily functions that were once familiar to them rendered their skills and confidence irrelevant.
One former inmate said:
There’s a significant gap […] for anybody who’s done, I’m gonna say, probably more than five to seven years [in prison].
There’s a significant gap […] for anybody who’s done, I’m gonna say, probably more than five to seven years [in prison].

Exacerbating recidivism

There’s concerning evidence around recidivism, risk of post-release mortality, social isolation, unemployment and homelessness.
Digital exclusion creates an additional barrier for those who are older, who already face a high risk of medical and social marginalisation.
A former prisoner said:
Think about it, after being in ten years, well you think, okay, where do I start?

What can be done?

The interviewees provided suggestions for how such programs could be delivered and a keenness to engage with them.
They tended to focus on learning in environments free from stigma and judgement of their literacy level or histories, with hands-on experience and face to face support.
Interviewees favoured learning while in prison, with additional support available on the outside.
Based on the evidence, we can be certain this will encourage positive change for the 95% of Australian prisoners who will eventually be released.

Ye In (Jane) Hwang has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, the Australian Association of Gerontology, and the University of New South Wales Ageing Futures Institute for this work.

The UK is poorer without Erasmus – it’s time to rejoin the European exchange programme

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 19, 2024

Education, University, Learning, Communication, Empathy, International, Research, United, Student, Language, Hand, Tourism

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Erasmus+ scheme – a reciprocal exchange process that let UK students study at European universities, and European students come to the UK – is again under the spotlight.

Key Points:

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Erasmus+ scheme – a reciprocal exchange process that let UK students study at European universities, and European students come to the UK – is again under the spotlight.
The scope of the Turing scheme is more narrow, as it focuses on outbound mobility from the UK rather than reciprocal exchanges.
Participating in international exchange programmes offers a plethora of benefits, ranging from personal growth to academic enrichment and professional development.
I can attest to its profound role in shaping well-rounded individuals equipped with the skills to thrive in today’s interconnected world.

Benefits on both sides

There are many benefits enjoyed by students participating in international exchange programmes.
But welcoming international exchange students to UK campuses also offers huge advantages to universities and broader society.
International exchange students bring with them unique perspectives, skills and experiences that enrich the learning environment for everyone.
Language learning and international mobility go hand in hand in fostering essential qualities such as curiosity, empathy and effective communication.

Halting decline

The ongoing decline in language learning in the UK is concerning.
Academics and teachers are trying to address this and have been creating initiatives to re-think how we approach language teaching.
To truly ensure equitable access to language learning, further investment is needed, coupled with a renewed commitment to international mobility.

Sascha Stollhans is affiliated with the Linguistics in Modern Foreign Languages project. The related research mentioned in the article was funded by Language Acts and Worldmaking, part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Open World Research Initiative, an Impact Accelerator Grant from the University of Bristol and a Research Start-up Grant from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Newcastle University.

Falls, fractures and self-harm: 4 charts on how kids’ injury risk changes over time and differs for boys and girls

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Giant, Injury, Health, Psychological abuse, Disability, Attention, Burns, Drowning, Arm, Growth, Sport, Learning, Caregiver, Risk, Ageing, Knowledge, Fracture, Aborigine, Child, Death, Choking, Crash, Head Injuries, Asphyxia, Adolescence, Safety, Government, Parent, Violence, Assault, Toy

At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related.

Key Points:

At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related.
Injuries can be unintentional (falls, road crashes, drowning, burns) or intentional (self harm, violence, assault).
The type, place and cause of injury differs by age, developmental stage and sex.

children aged 1–4 years are the age group most likely to present to an emergency department with injuries
adolescents aged 16–18 years are the age group most likely to be admitted to hospital for injuries
boys are more likely to be hospitalised for injuries than girls. This continues into adulthood
girls are five times more likely to be hospitalised for intentional self-harm injuries than boys
falls are the leading cause of childhood injury, accounting for one in three child injury hospitalisations. Falls from playground equipment are the most common
fractures are the most common type of childhood injury, especially arm and wrist fractures in children aged 10–12 years.

For children under age one, drowning, burns, choking and suffocation had the highest injury hospital admission rates compared to adults.
In early childhood (ages 1-4 years), the highest causes of injury hospitalisation were drowning, burns, choking and suffocation and accidental poisoning.

What about sports?

Cycling causes the highest number of sporting injuries with almost 3,000 injury hospital presentations.
For the top 20 sports that are most likely to cause injury hospital admissions, fractures are the most common type of injury.
How to spot a serious injury now school and sport are back

Balancing risk and safety

To prevent injuries, we need to balance risk and safety.
Embracing risk is a fundamental part of play in all environments where children play and explore their world.
But with proper guidance and supervision from parents and caregivers, we can strike a balance between offering opportunities for risk-taking and ensuring children’s safety from serious harm.

What can governments do to prevent injuries?

This will provide clear guidance for all levels of government and others on prevention strategies and investment needed.
Better reporting on childhood and adolescent injury trends will better inform parents, caregivers, teachers and health professionals about the risks.

She is currently undertaking a project specific short term contract at the AIHW, in the Family and Domestic Violence Unit.
Dr Sharwood is recognised as a Professional Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering and IT, UTS, for her industry expertise in product related injuries.
Warwick Teague is Director of Trauma and Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (RCH).

Visualising the 1800s or designing wedding invitations: 6 ways you can use AI beyond generating text

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text.

Key Points:

Many people are now using AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to get advice, find information or summarise longer passages of text.
But our recent research demonstrates how generative AI can be used for much more than this, returning results in different formats.
On the one hand, AI tools are neutral – they can be used for good or ill depending on one’s intent.

