Search

Background "Cest la Vie!" (CLV) is a serial drama that entertains, educates, and promotes positive health behaviors and social change for West African audiences. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if watching the CLV Season 2 series online had an impact on people's health knowledge, attitudes, and norms, focusing on populations in francophone West Africa. Methods Between July 2019 and October 2019, viewers of CLV and non-viewers were recruited from Facebook and YouTube. We conducted an online longitudinal cohort study that assessed changes in health knowledge, attitudes, and norms (KAN) between these groups. Participants completed a baseline survey prior to the online airing and up to three follow-up surveys corresponding to specific health stories in the series, including sexual violence, emergency contraception, and female circumcision. We used descriptive statistics to describe viewers and non-viewers, and an item response theory (IRT) analysis to identify the effect of viewing CLV on overall KAN. Results A total of 1674 respondents participated in the study. One in four participants (23%, n = 388) had seen one of the three storylines from CLV Season 2 (ie, CLV viewers). At follow-up, viewers were more likely than non-viewers to know when to correctly use emergency contraception (P < 0.001) and to believe that the practice of female circumcision should end (P = 0.001). Compared to people who did not see CLV, viewers of the series had 26% greater odds of answering pro-health responses at follow-up about sexual assault, emergency contraception, and female circumcision. Further, the level of engagement with specific storylines was associated with a differential impact on overall outcome questions. Conclusions As internet access continues to grow across the globe and health education materials are created and adapted for new media environments, our study provides a novel approach to examining the impact of online entertainment- education content on health knowledge, attitudes, and norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of the dark side of anthropomorphism, which explores the depiction of cows in contemporary advertising. The study begins by tracing the cow's representation in culture as an object that is simultaneously revered and profaned, tracing this to its long-standing association with nature and the feminine. It then offers a historical perspective on the representation of cows in advertising, outlining some of the controversies that have raged about how cows are depicted. This leads to a consideration of ecofeminism and related issues around this, such as environmentalism and gender. Its central argument is that an anthropocentric world view has led to cows being positioned in anthropomorphic advertisements as ‘the Other'. Applying an ecofeminist analysis, the authors identify an overarching narrative of ‘benevolent mastery’ in many cow advertisements that adopt anthropomorphic devices. As such, these advertisements serve to delude us about the true nature of cows' lives. The authors conclude by suggesting that an ecofeminist lens enables us to unmask the ‘dark side' of anthropomorphism in marketing, revealing fundamental prejudices in contemporary culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper develops and examines a scale to capture teachers' views of the mobile pedagogies they are adopting. Mobile pedagogies refer to the practices and approaches teachers use that involve mobile technologies to support learning. A mobile technology is any portable, handheld technology that potentially supports learning and includes laptops, tablets and smartphones. This study develops a rigorous scale to capture mobile pedagogies adopted in mobile learning tasks designed by teachers. In particular, the scale focuses on measuring pedagogies related to the iPAC framework which comprises three overarching dimensions of m-learning: personalisation, authenticity and collaboration (PAC). Each dimension has a pair of sub-components associated with it (for personalisation: agency and customisation; for authenticity: context and task; for collaboration: conversation and co-creation). The reliability and validity of a 20-item scale is assessed. A measure of overall m-learning experiences was also established and found to be significantly predicted by m-learning pedagogy. We also report on differences between teachers in m-learning practice with respect to subject area and year of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the results of a survey that measured school teachers' and mobile learning (m-learning) experts' perceptions of the relative importance and effectiveness of various pedagogical principles underpinning m-learning designs. A scan of relevant literature produced a set of articles describing effective innovative m-learning. Principles underpinning the learning activities in these articles were identified. These principles were then provided to respondents so that they could identify the most important ones relative to the others for designing effective and innovative m-learning tasks. A rigorous Best/Worst Scaling (BWS) survey was used to collect these data. This is the first time that a BWS has been conducted with regard to mobile pedagogical principles. Findings showed that principles related to authenticity were rated most important relative to other principles by the m-learning experts and principles related to personalisation and customisation were rated most important by practising teachers. Other principles that have been used in innovative m-learning designs, such as gamification and intergenerational learning, were seen as least important by all respondents. The findings will inform design of professional development activities, in particular, those pertaining to an app being developed in an Erasmus + project, Developing and Evaluating Innovative Mobile Pedagogies (DEIMP). