Papers by J. Patrick McGrail
IGI Global eBooks, Jul 15, 2013
Twenty-first century technologies, in particular the Internet and Web 2.0 applications, have tran... more Twenty-first century technologies, in particular the Internet and Web 2.0 applications, have transformed the practice of writing and exposed it to interactivity. One interactive method that has received a lot of critical attention is blogging. The authors sought to understand more fully whom young bloggers both invoked in their blogging (their idealized, intentional audience) and whom they addressed (whom they actually blogged to, following interactive posts). They studied the complete, yearlong blog histories of fifteen fifth-graders, with an eye toward understanding how these students constructed audiences and modified them, according to feedback they received from teachers as well as peers and adults from around the world. The authors found that these students, who had rarely or never blogged before, were much more likely to respond to distant teachers, pre-service teachers, and graduate students than to their own classroom teachers or peers from their immediate classroom. The bloggers invoked/addressed their audiences differently too, depending on the roles that they had created for their audiences and themselves.
Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 2009
Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks, Nov 15, 2016
To explore the potential of conversations with an authentic audience through blogging for enrichi... more To explore the potential of conversations with an authentic audience through blogging for enriching in the young writers the understanding of the communicative function of writing, specifically language and vocabulary use. Design We situate our work in a language acquisition model of language learning where learners develop linguistic competence in the process of speaking and using the language (Krashen, 1988; Tomasello, 2005). We also believe that language learning benefits from formal instruction (Krashen, 1988). As such, in our work, we likened engaging in blogging to learning a language (here, more broadly conceived as learning to write) through both natural communication (acquisition) and prescription (instruction), and we looked at these forms of learning in our study. We were interested in the communicative function of language learning (Halliday, 1973; 1975; Penrod, 2005) among young blog writers as we see language learning as socially constructed through interaction with other speakers of a language (Tomasello, 2005; Vygotsky, 1978),. Findings The readers and commenters in this study supported young writers in their language study by modeling good writing and effective language use in their communication with these writers. Young writers also benefited from direct instruction through interactions with adults beyond classroom teachers, in our case some of the readers and commenters. Practical Implications Blogging can extend conversations to audiences far beyond the classroom and make writing an authentic endeavor for young writers. Teachers should take advantage of such a powerful tool in their writing classrooms to support their students' language study and vocabulary development.
Rehabilitation Psychology, 2013
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether coping humor predicted certain measures of f... more The purpose of this study was to investigate whether coping humor predicted certain measures of family functioning in parents of children with disabilities. Seventy-two parents of children diagnosed primarily with autism spectrum disorders and multiple disabilities completed the Coping Humor Scale (CHS) and Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES IV). The FACES IV measures two major dimensions of family functioning: cohesion and flexibility. The CHS measures the degree to which participants use humor to cope with stressful experiences in their lives. Optimal functioning of the family is theorized to be based on a balanced level of both cohesion and flexibility. In the present study, coping humor was hypothesized to predict balanced cohesion as well as balanced flexibility. The data were analyzed using single and hierarchical linear regression. The results of the regressions indicated that coping humor significantly, albeit weakly, predicted cohesion and flexibility. However, the effects of education level and the number of children in the family also had a significant predictive effect on cohesion and flexibility. Contributions of the study, limitations, and implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, 2018
Much has been written on the natures and personalities of teachers in educational research
Journal of Special Education, Mar 18, 2014
The humor styles and family functioning of parents of children with disabilities are understudied... more The humor styles and family functioning of parents of children with disabilities are understudied subjects. This study seeks to shed quantitative light on these areas. Seventy-two parents of children with disabilities completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales (FACES IV) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ). The FACES IV measured several dimensions of family functioning: cohesion, flexibility, communication, and satisfaction. Cohesion and flexibility were variously scored to indicate whether a balanced or unbalanced propensity for these existed within the family. The HSQ was used to examine whether two adaptive styles of humor (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive styles of humor (aggressive and self-defeating), were associated with balanced and unbalanced cohesion and flexibility, as well as with the presence of communication and satisfaction. The most significant results indicated a persistent correlation between prosocial humor styles and family communication and satisfaction. Further exploratory research is urged.
See presentation description
The rapid proliferation of better quality "prosumer" equipment and powerful yet inexpensive editi... more The rapid proliferation of better quality "prosumer" equipment and powerful yet inexpensive editing software have helped erode the long-standing distinction between professional media producers and amateurs. Today's aspiring young artists can take existing film, musical works, and other audiovisual material and transform them in varying degrees to create new work that comments on the world around them and that rivals in quality much of what Hollywood and professional musicians produce. However, this assessment is from the point of view of content. The looming specter of aggressive copyright policing by a litigious creative industry still divides the haves from the have nots. Industry monitors have been able to conduct mass takedowns of work they deem to be derived from their own, as provided for by the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Both pre-service teachers and aspiring media professionals must pay close attention to the copyright implications of creative work they choose to appropriate. They must take especial care that the work they find for secondary manipulation and reframing meets the standards for fair use and transformation as provided in the Copyright Act. In this chapter, we discuss the concept of transformation and how to best use its freedoms and assess its limits in the creation of new digital media objects and creative classroom tools.
