Cons and pros: prison education through the eyes of the prison educated*

ABSTRACT

While much has been written within academic journals about prisoners, rarely is there anything written by prisoners. In this essay, we, a group of prisoners who are earning or have earned college degrees while incarcerated in Texas, address the purpose, merits, and pitfalls of prison education and reform. Written as a response to the essays appearing in this special issue, we discuss our experiences of being othered as inmates, the impact of societal bias against us, our perspectives on prison education, and our own ideas for reforming prisons and making them more humane.     

Making meaning: reflections on the act of teaching in prison

ABSTRACT

Prison educators “stand at the crossroads of liberation and incarceration.” They promote education, which can be a tool of personal freedom, in a setting designed to oppress and control. What practices help them accomplish the objectives of liberatory learning? This essay traces the philosophical and relational premises that I believe are essential for educators teaching in prisons. It begins with a basic characterization of prison education in contemporary settings. The essay then examines the pedagogies of several prison educators who, despite their different disciplines and perspectives, emphasize the importance of identity, relational dynamics, and participatory learning. Finally, the essay offers recommendations for thinking through a learner-centered approach to pedagogical design that can help incarcerated students better understand their lives and claim their voices under oppressive conditions.     

Pedestrian navigation with augmented reality,voice and digital map: final results from an in situ field study assessing performance and user experience

This paper reports on a field study comparing navigation performance and user experience of voice, digital map and augmented reality (AR) interfaces for electronic assistance in the context of pedestrian navigation. The in situ study was conducted with two subsequent experiments in the city of Salzburg along a pre-defined route using a self-implemented smartphone application running on Apple's iPhone 4. The study involved 48 participants aged between 22 and 66 years with different experiences in using smartphones and navigation systems. Navigation performance was measured on a micro-level including information on effectiveness (number and reasons of stops, global positioning system (GPS accuracy), efficiency (walking and task completion time, duration of stops) and satisfaction (NASA Task Load Index, System Usability Scale). A final questionnaire completed the study. Between the first and the second experiment, the application was adapted considering user feedback and the previous findings. Results show that in the context of GPS-enhanced pedestrian navigation, digital map and voice-only interfaces lead to significantly better navigation performance and user experience in comparison to AR interfaces. The study also reveals similar results for digital map and voice-only interfaces given that voice instructions are carefully composed. Results lead to the conclusion that AR is still suffering from usability and hardware issues leading to higher uncertainty of navigating persons. Best navigation performance and user experience can be achieved by combining digital maps and accurate voice instructions.     

Knowledge, economy, technology and society: The politics of discourse

The WSIS is centrally interested in knowledge and has defined for itself a mission that is broadly humanitarian. Its development ‘talk’ is, rightly, replete with notions of equity, preserving culture, justice, human rights and so on. In incorporating such issues into knowledge society and economy discussions, WSIS has adopted a different posture towards knowledge than is seen in dominant discourses. This study analyses the dominant knowledge discourse using a large corpus of knowledge-related policy documents, discourse theory and an interrelational understanding of knowledge. I show that it is important to understand this dominant knowledge discourse because of its capacity to limit thought and action in relation to its central topic, knowledge. The results of this study demonstrate that the dominant knowledge discourse is technocratic, frequently insensitive to the humane mission at the core of the WSIS, and is based on a partial understanding of what knowledge is and how knowledge systems work. Moreover, I show that knowledge is inherently political, that the dominant knowledge discourse is politically oriented towards the concerns of business and technology, but that an emancipatory politics of knowledge is possible.     

The corporeal turn: at the intersection of rhetoric,bodies, and video games

Through a critical literature review, this article examines the trend in game studies toward studying bodies, both of players and of characters, in communication scholarship. Specifically, first I discuss how the field of rhetoric has gradually become more familiar with studying games. Second, I map rhetorical studies’ involvement in materialism, specifically through the investigation of bodies. Third, I offer an extensive, though not exhaustive, review of how game studies has hitherto approached research regarding bodies. The article concludes by forecasting the future of game bodies and game studies with an eye toward Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) gaming, augmented reality, and virtual reality. This article argues that instead of creating a single, unifying theory of gaming bodies, games scholars should identify themes of bodies in games.     

