Knowledge Transmission Mechanisms Research Articles

Дистанційні технології в організації асинхронного навчання студентів: виклики, проблеми, рішення

Abstract. New computer technologies, which became the cause of the information revolution in education in the second half of the 20th century, gave impetus to the rapid development of distance learning methods and the formation of the concept of open education. Distance learning at the turn of the second and third millennia became a global phenomenon and significantly changed the structure of education systems in many countries of the world. In the conditions of the information society, during the avalanche-like growth of the amount of knowledge accumulated by mankind, the intensity of updating theoretical provisions, practical information, and experimental results, necessary for use in various spheres of human activity, increases. The objective necessity of development and improvement of knowledge transmission mechanisms, which provide the possibility of continuous training of a large number of people throughout their lives in accordance with the needs of the individual and society, is becoming urgent. The problem of the introduction of remote technologies into the educational process became particularly widespread during the coronavirus pandemic. However, asynchronous distance learning itself became especially relevant with the beginning of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, which led to the restriction of education seekers in access to the Internet, damage to telecommunication networks, lack of electricity supply, mass migration of refugees, the destruction of educational institutions, the involvement of education seekers in the ranks of the territorial defense etc. There was a need to organize the educational process and present educational materials, conduct control measures considering all the circumstances of today. Thus, Sumy State University, with the support of the distance learning MIX platform, organized distance learning for students of physical and technical specialties in synchronous and asynchronous distance format. The work highlights the peculiarities of providing educational services to students with limited access to educational materials (work in an asynchronous format). The article focuses on the issues of training organization, which consider the student's work in an asynchronous format. Explanations are provided for some special aspects of the organization of such training. An analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the chosen form of work was made. The article highlights further directions of work on improvement and optimization of relevant educational materials and forms of their presentation to extend learning in today's difficult conditions. Key words: distance learning, synchronous and asynchronous learning format, MIX distance learning platform, and remote access, mathematical and physical disciplines.

Indigenous knowledge on wild mushrooms in communities bordering miombo woodlands of central Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Apart from timber, fruits, honey, firewood and other benefits from forests, mushrooms are an important forest food resource whose gathering has largely relied on indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). We surveyed five miombo woodland rural communities in central Zimbabwe with respondents of at least 16 years old, focusing on wild mushroom identification criteria used, ethnomycological knowledge transmission mechanisms, known mushroom foragers, known woody species associated with gathered mushrooms, and indigenous mushroom nomenclature systems used. Mushroom cap colour (99.52 %) was of similar importance to use of cap texture (95.78%) but more important (p ≤ .05) than cap shape, or other attributes. Women (69.04%) were more important (p ≤ .05) knowledge transmitters than other family members. Millipedes (91.79%) and insects (83.55%) constituted higher (p ≤ .05) mushroom foraging mention than other invertebrates. Julbernardia globiflora (84.16%) was more favourably mentioned (p ≤ .05) to associate with most mushrooms than other woody species. Mushroom nomenclature largely derived from their morphological traits, texture and habitat. The study demonstrates prevalence of moderately strong IKS and mushroom links to vegetation. These findings will help in ethnomycological research on aspects of miombo mushrooms and any relevant forest policy to benefit rural communities.

Throughout the generations: Learning processes and knowledge transmission mechanisms as reflected in lithic assemblages of the terminal Lower Paleolithic Levant

Social learning and knowledge transmission mechanisms are known to have played a key role in human cultural evolution. Findings from Middle Pleistocene Qesem Cave (420–200 kya) suggest that the cave's inhabitants learned and shared knowledge about stone knapping and other adaptive skills throughout the recurrent human occupation of the cave. Here I present the results of a techno-typological and spatial analysis of over 1000 flint cores originating from 12 distinct lithic assemblages of the cave. I will argue that spatial expressions of clusters of cores reflecting skilled and unskilled knapping enable the characterization of social learning mechanisms practiced by the cave's inhabitants. My analysis suggests that different areas of the cave were dedicated to the initial stages of knapping and to the systematic, high skill production of laminar items. A unique group of cores reflecting both skilled and unskilled knapping was also identified, mainly in the vicinity of the hearth. Forms of learning included trial and error mechanisms and sharing of knowledge. These social learning mechanisms led to high proficiency in stone tool knapping and especially in laminar production – a significant technological innovation in the Levant at the end of the Lower Paleolithic period.

