Laptop Computers in the Elementary Classroom: Authentic instruction with at‐risk students

This case study investigated the integration of laptop computers into an elementary classroom in a low socioeconomic status (SES) school. Specifically, the research examined classroom management techniques and aspects of authentic learning relative to the student projects and activities. A mixed methods approach included classroom observations, interviews with the teacher, interviews with the students, and analysis of student projects. The results provide insight regarding the benefits and challenges of integrating wireless technology in an elementary classroom with at‐risk students. In addition, the project resulted in a web site with sample lesson plans (including objectives, required materials, NETS competencies and extension activities), teacher reflections and training tips.

Les ordinateurs portables dans la classe élémentaire: un enseignement authentique avec des élèves ‘à risque’

La présente étude de cas porte sur l'intégration des ordinateurs portables dans une classe élémentaire d'une école pour enfants de milieux peu favorisés. La recherche a porté plus particulièrement sur les techniques de gestion de la classe et sur les aspects de l'apprentissage authentique qui sont liés aux projets et aux activités des élèves. L'approche mixte qui a été utilisée a comporté des observations de classes, des entretiens avec le professeur, des entretiens avec les élèves et l'analyse des projets de ces élèves. Les résultats fournissent un éclairage sur les avantages et les défis de l'intégration d'une technologie «sans fil» dans une classe élémentaire avec des élèves «à risque». Le projet a également abouti à un site Web comportant des plans de leçons (comprenant les objectifs,les matériaux requis,les compétences Réseau et les activités d'extension), les réflexions des professeurs et des «tuyaux» sur la formation.

Laptopcomputer im Grundschulunterricht: Authentische Anweisung für die Arbeit mit belasteten Schülern

Diese Fallstudie untersuchte die Integration von Laptopcomputern in den Grundschulunterricht einer Schule mit einem niedrigen sozioökonomischen Status (SES‐Schule). Insbesondere prüften die Wissenschaftler Unterrichtsmanagementtechniken und Aspekte authentischen Lernens in Bezug auf die Schülerprojekte und Aktivitäten. Ein Ansatz mit unterschiedlichen Methoden enthielt Beobachtungen im Klassenunterricht, Interviews mit dem Lehrer, Interviews mit den Schülern und Analysen von Schülerprojekten. Die Ergebnisse gewähren Einblicke in Nutzen und Chancen, drahtlose Techniken im Grundschulunterricht mit belasteten Schülern (‘at‐risk students') zu integrieren. Außerdem führte das Projekt zu einer Web‐Site mit beispielhaften Stundenplanungen (mit Angabe der Unterrichtsziele und der erforderlichen Materialien, NETS‐Kompetenzen und weiterführenden Aktivitäten), Reflexionen der Lehrer und Ratschlägen für Übungen.

Los ordenadores portatiles en aulas de primaria: una educación auténtica con alumnos de riesgo

Este estudio de caso se basa en una investigación sobre la integración de los ordenadores portátiles en una clase básica dentro de una escuela de bajo nivel socioeconómico. Más específicamente los investigadores examinarón las técnicas de administración del aula y los aspectos de aprendizaje auténtico relacionados con los proyectos y actividades de los alumnos. Con el enfoque sobre una metodología mixta, se pudo incluir observaciones de aulas, entrevistas con el maestro, entrevistas con los alumnos y un análisis de los proyectos de los alumnos. Los resultados ofrecen una comprensión de las ventajas y de los desafíos de la integración de una tecnología inalámbrica dentro de aulas de primaria con alumnos de riesgo. Otro resultado del proyecto fué la creación de un sitio web con ejemplos de planes de lecciones (incluyendo objetivos, materiales requeridos, competencias en redes y actividades de extensión) algunas reflecciones de profesores y informaciones sobre la formación.     

The Gendered Shaping of University Leadership in Australia,South Africa and the United Kingdom

This article analyses career trajectories into university management in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK), skills required to operate effectively and the power of vice‐chancellors (VCs) and their impact on the gendered shaping of university leadership. It is based on qualitative research with 56 male and female senior managers. The research found that the typical career path was modelled on male academic careers. Not surprisingly, in South Africa and the UK the perception of the top university leader was of a man but in Australia, where more women have been VCs, there was no such assumption. Characteristics valued in university leaders in Australia and South Africa were ‘soft’ leadership traits, but in the UK ‘hard’ aggressive and competitive leadership prevailed. VCs are enormously powerful and can shape the gender balance in management teams and thereby potentially broadening leadership styles beyond the predominant transactional model to include transformational leadership.     

