Field-based professional development of teachers engaged in distance education: experiences from the Arctic

We examine the experiences of five teachers who traveled with a team of educators, scientists, and explorers on circumpolar Arctic expeditions to deliver adventure learning (AL) programs to K–12 students at a distance. Results highlight the personal and professional impacts this opportunity had on teachers, including their empowering, fulfilling, and mentally exhausting experiences while assisting in delivering distance education to students worldwide. The article concludes with a discussion of issues to consider in the development of similar programs.     

Using Food Science Demonstrations to Engage Students of All Ages in Science,Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics (STEM)

Abstract: The overarching goal of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Initiative is to foster effective STEM teaching and learning throughout the educational system at the local, state, and national levels, thereby producing science literate citizens and a capable STEM workforce. To contribute to achieving this goal, we have assembled six food science demonstrations for use at all educational levels and have presented these lessons to students at the elementary through higher education levels. The focus of this article is to share these food science demonstrations and our experiences using them so that others can use them for engaging students in STEM disciplines, through food science, at any educational level. Featured demonstrations include: (1) liquid nitrogen ice cream: a matter of changing phases, (2) seeing our senses work together, (3) whipping up the cream, (4) milk versus dark: what is the difference?, (5) counting calories by burning them, and (6) culinary spherification: the wonders of cross‐linking. Overall, our experience with using these demonstrations has been very positive. Students appear engaged in the learning process and love to consume the demonstration end products. Downloadable handouts containing demonstration details for each demonstration are available as supporting information.     

Introducing the use of a semi-structured video diary room to investigate students’ learning experiences during an outdoor adventure education groupwork skills course

Outdoor adventure education courses are used in higher education to develop transferable skills such as groupwork and problem-solving skills. There is a need for exploratory investigation into students’ perceptions of this experience. This study aimed to develop an innovative qualitative data collection method, and to use it to explore students’ perceived learning processes and developmental outcomes when taking part in an outdoor groupwork skills course. Participants (n = 40) were undergraduate engineering students who were taking part in the 3 day residential course as part of their degree course. Students’ experiences were captured whilst immersed in the course, using a semi-structured video diary room. Participants entered the diary room at different time points throughout the course and responded to openended questions. Following a thematic analysis, students were found to arrive on the course with mixed feelings towards groupwork and expected learning outcomes. Activities were enjoyable yet challenging, revealing students’ weaknesses and demanding a range of skills and coping methods. The outdoor environment added novelty, risk and natural consequences. Students reported developing a range of skills in groupwork, adaptability, persistence, planning, problem-solving, time-management, communication, leadership, cooperation, group reflection and team spirit, as well as benefits to physical activity, self-confidence, self-awareness, peer and staff relationships and internationalisation. These findings provide a base for future investigation into the long-term impact on student development and skill transfer. The semi-structured video diary room yielded rich data, contributing to the literature by offering a simple, yet effective, qualitative research method that can be implemented in a variety of contexts.     

Enhancing preschool children's vocabulary: Effects of teacher talk before,during and after shared reading

This observational study analyzed patterns of teacher extratextual talk as it occurs before, during, and after reading books to children, and the frequency and duration of teacher questioning by type (label, define, associate) on preschoolers’ receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge. Over the course of 18 weeks, 13 teachers and 100 children participated in ninety 20-min small-group sessions of teacher-guided shared reading instruction. Teachers’ reading instruction was examined through videotaped observations using the Multi-Option Observation System for Experimental Studies (MOOSES™; Tapp, Wehby, & Ellis, 1995). Two findings, in particular, yielded relevant educational and theoretical implications. First, time spent after reading was significantly related to expressive vocabulary. However, question timing did not seem to matter in terms of receptive vocabulary outcomes. Second, duration of teacher association questioning was significantly related to receptive vocabulary outcomes while both frequency and duration of teacher vocabulary-related association-level questioning were related to expressive vocabulary. For receptive vocabulary, both vocabulary- and comprehension-related association-level questioning mattered. These findings complement the body of work demonstrating that engaging children in interactive shared reading that elicits their active participation is related to meaningful gains in children's language and literacy growth. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.     