Late lower paleolithic lithic procurement and exploitation strategies: A view from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel)

This study presents patterns of flint acquisition and exploitation, observed through a large-scale study of the lithic assemblages from the Middle Pleistocene Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave (Israel). For this, twelve lithic assemblages from the cave were classified into flint types, based on visual traits. Also, potential flint sources were located, petrographic thin sections of archaeological and geologic samples were analyzed, and geochemical analyses, using both ICP-MS (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and ICP-AES (Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy), were performed. The results show that local Turonian flint was often brought and used at the cave, while flint types from other non-Turonian origins were also used at the site in noteworthy proportions. The results suggest that the availability of desired lithic materials around the cave, and their suitability for the production of specific desired blanks, might have played a role in the decision to settle at the cave. The notable proportions of non-Turonian flint types, often in specific typo-technological categories, demonstrate a consistency in accessing sources containing non-local flint types, and suggest a link between the exploited flint types and the desired tools, most likely due to mechanical and technological needs, but possibly also because of more elusive considerations related to the human factor. The repetition of some of the observed patterns through time implies knowledge transmission mechanisms concerning the distribution of flint sources around the cave, as well as concerning the suitability of specific flint types for the production of specific blanks.

Interpreting the Quina and demi-Quina scrapers from Acheulo-Yabrudian Qesem Cave, Israel: Results of raw materials and functional analyses

Quina scrapers are well-known components of the European Middle Paleolithic Mousterian. A similar production process was detected within the lithic assemblages of the Levantine Acheulo-Yabrudian (∼400–200 ka). This study combines the results of use-wear and raw material analyses of 75 Quina scrapers and 133 demi-Quina scrapers from the Acheulo-Yabrudian site Qesem Cave, Israel, aimed at interpreting the function of Quina and demi-Quina at Qesem Cave, the considerations affecting the lithic choices involved in their production, and the behavioral and evolutionary implications. Each scraper was examined for use-wear and was assigned to a flint type and potential geologic source(s). Our results demonstrate a selective pattern of exploitation of flint which does not originate from the local Turonian outcrops, specifically for the manufacture of Quina and demi-Quina scrapers. This suggests a thoughtful, well-planned effort, taking into consideration the flint traits and future function. This pattern repeats itself throughout time, reflecting a high degree of familiarity with the potential sources located around the cave, implying the existence of knowledge transmission mechanisms concerning the location of specific flint sources and their acquisition methods, as well as concerning exploitation preferences.

Web Knowledge Turbine as a Proposal for Personal and Professional Self-Organisation in Complex Times

This article describes a proposal for sustainable way to adapt to current complex process of global transformation, using the ‘Web Knowledge Turbine' (WKT) as a self-organised ecosystem for the co-creation of personal and collective narratives. The authors contemplate all human social systems as Complex Adaptive Systems with the capacity for self-organisation derived from a permanent learning process. Accordingly, a shift in the focus of teaching programmes from mere mechanisms of knowledge transmission, to a process focused on learning and in particular, a process of self-directed, connected, and deep learning which has at its core the profile of the eLearner as the central protagonist. The cornerstone of this process is a Complex Ecosystem of Personal Knowledge (CEPK) which will support teaching at an undergraduate level, progressively and transversely, from its outset. Considering the classroom as a networked community of learners whose objective is not only to gain a command of a particular subject (WHAT content do they need to learn?), but also HOW and WHY they need to learn it.

