Academic Research in General & Special Education

The hyper-linked research paper titles (below) require Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader plug-ins to be installed with your internet browser. If you encounter problems with opening PDF files, simply right click (with your mouse) on the research paper title, then scroll down to and click on: Save Link As. Double-click on the PDF file (where you saved it) to open it.

I. General & Special Education: Instructional Strategies and Classroom Management

Evaluation of Instructional Strategies Book: Teaching with Your Mouth Shut

Reciprocal Teaching: Explanation of the Instructional Strategy, Analysis with Classroom Management and Behavior Modification

Article Critique: Constructivist Cautions: Promises and Problems with the Theory and Practice

Article Critique: Motivating Mainstreamed Students with Severe Disabilities & Teaching Classroom Survival Skills to Students with Learning Disabilities.


II. Learning Disabilities: Assessment of, Modifying Interaction Approaches & Operationalizing a Definition

Changing Personal Approaches to Interacting- Students with Learning Disabilities and ADHD

Article Critique: Operationalizing a Definition of Learning Disabilities

Critique of KeyMath Assessment Test

III. Modified Lesson Plans & Outline of Teaching Strategies for Students with Various Disabilities

Outline of Teaching Strategies: Students with Various Disabilities, Disorders, and Impairments

2nd Grade Subtraction Lesson- Students with Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities

Student Teaching - Two-Digit Multiplication for Self-Contained Summer School Students

IV. Controversial Issues in Education: Assessments, Inclusion Models, Special Education Case-Law

Article Critiques: Academic Standards and Assessment Driven Reform & Inclusion and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Models for Mainstreaming vs. Inclusion vs. Full Inclusion, and the Least Restrictive Environment

Four Legal Precidents Major Impact on Special Education Services in the United States


V. Reading in the Content Areas: Civil War Three Lesson Plans & CLOZE, Critiques of Textbooks & Concept Mapping

Summary of Semantic Mapping Learning article & RCA Critique

Three RCA Lesson Plans on the American Civil War

RCA CLOSE on Emancipation Proclamation



VI. Six Lesson Plans: 12th Grade Economics

Inflation: Why Students Should Be Concerned

The United States and International Trade

Opportunity Cost and Evaluating Economic Decisions:

Scarcity

Laws of Supply & Demand:

Unemployment



VII. 7th Grade American Revolution Lesson Plans & Curriculum:

Twelve Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans with New York State Standards

Six Lesson Plains: Crisis in the Colonies Contributing to the American Revolution

Interdisciplinary Lesson Plan: Poster Project Exhibit

Vocabulary Terms, People, and CLOZE

Trial of Captain Preston Assignment Sheet with Testimonies

Testimonies and Stories Vocabulary Terms with Meanings


All of these documents were converted into PDF files to combat plagiarism (people copying text from my research, then pasting text into his / her own paper), along with the unauthorized copying of my intellectual and others copyrighted property. These files were converted from Macintosh Word 6.0 file format to a Windows Microsoft Word file format, so the text alignment or margins may be off in some documents.

Academic Research in Information & Library Sciences

To access my research and writing in Information & Library Sciences, please click the title above to access the webpage.

Academic Research in Journalism & Social Sciences

The hyper-linked research paper titles (below) require Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader plug-ins to be installed with your internet browser. If you encounter problems with opening PDF files, simply right click (with your mouse) on the research paper title, then scroll down to and click on: Save Link As. Double-click on the PDF file (where you saved it) to open it.

I. FEATURING: Interrelationships between media, culture, and society

Socialization Function & Profound Effects of Mass Media on American Society, Culture, and Individuals

The Advertising Industry: Masking Women's Beauty & Identity, Appealing to Personal Insecurities?

MTV's Gender-Based Alienation & Feminine Narcissism and the Fashion Beauty Complex


II. Journalism / Mass Media

History, Differing Levels of Protection by Medium & Sources, State Laws & Case-Law of Reporter's Privilege

British Newspapers: Is Reporting the Private Lives of & Outing Labour Cabinet Officials in the Public Interest?

