Assembling “Digital Literacies”: Contingent Pasts, Possible Futures

In this article, we examine the historical emergence of the concept of “digital literacy” in education to consider how key insights from its past might be of use in addressing the ethical and political challenges now being raised by connective media and mobile technologies. While contemporary uses of digital literacy are broadly associated with access, evaluation, curation, and production of information in digital environments, we trace the concept’s genealogy to a time before this tentative agreement was reached—when diverse scholarly lineages (e.g., computer literacy, information literacy, media literacy) were competing to shape the educational agenda for emerging communication technologies. Using assemblage theory, we map those meanings that have persisted in our present articulations of digital literacy, as well as those that were abandoned along the way. We demonstrate that our inherited conceptions of digital literacy have prioritized the interplay of users, devices, and content over earlier concerns about technical infrastructures and socio-economic relations. This legacy, we argue, contributes to digital literacy’s inadequacies in addressing contemporary dilemmas related to surveillance, control, and profit motives in connective environments. We propose a multidimensional framework for understanding digital literacies that works to reintegrate some of these earlier concerns and conclude by considering how such an orientation might open pathways for education research and practice

Tracing ‘21st Century Literacies’ in College and Career Ready State Standards: A Multi-State Scalar Analysis

This paper brings together resources of sociocultural literacy studies (Heath, 1983; Street, 1984; Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanic, 1999) and policy attribute analysis (Porter, Floden, Freeman, Schmidt, & Schwille, 1988) to examine how the meaning of “21st century skills/literacies” - as emphasized in recent college and career-readiness (CCR) standards - is framed and negotiated across state and district scales

Year 1 State Report: Ohio

This report examines how the state of Ohio approached college- and career-ready standards implementation during a time of transition, as they revised the Ohio Learning Standards in 2015–2016. The approval process will take place in 2016–2017, with new materials and revised standards ready for the 2017–2018 school year. For the purposes of this report and in keeping with C-SAIL’s focus, the authors concentrate on implementation of Ohio’s English language arts (ELA) and math standards

Year 1 State Report: Massachusetts

This report examines how the state of Massachusetts approached college- and career-ready standards implementation during a time of transition, as it develops the Next-Generation Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or the “Next-Gen MCAS,” in 2015–2016. The transition will take place in 2016–2017, with full implementation of the next-generation assessment by the spring of 2017. For the purposes of this report and in keeping with C-SAIL’s focus, the authors concentrate on implementation of Massachusetts’ English language arts (ELA) and math standards

Year 1 State Report: Kentucky

This report examines how the state of Kentucky approached college- and career-ready standards implementation during a time of transition. As their state legislature mandates a review of the standards and accountability system every six years, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is in the midst of drafting potential revisions for public review and official implementation by summer 2017. For the purposes of this report and in keeping with C-SAIL’s focus, the authors concentrate on implementation of Kentucky’s English language arts (ELA) and math standards

Year 1 State Report: Texas

This report examines how the state of Texas approached college- and career-ready standards implementation during a time of transition. The state has recently implemented revisions to the math standards and is currently revising the English language arts (ELA) standards. The revised ELA standards are expected to be ready for full implementation in the 2018–2019 school year. For the purposes of this report and in keeping with C-SAIL’s focus, the authors concentrate on implementation of Texas’s ELA and math standards

Educação midiática e os limites da “alfabetização”: orientações ecológicas para plataformas performativas

Recentemente, o debate sobre as “fake news” – e a sua relação com crises epistêmicas mais amplas, do negacionismo climático até o avanço do etnonacionalismo global, renovou a atenção ao letramento midiático na educação. Para alguns, discussões reavivadas sobre letramento midiático oferecem proteção (por exemplo, estratégias para identificar e criticar o viés midiático e a desinformação). Para outros, oferecem empoderamento (por exemplo, equipando os jovens para produzirem mensagens midiáticas que desafiem a desinformação ou representem perspectivas marginalizadas). Neste artigo, consideramos como tais abordagens, embora muitas vezes gerativas, mantêm um foco da pedagogia midiática que centraliza as ações dos seres humanos individuais – a saber, “letramentos”, ou práticas associadas à interpretação ou criação de textos midiáticos. Recently, talk of “fake news” – and its relation to wider epistemic crises, from climate denialism to the creep of global ethnonationalism – has renewed attention to media literacy in education. For some, revived discussions of media literacy offer protection (e.g., strategies for identifying and critiquing media bias and misinformation). For others, they offer empowerment (e.g. equipping youth to produce media messages that challenge misinformation or represent marginalized perspectives). In this article, we consider how such approaches, while often generative, retain a focus of media pedagogy that centers the actions of individual humans – namely, “literacies”, or practices associated with the interpretation or creation of media texts