“Doing things differently” and “striking while the iron was hot”: The entrepreneurial successes of the media magnate George Newnes, 1881–1910

George Newnes became one of the most influential popular publishers of the age of New Journalism, and was probably Britian’s first media magnate. He published a vast number and variety of journals in the period from 1881 until his death in 1910, editing some of these, but leaving an impression upon all of them. Newnes’s periodicals included Tit-Bits (1881), Strand Magazine (1891), The Million (1892), Westminster Gazette (1893), Country Life (1897), The Ladies Field (1898), Wide World Magazine (1898), The Captain (1899), and C.B. Fry’s Magazine (1904). Newnes was an innovator, and a publishing entrepreneur. This paper will focus on the entrepreneurial aspects of Newnes’s publishing ventures and the novel technological and promotional techniques pioneered by him. The analysis will focus upon such techniques as promotional schenesm advertising, production and illustration, the employment and promotion of popular authors, editors and illustrators, publicity, market segmentation, and financing. The concluding section consists of an investigation into some of the rhetoric that has been applied to Newnes’s publishing career, and the way in which, as publishing entrepreneur and media magnate, Newnes’s successes have been cast within a continuing debate over popular literature, New Journalism and the commercialization of the popular press in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Kate Jackson is currently completing a Ph.D. in History on “George Newnes, New Journalism and the Reading Publics, 1881–1910.”     

Diverse Expectations and Access to Opportunities: is there a Graduate Labour Market?

Restructuring of the labour market has led to changing demand for skills and concern about potential mismatch between needs of employers and competences developed in higher education courses. This paper extends analysis of the Great Expectations survey of UK final-year undergraduates in 1996 to explore the development of skills and competences in different disciplinary areas and the anticipated career trajectories of students. A detailed assessment is undertaken of the extent to which respondents appear prepared, both in terms of the employment-related skills they consider they have developed as undergraduates and in their expectations, for the changes which have taken place in the labour market in the latter part of the twentieth century. While findings from transitional early careers need to be interpreted cautiously, it does appear that expectations varied less than emerging outcomes for this cohort in the vanguard of mass higher education. Subject and gender differences in expectations and outcomes were significant and 'non-traditional' graduates were more likely than others to report that they were experiencing difficulties in the transition from education to employment. The graduates themselves had a flexible approach to the labour market but it seems that employers may have more inflexible recruitment graduate practices. Further research is required but there is clearly a danger that wider access may not lead to correspondingly wider career opportunities.     

Deriving word meanings from context: does explanation facilitate contextual analysis?

The ability to derive the meanings of words from supportive story contexts was studied in 45 7‐ to 8‐year‐olds. Children read short stories each containing a different novel word and defined the word at the end of each story. There were three intervention sessions. One group was asked to justify their definition and subsequently received feedback on its accuracy. A second group was given feedback first and asked to explain how the experimenter knew the correct answer. A third (control) received feedback only. In general, practice led to improved performance, with an increased number of children in all groups using the story context to derive meanings for the novel words in a post‐intervention test. Children in the two explanation groups made the greatest gains in definition accuracy. The implications for teaching vocabulary learning skills are discussed.     

Digi-teens: Media Literacies and Digital Technologies in the Secondary Classroom

This article explores the impact on learning of digital technologies and media practices across the secondary curriculum, with a particular emphasis on non-linear video editing in a specialist media technology school. It observes the making of a trailer for Psycho by a group of Year 11 girls, asking how the advent of this very new technology enables new kinds of reading of visual texts, as well as new kinds of textual production dependent upon new IT-based literacies. It suggests that we need to find an adequate language of the visual, and to understand how this relates to other ‘grammars’ and semiotic systems; to understand how these competencies are rooted in wide-ranging cultural allegiances and pleasures, embracing popular as well as ‘classic’ texts; and to understand the classroom as a site both of encounter with popular culture, and of increasingly professional audiovisual production.     

Years/Fears: From Artist to Teacher to Somewhere In-Between

As I began my first year of graduate school - admittedly, a shaky start of my own - a group of my former students began to struggle with their transition to high school. Upon hearing this from my friend, colleague, and their current theatre teacher (who I will call Ms. M), I developed a workshop curriculum focused upon health for the artist to facilitate for her company. Both the development of this curriculum and the facilitation of the workshop itself brought on an incredibly cathartic reflection of my own journey towards prioritizing health as an artist. This is the product of that, with the workshop materials I created interspersed for anyone who may wish to recreate a similar experience for their company - said Ms. M afterwards: “This should be taught every year to every high school and college theatre company - it is just SO important.” I hope you feel the same!