<p>This study examined the practice of sexting (the exchange of nude or semi-nude photos through text messaging) among 401 undergraduate students ages 18 to 25 at California State University, Fresno. A computer survey with separate tracks for sexters and non-sexters differentiated data between the two groups. The researcher found that one in three students sexted. Pearson&rsquo;s &chi;² test indicated a statistical significance between female non-Hispanic White casual daters and sexting. Among key findings, a majority of sexters infrequently exchanged a small number of photos with their boyfriends or girlfriends. Face cropping and smartphone applications were used most often for protection against harmful effects. Less than a fifth of respondents had their sext forwarded without their consent or were bullied with the photo. Over half of the students that sexted perceived their sexting activity led to having sex with that person. Those who did not engage in sexting perceived sexters to be unaware of the risks attached to the practice and perceived sexting as inappropriate. The findings demonstrated a range of risky and protective behaviors, experiences, and perceptions exist among Fresno State students that have adopted or rejected the practice of sexting. Recommendations for future studies include further exploration on the sexting behaviors between relationship partners as well as the types of applications used to sext. </p>

Developments in video games over the last few decades have opened up many new kinds of musical experiences that pose substantial challenges to traditional understandings of music and musical agency. Virtual spaces grant us opportunities and freedoms to interact with music in manners that might not be prudent, practical, or even possible in the physical world. Players and creators of games have considerable license to play with music – to push the boundaries of music’s signifying and sensational potential within far-reaching narrative, ludic, and social contexts. This dissertation investigates how modern technologies of digital gaming enable and motivate such transgressive modes of musical engagement. Video game players, composers, and designers frequently employ (or otherwise interact with) music, noise, and speech in ways that deliberately or inadvertently violate technical rules, social expectations, cultural conventions, aesthetic norms, and ethical codes. Just as creators of games are constantly surprising gamers with innovative concepts and progressive designs, so gamers often come up with forms of emergent play that creators themselves might not have anticipated or intended. Though gameplay isn’t always explicitly transgressive, I argue here that it can be productively conceptualized as an activity that is largely bound up in potentialities for transgression. Play isn’t simply about make-believe, but additionally about re-making belief – about redrawing the limits of the imagination through accomplishments of acts previously unimaginable (or believed to have been outright impossible). The particular liberties that can be taken with (and in) games may ultimately teach us some profound things about what (we think) music is (and isn’t), how it works, what it’s good for, and why and to whom these questions should matter in broader social, cultural, and intellectual contexts. / Music

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published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Multimedia in E-Learnign and Cognitive Overload / Multimedia has infused itself into all aspects of education be it online, distance or in the face-to-face classroom. Its presence has become ubiquitous in education and yet has it really benefitted students to the degree it could? This paper utilizes a review of the literature to define the role of multimedia in e-learning then looks at how multimedia fits into basic pedagogy, learning theory and learning styles. An examination of how multimedia optimally could be incorporated into the curriculum is also conducted. Finally a look at cognitive overload is undertaken to determine if there is such as thing as too much of a good thing; can instructors end up confusing students with poorly designed multimedia presentations? There are many tools to use to present multimedia lessons however, this does not mean they all need to be used in a single lesson, and selecting the right multimedia tool, and content is imperative to ensure learning goals are met. Careful selection and attention to instructional design remains the key determinant in successful learning models and the incorporation of multimedia should be used with basic instructional pedagogy in mind.

