Impacting Forces on eBook Business Models Development

As eBook and related technologies continue their relentless advance, book publishers face a veritable digital siege. Nevertheless, technology remains an enabler, a set of tools and facilitators, albeit linked to the potential for new entrants to the market and indeed, disintermediation. However, the fundamentals are to do with markets, organizational strategies and structures, and with finding answers to hard commercial questions about cost and profit, infrastructure management and sustainability all as reflected in appropriate business models. Underlying these is a range of internal and external forces, not all of which are negative in their effects, as witness signs of improvement in an eBook market faced with greatly reduced planning horizons and the need for dynamic product and marketing mixes. This paper addresses a range of responses by book publishers to such challenges and concludes by reviewing the resulting several business models currently in place for eBook publishing.     

Towards an econophysics view of intellectual capital dynamics: from self-organized criticality to the stochastic frontier

The paper begins with research studying the concept and nature of Intellectual Capital (IC), as well as how close IC firms are to the stochastic frontier. Then basic concepts of complexity theory – such as agents, self-organized criticality (SOC), connectivities, fractals, and power laws (PLs) – are used to distinguish between two kinds of IC firms’ success: traditional SOC applications to how firms maintain their position in a changing industry vs. how an IC firm (such as Apple) creates a new stochastic frontier. The research sets up PLs as indicators of whether or not firms and industries are SOC-effective and includes propositions about: (1) How IC firms benefit from complexity dynamics and SOC; (2) How PL distributions are indicators of efficacious SOC and adaptivity; and (3) Why IC attributes serve to create more transient dynamics pertaining to the stochastic frontier and the rest of the industry's rank/frequency distribution.     

White Noise: The Attack on Political Correctness and the Struggle for the Western Canon

This paper provides a critical overview of the debate about political correctness and the status of the Western Canon in education. The paper analyses a number of critical themes in the debate: Who is it under attack? What is the Canon which is to be defended? Why does it need to be defended? And what notions of knowing and learning underlie the arguments of the proponents of the Canon? After outlining the ways in which the arguments of those attacking political correctness and defending the Canon are profoundly flawed, the paper suggests that the case for multiculturalism and diversified curriculum needs to be substantially strengthened if it is to present a viable alternative.     

The Impact of Parental Work Experience and Education on Environmental Knowledge,Concern and Behaviour among Adolescents

This paper derives from a larger study of the correlates of environmental concern among adolescents in Victoria, Australia. It begins by identifying some of the factors likely to lead to variation in environmental concern with socio‐economic status (SES). It then examines empirical data offering some indication of greater environmental concern among adolescents whose parents have had an above average length of edu‐ cation. The article concludes by arguing for a socially critical approach to environmental education in lower SES areas that takes full account of the economic and cultural circumstances of youth and their gender identity.     

Examining a mathematical model of mastery learning in a classroom setting

The purpose of mathematical models in any discipline is to describe accurately the relationships among significant variables of a system. The use of mathematical models is widespread in the sciences, but has rarely found its way into educational research. In developing a mathematical model for mastery learning, empirical research has shown that prior learning, motivation, and time on task are part of the significant variables that work together in some way in a determination of student achievement. A mathematical model that shows the relationship among these variables has been developed. To test the appropriateness of this mathematical model, carefully designed and controlled experiments must be conducted to collect numerical data on the significant variables. Using the model, the accuracy of its predictions can be compared with actual results. This is the technique used in testing mathematical models in the sciences and should be applicable to mathematical models of learning.     

A mathematical model for mastery learning

Prior research on mastery learning has examined relationships between achievement and time on task, motivation variables, as well as the effects of prior learning. One can show that the results of prior research lead to certain requirements on a model for mastery learning. This article uses those requirements to develop a mathematical model for mastery learning. This model includes measures of a motivational factor and of the specific ability of a learner with respect to the content being learned. The model also contains a variable to reflect prior learning. The model has been developed to include a computer program which accepts student data and from which predictions can be made and tested. Assumptions and limitations of the model are discussed, and some research questions are raised. In most respects the model proposed in this article is susceptible to the same tests and refinements as an empirical law in the physical or life sciences.     

The Role of the Internet in the Adoption of Computer Modeling as Legitimate High School Science

We describe a recent project that explored combined use of Internet client-server technology and interactive computer modeling software for improving secondary science teaching. We envisioned a constructivist network in which teachers make contributions to the resources available. The purpose of the network was to promote the emerging field of computer modeling in high school science. Our approach coupled the networking and curricular initiatives with evaluation of changes in classroom core practices—those which have a traceable impact on student learning. Distribution of work, ideology of science, teaching styles, and curricular goals come together dynamically to influence teachers' use of modeling technology in the high school science classroom. A combination of Internet tools, each affording a different contribution to the spread of innovation, provides the best promise for future networks of this kind.     

The Curious Incidence of Novels About Asperger's Syndrome

Since Asperger's Syndrome was formally recognised in 1994, several novels featuring characters with the syndrome have appeared. Bill Greenwell's article discusses these books in providing a context for a closer consideration of the British publishing sensation of 2003, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The reasons for the success of this suburban comedy, Greenwell argues, include the consequences for the reader of Haddon's choice of the sufferer from Asperger's as narrator, especially the generation of unconscious humour and the range of literary forms he uses to tell his story. Nicholas Tucker adds an Afterword from his perspective as an educational psychologist as well as a literary critic, finding in the novel a rich mixture of heroism, mystery and love mediated through narrrative ingenuity.