Working Across the Disciplines/Shifting Perspectives: Student Experiences with an Online Course Focused on Interdisciplinary Practice with Children and Families

SUMMARY

As more universities and other places of higher learning respond to the changing needs of the community-bound learner, new technologies are being harnessed to shift the delivery of historically “classroom-bound” programs to alternate and more universally accessible formats. This article describes how an online course uses interactive exercises to engage students in mutual exploration of cross and/or interdisciplinary work. The course serves students from various professional schools, including social work, child and youth care, nursing, and education. Through the use of online discussion and case-study role-plays, it facilitates an experiential learning environment that is reflective of the student's own practice in a learning setting.     

Comparing the competitive advantages of leading news sites in mainland China and Taiwan

In the severe recession in journalism, professional news sites are facing the challenge of increasing their competitive advantage. In this study, a resource-based approach was used to interview 12 top executives of leading news sites and portals in mainland China and Taiwan. The data were analyzed to determine the inimitable resources that enabled them to achieve competitive advantages and how these resources varied under different market conditions. The results identified property-based and knowledge-based resources that were developed by the news sites in reaction to the quickly changing environment of technology and media. Particular differences in communist and capitalist ideology between mainland China and Taiwan, respectively, and their effects on comparative resources are also discussed.     

网络出版物对当代大学生思想的影响

在网络快速发展的今天,网络出版物作为一种新生事物应运而生。相比传统出版物,网络出版物有很多优势,但是也存在不足的一面。网络出版物对大学生的思想带来积极影响的同时也带来了一些负面影响。本文从网络出版物的特点出发,分析了网络出版物对大学生思想产生的影响,并针对其中的不良影响提出了应对策略。     

Teaching Social Work in an Online Environment

This article discusses the current debate surrounding online instruction (also known as distance) versus in-class social work instruction and reviews the relevant literature associated with those instructional models. The discussion specifically focuses on key issues, including the definition and growth of online education and the Blackboard revolution, and it addresses concerns about the effectiveness of teaching online compared to in-class social work instruction in areas related to students’ learning outcomes and satisfaction. Literature references also suggest that factors such as demographics may be related to outcome differences between distance and traditional students, while others found no significant differences between both student populations and their learning outcomes in particular courses such as research methods courses. Even today, however, the comparisons between online and traditional courses are unsettled, and many questions remain about the appropriateness or usefulness of these models. Therefore, the debate will continue to lead to even larger disagreements between researchers and educators on both sides. The concern about the effectiveness of teaching in an online environment is still the main concern of educational models in general and of social work education in particular. Even deeper concerns are found among educators and scholars about the ethical issues surrounding the entire online education debate.     

Styling the periphery: Linguistic and cultural takeup in Bangladesh and Mongolia

Focusing on online interactions among young adults in Bangladesh and Mongolia – two countries located politically, culturally and economically on the Asian periphery – this paper looks at how young adults use linguistic and cultural resources in their online interactions as part of a complex and emergent stylization of place. On the one hand, they appropriate the cultural and linguistic flows according to their locations and engage in a playful stylization and reconfiguration of what the local means. On the other hand, they engage in stylization and reflexive language use, often involving exaggerated linguistic variation, mixing, and other semiotic resources in order to produce and perform a range of social and cultural identities. The paper hence shows how the circulation and takeup of popular cultural flows around Asia can involve diverse processes of linguistic and cultural stylization.     

A taxonomy of gambling and casino games via social media and online technologies

The increased popularity of casino games on social media platforms has prompted international jurisdictions to consider the extent to which these games may be similar to Internet gambling activities and therefore subject to regulatory action. Gambling themes are popular in video and computer games, and simulated-gambling activities are commonly offered by gambling operators as a way of enticing users to gamble online with money. However, little research has evaluated the impact of the digital convergence of gambling and gaming. The lack of a clear definition of online gambling-themed activities to guide such research undertakings represents a significant hurdle to the fields of gambling and gaming. Based on a review of the extant literature, this article proposes a taxonomy to distinguish between many types of online activities with gambling-themed content. This taxonomy suggests that the principal features that differentiate online gambling games include the requirement for payment, the role of skill, the type of platform and the centrality of the gambling theme. The proposed hierarchical framework aims to promote clear and consistent discussion to guide ongoing investigation of new and emerging Internet gambling and gaming technologies.     

Everyday Life,Everyday Death

In this article I note limits of cultural activism in third-wave feminism, demonstrating that this activism often relies on a music scene that neglects intersections of race and gender. I offer the space of the online fansite as an alternative site for analysis, describing it as a site for everyday activism and consumer activism. Specifically, I explore the online fansite of the HBO show Six Feet Under, describing how fans treat subjects of gender and race in the show and in their everyday lives. Although fans discuss race and gender in limited ways in their explorations of the show and their daily lives, when they discuss the subject of death, they more productively address intersections of both race and gender, considering differences in burial and funereal practices among diverse cultures. Fans also construct the fansite as a place for consumer activism, sharing information about how to be active consumers in the funeral industry and to direct the course of their own burials.     

Online Writing in the Course of Discourse Transformation: A Review of Ten Outstanding Online Novels of the Past Decade

中国当代文学阅读层面上的价值认同正在经受前所未有的挑战。特别是新世纪以 来,新的写作群体、写作方式不断涌现,使固有的理论批评体系遭到撞击、被撕裂, 从而导致理论批评不时出现失语现象。随着网络文学的迅猛发展,非主流文学在阅读 与消费环节中的影响日益增强,这就使得上述问题转化成了新的矛盾——互相不能包 容的阅读隔膜。十多年来,网络上产生了海量的小说文本,逐渐形成了二十多种类 型;本文兼顾时间跨度和创作类型,遴选了十年中不同类型的十部佳作,并针对它们 区别于纸质媒体的艺术审美和创作特点进行了述评。

关键词: 网络写作?网络小说?话语转变

At the level of the reading of contemporary literature, value identity in China is facing unprecedented challenges, particularly in the new century. New groups of writers and new writing styles are constantly springing up and existing theoretical criticism has been attacked and torn apart, with the result that it has often lost its voice. With the rapid growth of online literature, the influence of non‐mainstream literature in the domain of literary reading and consumption is increasing. Consequently, the above‐mentioned problem is evolving into a new contradiction, i.e. a lack of mutual understanding and tolerance with regard to reading. In the past decade, an enormous number of novels have come out online, falling into over twenty categories. This paper takes into account both chronology and type of writing in selecting for review ten outstanding works of different genres from the last decade, stressing the aesthetic qualities and distinctive styles that differentiate them from their print counterparts.     

美国网络音乐发展现状分析

文章通过透视美国网络音乐的发展规模、下载模式,及其应对发展中存在问题的策略,希望能对中国网络音乐的发展有所启示。