UBC Bookstore and Education Library present

The Education Book Fair
11:00 am to 2:00 pm
Scarfe Foyer
November 4, 5, 6

Time to shop for books for the whole family!

Kids books, teen titles, and teacher books will be on sale.  Book buyers will receive a 10% discount.
Faculty publications will also be on sale.

Research on School Organizational Restructuring and Collegiality Because a significant number of teachers spend their time either with students or alone planning and grading papers, it is not surprising to hear them say they feel isolated from their colleagues. The latest case study in the International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership tells the story of a Canadian elementary-school staff that decided to address their perceived problem of teacher isolation by transforming the internal organization of their school into a collaborative environment designed to foster collegial practices among themselves.
Fallon, G., & Barnett, J. (2009). Impacts of school organizational restructuring into a collaborative setting on the nature of emerging forms of collegiality.  International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership 4(9).

http://journals.sfu.ca/ijepl/index.php/ijepl/article/view/159

Videogames, Virtual Worlds and Real Learning October 26, 2009, 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Dodson Room, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, UBC  (and via Live Podcast)

Panel Speakers:
* Eric Meyers, School of Library Archival and Information Studies, UBC
* Dr. Kathy Sanford, Associate Dean of Teacher Education, University of Victoria
* Liz Merkel, Doctoral Candidate, University of Victoria.

Every day millions of children and youth login to virtual environments where they play, socialize, create and explore a digital landscape as avatars or “virtual characters”. By the end of 2011, researchers estimate that 80% of active Internet users will be using virtual worlds. While virtual worlds are undeniably popular among children and youth, they have attracted the attention of anxious adults, teachers and librarians. Parents and child advocates suggest that videogames are dangerously addictive and even toxic to real-life pro-social development. Others decry the blatant commercialism and commodification of childhood experience.

Researchers Dr. Kathy Sanford and Liz Merkel from the University of Victoria and Dr. Eric Meyers from The University of British Columbia will share what they have learned about the nature of videogaming and virtual worlds. Dr. Sanford has focused her research on the videogaming of adolescent boys while Dr. Meyers as a participant and observer has explored the virtual play spaces popular with children and designed for home use, such as Club Penguin, WebKinz, Woogi World, Panwapa, Millsberry, Second life, BarbieGirls, Pixie Hollow, HandiPoints, and Sifaka World. Virtual worlds are not just playspaces, but the focal point of a great deal of information work. The implications for school and library professionals are worthy of our attention especially as we celebrate learning and National School Library Day.

This special event has been sponsored by UBC’s School of Library Archival and Information Studies in collaboration with the UBC Education Library and Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

A live podcast of the panel presentation will be available so that participants off campus may join with us for this exciting National School Library Day event.

To access the Live Podcast select this web link to go to the viewer 5 minutes prior the event, or any time during the event.

http://mediasite.mediagroup.ubc.ca/MediaGroup/Viewer/?peid=6414cffbff5a468fa
2e4f8e298373f72

Username:  SLAIS
Password:  mediasite

Air Date: 26/10/2009 4:30 PM PDT
Duration: 1:30:00 (h:mm:ss)

Please select the speech balloon to view the “ask” text box to submit questions to the event moderator.  Your question may be answered during the live event if appropriate.

To view the video or slides full screen, select the box with arrow icon found above each display panel you wish to see.

You may be asked to install “Silverlight” on your preferred web browser – a brief installation taking 20-30 seconds after your acknowledgement, and is only required once.

The September 30, 2009 issue of The Dramatic Growth of Open Access is now available, at:
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2009/09/dramatic-growth-of-open-access.html

Abstract:

This issue of The Dramatic Growth of Open Access features a few key quotable numbers to illustrate

the growth and current extent of open  access: more than 4,000 fully open access, peer reviewed

journals in DOAJ, growing by 2 titles per day; close to 1,500 open access repositories listed in OpenDOAR,

adding a new repository every business day; over 30 million free publications through Scientific Commons,

growing by more than 20 thousands items per day; more than 20% of the world’s medical literature is

freely available 2 years after publication, and close to 10% is freely available immediately on publication;

1 more journal decides to submit all or most content to PMC every business day, and growth of open access

journals in PMC is one new journal every other business day. The number of open access mandate policies is

well over a hundred, and growing rapidly – but also likely understated. If you have a policy, please be sure to

register with ROARMAP. This quarter saw some minor setbacks. Most notable (but still small) is a decrease in

free content through Highwire Press.