Dear friends, colleagues, authors and readers of the journal,
Unfortunately, I am addressing you in this capacity and from this website for the last time. After long discussions and many painful thoughts, we have made a decision that the journal should be closed. This is not an easy decision to make but it feels that at this point it is the only right one.
Twenty-five journal issues is a lot, and at the same time it is not much at all, of course, depending on your point of view. Still, we can only hope that through the journal we have managed to bring attention to a number of critical and undeveloped issues in education in the United States and Russia. Since everything remains online and free, you will have a chance to continue reading and perhaps finding some new ideas and inspirations there.
In conclusion, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to each and everyone who made this journal happen for nine years – our authors and readers, members of the Editorial Board and reviewers – without you we would have never succeeded and gained an audience from over 140 countries. Special thanks go to the journal web designer Alex Minakov whose skills and patience were exceptional. Thank you so much! It has been my honor and privilege to serve you all!
Always yours,
Tatyana Tsyrlina-Spady,
Editor-in-Chief
tsyrlina@aol.com
A Letter to the Readers
Tsyrlina-Spady, Tatyana
[about]
Dear friends and colleagues, faithful and new readers, I am so happy to greet you again. This is a very special issue for two reasons: first, it addresses the topic that is extremely important and ‘hot’ today, and second, because it is issue No.15 (!) Frankly, it is hard to believe that exactly five years ago, in May 2009 we started this journal and could not even imagine what the future would bring us. Who could predict that we would gain readers from six continents and 129 countries, or that 77% of our readers would return to our website for almost every new journal issue? Pleasant surprises all over – so many sophisticated authors, wonderful papers, and so many great readers.
A Good School In Terms Of Public Relations
Lizinsky, Vladimir M.
[about]
To love something, we first need to see, hear, comprehend, compare, assess, choose, respect, and help... It so happens that great schools and educational practices give birth to impressive school legends, and people tend to believe in them passing them on from one generation to another. Gone are the days of some amazing school principal, wonderful teachers, unusual freedom of creation or that unique pedagogical environment which used to distinguish the school long ago. But parents, blinded by adoration or some whimsical pedagogical rush, are determined to do their best and place their offspring into this legendary school while a real worthy next-door school is quietly but steadily doing its great job for the sake of children and parents. Before we hasten to lavish praise on such recently discovered and somewhat outstanding school, let us first try to understand why its teachers are not among winners of numerous contests or nominations, why mass media has not yet glorified it or why the principal’s name is not even known to many in the local community.
Dmitry I. Mendeleev’s Pedagogy of Lifelike Realism
Boguslavsky, Mikhail V.
[about]
If one tries to analyze the quality of and educational thinker by his originality and ability to foresee future needs then we can admit that Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907) was not only a great scientist but also a great educator as well. He left us many gifts – numerous articles on important educational issues that are still relevant also also many students who left memoirs about him. The founder of Russian physiology, Ivan Sechenov; a famous scientist in the field of agriculture, Kliment Timiryzev; as well as the founder of the noosphere or “realm of thought” concept, Vladimir Vernadsky are only a few of the many who would call Mendeleev their teacher.
Teaching Children with Disabilities in a Rural Russian School
Baiborodova, Ludmilla V.
[about]
Nowadays, there are quite a lot of children with developmental disorders in Russian country schools. In some of them, the share of Type VII (developmental delay) and Type VIII (mentally retarded) students reaches 30-40%. So, it is quite common for children with disabilities to be integrated into the environment of their normally developing peers for a variety of reasons (3, p 8.). The predominant reasons for integration are the scarcity of special education institutions in rural areas of the country and the reluctance of parents to send their children so far from home to be educated.
The Use of the Local Language as a Right in Media Education: The Case of Tanzania
Babaci-Wilhite, Zehlia
[about]
This article explores the need to incorporate local learning and a local language in media education in Tanzania. Further, it argues that this sustenance of learning based on local languages in all subjects ought to be defined as a human right in education. The author envisions education as a set of processes involving formal learning based on a local curriculum that draws on informal sources of knowledge and incorporates the country’s language of media and communication. In Tanzania, this means accounting for contextualized knowledge and reversing the current trend of de-contextualization of the upper educational system presently conducted in English, which disconnects formal and informal learning in the teaching of media education. This perspective involves alternative assumptions about the value of the local language in learning and teaching of media education. I argue that this will form a new platform for innovation based on a unique mix of local and global knowledge. It will provide teachers and students with the capacity to understand and deploy new technologies for learning.
Available Media Technologies in Education
Klimentyev, Dmitry D.
[about]
Over the past few years information technologies have significantly enhanced their potential with the advent of cloud computing services which enable global net users to connect to sophisticated telecommunication systems via a web browser of any computer compatible device (smart phone, laptop, tablet PC, etc.) without the need to install additional software applications. Essential advantages of cloud services include their availability (which often means free of charge), universality (multi-platform functionality), a user-friendly and intuitive interface.
At present, I cannot imagine my practical work of a foreign (English) language instructor both at college and high school without such teaching tools as Google Documents or ooVoo. They have significantly increased effectiveness of both classroom and online activities in oral and written English language practice though the teaching potential of such cloud services is not limited by the area of instruction, students’ educational level or age.
