The Evolution of GIS Services within North American Academic Libraries: Documenting Change through the Decades (1995–2016)

This review was conducted to identify articles written about Geographic Information Systems (GIS) services offered in the United States (US) and Canadian university and college libraries. In the early 1990's, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) GIS Literacy Project, in partnership with Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), helped enable ARL member libraries to create GIS services within their libraries. By the mid to late 1990's, librarians from academic institutions began to write articles that discussed how their library developed GIS services and the components involved with operating a GIS service. Writing about GIS services in academic libraries continued on into the 2000's and 2010's. This review of the literature will document the areas of staffing, service, technology, and data provision for GIS service units from three decades (1990's, 2000's, and 2010's).     

Restorative Rhetoric and Social Media: An Examination of the Boston Marathon Bombing

This study analyzes Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s rhetoric via Twitter following the Boston Marathon Bombing, exploring how a leader engaged in crisis communication using social media. Guided by restorative rhetoric, we examine how Menino included strategic communication (alleviate risk and restore public safety) and humanistic communication (focusing on the more substantive issues of crisis leadership) in his tweets. Our analysis is grounded in the five tenets of restorative rhetoric as a theoretical lens: initial reaction; assessment of the crisis; issues of blame; healing and forgiveness; and corrective action and rebuilding through a rhetorical vision. The findings demonstrate the utility of social media in aiding leaders as they provide critical information and guidance amid high uncertainty while also initiating the healing process, including fostering resilience.     

There’s a creepy guy on the other end at Google!: engaging middle school students in a drawing activity to elicit their mental models of Google

Although youth are increasingly going online to fulfill their needs for information, many youth struggle with information and digital literacy skills, such as the abilities to conduct a search and assess the credibility of online information. Ideally, these skills encompass an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the ways in which a system, such as a Web search engine, functions. In order to investigate youths’ conceptions of the Google search engine, a drawing activity was conducted with 26 HackHealth after-school program participants to elicit their mental models of Google. The findings revealed that many participants personified Google and emphasized anthropomorphic elements, computing equipment, and/or connections (such as cables, satellites and antennas) in their drawings. Far fewer participants focused their drawings on the actual Google interface or on computer code. Overall, their drawings suggest a limited understanding of Google and the ways in which it actually works. However, an understanding of youths’ conceptions of Google can enable educators to better tailor their digital literacy instruction efforts and can inform search engine developers and search engine interface designers in making the inner workings of the engine more transparent and their output more trustworthy to young users. With a better understanding of how Google works, young users will be better able to construct effective queries, assess search results, and ultimately find relevant and trustworthy information that will be of use to them.     

The Interaction of Early Maternal Responsiveness and Children's Cognitive Abilities on Later Decoding and Reading Comprehension Skills

This longitudinal study evaluated the extent to which maternal responsiveness across early childhood and children's cognitive skills predicted children's 8-year decoding and reading comprehension skills for children who varied in biological risk (term, n = 83; preterm, n = 155). Patterns of maternal responsiveness during infancy (6, 12, and 24 months) and preschool (3 and 4 years) revealed 4 maternal clusters that varied in consistency and level of maternal responsiveness. Although not predictive of decoding skills, the interaction between children's 4-year cognitive ability and maternal responsiveness cluster predicted children's reading comprehension skills at 8 years of age, regardless of risk. Although consistently high levels of maternal responsive parenting across early childhood related to literacy outcomes for all children in the study, responsive parenting had a stronger relation to later reading comprehension skills for children with lower cognitive abilities, particularly when mothers demonstrated high responsiveness in children's infancy.     

Governing Boards in Public Higher Education Institutions: A perspective from the United States

Governing boards have a long tradition and prominent role in U.S. higher education. The diversity of institutional types, and thus governing boards, represents a multifaceted tapestry of functions, roles, and responsibilities. This paper will attempt to define the parameters of public higher education governing boards in the USA and offer critical insights into their degree of effectiveness. It is the author’s position that both positive and negative lessons can be learned through an examination of these public governing boards in the USA. The recent emergence of university boards in Europe is examined and their characteristics are compared against the characteristics of public and private boards in the USA.

