Tapping the educational potential of Facebook: Guidelines for use in higher education

Facebook is a frequently used Computer Mediated Environment (CME) for students and others to build social connections, with identities and deposited self-expression. Its widespread use makes it appropriate for consideration as an educational tool; though one that does not yet have clear guidelines for use. Whether a social networking site can be used for educational objectives remains largely unexplored as a research question. This paper discusses a study conducted at the University of Auckland and at Manchester Metropolitan University on how their students use Facebook, and its impact on their social and academic lives. Using theories of social capital and knowledge management, we explore some potential educational uses of Facebook. Guidelines are included for the educational use of Facebook by tutors in a university environment. These include both positive recommendations and activities and approaches to avoid; and include educational, administrative and legal issues.     

Supporting resilience in early years classrooms: the role of the teacher

It is an accepted fact that resilience is a multifaceted phenomenon which has been proven to affect the learning, growth and development of individuals. A child’s formative years are a time when resilience needs to be promoted so they can cope with the challenges of life. This paper reports some of the findings of an Australian Research Council-funded longitudinal study which investigated resilience in the context of significant transitions in the lives of children and young adults. This study explored the conditions and characteristics of resilience, looking at the educational, health, work-related or leisure interventions that support and foster resilience. Outlined in this paper are findings from the early years cohort of the study involving teachers’ pedagogy informing the practical approaches and strategies that promote and protect resilience in young children. It is argued that teachers working with young children need to be mindful of using enabling strategies in which their practice works purposively with the school environment and the building of relationships.     

Action learning for professionals: a new approach to practice

Following on from the article ‘Building Capacity in Social Care: An Evaluation of a National Programme of Action Learning Facilitator Development’ (Abbott, C., L. Burtney, and C. Wall. 2013. Action Learning: Research & Practice 10 (2): 168–177), this article describes how action learning is being introduced in Cornwall Council, UK and explores the relationship between social work and action learning in practice. In essence social work needs to perform well and achieve positive outcomes for users of its services. Cornwall Council's Children's Social Work and Psychology Services is introducing action learning for professionals as a new approach to practice.     

Vocational Students Experiences with Assessment in Workplace Learning

Vocational education, as part of the Norwegian upper secondary education, includes both school-based learning and workplace learning. While school-based learning is characterized by formal structures and guided by aims in the curricula, workplace learning is often informal, incidental and directed by the daily work-tasks. Assessment in workplace learning is mainly formative and different stakeholders are involved in the assessment; namely students, teachers and workplace instructors. However, the guidelines for assessment are vague and call for a close cooperation between the stakeholders. This is demanding and has resulted in a variety of assessment practices. The study presented in this article is a qualitative study of students’ experiences with assessment in workplace learning periods in their first year in vocational education. The aim of the study is to give voice to students` experiences with assessment and illuminate how assessment supports their learning processes. Data was collected through focus group interviews with two groups of students in the Programme for Health and Social Care. The main findings indicate different assessment cultures in school and workplaces. This is expressed through the students’ perceptions of assessment, assessment criteria, tools for assessment and vocational knowledge. It is recommended that an open dialogue about the discontinuity in assessment between schools and workplaces is one of several measures necessary to bridge the gap between the stakeholders.     

The transfer of social exclusion and inclusion functions through derived stimulus relations

Previous studies have found that social exclusion can cause distress to those excluded. One method used to study social exclusion is through a virtual ball-toss game known as Cyberball. In this game, participants may be excluded from or included in the ball-toss game and typically report lower feelings of self-esteem, control, belonging, and meaningful existence following exclusion. Experiments 1 and 2 sought to explore the transfer of feelings of exclusion and inclusion through stimulus equivalence classes. In both experiments, participants were trained to form two three-member equivalence classes (e.g., A1–B1, B1–C1; A2–B2, B2–C2) and were tested with novel stimulus combinations (A1–C1, C1–A1, A2–C2, C2–A2). Thereafter, participants were exposed to the Cyberball exclusion and inclusion games. In these games, one stimulus (C1) from one equivalence class was assigned as the Cyberball inclusion game name, whereas one stimulus (C2) from the other equivalence class was assigned as the Cyberball exclusion game name. In Experiment 2, participants were only exposed to the Cyberball exclusion game. During a subsequent transfer test, participants were asked to rate how included in or excluded from they thought they would be in other online games, corresponding to members of both equivalence classes. Participant reported that they felt they would be excluded from online games if the games were members of the same equivalence class as C2. In contrast, participants reported that they felt they would be included in online games if the games were members of the same equivalence class as C1. Results indicated the transfer of feelings of inclusion (Experiment 1) and feelings of exclusion (Experiments 1 and 2) through equivalence classes.     

Scholar Commons @ USF: Sharing Knowledge Worldwide

Librarians and faculty members are now working together through Open Access (OA) publishing to make faculty-produced scholarly content available to researchers worldwide. The University of South Florida Tampa Library has been working with the Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) Digital Commons platform to create a substantial institutional repository (IR) that includes OA journals, conference proceedings, and data sets, among other materials. Library staff members are currently involved in a variety of activities, including negotiating memoranda of understanding, loading backfiles, registering Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) with CrossRef, designing layout, doing final publication steps, and assisting with technical issues. In 2011, the IR, Scholar Commons @ USF, went live, allowing the library to pull fragmented collections previously hosted on other platforms into a single system with improved discoverability. This article discusses how the repository was established, what is involved, lessons learned, and plans for future directions.     

Emblematic gestures among Hebrew speakers in Israel

A field study was conducted in Israel to identify emblematic gestures recognized and used by Hebrew speakers. Studies which have identified the emblematic gestures of particular ethnic or national groups are reviewed and criticized. This study seeks to contribute increased rigor and systematology to the identification of particular groups' emblematic gestures.Twenty-six gestures commonly used in classroom interaction were selected for testing. The instrument used was Schneller's form, “Investigations of Interpersonal Communication in Israel.” Subjects included college students, members of YMCA classes for pensioners, and others. On the instrument, subjects noted their recognition and interpretations of the investigator's encoding intentions, their certainty or interpretation and where they learned each gesture.Whereas previous studies of this nature accepted around 70% interpretive agreement among subjects, this study indicates that at least 90% is a more reliable measure by which to label gestures “emblems.” In addition, correlations were tabulated for the effects of subjects' age, ethnicity, years in Israel, certainty about interpretation, and accuracy of interpretation.The findings of this study were: (a) eight gestures were identified as emblems, and three more gestures identified as possible emblems, (b) slightly negative although insignificant correlations were found between increased age, years in Israel, expressed certainty of interpretation and accuracy of interpretation, and (c) natives and subjects from 20–24 years of age tended to have the highest rates of expressed certainty of interpretation as well as accuracy of interpretation.The findings are compared with those of three other studies of Jews' gesturing and differences between the studies are considered. Recommendations include continuing such studies and comparing the results of related projects in order to form a comprehensive picture of particular groups of people.Limitations are discussed. These include: (a) a less than representative sample, (b) lack of a consistent conversational context, (c) potential for distortion in the decoding process, (d) the lack of a unified gesture labeling system, and (e) the possibility of cultural or researcher bias.