Routledge eBooks, Mar 31, 2016
Education and Information Technologies, Jun 10, 2009
In this article, the authors argue that copyright law, conceived of in an "analog" age, yet made ... more In this article, the authors argue that copyright law, conceived of in an "analog" age, yet made stricter in our present Digital Age, actively stifles creativity among today's student creators, both by its bias toward content owners and its legal vagueness. They also illustrate that copyright law is too stringent in protecting intellectual content, because physical and virtual objects are not the same thing. They conclude with a call to revise copyright for new media content that meets the needs of both content creators and pre-existing media content owners, and that, most importantly, benefits the education of the creative and innovative mind in today's mediacentric classrooms.
See presentation description
Advances in educational technologies and instructional design book series, 2014
Handbook of Research on Digital tools for writing instruction in K-12 settings / Rebecca S. Ander... more Handbook of Research on Digital tools for writing instruction in K-12 settings / Rebecca S. Anderson and Clif Mims, editors. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
... Whether these changes came about because of, or were effectuated chiefly through, the mass me... more ... Whether these changes came about because of, or were effectuated chiefly through, the mass media is a question too soon to ask. ... There is a significant difference in the direction and tone of the criticisms of these two works, however. ...
Développement humain, handicap et changement social, Feb 11, 2022
Studies of television portrayals of parent/child relationships where the child has a disability a... more Studies of television portrayals of parent/child relationships where the child has a disability are rare. Using the social relational theory perspective, this study examines interactions between parents and a young man with a disability as portrayed in the acclaimed contemporary television series, Friday Night Lights. We found a nuanced relationship between the portrayed teen and his parents and a powerful influence of the community on the parent-child relations and family life.
The 1976 Act, now more than 30 years old, is the current law of the land with regard to copyright... more The 1976 Act, now more than 30 years old, is the current law of the land with regard to copyright. The act gives remarkably broad protection to authors, requiring only that a creative work be fixed in a "tangible means of expression," such as a tape, disc, hard drive, or piece of paper. This means that copyright protection is sweeping, potentially covering artifacts as quotidian as e-mails, laundry lists, and love notes. Online, such activities as downloading a Web page for later reference or posting a video made while the television plays in the background, may constitute violations of copyright. Since the act was passed, the digital age has fundamentally reshaped the relationship between original works and their copies that held with the analog duplication processes of the former era (Exhibit 1). This transformation has created a host of legal, ethical, and social circumstances that the 1976 law could not anticipate. In this article, we explore how the technological, social, cultural, and legal developments of the digital age challenge educators and students who seek to make use of copyrighted material for educational purposes and offer educators strategies for dealing with today's copyright challenges. We conclude with a call to revise the copyright law and suggest the direction that a revised copyright law should take to support responsible, creative use of both traditional and new media content, both within and beyond the physical walls of the classroom. Copyright and Today's Students Digital transmission transforms the act of copying in two ways. First, digital technology enables mass copying; e-mail and Internet technologies allow users to send high-quality copies of graphical, visual, or musical materials to a huge number of recipients. Second, generation loss disappears (Nakano and Nakamura 1997); that is, each copy is precisely the same as any other copy. Indeed, if the work in question begins in the digital realm (as is the case with today's digital audio recorders, camcorders, and cameras), not only does every copy exactly resemble every other copy, but each copy is also precisely similar to the original. In this context, the essential difference between the original and a copy-the raison d'être for copyright law-becomes nothing more than a legal fiction. Educators struggle with these changes on the front lines as they are confronted with the task of educating young people about the boundaries of a copyright law that, when read conservatively, prohibits virtually all of the casual copying and remixing in which students often engage. According to Lenhart and Madden (2005), today's content creators are mostly young people who generate material for a wider Internet audience, branching outside of traditional educational venues to disseminate their content on personal Web sites, blogs, and various other kinds of sites, such as chat rooms and social networking sites. In doing this, they borrow
Handbook of Research on Digital tools for writing instruction in K-12 settings / Rebecca S. Ander... more Handbook of Research on Digital tools for writing instruction in K-12 settings / Rebecca S. Anderson and Clif Mims, editors. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
This Article has supplementary content. View the full record on NSUWorks here:
may pass laws to protect the intellectual property of the citizens of the United States. Today, t... more may pass laws to protect the intellectual property of the citizens of the United States. Today, the controlling statute of copyright, Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 102, covers books, graphical material, written music, manuscripts, paintings, architecture (in the form of plans), and sculpture as well as various forms of musical, dramatic, pictorial, and motion picture work and sound recordings. This title
The Routledge Companion to Media Education, Copyright, and Fair Use
Uploads
Papers by J. Patrick McGrail