Walking the walk and the impact of space and place on new media art

This paper looks at the implications of the loss of site illustrated by three diverse, site-specific new media art case studies: Taking Pictures by Janet Cardiff, Rio Videowall by Dara Birnbaum, and net.flag by Mark Napier. Focus will be placed on the challenges to permanence of new media art by exploring the impact of the expansion of the Saint Louis Art Museum and changes to geography of the surrounding park on Taking Pictures. The preservation of Taking Pictures is considered in the context of the other two case studies in terms of physical site-specificity vs. mediated site-specificity. The impact of new media technology, artist intent, and participant's interactions are considered in terms of the functionality, viability, and preservation of site-specific new media art.     

Calibration Between Undergraduate Students' Prediction of and Actual Performance: The Role of Gender and Performance Attributions

This study investigated changes in male and female students' prediction and postdiction calibration accuracy and bias scores, and the predictive effects of explanatory styles on these variables beyond gender. Seventy undergraduate students rated their confidence in performance before and after a 40-item exam. There was an improvement in students' bias between prediction and postdiction judgments, although male students' decrease in bias was greater than female students. Female students' accuracy remained stable from prediction to postdiction, and male students exhibited greater accuracy then females. Additionally, the task centered and student centered testing styles positively predicted students' accuracy while the social centered style was a negative predictor, beyond the effect of gender. In addition, no attribution was a significant predictor of bias.     

Approaches to studying and perceptions of academic quality in electronically delivered courses

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and a short form of the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) were administered to students who were taking electronically delivered courses in computer science. The constituent structure of the CEQ was preserved in this distinctive context, and a second-order factor analysis confirmed its role as an index of perceived academic quality. The students' scores on the individual scales of the CEQ and the ASI shared nearly two-thirds of their variance. In short, approaches to studying in electronically delivered courses are strongly associated with students' perceptions of the academic quality of those courses.     

An Intensive Practical Film Course for Educational Technology Students

A practical film course for educational technology students is described. The course is designed as an intensive two-day 'immersion' in film techniques and ideas. It begins with the making of simple 16mm animated cartoon films using transparent film and coloured spirit pens. Synchronized sound is incorporated in a second cartoon. After exercises designed to teach the recognition of 'shots', the editing and assembly of previously-shot Super 8mm film material is set as an individual exercise. A short Super 8 film is then planned by each student and also (working in pairs) a further short advertising-type film. After basic camera instruction these films are shot, the films being edited at a later date. Student reactions to the course are indicated and simple costing is also included.     

Participatory curriculum development: Lessons drawn from teaching environmental education to industry in Zimbabwe

My experience of teaching the Rhodes University/Speciss College Environmental Education Course in Zimbabwe alerted me to a tension between the industry course participants who largely (although not entirely) wanted a skills/vocational training orientation and the course curriculum developers, who wanted a critical/theoretical/praxis-based orientation to the course. This paper is an attempt to offer some resolution of the dilemma this provided the course developers. I begin by briefly describing the tension historically and internationally and giving an outline of Fairclough's (1999) position in its regard. I then suggest that a conventionalist interpretation of the participatory/contextualist method of curriculum development should be avoided, arguing that conventionalism is covertly anti-epistemological in that it leads to the thesis that epistemic standards do not rest on truth/validity claims but on convention (Haack, 1993, p. 20). Thus contextualisation, interpreted as conventionalism, becomes inherently conservative. Instead I suggest an approach to curriculum development based on Haack's (1993, p. 73) explicandum of epistemic justification: 'A is more/less justified, at time t, in believing that p, depending on …'. Thus, if there is good enough (note: not absolute) evidence to disagree with the community's construction of what the best curriculum should be, provided we can demonstrate our disagreement with intellectual integrity, then it is appropriate to go against the grain of the majority of the community's construction of its curriculum needs (in this case, the call for skills-based training), and instead attend to the requirements of a minority of the community.     

高师院校“现代教育技术”课程改革的探讨

针对目前高等师范教育中“现代教育技术”公共课的现状进行调查分析，指出了存在的一些不足之处，并提出了“现代教育技术”课程改革的一些建议．     

“The approaching storm.” Ideology power and control: The national science teachers association curriculum development in the USA

This paper examines the ideology of one the best known figures in science education in the USA, and draws attention to the relationship between the political climate and curriculum in national curriculum developments. We are mindful of the forces shaping the schooling of science in Australia, and we present this analysis as an example of the social forces that dominate education both here and overseas. Paramount is our desire to open the door for a socially responsible Australian school science experience. Social Responsibility of Science in Science Education Group.Specializations: sociology of science education, the nature of science and the production of scientific knowledge, comparative science education and environmental education. Social Responsibility of Science in Science Education Group.Specializations: comparative education with particular reference to China, the nature of science and the production of scientific knowledge.     

On the Relation between Social Information Processing and Socially Competent Behavior in Early School-Aged Children

This article tested the hypotheses that (1) children's behavioral competence is a function of patterns of social information processing; (2) processing correlates of behavior occur at each of 5 steps of processing within each of 3 social situations; (3) measures at each step uniquely increment each other in predicting behavior; (4) the relation between processing and behavior is stronger within than across domains; and (5) processing patterns are more sophisticated among older than younger children and the processing-behavior relation is stronger among older than younger children. Videorecorded stimuli were used to assess processing patterns (encoding, interpretational errors and bias, response generation, response evaluation, and enactment skill) in 3 domains (peer group entry, response to provocation, and response to authority directive) in 259 first-, second-, and third-grade boys and girls (ages 6–9 years). Ratings of behavioral competence in each domain were made by peers and teachers. Findings generally supported hypotheses, with the magnitude of relations being modest.     

Lecturers’ vs. students’ perceptions of the accessibility of instructional materials

This goal of this study was to examine the differences between lecturers and students’ perceptions of the accessibility of instructional materials. The perceptions of 12 mature computing distance education students and 12 computing lecturers were examined using the knowledge elicitation techniques of card sorting and laddering. The study showed that lecturers had pedagogical views while students tended to concentrate on surface attributes such as appearance. Students perceived instructional materials containing visual representations as most accessible. This has two implications for the professional development of computing lecturers designing instructional materials. First, lecturers need to appreciate the differences between expert and novice views of accessibility and how students will engage with the materials. Second, lecturers need to understand that learners perceive instructional materials containing visual representations as more accessible compared to ‘text only’ versions. Hence greater use of these may enable students to engage more readily in learning. Given that print is the ubiquitous teaching medium this is likely to have implications for students and lecturers in other disciplines.