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The empirical evidence surrounding innovative technology-enhanced-learning practices in K-12 education is at best patchy. This study seeks to address this problem by investigating innovative mobile learning pedagogies for school-aged learners, including the extent to which these approaches may be disruptive to traditional school structures and practices. It adopts a rigorous Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology to interrogate this phenomenon, with fifty-seven high quality articles published between 2010 and 2017 meeting the stringent selection criteria. Content and thematic analysis showed low to medium degrees of innovation in most studies, with only 3 articles showing radically innovative, disruptive mobile learning practices. Illustrative examples are discussed across this 'innovation spectrum' and the notion of feasible innovation is proposed in the context of mobile learning in schools. The findings have implications for educators interested in designing and enacting effective innovative mobile learning practices, and researchers interested in the nature of innovation in mobile pedagogies. • Fifty-seven high quality articles show varying levels of innovation in mobile pedagogies for school-aged learners. • A continuum of innovation is presented in the context of mobile technology-mediated school-aged learning. • Examples are presented of innovative mobile pedagogies, for teachers designing effective mobile learning activities. • A set of four criteria for identifying innovative mobile pedagogies are presented, developed from the literature. • A scoring system is introduced for researchers/teachers interested in investigating innovative mobile learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive strategies for prescription drug misuse must reach culturally and linguistically diverse suburban populations to effectively combat the ongoing opioid epidemic. The purpose of this study was to conduct a community needs assessment and inform the development and implementation of culturally appropriate primary prevention strategies for community-based interventions, specifically related to medication disposal practices. Three data collection techniques were utilized: key informant interviews (n = 4), intercept surveys (n = 71), and focus group discussions (n = 8; 61 participants). To accommodate linguistically diverse subpopulations, surveys and focus groups were available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi. Participants were overwhelmingly female (survey: 70%/FGD: 84%), ethnic minorities (survey: 61%/FGD: 66%), and, on average, middle-aged [survey: 52 years (SD: 19)/FGD: 54 (15)]. Approximately one in three survey respondents (30%) had heard of drug-take back events, and one in ten (10%) had participated. Non-English speakers were less likely to both perceive a community problem with prescription drugs (β = − .35; p < .001) and be aware of take-back opportunities (β = − .23; p = .038). Focus group participants expressed confusion about appropriate medication disposal methods, identifying potential sources of conflicting information. Recent media coverage and political events have heightened stigma towards non-English speaking and non-native peoples, increasing their fear of law enforcement and other perceived threats. To encourage community engagement in take-back events, we identified multiple ways, such as multilingual materials and marketing campaigns, which may help marginalized suburban subpopulations feel less threatened and more included in prescription drug misuse prevention activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in how to use mobile devices to support teaching and learning has increased as technologies have become more sophisticated and ubiquitous. A recent focus in teacher education is the use of mobile devices to support teachers' professional learning networks (PLNs). This study investigates how pre-service teachers (PSTs) use mobile technologies to support different aspects of their PLN activities. The study uses a qualitative methodology, where data from focus group discussions, artefact collection, and participant journals kept by 11 final year PSTs provided nuanced insights into their mobile learning practices. A validated mobile pedagogical framework (Kearney, Schuck, Burden, & Aubusson, 2012) is used to analyse the data. Findings uncover a deeper understanding of exemplary mobile learning approaches in initial teacher education and have implications for effective preparation of PSTs for career-long professional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the benefits for learning that technologies like mobile devices can offer and discusses the designing of innovative mobile learning pedagogies that make a noticeable difference to the lives and experiences of learners.

