Leadership: Honestly, It\u27s Not for Everyone

Editorial: Leadership is the acknowledgment that no one is an island; leaders are a piece of the collective, a part of the main, because they are involved in the same endeavors as those they hope to lead

Questioning Care in the Academic World

The arrival of COVID-19 has altered the world of academia in ways that we are only beginning to understand, just as it has reshaped and reconfigured expectations and enactments of care. As faculty navigate the seismic upheaval wrought by this pandemic, we question whether the semblance of care for faculty has disappeared from this new landscape

We don't have the liberty of being brainless: exploring pre-service teachers' use of weblogs for informal reflection

Pre-service teachers enter teacher education programs with a working practical theory formed from personal experience, knowledge and values. By engaging in reflective thinking, pre-service teachers reaffirm, reassess and recreate the practical theory that guides their actions and beliefs on teaching and learning. Weblogs, an emerging technology in teacher education, offer a new medium for reflective practice. This dissertation explores the tripartite elements of practical theory, reflective practice and weblogs as explored through a qualitative research study conducted in a secondary MAT program at a large southeastern university. Through the qualitative content analysis of weblog postings, focus group interviews and individual interviews, a grounded theory emerged to support weblogs as a forum for informal reflection. The research undertaken in this qualitative study reveals the positive potential of weblogs in pre-service teachers' reflective practice. The informality of weblogs, their accessibility through the Internet and their ability to support communal interactions on-line are positive features of weblogs. These features, in turn, support informal reflection, a component of reflective practice produced by the interaction of practical theory, flexible structure, personal expression and communal interaction. Informal reflection is not a substitute for the formal, hierarchical (and necessary) reflection frequently found in teacher education but a facet of the reflective process that, with further study, may prove to be a valuable component of reflective practice for pre-service and practicing teachers

Editorial: Implementing the Teacher Education Initiative

Representatives from ten specialty professional associations affiliated with the National Technology Leadership Coalition (NTLC) are collaborating with Microsoft Corporation to develop an innovative professional development opportunity for teacher educators—the Teacher Education Initiative (TEI). The goal of the initiative is to enhance preparation of future teachers to use technology in effective ways to teach students across grades and academic disciplines. This effort builds upon initiatives such as Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) and Microsoft’s Partners in Learning (PIL) program. The goals of TEI are described in more detail in a previously published overview, “Preparing Teachers for Tomorrow’s Technologies” (Dilworth et al., 2012). The current article describes planned implementation strategies designed to advance more effective integration of technology in teacher preparation. TEI is grounded in the framework of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK; referred to as technological pedagogical content knowledge in Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Representatives of teacher education associations from a number of academic disciplines have assumed responsibility for the development of teacher education resources for each discipline. Representatives from associations related to special education, instructional technology, and teacher education at large are developing resources for non-discipline-specific teacher educators. In order to facilitate a systematic, coordinated approach within each TEI college or university representatives from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) are developing related materials for the leaders of schools, colleges and departments of teacher education

Practitioner\u27s Guide to Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK): Rich Media Cases of Teacher Knowledge

The goal of the TPACK Practitioners Guide is simple--to offer exemplary cases of technology integration efforts that result in curriculum-based student learning in each of the following nine content areas and grade level contexts: Elementary Science, Elementary Math, Elementary Social Studies, Elementary Reading, Middle School Language Arts, Secondary Science, Secondary Math, Secondary Social Studies, and, Secondary English.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/book/1000/thumbnail.jp

Systems serology detects functionally distinct coronavirus antibody features in children and elderly

The hallmarks of COVID-19 are higher pathogenicity and mortality in the elderly compared to children. Examining baseline SARS-CoV-2 cross-reactive immunological responses, induced by circulating human coronaviruses (hCoVs), is needed to understand such divergent clinical outcomes. Here we show analysis of coronavirus antibody responses of pre-pandemic healthy children (n = 89), adults (n = 98), elderly (n = 57), and COVID-19 patients (n = 50) by systems serology. Moderate levels of cross-reactive, but non-neutralizing, SARS-CoV-2 antibodies are detected in pre-pandemic healthy individuals. SARS-CoV-2 antigen-specific Fcγ receptor binding accurately distinguishes COVID-19 patients from healthy individuals, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 infection induces qualitative changes to antibody Fc, enhancing Fcγ receptor engagement. Higher cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 IgA and IgG are observed in healthy elderly, while healthy children display elevated SARS-CoV-2 IgM, suggesting that children have fewer hCoV exposures, resulting in less-experienced but more polyreactive humoral immunity. Age-dependent analysis of COVID-19 patients, confirms elevated class-switched antibodies in elderly, while children have stronger Fc responses which we demonstrate are functionally different. These insights will inform COVID-19 vaccination strategies, improved serological diagnostics and therapeutics

Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in three children of parents with symptomatic COVID-19

Compared to adults, children with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have predominantly mild or asymptomatic infections, but the underlying immunological differences remain unclear. Here, we describe clinical features, virology, longitudinal cellular, and cytokine immune profile, SARS-CoV-2-specific serology and salivary antibody responses in a family of two parents with PCR-confirmed symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and their three children, who tested repeatedly SARS-CoV-2 PCR negative. Cellular immune profiles and cytokine responses of all children are similar to their parents at all timepoints. All family members have salivary anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detected, predominantly IgA, that coincide with symptom resolution in 3 of 4 symptomatic members. Plasma from both parents and one child have IgG antibody against the S1 protein and virus-neutralizing activity detected. Using a systems serology approach, we demonstrate higher levels of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody features of these family members compared to healthy controls. These data indicate that children can mount an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 without virological confirmation of infection, raising the possibility that immunity in children can prevent the establishment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Relying on routine virological and serological testing may not identify exposed children, with implications for epidemiological and clinical studies across the life-span