Simulating cyber-physical threats to the City of Vienna

A large number of critical infrastructure facilities are located in cities and their surroundings, providing essential services in a compact geographical space and resulting in mutual physical and logical dependencies. The provision of services such as electricity, gas, water, communication, food, fuel, road or rail, in particular, is achieved by operating extensive networks. In the FFG-funded project ODYSSEUS, Stefan Rass (Institute of Applied Informatics) and his team are working on developing a framework for a simulation designed to forecast the consequences of attacks on such interlinked infrastructure facilities.  

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ELT 2020: Insights into Theory and Practice for Future EFL Teachers (by Carmen M. Amerstorfer & Blake Shedd)

On Friday, 17 January 2020, the Department of English will host a conference entitled “ELT 2020: Insights into Theory and Practice for Future EFL Teachers” in the Stiftungssaal der Kärntner Sparkasse (room O.0.1). Seven researchers from educational institutions in Austria, Germany, and the USA will give presentations and workshops related to teaching English as a foreign language in secondary education.

This conference is targeted at students in teacher education programmes at the University of Klagenfurt and our cooperation partners, particularly those who study to become teachers of English or other foreign languages. Teacher educators and researchers in the fields of Applied Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching Methodology are also welcome to attend this one-day event.

The schedule below provides a quick overview of the presentations. Please download the conference programme for details about the contributions and presenters. We look forward to an inspirational day of talks, workshops, and exchange.

ELT 2020 programme

8:30-9:20 a.m.
Neil Stainthorpe (Private University of Education, Diocese of Linz)
Playing with language: Fun, games, and creativity in the language classroom
9:30-10:20 a.m.
Verena Novak-Geiger (University of Klagenfurt)
Making it stick: The Role of Memory and the Brain in Foreign Language Learning
10:40-11:30 a.m.
Max von Blanckenburg (University of Munich)
Exploring political and cultural performance with language learners
11:40 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Sarah Mercer (University of Graz)
Language Teaching for the 21st Century and Beyond: Integrating Language and Life Skills
2:00-2:50 p.m.
Dinorah Sapp (University of Mississippi)
Experiential Learning to Improve Grammar, Speaking, and Writing Skills
3:00-3:50 p.m.
Volker Eisenlauer (Bundeswehr University Munich)
Virtual Reality for ELT purposes
4:00-4:50 p.m.
Thorsten Merse (University of Munich)
Countering the Silence: Dialogues between Foreign Language Education and Queer Theory

12th European Public Health Conference – Building bridges for solidarity and public health 2019 in Marseille

Vom 20. bis 23. November 2019 fand die jährliche Konferenz der European Public Health Association, zum Thema „Building bridges for solidarity and public health“, in Marseille statt, an der auch die Abteilung PFO vertreten war.

Mit über 5.000 Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern aus aller Welt ist dies nicht nur die größte, sondern auch eine der renommiertesten und bedeutendsten Konferenzen im Gesundheitsbereich. Die Konferenz stellt eine ideale Plattform dar, um nicht nur mit anderen Wissenschaftlern aus diesem Bereich über den eigenen Vortrag in Kontakt zu treten, sondern vielmehr auch um das eigene Netzwerk zu erweitern.

 

 

 

Die Abteilung für Personal, Führung und Organisation der AAU war an dieser Tagung mit zwei Vorträgen von Dr. Šehad Draganović und Prof. Dr. Guido Offermanns beteiligt. So präsentierte Dr. Draganović eine quantitative Studie zum Thema „ Development of the Austrian version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture“ sowie eine qualitative Studie zum Thema “Patient safety culture in Austrian hospitals – A qualitative study”.

 

 

Weitere Informationen zur Konferenz finden Sie unter „https://ephconference.eu/conference-2019-marseille-271“

Excursion to BBS Rohrbach (by Carmen M. Amerstorfer)

From 25th to 27th November, a group of 15 students visited the BBS Rohrbach in Upper Austria to conduct research about teaching English as a foreign language in a student-centred learning environment.

BBS Rohrbach is an innovative vocational school that offers multiple educational emphases, such as Digital Business, Information Technology, Media Design, and Health & Nutrition. Most students at BBS Rohrbach study two or three foreign languages, English being one of them. In 16 classes, a humanistic teaching approach called the Dalton pedagogy is applied to teaching English and other school subjects, such as Natural Sciences or Geography.

The Dalton pedagogy fosters learner autonomy, self-regulation, and cooperation. Students receive self-study assignments, which they complete in teams during open-learning phases at school. The assignments, prepared by the teachers at BBS Rohrbach, often combine different subjects with each other. When completing the assignments, students are free to move within the school building, use the resources available at school and online, and consult the teacher or other students for support.

By working in teams and independently of a teacher, students develop a multitude of skills beyond those related to the subjects they are studying. They learn, for example, how to manage their own time, how to communicate effectively, how to solve problems, how to explain processes, and how to motivate themselves and each other. Their acquired social and communicative competences, as well as their ability to self-regulate their capacities, make graduates from BBS Rohrbach strong competitors on the job market. However, during the excursion we learned that many students at BBS Rohrbach plan to continue studying at university.

The excursion was part of a university course in the teacher education programme at the Department of English at the University of Klagenfurt. The course has a strong focus on research and enables students to gain experience with planning, conducting, and writing about small empirical research projects on topics related to teaching and learning English as a foreign language. The participants were impressed by the way the Dalton pedagogy is implemented at BBS Rohrbach and by the high degree of contentment and self-confidence the students displayed.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the dedicated teachers and the headmaster at BBS Rohrbach, who have been welcoming us for years, and look forward to visits in the future.