The cinematic pedagogies of underprepared teachers

Based on ‘netnographic’ discourse analysis of 14 blogs penned by unlicensed American volunteer teachers in Namibia, this paper compares the narratives of Western underprepared teachers to the maverick teacher archetype in popular Hollywood (white savior) teacher films. The volunteers’ narrations of their classroom activities and positionality within schools map onto the attributes of maverick teachers. I introduce the term cinematic pedagogies to conceptualize the dramatic but unresearched features of underprepared teachers’ classroom practices and their self-identity as narrated along familiar cinematic story arcs. This research contributes to emerging scholarship on underprepared teachers as educational actors worthy of analysis.     

网络民族志:“互联网+”时代教育研究的新路径

在“互联网+教育”时代,教育信息化的发展和普及不仅带来了教育方式的变革,更重构了教育空间、教育情境和教育关系,形成了独特的网络教育文化。网络民族志以网络环境作为主要的研究背景和环境,利用网络媒体平台和互动工具来收集数据资料,以探究和阐释互联网及相关社会文化现象。作为伴随网络文化现象而产生的研究方法,网络民族志对于探究互联网环境下的教育文化具有一定的借鉴作用,通过浸润体验、对话互动、情境追踪和多维分析等具体方法,实现对网络教育现象的整体性认知、共情化理解和过程性透视。文章指出了网络民族志在教育研究中可能面临的问题,为“互联网+”时代教育研究提供了新的路径参考。     

Social behavior and brand devotion among iPhone innovators

Convergence of communication technologies and innovative product features are expanding the markets for technological products and services. Prior literature on technology acceptance and use has focused on utilitarian belief factors as predictors of rational adoption decisions and subsequent user behavior. This presupposes that consumers’ intentions to use technology are based on functional or utilitarian needs. Using netnographic evidence on iPhone usage, this study suggests that innovative consumers adopt and use new technology for not just utilitarian but also for experiential outcomes. The study presents an interpretive analysis of the consumption behavior of very early iPhone users. Apple introduced iPhone as a revolutionary mobile handset offering integrated features and converged services—a handheld computer-cum-phone with a touch-screen web browser, a music player, an organizer, a note-taker, and a camera. This revolutionary product opened up new possibilities to meld functional tasks, hedonism, and social signaling. The study suggests that even utilitarian users have hedonic and social factors present in their consumption patterns.     

Brand communities based in social media: How unique are they? Evidence from two exemplary brand communities

Understanding how brands should operate on social media is very important for contemporary marketing researchers and managers. This paper argues that due to the social and networked nature of social media it is an ideal environment for brand communities. Taking a deep qualitative approach and with analysis of a vast array of data, the article articulates the existence of brand communities on social media. More importantly, it delineates five unique and relevant dimensions of brand communities based in social media. The authors advise researchers to consider these dimensions while conducting research on brand communities and social media. Further implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.