Charles B. Owen, Laura Dillon, Alison Dobbins, Matthew Rhodes, Madeline Levinson and Noah Keppers
The purpose of this paper is to present the design and evolution of the Dancing Computer project. Dancing Computer is an ongoing research project at the Michigan State University…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the design and evolution of the Dancing Computer project. Dancing Computer is an ongoing research project at the Michigan State University, which is developing a system that aims to increase computer literacy in elementary-aged children by teaching them first to read code before they write it. The main objective is to educate children on basic concepts of computer science.
Design/methodology/approach
Children are given tablet computers that present a simple program line-by-line that they execute as they pretend to be a computer. The programs are acted out on a portable dance floor consisting of colored tiles, and the program statements instruct the child to move, turn and act out dance poses and terminology.
Findings
The Dancing Computer prototype was tested in six different locations in 2016, reaching approximately 250 students. Learning was demonstrated by significant improvements in both task duration and error performance as students performed the activities. The most common errors were movement errors, where participants failed to move the correct number of squares.
Social implications
This project has the potential to increase the level of computer literacy for thousands of children. This project’s goal is to increase understanding of what a computer does, what a program does and the step-by-step nature of computer programs.
Originality/value
This is a unique and a different approach – the norm being to start students off writing code in some language. In Dancing Computer stages children as readers of programs, allowing them to pretend to be a computer in a fun and engaging activity while also learning how computers execute real programs.
Details
Keywords
Sherry E. Sullivan and Lisa A. Mainiero
The major purpose of this paper is to examine how gender differences impact the enactment of careers. An additional goal is to examine whether, as suggested by recent…
Abstract
Purpose
The major purpose of this paper is to examine how gender differences impact the enactment of careers. An additional goal is to examine whether, as suggested by recent conceptualizations, careers are indeed becoming more boundaryless.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on the results of two in‐depth qualitative studies (n=52; n=27).
Findings
Two major patterns were found that describe the careers of professionals in the contemporary workplace. One pattern is called the alpha career pattern: over the life span, people with this pattern first focus on challenge, then authenticity, and then balance. The second pattern is called the beta career pattern: over the life span, people with this pattern first focus on challenge, then balance, and then authenticity.
Practical implications
This paper offers a framework that HR managers and other organizational leaders can use to increase the authenticity, balance and challenge experienced by their employees in order to enhance organizational effectiveness.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the numerous calls for the development of a model to explain the complexities of women's careers as well as to recognize gender differences in career enactment. It was found that, in general, men followed the alpha career pattern while women followed the beta career pattern. However, a limited number of women had career experiences that were more consistent with the alpha career pattern more closely aligned with men while some younger men consciously developed more family‐driven beta patterns.
Madeline M. Crocitto, Sherry E. Sullivan and Shawn M. Carraher
This article aims to examine the process of mentoring and career development within the global arena. Although much has been written on the adjustment of expatriates, relatively…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to examine the process of mentoring and career development within the global arena. Although much has been written on the adjustment of expatriates, relatively little research has examined the exchange of information and knowledge among workers in different countries via the mentoring process.
Design/methodology/approach
A model is offered of how an expatriate progresses through learning cycles aided by multiple mentors. Multiple mentoring contributes to the individual's career development and facilitates the development of organizational tacit and embedded knowledge.
Findings
Using Hall and Chandler's conceptualization of multiple learning cycles over the life span, it is proposed that the expatriate cycles through a learning cycle over the course of an extended assignment. These learning cycles are shorter than the traditional career stages, often lasting two to four years – similar to the length of an expatriate assignment. It is suggested that the stages of an expatriate assignment – predeparture, on‐site and repatriation – represent a learning cycle. A successful expatriate experience is more likely to occur if multiple mentors in various locations are available – as needed – to offer information and career support to the expatriate.
Originality/value
With increasing globalization and rapid technological advances, mentoring relationships that cross national and other types of boundaries have increased, yet theory has not kept pace. A framework is provided for the further examination of expatriate careers and how mentoring can increase career outcomes and knowledge transfer.
Details
Keywords
Joyce Payne and Aurelia Stephen
If you are 30 or older, you are middle‐aged by someone's criteria. When the college students of the 1970s declared “Don't trust anyone over 30,” did you think they would be…
Abstract
If you are 30 or older, you are middle‐aged by someone's criteria. When the college students of the 1970s declared “Don't trust anyone over 30,” did you think they would be someday talking about you? And what about those who say “Life begins at 40”? Did you ever believe them?
Paul Paolucci, Micah Holland and Shannon Williams
Machiavelli's dictums in The Prince (1977) instigated the modern discourse on power. Arguing that “there's such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to…
Abstract
Machiavelli's dictums in The Prince (1977) instigated the modern discourse on power. Arguing that “there's such a difference between the way we really live and the way we ought to live that the man who neglects the real to study the ideal will learn to accomplish his ruin, not his salvation” (Machiavelli, 1977, p. 44), his approach is a realist one. In this text, Machiavelli (1977, p. 3) endeavors to “discuss the rule of princes” and to “lay down principles for them.” Taking his lead, Foucault (1978, p. 97) argued that “if it is true that Machiavelli was among the few…who conceived the power of the Prince in terms of force relationships, perhaps we need to go one step further, do without the persona of the Prince, and decipher mechanisms on the basis of a strategy that is immanent in force relationships.” He believed that we should “investigate…how mechanisms of power have been able to function…how these mechanisms…have begun to become economically advantageous and politically useful…in a given context for specific reasons,” and, therefore, “we should…base our analysis of power on the study of the techniques and tactics of domination” (Foucault, 1980, pp. 100–102). Conceptualizing such techniques and tactics as the “art of governance”, Foucault (1991), examined power as strategies geared toward managing civic populations through shaping people's dispositions and behaviors.