Deconstructing a Reality Show
Levitskaya, Anastasia
[about]
The reality show has become a television genre, a kind of an entertainment television programming and /or online program. The first reality show in history of television is considered to be the American program Candid Camera (1948). However, in European countries reality TV reached its popularity in the 1990s, and in Russia – since 2001 (Behind the Glass). Although today this television genre includes a variety of forms, in general, the action taking place can be characterized as following: a group of participants (“ordinary” people, not professional actors) lives in a limited space; their life is continuously filmed by candid/open cameras; as a rule, the aim of such show is getting a prize, so the characters become rivals, and the game nature makes the show attractive both for participants and for the audience. Common people get the chance to become new celebrities.
Family Media Literacy: An Imperative for Today’s Children
DeGaetano, Gloria M.
[about]
In the mid 1980s I was a divorced, exhausted working mother with two little boys, ages two and four. Like any self-preserving single parent, I used television to keep them safe and silent and to keep myself sane—to a degree—because whenever they were away from the TV they were still uncontrollable. I resigned myself to parenting “active boys.” Then something interesting happened. My ex wanted the television. To keep our tenuous peace, I said, “Okay,” when secretly I shook inside, “How will I survive even one day without a television?” I vowed to buy a new one as soon as I received my next paycheck.
Media Education and Media Literacy in Russian Education Today
Bondarenko, Elena
[about]
The term “media education” is still a matter of heated debate in Russia today. Mass media experts understand media education mostly as professional training (including early professional development) for future journalists, TV and cinema directors, cameramen, etc. With the advent of multimedia computer technologies, laymen now tend to believe that media education means IT in education. Given the fact that the term has originated in the educational environment, both interpretations need to be clarified. For teachers, media education means primarily texts from mass media offered to students to read, analyze, and produce their own ‘media-texts’. In this situation the developmental and formative functions of media education come first: media education serves both as a tool to study this area of knowledge and a way to shape students’ overall information culture – mostly critical thinking and skills to handle information. As for media education technologies, they have an applied nature and help to consolidate studying of various school subjects and courses into an integrated process of learning because the main goal of media education is to develop overall information skills, information culture, ethics and aesthetics of communication in the world of mass communications.
Dictionary Creation and Management Collaboration: A Technique for Developing Reading Competence in Future Engineers
Geykhman, Lyubov K.
[about], Stavtseva, Irina V.
[about]
Traditional engineering education relies on creating a strong base of fundamental science training and is focused on delivering specific knowledge in a narrow field of study. On the one hand, it seems natural to teach students only those technical things they will definitely need in their future jobs, but, on the other hand, this issue poses a pedagogical problem because what today’s teachers think is important does not always remain true for tomorrow’s specialists.
Technology changes rapidly. It becomes almost impossible to predict what specific knowledge engineers will need in their careers even in the nearest future. That is why the scientific education community searches constantly for the means to help their budding members to avoid frustration and survive the avalanche of information coming their way.
Media Literacy in Information Culture of Elementary School Students
Gendina, Natalia I.
[about], Kosolapova, Elena V.
[about]
One of signs of the global information society is the increasing role of information which has a strong influence on children. Gigantic amounts of information from various media channels "rain down" on unprepared children. An increasing flow of information transforms the model of education, challenging teachers to develop new approaches and methodologies. The growth of information, global digitalization, dynamic development of information, communication technologies and new media have shown the need for information training and media education of every society’s member. However, this problem is particularly relevant for a younger generation. The need for developing children's media literacy, critical thinking, and critical attitude to information is urgent from starting from the younger school age.
“Climbing the Mountain” of Media Education
Gudilina, Svetlana I.
[about]
By and large, social media has changed the life activities of our younger generation. The well-known media expert and philosopher, Marshall Mc Luhan, noticed back in the 20th century that we first, create a technology and then, it recreates us. This observation is valid today. Aware of Mc Luhan’s insight, we, educators, must work to restructure our field, no matter what it is, to include the study of mass communications and new technologies in order to adequately train our students for their successful entry into what is now a global information environment. Whether we like it or not, media plays an important role in the personality development of the informational and communication cultures of the world’s teenagers. It is no wonder that many countries consider media literacy to be a vital component of modern education in a democratic society.
The Global Media Literacy Imperative
The globalization of education marches on inexorably as the integration of economies has created complex webs of capital, trade, information, currencies, services, supply chains, capital markets, information technology grids and technology platforms that form a more intricate, multifaceted system than a model of simple economic competition among nations. The competition for industries to attract talent and for citizens to obtain high-skill, high wage jobs – as well as the need to cooperate on the most pressing issues of our time, such as terrorism, water shortages, environmental changes and pandemic diseases -- has moved beyond national boundaries, with stakes for success higher than ever (Stewart, 2014).
Teaching Children with Disabilities in a Rural Russian School
Nowadays, there are quite a lot of children with developmental disorders in Russian country schools. In some of them, the share of Type VII (developmental delay) and Type VIII (mentally retarded) students reaches 30-40%. So, it is quite common for children with disabilities to be integrated into the environment of their normally developing peers for a variety of reasons (3, p 8.). The predominant reasons for integration are the scarcity of special education institutions in rural areas of the country and the reluctance of parents to send their children so far from home to be educated.
