Television Literacy Curriculum in Action: a long‐term study

A major concern in the area of television's effect on children has been how children interpret both the content and form of the medium. As a form of representation, television has its own code. Messages are transmitted by manipulating this code. The last decade has seen a growth of interest in ways of combating the influence television has on children by increasing their awareness and understanding of the conventions of the medium. The research described here is a media literacy project that takes children ‘behind the scenes’ of television's ‘magic’ by providing them with the opportunity of producing a programme for community access cable television. This was accomplished by having two groups of grade five children experience a 10‐week media literacy curriculum. Following the curriculum phase, one group ‘produced’ a programme for telecast at the local cable studio. Pre‐, post‐, and long‐term media literacy tests were administered to the two groups and a control group. Results reveal that not only did the groups who had experienced the media literacy curriculum perform significantly better on the test, but also that their scores improved significantly between post‐and long‐term testing. In conclusion, the media literacy curriculum led to significant increases in understanding of media‐related concepts.     

Research‐capacity building,professional learning and the social practices of educational research

There have been numerous attempts in the past few years within education research—and social science research more generally—to alter the character of research practice(s). In particular, there has been a systematic effort to address perceived shortcomings in research practice through a series of ‘research‐capacity building’ initiatives, aimed at the restructuring of professional learning. In this article the authors explore empirically the ways in which different modes of professional learning are implicated in the social practices of education research. These considerations lead to the conclusion that the currently dominant approaches to research‐capacity building are based on an underestimation of the difficulties in influencing the professional learning of educational researchers significantly and, thereby, changing the practices of educational research. More realistic expectations of these forms of research‐capacity building, in turn, suggest the need to develop alternative approaches that acknowledge the exigencies of the current social organisation of educational research more fully.     

Ethics and Values: Their Place in Computer Labs and Classrooms

Articles concerning computer law abound. Institutions of higher learning have produced lengthy documents addressing computer ethics on campus, and several organizations have printed materials to educate the public. Are these efforts working? Are the ethics and values in the business world and in the education world the same? Several scenarios are examined in investigating these questions.     

Usages Éducatifs des Technologies de L'information et de la Communication: Quelles Compétences pour les Enseignants?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present, some results of recent research into the competence of teachers in the field of educational use of information and communication technology in France.     

The concept of the learning society for adults with learning difficulties: human and social capital perspectives

In this paper, it is argued that adults with learning difficulties represent a significant marginalized group within society whose experiences may shed light on a range of political and social values affecting those in the mainstream, as well as on the periphery. We begin by considering some possible meanings of the learning society and some features of the social and economic context which have promoted interest in the concept. An economistic reading of the learning society may prove problematic for adults with learning difficulties, since it may be argued that this group is unlikely to be highly productive and therefore will not provide a good return on money invested in education and training. Although an emphasis on social capital may lead to the inclusion of people with learning difficulties, this outcome is by no means automatic since high levels of social cohesion may be based on the ruthless exclusion of those regarded as deviant. Finally, we suggest some ways in which promoting the concept of lifelong learning for adults with learning difficulties may enable us to develop deeper understandings of the experiences of education, training and employment.     

The Secret of Eternal Youth: Identity,risk and learning difficulties

Post-war theories of 'youth' as a transitional phase of life are reviewed in terms of their common assumption about the formation of a stable adult identity. The post-modern challenge to the assumption of a stable self is outlined together with attempts by theorists of late modernity to hold structure and agency in creative tension. People with learning difficulties, it is argued, represent an abnormal transition in a Learning Society, thus enabling us to understand the nature of transition and identity in such a society more clearly. Ethnographic case studies of a man of 23, a man of 33 and a woman of 43, all being Down's Syndrome, are presented. The limits of their transition to full adulthood are specified in terms of four key markers of adulthood. The paper concludes by reflecting on the purchase of different theories of youth and identity, and on the politics of learning difficulties.     