高等院校网络教育资源的建设与开发

进入21世纪,高等教育已经逐渐呈现网络化、国际化、共享化、科技化的趋势,信息技术的飞速发展更加快了高等教育的变革,人们对于高等教育资源的渴望也更加强烈.网络教育资源中最有代表性的就是开放课程(Open Course Ware,OCW).     

论信息技术在大学生思想政治教育中的应用

信息技术带来了社会文明的变革，新的社会环境下传统的大学生思想政治教育方式、手段急需改进，把信息技术引入思想政治教育需要注意处理好教育方法和教育目的、教师与学生角色定位等问题，避免信息技术带来的教育内容扁平化倾向。     

远程终身教育中学费支付模块的开发与应用研究

远程终身教育中,学费支付是必不可少的一个环节。本文以真实案例沈阳市会计从业人员继续教育培训网为实例,针对柜台交费和以支付宝为代表的网银交费两大主流交费模式进行了深入研究与探讨。     

The impact of Transformational and Authentic leadership on innovation in higher education: The contingent role of knowledge sharing

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of two leadership styles – Transformational and Authentic leadership on process and product innovation in higher education institutions in Jordan. We also examine how the effect of these leadership styles fluctuates based on the extent to which knowledge sharing is prevailing norm in an institution. We examine our suggested model in higher education institutions in the north of Jordan and utilize structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques for data analysis. Findings reveal that Transformational leadership and Knowledge sharing have a positive impact on the innovativeness of higher education institutions in Jordan. On the other hand, Authentic leadership does not show any support for innovativeness in the higher education sector in a non-western country like Jordan. In addition, knowledge sharing norms significantly moderate the effect of Transformational leadership but exhibited no moderating influence on the effect of Authentic leadership.     

MOOC兴起对我国远程教育的影响与启示

MOOC是一种新型的远程在线教育模式,其教学理念、教学过程、管理方式对我国远程教育的发展和改进具有许多值得借鉴之处,文中从教育理念、教学过程、教学质量等方面分析MOOC兴起对我国远程教育带来的影响.     

南京电大开放教育学位外语成绩查询系统的设计与实现

开放教育本科学生学位外语考试每年组织两次,考试成绩由中央电大下发纸质版和Excel电子版,学生则通过教学点人工查询,费时费力,且查询效率低。随着计算机网络技术广泛应用,为方便学生通过Internet查询学位外语考试成绩,本文探讨了如何利用ASP技术进行南京电大开放教育学位外语成绩查询系统的设计与实现,随时随地方便学生快速查询,提高开放教育教务管理水平和效率。     

Future’s learning environments in health education: The effects of smart classrooms on the academic achievements of the students at health college

The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of smart classrooms on the academic achievement of the nursing students. The sample of the research included 66 Health College students in Elaz??. The sampling group was randomly chosen from second year students of Nursing and Midwife Education. The research was carried out with experimental approach. The experimental group included nursing students and the control group, midwife students. Pre-test and post-test including questions regarding “internal diseases’ course were applied to both groups. t-Test, percentage ands frequency were used as statistical procedures for data analysis. The findings showed that lectures given through smart classroom significantly increases the academic achievements of the students. It is, therefore, reasonable to state that smart classroom applications are effective environments that can be used as an alternative and a supplement to face to face educational environments in the institutions where health education is given.     