Οι νέες συνθήκες της «Κοινωνίας της Γνώσης» επιβάλλουν την ανάγκη αναμόρφωσης του Εκπαιδευτικού Συστήματος σε όλες τις ανεπτυγμένες χώρες ώστε να ανταποκρίνεται στις νέες, αλλά και τις διαχρονικές ανάγκες του ανθρώπου και τις προκλήσεις της σύγχρονης κοινωνίας. Στο σχεδιασμό αυτό θα πρέπει να ληφθούν υπόψη και οι παιδαγωγικές δυνατότητες των Τεχνολογιών της Πληροφορίας και της Επικοινωνίας (ΤΠΕ) ώστε να αξιοποιηθούν οι δυνατότητες που αυτές προσφέρουν στον άνθρωπο, την κοινωνία, τον πολιτισμό και τη μάθηση. Οι εφαρμογές πολυμέσων στην εκπαίδευση έχουν αλλάξει σημαντικά τον τρόπο διδασκαλίας σε κάθε βαθμίδα της. Η εξάπλωση των εφαρμογών πολυμέσων εκπαιδευτικού περιεχομένου, οφείλεται στη δυνατότητα παροχής υλικού από κείμενα, εικόνες, ήχους και διάφορες άλλες μορφές δεδομένων. Η εργασία πραγματεύεται τη χρήση πολυμεσικών εφαρμογών ως εκπαιδευτικό υλικό για την ενίσχυση της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας στη Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση. Αναλύει τη χρήση των εφαρμογών ΤΠΕ στη διδακτική πράξη. Καταγράφει τα πλεονεκτήματα και τα μειονεκτήματα χρήσης πολυμεσικών εφαρμογών στη μαθησιακή διαδικασία. Περιγράφει τις φάσεις και αναλύει τα συστατικά ανάπτυξης ενός πολυμεσικού εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού. Αποτυπώνει τη σημερινή κατάσταση στη Δευτεροβάθμια Εκπαίδευση και προτείνει μεθόδους διαχείρισης και προγραμματισμού του εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού. Τέλος, περιγράφεται η ανάπτυξη πολυμεσικού διαδικτυακού εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού που αναπτύχθηκε για τη διδασκαλία του μαθήματος της Ιστορίας. / The new conditions of the "Society of Knowledge" are imposing the need to change the Educational System in all developed societies in order to meet both the new and the time-old human needs and the challenges of modern society. In this new planning, consideration needs to be given to the pedagogical possibilities offered by the Information and Communication Technologies in order to take advantage of the chances and possibilities they put to the service of men, society, civilisation and learning. The flexibility in the materials used of multimedia educational content - image, sound, texts and other forms of data haw greatly contributed to its spreading. The Thesis examines the use of multimedia applications as educational material to foster the educational process in Secondary Education. It analyses the use of Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom. It notes the pros and cons of their use in the learning process. It describes the stages and analyses the components for the development of multimedia educational software. It depicts the current situation in Secondary Education and proposes ways to manage and programme the educational software. Finally, it describes the development of a web-based multimedia educational software that was created for the teaching of History.

Informacinės komunikacinės ir multimedijos technologijos švietimo sistemoje sudaro visas galimybes ugdyti šiuolaikišką pilietį, pasirengusį gyventi elektroninėje erdvėje. Stengiamasi, kad šios technologijos būtų integruojamos į visų dalykų mokymą. Šiandieniniame muzikos mokyme ir mokinių muzikinėje veikloje IKT ir multimedijos technologijos sudaro neribotas galimybes mokinių asmeninėms bei kūrybinėms išraiškoms. Valstybinėse švietimo strategijos nuostatose 2003 – 2012m. ypatingas dėmesys skiriamas originalių mokomųjų kompiuterinių programų, garso, grafikos ir vaizdo priemonių (multimedijos technologijų), interneto pritaikymui ugdymo procese, akcentuojamos IKT panaudojimo galimybes integruojant jas į kitų dalykų mokymo programas, tame tarpe ir muzikos. Viena iš svarbiausių sėkmingo muzikinio ugdymo ir veiklos sąlygų yra mokėjimas jas valdyti. Magistro baigiamojo darbo mokslinė problema orientuota į IKT ir multimedijos technologijų įtaką mokinių muzikinei veiklai ir šios veiklos skatinimui. Darbo tikslas – atskleisti informacinių komunikacinių ir multimedijos technologijų panaudojimo kaip skatinimo veiksnio galimybes mokinių muzikinėje veikloje. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Apžvelgti informacinių komunikacinių ir multimedijos technologijų taikymo muzikinėje veikloje teorinius aspektus. 2. Atskleisti mokytojų ir mokinių požiūrį į informacinių komunikacinių ir multimedijos technologijų taikymą muzikiniame ugdyme. 3. Nustatyti informacinių komunikacinių ir multimedijos technologijų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Informative communicative and technologies of multimedia are great aspects to educate a present day citizen ready to live in an electronic space in an educational system. It is necessary to integrate all these technologies into teaching of all subjects. Technologies of multimedia gives a great opportunity for personal and creative student’s side in the musical education of present day and student’s musical activities informative communicative technologies. The special attention is paid to the original computer program, sound, graphics, means of video (technologies of multimedia) and the internet in the public educational norms of 2003 – 2012. The greatest attention is paid to informative communicative technologies opportunities, especially in musical education. The most important and successful aspect is an ability to operate them. The problem of the master final work is mainly concentrated to informative communicative technologies and influence of technologies of multimedia to musical activities of students and its promotion. The purpose of the work – to show the importance of informative communicative and technologies of multimedia in student’s musical education. The aims of research: 1. To overview the theoretical aspects of informative communicative and technologies of multimedia. 2. To show the teachers and student’s altitude towards informative communicative and technologies of multimedia in musical education. 3. To determine the influence of informative communicative... [to full text]

