Information literacy skills for preservice teachers: do they transfer to K-12 classrooms?

This study surveyed current education majors (n=70) in two Kansas universities to gain a perspective on their understanding of Information Literacy (IL) concepts and skills and to learn whether they anticipated teaching such concepts to their future K‐12 students. School Media Specialists in the state were also surveyed (n=85) and asked to share their observations of teachers new to the profession as to their understanding and practice of IL. Results indicate many education students were not familiar with IL concept terminology and at least some new teachers in the state do not have a clear understanding or priority for teaching such skills in K‐12 classrooms

Signs of Life

A site-specific installation and PDF publication made in response to the abandoned site of St Clements Psychiatric Hospital, Mile End, London. A series of texts and images located on pin-boards found in the waiting room used to show the work. Some were motorised, others situated on the wall. The images were drawn from an early photograph of my grandmother from time concurrent with the narrative. Stockham explored narratives of the use of ECT and the question of biology and biography in relation to mental health

Lack of Oversight: The Relationship Between Congress and the FBI, 1907-1975

This study fills a hole left in research about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While previous authors have examined the Bureau\u27s relationship to the executive branch, especially under its long-time Director, J. Edgar Hoover, comparatively little has been written about the Bureau\u27s relationship with the United States Congress. Using their investigatory and appropriations powers, members of Congress could have maintained stringent oversight of Bureau officials\u27 activities. Instead, members of Congress either deferred to the executive branch, especially presidents and attorneys general, or developed close relationships with Bureau officials based on a shared politics, mainly anti-communism during the Cold War. Examining the relationship from 1907 through 1975 offers numerous examples of members of Congress looking beyond their oversight responsibilities. Even as Congress investigated Bureau actions, no meaningful legislation was passed limiting Bureau activities. Instead, members of Congress left it to the executive branch to correct problems. On issues like wiretapping, Bureau officials either misled Congress about the extent of their activities or ignored Congressional mandates in order to continue their anti- communist agenda. As the Cold War developed, certain Congressional committees began to use Bureau files confidentially in order to educate the public on the dangers of communism. While Bureau officials initially supported such liaison relationships, they were based on the source of the committees\u27 information never coming to light. Once that condition was violated, Bureau officials terminated the relationship, hampering the committees\u27 ability to use the communist issue to further political careers. To fully understand the FBI\u27s role in 20th-century America, the relationship with Congress must be further explored. Focusing solely on Director Hoover or the executive branch is too narrow. Members of Congress had equal opportunity to oversee Bureau activities. That they did not fulfill this responsibility portrays the difficulty Americans have in containing the actions of investigatory agencies

The Negligent Eye

This publication accompanies the exhibition The Negligent Eye, curated by Jo Stockham, Head of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art, and developed in collaboration with the Bluecoat, Liverpool, 8 March – 15 June 2014. The exhibition reflected the ways artists use scanning technology in their work, particularly in the area of printmaking. This publication develops these ideas through essays by Stockham and Chantal Faust that explore the idea that the scan is both a ‘close reading and a glance’, an apparent contradiction that the artists explore through the rapidly developing scanning and other digital reprographic processes at their disposal. Images of the works in the exhibition are accompanied by texts from the artists – including Cory Arcangel, Christiane Baumgartner, Jyll Bradley, Maurice Carlin, Susan Collins, Conroy/Sanderson, Nicky Coutts, Elizabeth Gossling, Juneau Projects, Bob Matthews, London Fieldworks, Marilène Oliver, South Atlantic Souvenirs, Imogen Stidworthy – in response to questions about their relationship to scanning

Image Capture

Keynote Speech at the conference RE:PRINT_RE:Present, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. A kind of created attention deficit disorder seems to operate on us all today to make and distribute images and information at speed. What values do ways of making, which require slow looking, or intensive material explorations have in this accelerated system? How are our perceptions of reality being altered by the world-view presented in the smooth colorful ever morphing simulations that surround us? Why would a time consuming practice like etching have anything to offer in this situation? The limitations of digital technology are often a starting point for artists to reflect on our relationship to real-world fragility. I will be using some example of my own work and that of very recent graduates to look at practices where tactility or dimensionality in a form of hard copy engages with these questions, with reference to the writings of Flusser and Steyerl