Effect of environmental feedbacks on pacing strategy and affective load during a self-paced 30 min cycling time trial

The purpose of this study was to analyze the pacing strategy and its affective consequences during self-paced cycling time trials (TT) performed at different severity of hypoxia. Eight competitive cyclists performed five 30 min self-paced TTs at their best performance in the following conditions: 1) normobaric normoxia (NN_SL); 2) normobaric hypoxia under two simulated altitudes: 2000 m (NH₂₀₀₀) and 3500 m (NH₃₅₀₀) and 3) normobaric hypoxia but the cyclists were deceived and thought to be at sea level for 2000 m (DecNH₂₀₀₀) and 3500 m (DecNH₃₅₀₀). Power Output (PO), oxygen uptake (VO₂), and blood lactate concentration ([La]) were recorded to assess exercise intensity and physiological adaptations. The rate of perceived exertion (RPE) and pleasure were measured with a CR10 Borg scale to evaluate the affective load (AL). PO and VO₂ decreased with the severity of hypoxia but no significantly difference on performance was measured between deceived and real conditions, except for pacing strategy. The started intensity depends on the exercise expectations, but PO was rapidly adjusted with the physiological constraints and the rate of increase of RPE. Finally, AL did not reach maximal values so that the athletes sustained a physiological and emotional reserve to perform a final spurt.     

Consequences of "minimal" group affiliations in children

Three experiments (total N=140) tested the hypothesis that 5-year-old children's membership in randomly assigned "minimal" groups would be sufficient to induce intergroup bias. Children were randomly assigned to groups and engaged in tasks involving judgments of unfamiliar in-group or out-group children. Despite an absence of information regarding the relative status of groups or any competitive context, in-group preferences were observed on explicit and implicit measures of attitude and resource allocation (Experiment 1), behavioral attribution, and expectations of reciprocity, with preferences persisting when groups were not described via a noun label (Experiment 2). In addition, children systematically distorted incoming information by preferentially encoding positive information about in-group members (Experiment 3). Implications for the developmental origins of intergroup bias are discussed.     

Emotional responses during repeated sprint intervals performed on level,downhill and uphill surfaces

The purpose of this study was to test emotional responses during sprint intervals performed on a level, down and up surface. Fifty trained participants performed a maximal effort during a 60-m sprint and 10 repetitions of 60 m running sprints on a level, down and up surface on a 5.9% slope. Running speeds, emotional responses and heart rate were measured. Self-selected speeds were correlated with the rating of perceived exertion, the affective balance, the desire to stop and the resources needed for the task in all conditions whereas the pleasure, the desire to continue and the capacity to realise the task were correlated with speeds only during level and uphill running. Mean values of emotional parameters were significantly different (P < 0.05) during running on a flat surface, downhill and uphill. When the gradient of running surface is changed, the pattern of emotional responses was just translated, i.e. most of the slope between the evolution of emotional parameters and the repetitions were not significantly different whereas Y-intercepts were different.

Consented effort is highly correlated with the resources needed for the task (P < 0.001, r² = 0.72). We propose that the difference in the resources needed for the task between level, downhill and uphill running (F _{2, 1499} = 166.5, P < 0.001, Eta² = 0.18) is the most important key that explains our results.     

Who Wants to Be a Discipline?

In contemporary times, two primary motivations have driven academics to attempt to form new intellectual disciplines. The first motivation is intrinsic to the subject matter at issue: Either old disciplinary questions need to be examined in new ways (as in the creation of sociolinguistics out of linguistics and sociology) or the field itself is novel (for example, computer science). The second motivation is more political: Unlike “areas of inquiry,” “fields of study,” or “tools of research,” new disciplines (e.g., cognitive science) often command significant academic real estate and sizable budgets. This essay considers several case studies in which potential academic disciplines have emerged—or failed to do so. The author suggests that in their attempts to determine what formal status they wish their research to hold, Internet scholars must carefully differentiate between the nature of their intellectual enterprise and legitimate professional desire for academic turf.