Mass Media Undermining Societal Values: Opposition to the Clinton Health Care Reform Initiative


III. Introduction to Political Research

Surveys on Political Talk Radio Shows: Influencing & Misleading Americans Understanding of Politics

SPSS Analysis & Explanation of 1996 National Election (Congressional) Survey

Analysis of a New York Times 1997 Mayoral Election Poll: Rudy Giuliani v. Ruth Messenger


IV. Philosophy

Naipauls Universal Civilization: Different Cultures Critiquing Other Civilizations

Interests of the Individual are in Conflict Society: Marx v. Neitzsche

Tension Between Individual Freedom & A Just State: A Platonic Review


V. British Politics and the European Union

Political Parties Accommodation of Voters Wants and Parties Agendas

Reasons Behind The Decline of Class Voting & the Emergence of Catch-All Parties

Do Neofunctionalist Theories Explain Clear Lines of Functional Spillover from the Common Market & Common Agricultural Policy to the Economic and Monetary Union?

Expectations of the Common Foreign Security Policy Exceed Its Capabilities

Note: papers written in Britain were composed under British spelling rules.

All of these documents were converted into PDF files to combat plagiarism (people copying text from my research, then pasting text into his / her own paper) , along with the unauthorized copying of my intellectual and others copyrighted property. These files were converted from Macintosh Word 6.0 file format to a Windows Microsoft Word file format, so the text alignment or margins may be off in some documents.

Academic Research in Library & Information Sciences

To access my research and writing in Library and Information Sciences, please click the title above to access the webpage.

Final Collaborative Website: Digital Imaging & Web

During most and even outside of our groups meetings, I volunteered to contribute toward helping to move our group project forward. For the first meeting I drew an entity-relationship diagram to divide the departments website into much more user-friendly categories, recognizing when a webpage may serve multiple purposes and which web-pages may link back to that page. For example, between my proposed directories for (Prospective Students) and the (About Us) department description, I identified that creating separate pages for the Undergraduate Program and the Graduate Program would be shared between these directories, along with creating a page for a map which would identify the departments location. Between (Prospective Students) and (Current Students,) web-pages for course descriptions and course schedules, along with each program’s degree requirements web-pages would be hyper-linked from each divisions pages.

Prior to our groups meeting with the department staff, I transcribed at least a paragraph of this entity-relationship diagram into our group’s Final Project Proposal, along with creating a simpler entity-relationship diagram with Microsoft Word. During the meeting I explained how there was too much information on some of the web-pages and suggested creating separate web-pages, along with creating a landing page specifically for the Russian Department, based on the College of Computing and Informations website pages. While Professor Hilde Hoogenboom liked my proposal to create a web-page describing the program’s history, mission, and message from the Department Chair, along with my proposals to create more user-friendly web-pages, the Assistant to the Chair rejected my proposals along with most proposals made by group members.

After this meeting I discussed with Professor Hoogenboom in her office about all of our group’s rejected proposals which she showed interest and might reconsider, I mentioned this to members of my group, which led to our decision to create (mock) web-pages based on many of our suggestions. In reaction to two members not attending a Saturday night group meeting (after flying back from California the day after Thanksgiving so I could attend), and our not being able to start working on the project because four out of five members did not have the departments documentation, I met with Professor Hoogenboom to have my own copy of this documentation (in case group members did not have access to this information in the future) and to inform her of projects status. With supplemental documents in hand, I presented all of this to my group.

Prior to our December 1st, 2006 meeting, I offered to create a course-schedule web-page and suggested the creation of a webform page, to enable visitors to send online inquiries to the program. Integrating data retrieved from searching UAlbanys online course schedule with the departments more informative print schedule, I created a more comprehensive class schedule. During the December 1st meeting I created for Professor Charles Rouble a biography and courses web-page, along with transforming one of his syllabi and his Curriculum Vitae into PDF format. As Roger uploaded my group members documents, I transcribed my, David Wiltseys, Yi-Shan Sheis stream of consciousness, from our whiteboard outline of the two-page collaborative essay.

While I was upset with Eugenias forgetting about two group meetings (in particular the Saturday night after Thanksgiving), I forgave her after demonstrating the amount of effort and time Eugenia dedicated to creating web-pages and with coordinating the creation of this project. Rogers cognizance of designing web-sites and pages, along with his advanced computer skills absolutely amazed me, as he coordinated the uploading of all our groups mock web-site pages. Yi-Shans and Daves applying their artistic and web-page design skills to the creation of all the remaining web-pages was incredibly helpful, and I greatly appreciate their volunteering to create the web-form page I suggested, after I discovered that I did not have enough time to complete it.