Sonny Assu: A Fresh Perspective on the World of Contemporary Art

Native American art has previously been out of the traditional scope of the art world; only recently has it begun to truly make its transition from the world of anthropology museums into the western contemporary art discourse. Even with this advancement and placement into the realm of contemporary art, most Native American art is grouped with the other worldly arts such as African, Meso-American, and Oceanic art; these world arts are often excluded from the galleries dedicated to the display of contemporary art. One artist has found a way to bypass this trend. Artist Sonny Assu, a Ligwilda’xw of the Kwakwaka’wakw nations melds the artistic traditions of his Ligwilda’xw background with contemporary art practices. His vibrant paintings link back to his First Nations heritage by combining Kwakwaka’wakw style with contemporary subject matter and materials. His paintings often adorn animal hide drums providing a sculptural aspect for Assu to explore as well as creating another link back to his Kwakwaka’wakw culture. By working in both the Native American and western contemporary art discourses, Assu has a chance to educate people about the struggles of the Kwakwaka’wakw people and ignite change within the Pacific Northwest Coast communities. The works of Sonny Assu spark conversation about First Nation peoples as well as pose important questions surrounding their history and treatment. Assu explores the role of the artist as an educator, the perpetuation of socio-cultural values of Native American people, and the function of totemic representation in the contemporary context. These central ideas shape his work and offer an important perspective on the concerns of contemporary indigenous artists

Negligent Eye

This presentation was both an illustrated lecture and a published paper presented at the IMPACT 9 Conference Printmaking in the Post-Print Age, Hangzhou China 2015. It was an extension of the exhibition catalogue essay for the Bluecoat Gallery Exhibition of the same name. In 2014 I curated an exhibition The Negligent Eye at the Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool as the result of longstanding interest in scanning and 3D printing and the role of these in changing the field of Print within Fine Art Practice. In the aftermath of curatingshow I have continued to reflect on this material with reference to the writings of Vilém Flusser and Hito Steyerl. The work in the exhibition came from a wide range of artists of all generations most of whom are not explicitly located within Printmaking. Whilst some work did not use any scanning technology at all, a shared fascination with the particular translating device of the systematizing ‘eye’ of a scanning digital video camera, flatbed or medical scanner was expressed by all the work in the show. Through writing this paper I aim to extend my own understanding of questions, which arose from the juxtapositions of work and the production of the accompanying catalogue. The show developed in dialogue with curators Bryan Biggs and Sarah-Jane Parsons of the Bluecoat Gallery who sent a series of questions about scanning to participating artists. In reflecting upon their answers I will extend the discussions begun in the process of this research. A kind of created attention deficit disorder seems to operate on us all today to make and distribute images and information at speed. What value do ways of making which require slow looking or intensive material explorations have in this accelerated system? What model of the world is being constructed by the drive to simulated realities toward ever-greater resolution, so called high definition? How are our perceptions of reality being altered by the world-view presented in the smooth colourful ever morphing simulations that surround us? The limitations of digital technology are often a starting point for artists to reflect on our relationship to real-world fragility. I will be looking at practices where tactility or dimensionality in a form of hard copy engages with these questions using examples from the exhibition. Artists included in the show were: Cory Arcangel, Christiane Baumgartner, Thomas Bewick, Jyll Bradley, Maurice Carlin, Helen Chadwick, Susan Collins, Conroy/Sanderson, Nicky Coutts, Elizabeth Gossling, Beatrice Haines, Juneau Projects, Laura Maloney, Bob Matthews, London Fieldworks (with the participation of Gustav Metzger), Marilène Oliver, Flora Parrott, South Atlantic Souvenirs, Imogen Stidworthy, Jo Stockham, Wolfgang Tillmans, Alessa Tinne, Michael Wegerer, Rachel Whiteread, Jane and Louise Wilson. Scanning, Art, Technology, Copy, Materiality

CALCULUS REMEDIATION AS AN INDICATOR FOR SUCCESS ON THE CALCULUS AP EXAM

This study investigates the effects of implementing a remediation program in a high school Advanced Placement Calculus AB course on student class grades and success in passing the AP Calculus AB exam. A voluntary remediation program was designed to help students understand the key concepts and big ideas in beginning Calculus. Over a period of eight years the program was put into practice and data on student participation and achievement was collected. Students who participated in this program were given individualized recitation activities targeting their specific misunderstandings, and then given an opportunity to retest on chapter exams that they had taken prior to remediation. Students were able to improve their scores on the original chapter exams and their grade in the class by demonstrating a greater understanding of the material after participating in the remediation sessions. This process was repeated for all chapter exams given during the academic year. In this study, a data analysis comparing the percent gain, after remediation, in each student’s overall class grade to their AP Calculus AB exam scores was conducted. Additionally, AP Calculus AB exam scores of students enrolled in these classes were compared to AP Calculus AB exam scores globally both pre and post implementation of the remediation program. The results of this study demonstrate that there is a substantial positive correlation between student participation in the remediation program and greater success on the AP Calculus AB exam. The average AP Calculus AB score for the students enrolled in AP Calculus AB during the eight-year period of implementing the remediation program increased by over 9%