Narrative Capacity,Resistance Performance,and the “Shape” of New Social Movement Networks

The current research explored two new social movement networks in the United States in order to demonstrate the impact of narrative capacity on the “shape” of an activist network. In particular, we found that activists in a network that demonstrated efficient narrative capacity described the hub organization in positive terms, while activists in a network that demonstrated poor narrative capacity held mixed perceptions about the hub. Some activists in the second network held positive perceptions about the organization, while others held negative perceptions. The observations from these two research sites led us to conceptualize activists' differing perceptions about their respective hub organizations as “distance” that they experienced from that hub. Therefore, two different star shapes emerged from our research: a symmetrical star and elongated star. Such findings demonstrate the importance for narrative capacity in the construction and maintenance of effective activist networks.     

History of Communication Technology

Antonio Meucci 1808–1889 by Marco Nese and Francesco Nicotra (Italy/Italy Magazine, 150 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10011—price not given, ISBN not provided)

The Spirit of Independent Telephony by Charles A. Pleasance (Independent Telephone Books, PO Box 321, Johnson City, TN 37601—$29.50, ISBN 0-9622205-0-7)

Video Recording Technology: Its Impact on Media and Home Entertainment by Aaron Foisi Nmungwun (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989—$49.95/$24.95, ISBN 0-0858-0360-2 hard, and 0-8058-0622-9 paper)

Communication Satellites: Their Development and Impact by Heather E. Hudson (New York: Free Press, 1990—$24.95, ISBN 0-02-915320-4)     

Coverage of Methamphetamine in GLBT Newspapers

Research demonstrates that methamphetamine is a serious problem in gay communities. This study examined the framing of methamphetamine in nine gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) newspapers. Results showed that methamphetamine was framed as a “gay problem,” that sexual health and solutions frames were prevalent, and that GLBT newspapers covered methamphetamine in a way that is similar to how they covered AIDS in the 1980s. Implications for health campaigns are discussed.     

“You Don't Play,You Volunteer”: Narrative Public Memory Construction in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Narrative and ludological analysis suggests that Electronic Arts’ Medal of Honor: Rising Sun constructs a narrative of World War II that selectively retells history and constructs an Orientalist representation of the Japanese Empire. The gaming environment exists as an interactive museum that immerses gamers into history so that they experience warfare in their homes. Combining newsreels, fictional letters from home, and interviews with veterans of the “Good War,” Medal of Honor: Rising Sun retells a history that omits details of Japanese internment or atomic weapons. The intertwined themes of personal revenge for the loss of a family member and historical revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor guide gamers through an “educational” experience of the war. Finally, its failure to simulate violence means that Medal of Honor: Rising Sun invites a critical blindness to commemorating war.     

Examining the complexities of measuring effectiveness of online counselling for young people using routine evaluation data

As mental health services for young people develop, the need for evaluation and audit to justify expenditure follows suit. Counselling is being provided in more and more schools and community settings across the country, and there is an increasing focus on evidence-based funding. Practice-based evidence has an important role to play in fulfilling this requirement, and there are calls for a single outcome measure to be utilised across services. The emerging frontier of online support is receiving steadily greater attention, but as yet it has had little attention with regards to its effectiveness. An existing routine evaluation and outcome measure (Young Person’s Clinical Outcome Measures in Routine Evaluation) was incorporated within other routine evaluation systems within an online support service for young people (Kooth). The findings have been examined, with a view to recommending most suitable evaluation tools for this medium. Initial data suggest that the online service, when compared with equivalent face-to-face data, attracts a wide range of needs and levels of distress, with a high proportion of complex needs presented. Such findings may also reflect the complex nature of the support needs for the client group in question. Capturing appropriately rich data using a range of qualitative and quantitative measures that account for the complex online environment and client group needs to be carefully considered.