New Media

WIRED CITIES: SHAPING THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATIONS edited by William H. Dutton, et al. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1987—$45.00, with a paperback also available)

TOMORROW'S TVs: A REVIEW OF NEW TV SET TECHNOLOGY, RELATED VIDEO EQUIPMENT AND POTENTIAL MARKET IMPACTS, 1987–1995 by Gary H. Arlen (National Association of Broadcasters, 1771 N. St NW, Washington, DC 20036—$49.95 but $24.95 to NAB and BEA members, paper)

THE VIDEOTEX AND TELETEXT HANDBOOK: HOME AND OFFICE COMMUNICATIONS USING MICROCOMPUTERS AND TERMINALS by Paul Hurly, et al . (New York: Harper & Row, 1985—$21.95, paper)

TELEGUIDE: A HANDBOOK ON VIDEO-TELECONFERENCING by Doug Widner (Public Service Satellite Consortium, 600 Maryland Ave. SW, Suite 220, Washington, DC 20024—$49.95, paper; half that to PSSC members)

COMPUTERS IN VIDEO PRODUCTION by Lon McQuillin (White Plains, NY: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1986—$39.95)     

Survey Says…?: Assessing Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Use and Awareness for Responsive Service Delivery

Abstract

The object of this study is to assess Texas A&M University (TAMU) students/faculty/staff members’ use and awareness of the Libraries’ free document delivery and interlibrary loan service, branded as “Get It For Me.” Since 2010, we have continued to see a decline in new user registrations each year. Previous Get It For Me user surveys conducted in 2003 and 2011 indicated that the overall satisfaction of registered users was high and customer feedback gleaned from these surveys was used to initiate a number of service improvements. But what about the large percentage of the campus community who do not use the Get It For Me service? Are they aware of what this service has to offer? If so, why might they choose not to use it? If they are not aware of the service, might they use it if they knew more about how it can assist them in their scholarly endeavors? Instead of only surveying those customers who have used this service, we invited everyone on TAMU College Station campus to participate in the survey. Promoting the service is a vital component of service delivery.     

Coding Classroom Interactions for Collective and Individual Engagement

This article characterizes “engagement in science learning” from a sociocultural perspective and offers a mixed method approach to measuring engagement that combines critical discourse analysis (CDA) and social network analysis (SNA). Conceptualizing engagement from a sociocultural perspective, the article discusses the advantages of a mixed methodological approach, and specifically how mixed methods can expand and enrich our understanding of engagement in certain science learning situations. Through this sociocultural viewpoint, engagement is defined as meaningful changes in disciplinary discourse practice, which captures the dialectical relationship between the individual and collective. The combined use of CDA and SNA integrates an individual's relative position in a group with her situated language use.     

The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning

In most mathematics textbooks, each set of practice problems is comprised almost entirely of problems corresponding to the immediately previous lesson. By contrast, in a small number of textbooks, the practice problems are systematically shuffled so that each practice set includes a variety of problems drawn from many previous lessons. The standard and shuffled formats differ in two critical ways, and each was the focus of an experiment reported here. In Experiment 1, college students learned to solve one kind of problem, and subsequent practice problems were either massed in a single session (as in the standard format) or spaced across multiple sessions (as in the shuffled format). When tested 1 week later, performance was much greater after spaced practice. In Experiment 2, students first learned to solve multiple types of problems, and practice problems were either blocked by type (as in the standard format) or randomly mixed (as in the shuffled format). When tested 1 week later, performance was vastly superior after mixed practice. Thus, the results of both experiments favored the shuffled format over the standard format.     

Increasing Interaction in a Flipped Online Classroom through Video Conferencing

Interactive learning is vital to schooled learning because it encourages and enables the exploration and application of knowledge. The difficulty of providing for this learning-based interaction among students who never meet in person has been a continuing concern in online education. This paper describes six different interactive structures (whole group discussions, break-out groups, show-and-tell, independent small groups, online conferences, and virtual poster sessions) developed to allow students in online courses to interact virtually face-to-face using free video conferencing programs and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each. Student response to these video conferencing structures in 18 fully online classes was overwhelmingly positive, based on data from anonymous end-of-course evaluations. Student comments emphasized increased engagement and enjoyment from being able to see and talk with each other in both large and small groups, and the value of the relationships and learning community they believed such interaction fostered.     

An Evaluation of Three Interdisciplinary Social Science Events Outside of the College Classroom

This article describes three interdisciplinary events held outside of the classroom to examine social psychological concepts in the criminal justice system, with undergraduate students enrolled in criminal justice and psychology courses. These events can most accurately be described as using a synthetic interdisciplinary approach, in which the disciplines of psychology and criminal justice remain clearly identifiable in looking at phenomena like occurrences of bystander apathy, while enabling a holistic view of these phenomena. First, 75 students celebrated the life of Kitty Genovese, a famous victim of bystander apathy. Later in the semester, the same students competed in a game-show-like review session. Finally, 45 students explored the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems with professionals from various fields. Overall, students enjoyed the social interaction with their peers across the majors, as well as with their professors and professionals in the field. Students also indicated that the interactive learning techniques enhanced their new understanding of the intersection of the disciplines. Future research should investigate the offering of interdisciplinary events to students within and across academic divisions to build community and enhance students' understanding of their educational and career opportunities.     

An analysis of the relationship between the linear hammer speed and the thrower applied forces during the hammer throw for male and female throwers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the cable force and linear hammer speed in the hammer throw and to identify how the magnitude and direction of the cable force affects the fluctuations in linear hammer speed. Five male (height: 1.88 ± 0.06 m; body mass: 106.23 ± 4.83 kg) and five female (height: 1.69 ± 0.05 m; body mass: 101.60 ± 20.92 kg) throwers participated and were required to perform 10 throws each. The hammer's linear velocity and the cable force and its tangential component were calculated via hammer head positional data. As expected, a strong correlation was observed between decreases in the linear hammer speed and decreases in the cable force (normalised for hammer weight). A strong correlation was also found to exist between the angle by which the cable force lags the radius of rotation at its maximum (when tangential force is at its most negative) and the size of the decreases in hammer speed. These findings indicate that the most effective way to minimise the effect of the negative tangential force is to reduce the size of the lag angle.