Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course

Since the early years of the twenty‐first century there has been an increasing interest in using Web 2.0 technologies to support learning in Higher Education. However, previous research suggests that the integration of blogging into courses can be difficult and cites problems with issues such as student compliance. We adopt a learner‐centred perspective and explore students’ (rather than their educators’) understanding of how blogs and blogging can support distance learning in Higher Education. We report on a study of UK Open University (OU) students on an online distance learning Masters course, that has enabled us to determine the issues that are important to these bloggers, and we describe five ways in which they appropriated blogging to suit their individual needs. We discuss the importance of making blogging activities flexible so that students can blog to meet their own needs whilst still attending to the requirements of their course.     

The Media in General

Millerson, Gerald. Effective TV Production (1976, 192 pp., $8.95, paper)

Robinson, J.F., and P.H. Beards. Using Videotape (1976, 163 pp., $7.95)

A. Arthur Englander and Paul Petzold's Filming for Television (New York: Hastings House, 1976—$19.50)

Dwight V. Swain's Film Scriptwriting: A Practical Manual (New York: Hastings House, 1976—$14.50/7.50)

Walter Herdeg's Film and TV Graphics 2: An International Survey of the Art of Film Animation (Zurich: The Graphis Press [New York: Hastings House], 1976—$28.00)     

Journalism

Marvin Barrett and Zachary Sklar's The Seventh Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Survey of Broadcast Journalism: The Eye of the Storm (New York: Lippincott & Crowell, 1980---$11.95/6.95).

Herbert E. Alexander's Financing the 1976 Election (Congressional Quarterly Books, 1414 22nd St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20037---$35.00).

Benjamin M. Compaine's The Newspaper Industry in the 1980s: An Assessment of Economics and Technology (White Plains, N.Y.: Knowledge industry Publications, 1980---$24.95).

Mitchell Stephens' Broadcast News: Radio Journalism and an Introduction to Television (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980---$12.95).

James D. Startt's Journalism's Unofficial Ambassador: A Biography of Edward Price Bell, 1869-1943 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1980---$15.95).     

Re-presenting the ‘forgotten estate’: participatory theatre,place and community identity

In this article, we discuss the work undertaken in the first phase of a participatory theatre project which took place on a council housing estate in the Midlands of England, in which residents were invited to share their memories for a production which would present the history of the estate. This community is often characterised as deficient, ageing, welfare-oriented, low in educational attainment and aspiration. Interviews and field notes suggest that there was not a great amount of hope within the community for the success of a participatory arts project such as this. However, the performance attracted a large number of participants who performed to full houses over five nights. Using a place-based approach, we argue that a model of open participation led to the presentation of alternative, more positive, narratives of this community as a place to live.     

Determinants of Self-Worth in Children with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder

Harter (1987) argues that both competence-importance discrepancy and social support/positive regard constructs predict a child's global self-worth. In the current study, this model was used to ascertain whether both determinants were pertinent to the self-worth of children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD: American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and to control children. A group of 36 children with DCD were compared with a matched group of 36 normally coordinated children. The two groups were matched on variables of age, gender, and verbal IQ. It was found that Harter's (1987) model was supported for the group of control children as both the competence-importance discrepancy and the social support/positive regard construct were significant predictors of self-worth. However, for the DCD group, only the competence-importance discrepancy predicted self-worth. The results of this study indicate that future research efforts need to examine an alternative model which incorporates the variables that are relevant to the self-worth of children with DCD.     

A new normal? Competing national cultural discourses and workers’ constructions of identity and meaningful work in Norway

We examine how conceptions of identity and meaningful work are influenced by a nation's changing economic and political environment. We collected research in Norway – a country with a rich economy that has heavily relied upon oil production since the 1980s. Yet depleting oil resources are prompting an economic transformation. Twenty-seven interviews and a thematic analysis revealed how Norwegian workers safeguarded their traditional, collective workplace values, yet were simultaneously confronted with modern – more masculinized – workplace performances ushered in with the oil era. We contribute to theory by suggesting that work's meaningfulness is constructed by competing national cultural discourses that evolve over time. These discourses become narratives that citizens draw upon to evaluate work and to negotiate their personal and professional identities.