Engineering and Technology - OU Community Online

Around the world there are a number of professions in high demand. The BBC Business website has compiled a list of the top 20 most wanted professions internationally, and the countries that want them.

The list includes psychologists, physiotherapists and chefs, and there are case studies.

Is your profession there? Check it out on Global migrants: Which is the most wanted profession?

The forum, which will run from Monday 8 April to Friday 3 May 2013 will be moderated by a careers adviser, and each week there will be a number of people participating from the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Network (STEMNET) Ambassadors Scheme. These are people who work in the STEM sectors, and who give their time to help students studying those subjects to find out more about the career opportunities available.

This is a unique opportunity we have organised for Open University students, so we encourage you to make the most of the chance to draw on the advice and information that will be available to you.

Questions can be on any topic related to your career planning e.g.

• What career options are available with a degree in a STEM subject?
• How can I get work experience?
• What are the benefits of further study?
• Is age a problem for career changers?
• Where can I find job vacancies?

To access the forum go to the Careers Workspace on or after 8th April using your OU computer username and password.  After the forum closes the content will be available in read-only format for a further year.

 Posted 27 March 2013

Researchers at The Open University have developed a new way of understanding what happens when atoms cool, which could lead to new materials for superconducting power grids and magnetic resonance imaging.

Superconductors are materials with no electrical resistance, which means they can transmit electrical current with no energy loss. But they require very low temperatures to work.

In their paper, Bilayers of Rydberg atoms as a quantum simulator for unconventional superconductors, published in Physical Review Letters, Dr Jim Hague and Dr Calum McCormick in The Open University’s Department of Physical Sciences describe a new method to understand the cooling of atoms, by simulating the behaviour of a superconductor using a "quantum simulator", a kind of bespoke quantum computer for examining specific problems.

The researchers found that such a simulator can be built to examine atoms cooled to just a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. The atoms are controlled using laser beams which enhance the electrical forces between the atoms, which are usually weak and unimportant.

These forces mimic the physics of the superconductor, and the proposed simulator includes far more physical detail than ever before.

“By studying the atoms in the quantum simulator, we expect that it will be possible to make major progress in unravelling the underlying theory of these fascinating materials, said Dr Hague.

"A superconductor operating close to room temperature would offer potentially revolutionary technology.”

Read the research on Open University Online

A new research paper Talk Factory: Supporting 'exploratory talk' around an interactive whiteboard in primary school science plenaries has been produced by Dr Lucinda Kerawalla, Lecturer in Childhood and Youth Studies in the OU’s Faculty of Education and Language Studies, following the creation of a new piece of classroom software called Talk Factory.

Dr Kerawalla, together with colleagues Professor Eileen Scanlon and Dr Marilena Petrou, designed Talk Factory as a tool which teachers and students can use to support their understanding of the useful features of classroom discussions, and to provide immediate feedback on how well each child is contributing.

The technological support of classroom plenaries has remained relatively unexplored until now. By using Talk Factory, children can learn how to problem solve through dialogue with each other, using ‘prompts’ on an interactive whiteboard rather than simply responding to questions from the teacher. Talk Factory can put children in the driving seat while their teacher becomes a facilitator.

Positive, managed and measured
Dr Kerawalla explains: “A dialogic approach to teaching, focusing on the development of children’s oracy throughout all curriculum subject areas, is very much on the agenda at the moment but shifting teaching styles and the student’s responses towards this approach can be extremely challenging for any teacher or school. This is where Talk Factory comes in, software designed to help teachers encourage debate and conjecture and problem solving in their classrooms in a positive, managed and measured way.”

Then, as the class begins to discuss a topic, the teacher will record their progress by tapping on the rules displayed on the  interactive whiteboard, effectively evaluating how each child’s utterance contributes to the overall discussion (in line with the above rules) and facilitating reminders to pupils of the rules that will help them discuss more positively and constructively. This in turn generates real time graphical representations of the content of students' whole class discussions in, for example, a bar chart, which teachers and pupils can use to help them evaluate how well they are doing, and make any adjustments if necessary.

Dr Kerawalla adds: “The public and dynamically-evolving nature of the graphical representations on the classroom whiteboard means that this can be used by students to elicit instant feedback on their conversations. In this way, the teachers’ use of Talk Factory plays a central role in opening up a dialogic space where ideas could be put forward, respected, scrutinised and challenged in a supportive discursive environment.

"Overall, where Talk Factory was used in the recent study, we found that teachers adopted a more facilitative role focussing on prompting students for explanatory responses and drawing students into the debate, rather than taking a lead role in steering the direction of the dialogue towards the production of outcomes set by themselves.”

'Dramatic leap in self-realisation'
The Talk Factory software was showcased at an Open University/UK Literacy Association (UKLA) workshop in 2011 and as a result new versions, designed to support discussion in any subject area, have already been adopted by Cornwall Learning and is in use in primary and secondary school throughout Cornwall.

Katie Fitzsimmons, Assistant Head Teacher at Fowey Community College in Cornwall, has supported the development of Talk Factory in classrooms, working with it across a range of subjects from maths to geography.  She says this was done through the explicit teaching of rules for group talking supported by the Talk Factory software.

She said: “Talk Factory yielded some excellent results in engaging our students in more effective talking in lessons. This in turn has enabled students to see how they can expand their written responses and build on input from others in their group, linking speaking with writing. As one member of staff commented ‘The development of the class within one 100 minute lesson was nothing short of phenomenal. It was the quickest and most dramatic leap in self-realisation that I have ever seen in 11 years in the classroom.’”

Talk Factory is a tool that has a dual role: it helps teachers to model and encourage the positive features of discussion and argumentation, and it enables students to take part more effectively in argumentation by increasing their understanding of how to talk together effectively.

• Get a free download of the Talk Factory software

JuxtaLearn will encourage students to use creative activities, in particular video-making, to help them understand things they find difficult to grasp. 

The international project, funded by a €2.1 million grant from the EU, will apply to both university and school students. 

Juxtalearn was launched in Växjö, Sweden in October. Other institutions involved with developing Juxtalearn alongside The Open University are: Sweden’s Linnaeus University; the Rhein-Ruhr Institute, Germany; Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain;  Universidade do Minho, Catchermedia, Portugal; and The University of Birmingham.