Coordinating scaffolds for collaborative inquiry in a game-based learning environment

Collaborative inquiry learning affords educators a context within which to support understanding of scientific practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. One approach to supporting collaborative science inquiry is through problem-based learning (PBL). However, there are two key challenges in scaffolding collaborative inquiry learning in technology rich environments. First, it is unclear how we might understand the impact of scaffolds that address multiple functions (e.g., to support inquiry and argumentation). Second, scaffolds take different forms, further complicating how to coordinate the forms and functions of scaffolds to support effective collaborative inquiry. To address these issues, we identify two functions that needed to be scaffolded, the PBL inquiry cycle and accountable talk. We then designed predefined hard scaffolds and just-in-time soft scaffolds that target the regulation of collaborative inquiry processes and accountable talk. Drawing on a mixed method approach, we examine how middle school students from a rural school engaged with Crystal Island: EcoJourneys for two weeks (N=45). Findings indicate that hard scaffolds targeting the PBL inquiry process and soft scaffolds that targeted accountable talk fostered engagement in these processes. Although the one-to-one mapping between form and function generated positive results, additional soft scaffolds were also needed for effective engagement in collaborative inquiry and that these soft scaffolds were often contingent on hard scaffolds. Our findings have implications for how we might design the form of scaffolds across multiple functions in game-based learning environments.     

寻找刘易斯·卡罗尔:道奇森的多面人生

相信很多人都听说过《爱丽丝漫游奇境》这部小说,并被作者刘易斯·卡罗尔那些荒诞绝妙的想法折服。你知道吗,刘易斯·卡罗尔是作者发表小说时用的笔名,他的真名是查尔斯·路特维奇·道奇森。他是牛津大学的讲师、才华横溢的数学家,还是当时有名的摄影家,但他最大的名声来自两部小说——《爱丽丝漫游奇境》和《爱丽丝镜中奇遇记》。《爱丽丝》系列小说被多次改编成电影、音乐剧和动画片,可见其影响之大。在蒂姆·波顿版的《爱丽丝》上映之际,我们一起来寻找真正的刘易斯·卡罗尔。     

Effectiveness on Mental Health of Psychological Debriefing for Crisis Intervention in Schools

The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of evidence for the effectiveness and safety of commonly used crisis interventions in schools, such as critical incident stress debriefing (CISD), critical incident stress management (CISM), and psychological debriefing (PD). Two researchers independently searched relevant databases for reviews and meta-analyses in English language peer-reviewed journals using identified keywords. The database search was supplemented by hand searches of the reference lists of database-identified reviews. Selected reviews were compared and analyzed for the effectiveness of CISD/CISM/PD interventions. Research findings suggest that these interventions are ineffective and may be harmful. Evidence of effectiveness of CISD/CISM/PD interventions in schools is very limited. Given evidence of ineffectiveness and potential harm of CISD/CISM/PD interventions in adults and limited evidence of these interventions in schools, there is no compelling reason to implement CISD/CISM/PD following crisis events in schools.     

Using Laptop Computers to Improve the Performance of Minority Students: A Pilot Project

A school system and a university joined forces to improve the science and mathematics environment for local minority students with a program that utilized computer technology. The initiative involved individual students from all of the high schools in the Winston–Salem/Forsyth County (North Carolina) School System. In this initiative, Wake Forest University operated a two-week Summer Science and Math Experience for minority students. During the two weeks, students worked intensively with computers and, at the end of the summer program, a laptop computer was loaned to each student for personal use during the of school year. Through interviews and questionnaires, students overwhelmingly endorsed their involvement in the computer-oriented project, both the summer and academic year phases. They especially liked having access to the Internet (provided by the project), being able to use e-mail and chat rooms, and utilizing the information retrieval potential. Parents and teachers surveyed also praised the project, feeling that their students learned more as a result of being involved in project activity.     

