Redesigning chat forum for critical thinking in a problem-based learning environment

Support is needed to promote problem-based learning (PBL) and to enhance critical thinking skills in discussion-based Internet forums. By advancing the capabilities of chat room and forum software, problem-based discussions for learning can be supported further in online learning environments. In this paper, the authors report on MALESAbrain, an intelligent learning tool. The model is built on the notions of threshold and knowledge weight from the discipline of machine learning. The model encourages learners to judge or critically evaluate the solutions posted by others before exploring further knowledge content. The system then sums up the judgment scores as its knowledge weight to pass the thresholds setup for ranking/arranging the learning issues. This constraint design, therefore, becomes a mechanism for critical thinking in a problem-based learning activity. MALESAbrain as a model helps transform the forum and chat room into rich learning discussion environments.     

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: Designing Open Badges for a Technology Integration Course

This paper describes the design, development, and implementation of Open Badges into a secondary education preservice course on instructional technology. Open Badges provide a new way of issuing credentials to individuals who demonstrate knowledge, skill, or ability in a particular domain. Badges provide a simple system for communicating a skill along with specific information about the evidence connected with earning the badge. In this paper, we describe the course in detail along with the several iterations of design that resulted in the development of the badge system, along with the challenges faced and lessons learned for future design and use of Open Badges.     

Partnering with Undergraduate Students to Conduct Library Focus Groups

Experiential learning is becoming an increasingly important part of the university experience. Academic libraries have long provided practicum opportunities for library and information science students. To date, however, few libraries have documented experiential learning partnerships with social science students. Librarians at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) partnered with the university's anthropology department in an experiential learning opportunity. Undergraduate students conducted focus groups to discover how MTSU students complete research assignments and what role the library plays in the process. This article describes the collaboration, and it discusses the benefits and drawbacks of partnering with undergraduate student researchers.     

Scolding John Q.: Articulating a Normative Relationship between Politics and Entertainment

The 2002 hostage drama John Q. triggered a discussion among journalists, the public, and the policy community about the proper relationship between politics and entertainment. In this debate the criteria for good journalism and good political discourse were frequently invoked to evaluate this Hollywood film. This discussion, which spilled out of the film criticism pages into news and commentary pages, shows how public-sphere models of political discourse are privileged even though they may not be a good fit for fictional media. John Q.’s success in triggering public discussion and awareness about health policy issues seems to illustrate DeLuca & Peeples’s (2002) DeLuca, K. M. and Peeples, J. 2002. From public sphere to public screen: Democracy, activism, and the “violence” of Seattle. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 19(2): 125–151. [CROSSREF][Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] claim that the “public screen” is a more useful metaphor for thinking about politics than the public sphere (Habermas, 1989 Habermas, J. 1989. The structural transformation of the public sphere, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.  [Google Scholar]). John Q. seemed to particularly raise the ire of critics because of its unambiguous critique of domestic policy and its implicit suggestion that collective solutions are needed.     

Catalogue Use in Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Library,Ogbomoso, Nigeria

This study examines use of the card catalogue by staff and undergraduate and postgraduate students of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo state, Nigeria. The population sample was comprised of 1,200 library users randomly selected from 13,592 registered library users at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. Results from questionnaires established that the library card catalogue was underutilized by the undergraduate students (44%), but more heavily used by postgraduate students (78%), academic staff (74%), and administrative staff (66%). Recommendations are suggested to improve catalogue use in the library.     

Staff involvement in the design of a key skills curriculum model: a case-study

This case-study follows a school as it struggles to prepare for the changes brought about by Curriculum 2000 and the new key skills qualification. It describes the curriculum debate within the senior management team as it balanced the conflicting needs of subject popularity and necessity. It relates how inherent structural flaws were uncovered in the proposed curriculum strategy, how this very failure was used as an opportunity to initiate staff involvement in the design of curriculum structures and how success was subsequently fashioned from the process. It is a story of failure, consideration, reflection and improvement, and offers some insight into the lessons learned by management and teaching staff as they reflect on the process of change and their own participation in it.     

Integrating reading and science education: On developing and evaluating WEE Science

Two studies of a new science programme called WEE Science were conducted in two fifth-grade classrooms. The studies lasted for seven days in one of the classrooms and nine days in the other. At the beginning of the programme the students chose a science trade book from among the many that were selected and brought to the classroom. The students then formed groups based on the topics of the books and asked questions (Wondering) about the content. After choosing one of the 'wonderments' to pursue further, the students formed and implemented a plan for investigating (Exploring). In each classroom, each student explored, working in cooperating groups of two or more. The students then explained (Explaining) to a group of their peers what they had wondered and what and how they had explored. The students' wonderments, activities, plans, and explanations were recorded in a science notebook that had been designed for that purpose. In addition, the classrooms were videotaped while WEE Science was in progress. While the studies were successful in that most students eagerly participated in all phases of the project, some problems were encountered which created another round of wondering for the researchers. Some of these were: evaluating students' work, responding to science misconceptions of students, teaching some students to record observations in their notebooks, deciding where WEE Science would fit best in the curriculum, and anticipating its reception in the science education community.     

Reviving Rage

Voice and Nerve Control. By Jutta Bell‐Ranske, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1915.

Debaters’ Manual Compiled by Edith M. Phelps. White Plains, N.Y.: H. W. Wilson Co., 1915. Cloth, pp. 172. $1.00

The High School Debate Book. By E. C. Robbins. Chicago: A. C. McClurg &; Co., 1915. Cloth, pp. 229. $1.00.

Debating for Boys. By William Horton Foster. New York: Sturgis &; Walton Co., 1915. Cloth, pp. 175. $1. 00.

University Debaters’ Annual. Edited by Edward C. Mabie. White Plains, N.Y.: H. W. Wilson Co., 1915. Cloth, pp. 534. $1.80.

The Teaching of Oral English. By Emma Miller Bolenius. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1914. Cloth, pp. 214.

The Making of an Oration. By Clark Mills Brink. Chicago: A. C. McClurg &; Co., 1913. Pp. 421. Cloth, $1.50.