Neandertal long bone breakage process: Standardized or random patterns? The example of Abri du Maras (Southeastern France, MIS 3)

The identification of social learning processes and knowledge transmission mechanisms in the archaeological record is a matter currently explored on lithic record but not very often on faunal assemblages. As soon as the Middle Palaeolithic, the uniformity and orientation of cut marks or patterns of bone breakage may represent very useful tools to highlight butchery traditions. Following this line of research, we have tried to identify standardized actions on bones in the process of marrow recovering and therefore butchery cultural learning within Neandertal groups at Abri du Maras (MIS 3, Southeastern France). The detection of culturally-induced patterns involves the discrimination of those generated intuitively, which depend on conditioning factors such as bone density or skeletal morphology. To tackle this issue, we have used a zooarchaeological approach focused on the morphology and location of damage caused during the bone breakage process (percussion marks and scraping marks). We also compare our data with previously published results both at a zooarchaeological and experimental level. Our work indicates that the bone remains from layer 4.1 at Abri du Maras do not reveal standardized patterns of long bone breakage in terms of distribution of impact notches along long bone shafts and then imply two hypotheses: 1) the presence of several groups with various butchery practices during the sedimentary formation and the marked palimpsest character of this layer or 2) the presence of individuals within one single group which do not share similar butchery know-how.

Traditional knowledge and use of wild mushrooms by Mixtecs or Ñuu savi, the people of the rain, from Southeastern Mexico.

BackgroundMexico is an important global reservoir of biological and cultural richness and traditional knowledge of wild mushrooms. However, there is a high risk of loss of this knowledge due to the erosion of traditional human cultures which is related with the rapid acculturation linked to high migration of rural populations to cities and the U.S.A., and the loss of natural ecosystems. The Mixtec people, the third largest native group in Mexico only after the Nahua and the Maya, maintain ancient traditions in the use and knowledge of wild mushrooms. Paradoxically, there are few studies of the Mixtec ethnomycology. This study shows our ethnomycological research, mainly focused on knowledge and use of wild mushrooms in communities of the Mixteca Alta, in southeastern Mexico. We hypothesized that among the studied communities those with a combination of higher vegetation cover of natural pine and oak forests, lower soil erosion and higher economic margination had a greater richness and knowledge of wild mushrooms. Our study therefore aimed to record traditional knowledge, use, nomenclature and classification of wild mushrooms in four Mixtec communities and to analyze how these aspects vary according to environmental and cultural conditions among the studied communities.MethodsIn order to analyze the cultural significance of wild mushrooms for the Mixtec people, 116 non-structured and semi-structured interviews were performed from 2009 to 2014. Information about the identified species, particularly the regional nomenclature and classification, their edibility, toxicity and ludic uses, the habitat of useful mushrooms, traditional recipes and criteria to differentiate between toxic and edible species, and mechanisms of knowledge transmission were studied. The research had the important particularity that the first author is Mixtec, native of the study area. A comparative qualitative analysis between the richness of fungal species used locally and the official information of the natural vegetation cover, soil erosion and economic marginalization in each of the studied communities was conducted.ResultsA total of 106 species of mushrooms were identified growing in pine and oak forest, deciduous tropical forest and grassland; among the identified mushrooms we recorded 26 species locally consumed, 18 considered toxic, 6 having ludic uses and the remaining 56 species not being used in the studied areas but some of them having potential as food (56 species) or medicine (28 species). We recorded that 80, 22 and 4 species are ectomycorrhizal, saprotrophic and parasites, respectively. Our study shows that a complex and accurate knowledge related with the use, nomenclature, classification, ecology, gastronomy of wild mushrooms has been developed by Mixtecs; and that there is a relation between natural vegetation cover, lower soil erosion and higher economic marginalization and richness, knowledge and use of mushrooms in the studied communites.ConclusionOur study showed that conservation and adaptation of ancestral mycological knowledge survives mainly through oral transmition, maintenance of cultural identity, forest protection, preservation native language and also paradoxically through the current socieconomical marginality among the Mixtec people. We also found that those studied communities with a combination of higher vegetation cover of natural pine and oak forests, lower soil erosion and higher economic marginalization showed a greater richness and knowledge of wild mushrooms. Use and sustainable management of wild mushrooms can be an alternative for local integrated development, but local knowledge and traditional worldview should be included into the regional programs of Mixtec biocultural conservation.

