Quality Improvement in University Counseling Centers

University Counseling Centers (UCCs) experience high clinical demands and severe client presentations leaving counselors with limited time and resources to evaluate delivery of services. In this article, we present clinician-friendly quality improvement (QI) strategies used at a large Midwestern university and provide recommendations for implementing QI programs at other UCCs even as their resources may vary. With counselor-led efforts examining and evaluating services, UCCs can use QI programs to inform and improve counseling practices as well as advise university administrators about the positive outcomes of the center’s work.     

Technologies in the education of children and teenagers with autism: evaluation and classification of apps by work areas

Education and Information Technologies - Mobile apps represent a resource with great potential for encouraging the development of many skills, given the high number of apps available and the quick...     

Peer education in the commons: a new approach to reference services

In planning for a new library construction project for the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, graduate students enrolled in the University of Oklahoma (OU) School of Library and Information Studies collaborated in an innovative effort to develop a commons-based reference service. By first considering a philosophical approach to the need for a commons, blending in the experiences of other libraries that have created similar spaces, and focusing on the workflow issues likely to be encountered by the graduate assistants staffing the commons itself, this planning team developed an uncommon peer-to-peer approach to reference and education services, one focused on the patron as student.     

“Ferry Me O’er”: Musing on the Future of Museum Culture

Abstract Museum professionals face unprecedented challenges in the digital world of the twenty‐first century. How will we meet those challenges and who will lead us to the new shore of our future? We need museum professionals who act as ferrymen, guiding the museum community and its constituents through the troubled waters of our age to cultural reform that leads us to the essential purpose of art: love.     

Aligning digital and social inclusion: A study of disadvantaged students and computer access

In this paper we discuss the notion of the digital divide and link it with recent policy designed to promote social inclusion in a project that addressed both issues. Families in low socio economic areas of Australia were given computers and Internet access as part of a project that had as its primary aim to support the participation of disadvantaged families in digital activities at home and in schools. The authors collected data over a period of 3 years that included, pre and post surveys with parents and students, interviews with program facilitators, and focus groups with parents. This paper focuses on selected themes that emerged from the interview and focus group data with the parents and explores the ways in which they perceived having the computer had impacted on their lives and those of their school aged children. This data (surveys, interviews and focus groups) reveals that all family members felt that the ownership of a computer enabled them to feel more confident about their active participation in everyday educational, social and community activities. Parents, teachers and students also reported that owning a computer was important to their lives yet they were not naïve to the fact that they still had a lot to learn in terms of using all the options available to them on the computer. Students noted the increased ease with which they could complete school work and communicate with friends in online contexts and outlined some of the ways in which they used the computer for leisure activities. Parents highlighted the increase in their own digital skill levels and described the ways in which their lives had benefitted from having a computer in the home. Problems associated with connectivity at the beginning of the project, the quality of the machines and inadequate initial training were listed as drawbacks to greater participation. The project represents one attempt to address the digital divide and illustrates how going beyond the dichotomy of a ‘haves’ v ‘have nots’ view of the digital divide is necessary if we want to promote social inclusion.     

Let’s Cross the Next One: Parental Scaffolding of Prospective Control Over Movement

This investigation examined parental scaffolding of children’s prospective control over decisions and actions during a joint perception-action task. Parents and their 6-, 8-, 10-, and 12-year-old children (N = 128) repeatedly crossed a virtual roadway together. Guidance and control shifted from the parent to the child with increases in child age. Parents more often chose the gap that was crossed and prospectively communicated the gap choice with younger than older children. Greater use of an anticipatory gap selection strategy by parents predicted more precise timing of entry into the gap by children. This work suggests that social interaction may serve as an important experiential mechanism for the development of prospective control over decisions and actions in the perception–action domain.     

Social contexts of development in natural outdoor environments: children’s motor activities,personal challenges and peer interactions at the river and the creek

This study examined the influence of spending time outdoors on young children’s physical and socioemotional development. We observed preschoolers’ activities in two naturally provisioned outdoor environments over the course of one year. Eleven preschoolers were videotaped continuously for 16 days at a local river and 9 days at a creek adjacent to the school. In addition to the quantitative analyses of children’s behaviors, a case study of three children’s experiences over the course of the year was conducted. Both the river and the creek settings encouraged a multitude of physical and play behaviors with similar types of affordances, including flat surfaces for running, rocks for climbing and jumping off, and water for exploration and play, but the wilder environment (river) afforded more risk and personal challenges. Observations of children’s motor activities, play and responses to challenging environmental features supported the importance of accumulated experience and social context for the development of confidence in the face of risk, individual exploration and positive social support and engagement with peers.