Week 9 - Feedback via Interactive web-form pages

Designing a condensed interactive web page is a highly important characteristic which surprisingly not really emphasized by Jakob Neilsen’s main articles on web usability guidelines. Limiting the length of this survey page to about a page and a half in length of standard letter-size pages, while making sure the web-page remains highly usable, is essential to encouraging feedback, since longer surveys really discourage people from completing surveys. The length of this page was limited significantly by transforming from a vertical listing of five-to-eight lines of check-box answers and Likert-Scale radio button selections per question, into only two horizontal lines per question. Rather than asking a broad range of questions on interactive usability criteria, these questions integrate usability specifications with the characteristics of my web-pages, rather than asking open-ended philosophical questions and soliciting other important information.

In addition to including two one-sentence tag-lines summarizing the purpose of this survey page, a brief window title, this page’s layout emphasizes a clear starting and ending point, along with providing a little box where I can type so visitors are able to express information s/he believes is of high importance. In terms of revealing site content, while this web form page was not intended to “show examples of real site content” (which would have lengthened this page significantly), this web-form provides relevant words hyperlinked directly to specific key pages, offering easily locatable item access to each weekly web page and to my Photoshop Tutorial.

This web-forms visual design enhances interactive design, in addition to Readability. All the plain font are at least twelve-point size, and the font color-contrast is high, so the yellow and blue color text stands-out from the black background. The raised-embossed and inset embossed (increased by five) font, along with increased (by twenty) spread between the lines of font, make the especially large text stand-out from the white graphics and yellow banner background, which help increase readability.

The table format, with a recognizable white outline box and border outline, stands out from the black page background along with from the yellow and blue colored font, which helps users focus attention on each individual question. In addition, this outline design helps users navigate from one question to another, denoting each question’s starting and ending point. This web-form page does not have meaningless, frivolous, or irrelevant images or stock art; it emphasizes feedback with three talking icons in the banner. This banner (created in Fireworks MX 2004) not only decorates this web-page but also serves as a non-verbal indication of interest in user feedback, in addition to the words stating the same importance.

User feedback may be effectively utilized to collect patron contact information (name, phone number, e-mail address, street address, etc) and store it digitally in a standardized format. This reduces the financial expense of hiring people to open envelopes of information received in a mailbox or speak with patrons in person or over the phone, in order to process this information. This information can be uploaded to a central database so that organizations can efficiently send information to patrons by e-mail or mail, and so patrons can log into accounts set-up by the organization.

Week 8 - Flashy vs. Usability

The first thought while reading Jakob Neilsens Flash: 99% bad, was contemplating the last time I actually desired to sit through a Flash animation, when the website’s focus was not specifically oriented toward visual imagery. Unlike website photo galleries of abandoned buildings like Danvers State Insane Asylum and Hours of Darkness, I could not recall of a single website Flash introduction page when my first impulse was not to locate and click on with my mouse the (skip intro) link. Surprisingly, Mr. Neilsen did not mention about poorly designed Flash pages, where it is incredibly hard to click on the (skip intro) and navigation links, along with incompatibility with the Netscape web browser. In addition, Mr. Neilsen did not discuss digital divide problems back in year 2000, with old slower computers, many without current Flash software, along with slow dialup access to large size page downloads, which make accessing these flash-page harder to nearly impossible.

To summarize Mr. Neilsen’s fundamental message throughout the article, most Flash webpage designers seem to be prioritize (style over substance), in which more attention is paid to webpage appearance over providing greater access to information. In application, these practices continues previously mentioned (nasty usability issues), resulting in problems with webpage browsing navigation and tracking, visibility of text, accessibility to persons with disabilities, along with impeding the utility of translation and searching for words. In essence, Mr. Neilsen argues most Flash webpage designers seem to create web-pages which are not appropriately designed for the people interacting with websites, and designers focus on creating attractive animations and toolbars detract from the websites core purpose.

For this assignment I made several modifications to the original Blogger profile photo.

Using Photoshop CS2, I drew two rectangles with the rectangle tool on the lower left window, repeatedly applying the paint bucket tool with black swatch until the lights and reflections from outside the house were removed from the window. Then I increased the brightness by 20 on each space. I then reduced the size of the photo from the original enormous size to a 480 pixel width by a 352 pixel height, for the recommended width for posted images into a table.

With the oval tool in Fireworks MX 2004, I drew a gray colored moon with a 100% oil-slick texture, so it would appear close to what the moon’s actual surface looks like. This moon was saved as a png file, and then imported into Flash MX 2004. For the planet Mars, I drew a smaller planet with an orange-reddish color, and applied a 51% oil-slick texture. This planet was then saved as a png file and imported into Flash MX 2004. I also drew a star with the star-tool, and then saved it as a png file to be imported into Flash MX 2004. I did not import other stars I created from the original, and utilized the free-transform tool to stretch and rotate them.

