Understanding and Promoting Complex Learning Using Technology

This paper serves as the introduction to a collection of 8 projects and a commentary seeking to understand and promote complex learning using technology. Selective evidence on the current state of technology for learning in schools is summarized along with numerous recommendations. Key issues associated with the uses of technology to promote complex and active learning are highlighted. It is argued that accessibility and interactivity with the material and other learners are important features which influence the underlying motivational and cognitive processes which affect complex learning using technology. The nature of cooperative learning is briefly summarized emphasizing positive interdependence and individual accountability as means to promote peer interaction. Fourteen learner-centered psychological principles are listed under several headings: cognitive and metacognitive, motivational and affective, developmental and social, and individual difference factors influencing learners and learning. Finally, key issues in the technology integration process are discussed: creating the school vision, taking stock, partnerships, professional development, implementation, and review.     

Leisure Activities and Adolescent Sexual Behaviour

The shortage of previous research acknowledging the relevance and possible influences of social environments on adolescent sexual behaviour was addressed in this study. The influence of leisure time activities on sexual behaviour was investigated in a questionnaire survey of 212 UK adolescents. The majority of respondents were white, and aged between 11 and 19. Significant differences in leisure activities were found between boys and girls; girls read more books and magazines, and watched more television than boys, who spent more time participating in sport, in amusement arcades and around the streets. Analyses disclosed a decreased likelihood of participating in sexual and other risky behaviours if leisure time is spent with the family or going to church, irrespective of age. Other leisure environments, such as visiting alcohol-serving pubs, were predictive of having sex, although risk-taking behaviour in general and age were the predominant predictors of having had sex. The data therefore provide some support for the ecological model attributing sexual and other risk-taking behaviours to particular adolescent social environments in the population studied here.     

An Evaluation of Four Levels of Online Training in Public Libraries

This study employed a sequential, mixed-method confirmatory research design to assess the impact of the delivery of library staff asynchronous online training at four levels of instructional intervention and workplace integration on short- and long-term knowledge acquisition/retention, self-efficacy, and job performance. The study utilized a pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest design with 192 staff members from twenty-seven public libraries in the United States completing all phases of the four-month longitudinal study. The study proposed an evidence-based, comparative evaluation framework to discern effectiveness of competency-based online training and the impact of varying online training implementation practices. The study found that all levels of instructional intervention resulted in significant short-term knowledge acquisition and enhancement of self-efficacy, and the three approaches that utilized facilitation resulted in long-term knowledge acquisition and improvement in self-efficacy. The impact on long-term workplace practices resulted in unique findings for small and large libraries. The researchers recommend further research in online training evaluation and best practices in public library online training.     

Mass Communications

“Popular Culture in America” edited by David Manning White with help from Ray Browne, Marshall Fishwick, and Russel B. Nye

Marshall Fishwick, is author of his latest, a collection of his own essays entitled Parameters of Popular Culture (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1974—cost not known, but available in cloth and paper)

J. Meredith Neil to assemble Popular Architecture (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green Popular Press, n.d., but , 1974—price not given, paper)

James Philip Danky's UndergroundS; A Union List of Alternative Periodicals in Libraries of the United States and Canada (Madison: State Historical Society of'Wisconsin, 1974—$12.95, paper)

George D. Brightbill and Wayne C. Maxon's Citation Manual for United States Government Publications (Philadelphia: Temple University's Center for the Study of Federalism, 1974—75¢, paper)     

Journalism

OVER THE WIRE AND ON TV: CBS AND UPI IN CAMPAIGN '80 by Michael J. Robinson and Margaret A. Sheehan (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, with distribution by Basic Books, 1983---$24.95)

TELEVISION AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, edited by Martin Linsky (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books/Washington, D.C.: Heath, 1983---$19.95)

COMPUTERS AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS: A LOOK AT TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL CHANGE by Thomas E. Baker (Harvard Program on Information Resources Policy, 200 Aiken, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138---price not given, paper)

SPLIT VISION: THE PORTRAYAL OF ARABS IN THE AMERICAN MEDIA, edited by Edmund Ghareeb (American-Arab Affairs Council, 1730 M St., N.W., Suite 411, Washington, D.C. 20036---$12.95/6.95)

WAR, PEACE &; THE NEWS MEDIA: PROCEEDINGS, edited by David M. Rubin and Ann Marie Cunningham (Department of Journalism, New York University, New York, N.Y. 10003---price not given, paper)     

THE LAST YET ALSO THE FIRST CREATIVE ACT IN TELEVISION?

