Review of “No Shelf Required 2: Use and Management of Electronic Books,” edited by Sue Polanka

No abstract available for this article.     

Cloud computing: Its history of development, modern state, and future considerations

In this article, the author describes the history of the development, modern state, and future considerations of cloud (diffused) computing as one of the modern innovative technologies. The models of cloud computing and its advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. A number of cloud operating systems, cloud computing vendors, and the capabilities of their platforms are considered.     

The ego function of protest songs: An application of Gregg's theory of protest rhetoric

This essay applies Richard Gregg's theory of protest rhetoric to 705 American social movement songs from 1800 to 1985 to discover how songs enable protestors to identify against others and thus to locate themselves positively in the social hierarchy. Songs are ideal messages for ego‐enhancement because they are movement‐centered, concerned with social relationships, and highly self‐directed. Terms denoting innocent victimage and wicked victimizer dominate the selected songs, and the vision of reality is negative, dangerous, threatening, and unfair. Relatively few songs emphasize the unity, virtue, wisdom, or bravery of protestors. The self‐image contained in songs does not appear to express a strongly positive identity or locate the oppressed very high in the symbolic or social hierarchy. This self‐image would seem to fulfill three ego functions essential for the early phases of social movements: raising consciousness, allaying guilt, and reclaiming or proclaiming one's ego. However, a different self‐image is needed as movements grow, confront opposition successfully, achieve some goals, suffer setbacks, and splinter into factions. This analysis of songs indicates that protestors have difficulty making the essential transition from a self‐image of victim to one of power, worth, and virtue. They cannot extricate themselves from symbolically defensive positions in a hostile environment.     

Cohort crowding and nonresident college enrollment

This study uses a fixed effects panel data framework to examine the effects of cohort crowding and other variables on nonresident enrollment at four-year public colleges and universities. The results suggest that larger cohorts of resident students crowd out nonresident students at flagship universities, but there is inconsistent evidence of crowd out at non-flagship schools. Additionally, larger cohorts of resident students result in increased nonresident tuition at flagship universities but not at non-flagship schools. When faced with larger cohorts of resident students, flagship universities lower the numbers of nonresident students enrolled and raise the price for nonresidents.     

Grading as a Reform Effort: Do Standards‐Based Grades Converge With Test Scores?

Standards‐based progress reports (SBPRs) require teachers to grade students using the performance levels reported by state tests and are an increasingly popular report card format. They may help to increase teacher familiarity with state standards, encourage teachers to exclude nonacademic factors from grades, and/or improve communication with parents. The current study examines the SBPR grade–state test score correspondence observed across 2 years in 125 third and fifth grade classrooms located in one school district to examine the degree of consistency between grades and state test results. It also examines the grading practices of a subset of 37 teachers to determine whether there is an association between teacher appraisal style and convergence rates. A moderate degree of grade–test score convergence was observed using three agreement estimates (coefficient kappa, tau‐b correlations, and classroom‐level mean differences between grades and test scores). In addition, only small amounts of grade–test score convergence were observed between teachers; a much greater proportion of variance lay within classrooms and subjects. Appraisal style correlated weakly with convergence rates, but was most strongly related to assigning students to the same performance level as the test. Therefore using recommended grading practices may improve the quality of SBPR grades to some extent.     

Is a go-getter better off?

In this article we first try to answer the question posed in the title in the context of a real life situation. We suggest sequential methods of selecting a member from a given set of individuals. We show that these methods indeed assign ‘equal chance’ of being selected to all individuals.