Thrombosis of unusual venous sites encompasses a large part of consultative hematology and is encountered routinely by practicing hematologists. Contrary to the more commonly encountered lower extremity venous thrombosis and common cardiovascular disorders, the various thromboses outlined in this review have unique presentations, pathophysiology, workup, and treatments that all hematologists should be aware of. This review attempts to outline the most up to date literature on cerebral, retinal, upper extremity, hepatic, portal, splenic, mesenteric, and renal vein thrombosis, focusing on the incidence, pathophysiology, provoking factors, and current recommended treatments for each type of unusual thrombosis to provide a useful and practical review for the hematologist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century has seen unprecedented investment from governments around the world in educational technologies in schools. This paper investigates Australian teachers’ adoption and use of a popular technology that has been extensively supported by governments and school systems: the interactive whiteboard (IWB). The study suggests that a number of the barriers identified in the early days of adoption and use of this technology, such as professional support and access, still remain for many teachers, thereby impeding effective practices. The research also found that primary school teachers were using the technology in diverse ways, in contrast to secondary teachers who were using the IWB mainly for instructionist, presentational purposes. We conclude by considering various ways of reducing the effect of the identified barriers to support implementation of educational technologies in the classroom, especially the next generation of technologies promoted by governments and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses insider ethnographic and interview data to examine one of the largest sustained collective actions in the history of the United States--the Wisconsin Uprising of 2011. It finds that this event took a highly unusual form due to a social relation that I term escalating moral obligation, a sense of solidaristic duty that grows increasingly fervent as others struggle on behalf of a shared cause. Each of three active groups within the movement engaged in arduous and unconventional resistance to controversial legislation, and did so in a manner that induced moral debt among the other groups. Fervency of commitment to the cause increased as a result of allies taking risky or self-sacrificial actions. Each group felt obligated to continue difficult mobilization as long as others continued theirs. Escalating moral obligation develops a simultaneously emergent, endogenous, and cognitive dimension of social movements. It is a relational mechanism linking political opportunity with actual mobilization. The political opportunity in this case was a combination of several conditions: an elite cleavage over the desirability of public unions, a more local balance of power allowing dissident legislators to obstruct but not defeat legislation, and an immediate severe popular reaction. This mechanism is potentially generalizable to other risky or arduous protests. When activists are motivated by the sacrifice or risk-taking of allied activists, escalating moral obligation is present. The concept links group-level imperatives with individual-level motivations. Escalating moral obligation shows one way that individual subjectivities can change through group interrelations and emotionally intense interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective effervescence plays a foundational role in the generation of society. Both the canonical explication of this concept, Émile Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life, and current literature on the topic, are unable to distinguish between two plausible causes of effervescence: shared affiliation or collective action. This study reports a case of collective effervescence in which much of the assembled group had no prior affiliation. This finding proves that shared affiliation is not a necessary condition for effervescence, and supplies evidence for the hypothesis that collective action, not shared affiliation per se, is the source of effervescence in general. The evidence is a detailed ethnographic and in-depth interview study of the Wisconsin Uprising of 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines how the pedagogical orientations of teachers affect technology adoption in the classroom. At the same time, the authors account for the stage of concern that teachers are experiencing regarding the use of the technology, their access to the technology and the level of schooling at which they teach.The authors’ investigation of these factors occurs in the context of a contemporary technology, the interactive whiteboard (IWB), in Australian schools. A structural equation model was estimated using a reflective measure of technology usage with antecedents in the form of pedagogical-oriented beliefs and best-worst scaling derived scores for a teacher’s stage of concern regarding IWBs. Teachers with constructivist-oriented pedagogical beliefs were significantly more likely to use IWBs than transmission-oriented teachers. However, the strongest determinant of usage was whether the technology is immediately accessible or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile learning is enabling educators and students to learn in ways not previously possible. The ways that portable, multi-functional mobile devices can untether the learner from formal institutional learning give scope for learning to be conceptualised in an expanded variety of places, times and ways. In this conceptual article the authors articulate this notion by using the metaphor of the Third Space to envision what can be achieved with mobile learning. They outline their use of the metaphor, consider how it extends notions of twenty-first century learning and use a previously established Mobile Pedagogical Framework to provide a context for the discussion. They conclude with implications of learning in the Third Space for teachers and students. These implications suggest that roles of teachers and students and structure of the curriculum need to change to ensure we leverage the potential of mobile learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]