1. Imagining what lies beyond the frame

Adobe’s recently developed “generative expand” tool allows users to expand the canvas of their photos and have Photoshop “imagine” what is happening beyond the frame.
You might do this when trying to edit a square Instagram photo to fit a 4x6 inch photo frame.

2. Visualising the past or the future

Photography was only invented within the past 200 years, and camera-equipped smartphones within the last 25.
That leaves us with plenty of things that existed before cameras were common, yet we might want to visualise them.
NASA currently works with artists to illustrate concepts we can’t see, but artists could also draw on AI to help create these renderings.

3. Brainstorming how to visualise difficult concepts

As one of the deepest places on Earth, few people have ever seen it firsthand.
Or creating a layered illustration that shows the flora and fauna that live at each of the ocean’s five zones above the trench.

4. Visualising data

For example, you might upload a spreadsheet to ChatGPT 4 and ask it to visualise the results.
Or, if the data is already publicly available (such as Earth’s population over time), you might ask a chatbot to visualise it without even having to supply a spreadsheet.

5. Creating simple moving images

You can create a simple yet effective animation by uploading a photo to an AI tool like Runway and giving it an animation command, such as zooming in, zooming out or tracking from left to right. That’s what I’ve done with this historical photo preserved by the State Library of Western Australia.

I used this description to create the following video:
Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan.
Tracking shot from left to right of the snowy mountains of Nagano, Japan.

6. Generating a colour palette or simple graphics

In these cases, having a consistent colour palette can help unify your design.
You can ask generative AI services like Midjourney or Gemini to create a colour palette for you based on the event or its vibe.
This is true for both browser-based generators like Adobe Firefly, as well as desktop apps with built-in AI, like Adobe Illustrator.

T.J. Thomson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is an affiliate with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making & Society.

Hard work and happy accidents: why do so many of us prefer ‘difficult’ analogue technology?

Retrieved on:

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.

Key Points:

Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
(From Michael’s fieldnotes)
I finally locate the legendary Schneiders Buero, a shop selling analogue synthesizers in Berlin’s Kotti neighbourhood.
Up two flights of stairs, the music machinery on offer includes brands such as Moog and Buchla, as well as modern euro-racks.
(From Michael’s fieldnotes) As academics who rarely go a day without playing or making music, we have spent the past decade examining the extraordinary revival of analogue technology.
This means there are now more analogue options available than at any time since the 1970s, the heyday of the modular format.

The appeal of the slow

So we dived in.
Eventually, these forays became our formal research project, which has included visiting record fairs and conventions around the world, going on photowalks and attending listening evenings, and meeting an array of diehard analogue communities both on and off line.

The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.
And we expect interest in such experiences to rise exponentially in coming years.
Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.
Recognising our existential need to occasionally slow down can be the basis for winning consumer strategies.

Saved from demolition

Rather than nostalgia, they are turning to film because of its aesthetic values and a greater sense of creative control over their photos.
In response, venerable brands including Kodak, Polaroid and Leica have re-emerged – in some cases, almost from the dead.
We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
We literally saved it from demolition at the very last second in 2008.
He said luxury brands such as Gucci are particularly keen on using film photography as this gives their promotional material a different look.

Work, effort, meaning

When it was conceded that digital probably was better for wildlife photography, James cut in:
That’s to miss the point!
The sound might be better but you miss seeing the work that went into the performance, the effort of the players and their crew.
Work, effort, meaning – these ideas are all interconnected for users and consumers of analogue technology.
However, when asked to compare the two, they talk about the greater weight and meaning they give to their analogue experiences.
I think it is the quality of the human voice; it does feel more like someone’s speaking to me.

And part of what makes this possible is the process of analogue recording, in which all the sounds being made, including the unscripted noise of the recording process itself, are captured in the final track.
To facilitate this sound, some musicians have even started setting up their own pressing plants, such as Jack White’s Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

The joy of happy accidents

Half of what you do trying to make music is like a happy accident that ends up sounding better than what you intended.
When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
When we started, we didn’t have that technology, so we made mistakes and some of them were happy accidents, resulting in iconic tracks.
It’s these happy accidents that we love.
It’s these happy accidents that we love.
For example, the opening bass part of Cannonball, the 1993 song by US Indie band the Breeders, accidentally starts in a different key.
Bass player Josephine Wiggs began playing the riff one step down, then fixed it when the drums came in.

Digital technology is de-skilling us

Over the decade or so of our research, explanations for the analogue revival have shifted from nostalgia, to the desire for something physical in a digital age, to the sense that analogue technology is creatively preferable.
Is digital technology de-skilling consumers, leading to a sense of alienation?
Using analogue technology is another way consumers can feed this desire to re-skill.
Rob told us how his love of music had turned sour with the “sheer ease” of digital, starting with CDs and the MP3 player – and how vinyl had reinvigorated him.
For him, the problem came when listening on digital devices without the “sides” of vinyl albums, and then on music streaming platforms whose digital algorithms preference popular tracks.

‘This song sucks’

These are the people who want to stretch and break the rules and trigger the happy accidents that create something altogether new.
For example, photographers who seek more creative expressions by pre-soaking or “souping” their camera film in lemon juice, coffee, beer, or even burning it.
And among this group, connecting digital and analogue technology is also common – combining two completely different systems to generate even more possibilities.
Film director Denis Villeneuve’s first instalment of Dune (2021) was initially shot on digital, then transferred to film, before being re-digitised.
By combining the two, Villeneuve got a film that, in his words, has a “more timeless, painterly feel”.

For you: more from our Insights series:
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy

The artist formerly known as Camille – Prince’s lost album ‘comes out’

Beatrix Potter’s famous tales are rooted in stories told by enslaved Africans – but she was very quiet about their origins

To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. Subscribe to our newsletter.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.