Information society and digital divide in South Africa: results of longitudinal surveys

Integration into the information society implies that information plays an increasingly important role in all sectors of society and holds distinct social and economic benefits. Discourses on the information society are, however, also associated with the digital divide and inequalities in access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Within sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is often regarded as one of the most information-integrated societies due to widespread mobile phone ownership, among other things. However, while ICT access has been emphasized, research also points to the role of demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors such as ethnicity, income, education and gender. This article discusses the results of questionnaire surveys conducted by Afrobarometer among probability South African samples in 2008 and 2011. The results indicate that individual Internet use and mobile Internet access were lower than estimated in the literature. Furthermore, gender gaps, as well as considerable gaps between population groups and educational levels, were found in Internet and computer use, mobile ownership and access to mobile Internet and accessing news via the Internet. Conclusions regarding strategies for bridging the digital divide and integrating South Africa into the information society are discussed.     

Examining the Nursing Home Physical Environment Through Policy-Driven Culture Change

A critical need exists to challenge approaches to nursing home care due to rigid organizational factors and hospital-like culture. It has been argued that resident care needs to move toward a person-centered approach by addressing the organizational, social, and physical environments in nursing home facilities, a process often known as culture change. In response to this need, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has created funding for pay for performance (P4P) nursing home incentive programs to allow nursing home providers to receive CMS reimbursements for culture change in the facilities. Through care staff interviews, site observations, and a document review, this qualitative study assesses the impact of a Midwestern state P4P incentive program in three participating nursing homes. Using an environment and behavior (E-B) policy orientation framework, this study examines culture change through a focus on policy, the physical environment, place attachment, and social and psychological processes in the study settings.     

跨区域教学交流对设计创新思维影响的探究

工业设计学生创新能力的培养已经成为教育界迫在眉睫的事情,不同的学校根据各自的办学特色都在探索不同的方法。本文依据自身的实践教学,重点探讨了跨区域教学交流对培养学生创新能力的影响。跨区域交流能够为师生提供一个良好的创新平台;通过这一平台,合理利用设计院校间的差异性能够扩大学生创新思维的广度、推进思维的深度,同时有利于各自设计课程体系的验证和修订。     

浅析生态化的外语教学环境

本文指出教育生态学是探讨和揭示教育生态系统的基本规律的学科,对于构建和谐、兼容的教学环境有着重要的意义。     

以就业为导向的计算机基础教学解析

计算机基础课程是整个大学阶段所有专业的必修课程之一,而在计算机基础教育方面,并未跟上当前信息技术发展的主流方向和趋势,远远不能达到目前市场对高技能人才的计算机能力要求。教学内容停滞、教学方法和考核方法过于保守等问题日益突出。因此,计算机基础的教学目的应从过去的应试教育转变为对计算机的操作技能和理解能力的培养。文章通过对计算机基础的教学方式、教学内容和考核体制这三方面的探讨,阐述了计算机基础教育改革的必要性,以及相关的方法和措施。     

Evaluation of a school-based sexual abuse prevention curriculum in Malaysia

This article examines a personal safety curriculum (Keeping Me Safe) offered to Standard Three students (mostly nine-year-olds) in five primary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Staff of the Malaysian NGO, Protect and Save the Children, Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (P.S. The Children), facilitated six weekly one-hour sessions featuring games and role play to teach children about potentially unsafe situations and touches, and to develop appropriate safety strategies and skills to ask for help. The students (n = 261) and a control group (n = 184) completed a 25 item questionnaire before and after the program, and for the experimental group only, again two months later. The assessment was supplemented by observations of each session, student interviews, and parent and teacher focus groups. The experimental group students showed substantial gains on about two-thirds of the questionnaire items. However, a minority of the students failed to absorb key messages of the curriculum. Challenges to implementing prevention programs in Malaysia are discussed.     

Gender identity and lexical variation in social media

We present a study of the relationship between gender, linguistic style, and social networks, using a novel corpus of 14,000 Twitter users. Prior quantitative work on gender often treats this social variable as a female/male binary; we argue for a more nuanced approach. By clustering Twitter users, we find a natural decomposition of the dataset into various styles and topical interests. Many clusters have strong gender orientations, but their use of linguistic resources sometimes directly conflicts with the population‐level language statistics. We view these clusters as a more accurate reflection of the multifaceted nature of gendered language styles. Previous corpus‐based work has also had little to say about individuals whose linguistic styles defy population‐level gender patterns. To identify such individuals, we train a statistical classifier, and measure the classifier confidence for each individual in the dataset. Examining individuals whose language does not match the classifier's model for their gender, we find that they have social networks that include significantly fewer same‐gender social connections and that, in general, social network homophily is correlated with the use of same‐gender language markers. Pairing computational methods and social theory thus offers a new perspective on how gender emerges as individuals position themselves relative to audiences, topics, and mainstream gender norms.     

Social insurance and children: The relationship between Social Security,economic well-being,and family context among child recipients

The relationship between social insurance, which provides families protection against certain risks, and child economic security is understudied. Using the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to Social Security Administration benefit records, this article investigates the economic welfare effects of the child component of the US Social Security program. We examine how the poverty rate of child beneficiaries would change, absent Social Security income, and how heavily the family incomes of these children rely on it, by family characteristics. Our findings reveal that Social Security plays an important role in mitigating economic insecurity among children deprived of a wage-earning parent through disability, death, or retirement. Family structure, earnings, and employment status are identified as key factors moderating the effect of Social Security on child recipients’ financial circumstance.     

医学英语中“计算机网络图式教学模式”的构建

大学医学英语教学改革的一个重要问题就是改革传统的教学模式,建立基于计算机网络的医学英语教学模式.现以图式理论为依据,结合计算机网络的教学手段,从多媒体网络视角探讨"计算机网络图式教学模式",以期对外语教学实践提供新的教学模式和思路.     

以计算机为手段的财产犯罪的既遂认定

以计算机为手段实施的财产犯罪成为现代社会一种新的财产犯罪形式,由于这种犯罪形式的特殊性,在判断该罪既遂与未遂的问题上,刑法理论上产生了激烈的争议.基于对外国立法的比较,以及对我国刑法理论上争议的考察,我国刑法应当以行为人修改数据的行为实施为该罪的着手时间,依据行为人对于其所虚增的财产数据所代表的财产是否实现了事实上的控制或者支配为既遂的认定标准,严厉打击以计算机为工具实施的财产犯罪的未遂行为.