Student and teacher co-navigation of a course: following the natural lines of academic enquiry

Using the mountaineering metaphor of ‘natural lines’ this article describes the co-navigation of an honours course by students and teachers. It suggests the benefits and possibilities of going beyond the confines of conventional teaching and learning wisdom (as canonised in the notion of constructive alignment) and offering just and joyful ways for students to explore disciplinary knowledge. We openly explore issues of power between students and teachers in the construction of so-called partnerships, recognising the inherent challenges in moving beyond the prevailing mainstream. We suggest that a natural lines approach enables students to act as genuine co-navigators and to experience disciplinary knowledge in authentic ways and provides rich opportunities for personal reflection and development.     

Higher education professionals for the twenty-first century

This paper originated as a Plenary Presentation at the AUA Conference at the University of Keele in April 2004     

The Teacher Education Internet Server: an evolving resource for educators

ABSTRACT

The Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) is an international organization of teacher educators from all disciplines who are interested in the creation and dissemination of knowledge about the use of information technology in teacher education. The Teacher Education Internet Server (TEIS) has been established by SITE to support professional interchange and academic discourse and will serve as a complement to traditional ways of sharing academic information such as professional journals and conferences. With the evolution and spread of Internet information servers, it is envisioned that TEIS may make worthwhile contributions to use of technology in teacher education. As telecommunications technologies evolve, from FTP to Gopher to the World Wide Web, a major challenge for TEIS remains: to develop guidelines for collaboration at a distance that allow educators from around the world to work together to identify, acquire, and organize information and related materials. The notion of volunteer ‘curators’ for different academic areas is being explored as one possible method for support of such collaboration. It is hoped that the Teacher Education Internet Server will become a useful resource for those integrating technology into teacher education, allowing educators throughout the world to share their work and ideas with their colleagues.     

Shutting Down a Consortial Digital Repository Service

ABSTRACT

This column examines the lifecycle of one consortial digital repository service, the Alliance Digital Repository. Though the consortial service provided important infrastructure for members, the nature of digital repository work made it difficult to realize economies of scale. After eight years, members discontinued the shared service and replaced it with single-institution repositories that they could more readily support with the resources available to them. Based on my experiences helping members transition from shared to single-institution repositories, I offer advice for administrators planning or participating in consortial digital repository services.     

Core Journal Lists: Classic Tool,New Relevance

Reviews the historical context of core journal lists, current uses in collection assessment, and existing methodologies for creating lists. Outlines two next generation core list projects developing new methodologies and integrating novel information/data sources to improve precision: a national-level core psychology list and the other a local institutional core list for the interdisciplinary field of urban studies and planning. The paper is based on the authors’ panel presentation at the 2009 ACRL National Conference (Seattle, Washington) titled “Core Journal Lists Re-viewed and Re-imagined.”     

The Future of Web Citation Practices

ABSTRACT

Citing webpages has been a common practice in scholarly publications for nearly two decades as the Web evolved into a major information source. But over the years, more and more bibliographies have suffered from “reference rot”: Cited URLs are broken links or point to a page that no longer contains the content the author originally cited. In this column, I look at several studies showing how reference rot has affected different academic disciplines. I also examine citation styles’ approach to citing Web sources. I then turn to emerging Web citation practices: Perma, a “freemium” Web archiving service specifically for citation; and the Internet Archive, the largest Web archive.     

Editorial

Drawing on communication accommodation theory in a law enforcement context, young adults rated one of four written vignettes wherein an accommodating or nonaccommodating police officer issued a ticket for a minor or major traffic violation. The officer was rated less favorably along both cognitive and affective dimensions when he nonaccommodated rather than accommodated the offender. The effect of officer accommodation on evaluations of officer competence and social attractiveness were both mediated by intergroup sensitivity. These effects, which supported the theory, emerged irrespective of the severity of the violation. The findings add to the literature regarding the effects of intergroup sensitivity and open up new affective parameters for communication accommodation.     

Attitudinal effects of utilizing a critical method of analysis

Subjects were trained in the use of a critical method for analyzing controversial messages. At a later date the subjects, along with two control groups, listened to a counter‐attitudinal speech. Utilization of the critical method appeared to serve an immunizing function for females, while for males a heightened persuasibility effect was observed.     

Extended Editor's Report: IFLA Notes from Robin Kear

From The Column Editors

Welcome to the Global Postcards column! We are so excited to bring you news and projects from around the world. We have three main contributions for this column: Heather Moulaison Sandy reports on LIDA in Croatia, Molly Brown shares her experiences with user experience and space planning, and Kathryn McNamara shares her impressions of IFLA as a first-time attendee. Thanks to the contributors for this issue, and please keep the submissions coming! If you would like to send a submission, please contact either of the column's co-editors: Jacqueline Solis, jsolis@email.unc.edu, and Robin Kear, rlk25@pitt.edu.