Beyond Being Social: Prospects for Transformative Social Computing

An important analytical lens for considering future trajectories and research issues for social computing is the perspective of positive design, that is, the perspective that asks how collaborative technologies like wikis, e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, microblogging, tagging, social bookmarking, collaborative filtering, social networking services, and online communities of various sorts could support social endeavor in ways never before possible, how they can strengthen the extant strengths of human social interaction. This perspective contrasts with the approach of investigating how inherent limitations of collaborative technology can be ameliorated. This article describes recent design work addressing the challenge of supporting activity awareness in new ways with social computing technologies

Google Earth in the Middle School Geography Classroom: Its Impact on Spatial Literacy and Place Geography Understanding of Students

Success in today\u27s globalized, multi-dimensional, and connected world requires individuals to have a variety of skill sets – i.e. oracy, numeracy, literacy, as well as the ability to think spatially. Student\u27s spatial literacy, based on various national and international assessment results, indicates that even though there have been gains in U.S. scores over the past decade, overall performance, including those specific to spatial skills, are still below proficiency. Existing studies focused on the potential of virtual learning environment technology to reach students in a variety of academic areas, but a need still exists to study specifically the phenomenon of using Google Earth as a potentially more useful pedagogical tool to develop spatial literacy than the currently employed methods. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which graphicacy achievement scores of students who were immersed in a Google Earth environment were different from students who were provided with only two-dimensional instruction for developing spatial skills. Situated learning theory and the work of Piaget and Inhelder\u27s Child\u27s Conception of Space provided the theoretical grounding from which this study evolved. The National Research Council\u27s call to develop spatial literacy, as seen in Learning to Think Spatially , provided the impetus to begin research. The target population (N = 84) for this study consisted of eighth grade geography students at an upper Midwest Jr. High School during the 2009-2010 academic year. Students were assigned to the control or experimental group based on when they had geography class. Control group students ( n = 44) used two-dimensional PowerPoint images to complete activities, while experimental group students (n = 40) were immersed in the three-dimensional Google Earth world for activity completion. Research data was then compiled and statistically analyzed to answer five research questions developed for this study. One-way ANOVAs were run on data collected and no statistically significant difference was found between the control and experimental group. However, two of the five research questions yielded practically significant data that indicates students who used Google Earth outperformed their counterparts who used PowerPoint on pattern prediction and spatial relationship understanding

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Development, Implementation, and Sustainability of a Safe Infant Sleep Education Campaign in Springfield, MA

This dissertation was a collaborative, community-engaged research project with a local community based organization, Project Baby Springfield, specifically addressing a two-year period from 2012-2013 when the organization designed, developed, and implemented a bilingual safe infant sleep education campaign in the City of Springfield, MA. This dissertation draws upon two theoretical perspectives: Critical Medical Anthropology and Critical Race Theory. It also employs a mixed methods approach drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data including: state and citywide statistics provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, anonymous safe infant sleep surveys and focus groups among parents and grandparents, individual interviews, and participant observation. Throughout each stage of the research process, I worked closely with Project Baby Springfield team members in addition to mentoring and training four undergraduate interns from different social science disciplines who were involved at different stages of the project. In the end, the team collaboratively designed and implemented a public health intervention project in order to address safe infant sleep through a bilingual education campaign that utilized social media and direct educational outreach within the Springfield community. The project sought to highlight issues such as racism and poverty with the overall goal of decreasing the overall infant mortality rates connected to unsafe sleep through empowering women and men within their own lives as mothers, fathers, grandparents, caregivers, and community members. This dissertation argues that one of the central reasons why parents and grandparents make certain choices about how and where their infant or grandchild will sleep are deeply rooted in the care for, concern about, and safety of the infant. This is supported in the scholarly literature, and remains significant as it stands in opposition to the racially coded messages within the larger societal and political narrative that have constructed Black, Brown, and poor people as unfit parents. Furthermore, this dissertation argues that the racial inequity elucidated in the African American infant death rate is directly relevant to the current social and political climate surrounding the issues of racial justice and human rights in the United States. I demonstrate that this issue aligns itself with the current Black Lives Matter movement and is an essential and necessary part of the conversation arguing that connections can then be made regarding the impact of racism on Black life not only in the womb and infancy, but throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

Student Expressions of Aesthetic Learning Experiences

Aesthetic learning experiences are grounded in qualities influenced by the arts: perceptive, sensorial, imaginative, and creative. While the concept of aesthetic experience has been applied broadly within education, student expressions of such experiences have been neglected. This poses a problem of equity both ethically in that the suppression of student voice is perpetuated and pragmatically in that the range and form of aesthetic learning expressed by students is insufficiently attended to and acted upon. Theoretically guided by John Dewey’s explications of an aesthetic experience and conceptually supported by three interpretive frames—Eisner’s dimensions of schooling, Uhrmacher et al.’s instructional arc, and Uhrmacher’s aesthetic themes of education—this research qualitatively explored K-8 student expressions of aesthetic learning experiences at one rural school in the western U.S. via the following research question: What are student expressions of aesthetic learning experiences? Additionally, I addressed three sub-questions: 1) What are the teacher’s intentions in creating conditions for aesthetic learning experiences?, 2) How are these intentions enacted in the classroom?, and 3) How do students respond to aesthetic learning experiences—that is, what do students say, do, and create? My research employed an educational criticism and connoisseurship approach to perceive, disclose, and appraise qualities inherent in student aesthetic learning experiences through three sources of data: classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and curricular, pedagogical, visual, and community artifacts. The findings from this inquiry suggest that student expressions of aesthetic learning experiences materialized across three focal points—music, place, and composition—and were influenced by the teacher’s intentions to cultivate a love of learning within her students. From these findings, I consider four anticipatory frameworks and their implications for diverse contexts: savoring inefficiency, constructing ordinary imaginaries, sense-making and space-making in the curriculum, and becoming in place with others

