Designing computer systems to support peer learning

This article begins with a review of the various roles which computers have played in supporting collaborative learning and argues that, whatever role it plays, technology is not neutral with respect to interactions with and between users. Interfaces to learning environments embody particular representational schemes which have the potential either for competing with representations of the learning domain or for giving access to it. In this respect, the learner-machine interface has ‘Epistemic significance’ and its design is as important as the design of the materials and activities to which it interfaces.     

Inventing book news, 1925–1935: “Publicity hypnosis” and the colophon

The Colophon, published from 1925 through 1935 for an audience of book collectors and connoisseurs, illuminates the debate over the basis of a book's value: genuine quality or artificial scarcity. It also illustrates the distinction between genuine news about the book industry and “publicity hypnosis”—today’s “hype.” The magazine’s authors, designers, typographers, printers, and illustrators were among the finest of their day. Claire Badaracco is an assistant professor at Marquette University, and is currently writing a series of articles about Anglo-American book publishing, journalism, and publicity trades between 1920 and 1940 with the support of The British Academy, the National Endowment, and the Bibliographical Society of America. Her work has been published inAmerican Literary Realism, Journalism Quarterly, Essays in Business and Economic History, and other journals. The Library of Congress, The Center for The Book, is publishing her monograph “The Lakeside Press Four American Books Campaign 1926–1930.”     

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? Internet Communication, Geographic Community, and Social Capital in Crisis

This study investigated Internet communication and use in a crisis situation, Hurricane Katrina, to explore the role of the Internet in supporting or diminishing geographically-based community during a crisis. The researchers conducted an online survey of Internet users (n=1192) from the dispersed metropolitan New Orleans area. The survey focused on amount, type, function, and importance of Internet use to creating and maintaining social capital, supporting geographically-based communities, activating social networks, reducing uncertainty, and achieving both expressive and instrumental communication goals. The results indicated that Internet users in a crisis situation went online to seek interactive fora specific to their neighborhoods and to activate weak ties in their social networks. They engaged in more uncertainty reduction behavior when experiencing higher degrees of damage. They turned to the Internet in place of other media as a result of disruptions caused by the crisis. Women valued online expressive communication more than men did. The findings suggest that social capital theorists would benefit from a communication perspective on the Internet. The study also led to the formation of suggestions for emergency preparedness agencies, shelter providers, crisis victims, and online news providers that can improve emergency response.     

Children''s Relationships with Child Care Teachers: Stability and Concordance with Parental Attachments

In order to examine caregiving relationships of children enrolled in childcare, two longitudinal samples of children, n = 72 and n = 106, were followed from infancy through preschool. Maternal attachment as assessed by the Strange Situation, 4-year-old reunion behavior, and by the Attachment Q-Set tended to be stable across time. Children's teacher-child relationship quality, as measured by the Attachment Q-Set, was stable if the teacher remained the same. When the teacher changed, teacher-child relationship quality tended to be unstable until the children were 30 months old. After 30 months, relationship quality with teachers tended to be stable regardless of whether or not the teacher changed. Maternal and teacher relationships were nonconcordant. There were few interactions between adult caregiver relationship quality and age of entry into child care or intensity of child care.     

The nature and implications of the growing importance of research grants to Canadian universities and academics

This paper analyzes a significant but virtually unexplored recent development within Canadian higher education, namely the growing importance of research grants to universities and academics. It addresses three main questions. First, the paper examines why and how research grants are becoming more important to Canadian universities and academics, focusing in particular on the role played by federal higher education policy. Next, it explores how the growing importance of research grants is transforming relations between and among the key players in Canadian higher education and academic research, including university administrators, academics, government, and the broader community. The paper’s final section takes up some of the actual and potential implications of these changes and raises concerns about detrimental effects on Canada’s universities and citizens. Prospects and possibilities for reform are also addressed.