Design effectiveness analysis of a media literacy intervention to reduce violent video games consumption among adolescents: The relevance of lifestyle segmentation

Rivera, R. et al., Design effectiveness analysis of a media literacy intervention to reduce violent video games consumption among adolescents, Evaluation Review (40.2) pp. 142-161. Copyright © 2016 (The Authors). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.Exposure to media violence might have detrimental effects on psychological adjustment and is associated with aggression-related attitudes and behaviors. As a result, many media literacy programs were implemented to tackle that major public health issue. However, there is little evidence about their effectiveness. Evaluating design effectiveness, particularly regarding targeting process, would prevent adverse effects and improve the evaluation of evidence-based media literacy programs. Objectives: The present research examined whether or not different relational lifestyles may explain the different effects of an antiviolence intervention program. Research design: Based on relational and lifestyles theory, the authors designed a randomized controlled trial and applied an analysis of variance 2 (treatment: experimental vs. control) OE 4 (lifestyle classes emerged from data using latent class analysis: communicative vs. autonomous vs. meta-reflexive vs. fractured). Subjects: Seven hundred and thirty-five Italian students distributed in 47 classes participated anonymously in the research (51.3% females). Measures: Participants completed a lifestyle questionnaire as well as their attitudes and behavioral intentions as the dependent measures. Results: The results indicated that the program was effective in changing adolescents' attitudes toward violence. However, behavioral intentions toward consumption of violent video games were moderated by lifestyles. Those with communicative relational lifestyles showed fewer intentions to consume violent video games, while a boomerang effect was found among participants with problematic lifestyles. Conclusion: Adolescents' lifestyles played an important role in influencing the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at changing behavioral intentions toward the consumption of violent video games. For that reason, audience lifestyle segmentation analysis should be considered an essential technique for designing, evaluating, and improving media literacy programsThe author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the European Union (Grant number JUST/2010/DAP3/AG/1111-30-CE-0397890/00-02) and Intermedia Consulting A.C. (Grant number SSM2011-2013

Teachers’ use of ICTs in Colombia

This research aims to identify the technological profile that teachers demonstrate in their educational practices and to detect the factors that could affect levels of thinking skills developed by them with the mediation of technology. It is a correlational-explanatory research, based on 1,447 surveys to teachers from all education areas in primary, secondary and middle-levels from the Atlantic Department in Colombia. The results show a set of variables that affect how teachers surveyed take advantage of ICT in their daily routines, for example it is important to encourage active collaboration between teachers, it is necessary to impulse the active participation in virtual communities and it is essential to stimulate the frequent use of the equipment and resources available ICT in educational institutions where teachers surveyed work. In this sense, the data shown allow highlighting, among other things, that to increase the skills and competencies of teachers it is indispensable opening debates related to the development and promotion of educational activities to help the substantive use of ICT among this group.Esta investigación tiene por objeto determinar el perfil tecnológico que los docentes demuestran en sus prácticas educativas, así como identificar el conjunto de factores que inciden en los niveles de habilidades de pensamiento que desarrollan los docentes con la mediación de la tecnología. Se parte de una investigación de carácter correlacional-explicativa, apoyada en 1447 encuestas a docentes de todas las áreas formativas a nivel de educación básica primaria, básica secundaria y media vocacional del Departamento del Atlántico en Colombia. Los resultados permiten establecer un conjunto de variables que inciden en el nivel de aprovechamiento de las TIC en docentes encuestados, por ejemplo la necesidad de incentivar la colaboración activa entre docentes, la participación en comunidades virtuales y el uso frecuente de los equipos y recursos TIC disponibles en las instituciones educativas donde trabajan los docentes encuestados. Los datos mostrados nos permiten remarcar, entre otras cosas, que para que se produzca un aumento de las capacidades y competencias de los docentes se hace necesaria la apertura de escenarios de difusión de debates relacionados con el desarrollo y promoción de acciones pedagógicas que ayuden al uso sustantivo de las TIC entre este colectivo

Can Silvoarable Systems Maintain Yield, Resilience, and Diversity in the Face of Changing Environments?

UMR SYSTEM : équipe AMPLUSInternational audienceThis chapter discusses biophysical processes that explain the ability of silvoarable agroforestry systems to maintain agricultural yields while providing a range of ecosystem services. Silvoarable systems are very flexible, and many management practices can be used within them by farmers to sustain crop yields for as long as possible. These include the choice of tree and crop species, tree row orientation, tree row spacing, tree-thinning regimes, tree-pruning intensity, hedging of canopies, soil cultivation methods, and cover cropping. Tree roots do compete with crops, but they can also provide a “safety net” under crops to intercept nutrients and form symbioses with N-fixing or mycorrhizal organisms. Trees share light, water, and nutrients with crops, but competition can be minimized by ensuring increased resource use efficiency of the whole system. Trees increase the water-holding capacity of agricultural soils and contribute to the reduction and management of floodwaters. They influence climate at micro, meso, and macro scales and provide opportunities for climate change mitigation and adaption. At some silvoarable spacings, the arable crops will have to be replaced for the latter part of the tree rotation with pasture. These silvoarable systems then become silvopastoral (or agro-silvi-pastoral) in nature, and they are best suited to areas where mixed farming exists or can be reintroduced. The chapter's emphasis is primarily on temperate regions