A Thought of Legal Research with Examples and Demonstrations

The policy makers or lawyers may face the need of legal research for reasons. The congressmen may plan to make new laws to address the challenges of their constituent or to the interest of nation. The lawyers may need to serve their clients who like to know the legal issues involved, the strategies to deal with their loss and recovery, and prospect for winning the case if the dispute has gotten worse. The lawyers may practice in a solo business or might work as an associate lawyer in the law firms. A senior lawyer or partner in some cases may like to exploit the junior work force about the problems or grievances from the potential clients. Since he needs to focus their attention on other matters, such as the business expansion of his law firm or more lucrative cases in need of career hands, he may tap the junior lawyer for the legal research, who could assist with the basis of his final legal opinion. The memorandum, opinion letter and brief would be such forms of professional communication for the lawyers and legal researchers. The congressman also can be supplemented with the aid of staffs in terms of his legal expertise and grasp of the issues standing for carrying their responsibility more effectively. For the lawyers and legal researchers, the structure of state and federal legal system is the kind of important variants to orient their work direction and basic frame for the most efficient and adequate scope of search and analysis. The paradigm change also is revolutionary to impact the general base of people. Decades ago, the research or researcher only related with the class of professionals, such as professors, lawyers, career officers and cadres of enterprises. They would enjoy insulation and exploit their research work as an entrance barrier from lay people. Their large shelves at home study or in the room or corner of office thrust an impression that he or she is learned and knowledgeable. This impliedly communicates his or her prestige of social or professional success. The books and articles seem to symbolize a kind of monopoly which bears to exclude unclassified or non-professional workers. The change is remarkable that every citizen could benefit from the on-line sources of information, which, of course, is generally true of professional knowledge. Now professors fear of plagiarism that students often are the kind of suspect. The legal research would turn on the help of digitization which revolutionizes to incur a new mode of research operation. About the query, the citizens and people can readily verify its truth or falsity with one clique within the personal computer. An enormous amount of information is currently flowing on the internet and on-line sources of reference, which shapes an informative and knowledgeable society. As the medical doctors warned decades ago, the precept is any most effective, “forbear from your intelligence or knowledge work for your health.” Many of them now spend long hours a day to satisfy their curiosity and intelligent search. He or she may be well awarded an academic degree if to recognize their hard work on his PC. Nevertheless, this information age does not always bring a positive progress, which arouses the kind of issues, say, right of privacy, on-line fraud. In some cases, this transformation may lead to an inferior attitude of researcher. My today’s experience is one of exotic case. I have received an e-mail from Google CEO stating that I have been selected as one of twelve winners from the pool of Google users. The award money is enormous which stalls me for some time. The authenticity and reliability have hit my head, and I utilized a verification service website managed by the team of lawyers. It costs five dollars and remaining 24 dollars would be processed upon the progress of interaction. I am waiting for an answer from the team. Then the research nowadays is not limited to the basic context of our subsistence, but influences in any depth into the professional lives

Learning transfer of geospatial technologies in secondary science and mathematics core areas

The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of geospatial technology knowledge and skill presented in a social sciences course context to other core areas of the curriculum. Specifically, this study explored the transfer of geospatial technology knowledge and skill to the STEM-related core areas of science and mathematics among ninth-grade students. Haskell\u27s (2001) research on levels of transfer provided the theoretical framework for this study, which sought to demonstrate the experimental group\u27s higher ability to transfer geospatial skills, higher mean assignment scores, higher post-test scores, higher geospatial skill application and deeper levels of transfer application than the control group. The participants of the study consisted of thirty ninth-graders enrolled in U.S. History, Earth Science and Integrated Mathematics 1 courses. The primary investigator of this study had no previous classroom experiences with this group of students. The participants who were enrolled in the school\u27s existing two-section class configuration were assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group had ready access to Macintosh MacBook laptop computers, and the control group had ready access to Macintosh iPads. All participants in U.S. History received instruction with and were required to use ArcGIS Explorer Online during a Westward Expansion project. All participants were given the ArcGIS Explorer Online content assessment following the completion of the U.S. History project. Once the project in U.S. History was completed, Earth Science and Integrated Mathematics 1 began units of instruction beginning with a multiple-choice content pre-test created by the classroom teachers. Experimental participants received instruction with ArcGIS Explorer Online and were required to use ArcGIS Explorer Online with the class project. Control group participants received the same unit of instruction without the use or influence of ArcGIS Explorer Online. At the end of the Earth Science and Integrated Math 1 units, the same multiple-choice test was administered as the content post-test. Following the completion of Earth Science and Integrated Math 1 post-tests, both the experimental and control groups were given geospatial technologies questionnaires. The experimental group\u27s questionnaire asked participants how they used points, the measure tool, and base maps of ArcGIS Explorer Online, while the control group\u27s questionnaire asked participants how they could have used points, the measure tool, and base maps of ArcGIS Explorer Online. The ordinal data gleaned from the questionnaire rubric was analyzed by using the Chi-square statistic. The results showed no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups. However, the modest gain in transfer ability among experimental participants is encouraging. Future research using bigger samples and conducted over longer periods of time in more than one school would contribute greatly to the new and important field of geospatial technology and transfer skills