‘Technological me’: young children’s use of technology across their home and school contexts

Research into children’s learning with digital technologies is represented by a growing body of literature examining the relationship between home–school technological practices. A focus of this work is on the notion of a ‘digital-disconnect’ between home and school. This argument suggests that children are such native users of technologies they struggle to connect with commonly used technologies in school. This paper examines how the ‘digital-disconnect’ is experienced in children’s lives. Drawing on a data set investigating the digital experiences of 12 children aged 2–12 years, we consider the experiences of one family attending the same school. Three siblings aged 5–12 years recorded their home and school technology use for one week. The findings suggested some difference in use across both settings, but also similarities associated with information retrieval, rote learning and entertainment. We use Bulfin and North’s and Dyson’s ideas about the permeability of social boundaries to explain why technology use might be more similar than disconnected in each context. We consider the extent to which each setting influences the other as the basis for moving away from binary conceptualisations of the digital-disconnect informed by generational assumptions about children and technologies.     

Copyright information queries in the health sciences: trends and implications from the Ohio State University

Objective:

This paper presents the results of data gathered on copyright questions asked at an academic health sciences library.

Methods:

Collected data include questioner''s status or discipline, the subject of the questions, the types of activities that the questioners were engaged in, the communication mode, and the length of time it took to answer the questions.

Results:

Overall results showed most questions were about permissions. Staff asked the most questions, followed by faculty and students.

Conclusions:

Copyright education is needed at universities, and further analysis of queries will determine the direction of the education.     

A comparison between the WISC and WISC-R among educable mentally retarded students

The study compared differences and similarities between WISC and WISC-R scores for 48 ten- and thirteen-year-old EMR students, who were matched according to sex and race. The WISC-R yielded significantly lower VS, PS, and FS IQ scores than the WISC for this predominantly rural Georgia population. The FS IQ scores from the WISC-R averaged 7.5 points lower than the WISC FS IQs, with similar differences noted for VS and PS scores. There was no significant difference in FS IQs between the two age groups. Results suggest that many children classified as “Borderline” or slightly above by the WISC will be classified as “Mentally Deficient” by the WISC-R.     

Initial Validity Evidence for the State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity With Youth

Experiencing mindfulness during movement-based interventions (e.g., yoga) may help support adaptive physical activity motivation processes in youth. However, there is currently no measure for assessing state mindfulness with youth within the context of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate a measure of state mindfulness for physical activity in youth. In study one, cognitive interviews with youth (N = 15) ages 8–13 evaluated the State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity item comprehension and preference for developmentally worded modifications. Results suggest that problems with item comprehension were more likely in youth younger than 10. In study two, the State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity, or a modified version, was administered randomly to middle-school students (N = 481). Internal consistency reliability, confirmatory factor analyses, model-based reliability omega, and correlations with theoretically relevant variables combined with the qualitative evidence provided stronger initial support for the use of the original State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity with middle-school students.     

A multivariate study of the relationship of parental management to self-esteem and initial drug response in Hyperkinetic/Mbd boys

The present paper examines the relationship between the judge-rated and self-and spouse-reported parenting characteristics of the mothers and fathers of 83 Hyperkinetic/MBD boys, the rated self-esteem of these boys at referral, and their clinical response to CNS medication. Stepwise multiple regression analyses identified five predictors of Self-Esteem Deficits. The direction of the relationships is such that mothers of children with more severe Self-Esteem Deficits did not describe themselves as too strict, were rated higher in the direction of hostility, listed fewer self-reported shortcomings, and described their husbands as too demanding. Fathers of these lower self-esteem boys tended not to describe themselves as too demanding. The size of the multiple correlation indicates that 21% of the measured variation in Self-Esteem Deficits is accounted for by variation in these five significant parenting variables. The severity of Self-Esteem Deficits in these HK/MBD boys is also significantly correlated with the severity of Negative Affect, Aggressive Interpersonal Behavior, and Impulse Control Deficits, three variables which form a factor labelled Aggression. Another stepwise multiple regression analysis identified four predictors of initial response to CNS stimulant medication. The direction of the relationships is such that a more positive drug response is correlated with more inattention in the child, more self-reported mother short comings, more rated love than hostility in the father, and the mother not describing herself as too short-tempered. The size of the multiple correlation indicates that 19% of the measured variation in response to medication is accounted for by variation in these four significant symptom and parenting variables.