I drew the rectangle with Flash MX 2004, then utilized the timeline to insert a keyframe at the 40th frame. The transform tool was applied to create a motion and a shape tween, rotating the rectangle 360 degrees counter clockwise with a motion ease of 70 to slow at the end. Similar motion and shape tween modifications were applied to the quote of Ralph Waldo Emerson, except the text rotated clockwise and had a motion ease of 50 to slow at the end. Font styles Verdana, Arial, Courier New, and Italicized Times New Roman was applied to a sequence of words in the quote, to shape tween the text. Text was inserted into rectangle toolbar buttons at the 40th frame, then the (Go to Web Page) behavior was applied, with hyper links to the stated pages.

Page 6: Creative Commons (and Duplicates)

While the Creative Commons is an innovative approach for a work’s creator to determine the extent of how his / her work may be used by others (duplicated), these licenses do not provide the same legal protections which are provided by filing a copyright. However, by work’s creator selecting a license specifying how various may be permitted to use or reproduce his / her original work (whether images, sound files, and other forms of digitized media), a free alternative form of protection is applied to digital works in this rapidly changing online environment. Yet inserting the Creative Commons button does not insure that people will not improperly utilize (duplicate) the work, since this is a completely voluntary resource and the Creative Commons Corporation disclaimer states that they do not provide legal services for utilizing this public license.

I chose the Attribution – Non Commercial 2.5 License because I intended to permit other individuals to (duplicate) copy, distribute, display, and to make derivative works based on my papers as they attribute their authority to me and my papers. Yet, I did not permit others to use (duplicate) any of my written works for commercial purposes, especially my review of library automation systems. However, I converted all of my research papers and writings from a word-processed format to a PDF (Portable Document Format) file, to make the copying of text from any paper and pasting the text into an individuals word-processor incredibly difficult. This included scanning two of my actual graded papers (I did not have the original file) and then Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional converting these digitized images into a PDF format.

For this assignment I purely utilized Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 to create the canvas, the layers, and the buttons with the rollover property. Each button location (the same button was copied and pasted) had three button appearances (text statements) for when the button was in the up position, the mouse was over the button, and for when the button was pressed down. I pasted the designated URL for each specific PDF document (all located in the images6 folder) into the referring URL link field for Macromedia Fireworks. However, a minor problem I discovered after creating this page was that the moment a button was pressed down (to read what the button states in this final position), Adobe Acrobat is launched making it incredibly hard to read what buttons state in the down position.

Page 5: Time Capsule- Politics as manipulation of photographs & philosophies

Included in this digital time capsule are common types of modern methods for self-expression, along with transportation, residential dwellings, and the regional suburban habitat’s season. Representations of Americans’ controversial differing political viewpoints- justifying for / against the continued support to keep United States soldiers in Iraq, two weeks before the 2006 Congressional election, is the theme of images in this digital capsule. These materials should help future generations understand this time period in history, and ways people express personal attitudes.

The Support Our Troops and the Freedom Isn’t Free ribbon stickers should help people in the future see how typical Republicans / Conservatives justify keeping soldiers in Iraq and gas-guzzling vehicles they usually drive.

In comparison, the ribbon / bumpers stickers on the more fuel efficient car will help people in the future understand how Democrats / Liberals dispute the Bush administration’s and the Republican Congress’ unending support to keep soldiers in Iraq and the undefined defined War on Terror.

While Yahoo’s Time Capsule enables users from across the world to define and share digitized documentation of important personal issues, current corporate and technological problems brings the future of the capsule into doubt. Will Yahoo exist twenty years from now- given it’s financial problems, and will the data’s accessibility be limited if Yahoo goes out of business (despite the confidence expressed in Forbes’s article)? If technology and software is unable to be read the stored data twenty years from now, will the Smithsonian Institution be relied upon to translate documents, particularly given the loss of equipment to read older data formats?

While Yahoo!s Time Capsule enables users from across the world to define and share digitized documentation of important personal issues, despite MSNBCs perspective, I believe current corporate and technological problems brings the future of the capsule into doubt. Will Yahoo! exist twenty years from now- given it’s financial problems, and will the data’s accessibility be limited if Yahoo! goes out of business (despite the confidence expressed in Forbes’s article)? If technology and software is unable to be read the stored data twenty years from now, will the Smithsonian Institution be relied upon to translate documents, particularly given the loss of equipment to read older data formats?