A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase II Trial Investigating the Safety and Immunogenicity of Modified Vaccinia Ankara Smallpox Vaccine (MVA-BN\u3csup\u3e®\u3c/sup\u3e) in 56-80-Year-Old Subjects

Background Modified Vaccinia Ankara MVA-BN® is a live, highly attenuated, viral vaccine under advanced development as a non-replicating smallpox vaccine. In this Phase II trial, the safety and immunogenicity of Modified Vaccinia Ankara MVA-BN® (MVA) was assessed in a 56–80 years old population. Methods MVA with a virus titer of 1 x 108 TCID50/dose was administered via subcutaneous injection to 56–80 year old vaccinia-experienced subjects (N = 120). Subjects received either two injections of MVA (MM group) or one injection of Placebo and one injection of MVA (PM group) four weeks apart. Safety was evaluated by assessment of adverse events (AE), focused physical exams, electrocardiogram recordings and safety laboratories. Solicited AEs consisted of a set of pre-defined expected local reactions (erythema, swelling, pain, pruritus, and induration) and systemic symptoms (body temperature, headache, myalgia, nausea and fatigue) and were recorded on a memory aid for an 8-day period following each injection. The immunogenicity of the vaccine was evaluated in terms of humoral immune responses measured with a vaccinia-specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT) before and at different time points after vaccination. Results Vaccinations were well tolerated by all subjects. No serious adverse event related to MVA and no case of myopericarditis was reported. The overall incidence of unsolicited AEs was similar in both groups. For both groups immunogenicity responses two weeks after the final vaccination (i.e. Visit 4) were as follows: Seroconversion (SC) rates (doubling of titers from baseline) in vaccine specific antibody titers measured by ELISA were 83.3% in Group MM and 82.8% in Group PM (difference 0.6% with 95% exact CI [-13.8%, 15.0%]), and 90.0% for Group MM and 77.6% for Group PM measured by PRNT (difference 12.4% with 95% CI of [-1.1%, 27.0%]). Geometric mean titers (GMT) measured by ELISA two weeks after the final vaccination for Group MM were 804.1 and 605.8 for Group PM (with ratio of GMTs of 1.33 with 95% CI of [0.96, 1.84]). Similarly, GMTs measured by PRNT were 210.3 for Group MM and 126.7 for Group PM (with ratio 1.66 and 95% CI [0.95, 2.90]). Conclusions One or two doses of MVA were safe and immunogenic in a 56–80 years old vaccinia-experienced population. No cases of myopericarditis were observed following vaccinations with MVA. The safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity were similar to that seen in younger (18–55 year old) healthy populations as investigated in other MVA trials. The results suggest that a single dose of MVA in a 56–80 years old population was well tolerated and sufficient to rapidly boost the long-term B cell memory response induced by a prior vaccination with a traditional smallpox vaccine. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00857493

Jupiter’s auroras during the Juno approach phase as observed by the Hubble Space Telescope

We present movies of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of Jupiter’s FUV auroras observed during the Juno approach phase and first capture orbit, and compare with Juno observations of the interplanetary medium near Jupiter and inside the magnetosphere. Jupiter’s FUV auroras indicate the nature of the dynamic processes occurring in Jupiter’s magnetosphere, and the approach phase provided a unique opportunity to obtain a full set of interplanetary data near to Jupiter at the time of a program of HST observations, along with the first simultaneous with Juno observations inside the magnetosphere. The overall goal was to determine the nature of the solar wind effect on Jupiter’s magnetosphere. HST observations were obtained with typically 1 orbit per day over three intervals: 16 May – 7 June, 22-30 June and 11-18 July, i.e. while Juno was in the solar wind, around the bow shock and magnetosphere crossings, and in the mid-latitude middle-outer magnetospheres. We show that these intervals are characterised by particularly dynamic polar auroras, and significant variations in the auroral power output caused by e.g. dawn storms, intense main emission and poleward forms. We compare the variation of these features with Juno observations of interplanetary compression regions and the magnetospheric environment during the intervals of these observations