The uses of (digital) literacy

This article shares research facilitated by a multinational technology provider, converging mobile networked technology (tablets) used across school and home, a technology enhanced community ‘third space’ providing workshops for students aged 6–9 with their parents/carers. The approach taken avoids the instrumental measurement of functional digital literacy competences, but instead seeks to negotiate a more nuanced and complex understanding of the ‘uses of literacy’ [from Hoggart, R. 1957. The Uses of Literacy. London: Pelican] in digital contexts and in a deeply situated, specific local setting. Working with our findings, we later put Amartya Sen’s concept of capability [Sen, A. K. 2005. “Human Rights and Capabilities.” Journal of Human Development 6 (2): 151–166; Sen, A. K. 2008. “Capability and Well-Being.” In The Philosophy of Economics, edited by D. M. Hausman, 3rd ed., 270–293. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press] to work on our data in order to provide a discussion on how the digital literacy community might distinguish digital competences as functionings from the ‘uses’ of such competences for a broader range of capabilities.     

The role of ethnic school segregation for adolescents’ religious salience

Public concerns over the possible effects of school segregation on immigrant and ethnic majority religiosity have been on the rise over the last few years. In this paper we focus on (1) the association between ethnic school composition and religious salience, (2) intergenerational differences in religious salience and (3) the role of ethnic school composition for intergenerational differences in religious salience. We perform analyses on religious salience, one five-point Likert scale item measuring religious salience among 3,612 16-year-old pupils in Belgian secondary schools. National origin was used as a proxy for ethnicity. Ethnic minority pupils in schools with a higher share of ethnic minorities tend to be more religious. This relation holds for Muslim as well as other religious and ethnic minorities. Ethnic school composition also moderates the relationship between migrant generation and religious salience: second generation migrants tend to be more religious in ethnic minority dominated schools. For ethnic Belgians the association is moderated by their religious affiliation: Catholics tend to be more religious, while non-affiliated ethnic Belgians are less religious in schools with a higher share of ethnic minority pupils.     

Vocabulary does not complicate the simple view of reading

Gough and Tunmer’s (1986) simple view of reading (SVR) proposed that reading comprehension (RC) is a function of language comprehension (LC) and word recognition/decoding. Braze et al. (2007) presented data suggesting an extension of the SVR in which knowledge of vocabulary (V) affected RC over and above the effects of LC. Tunmer and Chapman (2012) found a similar independent contribution of V to RC when the data were analyzed by hierarchical regression. However, additional analysis by factor analysis and structural equation modeling indicated that the effect of V on RC was, in fact, completely captured by LC itself and there was no need to posit a separate direct effect of V on RC. In the present study, we present new data from young adults with sub-optimal reading skill (N = 286). Latent variable and regression analyses support Gough and Tunmer’s original proposal and the conclusions of Tunmer and Chapman that V can be considered a component of LC and not an independent contributor to RC.     

Wearable technologies for students with disabilities

Students with disabilities typically experience academic, social, and behavioural challenges in school. Some of these students also often experience anxiety and stress associated with school situations and events. Wearable technologies are an emerging innovation in the United States that can support students with disabilities during stressful academic or social situations. This article discusses issues associated with wearables, offers questions to consider when considering a wearable device for a student, and describes several wearable technologies for students with disabilities.     

Mergers and acquisitions: Their effect on the innovative performance of companies in high-tech industries

This study examines the post-M&A innovative performance of acquiring firms in four major high-tech sectors. Non-technological M&As appear to have a negative impact on the acquiring firm's post-M&A innovative performance. With respect to technological M&As, a large relative size of the acquired knowledge base reduces the innovative performance of the acquiring firm. The absolute size of the acquired knowledge base only has a positive effect during the first couple of years after which the effect turns around and we see a negative effect on the innovative performance of the acquiring firm. The relatedness between the acquired and acquiring firms’ knowledge bases has a curvilinear impact on the acquiring firm's innovative performance. This indicates that companies should target M&A ‘partners’ that are neither too unrelated nor too similar in terms of their knowledge base.     

Are we meeting the counselling needs of the student community? A needs assessment involving students on a South African campus

The object of the study was to determine the major needs of students at the University of the Western Cape (U.W.C.). A second aim was to determine how students view the nature of the Centre for Student Counselling (C.S.C.). No needs assessments have previously been done on the U.W.C. campus and this lack of knowledge pertaining to the needs of students could have meant a misdirected focus in terms of the provision of counselling services.The study was done with a representative sample of students from all the year groups. Students were asked to fill in a questionnaire consisting of two parts. In Part I a student had to indicate how prevalent he thought a particular set of problems were on campus. In Part II he had to indicate whether he would have referred a friend to the C.S.C. with a particular problem.The results had indicated that problems were predominantly seen to be in the vocational-academic area and that students were more willing to refer fellow students to the C.S.C. with the above-mentioned problems than with problems of a more personal-social nature. Although the results were to be expected, it was emphasized that vocational-academic problems are often used as a smoke-screen and that counsellors should also be aware of underlying social-emotional problems.