Can learning of basketball be enhanced through a web-based multimedia course? An experimental study

This study’s aim is the creation of a web-based multimedia course for Physical Education (PE) students’ familiarization with the teaching of basketball, and the evaluation of its use as a complementary tool to conventional instruction, in terms of learning effectiveness and student acceptance. The course includes multimedia learning material as well as interactive learning activities and quizzes on the cognitive components of basic basketball skills and on other basketball-related topics (history of the sport, referee’s signals, training aids, basketball court). The study involved 88 undergraduate students during one semester. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a group that used the web-based multimedia course and also attended a conventional face-to-face course on the teaching of basketball (N?=?45), and another group that only attended the conventional face-to-face course (N?=?43). A pretest/posttest research design was followed. For both groups basketball knowledge was measured at the beginning and at the end of the semester through written questionnaires. The responses of the students of the first group towards the web-based course were also assessed, at the end of the semester, through a written feedback questionnaire. Within both groups, significant increases in students’ basketball knowledge were found. However, the web-based multimedia course in combination with conventional face-to-face instruction was significantly more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction alone in increasing students’ cognitive learning regarding the sport of basketball, at the same time being well-accepted by the students. These findings support the effectiveness of blended learning for PE at higher education level as well as the acceptance of this mode of learning by PE students.     

Cross-lingual training of summarization systems using annotated corpora in a foreign language

The increasing trend of cross-border globalization and acculturation requires text summarization techniques to work equally well for multiple languages. However, only some of the automated summarization methods can be defined as “language-independent,” i.e., not based on any language-specific knowledge. Such methods can be used for multilingual summarization, defined in Mani (Automatic summarization. Natural language processing. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 2001) as “processing several languages, with a summary in the same language as input”, but, their performance is usually unsatisfactory due to the exclusion of language-specific knowledge. Moreover, supervised machine learning approaches need training corpora in multiple languages that are usually unavailable for rare languages, and their creation is a very expensive and labor-intensive process. In this article, we describe cross-lingual methods for training an extractive single-document text summarizer called MUSE (MUltilingual Sentence Extractor)—a supervised approach, based on the linear optimization of a rich set of sentence ranking measures using a Genetic Algorithm. We evaluated MUSE’s performance on documents in three different languages: English, Hebrew, and Arabic using several training scenarios. The summarization quality was measured using ROUGE-1 and ROUGE-2 Recall metrics. The results of the extensive comparative analysis showed that the performance of MUSE was better than that of the best known multilingual approach (TextRank) in all three languages. Moreover, our experimental results suggest that using the same sentence ranking model across languages results in a reasonable summarization quality, while saving considerable annotation efforts for the end-user. On the other hand, using parallel corpora generated by machine translation tools may improve the performance of a MUSE model trained on a foreign language. Comparative evaluation of an alternative optimization technique—Multiple Linear Regression—justifies the use of a Genetic Algorithm.     

Retaliatory Aggression and the Effects of Point of View and Blood in Violent Video Games

In this study, an experimental design was utilized to test, first, the effect of a violent game versus a no game control on physical and verbal aggression and retaliatory aggression against a confederate. In addition, the effects of two internal video game manipulations were explored. Overall, those in the violent game condition were more verbally and physically aggressive than those in the no game condition. In terms of internal game features, third-person play with the blood on, especially when combined with aggressive cognitions and to some extent, hostile affect, encouraged more aggressive outcomes.     

Stockholm Olympics at the Movies

This article is a contribution to the special issue on the Olympic Games in Stockholm in 1912 commissioned by Christian Widholm. The text discusses the 1912 Olympics as a major media event with a special focus on the production, distribution and reception of moving pictures     

INTERCULTURALISM,MULTICULTURALISM, AND THE STATE FUNDING AND REGULATION OF CONSERVATIVE RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS

In this essay, Bruce Maxwell, David Waddington, Kevin McDonough, Andrée‐Anne Cormier, and Marina Schwimmer compare two competing approaches to social integration policy, Multiculturalism and Interculturalism, from the perspective of the issue of the state funding and regulation of conservative religious schools. After identifying the key differences between Interculturalism and Multiculturalism, as well as their many similarities, the authors present an explanatory analysis of this intractable policy challenge. Conservative religious schooling, they argue, tests a conceptual tension inherent in Multiculturalism between respect for group diversity and autonomy, on the one hand, and the ideal of intercultural citizenship, on the other. Taking as a case study Québec's education system and, in particular, recent curricular innovations aimed at helping young people acquire the capabilities of intercultural citizenship, the authors illustrate how Interculturalism signals a compelling way forward in the effort to overcome the political dilemma of conservative religious schooling.     

Building resilient schools in Russia: effective policy strategies*

The article uses the framework of resiliency to examine the strategies of principals in schools working under challenging socio-economic conditions that show higher-than-expected educational results. We collected a unique set of data within the Russian ‘National monitoring of education markets and organisations’ programme. This work continues the study, begun in 2014, of the peculiarities of the functioning conditions, management and educational strategies of different groups of schools (urban, rural, implementing higher-level programmes, private, etc.), where authors supplement the economic indicators of school performance with socio-economic contextual factors. A contextualisation model was applied to distinguish the resilient schools studied and the socio-economic characteristics for each school. The typical strategies of principals of resilient schools are as follows: recruiting more successful students from other schools, the branding of the school, creating a culture of high expectations for staff and students, and a less bureaucratic management style.     

开放远程教育研究与文化及社区建设

开放和远程学习者通过运用通信技术与世界各地人士联系在一起,本文将从文化和社区的角度对这些联系进行探讨。文化和社区这两个概念对学生和教师的互动有着直接的影响,而这种影响在网上社区中尤其显著。一些研究者已经开始探讨通信技术,尤其是因特网技术对不同背景的学生所产生的巨大影响,然而,对于如何将有关文化、社区、社会存在和社会学习等不同主题结合在一起,进行整体研究,仍是我们面临的新课题。本文作者对这一课题的研究提出了建设性的意见。     

Moral Foundations Theory and Moral Reasoning in Video Game Play: Using Real-Life Morality in a Game Context

Although research has indicated that moral decisions are made during video game play, less research has examined moral reasoning during play. Using a think-aloud protocol, participants’ decisions and reasoning were recorded during game play and coded as either strategic or moral. Players’ reasoning was also coded using Moral Foundations Theory. Results indicated an almost equal percentage of strategic and moral reasoning; the salience of several individual moral foundations predicted moral reasoning during play. Video game experience was positively related to the use of moral reasoning, which can be explained by relating reasoning to rational and experiential processing during game play.     

Examining distance education in Turkey

This article describes the distance education program at Anadolu University in Turkey and compares its problems and solutions with similar distance education programs in other Asian countries. A brief history is presented, enrollment figures are given and future directions are described. Conclusions suggest that open education is accomplishing the goals of the country's 1981 reforms and can continue to be helpful in the country's quest for modernization.