The Language of the Geography Text‐book: an historical appraisal

Graphic elicitation, i.e. asking participants to draw, is an interview technique used to focus the interviewee on the given topic or gain extra meaning not covered verbally as part of the interview. This study analyses two interview contexts which included visual elicitation. It describes a successful example in which the researcher maintained control over the mode of the planned research task (diagram) as well as another example in which slippage occurred between the mode of the planned research task (drawing) and the resulting artefact (diagram). Through this analysis, strategies for maintaining researcher control over the mode of elicitation are identified, increasing our understanding about the theory and practice of both drawings and diagrams as two different modes of visual elicitation. The paper concludes that the required control does not necessarily comprise an increase in task structure (directing participants as to how to draw). Moreover, the subject and purpose of the task are equally important. Successful researcher control then comprises a careful balance between all the three aspects of purpose, structure and subject.     

Books on Research Methodology

Mary N. Barton and Marion V. Bell's compilation Reference Books: A Brief Guide (Baltimere: Enoch Pratt Free Library, $1.25)

Martha L. Hackman's The Practical Bibliographer (Prentice-Hall, $5.95 cloth, $2.95 paper)

Hubert M. Blalock An Introduction to Social Research (Prentice-Hall, $5.95 cloth, $2.95 paper)     

Popular Music

Brad Benedict and Linda Barton's Phonographics: Contemporary Album Cover Art and Design (New York: Collier Books/Macmillan Publishing, 1977—$9.95, paper)

George McCue, ed. Music in American Society, 1776-1976: From Puritan Hymn to Synthesizer (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Inc., 1977—$14.95/3.95)

Dean Tudor and Andrew D. Armitage, comps. Popular Music Periodicals Index, 1975 (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976—$15.00)

Derek Jewell, Duke: A Portrait of Duke Ellington (New York: Norton, 1977—$9.95)

Stanley Dance, The World of Earl Hines (New York: Scribner's, 1977—$14.95/7.95     

Popular Music

Brian Rust The American Record Label Book (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1978— $20.00)

Bill Harry Mersey Beat: The Beginnings of the the Beatles (London: Omnibus Press/New York: Quick Fox, 1978—E2.50/$4.95, paper)

Mary Laverne Dimmick The Rolling Stones: An Annotated Bibliography (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1978—$7.95)

Judith Glassman The Year in Music: 1978 (New York: Crown Publishers, 1978—$15.95)

Lionel Salter The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music: A Guide to Composers and Recommended Recordings (New York: Crown Books (Harmony Books)/London: Salamander Books, 1978—$17.95/8.95)

Gerald Bordman American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978—$35.00)     

Regulation

Bill F. Chamberlin and Charlene J. Brown, eds., THE FIRST AMENDMENT RECONSIDERED: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE MEANING OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH. AND PRESS (New York: Longman, 1982---$27.95)

Marc A. Franklin, CASES AND MATERIALS ON MASS MEDIA LAW (Mineola, N.Y.: The Foundation Press, 1982---$26.00)

LEGAL AND BUSINESS ASPECTS OF THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY 1982 (Practicing Law Institute, 810 7th Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10019---$30.00, paper)

PRIVACY (Social Issues Resources Inc., P.O. Box 2507, Boca Raton, Fla. 33432---two loose-leaf volumes containing a total of 180 articles, $117.00, also available separtately at $65.00 and $52.00 respectively)     

NEW MEDIA

In 1845 John Lewis Ricardo was among a group who bought the Cooke and Wheatstone British patents for the electric telegraph at a current cost of £10 million. Although many people have examined the history of the telegraph no one seems to have asked the question ‘Why?’ Ricardo was a Member of the Stock Exchange, financier and a leading politician campaigning against monopolies. This paper postulates that his prime objective, while the largest shareholder for the first three and executive Chairman of the Electric Telegraph Company for its first 12 years, was to build a network, obtain and then distribute financial intelligence to its own newsrooms, adjacent to all the Stock Exchanges in Britain. It was not an afterthought as has been widely assumed. Newspapers in the regions took advantage of this new media. When the telegraph companies later formed their own cartel/monopoly, and substantially boosted prices charged to newspapers, Ricardo changed sides and secretly campaigned for their nationalization.     

The Use of Simulators in Teaching Computer Science

Should a computer science student be able to write a simple interrupt‐answering routine? Can we have students write simple interrupt‐answering routines? What programming assignment can be given to help students understand how “system service calls” work (i.e., how do we get from nonprivilege mode to privilege mode)? Our machines with vendor‐supplied operating systems limit our assignments in some areas. Hence, we must use a “virtual machine.” Virtual machines can be produced using simulators and can be used to reinforce basic concepts by giving programming assignments on them.     

‘They still use some of their past’: historical salience in elementary children's chronological thinking

Fifty‐eight students at seven grade levels (kindergarten through sixth) from three population groups (urban, suburban and rural) were presented with the task of chronologically ordering a set of nine historical pictures and ‘thinking aloud’ about the task. The results of this study provide increased evidence regarding the kind and sources of children's historical knowledge, and how they deploy that knowledge. The most accessible historical knowledge for early and middle grade children apparently relates to changes in material culture and the patterns of everyday life. It appears, too, that the intertexts that inform children's historical understanding, especially prior to fourth grade, provide better information about material culture than about other aspects of change over time. In addition, some children at all grade levels linked history to such sociocultural issues as race and gender. Finally, by fifth grade, children were learning a new reference system that consisted of specific eras (Colonial, Revolution), events (Boston Massacre, War of 1812) and relationships (British taxes, lack of colonial representation creates pre‐Revolutionary tensions) that allowed them to make more interpretations reflective of the academic discipline of history (British and colonists had legitimate but differing points of view). Children's willingness to engage in this new genre and the facility with which some students managed the transition have important implications for instruction.     

ICT Policy and Implementation in Education: cases in Canada,Northern Ireland and Ireland

Countries with similar levels of economic development often implement different education ICT policies. Much of the existing research attributes such differences to economic and political factors. In this paper, we examine the development of ICT policy and implementation in the two parts of Ireland and in two Canadian provinces and find that historical, social and cultural differences also play an important role in the way ICT policies develop. In particular, we see differing historical perceptions of the role of the state and church in education playing a more important role than has hitherto been recognized.