Videos Bridging Asia and Africa: Overcoming Cultural and Institutional Barriers in Technology-Mediated Rural Learning

Abstract

Will African farmers watch and learn from videos featuring farmers in Bangladesh? Learning videos on rice seed management were made with rural women in Bangladesh. By using a new approach, called zooming-in, zooming-out, the videos were of regional relevance and locally appropriate. When the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice) introduced them to Africa in 2005, many scientists and civil servants thought that the videos would be culturally inappropriate and hence irrelevant to African smallholder farmers. However, African farmers who watched the videos did not experience cultural barriers. In fact, they enjoyed seeing another part of the world where farmers faced similar problems as theirs, and were able to solve these problems by themselves. To promote wider uptake of the videos a key challenge was to overcome the institutional barriers. Public sector agencies especially had to be convinced that African smallholders appreciated Asian videos. By watching the videos with farmers and listening to their feedback, the skeptical scientists and service providers changed their minds. By 2009, the Bangladeshi rice seed videos had been translated into 20 African languages and so became national products. Videos made according to the zooming-in zooming-out approach can bring farmer-to-farmer extension to a higher level of social aggregation.     

Managing Exploratory Units in Academic Libraries

Abstract

This article describes the role of exploratory teams in leading radical innovation within academic libraries, empirically expanding on Jantz’s research on the managerial and environmental conditions necessary for the creation of such units. Using historical and contemporary private-sector examples, as well as an in-depth case study from successful implementation of one such unit, this article documents the components, characteristics, and return on investment associated with academic library R&D. Finally, by tackling the concept of exploratory activities at the organization, team, and individual levels, the article presents actionable techniques for fully supporting, and adequately nurturing creative professionals whose job is to redefine 21st century librarianship.     

The Self-Study as an Information Literacy Program Assessment Tool

ABSTRACT

The J. Paul Leonard Library at San Francisco State University is engaged in a number of information literacy efforts. The library's new information literacy coordinators had many questions about the library's current activities and how to further develop its information literacy program. In the 2006–2007 academic year, the Library Education Committee obtained a more accurate understanding of the library's information literacy efforts through a self-study process. A survey instrument was created and distributed to all teaching librarians. The results of this study were contrasted with the Association of College and Research Libraries' (ACRL) Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy That Illustrate Best Practices: A Guideline in order to facilitate program assessment and long-term planning.     

International Communications

THE SOVIET PROPAGANDA MACHINE by Martin Ebon (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987—$22.95)

CLANDESTINE RADIO BROADCASTING: A STUDY OF REVOLUTIONARY AND COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION by Lawrence C. Soley and John S. Nichols (New York: Praeger, 1987—$47.95)

ASSIGNED TO LISTEN: THE EVESHAM EXPERIENCE, 1939–43 by Olive Renier and Vladimir Rubinstein (London: BBC External Services, 1986—L3.95, paper, plus 25% more to cover postage and packing outside of the U.K.)

INDEPENDENCE, LIBERATION, REVOLUTION: AN APPROACH TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE THIRD WORLD by Tran Van Dinh (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987—$37.50)

FOLLOWING THE FOOTPRINTS: PROTECTING FILM AND TV RIGHTS IN THE WORLD SATELLITE MARKETPLACE edited by Charles Firestone and Daniel Brenner (Communications Law Program, UCLA School of Law, University of California, Los Angeles 90024—price not given, paper)     

Towards a Sustainable and Collaborative Data Model for Periodical Studies

This article advocates the development of a sustainable, structured, and open data model for periodical research. Considering the recent digital turn in periodical studies, it argues that a data model embracing Linked Open Data practices will not only facilitate collaboration among periodical scholars across language boundaries but also contribute to a better understanding of what periodicals are and how the relationships among periodicals may evolve over time. By way of illustration, the article presents the data model developed in the context of an ongoing five-year research project on women editors and their periodicals in early-eighteenth- to early-twentieth-century Europe.     

Changing students’ assessment preferences: The case of an assessment development center in a veterinary gross anatomy course

The present study explores the development of students’ assessment preferences by investigating how these preferences evolve after experiencing an assessment development center in a veterinary gross anatomy course. The sample in this study consists of 42 students in the second year of a Bachelor's degree in medical veterinary science, enrolled in a ‘gross anatomy course’. Data were collected in a pre-test–post-test design using the Assessment Preferences Inventory. The results indicates that students’ experience with an assessment and development centre can result in the development of students’ assessment preferences towards assessment formats testing more ‘higher order’ skills. Results of this explorative study should not be overstated, however, due to sample size and research design.     

Individualization,the new political spectrum and the functions of adult education

The ambivalences of individualization have triggered a new discourse on social policy. The central themes in this discourse are the promotion of social integration and participation. This new political discourse has thwarted the old left‐right continuum and given rise to a new political spectrum. On one side of this new political spectrum are political perspectives that emphasize integration, solidarity, community. The authors call these collectivistic perspectives. On the other side of the spectrum are perspectives that interpret individualization as the triumph of freedom of choice for individuals. The authors call these the individualistic perspectives. They then describe the spectrum between collectivism and individualism in detail and link each perspective to programmes in adult education typical of such a perspective. In conclusion, the authors summarize their own position in respect of the mission of adult education.     

Do dyslexics misread a ROWS for a ROSE?

Insufficient knowledge of the subtle relations between words’ spellings and their phonology is widely held to be the primary limitation in developmental dyslexia. In the present study the influence of phonology on a semantic-based reading task was compared for groups of readers with and without dyslexia. As many studies have shown, skilled readers make phonology-based false-positive errors to homophones and pseudohomophones in the semantic categorization task. The basic finding was extended to children, teens, and adults with dyslexia from familial and clinically-referred samples. Dyslexics showed the same overall pattern of phonology errors and the results were consistent across dyslexia samples, across age groups, and across experimental conditions using word and nonword homophone foils. The dyslexic groups differed from chronological-age matched controls by having elevated false-positive homophone error rates overall, and weaker effects of baseword frequency. Children with dyslexia also made more false-positive errors to spelling control foils. These findings suggest that individuals with dyslexia make use of phonology when making semantic decisions both to word homophone and non-word pseudohomophone foils and that dyslexics lack adequate knowledge of actual word spellings, compared to chronological-age and reading-level matched control participants.     

Effects of Schools,Teaching Staff and Classes on Achievement and Well-Being in Secondary Education: Similarities and Differences Between School Outcomes

In this article, effects of schools, teaching staff and classes on achievement and on the well-being of pupils at the end of their first grade in secondary education in Belgium are explored by means of multilevel analysis. Our study affirms that the relative influence of classes and schools on achievement is much higher than on well-being. We find that schools and classes have main and interaction effects on both outcomes. However, the interaction effects on well-being are limited to a few class-pupil interactions. Our results indicate that achievement and well-being can be considered as two different, distinctive school and class outcomes and that the school characteristics investigated act differently on these outcomes. Some school characteristics are always effective independent of the outcome criterium, while the effectiveness of other school characteristics depends on the criterium considered.     

Improving reading achievements of struggling learners

This article questions whether culture and climate can be considered interchangeable concepts in school effectiveness research. Hereto both are compared by describing them thoroughly and reviewing their main advantages and disadvantages. It is argued that the two are different. Preference is given to culture as more suitable and more accurate for examining a school's cognitive structures. Climate, encompassing culture, should be reserved for picturing the school in its entirety.