A professional development model to facilitate teacher adoption of interactive,immersive digital games for classroom learning

The benefits of using digital games in the curriculum are well documented in literature. Most teachers who use digital games use short-form drill-and-practice learning games rather than the kinds of games most students would choose to play in their free time. The use of more interactive, immersive digital games (IDGs) in classrooms tends to be sporadic, dependent upon the enthusiasm and ingenuity of individual teachers. Previous studies have indicated that many teachers have concerns about using digital games in classrooms and have difficulties knowing how to best use digital games. This qualitative study presents a professional development model for teachers that was inductively derived through analysing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 13 educators who have used digital games in the classroom. Implementing this model can help teachers develop attitudes and skills necessary to meaningfully use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. Evidence suggests that a mentor should have a strong understanding of how to use digital games effectively in classrooms, work with small cohorts of teachers to collegially plan the use of digital games within a unit of class work, trial the unit of work with a small number of enthusiastic teachers, and then implement it with the remaining teachers. This approach is based on interviews with educators who have successfully mentored teachers in their schools to use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. These educators encountered little resistance from their teaching colleagues. Their approach further supported teachers who were open to the possibilities of using digital games in their classrooms.     

Creating teacher capacity in Early Childhood Education and Care institutions implementing an authoritative adult style

The being together intervention intends to raise teacher capacity in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions and promote social and emotional development in preschoolers by implementing an authoritative (warm and predictable) adult style in the institution. An authoritative adult balances between building up high quality interactions with children, while at the same time having a predictable structure with clear norms and social expectations in the learning environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate what helped the ECEC institutions to successfully implement the program principles and core components, and what were the challenges. The staff groups of seven Norwegian ECEC institutions in different municipalities who took part in the innovation were interviewed at the beginning and before the end of the first year of implementation. Data analysis identified five success criteria in the implementation process; strong commitment to the authoritative adult style, strong focus on the implementation process, advanced support systems, highly involved leaders, and a collective orientation. These elements resulted in a shared vision and an academically grounded practice in the ECEC institutions. Staff members without formal professional training and a lack of written documentation in the ECEC institutions should be given more consideration in further improvement of the capacity building.     

Educational Publishing in China: Status Quo,Problems and Counter Measures

In China, educational publishing is devoted to publishing mainly textbooks and teaching materials. For a long time, education publishing has dominated others in China’s publishing industry. However, after entering the new century, especially in the last 2 years, there has been the impact of changes in the College-Entrance Examination, the Invitation to Bid for Compilation and Publication of Textbooks, government procurement and Scientific and Technological Advancement for supplementary books. Therefore, publishing for education has been losing its previous major role and dominance. For making a leap forward and breakthrough in educational publication, we must open up a new train of thought for the development of educational publishing, we need three distinct transformations: first, change in publishing mode from extensive to intensive growth. Second, transformation from variety-scale to market-scale expansion. Third, transformation from being just a provider of content to one providing both content and services.     

Comparison of Alternative Channels in Cross Media Publishing

This paper attempts a direct comparison of the available alternative channels that can be employed in a cross media publishing scheme. More precisely it examines the content, the publishing speed, and the rhythm of the publishing channels. Interesting conclusions are drawn concerning the characteristics of each channel. A new publishing channel is proposed in order to allow newspapers to directly compete with radio and TV channels.