In this essay I examine if socio cultural theory is present for teachers when pupils and students are using computers in class, especially when using blogs as a tool for learning. The aim of the essay is also to examine if blogs among pupils in class can promote peer support, co-operation and reflective dialogue, and in that case in what way. The essay consists of two studies, one small interview study and one literature study.  The interview study is made with the qualitative method phenomenographic analysis, presenting four Swedish teachers who have much experience using blogs in education. The aim of the literature study where some national and international research studies of relevance are presented, is to broaden the perspective.The result of the interview study shows that a socio cultural theory is highly present among the teachers who already use blogs in education. In addition, those teachers experience that the blog in the classroom supports dialogue and co-operation among the pupils.  In contrast, the literature study shows that most teachers in Sweden who made their pupils work with computers in classroom seem to let their student work alone, without guiding them and without creating co-operation or dialogue in the classroom.

The purpose of this study is to describe some primary school teachers understanding of language development and approach of first and second language speakers with Arne Tragetons Writing to reading, for pupils in early ages.By using a qualitative method with interviews and participant observations and informal conversations, the basis for the survey was collected. Four teachers in three schools participated. The proportion of second-language pupils at each school was 35%, 17% and 0%. My theoretical starting point in the study was the hermeneutic research tradition, which has been used to interpret and understand the collected material. Theories of behaviorism, constructivism and socio-cultural perspective has been used in the analysis part of this study.

The purpose of this paper is to view Karlstad Municipality and their financial support to non-profit organizations within equestrian sports. Despite the varying representatives of various equestrian sports in Karlstad, there seems to be a single beneficiary within the sport when it comes to financial support from the municipality. The policies and plans concerning cultural development are directly compared to the Karlstad Municipality and its contribution to these organizations within equestrian sports. Through interviews and reports I have studied the process of financial support from the Karlstad municipality using an intersectionality theory based on Nina Lykkes guide on gender studies and feminist theory. Pierre Bourdieu?s theories on field, habitus and capital are also used as a method to enhance the understanding of equestrian sports and its role in modern Swedish society. The conclusion is that the Karlstad Municipality is, for a several of reasons, promoting non-profit organizations within equestrian sports, which are operating as riding schools.

This study focuses on the integrity of students at Uppsala University that has used the university?s network, UpUnet. We?ve studied their opinions with the use of questionnaires that cover questions related to privacy and awareness about logging of data traffic.The results showed that more students than our hypothesis suggested were unaware of the surveillance on the network, and the majority of these also had a negative opinion towards logging of data traffic. However, we found that there were several relations between how the students responded on our questionnaire, and we?ve presented these in the analysis chapter towards the end of the essay..

In this paper discourse analysis on the Ethiopian National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification is made. The aim is to describe how the overall image/picture of desertification, its causes, and effects and of possible solutions are presented in the NAP. The result of this analysis shows that the main cause of desertification is human activities mainly due to the poorly developed socio-economic situation in the dryland areas. It is indicated that an excessive dependency of the rural population on the natural resources, particularly land, is the major cause of land degradation and this deterioration of land is said to have been caused by the rapid population growth, overgrazing, forest clearing as well as past government and institutional failures. In addition it is indicated that the effect of desertification usually involves ecological changes that sap land of its ability to sustain agriculture and human habitation, therefore the most serious threat to human welfare.

Digitizing and digital libraries create great opportunities toprovide access to cultural heritage globally, but the quicklychanging information technology environment also raises manyquestions. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to analyse whatvisions and ideas behind one specific digital library, Europeana,that can be found in documentation related to the project. Whatideas can be identified concerning aspects such as userparticipation, access to information, knowledge andinformation literacy? What is the project?s role in relation toeducation, preservation of cultural heritage and democracy?The method used to answer these research questions is adescriptive idea analysis. The empirical material, consisting ofprimary sources written in relation to the project, has beencategorized within dimensions and analysed according toDouglas Raber?s three public library strategies: social activism,the conservative response and the populist initiative.

The current field of research concerning the impact of railroads in Sweden beside from the State main-line network is relatively narrow. Including cultural impact to the area narrows the results even further. The purpose of this study is to open the field even more into the local societies and to what extent the impact of the introduction of railroad might have had on smaller county villages. Sweden holds a unique position concerning ?station towns? or ?railways towns? in terms of railway policy and the industrial development in towns that were affected by the railway, as the affected towns continued development were based on a hybrid between direct democracy and adaptations of city-law policies.This study takes place in Kisa, a small town in southern Östergötland that during the beginning of the 20th century turned into a municipal community due to the building of Östra centralbanan (roughly translated Eastern central-line).

The title of this Master´s thesis is Multicultural librarian competence - a literature study and interwievs with librarians and managers in Malmö Public Library.Every fifth Swede is born abroad or has at least one parent who are. The migration flows of today reach out longer, there are more efficent ways of communication and travel. This has made previously ethnic homogeneous populations as the swedish more and more hetergeneous. Library services to inmigrant users started out as a specially directed activities. The political view of migration has changed over the years and the current perspective is the one of mutual integration and cultural diversity.