Rather than simply photograph to encapsulate a controversial issues at or before a monumental moment in time, I photographed and altered these images with some of Web Team 3s demonstrated Fireworks MX techniques, along with Photoshop. All of the automobile ribbons, bumper stickers, and the lawn signs were pasted into the photographs to represent the political views I wanted to demonstrate as examples of what is typically found. Since these images are not an accurate representation of the automobiles ribbons / bumper stickers attached, and house lawn signs, I have not made this as a contribution to Yahoo!s Time Capsule

In Photoshop, the Bring Our Troops Home- End The War Now (red, white, and blue) sign was rotated two degrees and then cropped to cut out trees, the street, and the house in the background (from another physical location). The image size was shrunk to 54 pixel width and 50 pixel height. Brightness was then decreased by 25. In Fireworks, the image was imported and distorted so that the sign was in alignment with the house (as it may appear if someone drove from the opposite side of the street), through Modify > Transform > Distort.

For the Support Our Troops- Bring Them Home NOW! sign, the sign was rotated one degree and then cropped in Photoshop to remove the sidewalk, street, sky, shrubs, and houses. The image size was shrunk to a 50 pixel height and a 57 pixel width, and the contrast was decreased by 40 so the signs brightness was decreased. In Fireworks, the image was imported and distorted so that the sign would be in alignment with the house (as it might appear if someone drove from the closer side of the street), through Modify > Transform > Distort.

Page 4: Libraries Digitizing Future Collections & Copyright

More photos of Digitizing in the Grenander Reading Room & Preservation Department, posted below this week's essay

Despite Trudi Bellardo Hahn’s claims that mass digitization will drive greater usage of libraries and collections, after reading Impacts of Mass Digitization Projects on Libraries & Information Policy my doubts about the future of print-based libraries have increased. Librarius: of books (Latin). American Heritage Dictionary, posted on Dictionary.com.

By scanning and providing access to entire books (except for opt-outs and still copyright protected materials), why would one visit a library or bookstore (franchise or online) to check-out a particular book (with the exception of rare / hard-to-find books) when s/he can download it for free from the web? However, there is nothing like the convenience and personal experience of feeling and moving the pages of a book in one’s hands. Yet, why does Google not search for the publisher or author of a book before scanning the copyright protected item, when they have created such a powerful online search engine?

Despite Professor Hal Varian’s statement that Google TENDS NOT TO OWN anything, by indexing the world’s knowledge Ms. Bellardo Hahn is implying Google owns its data (a searchable index) which HAS a resale VALUE, along with advertising revenue from Google Book Search to hyperlinked online bookseller items. Google may also lease its comprehensive searchable index to online databases, which many libraries subscribe to. Finally, once the book is no longer copyright protected, Google in the future may offer downloads from it’s Dark Archive a book at a price lower than publishers, and to libraries.

Lawrence Lessig’s presentation at times almost mocks the Authors Guild’s and American Association of Publishers’ arguments, and by presenting his points to almost an absurdity. Mr. Lessig articulates not only why Google believes digitizing books is not only fair use, but also how the public (including libraries) benefits from increased access to information. I found Mr. Lessig’s explanation fascinating- people will lose access to the past if Google is found in violation of copyright laws, by not getting copyright owner’s permission first.

Web Page 4 is designed for people researching copyright and related restrictions ONLY for libraries digitizing collections, providing direct access to resources on these topics. After reviewing Google’s top 50 retrievals on “Library or libraries AND digitizing AND copyright,” I selected the five best resources (web-pages and downloadable documents) on U.S. Copyright restrictions on digitizing, along with one organization in the United Kingdom’s web-page, since Oxford University participates in the Google Book Program. These online resources discuss or outline copyright restrictions on Google and libraries (among other organizations) digitizing various collections from past, present, and future.

Digitization of books and archives, along with libraries providing online access to these resources and subscription vendor databases, has shifted libraries’ and archives’ mission from meeting patrons needs who visit their facility, to providing patrons with convenient access to a wide range of information resources online, from inside or outside the facility. I believe this blending of environments will not only continue libraries reducing funding for the acquisition and retention of print sources (see the UA Libraries News & Events), along with bookshelves, furniture, and microforms, but also increasing funding for online resources and information technology to provide alternative access to similar resources.

From the Preservation Department

From the Grenander Reading Room