Learning to compose digitally: the effect of prior computer use and keyboard activity on NAEP writing

Writing is critical for college and career readiness, yet secondary students in America are not good writers (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Unfortunately, researchers know relatively little about secondary students’ writing skills, and even less about their digital writing. In this study, we explored prior computer use, keyboard activity during writing, and their relations to writing achievement using the 8th grade 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing assessment, the first national computer-based writing assessment for U.S. secondary students. We found that prior computer use predicted students’ writing skills directly (0.08) and indirectly (e.g., keypresses, 0.14) via keyboard activity during the test. We found differential effects for certain groups including current English learners and disadvantaged students. We also found a small positive interaction effect of prior use and keypresses on writing. That is, the benefits of prior computer use for school writing and the value of students’ additional keypresses on writing achievement were amplified when both were present.

     

Writing and reading knowledge of Spanish/English second-generation bilinguals

Written bilingualism represents a particular type of bilingualism that is not frequently approached. The aim of this study was to investigate the writing and reading abilities of second-generation immigrants, Spanish–English bilinguals in South Florida. 58 participants (36 females, 22 males; 18–39 years of age) were selected. Both parents were native Spanish speakers and the home language was Spanish; 37 were born in the United States and 21 were born in a Latin American country, but arrived to the US before the age of 10. Equivalent reading and writing tests were administered both in Spanish and English. Performance was significantly higher in English than in Spanish in the following tests: reading aloud (speed and errors), writing sentences, spontaneous writing number of words, and spontaneous writing errors (spelling and grammatical). When comparing those participants born in the US and abroad, no significant differences were found in Spanish, but in English; participants born in the US did better in reading aloud (errors), and spontaneous writing errors (spelling and grammatical). It was concluded that reading and writing abilities are in general higher in English than in Spanish in this group of bilinguals, which is correlated with the language used in the school they attended. This study emphasize the importance to analyze not only oral but also written bilingualism. Toward the future, it would be particularly important to study written bilingualism in other types of bilingualism.     

‘Over To You’: Group work to help pupils avoid school exclusion

This paper describes the support of secondary pupils at risk of school exclusion through a course of group work designed to promote individual responsibility for behaviour. Following self‐reflection the young people are encouraged to write their own behavioural targets and consider their progress in working towards them throughout the six‐session course. The results of a study involving a mixed group of five Year 8 pupils are reported. All the pupils increased their self‐rating scores on a social skills assessment form completed before and after the course, and were also rated more highly by their teachers. Seven months later the five pupils had maintained behavioural improvements and had not been excluded.     

Substantive growth and innovative organization: New categories for higher education research

The existing international literature on higher education centers on the transition from elite to mass higher education, the changing relationship between governments and universities, and the differentiation of the institutional fabric of national systems. These important institutionalized concerns lead to an unbalanced research agenda if other basic features are not pursued. Two additional fundamental features need expanded attention: substantive academic growth, with its roots in the research imperative and the dynamics of disciplines; and innovative university organization, a sharply growing concern among practitioners as universities seek greater capacity to change.Proliferating at a rapid rate, modern academic knowledge changes fields of study from within, alters universities from the bottom-up, and increases the benefits and costs of decisions on the inclusion and exclusion of various specialties. The long-term trend from simple to complex knowledge, arguably more important than the trend from elite to mass higher education, forces universities to position themselves between knowledge expansion and student expansion, with emphasis increasingly placed on the knowledge dimension. Innovative universities explore new ways of organizing knowledge and of more effectively exploiting the fields in which they are already engaged. Greater awareness of new means of knowledge organization will help universities make wiser choices in the twenty-first century.     

No comparison: Distance education finds a new use for ‘No significant difference’

Media comparison studies have long been criticized as an inappropriate research design for measuring the effectiveness of instructional technology. However, a resurgence in their use has recently been noted in distance education for program evaluation purposes. An analysis of the research design will detail why such a methodology is an inappropriate approach to such an investigation. Increased access to such programming does not seem to serve as a satisfactory benefit for the implementation of distance education efforts. Stakeholders desire to prove that participants in distance-delivered courses receive the same quality of instruction off-campus as those involved in the traditional classroom setting. However, the desire to prove that the quality of such distributed offerings is equal to the quality of on-campus programming often results in comparisons of achievement between the two groups of student participants. Statistically, such a research design almost guarantees that the desired outcome will be attained—that indeed distance learners perform as well as campus-based students.     

Learning through digital storytelling: exploring entertainment techniques in lecture video

Although online education is popularized, it is in a developing stage that continues to struggle with communicating and engaging with students. The question remains on how students can be better engaged in online educational materials that are presented in asynchronous media, especially in lecture videos. Thus, using engagement theory, the present study explored how online lecture videos can be improved by incorporating entertainment education. Using a public lecture video found on YouTube, an online survey (N = 133) was conducted to identify digital storytelling techniques and their effects. Results revealed that these techniques that are often utilized in entertainment became meaningful components to increase student engagement and learning outcomes. However, they can also negatively affect instructor credibility, which could suggest the need to increase instructors’ skills. The implications for the development of lecture videos using entertainment and its potential to positively impact online education are discussed.     

Visual and auditory memory: Relationships to reading achievement

In two experiments, visual and auditory memory was tested for good and for poor readers from the upper elementary grades. Under experimenter-blind conditions, no reading group differences existed for single mode presentation in recognition frequency or recognition latency. With a multimodal presentation, latencies for poor readers were similar to those for the single mode presentation. Good readers, however, had significantly faster latencies with multiple input. Generally, results supported dual coding and self-terminating memory search hypotheses for previously encoded stimuli. Implications of the latency differences between reader groups were discussed with respect to the reading process and reading theory.     

What does it look like and what can it do? Category structure influences how infants categorize

Despite a large body of research demonstrating the kinds of categories to which infants respond, few studies have directly assessed how infants' categorization unfolds over time. Four experiments used a visual familiarization task to evaluate 10-month-old infants' (N = 98) learning of exemplars characterized by commonalities in appearance or function. When learning exemplars with a common function, infants initially responded to the common feature, apparently forming a category, and only learned the individual features with more extensive familiarization. When learning exemplars with a common appearance, infants initially learned the individual features and apparently only formed a category with more extensive familiarization. The results are discussed in terms of models of category learning.     

A short review of information and communication technologies and basic education in LDCs—what is useful, what is sustainable?

Information and communication technologies such as radio and television have long been used in education. The advent of the technology of the Internet has created pressure for Internet access in primary and secondary schools across the world. This paper reviews some of the available evidence on the impact and cost of such technologies in developing countries. It concludes that while there is strong evidence for the efficacy and efficiency of interactive radio instruction, the evidence on the impact of computer-supported education remains mixed, and costs are prohibitive for many LDCs (less developed countries).