The Campaign: a case study in identity construction through performance

This article undertakes a detailed case study of The Campaign, a teaching and learning innovation in media and communications that uses an online educational role-play. The case study draws on the qualitative analysis of classroom observations, online communications and semi-structured interviews, employing an interpretive approach informed by models drawn from social theory and sociotechnical theory. Educational authors argue that online educational role-plays engage students in authentic learning, and represent an improvement over didactic teaching strategies. According to this literature, online role-play systems afford students the opportunity of acting and doing instead of only reading and listening. Literature in social theory and social studies of technology takes a different view of certain concepts such as performance, identity and reality. Models such as performative self constitution and actor network theory ask us to consider the constructed nature of identity and the roles of all of the actors, including the system itself. This article examines these concepts by addressing a series of research questions relating to identity formation and mediation, and suggests certain limitations of the situationist perspective in explaining the educationalvalue of role-play systems

Accuracy of vertical velocity determination

Typical wind spectra taken at Poker Flat, Alaska, using the vertically oriented antenna show velocities of 10's of cm to meters per second and spectral widths winds of 0.5 to 1 m/s. The potential errors in such measurements can be broken down into three categories: (1) those due to instrumental parameters and data processing, (2) those due to specular returns from non-horizontal surfaces, and (3) those due to other physical effects. Error analysis in vertical velocity measurement is further discussed

Software development environments: Present and future, appendix D

Computerized environments which facilitate the development of appropriately functioning software systems are discussed. Their current status is reviewed and several trends exhibited by their history are identified. A number of principles, some at (slight) variance with the historical trends, are suggested and it is argued that observance of these principles is critical to achieving truly effective and efficient software development support environments

LaRC local area networks to support distributed computing

The Langley Research Center's (LaRC) Local Area Network (LAN) effort is discussed. LaRC initiated the development of a LAN to support a growing distributed computing environment at the Center. The purpose of the network is to provide an improved capability (over inteactive and RJE terminal access) for sharing multivendor computer resources. Specifically, the network will provide a data highway for the transfer of files between mainframe computers, minicomputers, work stations, and personal computers. An important influence on the overall network design was the vital need of LaRC researchers to efficiently utilize the large CDC mainframe computers in the central scientific computing facility. Although there was a steady migration from a centralized to a distributed computing environment at LaRC in recent years, the work load on the central resources increased. Major emphasis in the network design was on communication with the central resources within the distributed environment. The network to be implemented will allow researchers to utilize the central resources, distributed minicomputers, work stations, and personal computers to obtain the proper level of computing power to efficiently perform their jobs

Building literacy skills and transforming lives

Over 30 million adults in the U.S. can't read or write well enough to perform daily tasks. Read about successful approaches to building adult literacy skills.Education ; Community development

Keeping the Government Whole: The Impact of a Cap-and-Dividend Policy for Curbing Global Warming on Government Revenue and Expenditure

When the United States puts a cap on carbon emissions as part of the effort to address the problem of global climate change, this will increase the prices of fossil fuels, significantly impacting not only consumers but also local, state, and federal governments. Consumers can be “made whole,” in the sense that whatever amount the public pays in higher fuel prices is recycled to the public, by means of a cap-and dividend policy: individual households will come out ahead or behind in monetary terms depending on whether they consume above-average or below-average amounts of carbon. In this paper, we consider policy options for “keeping the government whole,” too; that is, policies to ensure that additional revenues to government compensate adequately for the additional costs to government as a result of the carbon cap. We compare the distributional impacts of two policy alternatives: (i) setting aside a portion of the revenue from carbon permit auctions for government, and distributing the remainder of the revenue to the public in the form of tax-free dividends; or (ii) distributing all of the carbon revenue to households as taxable dividends. The policy of recycling 100% of carbon revenue to the public as taxable dividends has the strongest progressive impact, yielding the biggest net monetary benefits for the largest majority of the people.Global warming; fossil fuels; climate change; carbon permits; cap-and-dividend