AbstractTitle: Interactivity and participation - a qualitative study about the making of machinima withWorld of Warcraft (Interaktivitet och och deltagande ? en kvalitativ studie kring skapandet avmachinima med World of Warcraft)Number of pages: 68 total, 50 without appendixAuthor: Peter BrandbergTutor: Else NygrenPeriod: Autumn 2006Course: Media and Communication Studies CUniversity: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this study is to take a closer look at the phenomenon machinima by analysing a number of specific movies from the site worldcraftmovies.com. This analyse is focusing on how the content of these movies relate to the wider game culture of the MMORPG World of Warcraft, what specific elements in the movies is referring to and if there is differences or similarities between different genres (or categories).Material/Method: The method used in analysing the movies is a combined method inspired by hermeneutic, semiotics and discourse analysis.Main results: Instead of answers this study raises many questions about the diverse content of the movies. A general division can be seen between movies focusing on the games rules and movies that are trying to present a fictive world. But the study also shows how there are many movies moving between these two points.

Nature conservation has for a long time been founded on the assumption that high ecological values depend on low human impact. In Sweden this has led to forests with these characteristics being strictly protected from human influences. However, it is also known that historical land-use can enhance ecological values in forests. Mountainous forests in Sweden, which have not been affected by modern forestry, have for a long time been considered as untouched by people. However, forest history research has in recent years shown that even these areas have been used by people for a long period of time.

KALMAR UNIVERSITYDepartment of Health andBehavioural Sciences.Education of Social Work 21-40 p.C-essay, 10 p.Title: The Accepted Adjustment ? How Twelve Children Belonging to Ethnic Minority Groups Experiences Everyday Life in School.Authors: Kristin Lundin & Karin SwartlingSupervisor: Jesper AndreassonExaminer: Ulf DruggeABSTRACTThe aim of this C-essay, using a qualitative method and from a child prospective, explore how children belonging to ethnic minority groups participating in the Swedish education system at an intermediate level, experience everyday life at school and the interactions with their teachers. We have interviewed twelve children between the age of eleven and thirteen years old. The children have either immigrated (adopted children are included) or are born in Sweden but have at least one parent who has immigrated.The outcome from our study is that immigrant children have a positive experience of their daily life in school and in their interactions with their teachers. The majority of children state that they view their teachers as good educationalists.

The aim of this thesis is to examine how two young adult departments at two public libraries work and what profiles the young adult departments have. To examine the work and profiles at the young adult departments I have used the following questions: What are the ideas about working with young adults? How are the two departments in this study working whit young adults? What or which are the profiles of the young adult departments in this study?To answer the questions above I used a qualitative method based on interviews with the librarians responsible for the young adult departments. To complete the interviews I studied the libraries Internet sites and official documents. The examined departments are located at two city libraries and were chosen manly for their focused age group, 15-25 years and that the departments are well established.To analyse the results I used the theoretic model of Marianne Andersson and Dorte Skot-Hansen about the role of the public library.

Modern societies are generally becoming increasingly capitalist in nature and economies of these societies are thus likely to become more focused on consumer consumption. Advertising plays a vital role in contemporary society where we, as consumers and citizens, are surrounded by it everywhere we look and everywhere we go. This puts pressure on advertisers to become more creative and to explore new ways of marketing their products and services in an already saturated environment. We believe that the added pressure and the already established role of marketing in society make advertisements an interesting and telling object for analysis. This is particularly the case with regards to the concept of selling and marketing products that have qualities that are known to be less than beneficial for our health.This paper analyzes four commercial advertisements marketing beer; a product that we argue has qualities that can be seen as potentially bad for the health of individuals and for societies.

This study investigates educators? experience of Intensive Behavioral Therapy (IBT) for preschool children diagnosed with autism. The aim is to examine, from the educators? perspective, how useful this method has been, what difference it made for the children with autism that took part in this training and also how the educators? have been able to organize and implement the method. The study is based on 6 semi-structured interviews and 29 surveys.

This thesis concerns to investigate renovations of existing buildings aiming at enabling energy efficiency, from a conservation and restoration perspective. This includes performing case studies of three projects in the Gothenburg area where renovations has been done and an analysis of directives raised by the EU and later implemented by the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning, Boverket. In addition to these, regulations enforced by the Swedish law, related to the topic, have been considered.The investigated projects in this case were the housing cooperative Välten in Brämaregården, the Solar Buildings in Järnbrott and Gårdsten as well as Katjas Gata 119 at Backa Röd. In order to measure and compare the results of these projects a comparison between the pre- and post-restoration energy consumption have been performed. To capture additional perspectives the grading system Operation Kungsörn has been applied.Regarding the comparison of energy consumption the renovation of Katjas Gata 119 was found preferable but showed in my view lacking attention to the cultural heritage of the area.