Household Technology Use: Integrating Household Life Cycle and the Model of Adoption of Technology in Households

Recently, the model of adoption of technology in households (MATH) was developed and tested in the context of household personal computer (PC) adoption. In this study, we apply MATH to predict personal computer (PC) use. We conducted a nationwide survey including 370 households that owned at least one PC. Results indicate that attitudinal beliefs are extremely important in determining use of a PC in the household. In contrast to previous work examining adopters, normative and control beliefs were not significant in predicting use. Furthermore, several determinants of adoption that were important at different stages of the household life cycle were found nonsignificant in predicting use for the same stages of the household life cycle. Overall, the results demonstrate that the belief structure for household PC use is different from that of household PC adoption. Further, the results provide additional evidence regarding the importance of including household life cycle in studies of household technology adoption and use.     

S.U.C.C.E.S.S.ful pre-/in-service training requires planning

There are preservice and in-service workshops from which participants leave saying, Thank goodness that ordeal is over, and others from which participants leave invigorated and anxious to try new ideas and activities in their classrooms. The key to the successful preservice and in-service is staff input in the planning process.Sharon Wooden is Professor and Nancy Baptiste is CDA Program Coordinator and Instructor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.     

Required: A professional development component for every early childhood education program

Whether your day care center or Head Start program has staff of five or twenty-five, you might wish to consider a professional development component (PDC). “What is that?” you say. “Not another thing we have to do. Isn't it enough that early childhood educators ... must be an astute purchaser, ... must be persnickety picker-and-chooser, ... must be a scavenger, ...” (Hymes, 1968, pp. 82–85) “and that programs have to meet state licensing standards or Head Start Performance Standards? Now programs must develop a new component!”     

(<Emphasis Type="Italic">CF</Emphasis>)<Superscript>2</Superscript> architecture: contextual collaborative filtering

Recommender systems have dramatically changed the way we consume content. Internet applications rely on these systems to help users navigate among the ever-increasing number of choices available. However, most current systems ignore the fact that user preferences can change according to context, resulting in recommendations that do not fit user interests. This research addresses these issues by proposing the \(({ CF})^2\) architecture, which uses local learning techniques to embed contextual awareness into collaborative filtering models. The proposed architecture is demonstrated on two large-scale case studies involving over 130 million and over 7 million unique samples, respectively. Results show that contextual models trained with a small fraction of the data provided similar accuracy to collaborative filtering models trained with the complete dataset. Moreover, the impact of taking into account context in real-world datasets has been demonstrated by higher accuracy of context-based models in comparison to random selection models.     

Early Nonparental Care and Social Behavior in Elementary School: Support for a Social Group Adaptation Hypothesis

This study examined the contribution of nonparental child‐care services received during the preschool years to the development of social behavior between kindergarten and the end of elementary school with a birth cohort from Québec, Canada (N = 1,544). Mothers reported on the use of child‐care services, while elementary school teachers rated children's shyness, social withdrawal, prosociality, opposition, and aggression. Children who received nonparental child‐care services were less shy, less socially withdrawn, more oppositional, and more aggressive at school entry (age 6 years). However, these differences disappeared during elementary school as children who received exclusive parental care caught up with those who received nonparental care services. This “catch‐up” effect from the perspective of children's adaptation to the social group is discussed.     

Black-Focused Radio and the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans

This study examines the broadcast content of the first black air personalities in New Orleans leading up to and during to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The black broadcasters worked in concert with civil rights leaders, offering them opportunities to be interviewed on air, but did not get extensively involved such as using their radio shows to recruit foot soldier.

O.C.W. Taylor integrated radio in 1946 at WNOE. His talk show portrayed industrious blacks in a positive light. In 1948, Vernon "Dr. Daddy-O" Winslow became the city's first black DJ working at WJMR. Winslow mostly played rhythm and blues and hip New Orleans music aimed at blacks, but he did reassure worried listeners that the young people participating in sit-ins were not physically harmed.

Larry McKinley gave rise to radio news coverage of the Movement. He arrived at WMRY as an 18-year-old in 1953. Later, in the early 1960s at WYLD, McKinley and broadcaster George "Tex" Stevens, as well as Taylor at WNOE, interviewed activists concerning their push to get Coca Cola to hire black truck drivers. The leaders discussed the successful end of a two-year boycott of more than 30 downtown stores. They also talked of their experiences during the Freedom Riders campaign, sit-ins, and other demonstrations. While the broadcasters did not on-air recruit African Americans to join Movement activities, they announced the times and locations of meetings which were often held at the black churches.     

Sustainability in the Architectural Design Studio: A Case Study of Designing On‐Campus Academic Staff Housing in Konya and Izmir,Turkey

It is important to engender a 'sustainable’ architectural consciousness in the students who will be the next generation architects. In architectural education, design decisions taken during the early phases of the design process play an important role in ensuring concern for the sustainability issue. But, in general, all discussions about the site that have been held since the beginning of the semester get forgotten, and at the end of the design process students usually create projects that ignore the site criteria. In this article, a specific teaching methodology which supports the sustainability issue in the design studio is presented as a teaching/learning experience. The article is an overview of the design studio process illustrated by a case study on academic staff campus housing in Konya and ?zmir, Turkey. To solve the same problem with the same brief in different regions requires developing sensitivity to climate issues. The resulting product is good evidence that teaching about sustainability in the design studio is effective.