THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, COMMUNITY, AND VALUES
We have not published since May of this year as we have been on summer hiatus. In Internet time, this is about four years, and much has changed. We received so many queries as to whether we could not maintain our prior publication schedule that we have decided to do so. We thank our readers, and particularly Jim Berglund, for that support. As a result, rather than come out this year as a quarterly as planned, we will post 8 issues, monthly save January, June, July, and August, corresponding to our vacation months at Pacific University.
But there were elements of the proposed quarterly schedule that appealed to us, particularly the opportunity to establish a peer-review process for some of our pieces. As a result, you will notice some articles in this issue designated by their "authority level," which is an attempt on our part to signal the relative level of "trust" or "authority" our audience might well have in such articles. For a fuller explanation of this process, see the editorial by our Interface Editor and Director, Jeffrey Barlow, "Evaluating Trust and Authority" found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/edit.php
We are also pleased with our beginning for this academic year because we will be joined by a number of new editors. We will introduce them as we first publish their work. The first of these is Chris Pruett.
Chris, as an undergraduate, was one of the first systems operators in the Center for Electronic learning at Pacific University. We worried at the time that he took what seemed to us to be an unhealthy interest in games. Now he is a professional game programmer, and our first gaming editor at Interface. See his column, "Game Communities" at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/pruett.php Chris is very active in the industry, fluent in Japanese, and very interested in Japanese computer culture as well as in gaming. We look forward to regular pieces from him.
The importance of gaming is further evidenced in a piece by another editor, Ron Smith, Professor of History at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. "Battling Napoleon in the Western Civ. Classroom" is found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/smith.php This is one of our first "Authority Level 5" publications as it has been peer-reviewed.
Education editor Mark Szymanski offers "Rethinking Schools: A Patriotic Act," found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/szymanski.php Mark does much to clarify an important issue affecting every American in this election year. In addition, he introduces teachers to a useful resource, the grassroots organization "Rethinking Schools."
New contributor Kylie J. Veale offers a superb study, "Discussing Our Family Trees:
A Longitudinal Analysis of Online, Community-Based Communication in Genealogical Newsgroups," found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/veale.php Not only does this piece deal with a very important use of the Internet, genealogical research, but it also is a clever analysis of community-based communications. Kylie has published in First Monday, and writes on the Internet as a virtual learning environment for hobbyist genealogists in the forthcoming Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. Her piece has also been certified as Authority Level 5.
In this issue we also present a Berglund Fellowship Essay by Dr. Mark Bailey – "Professional Development and the Educational Technology Metamorphosis: Emerging Butterfly or Deleterious Root Worm? Part 1." Mark's essay, the research for which involved wide travel and experience in sites in New Zealand, is found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/bailey.php
Our book reviews in this issue include two very different works, Hari Kunzru's acclaimed novel, Transmissions, found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/kunzru.php and Jeremy Poteet's Canning Spam, found at: http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/04/poteet.php The first offers a unique view into globalization and the Internet as seen through the eyes of the Indian protagonist in this richly comedic and satirical novel. Canning Spam provides a good introduction as well as useful solutions to those many threats that can enter one's computer via email. We hope that each of these works will be read by our entire audience.
We are also pleased to announce our first Berglund Center Fellow for 2004-05, Dr. Tim Thompson of the Department of English at Pacific University. Tim joins us in a new project, the TransPacific Interactive Classroom, funded by the Northwest Academic Computing Consortium <http://www.nwacc.org/>. Tim is teaching a course in American Literature through the Berglund Center to students at Wenzhou Medical College in China. These materials are being delivered largely on-line via Internet based video teleconference. The project has been a very complex one, and one with far-reaching consequences, or so we believe. Tim will write about it for his Berglund Fellowship Essay in the spring. For now, you may see our web site for the project at: <http://bcis.pacificu.edu/nwacc/ >.
As always, we hope that you find this issue of Interface useful and interesting.
The Berglund Center for Internet Studies
at Pacific University
Mark Bailey - Professional Development and the Educational Technology...
Kylie Veale - Discussing Our Family Trees: A Longitudinal Analysis of...
Ronald Smith - Battling Napoleon in the Western Civ Classroom
Mark Szymanski - Rethinking Schools: A Patriotic Act
Chris Pruett - Game Communities