Making learning fun: Quest Atlantis, a game without guns

This article describes the Quest Atlantis (QA) project, a learning and teaching project that employs a multiuser, virtual environment to immerse children, ages 9–12, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in commercial gaming environments with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users at participating elementary schools and after-school centers to travel through virtual spaces to perform educational activities, talk with other users and mentors, and build virtual personae. Our work has involved an agenda and process that may be called socially-responsive design, which involves building sociotechnical structures that engage with and potentially transform individuals and their contexts of participation. This work sits at the intersection of education, entertainment, and social commitment and suggests an expansive focus for instructional designers. The focus is on engaging classroom culture and relevant aspects of student life to inspire participation consistent with social commitments and educational goals interpreted locally. This research was supported in part by a CAREER Grant from the National Science Foundation, REC-9980081 and by the National Science Foundation Grant #0092831.     

中国梭腹牙甲属的研究(鞘翅目:牙甲科)

本文报道了我国梭腹牙甲属Cercycn Leach 17种,其中5种仅分布于台湾。大陆分布的12种中,有10个为新种。     

在微博和明信片上旅行

如果你现在出门旅行，依旧是跟着旅行团走马观花的话，那就太out（落伍）了。这个暑假，何不尝试一些新鲜有趣的旅行方式呢？来看看怎样在微博和明信片上完成一次难忘之旅吧!     

The cultural and educational transitioning of first generation immigrant undergraduate students in Quebec, Canada

The diversity of Canadian society and the significance of education for occupational mobility have prompted investigations into immigrant’s educational attainment, yet little research examines immigrant post-secondary students. This phenomenological study illuminates the institutional, societal, educational, and psychosocial barriers facing immigrant undergraduates in Quebec, and examines their mentoring and career counselling needs. Recommendations for career counselling and university programming are discussed.     

Erratum to: Relating Narrative, Inquiry, and Inscriptions: Supporting Consequential Play

In this paper we describe our research using a multi-user virtual environment, Quest Atlantis, to embed fourth grade students in an aquatic habitat simulation. Specifically targeted towards engaging students in a rich inquiry investigation, we layered a socio-scientific narrative and an interactive rule set into a multi-user virtual environment gaming engine to establish a virtual world through which students learned about science inquiry, water quality concepts, and the challenges in balancing scientific and socio-economic factors. Overall, students were clearly engaged, participated in rich scientific discourse, submitted quality work, and learned science content. Further, through participation in this narrative, students developed a rich perceptual, conceptual, and ethical understanding of science. This study suggests that multi-user virtual worlds can be effectively leveraged to support academic content learning.     

Early Communicative Gestures Prospectively Predict Language Development and Executive Function in Early Childhood

Using an epidemiological sample (N = 1,117) and a prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the direct and indirect effects of preverbal and verbal communication (15 months to 3 years) on executive function (EF) at age 4 years. Results indicated that whereas gestures (15 months), as well as language (2 and 3 years), were correlated with later EF (φ_s ≥ .44), the effect was entirely mediated through later language. In contrast, language had significant direct and indirect effects on later EF. Exploratory analyses indicated that the pattern of results was comparable for low‐ and not‐low‐income families. The results were consistent with theoretical accounts of language as a precursor of EF ability, and highlighted gesture as an early indicator of EF.     

联合国教科文组织职业技术教育政策的话语演变——基于N-Vivo的文本分析

联合国教科文组织自成立以来先后颁布了四份有关职业技术教育的重要政策文件:1962年的《技术和职业教育建议书》、1974年的《技术和职业教育建议书(修订版)》、1989年的《技术和职业教育公约》和2001年的《技术和职业教育建议书(修订版)》。运用N-Vivo8.0版对上述四份政策文本进行分析发现:职业技术教育的社会认可度已基本稳定;联合国教科文组织对职业技术教育的理解随着时代的发展不断丰富;专业技能的培养随着社会的进步不断强化;强调全纳平等是联合国教科文组织职业技术教育政策的一大特色。     

Child Care Changes,Home Environment Quality,and the Social Competence of African American Children at Age 3

Research Findings: Recent work has demonstrated that the changes young children experience in their child care settings before age 5 may be related to subsequent development, especially social development. Several of these studies have included samples of middle-class children, with almost no emphasis on understanding these processes for low-income and/or African American children. This study examined a rural African American sample of children from birth to 3 years of age to understand not only the role of child care changes in children's social development but, in addition, the role played by children's home environment quality. Results suggested that more changes in child care up to age 3 (defined as “big changes” in provider, location, or quantity of care) were associated with lower child care provider ratings of children's social competence. Furthermore, this link appeared to be stronger for children whose home environment was of low quality. Practice or Policy: Policy, practice, and research implications are discussed.     

基于工程背景知识的工程图学教学改革研究

提出基于工程背景知识的工程图学教学改革的方法,培养创新型工程技术人才的教改思路。首先从分析图学教育发展的历史与现状入手,站在全局的观点和战略的角度,指出现有图学教学方法的弊端;接着给出了将工程背景知识引入到图学教学改革的具体思路,主要通过知识点的引入、课件的制作、相关视频的剪辑、计算机造型软件的应用和相关实验室现有设施和相关课题组的研究成果渗入五个环节的改革,使学生了解所学知识点的具体目的,达到课程内容和教学方式符合生产实际的需求和技术发展趋势。实践证明通过该种方式,能够激发学生学习的积极性和主动性,促进学生努力探索积极思考,取得了较好的教学效果。