Adolescent gambling on the Internet: A review

Internet gambling is a relatively under-researched area. While our current knowledge remains in its infancy and the prevalence rates are relatively low, researchers and clinicians are predicting greater involvement among youth. A comprehensive search of the relevant literature was undertaken. The resulting relevant literature was classified into four areas. These were (a) the empirical studies on adolescent internet gambling, (b) online gambling-like experiences in adolescence, (c) adolescent gambling via social networking sites, and (d) adolescent gambling via online penny auction sites. Age verification in relation to prevention and regulation is also examined. It is concluded that young people appear to be very proficient in using and accessing new media and are likely to be increasingly exposed to remote gambling opportunities. These young people will therefore require education and guidance to enable them to cope with the challenges of convenience gambling in all its guises

Using massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) to support second language learning: Action research in the real and virtual world

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) create large virtual communities. Online gaming shows potential not just for entertaining, but also for education. The aim of this research project is to investigate the use of commercial MMORPGs to support second language teaching. MMORPGs offer a digital safe space in which students can communicate by using their target language with global players. This qualitative research based on ethnography and action research investigates the students’ experiences of language learning and performing while they play in the MMORPGs. Research was conducted in both the real and virtual worlds. In the real world the researcher observes the interaction with the MMORPGs by the students through actual discussion, and screen video captures while they are playing. In the virtual world, the researcher takes on the role of a character in the MMORPG enabling the researcher to get an inside point of view of the students and their own MMORPG characters. This latter approach also uses action research to allow the researcher to provide anonymous/private support to the students including in-game instruction, confidence building, and some support of language issues in a safe and friendly way. Using action research with MMORPGs in the real world facilitates a number of opportunities for learning and teaching including opportunities to practice language and individual and group experiences of communicating with other native/ second language speakers for the students. The researcher can also develop tutorial exercises and discussion for teaching plans based on the students’ experiences with the MMORPGs. The results from this research study demonstrate that MMORPGs offer a safe, fun, informal and effective learning space for supporting language teaching. Furthermore the use of MMORPGs help the students’ confidence in using their second language and provide additional benefits such as a better understanding of the culture and use of language in different contexts

The Arts and Technology: How Educational Technology Can Bring Humanities Further Into Elementary and Primary School Systems

As the world becomes more inclined to implement technology in nearly every aspect of society, the United States Department of Education must find a way to incorporate new styles of modern and high-tech teaching without pushing out certain subjects from its curriculum. I believe technology can be used to bring the Humanities further into the classroom. In today’s society American education programs are desperately trying to make up for subpar primary school scores in mathematics and science. According to the government accredited international education forum (the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) the United States was found to be below the OECD average in science ranking 25th, reading 24th and mathematics 41st (Businessinsider.com). With these mediocre scores the United States has been forced to take drastic measure in bolstering its primary education systems. While an added emphasis in elementary math and science curriculum is an obvious route, it seems that the removal or distancing from the arts and other social forms of education has also become part of the solution. While science, technology, engineering and math are all extremely important, the United States Department of Education should be able to recommend modernized approaches that incorporate art history, history, literature, art, music, philosophy and language. In our ever-changing high-tech world, the Humanities are needed in our classrooms to supply equality and perspective. The Humanities widen our thought process, build global understanding, assist in the formation of critical thinking skills, train individuals to communicate and share, bolster moral accountability and cultural sensitivity, support scientific advancements through unique societal perspectives, guide humanity towards a more rational and inclusive way of thinking, and create a well-balanced 21st century scholar. In today’s modern society it is more than reasonable to explore options that involve the intertwining of technology and the arts in our elementary school systems. It must also be mentioned, the goal of this paper is to in now way lessen or devalue the role of the instructor, rather, the research provided is aimed at highlighting certain types of technologies that can potentially assist primary and elementary educators who aspire to further incorporate the Humanities and its core philosophies into their curriculum

The eLIDA CAMEL model of collaborative partnership: a community of practice in design for learning

Using a communities of practice (CoP) e-learning model for collaborative partnership in Design for Learning (D4L) can facilitate successful innovation while enabling ongoing 'critical friend' appraisals of effective practice. This paper reports on 21 e-learning case studies collected by the JISC-funded UK eLIDA CAMEL Design for Learning Project. The project implemented and evaluated learning design (LD) tools in higher and further education within the JISC Design for Learning pedagogic e-learning programme in 2006-07. Project partners carried out user evaluations on innovative tools with a learning design functionality, collecting design for learning case studies and LD sequences in a range of post-16/HE contexts using LAMS and Moodle. The project brought together learning activity sequences from post-16/HE partners into a collaborative e-learning community of practice based on the CAMEL (Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e-Learning) model, contributing to international developments in design for learning. This paper briefly provides an overview of the key project outputs in terms of their contribution to e-learning innovations, including evaluation results from teachers and students using online surveys. The paper explores intentionality in the development of a community of practice in design for learning, reporting on trials of learning design and social software in bridging tensions between formalised intra-institutional e-learning relationships and inter-institutional project team dynamic D4L practitioner development. Following a brief report of practitioner D4L e-learning case studies and student feedback, the catalytic role of the 'critical friend' is highlighted and recommended as a key ingredient in the successful development of a nomadic model of communities of practice in the management of e-learning projects. eLIDA CAMEL Partners included the Association of Learning Technology (ALT), JISC infoNet, three universities and five FE/Sixth Form Colleges. Results reported to the UK JISC Experts' Pedagogy Group demonstrated e-learning innovations by practitioners in D4L case studies, illuminated by the role of the 'critical friend', Professor Mark Stiles of Staffordshire University. The project also benefited from case study evaluations by Dr Liz Masterman of Oxford University Learning Technologies Group and the leading work of ALT and JISC infoNet in the development of the CAMEL model

