LEARNING TO THINK SPATIALLY: WHAT DO STUDENTS ‘SEE’ IN NUMERACY TEST ITEMS?

Learning to think spatially in mathematics involves developing proficiency with graphics. This paper reports on 2 investigations of spatial thinking and graphics. The first investigation explored the importance of graphics as 1 of 3 communication systems (i.e. text, symbols, graphics) used to provide information in numeracy test items. The results showed that graphics were embedded in at least 50?% of test items across 3 year levels. The second investigation examined 11??C?12-year-olds?? performance on 2 mathematical tasks which required substantial interpretation of graphics and spatial thinking. The outcomes revealed that many students lacked proficiency in the basic spatial skills of visual memory and spatial perception and the more advanced skills of spatial orientation and spatial visualisation. This paper concludes with a reaffirmation of the importance of spatial thinking in mathematics and proposes ways to capitalize on graphics in learning to think spatially.     

Judgment criteria for the authenticity of internet book reviews

In-depth interviews and genre analysis were conducted to derive the genre characteristics of commercial and noncommercial Internet book reviews in order to explore the judgment criteria for commercial (i.e., fake) and noncommercial (i.e., authentic) Internet book reviews. An empirical investigation was then performed to confirm which genre characteristics could serve as judgment criteria. Results indicated that structure and format, attributes of content, information orientation, number of words, lexical richness, personal pronouns, and paralinguistic features can provide useful clues to judgments. Moreover, commercial Internet book reviews with certain genre characteristics may hide their commercial intentions. These findings can provide reference for judgment criteria for online readers or librarians who want to select books based on objective book reviews, or on Internet bookstore marketing strategies that focus on electronic word-of-mouth comments.     

3D printing as an educational technology: theoretical perspectives,learning outcomes,and recommendations for practice

Education and Information Technologies - 3D printing is an emerging educational technology that is said to prepare learners for a more technologically designed world. In this review, 3D printing...     

A perpetual motion machine: The preserved digital scholarly record

• Digital preservation will never be a solved problem: it needs constant reinvention, and is going to become harder over time.
• Scholarship is changing and this is affecting what needs to be preserved and what preservation means to the future of knowledge discovery.
• The diversification of outputs means that knowledge exists in a network of contextual metadata, data, software, standards and publications—requiring multilateral management of this complex knowledge graph.
• Preservation demands new skills, technologies and resources from librarians, publishers, funders and institutions—and more joined-up thinking about archiving.