Describes a method for teaching sociological concepts in introduction to sociology courses that utilizes clips from the television show "The Real World." Discusses the use of popular culture to teach sociology and the various topics and accompanying clips from the television program. Highlights the advantages and disadvantages of this technique.…

Adult education instructors and administrators, who typically are not members of the hip-hop generation, have little or no background, sensitivity, or understanding of the influence and significance of black popular culture and music for young African American and white adult learners. (Contains 1 note.)

The study "New Media in the Humanities: from metaphors of inevitability to metaphors of possibility," argues that using digital technologies in humanities classrooms (at the post-secondary level) is transformative for both students and professors. It begins by identifying and then allaying the fears that scholars in the humanities…

To hear many educators tell it, their biggest problem these days is America's high expectations of school performance. The media keep repeating how the global economy soon will require nearly all young Americans to be fully prepared for post-secondary education. Legislators keep ratcheting up state-imposed and No Child Left Behind thresholds and…

College campuses in America have become buzzing media centers. Educators who are serious about maximizing student learning and facilitating social, moral, and civic development must now also become serious about understanding the influence of media on their students. Today's students are largely socialized through the media, a reality that calls…

Research has increasingly highlighted the importance of children's social and cultural experiences for understanding about learning, what is learned and what is perceived as being important for learning. The development of literacy learning begins well before children start school as they engage in the literate practices of their homes and…

In this paper we examine how the figure of the teenager is positioned within the discourses and practices of commercial online media. In particular, we explore how the popular, Australia-based web portal "ninemsn" works discursively to shape the identities of young people. Ninemsn not only constructs and circulates selected…

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the conceptualization of the predatory stalker came to the forefront of the criminal concerns imagined by the American public. With this growing public concern and the associated media coverage, legislation designed to enhance punishments against those who might stalk became a political asset and a significant…

Students often approach history survey classes with a significant degree of dread. Nevertheless, at least one history class is required for graduation from most, if not all, universities, and most students elect to take survey courses to fulfill that requirement. Students rarely enroll in an American history class eagerly, because they anticipate…

The concept of critical media literacy expands the notion of literacy to include different forms of mass communication and popular culture, as well as deepens the potential of literacy education to critically analyze relationships between media and audiences, information and power. The authors argue that critical media literacy is crucial for…

In the past, the music curricula of Hong Kong (HK), Mainland China and Taiwan have focused on Western music, but with the advent of music technology and the new tripartite paradigm of globalisation, localisation and Sinophilia this has begun to change. Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei share a common historical culture and their populations are…

The new "Computers and Writing" course implemented by the division of rhetoric and composition at the University of Texas at Austin is an elective second-year writing course that satisfies the university's requirement for writing component courses. In this course, instructors and students generate and apply rhetorical terminology and…

These papers were collected from participants at a conference on young children, adults, and music. Papers include: (1) "Preschool Children's Responses to Music on Television" (Katharine Smithrim, Canada); (2) "Learning to Observe in Order to Join the Musical Activities Better to the Total Development of the Young Child" (Margre van Gestel, The…

Using data taken from the National Endowment for the Arts' Surveys of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) which were conducted in 1982 and 1992, this report looks at the effect of age on adult arts participation in seven benchmark or core art forms: classical music, opera, ballet, musicals, jazz, plays, and art museums. The report examines the…

Using the methods of cultural criticism to analyze the images of Blacks prevalent in American popular culture, this book examines possible connections between the finite and often distorted range of depictions of Blacks, especially prevalent in the mass media, to the treatment that they receive in contemporary society. The book looks at the way…