When Off-Campus Means Virtual Campus: The Academic Library in Second Life

ABSTRACT

This article discusses how a library's consistent policy of accessibility and foresight positioned itself to serve its students, faculty and staff in the virtual world of Second Life. Always ahead of the technological curve, this library has been the front-runner in providing services to distance learners via text messaging, “chat,” e-mail, and telephone services and via its laptop librarian project across the campus. It now is poised and ready to provide service in Second Life. Collaboration between the library and teaching faculty culminated in the creation, development, and furnishing of a library in Second Life, an environment that gives new meaning to “off-campus” learning. Without marketing, but as a visible presence, the Second Life library was able to attract both off-campus guests and affiliated students and faculty and even participated in campus-wide projects. This experiment has enjoyed the support of both the university and library administration.     

The Reading Habits of Superior College Students

A structured team approach in learning introductory COBOL programming was empirically assessed with a sample of 215 undergraduate business administration majors. For each assigned program, students in the experimental group read and critiqued team members’ program listings. COBOL proficiency was measured by a final examination testing knowledge of language rules, ability to read a program, and the ability to write a program. Analysis of multiple covariance was used to statistically adjust test scores for age and conditional reasoning scores. For the program writing variable, a significant difference favoring the experimental group was found. The language rules variable showed no significant difference, while the reading variable did not satisfy the required assumptions of the proposed statistical model. However, the experimental group showed higher mean scores for both of these variables. The findings provide empirical support for incorporating team activities into the programming learning process to more effectively develop student proficiency in writing COBOL programs.     

Devising an Environmental Impact Assessment Curriculum

Abstract

In this article, the author discusses the barriers to ecology education in North American high schools within a new perspective. The author argues that new insights to overcome the barriers could be obtained when we examine the barriers from the following viewpoints: a) educational concern among ecologists, b) ecological concern among educators and philosophers, c) the nature of ecology and how to approach it among curriculum developers and teachers, d) anthropological and archaeological knowledge in ecological education, e) teaching evolution in secondary school curriculum, f) holistic views of ecological education, g) essential characteristics necessary for an adequate ecological education, h) the place of ecology in school curriculum, and i) preparation for action in school curriculum. Finally, the study provides 10 important steps that could help improve the status of ecology education in North America. These steps fall under levels: a) the level of educational institutions, b) the level of educational theory and curriculum development, c) the level of educators, educational philosophers, and ecologists, d) the level of ecology teacher education, and e) the level of teaching.     

Patterns of psychological state anxiety in public speaking as a function of anxiety sensitivity

Previous empirical studies of anxiety patterns associated with public speaking performance have exhibited major differences between the psychological and physiological waveforms. Moreover, current research indicates that, in physiological studies of public speaking anxiety, several different patterns are embedded in the overall pattern, thereby demonstrating the importance of discovering the proper differentiated pattern for any given speaker. In the present study, the general psychological anxiety pattern for public speakers was examined in order to attempt to discover if independent, differentiated, patterns reside within the global pattern. A primary and a secondary pattern emerged. These sub‐patterns are significantly different from one another at all major moments or milestones of the experience. In a second study, these patterns were identified by differing levels of anxiety sensitivity. Theoretical, pedagogical, and therapeutic implications of the findings are discussed.     

Audience‐perceived anxiety patterns of public speakers

Gray's neurological theory of anxiety (1982, 1990; Gray & McNaughton, 2000) predicts that state anxiety will decrease with continuous exposure to a fear arousing stimulus. Previous studies of psychological and physiological state anxiety patterns during public speaking have reported a pattern of progressively decreasing anxiety levels consistent with this phenomenon, known as habituation. In the current report, the extent to which the state anxiety behaviors of speakers conform to the habituation pattern is examined. In the first of two studies, 30 novice speakers presented informative speeches to audiences of 18 to 20 fellow students. These speeches were videotaped and replayed in their entirety for observers (N=30) who rated the severity of each performer's speech anxiety behaviors. In the second study, each videotaped presentation was divided into one‐minute segments and presented in random order to a new set of observers (N=25). Procedures in the second study were designed to control for rater expectations that state anxiety would decline over time. Overall, behavioral measures of public speaking state anxiety displayed a continually declining pattern associated with habituation.     

A psychological pattern of anxiety in public speaking

In previous research, a physiological pattern of speech anxiety has been established for the periods before, during, and after delivering a public speech. However, no corresponding psychological pattern has been reported. Although strong correlations between psychological and physiological measures have not been found, it seemed reasonable to expect public speakers to exhibit a psychological pattern of speech anxiety similar to the physiological pattern. The results of this study support that hypothesis. The observed pattern is a monotonic function decreasing from the beginning of the speech through the post speech period.     

Learning trajectories: travelling towards a learning society? 1

This paper uses the results of a large‐scale study of patterns of participation in post‐compulsory education and training over the past 50 years to identify some of the social determinants of adult participation in formal learning experiences. The patterns of participation are presented in the form of predictable lifelong ‘trajectories’, and the predictability of these patterns of participation is as important a finding as their determinants. The key predictors themselves can be discerned quite early in an individuals life since they comprise the period in which the person was born, their place of birth and subsequent migration patterns, their gender, their family background, their experience of initial schooling, and the interactions between them. The patterns of participation and their changes over time are used to reinforce doubts about the wisdom of seeing a Learning Society as simply a worthwhile future goal, towards the implementation of which current policy is directed, and towards which the UK is travelling in linear fashion by apparently increasing opportunities for, while removing barriers to, lifelong participation.