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Gaat Apple het Smart in Smartphone herdefiniëren?

Brave New Screens: Soma, FOMO, and Friendly Fascism after 1984

Super Bowl commercials teach us how to conceive of surveillance. While Apple promises to fight Big Brother with a personal computer, Coca-Cola invites us to think different, i.e. positively about security cameras. The whitewashing of surveillance accompanies the ‘big brotherization’ of Apple. However, the whitewashing may only be a distraction from another more subtle, more effective (and after all more amusing) progression towards a dystopian future: the constant sharing without friction and language and thus without the distance that would allow for reflection and critical thinking. In this essay, I discuss the symbolic value of the year 1984 and its link to the ongoing move from lingual to visual communication. It underlines that the television screen or smartphone is the sibling of the surveillance camera and shows why the dystopian future we fear won’t be like George Orwell’s 1984 or Anthony Burgess’ 1985.

Reliability and validity of ten consumer activity trackers depend on walking speed

Purpose: To examine the test–retest reliability and validity of ten activity trackers for step counting at three different walking speeds. Methods:Thirty-one healthy participants walked twice on a treadmill for 30 min while wearing 10 activity trackers (Polar Loop, GarminVivosmart, Fitbit Charge HR, Apple Watch Sport, Pebble Smartwatch, Samsung Gear S, Misfit Flash, Jawbone Up Move, Flyfit, andMoves). Participants walked three walking speeds for 10 min each; slow (3.2 kmIhj1), average (4.8 kmIhj1), and vigorous (6.4 kmIhj1).To measure test–retest reliability, intraclass correlations (ICC) were determined between the first and second treadmill test. Validity wasdetermined by comparing the trackers with the gold standard (hand counting), using mean differences, mean absolute percentage errors,and ICC. Statistical differences were calculated by paired-sample t tests, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and by constructing Bland–Altmanplots. Results: Test–retest reliability varied with ICC ranging from j0.02 to 0.97. Validity varied between trackers and different walkingspeeds with mean differences between the gold standard and activity trackers ranging from 0.0 to 26.4%. Most trackers showed relativelylow ICC and broad limits of agreement of the Bland–Altman plots at the different speeds. For the slow walking speed, the GarminVivosmart and Fitbit Charge HR showed the most accurate results. The Garmin Vivosmart and Apple Watch Sport demonstrated the bestaccuracy at an average walking speed. For vigorous walking, the Apple Watch Sport, Pebble Smartwatch, and Samsung Gear S exhibitedthe most accurate results. Conclusion: Test–retest reliability and validity of activity trackers depends on walking speed. In general,consumer activity trackers perform better at an average and vigorous walking speed than at a slower walking speed.

Europe Calling: A New Definition for Internationalization at Home

The increasing importance of the concept of internationalization at home is not only manifest in the educational policy of the European Commission, in emerging national policies and in institutional policies of European higher education institutions (HEIs), but most of all in educational practice.Since the existing definition of internationalization at home does not offer much support for those who are working on its implementation, the authors have proposed a new definition that hopefully contributes to lifting the ‘conceptual fog’ that surrounds the internationalization of learning and teaching. The new definition may also help to reach a common understanding of the concept when academics, the key actors in the internationalization of teaching and learning, are joined by both educational and internationalization experts. After all, their joint expertise is needed to build the international and intercultural dimensions of programs of study.

Archiving should be just like an Apple(tm)’, en acht andere, nuttige (?) stellingen.

Geert-Jan van Bussel, bijzonder lector Digital Archiving & Compliance, sprak op dinsdag 16 oktober 2012 zijn lectorale rede uit in het Kohnstammzaal. Van Bussel sprak over de betrouwbaarheid van informatie en de manieren waarop ‘Digital Archiving’ en ‘Compliance’ de informatiestromen in organisaties besturen.

Res Publica ex Machina: On Neocybernetic Governance and the End of Politics

In 2017, Denmark sent the first digital ambassador, Casper Klynge, to Silicon Valley. The aim of this move of ‘techplomacy’ was, as Klynge explained, not simply to distribute greetings notes by the Danish queen. Rather, the intention was to ‘update diplomacy’ based on the recognition that a few tech companies have obviously become much ‘more influential than some nation states’. Klynge framed the new political course in the manner of a well-known old but still utterly contemporary mantra: ‘There is no alternative’. In a similar vein, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Anders Samuelson highlighted the importance of the step as follows: ‘Just as we engage in a diplomatic dialogue with countries, we also need to establish and prioritize comprehensive relations with tech actors, such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and so on. (…) The idea is, we see a lot of companies and new technologies that will in many ways involve and be part of everyday life of citizens in Denmark.'