Blended university teaching using virtual learning environments: conceptions and approaches

This paper reports findings from a phenomenographic investigation into blended university teaching using virtual learning environments (VLEs). Interviews with 25 Computer Science teachers in Greek universities illuminated a spectrum of teachers’ conceptions and approaches from ‘teacher-focused and content-oriented’, through ‘student-focused and content-oriented’, to ‘student-focused and process-oriented’. Using VLEs was described as a means of supporting: A—information transfer; B—application and clarification of concepts; C—exchange and development of ideas, and resource exploration and sharing; D—collaborative knowledge-creation, and development of process awareness and skills. The study suggests that pedagogical beliefs and circumstances underpinning face-to-face teaching are more influential in shaping approaches to blended VLE use than VLE system features. The authors propose that the findings could be used to inform educational enhancement initiatives and that there is a need for further discipline-focused research on blended teaching.     

SOME USES OF PUPPETRY IN JEWISH EDUCATION 44

For the first time in the history of the American Jewish community, delegates from all corners of the country and from all groupings in Jewish life gathered at a national conference on January 13–14, 1951 to discuss not fundraising and philanthropy, not emergencies and responsibilities overseas, not even the frequently raised spector of anti-Semitism, but Jewish education.     

Effectiveness of vibration damping with bicycle suspension systems

Bicycle suspensions aim to improve riding performance and rider comfort through reduced impact and vibration transmission to frame and rider. This study compared vibration damping of five mountain bike suspension systems and a rigid fork on gravel and in trail conditions by quantifying accelerations at the axle and frame. Spectral analyses of the acceleration signals revealed two distinct frequency regions from 0 to about 100 Hz and from about 300 to 400 Hz. The various suspension systems were all effective in attenuating vibration over the low frequency region. Vibration amplitudes at the frame were considerably less than at the axle for the suspension conditions (30–60% reduction) while only minor attenuation was observed with the rigid fork (10–15%). In the high frequency region between 300–400 Hz, the signal was strongly attenuated at the frame for all conditions, including the rigid fork. Trail conditions elicited greater amplitude low frequency vibrations than did gravel conditions. While all suspension systems were somewhat effective in reducing vibration of the frame, air-oil forks had significantly better vibration attenuation than did elastomer or linkage systems.     

Reviews

During the past year he was a Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D. C.     

Systematic Marketing Facilitates Optimal Customer Service: The Marketing Audit of a Rural Public Library System

This article presents a case study of a marketing audit of the Lee County Library System, a rural public library system located in southwest Georgia. Marketing audits are an underutilized but needed tool for public libraries. In this audit, the library system’s mission, goals, environments, community and employee demographics, and a strengths/weakness/opportunities/threats (SWOT) analysis were evaluated, resulting in several recommendations. These recommendations include a new mission statement, regular SWOT analyses, and potential market segments for targeted library services. Through this case study, the complexities, challenges, and opportunities unique to rural public libraries can be understood.     

Evolving Privatization in Eastern and Central European Higher Education

With the fall of communism in 1989, Eastern and Central Europe would quickly become part of an already strong global tide of privatization in higher education. Nowhere else did private higher education rise so suddenly or strongly from virtual nonexistence to a major regional presence. A fresh database allows us to analyze the extent and dimensions of that presence, including various national and subregional quantitative dimensions. Yet the private sector is strongly challenged on several fronts, including paradoxically by the public sector’s own partial privatization, sometimes closely linked to the private-sector growth. Nonetheless, private higher education has continued to grow thus far into the new century, with shifting national and subregional patterns. Higher education privatization remains a noteworthy reality in Eastern and Central Europe but it is an evolving reality.