Developing Teaching Best Practice—Pedagogy,Preferences, and Professional Development

This column examines advances in public services internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how public services, such as instruction and education, programming, research consulting, and circulation evolve and impact users. The strength of the column is its broad, international focus and contributors are encouraged to explore issues and recent advances in public services relevant to their geographical region, as well as the larger, global audience. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at andrea.falcone@ucdenver.edu     

Open access megajournals: The publisher perspective (Part 1: Motivations)

This paper is the first of two Learned Publishing articles in which we report the results of a series of interviews with senior publishers and editors exploring open access megajournals (OAMJs). Megajournals (of which PLoS One is the best known example) represent a relatively new approach to scholarly communication and can be characterized as large, broad‐scope, open access journals that take an innovative approach to peer review, basing acceptance decisions solely on the technical or scientific soundness of the article. This model is often said to support the broader goals of the open science movement. Based on in‐depth interviews with 31 publishers and editors representing 16 different organizations (10 of which publish a megajournal), this paper reports how the term ‘megajournal’ is understood and publishers’ rationale and motivations for launching (or not launching) an OAMJ. We find that while there is general agreement on the common characteristics of megajournals, there is not yet a consensus on their relative importance. We also find seven motivating factors that were said to drive the launch of an OAMJ and link each of these factors to potential societal and business benefits. These results suggest that the often polarized debate surrounding OAMJs is a consequence of the extent to which observers perceive publishers to be motivated by these societal or business benefits.     

文化遗产旅游吸引物的意境空间研究——为文化遗产旅游者创造适宜的旅游环境

近来,各种公众媒体的版面充斥着对世界各地著名遗产旅游景点更新改造的报道。文化遗产旅游目的地管理者也承认良好的外部环境在提升旅游者总体满意程度方面发挥着重要作用。阐明了遗产吸引物的自然环境在决定旅游者对景点的态度和未来再次购买意向方面有重要作用．同时影响着他们对亲朋好友的传播意愿。研究表明环境因素在面对顾客塑造永久性的独特品牌形象时可被作为一种差异化工具,并以此创造一种竞争优势。     

Beware of Stereotypes: Are Classmates’ Stereotypes Associated With Students’ Reading Outcomes?

This study examined the associations between classmates’ reading-related gender stereotypes and students’ reading self-efficacy, self-concept, motivation, and achievement. Our sample consisted of 1,508 fifth-grade students (49% girls; age: 10.89 years); data were collected at two time points. Multilevel analyses yielded two main results: First, there was a relation between students’ individual reading-related gender stereotypes and their reading self-concept, self-efficacy, and motivation with boys experiencing negative and girls experiencing positive effects. Second, a contextual effect was found: after controlling for students’ individual reading-related gender stereotypes, classmates’ gender stereotypes were negatively related to all of the boys’ reading outcomes. The results provide evidence for the assumption that classmates are important communicators of gender stereotypes and that they reinforce conforming behaviors.     

Collaborative bibliography

A bibliography is traditionally characterized by the judgments, bounded by explicit selection criteria, made by a single compiler. Because these criteria concern the attributes ascribed to a work and the needs of readers, bibliographic work is largely conceptual even across technological eras and domains. Yet, the development of networked information services, made possible by WWW infrastructure, has enabled very large numbers of people to discover, organize, and publish information, including bibliographies. Indeed, bibliographies, or at least bibliography-like artifacts, are a common genre of website, often published by people without specialized skills in information organization who follow non-rigorous selection procedures. Nevertheless, even if the items from these lists are poorly selected and described, this publishing activity is fundamentally important because it structures information locally, creating a patchy network of secondary access points. In turn, these access points enable information discovery, the formation and development of communities of interest, the estimation of document relevance by search engines, and so on. In sum, this activity, and the enabling technical infrastructure, invites bibliographies to take on new interactive possibilities. The aim of this article is to extend the traditional view of bibliography to encompass collaborative possibilities for wide, or narrow, participation in the shaping of bibliographies and the selection of items. This is done by examining the nature of bibliography on the Web, by proposing a conceptual model that opens bibliography to participatory practices, and by discussing a case study where a team sought to develop a bibliography of electronic resources. This examination reveals splendid opportunities for expanding the notion of bibliography with participatory policies while remaining true to its ancient roots.     

Particles in a Box with One Sticky Wall: From ODE to PDE

Abstract

We present noncompetitive adsorption as “particles in a box with one sticky wall.” We start with a general model that can be modeled as a simple ordinary differential equation (ODE). To verify the ODE students run a computer simulation. The ODE’s solution imperfectly fits the simulation’s data. This leads to the diffusion partial differential equation. We show how to determine the diffusion constant from theory; how to determine how many terms in the Fourier series solution need to be summed; and the use of nonlinear regression. As a bonus, the physics of the model will lead us to a series representation of π.     

PDAs as lifelong learning tools: an activity theory based analysis

This paper describes the use of an activity theory (AT) framework to analyze the ways that distance part time learners and mobile workers adapted and appropriated mobile devices for their activities and in turn how their use of these new tools changed the ways that they carried out their learning or their work. It is argued that there are two key strengths in using an activity theory framework in this context. The first strength is the emphasis activity theory places on tools, including computer artefacts, as mediators of activity. This emphasis focuses attention on the activity itself rather than, for example, simply the interaction between the human and the computer. The focus is on the learner or user’s objectives and activities and the computer is the tool through which the user achieves her objectives. The second strength was referred to briefly above. The AT perspective also enabled analysis of an interactive dynamic process of users or learners and their tools—in this case personal digital assistants (PDAs). It revealed a two way process in which the user adapts the tools they use according to their everyday practice and preferences in order to carry out their activities; and how, in turn, the tools themselves also modify the activities that the user is engaged in. Three case studies illustrate these processes. The first case study is of distance learners’ use of e‐books on PDAs, to supplement their access to other static media such as books and computers. The second case study investigated how mobile workers in the energy industry used mobile devices to access information when away from the office. The third and final case study investigated the use of mobile devices in an art gallery. The paper concludes with a discussion of the information access needs that are apparent in each of these learning contexts, and highlights the pertinent issues in the use of mobile technologies to support lifelong learners’ information needs.     

University‐community engagement: exploring service‐learning options within the practicum

Since 1999, pre‐service teachers undertaking the Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) Program at the University of Western Sydney have participated in an alternate practicum called Professional Experience 3 (PE3). This practicum encourages students to engage in broader educational settings within local communities. Increasingly, a number of service‐learning opportunities have been developed, most notably, senior student tutoring programs and the involvement of students in the Plan‐It Youth project in conjunction with the Department of Education and Training (DET) and the South‐western Sydney Institute of TAFE. A focus of these programs has been to address the issues related to students at risk of leaving school early within the local South‐western Sydney community.

In this paper we discuss the benefits of these programs to the university, pre‐service‐teachers, school students and school communities, and the broader local community. Specifically, we examine service learning as a conduit for the development and maintenance of meaningful symbiotic relationships between the university and the educational community, and pre‐service teachers and the local community. Finally, we look towards the future and highlight the challenges and opportunities for service‐learning programs within the practicum.