The emerging field of the learning sciences one that is interdisciplinary, drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives and research paradigms so as to build understandings of the nature and conditions of learning, cognition, and development. Learning sciences researchers investigate cognition in context, at times emphasizing one more than the other but with the broad goal of developing evidence-based claims derived from both laboratory-based and naturalistic investigations that result in knowledge about how people learn. This work can involve the development of technological tools, curriculum
The Radio is an instrument of communication that has percolated to all the strata of the diverse Indian society. Its position has been consolidated through history as a regular companion and a source of information and entertainment. Its affordability, accessibility and non-reliance on costly resources have ensured its presence in almost all the households. It has become indispensable from kitchens, family rooms and even workspaces. It is one of the few or rather the only medium of communication after the print media wherein information dissemination still is primary and entertainment a
Historical background - The BBC Radio Science Unit has its roots in two radio networks, going back more than 40 years. In the late 1950s, BBC External Services (now World Service), appointed a science correspondent and began a weekly science magazine programme. Initially called `Science and Industry', it changed its name in about 1964 to `Science in Action'. It is still running today, after more than 2000 editions, probably making it the longest running science show on radio.
What makes a science story? Behind the scene there are many choices: what, how and when to broadcast. Decisions are made according to the general criteria of news values to which we add two groups: personal and emerging criteria. General criteria of choices are news values for the science stories. According to Tonner, stories containing human interest are important in everyday life, report less complicate discoveries and science as a part of the broader subject comes to the media easily.
Contemporary radio is under-studied by academic researchers, while on the contrary it expresses great exigencies of knowledge. Media studies examined deeply radio when it was the mainstream medium, i.e. in the Thirties, especially in the US also for marketing needs of a largely commercial broadcasting system.
The international symposium "Science on air: the role of radio in science communication" was held in Trieste on 1 and 2 October, 2004. To our knowledge, it is the first conference ever specifically held on science on radio, and it is certainly the first time science radio journalists, researchers, and media experts from 16 different countries met to discuss their journalistic practice and the role of radio in science communication. The main results are presented in this article.
I would like to start with a brief news item in the August 1999 issue of National Geographic which gives some food for thought: "With 5,000 climbing routes, such as Double Dogleg and Walk on the Wild Side, California's Joshua Tree National Park attracts about 140,000 enthusiasts a year to test their skill on granite boulders. But some visitors view their metal bolts as defacements hammered into rocks.
The Regional Park of the Po River Delta was set up in 1988 (it belongs to a Consortium of Public Bodies). It extends over 54,000 hectares of land and stretches across 45 km of the Italian Eastern coastline (45 km of the more than 90 km that go between the provinces of Ferrara and Ravenna) and is one of the largest and most significant natural parks in Italy.
The concept of a biosphere reserve was adopted by UNESCO, within the MAB Programme, launched in 1971, in order to promote and to demonstrate the harmonious relationships that should exist between people and the environment and, particularly, to promote a harmonization model of the environmental protection needs with those of the sustainable economical-social development. All the international conventions, the management and action plans accomplished in order to achieve the sustainable development objectives underline the great importance to establish a constructive dialogue, with impact on the
Goodman Research Group, Inc. (GRG), a research firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts specializing in program evaluation, has been conducting external evaluation of ZOOM for WGBH-TV Boston since 1998. GRG's Season VI evaluation comprised a pilot test to investigate the effectiveness of the new online ZOOMSCITM TRAINING: LEARN TO LEAD SCIENCE ACTIVITIES (ZOOMsci Training), a self-directed, online tutorial designed to help afterschool educators learn how to lead hands-on science activities with kids ages 8 to 11. The goal of the training is to motivate leaders, help them develop science-teaching
ITR: A Networked, Media-Rich Programming Environment to Enhance Informal Learning and Technological Fluency at Community Technology Centers The MIT Media Laboratory and UCLA propose to develop and study a new networked, media-rich programming environment, designed specifically to enhance the development of technological fluency at after-school centers in economically disadvantaged communities. This new programming environment (to be called Scratch) will be grounded in the practices and social dynamics of Computer Clubhouses, a network of after-school centers where youth (ages 10-18) from low-income communities learn to express themselves with new technologies. We will study how Clubhouse youth (ages 10-18) learn to use Scratch to design and program new types of digital-arts projects, such as sensor-controlled music compositions, special-effects videos created with programmable image-processing filters, robotic puppets with embedded controllers, and animated characters that youth trade wirelessly via handheld devices. Scratch's networking infrastructure, coupled with its multilingual capabilities, will enable youth to share their digital-arts creations with other youth across geographic, language, and cultural boundaries. This research will advance understanding of the effective and innovative design of new technologies to enhance learning in after-school centers and other informal-education settings, and it will broaden opportunities for youth from under-represented groups to become designers and inventors with new technologies. We will iteratively develop our technologies based on ongoing interaction with youth and staff at Computer Clubhouses. The use of Scratch at Computer Clubhouses will serve as a model for other after-school centers in economically-disadvantaged communities, demonstrating how informal-learning settings can support the development of technological fluency, enabling young people to design and program projects that are meaningful to themselves and their communities.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mitchel ResnickJohn MaedaYasmin Kafai