Born to Be Wild: The \u27Trans‐Systemic\u27 Programme at McGill and the De‐Nationalization of Legal Education

One of the major challenges legal education faces nowadays is that jurisdictional boundaries are losing significance in an internationalized, globalized and post-regulatory environment. This calls into question the very notion of “law” itself, at least as traditionally understood as a system of posited norms within a given jurisdiction, and the classic model of legal education based on such an understanding of law. While North American legal education has a longstanding tradition of self-reflection, the situation in Europe is different: there is little incentive for legal scholars to devote a considerable amount of time to a serious scholarly treatment of the issue of legal education. Whereas the challenge of internationalization, particularly in its emanation of “Europeanization,” has literally become omnipresent in legal discourse, legal education is still dominated by a traditionalist view of its primary goal: an almost exclusive focus on training lawyers (or judges) for the practice within the boundaries of a national jurisdiction. As a contribution to the debate on the challenges posed to the teaching of law we would like to offer the following brief analysis of the efforts made at the Faculty of Law of McGill University, situated in Québec, Canada to develop a new approach to the teaching of law. Ten years ago, in 1998, the Faculty undertook the effort to offer an integrated comparative three year curriculum, known as the McGill Programme, that teaches even first year introductory courses, such as Contracts and Torts, from a comparative perspective. The ultimate aspiration of this programme, however, is to transcend the fixation on the study of law as the study of “legal systems” - hence the label “trans-systemic” legal education

Born to Be Wild: The \u27Trans‐Systemic\u27 Programme at McGill and the De‐Nationalization of Legal Education

One of the major challenges legal education faces nowadays is that jurisdictional boundaries are losing significance in an internationalized, globalized and post-regulatory environment. This calls into question the very notion of “law” itself, at least as traditionally understood as a system of posited norms within a given jurisdiction, and the classic model of legal education based on such an understanding of law. While North American legal education has a longstanding tradition of self-reflection, the situation in Europe is different: there is little incentive for legal scholars to devote a considerable amount of time to a serious scholarly treatment of the issue of legal education. Whereas the challenge of internationalization, particularly in its emanation of “Europeanization,” has literally become omnipresent in legal discourse, legal education is still dominated by a traditionalist view of its primary goal: an almost exclusive focus on training lawyers (or judges) for the practice within the boundaries of a national jurisdiction. As a contribution to the debate on the challenges posed to the teaching of law we would like to offer the following brief analysis of the efforts made at the Faculty of Law of McGill University, situated in Québec, Canada to develop a new approach to the teaching of law. Ten years ago, in 1998, the Faculty undertook the effort to offer an integrated comparative three year curriculum, known as the McGill Programme, that teaches even first year introductory courses, such as Contracts and Torts, from a comparative perspective. The ultimate aspiration of this programme, however, is to transcend the fixation on the study of law as the study of “legal systems” - hence the label “trans-systemic” legal education

The changing physical education major curriculum in American and Canadian institutions of higher education

The purposes of this study were (1) to determine what changes have occurred in the physical education major curricula of the United States and Canada within the decade of the sixties: (2) to identify any trends which may be indicated by these changes; (3) to examine and analyze any trends identified; and (4) to provide a source of information for those who have responsibilities for the physical education major curriculum

Marketing in schools, commercialization and sustainability: policy disjunctures surrounding the commercialization of childhood and education for sustainable lifestyles in England

Capitalist expansion is predicated on consumption and growth driven by citizens following their individual preferences in the marketplace. To promote consumption and influence consumer wants and desire, propaganda is used to persuade citizens to purchase products using a wide and diverse range of techniques. In recent decades, this has involved an increase in the marketing of products and consumerist values to children through the education system and the broader media. This article argues that successive UK governments’ public policy in this area has been characterized by inaction, inertia and contradiction and that the resulting policy disjunctures are at variance with their public rhetoric about the commercialization of childhood and professed objectives regarding the promotion of environmental awareness and sustainable lifestyles in schools

Creativity Training for Future Engineers: Preliminary Results from an Educative Experience

Due in part to the increased pace of cultural and environmental change, as well as increased competition due to globalization, innovation is become one of the primary concerns of the 21st century. We present an academic course designed to develop cognitive abilities related to creativity within an engineering education context, based on a conceptual framework rooted in cognitive sciences. The course was held at \'Ecole Polytechnique de Montr\'eal (\'EPM), a world renowned engineering school and a pillar in Canada's engineering community. The course was offered twice in the 2014-2015 academic year and more than 30 students from the graduate and undergraduate programs participated. The course incorporated ten pedagogical strategies, including serious games, an observation book, individual and group projects, etc., that were expected to facilitate the development of cognitive abilities related to creativity such as encoding, and associative analytical thinking. The CEDA (Creative Engineering Design Assessment) test was used to measure the students' creativity at the beginning and at the end of the course. Field notes were taken after each of the 15 three-hour sessions to qualitatively document the educative intervention along the semester and students gave anonymous written feedback after completing the last session. Quantitative and qualitative results suggest that an increase in creativity is possible to obtain with a course designed to development cognitive abilities related to creativity. Also, students appreciated the course, found it relevant, and made important, meaningful learnings regarding the creative process, its cognitive mechanism and the approaches available to increase it.Comment: 10 page