A television channel's identity is shaped by its output: not just the relative share of different programme genres but equally so the relative position programmes take up in the schedule. This paper refutes the notion that the development of scheduling strategies and tactics – to make the programme schedules as interesting as possible for viewers – are a product of a commercial and competitive television environment. It will be demonstrated that, from its inception, public service television paid considerable attention to the way in which the actual programme schedules could help establish its cultural–educational broadcasting goals. Taking Flemish public service television between 1953 and 1974 as a case in point, the paper analyses how, first, European public service broadcasting (PSB) created its own annual, seasonal, weekly and daily rhythm and, second, how contemporary scheduling strategies and tactics (compatibility, hammocking, etc.) can be identified in the monopolistic past, albeit interpreted along historically dominant PSB policy objectives.     

The Relationship of Dispositional and Situational Fear of Crime with Television Viewing and Direct Experience with Crime

Considerable differences exist in the size and direction of the relationship between television viewing and fear of crime found by previous studies. This article argues that different types of fear exist and that fear should not be confused with perception of risk. A distinction was introduced between dispositional fear of crime and situational fear of crime. The relationship between television viewing and the two types of fear was examined and a distinction was made between direct, indirect, and mediated experience with crime. Hawkins and Pingree (1990 Hawkins , R. P. , & Pingree , S. ( 1990 ). Divergent psychological processes in constructing social reality from mass media content . In N. Signorielli & M. Morgan (Eds.), Cultivation analysis: New directions in media effects research (pp. 35 – 50 ). Newbury Park , CA : Sage . [Google Scholar]) hypothesized that direct experience would interact negatively with television viewing, whereas cultivation's resonance hypothesis assumed a positive interaction. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 1,394 adults in Flanders, Belgium. Television viewing was positively related to dispositional fear of crime, whereas direct experience with crime was not. Direct experience predicted situational fear of crime, whereas television did not. There were no interaction effects. This study suggests that the relationship between television viewing and fear of crime depends upon the operationalization of the concept of fear of crime. More research is needed to establish which types of fear exist and how they are related to television viewing and direct experience with crime.     

VCR‐use and patterns of time shifting and selectivity

This article elaborates on research suggesting that the VCR is a time shifting device leading to more selectivity. It argues that time shifting can lead to time reduction or time filling and that selectivity can entail diversification or concentration of the TV diet. In both cases, however, no significant difference in TV viewing may occur as well. Data from a representative sample of 909 Flemish respondents showed no evidence of time‐reduction. The VCR is mainly used as a time‐filling device. VCR‐use does not seem to lead to concentration, but rather to diversification of the TV diet. Authors have claimed that the VCR is a device which allows better management of the viewing experience and which liberates viewers of the constraints of viewer or program availability. This article suggests instead that it may be more productive to look at the VCR as another channel (albeit it with peculiar characteristics). It influences the viewers’ TV consumption only to the extent that it is part of the viewers’ “channel repertoire” for selecting programs.     

Broadcasting management: A report from the APBE‐NAB employment study

The report that follows is based on one section of People in Broadcasting, the initial report of a research study by the Association for Professional Broadcasting Education and the National Association of Broadcasters, Data processing and reporting were supervised by Mr. James H. Hulbert, Manager of Broadcast Personnel and Economics for the NAB. Processing of the new data has only just been started. Volunteers with suggestions for further analysis are urged to write Dr. Glenn Starlin c/o the Journal. An introductory article to this study appeared in the Spring issue.