Changes in the basic ICT skills of freshmen between 2005 and 2009: Who’s catching up and who’s still behind?

In the last decade, ICT use has expanded enormously in most Western countries. In line with this development, we hypothesised that freshmen at university would not only have mastered more ICT skills, but would also use computers more often than their counterparts of 5 years previously. To compare students’ opinions and behaviour between 2005 and 2009, responses to two online questionnaires (N = 714 in 2005 and N = 1529 in 2009) offered at a large university were compared. The main variables of the Technology Acceptance Model (as well as facilitating factors, study motivation and some contextual variables) were used as predictors to explore the possible changes between 2005 and 2009 in the mastering of 19 ICT skills, and the frequency of the use of computers for six different tasks. The results of the study show that freshmen became more proficient in some ICT skills, while proficiency in other skills did not change or even dropped. Gender is still an important factor to predict ICT skills and the frequency of using computers, but it is shown that for some skills female students have caught up with their male counterparts.     

The Second-Person Effect and Its Role in Formation of Active Issue Publics

This article explores the idea that the media encourage audience members to see issues as affecting both themselves and other members of the community—a perception termed second-person effects. The authors argue that second-person perceptions are an integral step toward the formation of active issue publics and significant predictors of a person's willingness to engage in behaviors necessary to resolve an issue. Results also show that second-person effects predominate when predicting intentions to take actions to address an issue. Thus, this supports the proposition that second-person effects are a key component in understanding the formation of active issue publics.     

The Science of the Individual

Our goal is to establish a science of the individual, grounded in dynamic systems, and focused on the analysis of individual variability. Our argument is that individuals behave, learn, and develop in distinctive ways, showing patterns of variability that are not captured by models based on statistical averages. As such, any meaningful attempt to develop a science of the individual necessarily begins with an account of the individual variability that is pervasive in all aspects of behavior, and at all levels of analysis. Using examples from fields as diverse as education and medicine, we show how starting with individual variability, not statistical averages, helped researchers discover two sources of ordered variability—pathways and contexts—that have implications for theory, research, and practice in multiple disciplines. We conclude by discussing three broad challenges—data, models, and the nature of science—that must be addressed to ensure that the science of the individual reaches its full potential.     

Economy in track runners and orienteers during path and terrain running

The aims ofthe present study were to assess running economy in track runners and orienteers and to identify the factors responsible for any differences. The participants were 11 orienteers and 10 track runners of similar age, body mass, maximal oxygen uptake and training background. However, the orienteers included heavy terrain running in their daily training, whereas the track runners ran almost entirely on the roads and tracks. Maximal oxygen uptake and running economy were calculated during horizontal path running and during cross-country running in rough terrain with steep hills, using a telemetric system (K2, Cosmed, Italy). Running economy during path running was 217 +/- 12 and 212 +/- 14 ml.kg -1 .km -1 (mean +/- s) in the orienteers and the track runners, respectively. Running economy was impaired by 41-52% in heavy terrain (P ? 0.05), and was less pronounced in the orienteers than in the track runners (88 +/- 18 vs 109 +/- 26 ml.kg -1 .km -1 ; P ? 0.05). In conclusion, the better running economy of orienteers when changing from horizontal path to heavy terrain running could be an innate ability, or it could be speculated that specific training may improve running economy, indicating the importance of specific training for orienteers.