Education Commons^™

Virtual Schools: Planning For Success, By Zane L. Berge And Tom Clark, Eds. (Book Review), Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Book review by Michael K. Barbour.

Berge, Z. L., & Clark, T. (Eds.) (2005). Virtual schools: Planning for success. New York: Teachers College Press.

ISBN 9780807745724; 9780807745717 (pbk.)

An Inquiry Into Retention And Achievement Differences In Campus Based And Web Based Ap Classes, Michael Barbour, Dennis Mulcahy

Education Faculty Publications

A decade ago the Advanced Placement (AP) program was introduced into the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Initially, schools embraced this opportunity to provide their students with opportunities that were previously unavailable. However, within a few years the AP program was relegated to urban and large regional high schools. Few smaller, and particularly rural schools, were able to offer AP courses only to the brightest one or two students taking it as an independent study. In 1997-98, schools began to delivery AP courses in a web-based method. The purpose of the study is to examine the retention rates and …

African American Literature: Books To Stoke Dreams, Jane M. Gangi, Aimee Ferguson

Education Faculty Publications

In addition to market forces, unconsciously damaging trends in many textbooks for teacher education have resulted in classroom trade book collections that represent children who are primarily white and middle class. While all children—whether from Argentina, Afghanistan, or Algeria—deserve to see themselves and their families in books, the focus of this article is on new publications that depict African Americans.

Teachers who are committed to learning all they can about multicultural literature and culturally and gender relevant pedagogy become agents of change.

Includes significant bibliography of Resources and list of Children’s Literature That Picture Children of African Descent.

Michael Graham Moore: A Significant Contributor To The Field Of Educational Technology, Michael Barbour, Thomas C. Reeves

Education Faculty Publications

Moore’s theories related to distance education, his contributions to scholarship and practice, and his efforts to establish the venues for distance education researchers to interact with one another have influenced many educational technologists in valuable ways.

Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism And Education, Ed. By Anne Hickling-Hudson, Julie Matthews, And Annette Woods, James C. Carl

Education Faculty Publications

Book review by Jim Carl:

Hickling-Hudson, Anne, Julie Matthews, and Annette Woods, eds. Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism and Education. Brisbane: Post Pressed, 2004.

ISBN 1-876682-56-6

The book grew out of a conference held in August 2001 at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. It is composed of a collection of thirteen essays that address postcolonialism in education. The presenters examine the postcolonial in educational structures and practices in Asia, Africa, North America, and Australia, but the colonial legacy remains—the language of the conference is English, the publisher is Australian, and the book is printed in Great Britain.

Overall, this …

Mentoring Student Teachers From A Distance: An Action Research Project, Michael K. Barbour, Anthony Thomas, Jason Ritter

Education Faculty Publications

At a large public university in the south eastern United States, prospective middle and high school social studies teachers complete a four semester undergraduate program that prepares them for the classrooms of America. Like many programs, this one begins with an introductory course that provides students an opportunity to explore questions about the nature, purpose, and practices of social studies in the modern school curriculum. As a part of this course, students also develop a rationale for teaching social studies which is used as a part of admission into the Social Studies Education program. Once they have been admitted to …

Using A Robotic Arm To Evaluate The Programming Ability Of K-12 Educators, Antoinette P. Bruciati

Education Faculty Publications

This usability study measured the ability of educators to master advanced computer programming concepts through the OWI Robotic Arm Trainer and PC Interface. Research findings revealed that the lack of prior computer programming experience did not impact the ability of each participant to successfully program his/her robotic arm. However, the absence of a detailed instructional manual detracted from the product’s usability. Future directions for research and the suitability of the robotic arm for use in an online teacher preparation course in robotics technologies are discussed at the conclusion of this paper.