The first wave of human colonists spread across the Pacific from 4000 to 1000 years ago. That they caused many extinctions is well known from fossil finds. We estimate how many fossil species were missed - the answer is roughly half - and so estimate the true extinction rate. The first colonists exterminated roughly half the species on each island group. Some of these extinctions are falsely attributed to the first colonists, because intensive collection often began a half century after the damage initiated by European discovery. Even taken at face value, these recent extinctions are too few. Many species are so critically endangered that we know neither whether they still survive or how to save them. Interestingly, there are fewer recent extinctions and currently endangered species in the islands of the western Pacific, which were the islands occupied first by humans. We suggest that the species sensitive to human occupation died out long ago in these areas. If so, these islands would have lost even more than half of their bird species.
The purpose of this study was to create a valid and reliable instrument to measure teacher perceived barriers to the adoption of games and simulations in education. Previous research, interviews with educators, a focus group, a think-aloud protocol, and an expert review were used to design a survey instrument. After finalization, the survey was made available for trial on the Internet for a group of educators (N ¼ 255). A portion of the survey required respondents to rate to what degree 32 potential barriers were perceived as an impediment to the adoption of games and simulations. Some of the highest rated barriers included cost of equipment, lack of time to plan and implement, inability to try before purchasing, lack of balance between entertainment and education, lack of available lesson plans/examples, lack of alignment to state standards/standardized testing, inability to customize a game/ simulation, and inability to track student progress within the game/simulation. An exploratory factor analysis identified seven factors that accounted for 67% of the variability in the respondents' rankings. Several factors were found to have significant interactions with other questions on the survey. Implications of these results, as well as suggestions for future research, are discussed.
A school is where individuals go to learn regardless of their ethnicity, physical appearance, physical and/or mental abilities, gender, or sexual orientation. The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) population of students generally face discrimination and/or misunderstanding in diverse groups of students. This chapter is designed to help educators better recognize this group of individuals and to ensure their right to a safe learning environment. Additionally, this chapter includes advice for educators to help students better understand personal sharing in the digital world, in dealing with and preventing cyberbullying, and with creating digital safe spaces for everyone, including LGBTQ students. Advice for preventing and dealing with cyberbullying is also included for administrators, parents, and students.
The authors discuss the instruction of soft skills by games and simulations as a future direction for the use of educational gaming in P-12 education. Technical or hard skills are taught in the educational curriculum; however, soft skills training, such as communication, collaboration, decision-making, problem-solving, negotiation, and leadership, are lacking. Soft skills training through games and simulations have been successful in areas such as the military, medicine, business, and disaster response, as well as those individuals with learning disabilities; therefore, the authors investigate the potential for soft skills training using games and simulations. In addition to instruction of soft skills, this article also addresses the inherent nature of games and simulations as teaching and assessment tools.
As diversity and social justice have become more important in education, educators are beginning to realize that their lessons, both real and virtual, need to be more inclusive. More specifically, this chapter addresses the culture, learning, and relationship with technology of a specific subset of students: individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual/transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) or who have LGBTQ parents, guardians, friends, and/or family. Suggestions for educators on inclusive strategies when integrating technology into lessons through digital activities and various educational technology tools, as well as inclusive instructional design suggestions, are included. As for the question addressed in the title, none is the answer because all three of these things belong together in all forms of education, in all types of schools, and by all types of educators.
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