     

Performance strategies of US Olympians in practice and competition

Until recently, no self‐report instruments have examined psychological skills use in both practice and competition. In light of the significant role of practice in sport performance outcomes, a need exists to measure these skills in both domains. This study was designed to investigate differences in performance strategies of US Olympians in both practice and competition. The Test of Performance Strategies was administered to 176 US participants in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Summer Games. Discriminant function analyses demonstrated significant differences between medalists and nonmedalists in both the competition and practice performance strategies. Furthermore, significant gender and age differences were identified for competition strategies only. The 16 subscales of the TOPS, with two exceptions, create an internally stable instrument with moderate predictive ability relative to quality of sport performance, gender, and age in this elite sample of athletes.     

The effects of informational complexity and working memory on problem-solving efficiency

This study investigated the influence of informational complexity and working memory capacity on problem-solving efficiency. We examined two predictions of thesituational efficiency hypothesis, which states that the efficiency of problem solving varies as a function of situational constraints. One prediction is that informational complexity affects problem-solving efficiency. A second prediction is that working memory capacity affects problem-solving efficiency. Students completed a working memory task and solved abstract and concrete syllogisms. Participants solved abstract syllogisms more accurately than concrete syllogisms and spent more time solving abstract syllogisms. Thus participants demonstrated greater problem-solving efficiency when solving concrete syllogisms. Results indicate that there is a trade-off between problem-solving accuracy and problem-solving time when information differs with respect to informational complexity, a phenomenon we refer to as theefficiency paradox. Working memory capacity did not affect accuracy or efficiency. The results support the conclusion that problem-solving efficiency is situational and a function of the complexity of information. Educational implications and directions for future research are suggested.     

Anatomy as a Model Environment for Acquiring Professional Competencies in Medicine: Experiences at Harvard Medical School

Anatomy education provides students with opportunities to learn structure and function of the human body, to acquire professional competencies such as teamwork, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and to reflect on and practice medical ethics. The fulfillment of this wide potential can present challenges in courses that are part of an integrated curriculum and shorter than traditional courses. This new reality, together with students' increasing concern about the stresses within medical education, led to efforts at Harvard Medical School to implement practical steps toward an optimal learning environment in anatomy. These were based on core elements of ethical anatomy education and principles of trauma-informed care. Anatomy is conceptualized here as the “first clinical discipline,” with relational interactions between anatomical educators, medical students, and body donors/patients. Essential prerequisites for the implementation of this work were support by the medical school leadership, open partnership between engaged students and faculty, faculty coordination, and peer-teaching. Specific interventions included pre-course faculty development on course philosophy and invitations to students to share their thoughts on anatomy. Student responses were integrated in course introductions, combined with a pre-dissection laboratory visit, an introductory guide, and a module on the history and ethics of anatomy. During the course, team-building activities were scheduled, and self-reflection encouraged, for example, through written exercises, and elective life-body drawing. Students' responses to the interventions were overall positive, but need further evaluation. This first attempt of a systematic implementation of an optimal learning environment in anatomy led to the identification of areas in need of adjustment.     

Team-Based Ultrasound Objective Structured Practice Examination (OSPE) in the Anatomy Course

The clinical use of ultrasound has dramatically increased, necessitating early ultrasound education and the development of new tools in ultrasound training and assessment. The goal of this study was to devise a novel low-resource examination that tested the anatomical knowledge and technical skill of early undergraduate medical students in a gross anatomy course. The team-based ultrasound objective structured practice examination (OSPE) was created as a method for assessing practical ultrasound competencies, anatomical knowledge, and non-technical skills such as teamwork and professionalism. The examination utilized a rotation of students through four team roles as they scanned different areas of the body. This station-based examination required four models and four instructors, and tested ultrasound skills in the heart, abdominal vessels, abdominal organs, and neck regions. A Likert scale survey assessed student attitudes toward the examination. Survey data from participants (n = 46) were examined along with OSPE examination grades (n = 52). Mean and standard deviations were calculated for examination items and survey responses. Student grades were high in both technical (96.5%). and professional (96.5%) competencies with structure identification scoring the lowest (93.8%). There were no statistical differences between performances in each of the body regions being scanned. The survey showed that students deemed the examination to be fair and effective. In addition, students agreed that the examination motivated them to practice ultrasound. The team-based OSPE was found to be an efficient and student-favored method for evaluating integrated ultrasound competencies, anatomical knowledge, team-work, and professional attributes.