Effects of atypical patterns of fetal growth on newborn (NBAS) behavior

Newborn infants who showed anthropometric signs of atypical patterns of fetal growth were compared with infants of appropriate growth on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) and on recently developed supplementary items. The sample consisted of lower-socioeconomic-status families in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and included teenage and older mothers. Infants with atypical patterns of fetal growth showed lower scores than did infants of appropriate growth on the NBAS orientation, motor, and reflex clusters and on 15 of the 18 supplementary scores. Gestational age was covaried and showed independent effects on 6 items. Differential effects on measures of state and autonomic function were also found when the effects of the ponderal index were held constant. The results suggested that neonatal behavior is related to multiple indices of fetal growth patterns that may indicate early versus late nutritional insult. Supplementary NBAS items do not improve the discriminability of the NBAS but may help explain the basis for observed group differences.     

Understanding millennial learning in academic libraries: Learning styles,emerging technologies,and the efficacy of information literacy instruction

Abstract

Millennials, or Generation Y learners, are one of the largest constituencies academic libraries serve today. Understanding how and why these technology-savvy students learn increases the efficacy of information literacy instruction and ensures that libraries remain relevant in the digital age. This article addresses the complexity of the millennial learning phenomenon and its implications for instructional design and teaching in physical and virtual library environments. To situate millennial learning in the context of academic library instruction, this paper takes a large-scale, holistic approach that includes consideration of millennials’ learning styles, emerging technologies, and a multitude of other issues affecting Generation Y learning.     

Everything We Do Is A Celebration of You! : Pleasant Company Constructs American Girlhood

The American Girl (AG) collection is an enormously successful line of girls merchandise that includes dolls, books, and accessories. Through mail-order catalogs, AG has become a part of the cultural universe of young girls in the United States. We examined the dolls, books, accouterments, and catalogs as texts and, therefore, sites of cultural construction, attempting to uncover the ways in which nationality, history, race/ethnicity, consumerism, and gender are immersed in these products. Our study underscores how the AG dolls and products render the world for its young consumers. This rendering is not innocent. Inclusions, exclusions, and hierarchies are naturalized, offering a particular view of race, gender, and the imagined community that is embedded in social practices and power relations that help determine our ways of seeing and imagining from a very young age.     

Telecommunications and Technology

Charles J. Sippl and Charles P. Sippl's Computer Dictionary and Handbook (Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams, 1976---$16.95)

Walter S. Baer, Leland L. Johnson, and Edward W. Merros's Analysis of Federally Funded Demonstration Projects (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corp., R-1925, 1926, 1927-DOC, April 1976---price not given, but likely about $20.00 or so for the set, paper)

Lester G. Lindley's The Constitution Faces Technology: The Relationship of the National Government to the Telegraph, 1866-1884 (New York: Arno Press, 1975--- $22.00)

Nick Lyons's The Sony Vision (New York: Crown, 1976---$7.95)

SMPTE Journal (SMPTE Publications Office, 862 Scarsdale Ave., Scarsdale, N.Y. 10583---$3.00 for single issues)

The Classic Radio Newsletter ($5.00 per year for six issues)

Cable Television Information Center's Social Services and Cable TV (Washington: National Science Foundation, 1976---$3.10, paper, from Government Printing Office)

Charles F. Phillips, Jr. (ed.) Competition and Regulation: Some Economic Concepts (Department of Economics, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. 24450, 1976-43.00, paper)

Calvin A. Kent, Richard Oppedahl, and Lynn Stephens' Municipal Franchising and Regulation: An Evaluation of Policy-Related Research (Business Research Bureau, School of Business, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S.D. 57069---price not given, paper)

Edward Hyde's The Phone Book: What the Telephone Company Would Rather You Not Know (Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1976---$7.95)

Public Policy as a Determinant of Market Structure: The case of the Specialized Communications Market by Peter D. Shapiro (September 1974, Working Paper 74-10, 177 pp.)

Glossary of Costing and Ratemaking Terms in the U.S. Postal Service and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company by Arlene Karlin (January 1976, Working Paper 76-2, 28 pp.)

The U.S. Mail Network: Who Pays, Who Plays by Gordon Emrie (April 1976, Working Paper 76-3, 148 pp.)