Dialectical Spaces in the Global Public Sphere: Media Memories across Generations

A decade ago, CNN and MTV emerged as new types of 'global' players, initiating and supporting a new global transnational community of 'news junkies' and music cultures from New York, to Tokyo, to Buenos Aires and Los Angeles. Today, access to international news is not only available in many countries around the world, but international channels have multiplied and created 'imagined communities' (Anderson, 1983), affecting new political alliances, conventional journalism and - increasingly - national public spheres. The following research report will discuss new issues of globalization and focus on the impact of media-related globalization processes on 'life-worlds' in various countries

A Comparative Study of Presentational Formats

As early as 1970, Ivan Illich predicted that in the future, there would be a move towards ‘deschooling society’. At the outset of the new millennium, explosion in the production of information ignited a need for the shift from the significance of having ‘what’ to ‘what to do’ with the information. Indeed, developments in communication technologies not only facilitated and expedited reaching information but also enabled and ensured learning outside the schools - lifelong learning. After schooling, adults learn most of what they know from the media. The present paper challenges the adaptation of technology by media for raising awareness and learning the current issues and suggests that technology, indeed, should be used in media and education, however, after being challenged. This study challenges the use of technology for receiving information. It presents the results of bicommunal research conducted in Cyprus upon the already existing and suggested presentational formats. The present study sets out to explore attitude of the tertiary students towards already existing and alternative media sources used for receiving the news. It is suggested that rather than adopting ‘what is given’ by the technology, if media education challenges and suggests new forms for presentation of the information, this will facilitate learning, particularly learning from the media, which is the main source of information for masses after formal schooling

Communication technology and education

Probably as far back as people can remember, education has drawn on communication technologies, either to teach students how to use them effectively or to make use of those technologies in the educational process itself. In the former instance, the educational sector typically follows a cultural valuation that regards a given technology as so essential that people cannot leave its use or teaching to chance—reading and writing provide the clearest examples here, with schools teaching both the mechanics of writing and reading (forming or deciphering letters, spelling properly, adhering to a common grammar, and so on) and the composition of texts, arguments, expositions, explanations, essays, etc. In the latter instance, schools use communication technology to provide information or to connect with their students: again, books provide an historical example as does educational television more recently. A great deal of existing research in pedagogy, learning theory, and classroom management examines how learning with technology occurs and how to measure its impact (Jonassen, 2004). Similarly, a great deal of writing addresses the practical issues of making the best use of communication in or for the classroom. This review will not address the learning theory or the pedagogy, except indirectly as it appears in other studies; it will focus instead specifically on the communication technology—a very wide field— and how educators incorporate the various means of communication in the schooling of a younger generation. These typically occur in two ways: distance education and supplemental education. Distance education refers to the use of communication technology to reach students who cannot or do not physically attend a school. Supplemental education refers to the use of communication technology to supplement face-toface or in-school programs. Looking at the recent past (the last 10 years or so), this review will examine published studies discussing communication in or for schools as well as some more accessible online materials describing current work.

Activating Parents’ Persuasion Knowledge in Children’s Advergames: Testing the Effects of Advertising Disclosures and Cognitive Load

This study focused on parents of children between the ages of 7 to 11 and their ability to recognize and understand a children’s advergame as advertising. Using the theoretical framework of the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this study experimentally tested the effects of advertising disclosures and cognitive load on parents’ activation of persuasion knowledge in children’s advergames and parents’ attitudes toward children’s advergames. In addition, this study examined how parents’ individual trait differences in persuasion knowledge and mediation of their children’s Internet use potentially influenced their persuasion knowledge in children’s advergames as well as their attitudes toward them. By conducting an online experiment (N = 202), the study revealed that: a) parents exposed to a single modality advertising disclosure reported significantly more selling and persuasion knowledge of children’s advergames compared to parents exposed to an advergame without an advertising disclosure; b) parents that experienced high(er) levels of cognitive load reported significantly less selling and persuasion knowledge of children’s advergames compared to parents that experienced low(er) levels of cognitive load; c) parents’ exposed to the dual modality advertising disclosure condition reported significantly less negative perceptions of children’s advergames compared to parents who were exposed to no advertising disclosure; c) as parents reported higher levels of trait persuasion knowledge, their associated reports of selling and persuasion knowledge within children’s advergames were lower. In addition to implications for prior and future applications of persuasion knowledge theory, managerial and practitioner implications are also provided

An investigation of family literacy practices of eight families with preprimary children and a family literacy program conducted in a low socio-economic area

Study of the research literature showed that literacy skills are socialised in young children along with their learning of oral language. This socialisation process occurs within a child\u27s home environment long before they enter formal schooling. Family literacy has been shown to have the potential to impact powerfully on children\u27s perceptions about literacy use through role models and support provided by various family and community members. Literacy activity is often deeply embedded in daily family practices. For some children, differences between home and school literacy practices can occur. Where this mismatch occurs for children in low socio economic homes the problems associated can be compounded. In the present study a formative experimental design was used to investigate and describe some of the literacy practices of eight families living in a low socio-economic environment as identified by the parents of children attending a preprimary centre. Some family literacy programs designed to reduce the effect of the literacy mismatch between home and school have been found, in research literature, to be unsuitable for certain communities because of their inability to address the needs of individual families. The present study reports on the results of a family literacy program jointly planned by the teacher/researcher and parents of eight families from a low socio-economic community. It describes the nature of the family literacy program and the perceptions of the program held by the eight participants. Issues arising from this family literacy program design are highlighted and some implications for educational practice and further research are presented

Electronic Information in School Libraries

Microcomputers have progressed from toys to tools in managing school libraries. Equipment inventory, circulation, online catalogs, acquisitions, and serials management/check-in have all been affected. In addition, high technology has presented new possibilities for educating young people, and school librarians are faced with a role change as they rise to meet this challenge.published or submitted for publicatio