基于发展取向的远程教育督导的理念重构和实践创新

着眼于教师的持续发展、有效发展的基于发展取向的教学督导是督导本质的体现。本文在分析传统督导取向的基础上提出了基于发展取向的教学督导的理念，分析讨论了发展性督导的理念体系，并结合电大开放教育督导实践，论述了远程教育中实施发展性督导的实践创新。实践证明，发展性教学督导是实现督导目的、促进教师发展，进而促进教育教学发展的有效途径。     

The influence of sectarian and tribal discourse in newspapers readers’ online comments about freedom of expression,censorship and national unity in Kuwait

This study analyzes strands of sectarian and tribal discourse in newspapers readers’ online comments (NROCs) and their impact on attitudes to freedom of expression, censorship and national unity in Kuwait. It finds that minority, Shiite, and the lower ranked social group, Bedouins, are identified as disloyal to Kuwait, backward and uncivilized in the NROCs. The outcomes of an experiment that engage 715 subjects indicate that the non-readers of the sectarian and tribal comments are in favor of censoring NROCs. Also, readers of sectarian NROCs are more likely to declare that the sectarian comments damage Kuwait’s national unity. The findings are discussed in the light of the negative social effects of hateful online speech and the role that editors of NROCs need to assume in order to counter such speech.     

科普信息化的内涵、影响及测度

科普信息化是新时期科普工作的指引方向,不仅体现在科普的技术手段和传播渠道的新变化,还是科普理念和模式的一次洗礼。科普信息化与知识管理、教育信息化存在一定的相关性,又有明显的特殊性。本文从3个维度阐述了科普信息化的内涵。我国的科普信息化工作实践可以分为3个时期,不同时期具有鲜明的特征。科普信息化对于推进知识社会构建、营造社会新型科学文化氛围具有重要的意义。对科普信息化发展水平进行科学合理的测度是推进工作进程和实现最终目标的有效保障。     

基于多元智力理论下的高职工科分类教育探索与实践--以焊接技术与自动化专业为例

文章以焊接技术与自动化专业为例,结合产业发展对人才培养提出的新要求,探索并梳理出"分类教育、差异化培养"的人才培养模式,为高职理工科类专业人才培养模式提供改革思路。     

The electronic booklet on teaching-learning process: Teacher vision and parents of students in primary and secondary education

This article presents the first phase of a research project whose purpose is to introduce a new form of collaboration and communication between the school and the family through an Electronic Booklet (EB). The EB was developed due to the increasing necessity of collaboration between the school and the family, promoting the teaching-learning process and educational success, supported by information and communication technologies. These conclusions and justifications were derived from a survey based in a questionnaire applied to guardians and teachers of several private and public Portuguese schools of the primary and secondary education level. Both groups – guardians and teachers stressed the importance of communication between school and family and expressed interest in the EB as a communication tool. The analysis of the survey results made possible the construction of an Electronics Booklet prototype.     

产学研结合教育的理论问题及其在生物医学工程高等教育的实践

从产学研结合教育的基本原则、实施途径、教学形式、目标任务等方面对生物医学工程高等教育产学研结合人才培养模式进行探讨,阐述了我国生物医学工程高等教育产学研结合教育的基本内涵。实施缘由、适应范围、与常规教育模式的差异、基本状况,以及取得的教育教学效果和社会效果。     

Online incivility,argument quality and public expression in China: Exploring the moderating role of education level and opinion congruency

Uncivil comments are prevalent in Chinese cyberspace. Many studies have explored the impacts of online incivility and argument quality on public expression, but very few studies have been conducted in authoritarian societies. We conducted two online experiments with different topics in China. The results showed that after being exposed to uncivil content, people's intentions to make comments online changed depending on their education level and opinion congruency. The less-educated people are more likely to express whereas the well-educated tend to remain silent. Besides, incivility and argument quality can work together to influence public expression. A strong argument with a civil tone can promote people's enthusiasm for expression. But a strong argument with an uncivil tone can decrease people's expression willingness. However, uncivil comments with weak arguments increase less-educated people's willingness to express themselves publicly. Besides, opinion congruency moderates the relationship between argument strength and online expression. But the pattern was contingent upon the nature of the discussion topics.