Inventing together: exploring the nature of international knowledge spillovers in Latin America

This paper studies the nature, sources and determinants of international patenting activity in Latin American countries (LACs) and examines the extent to which LACs benefit from R&D that is performed in the G-5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States). By using patents and patent citations from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, we trace sectoral knowledge flows from G-5 countries to LACs. We study the impact of three channels of knowledge flows: foreign R&D, patent citation-related spillovers, and face-to-face contact spillovers. Our results, based on data for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, suggest that international knowledge spillovers from the G-5 countries were a significant determinant of inventive activity during the period 1988–2003. We find that the stock of ideas produced in the USA has a strong impact on the international patenting activity of these countries. Moreover, controlling for US-driven R&D effects, bilateral patent citations and face-to-face relationships between inventors are both important additional mechanisms of knowledge transmission. Some of our results suggest that the latter mechanism is more important than the former.

Voluntary technological disclosure as an efficient knowledge management device: An empirical study

This paper investigates three questions related to endogenous information and knowledge disclosure by firms: Which industry sectors are more apt to disclose information and knowledge? Why is such knowledge released? Is knowledge disclosure an efficient strategy? An empirical analysis on four French data sets that focus on appropriation, the practices of innovation, and the related payoffs suggests answers to these questions. A firm with high R&D intensity, from a high-tech sector, participating in R&D partnerships is found to be more likely to engage in disclosure. Firms in the sample were found to ‘leak’ their knowledge to public laboratories to a greater degree than to other private sector firms. Leakage also was found to be associated with improved innovation performance. This research helps broaden the literature on knowledge management practices to include not only the pursuit of formal intellectual property rights such as patents but also less formal inter-organizational knowledge transmission mechanisms.

Industrial districts and innovation: the case of the Spanish ceramic tiles industry

This paper examines the case of the Spanish ceramic tiles industrial district, with special emphasis on collective knowledge creation and innovation processes. Following a brief review of the literature based on industrial district characteristics, a framework with which to guide the empirical research is presented. The framework includes a set of conditions under which knowledge flows across firms' boundaries and how institutions shape knowledge diffusion. These include: (1) firm attributes; (2) the role of local institutions; (3) the importance of the social context; (4) lack of legal protection for innovations; (5) knowledge transmission mechanisms; and (6) specific outcomes of the district. These conditions are illustrated by using a comparative study, of which the key findings are as follows. First, the Spanish ceramic tile industrial district is characterized by small-sized firms, specialization and important product and technological overlaps. Second, there is the important role played by institutions, including academic and research institutions, as well as the relevancy of the social context and the lack of patents and other legal rights. There is also an intensive use of knowledge transmission mechanisms, such as the creation of firms, human resource mobility and informal channels of communication and, finally, a specific district technology and common perception of markets.

Knowledge Spillovers and Local Innovation Systems: A Critical Survey

This paper re-examines critically the growing literature on localized knowledge spillovers (LKSs), and finds the econometric evidence on the subject still lacking a firm theoretical background, especially in relation to the more recent developments in the economics of knowledge. LKSs as externalities are too narrow a concept to embrace the wide variety of knowledge transmission mechanisms that may, or may not, spread ideas and expertise while keeping the diffusion process bounded in space. Copyright 2001 by Oxford University Press.

La géographie des collaborations scientifiques en France : une étude de la structuration des co-publications entre départements

Résumé Aujourd’hui, l’étude du cheminement des flux de connaissances devient de plus en plus importante pour faire apparaître les modes de fonctionnement de la production scientifique et, notamment, pour faire apparaître l’existence ou non d’une limite géographique à la diffusion des externalités technologiques. Cet article présente une étude empirique sur le cas français consistant à retracer la densité des liaisons scientifiques entre départements par le biais d’une méthode originale de structuration que nous avons développée et appliquée à des données de co-publications, puis à confronter la structure scientifique obtenue à la structure géographique des départements.