Exploring Slacktivism; Does The Social Observability of Online Charity Participation Act as a Mediator of Future Behavioural Intentions?

This study investigates whether the social observability of online charitable participation influences future interactions with the same charity. The rise of ‘slacktivism’ contributes to the significance of this study. ‘Slactivism’ comprises low-risk, low-cost, online activities, used to raise awareness, produce change, or primarily grant satisfaction to the person engaged in the activity. Contrasting views exist about slacktivism and the effectiveness of online activities such as social-media campaigns; as to whether they yield committed supporters or are merely a method used to enhance the participants’ social self-image. This study is unique in that it links together ideas about slacktivism and impression management. The study revealed that consumers are wising up to charity campaigns on social-media, with many questioning their effectiveness. The perception of others is important although most consumers are reluctant to admit it about themselves: social pressure plays a large role in the participation of slacktivism

Gratitude: Does it have a place within media-practice education?

Gratitude may be an important yet largely untapped aspect of media-practice education. This research uses an exploratory approach with media-practice academics and students in order to examine the evidence and nature of gratitude within media-practice education. Given the exploratory nature of the study, interim findings are reported. The research finds media-practice students to be open to gratitude having a place within their educational experiences, indeed students exclusively speak about situations in which they feel grateful, as positive aspects of their student experience. However academics see gratitude in a more varied way. For some, gratitude and its cyclical nature resonate; for others, gratitude is inappropriate and loaded with notions of power. These different perspectives may be partially explained by the different ways in which students and academics perceive gratitude. Whereas initial student voices suggest that gratitude is a positive emotion associated with a desire to reciprocate, academics’ interpretation seems to emphasise obligation. This mismatch may inhibit the current impact of gratitude within the media-practice learning context. The research suggests that gratitude may be a defining aspect of a functional, productive student experience which those working within media-practice education might usefully aim to generate

Looking at Catholic Schools\u27 Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Through the Lens of Catholic Social Teaching Principles

The current COVID-19 crisis has significantly impacted all teachers throughout the country, in particular, those teaching in urban schools. The urgent nature of this crisis has brought new challenges to urban Catholic school educators specifically, and their ability to enact and model Catholic Social Teachings which include; respect for the life and dignity of the human person, the call to care for family and community, solidarity in uniting the human community, the dignity of work and the rights of workers, providing persons with rights that ensure decent lives such as an education, preferential option for the poor, and care for all creation. Using critical theory and narrative analysis, this paper examines how 31 urban Catholic school teachers perceive and address the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning in their classrooms. Analysis of these teacher’s narratives illustrate how Catholic Social Teachings are foundational to their response to the current situation. The conceptual framework and methodology of the research, and findings are presented. A key aim of this paper is to provide some concrete examples of the current urban Catholic school landscape and practice recommendations for all teachers, particularly those working alongside marginalized communities

Looking at Catholic schools’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching Principles

The current COVID-19 crisis has significantly impacted all teachers throughout the country, in particular, those teaching in urban schools. The urgent nature of this crisis has brought new challenges to urban Catholic school educators specifically, and their ability to enact and model Catholic Social Teachings which include; respect for the life and dignity of the human person, the call to care for family and community, solidarity in uniting the human community, the dignity of work and the rights of workers, providing persons with rights that ensure decent lives such as an education, preferential option for the poor, and care for all creation. Using critical theory and narrative analysis, this paper examines how 31 urban Catholic school teachers perceive and address the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and learning in their classrooms. Analysis of these teacher’s narratives illustrate how Catholic Social Teachings are foundational to their response to the current situation. The conceptual framework and methodology of the research, and findings are presented. A key aim of this paper is to provide some concrete examples of the current urban Catholic school landscape and practice recommendations for all teachers, particularly those working alongside marginalized communities

