History of Broadcasting

Philip T. Rosen, The Modern Stentors: Radio Broadcasting and the Federal Government, 1920-1934 (Westport,Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980— $25.00).

Laurence Bergreen Look Now, Pay Later: The Rise of Network Broadcasting (New York: Doubleday, 1980 with paperback reprint by Mentor Books, 1981—$14.95/ 3.95).

C. Joseph Pusateri, Enterprise in Radio: WWL and the Business of Broadcasting it America (University Press of America, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Md. 20801— $19.50/11.75)

Alex McNeil, Total Television: A Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to 1980 (New York: Penguin Books, $9.95, paper)     

It Takes a Village to Raise an Information Technology Project: Suggestions on Collaboration From Our 10-Community-College Consortium

This article describes the collaborative evolution of the Midwest Center for Information Technology (MCIT)—which is a consortium of 10 different community colleges across the four states of Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota—that was established to improve information technology (IT) education across the region. MCIT has been funded as a Regional Center by the National Science Foundation in three different grants from the Advanced Technological Education program (ATE) due to its successful collaborative model, alignment with research and best practices, focused regional interventions, and data driven decision-making. The fiscal agent for the consortium is unique. It is not one of the community colleges, but rather it is the Applied Information Management Institute (AIM), a business driven nonprofit focused on IT improvement in the midwestern region. The MCIT model, thus, builds a close partnership with local IT businesses and the IT programs in the 10 participating community colleges. This article describes the MCIT model for collaboration, the joint activities undertaken by the 10 colleges and AIM and the results to date of these shared institutional efforts. This article also discusses challenges associated with such a large-scale collaborative effort, and it provides suggestions for collaborative practice for other community colleges seeking to work together in larger consortiums.     

Features in children's counting books that lead dyads to both count and label sets during shared book reading

This study examined how book features influence talk during shared book reading. We used data from a study in which parent–child dyads (n = 157; child's M_age = 43.99 months; 88 girls, 69 boys; 91.72% of parents self-reported as white) were randomly assigned to read two number books. The focus was comparison talk (i.e., talk in which dyads count a set and also label its total), as this type of talk has been shown to promote children's understanding of cardinality. Replicating previous findings, dyads produced relatively low levels of comparison talk. However, book features influenced the talk. Books containing a greater number of numerical representations (e.g., number word, numeral, and non-symbolic set) and a greater word count elicited more comparison talk.     

Designing tomorrow’s snow park jump

Recent epidemiological studies of injuries at ski resorts have found that snow park jumps pose a significantly greater risk for certain classes of injury to resort patrons than other normal skiing activities. Today, most recreational jumps are built by skilled groomers without an engineering design process, but the Snow Skiing Committee (F-27) of the American Society for Testing and Materials is considering the inclusion of recreational jumps in their purview which may lead to a greater role for engineering jump designs in the US in the future. Similar efforts are underway in Europe as well. The purpose of this work is to review the current state of the science of snow park jumps, describe the jump design process, and outline the role that modelling will play in designing tomorrow’s snow park jumps.     

Consequences of Individual Differences in Children's Formal Understanding of Mathematical Equivalence

Experts claim that individual differences in children's formal understanding of mathematical equivalence have consequences for mathematics achievement; however, evidence is lacking. A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted with a diverse sample of 112 children from a midsized city in the Midwestern United States (M_age [second grade] = 8:1). As hypothesized, understanding of mathematical equivalence in second grade predicted mathematics achievement in third grade, even after controlling for second-grade mathematics achievement, IQ, gender, and socioeconomic status. Most children exhibited poor understanding of mathematical equivalence, but results provide clues about which children are on the path to constructing an understanding and which may need extra support to overcome their misconceptions. Findings suggest that mathematical equivalence may deserve more attention from educators.     

Using talk to scaffold referential questions for English language learners

Research from interactionist second language acquisition and sociocultural theoretical perspectives shows that referential questions are important for learning, but also, that they can be difficult for English language learners (ELLs) to understand and produce answers to. By integrating analytical tools from both traditions, this study examined the scaffolding functions of a fifth grade teacher’s talk. The study found that the teacher utilized various communicative moves to engage ELLs in referential questions. Examples illustrating these communicative moves and their scaffolding functions are provided. Implications from these findings for teacher education are discussed.     

Should you show me the money? Concrete objects both hurt and help performance on mathematics problems

How do concrete objects that cue real-world knowledge affect students' performance on mathematics word problems? In Experiment 1, fourth- and sixth-grade students (N = 229) solved word problems involving money. Students in the experimental condition were given bills and coins to help them solve the problems, and students in the control condition were not. Students in the experimental condition solved fewer problems correctly. Experiment 2 tested whether this effect was due to the perceptually rich nature of the materials. Fifth-grade students (N = 79) were given: perceptually rich bills and coins, bland bills and coins, or no bills and coins. Students in the perceptually rich condition made the most errors; however, their errors were least likely to be conceptual errors. Results suggest that the use of perceptually rich concrete objects conveys both advantages and disadvantages in children's performance in school mathematics.