Time-lapse Video as a Self-Reflection Tool for Collaborative Learning Projects

For many disciplines, students are required to learn to work collaboratively in groups and to perform team-based activities such as brainstorming, collaborative problem solving, and cooperative decision-making. To support the learning of such team-based processes, many university courses require students to engage in short “group challenges.” These challenges often comprise in-class experiences in which students form small teams and attempt to solve a simulated problem of practice. Upon completion of the challenge, students are usually asked to reflect upon their experiences and to evaluate their group dynamics, their collective time management, and other factors that might have contributed to the success and/or failure of the team effort. A common problem is students, like most people, are generally poor at self-reflection and have a difficult time objectively assessing their personal behavior as well as the behavior of their group. To address this problem, time-lapse video has been employed as a novel pedagogical intervention for enhancing student reflection in group exercises. Under the protocol, groups were video taped using time-lapse technology that visually compresses time, for example compressing a sixty-minute work session into a sixty-second high-speed video. We postulated that by watching the high-speed video of their own collaborative efforts, the students would more readily recognize patterns of behavior they otherwise would have missed: becoming more insightful when assessing group dynamics, division of labor, time management, and the reasons for the success or failure of their collaborative effort. This paper describes our preliminary efforts to develop and test such a time-lapse video intervention for university-level group projects and describes initial observations regarding the effect of this intervention upon student reflections

The Administration and Supervision Program in the Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia

The Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the University of Virginia is designed to meet the demand for educational leaders who can combine vision and practice. It houses three integrated academic units: leadership; foundations; and policy. The leadership programs prepare leaders who are committed to social justice and formal education as a means of personal and civic improvement. Graduates of the programs go on to careers in school administration as well as university careers. Graduate students of the educational foundations programs learn concepts and skills related to research and evaluation, human development, learning and motivation, social and cultural contexts of education, multicultural education, new information technologies and education of gifted and talented students. They go on to careers in college teaching, research, instructional technology and administration. The policy studies programs are designed to help students understand and master the processes by which social, political and economic forces influence education policy. Graduates of these programs commonly assume positions in local, state and national or international agencies and organizations

Examining Variability in Superintendent Community Involvement

This study examined the extent to which four independent variables (age, gender, education level, and district type) accounted for variability in superintendent community involvement. Two covariates associated with levels of community involvement (disposition toward community involvement and district enrollment) were infused to assess the impact of the independent variables. Analysis revealed that the model accounted for 8% of the variance as indicated both by R2 and by adjusted R2. Given the number of respondents (1,867), this is considered a medium effect having practical implications in the applied setting. Among the four independent variables, only a single main effect (district type) was found

Novice Superintendents and the Efficacy of Professional Preparation

The preparation of superintendents is a critical component and essential element of systemic education reform. However, Cooper, Fusarelli, Jackson, and Poster (2002) remind us that, ―the process is rife with difficulties‖ (p. 242), including synchronization of preparation and actual practice, the theory-practice disconnect, the need for life-long learning, and development of an adequate knowledge base. In light of these complexities, two facts are especially noteworthy: The vast majority of research on the efficacy of administrator preparation programs has focused on the principalship (Kowalski, 2006b), and most doctoral programs in educational administration have de facto become preparation programs for superintendents, even though some contain little coursework specifically tailored for the position (Andrews & Grogan, 2002)

Singing the Same Tune: Principals\u27 and school board members\u27 perceptions of the superintendent\u27s role as instructional leader

Understanding the multifaceted roles and responsibilities of the district superintendent as an instructional leader has proved to be a long-standing and sometimes elusive endeavor. In spite of the consistency of research findings, instructional leadership remains one of the more controversial characteristics associated with the examination of the district superintendent. The findings reported here are part of a larger study on the role and responsibilities of the superintendent as an instructional leader. Specifically, this investigation examined the covariance between school principals\u27 and school board members\u27 views of the instructional leadership of the district superintendent. Results from this correlational and regression analysis empirically illustrate a statistically significant relationship between superintendent vision and the factors of organizational mission, program and personnel evaluation, principal decision-making and school board/community involvement. The findings also suggest that involvement of professional educators and members of the community in formulating instructional programs significantly affects the success of the district leader

Job Satisfaction of Female and Male Superintendents: The Influence of Job Facets and Contextual Variables as Potential Predictors

A descriptive multiple regression approach was used to assess the job satisfaction of female and male public school superintendents taking part in a decennial survey conducted by AASA. Self-reported job satisfaction of public school superintendents was regressed on their affective reactions to specific job facets (supervision, co-workers, and compensation) and to contextual variables (type of school district, legislative mandates, and funding sources) purported to influence their job satisfaction. Results indicate that female and male superintendents were found to be similarly satisfied with their current job assignment but for different reasons as revealed by interaction terms addressed in the regression analyses

A linearly chirped seed suppresses SBS in high-power fiber amplifiers, allows coherent combination, and enables long delivery fibers

When seeding a high power fiber amplifier with a frequency-chirped seed, the backward Brillouin scattering can be kept at the spontaneous level because the coherent laser/Stokes interaction is interrupted. Operating a conventional vertical cavity surface-emitting diode laser in an optoelectronic feedback loop can yield a linear frequency chirp of ~1016 Hz/s at a constant output power. The simple and deterministic variation of phase with time preserves temporal coherence, in the sense that it is straightforward to coherently combine multiple amplifiers despite a large length mismatch. The seed bandwidth as seen by the counter-propagating SBS is large, and also increases linearly with fiber length, resulting in a nearly-length-independent SBS threshold. Experimental results at the 600W level will be presented. The impact of a chirped seed on multimode instability is also addressed theoretically

Using a linearly chirped seed suppresses SBS in high-power fiber amplifiers, allows coherent combination, and enables long delivery fibers

When seeding a high power fiber amplifier with a frequency-chirped seed, the backward Brillouin scattering can be kept at the spontaneous level because the coherent laser/Stokes interaction is interrupted. Operating a conventional vertical cavity surface-emitting diode laser in an optoelectronic feedback loop can yield a linear frequency chirp of ~1016 Hz/s at a constant output power. The simple and deterministic variation of phase with time preserves temporal coherence, in the sense that it is straightforward to coherently combine multiple amplifiers despite a large length mismatch. The seed bandwidth as seen by the counter-propagating SBS is large, and also increases linearly with fiber length, resulting in a nearly-length-independent SBS threshold. Experimental results at the 600W level will be presented. The impact of a chirped seed on multimode instability is also addressed theoretically

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM): Unified Precipitation Estimation From Space

Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) is an international satellite mission that uses measurements from an advanced radar/radiometer system on a Core Observatory as reference standards to unify and advance precipitation estimates through a constellation of research and operational microwave sensors. GPM is a science mission focusing on a key component of the Earth's water and energy cycle, delivering near real-time observations of precipitation for monitoring severe weather events, freshwater resources, and other societal applications. This work presents the GPM mission design, together with descriptions of sensor characteristics, inter-satellite calibration, retrieval methodologies, ground validation activities, and societal applications