Nostalgic for What? The Epidemic of Images of the mid 20th Century Classroom in American Media Culture and What it Means

Within this paper the author examines the current nostalgia for a never-present past through critical analysis of images of the mid 20th century American classroom in media culture. The author uses theories of nostalgia and the history of the photographic image to trouble the numerous equity issues surrounding the unchallenged canonization of the 1950s classroom by asking: "Who is reproducing this time in media culture and why?"; "Is the American public being asked to be nostalgic for these images, or is society somehow creating a desire for this narrow and inequitable educational past?" The author examines such nostalgia by looking at the primary role and power of vision in Western popular culture, the theoretical nature of historic preservation, the assumed innocence of the child and the similar innocence of the immediate post-World War II decade, and the role which modern technology plays in the reproduction of that decade. As an affect, nostalgia is fueled by those things that are wholly in the past-or that never were. The author looks to images of television programs and advertisements, reading them as cultural texts, and concludes that it is vitally important to the landscape of educational theory and reform to reconcile such nostalgia for another epoch in education with the pedagogical theory and practice of the present.     

Nuclear power plants? Yes or no? Thank you! The argumentative use of tables and graphs / ¿Centrales nucleares? ¿Sí o no? ¡Gracias! El uso argumentativo de tablas y gráficas

Abstract

The present paper deals with how eleventh grade high school students and university undergraduate students studying environmental science use evidence to write an argumentative text. They were presented with a dilemma with four sets of data (two pro and two anti nuclear energy). Half the sample was given the data in graph format and the other half in table format. The four sets of data differed according to their complexity. We analysed the structure of argument, the use of the evidence (either provided or their own) according to the participants’ position on the dilemma, and the presence of confirmation bias. Our results show a good argumentative competence that does not seem to be affected either by the students’ educational level or data format. We observed an effect of the complexity of the data in relation to the participants’ position.     

Just4Me: pedagogical and functional design of a PLE for self-managed learning in different contexts / Just4Me: diseño pedagógico y funcional de un PLE para la autogestión del aprendizaje en distintos contextos

Abstract

This article provides the foundation and describes the pedagogical and functional design of a PLE within the Just4Me project. This environment integrates tools and functionalities to support learning across and throughout life.

The main goal of the pedagogical design is to encourage self-managed learning, regardless of whether it occurs in formal or informal settings. It aims to integrate learning experiences developed within different contexts.