The virtual simulation of child sexual abuse: online gameworld users’ views,understanding and responses to sexual ageplay

This paper explores cultural understandings of virtual sexual ageplay in the online world of Second Life. Online sexual ageplay is the virtual simulation of child abuse by consensual adults operating in-world with child computer characters (avatars). Second Life is primarily governed by Community Standards which rely on residents (the users of Second Life) to recognise sexual ageplay and report it, which requires an appreciation of how residents view, understand and construct sexual ageplay. The research presented drew on 12 months of resident blog posts referring to sexual ageplay: 263 total, with 91 residents. The analysis of this talk explores the cultural understandings of this banned behaviour and beliefs about the nature of Second Life which underpin residents’ likelihood to report sexual ageplay and so comply with the Community Standards. In considering these issues the paper is able to highlight issues regarding the unique cultural position of abuse against children and key concerns which underpin the reporting behaviour of residents. Key considerations relate to defining online sexual activity and child avatars; the moral status of ‘reporters’, and sexual ageplay as a form of edgeplay; belief in the harmfulness of sexual ageplay and its relationship to real world behaviours.     

The road to culturally relevant science: Exploring how teachers navigate change in pedagogy

In this study, two middle‐school teachers who participated in a professional development program utilizing the transformative professional development (TPD) model are followed as they embarked upon becoming culturally relevant science teachers of Hispanic students. Using Ladson‐Billings (1994) theory of culturally relevant pedagogy, teacher interviews, focus groups, journals, and field notes are examined to reveal aspects of culturally relevant pedagogy that the participants translate into their daily science instructional practice in this longitudinal case study. Findings revealed TPD enabled participants to transform their practice to focus on culturally relevant science pedagogy resulting in a more effective instructional environment for their Hispanic students. Implications for further research on professional development and other supports for teachers integrating culturally relevant pedagogy are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., J Res Sci Teach 48: 170–198, 2011     

Family supports and resources for parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing

The study examined family supports after identification of children's hearing loss. On a questionnaire, 456 respondents rated the importance of different aspects of family support, the quality of supports they experienced, and their preferences about informational resources. They verified the importance of informational resources, social-emotional support, and educational advocacy. Families expressed a preference for discussion with other parents of children with hearing loss over discussion with parents of children without hearing loss. The quality of support was rated higher by parents of children with cochlear implants than by parents of children with hearing aids. Top-ranked sources of support included individual professionals and service providers, other parents of children with hearing loss, family support organizations, and grandparents and extended-family members. Open-ended written responses indicated that parents desired additional opportunities to connect with mentors, role models, and other parents.     

A description and characterization of student activity in an open, online, mathematics help forum

Free, open, online, calculus forums are websites where students from around the world can post course-related queries that may be viewed and responded to by anonymous others. These sites are an emergent resource for students seeking help and have become a part of many students’ mathematical experience. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and describe the forums to the research community as a computer-mediated form of help seeking, and to briefly characterize the forms of student activity in one popular calculus help forum. Two hundred exchanges on limit and related rates were collected and examined for evidence that students are contributing ideas and proposals for action when they initiate the exchange and following intervention. The findings justify the need for further research since students are using the forums in a variety of ways and sometimes participate meaningfully. The forums have potential for testing student responses to pedagogical approaches.     

Metacognitive scaffolding in an innovative learning arrangement

This study examined the effects of metacognitive scaffolds on learning outcomes of collaborating students in an innovative learning arrangement. The triads were supported by computerized scaffolds, which were dynamically integrated into the learning process and took a structuring or problematizing form. In an experimental design the two experimental groups receiving scaffolds were compared with a control group. The experimental groups differed in the form of scaffolding used: structuring scaffolds versus problematizing scaffolds. We analyzed the effects of metacognitive scaffolding and of different forms of scaffolds on the learning outcomes at group and individual level. The results showed no effect of scaffolding on group performance, nor on the acquired individual domain knowledge, but a small effect on acquired individual metacognitive knowledge. With respect to the effects of different forms of scaffolds, we found a small effect on group performance, on transfer of individual domain knowledge and on the individual metacognitive knowledge acquired.     

A Phenomenological Investigation of Creative Teaching in Counselor Education

The authors conducted a phenomenological investigation of creative teaching with 10 counselor educators. The resulting 4 themes suggest creative teaching (a) is shaped by past experiences, (b) promotes student engagement, (c) is not formulary, and (d) requires risk taking. Implications for creative teaching strategies and training are provided. Limitations and implications for future research on creative pedagogy are discussed.     

Transcending conventional credentialing and assessment paradigms with information-rich digital badges

ABSTRACT

Open digital badges are Web-enabled tokens of learning and accomplishment. They operate in an environment of explicit (rather than tacit) trust; open badges provide issuers the ability to include specific claims and associate those claims with detailed supporting evidence. Earners are encouraged to share their badges over social networks, e-mail, and websites, and the information they contain is expected to circulate readily in these spaces. Building upon current concepts and theories from the Information Sciences and Learning Sciences, this article shows how the informational affordances of digital badges are transforming education and learning more generally, and more particularly by transcending conventional paradigms of academic credentialing and educational assessment.     

Telling and retelling about self and “others”: How pre-service teachers (re)interpret privilege and disadvantage in one college classroom

This paper examines how a group of mostly white, (upper) middle class pre-service teachers expressed resistance in one multicultural education course. We analyze how these students re-evaluated their educational autobiographies upon comparing their educational “story” with that of an “other” of a different race and social class whom they had interviewed. Findings reveal that despite variation in students’ incoming ideological dispositions, they all rationalized inequality by clinging to moral evaluations of their own achievements and that of others like and unlike them. Teacher-educators have wrangled insufficiently with the moral logic that rationalizes unearned privilege, accounting, in part, for the kinds of resistance these students demonstrated.