Girl gamers: the controversy of girl games and the relevance of female-oriented game design for instructional design

Digital games have typically been considered a male leisure activity; however, recent statistics indicate that increasing numbers of females are now playing games. The purpose of this review is to investigate how the influx of girl gamers and the emergence of female‐oriented game design can inform instructional design for the construction of interactive learning environments. This review presents an overview of digital games and gender, an outline of girl games and ‘pink’ software, a discussion of the controversy of girl games, and a review and discussion of the research and implications of female‐oriented game design for instructional design. The goal of this review is to examine the influx of girl gamers into a male pastime and to analyse the implications of this for the design of interactive learning environments.     

Predictive validity of five cognitive skills tests among women receiving engineering training

This article addresses two sets of theoretical and practical issues related to increasing the percentage of women engineers. First, the measurement of women's aptitude for and changes in skills during engineering training was assessed. Five cognitive skills tests were administered in a one-group pretest-posttest design to 24 baccalaureate women enrolled in an eleven-month engineering training course. Significant increases in skills were shown on three of the five assessments. Scores on a mathematics anxiety scale and a measure of conservation of horizontality are also reported. Second, the relationship of academic and demographic information and cognitive skills to degree of success in the program is reported. Pretraining spatial visualization scores predicted posttraining GPA group membership. The results are compared and contrasted with those of studies of male undergraduates. Implications are drawn concerning the ways in which evaluations of such programs can contribute to our understanding of the changes in skills that occur with training in engineering and of the factors that predict success in such programs.     

Inclusion and Preschoolers Who Are Typically Developing: The Lived Experience

In this qualitative study, we examined the lived experiences of three typically developing children participating in inclusive preschool programs for children with special needs. Inclusion has been considered a best practice in early childhood programs for many years; however, some may still argue that the benefits for children with disabilities are greater than for those without. Prior research has explored the benefits of inclusion for young children with special needs but has not focused as intentionally on the benefits for young children with typical abilities. In this study, we followed three preschool children with typical development for one school year. Employing an hermeneutical framework, we used observations, interviews with teachers and parents, and artifact reviews to examine how these three children made meaning of their experiences. Findings indicated that all three children made social gains and demonstrated improved perceptions of peer with disabilities after participating in their respective programs. The results suggest that inclusive preschool programs may be viewed as beneficial for all children.     

Electronic encyclopedias

Summary This examination of electronic encyclopedias has led to several interesting observations that may be made for each encyclopedia. TheCompton’s product is considered to be the product most accessible by lower level elementary school students. Its audio and visual features are considered most important for purchase decision-making and turn out to be the most useful features after the purchase. BothWorld Book andGrolier’s are comparable in the suggestion of a minimum grade level appropriate for use (at the fourth or fifth grade levels), suggesting that reading is not the only ability needed to operate either product to its fullest extent. For bothWorld Book andGrolier’s, the boolean searching, keyword searching, quick reference and quality of the screen display features were important purchase considerations. Hardware compatibility and price, while rated important, may prove to be the factors that determine whether an electronic encyclopedia is purchased at all (since all products evaluated were roughly the same price and all ran on IBM hardware). The majority ofWorld Book users considered only the dictionary feature to be useful after purchase.Grolier’s users considered boolean and keyword searching, menu searching, and help screens to be most useful.     

Counselor Trainees' Experiences Counseling Disability: A Phenomenological Study

Transcendental phenomenology was used in this study to examine the lived experiences of counseling interns (N = 10) receiving multicultural training to assist clients with disabilities. Five essential themes were identified. Drawing on their findings, the authors recommend programmatic and curricular changes, including the infusion of personal narratives and service learning, to the multicultural training of counselors.     

Sharing Our Library Facility: Prescott Valley Arizona Public Library

The present Prescott Valley Public Library facility was created in 2009 as a space that was meant to be shared. The building was designed to be aesthetically unique and people friendly. Key elements include an auditorium for Town Council, a multifunctional meeting room with a kitchen and multimedia projection capabilities, a roof top terrace, outside patios, PC lab, Digital Media Lab, and a variety of smaller gathering spaces. Additionally, we share our facility with a satellite campus of Northern Arizona University, which affords frequent opportunities to collaborate in novel ways to connect with our community. Sharing is a value we learn early in life and it is the hallmark of professional librarianship. It is challenging, sometimes frustrating work. But the rewards far outweigh the risks. Those rewards extend to every citizen in our shared, county network—Yavapai Library Network. Throughout this article, we present a variety of practical aspects related to our experience, which may guide and inspire others to share their library space within their community.     

Do No Harm—A Comparison of the Effects of On-Line vs. Traditional Delivery Media on a Science Course

This paper presents the results of a study designed to examine the effects of distance delivery on student performance and classroom interactions in an upper level science (Histology) course. Outcomes were assessed by comparing performance on content pre- and posttests for students enrolled in on-campus and on-line sections of the same course. Interactions were classified according to initiator, topic, and Bloom's taxonomy level for content interactions. The resulting patterns were analyzed to compare behaviors in different settings. It was found that although the groups were indistinguishable in content knowledge at the outset of the study, by the end of the semester, students in the on-line group significantly out-performed their peers in the on-campus section. The on-line settings had a greater proportion of high-level interactions (according to Bloom's taxonomy) than the on-campus setting.