Distributed by Design: On the Promises and Pitfalls of Collaborative Learning with Multiple Representations

This article presents a designed learning environment intended to engage students in learning about the relationships among multiple representations as they work together on a shared task. Over the course of several extended problem-solving sessions, groups developed several successive alignments of participants and representations as they learned to solve increasingly difficult tasks. Our findings highlight the emergent and often unexpected meanings that learners established for representational tools as their groups reorganized into increasingly effective problem-solving ensembles. Our findings echo those of prior research regarding learners' considerable competence and creativity in interpreting and applying distributed representational tools, as well as the careful coordination among learners involved in establishing and acting on those interpretations. Challenges in this design space include instances in our data where students capitalized on connections among representations without really trying to understand those connections, temporarily undermined the distributed character of the representations, and worked more efficiently by reducing the number of participants actively involved in breaking codes. Our findings indicate that managing these challenges requires presenting groups with regular opportunities to reconsider and reorganize their roles, and to experiment with different meanings and uses of flexible tools in the context of tasks with carefully sequenced levels of difficulty.     

Developing University Teachers: an account of a scheme designed for postgraduate researchers on a lecturing career path

Abstract

There is a growing recognition within higher education institutions of the importance of teaching as a core activity for trainee academics. This paper outlines and reports on a scheme which has been established to address the needs of postgraduate researchers who wish to build a career as university teachers. The scheme, now under review at the close of its first year of operation, is one which provides a potential model for other institutions. The paper includes extracts from a frank discussion involving participants in the scheme and highlights some of the practical difficulties which have occurred, in addition to the many benefits which are both expected in the future as well as some which are currently accruing     

Volunteers in public libraries: Issues and viewpoints

A review of the American Library Association's 1971 Guidelines For Using Volunteers in Libraries is given as background to a discussion of public library volunteers. Opposing and supporting viewpoints towards volunteer use as expressed in the library literature are presented. The nature of the literature is examined, with special emphasis afforded to the purpose, methodology, and conclusions of research studies. The author concludes that, while the literature on public library volunteers has increased in volume over the past decade, little useful research‐oriented reporting has been undertaken. The author suggests that the topic merits further investigation and research.     

Engaging LIS Students in Reference Work Through Online Answer Boards

In 2007, public librarian Dave Pardue launched Slam the Boards!, a monthly call for librarians to enter online answer boards such as Yahoo! Answers and answer questions, announcing to the public that they are librarians. Graduate library and information students participated in this required assignment in a basic reference class. Students reported that this experience caused them to reflect on guiding reference documents and their own career plans as they gained confidence in engaging in remote reference service. Recommendations for future involvement calls for in-class demonstration of answer boards, rehearsal, and monitoring of answer boards.     

Research methods and Guides

The Territory of the Historian by E.. Le Roy Ladurie(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,1979 —S21.00)

Harvard Guide to American History edited by Frank Freidel, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Universiry Press, 1974 with 1479 as first date for this paperback edition—$12.50 (on tne book cover) or 39.95 (in the slip inside from the publisher)

Witham Katz Your Library: A Reference Guide (New: York: Holt. Rinehart & Winston, 1919—price not given, gaper)

Alan E. Thompson, Understanding Futurology: An Introduction. to Futures Study (Newton Abbot, U.R /North Pomfret, Vt. : David & ,1979 —$12.50)     

Family background variables as instruments for education in income regressions: A Bayesian analysis

The validity of family background variables instrumenting education in income regressions has been much criticized. In this paper, we use data from the 2004 German Socio-Economic Panel and Bayesian analysis to analyze to what degree violations of the strict validity assumption affect the estimation results. We show that, in case of moderate direct effects of the instrument on the dependent variable, the results do not deviate much from the benchmark case of no such effect (perfect validity of the instrument's exclusion restriction). In many cases, the size of the bias is smaller than the width of the 95% posterior interval for the effect of education on income. Thus, a violation of the strict validity assumption does not necessarily lead to results which are strongly different from those of the strict validity case. This finding provides confidence in the use of family background variables as instruments in income regressions.