How commitment influences students' conversations about higher education

Commitment and word-of-mouth communication are important relational ideas: commitment a central and defining aspect of relationships; word-of-mouth a key relational outcome. This research examines the relationship between commitment and word-of-mouth communication within the context of higher education. The study tests a new conceptual framework which explains the impact of students’ commitment on students’ intentions to emit word-of-mouth. It uses structural equation modelling to analyse data from undergraduate students studying at four UK HEIs. Interestingly whilst students feel stronger levels of affective commitment towards their university than towards their academic tutors, it is the affective commitment towards academics which has the greatest influence on students’ intentions to talk positively about their university experience. This research corroborates extant studies which articulate the importance of affective commitment as a driver of positive word-of-mouth, highlighting the critical contribution of affective commitment directed towards people. If Universities are looking to generate positive stories about the experiences they offer, then the relationships between students and academics are a likely determinant of success

Learning from the Success of MPI

The Message Passing Interface (MPI) has been extremely successful as a portable way to program high-performance parallel computers. This success has occurred in spite of the view of many that message passing is difficult and that other approaches, including automatic parallelization and directive-based parallelism, are easier to use. This paper argues that MPI has succeeded because it addresses all of the important issues in providing a parallel programming model.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

Lessons from the Field: Catholic School Educators and COVID-19

Teachers are regularly tasked with planning for long-term academic and formative goals for entire classes and individual students. This planning involves designing and developing effective routines, creating detailed lesson plans, and tracking authentic assessment of students. Skilled teachers are accustomed to predictable expectations and outcomes in the familiar contexts of classrooms; yet, COVID-19 undermined the ability of teachers to plan. Using a case study and narrative analysis approach, this paper examines how 32 urban Catholic school teachers experienced the transition to remote instruction. Data analysis produced a template broadly aligned with Rush et al’s (2014) framework for effective, emergency, online school professional development curriculum during an emergency. A key aim of this paper is to provide some concrete recommendations for school level crisis preparation planning, implementing online learning platforms, matching needs and resources, communicating with parents, and using social media during this pandemic

Lessons From the Field: Catholic School Educators and COVID-19

Teachers are regularly tasked with planning for long-term academic and formative goals for entire classes and individual students. This planning involves designing and developing effective routines, creating detailed lesson plans, and tracking authentic assessment of students. Skilled teachers are accustomed to predictable expectations and outcomes in the familiar contexts of classrooms; yet, COVID-19 undermined the ability of teachers to plan. Using a case study and narrative analysis approach, this paper examines how 32 urban Catholic school teachers experienced the transition to remote instruction. Data analysis produced a template broadly aligned with Rush et al’s (2014) framework for effective, emergency, online school professional development curriculum during an emergency. A key aim of this paper is to provide some concrete recommendations for school level crisis preparation planning, implementing online learning platforms, matching needs and resources, communicating with parents, and using social media during this pandemic

Educating Others: A Vocation Promoting Meaning, Purpose and the Universal Apostolic Preferences

Teaching as discerned vocation in urban Catholic schools has the potential to provide a far-reaching, integrative space for enacting the Universal Apostolic Preferences. This research explores the reflections of 31 novice teachers, enrolled in the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps (UCTC), a Jesuit university program in the northeast. This program supports the development and formation of novice teachers through graduate education, living in community, full-teaching responsibilities in an urban Catholic school, mentoring, coaching, and professional development. Teachers completed an online interview that elicited responses about what it means to lead a life of meaning and purpose and the factors that contribute to leading a life of meaning and purpose. Responses illustrated intentionality and planning with the aim of leading a life that was beyond-the self. Finally, the Universal Apostolic Preferences of “Walking with the Excluded” and “Journey with Youth to Create a Hope-filled Future” resonated in all responses. Findings suggest that teaching as discerned vocation in urban Catholic schools offers a far-reaching space for not only enacting integrative Universal Apostolic Preferences as teachers commit to taking up this work as vocation, but also serving as a model for evangelizing students, families, and communities to take up this work

Gratitude within ASEAN Higher Education: an exploratory study.

Gratitude can be a powerful mediating variable within relational exchanges, with the potential to drive important relational outcomes. The cultural characteristics of countries within the ASEAN region, suggest that relational exchanges which focus on reciprocity and thus gratitude may have a particularly important role to play. This study seeks to examine evidence of gratitude within students’ and academics’ experiences within four HEIs within Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. It examines the impact of gratitude on an important relational outcome, word-of-mouth communication. An understanding of the nature and evidence of gratitude amongst students has the potential to inform the development of strategies aimed to enhance word-of-mouth from students about their experiences of university within the ASEAN region