The purpose of this study was to determine if the frequent use of LanguageLinks: Syntax Assessment and Intervention (LL), produced by Laureate Learning Systems, Inc., as a supplemental classroom activity, affected morphosyntax structures (determiners, tense, and complementizers) in participants who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) and use American Sign Language (ASL). Twenty-six students from an urban day school for the Deaf participated in this study. Two hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) growth curve analyses were used to examine the influence of LL on the comprehension of morphosyntax based on two dependent variables: 1) the scores from LL’s Optimized Intervention (OI; Wilson, 2003) reports; and 2) the scores from a subset of the Comprehension of Written Grammar (CWG; Easterbrooks, 2010) test. The results of the HLM analyses revealed that time was a statistically significant indicator of progress on both dependent variables: 1) LL, t(25) = 4.510, p < .001, and 2) CWG, t(25) = 4.750, p < .001. Two independent variables served as predictors of where the participants started on the level-1 intercept of the growth curve: 1) Degree of Hearing Loss; and 2) Age. The results indicated that Age, t(23) = 2.182, p = .039, was a statistically significant predictor of the level-1 intercept. A second set of independent variables served as predictors of change over time on the growth curve: 1) Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation Norm-Referenced (DELV-NR; Seymour, Roeper, & de Villiers, 2005) pretest scores on the syntax and semantic subtest; and 2) the Basic Reading Inventory (BRI; Johns, 2008) scores. The results indicated that the BRI scores, t(22) = 3.522, p = .002, were statistically significant predictors of change over time on the LL program. A dependent t-test was used to examine the comprehension of morphosyntax based on the third dependent variable of the DELV-NR assessment, and revealed statistically significant results on the syntax subtest, t(25) = -2.394, p = .024. The daily use of LL affected the morphosyntax of the participants in this study and may be an evidence-based practice for students who are DHH and use ASL.

<p> High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can increase survival from a cardiac event and better quality of life post event (Whitcomb &amp; Schmied-Blackman, 2007). This can be made possible not only by an experienced team, but also by more frequent training and refreshers for health care providers (Hamilton, 2005). Rural and remote nurses may experience skill decay due to low-volume CPR use and location barriers that contribute to infrequent CPR recertification; two conditions that lead to low-quality CPR (Hamilton, 2005). Not available in Canada, online CPR training in the United States is accepted as a way to provide current, timely, and accessible recertification for health care professionals (ProCPR^&copy;, 2009). To assess the effectiveness of online CPR training in meeting Canadian rural and remote nurses' recertification needs, I used both pre- and post-training intervention constructs. A total of 32 nurses self-reported their competency prior to and following an online CPR recertification training course. I obtained data to answer five research questions regarding current CPR practices, barriers to recertification, the extent that the online CPR course affected nurses' competencies, nurses' satisfaction with online CPR training, and the potential cost versus benefit for employers. On average, participants used CPR once in the last year. Within the total group, 14 of the nurses (43.8%) had an expired CPR certificate that had been outdated, on average, for over 17 months. Nurses both with expired CPR certification (56.2%) and with current CPR certification (56.2%) improved significantly from pre-training scores (<i>M</i> = 19.25, <i> SD</i> = 6.201) to post-training scores (<i>M</i> = 22.88, <i> SD</i> = 5.369) with <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001; <i>t</i> (31) = -4.048. Cohen's <i>d</i> was .63. Nurses with expired CPR certification experienced a greater increase in competency post-training than nurses did with current CPR certification, confirming the implications of skill decay and lapses in training. Despite hesitation at refreshing a decidedly tactile skill online, the study participants voiced overwhelming satisfaction with the quality and impact on competency that they obtained through the online format. This study concludes with statistical, practical, clinical, and potentially substantial, economic significance for the implementation of online CPR recertification and online training in Canada.</p>

<p> The Internet, as a digital record of human discourse, provides an opportunity to directly analyze political communicative behavior. The rapid emergence of social online networks augurs a transformation in the quality and quantity of information people have to evaluate their political system. Digital formats instantiate new categories of actors and new capacities to intervene in political discourse. Existing theories of political communication fail to account for the time lag, speed, anonymity and nature of replication inherent in digital formats. To fully investigate the digital record, scholars need a new framework that apprehends the complex density of a multidirectional political discourse that defies traditional time controls. </p><p> Using information and linguistic theory we develop and apply a functional, information flow model that illuminates the conceptual relationships and capacities of people to shape their information environment. Actors are defined in terms of their communicative role in idea exchange and the logic of communication is alloyed with political considerations to examine the scopes of action and immersion scenarios that affect communicants. </p><p> Our modular and scalable theory offers a way to measure signal fidelity, node activation, and message branching. We define signaling and amplification schemes and effects and explore the benefits and disadvantages of amplification devices for speakers and recipients. We show how individual actors are linked by the micro information streams they receive and transmit. We are therefore able to model exposure conditions of a multiple input, noisy spectrum for citizens and provide a counterpoint to the simple, controlled environment of agenda-setting experiments.</p><p> Finally, due to its foundation in information theory, our framework provides a natural platform by which to organize and develop a research program that uses computational linguistics and data mining techniques.</p>