bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dissertation Redesign for Scholarly Practitioners in Educational Leadership
Authors: MacGregor Cynthia J. , Fellabaum Jennifer
Published: July 2017

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the innovative Dissertation-in-Practice model being implemented in the University of Missouri Statewide Cooperative Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership (EdD Program). This doctoral program develops scholarly practitioners who are able to address critical problems of practice through the use of theory, inquiry, and practice-oriented knowledge. While these skills are utilized to create purposeful, professional products throughout the program, the redesigned Dissertation-in-Practice at MU is intended to further showcase the impact of the students' work as scholarly practitioners through dissemination-ready components. The chapter includes the history of the program and a description of the process through which program faculty redesigned the dissertation from a traditional five-chapter model to its current six section form. This restructuring, which includes dissemination to scholars and practitioners, is detailed. The chapter concludes with emerging supports for the scholarly practitioner graduates.
HCI and E-Learning
Authors: Obilade Titilola T.
Published: July 2017

This chapter developed a framework for evaluating e-learning for use in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). A systems approach was used in the study; input, processes and output. It discussed the different assumptions about how people learn; behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. Further, it examined the common threads in the definitions of e-learning and the literature on evaluation of e-learning models. Nine categories of evaluation of e-learning were identified but five were reviewed because the remaining four overlapped. Two separate evaluations were reviewed under each category, making a total of ten reviews. The reviews showed that the evaluations were not conducted in the same way even within the same category making comparisons difficult. The framework was developed from the highlights in the review. The developed framework can be used to evaluate different e-learning modules along common lines making it easy to compare evaluations. It is hoped that over the next few years, a consistency in evaluations of e-learning would be achieved for use in HCI.
Teacher Effect Model for Impacting Student Achievement
Authors: Heafner Tina L.
Published: July 2017

Teachers are a significant factor associated with student achievement. Research recognizes that the greatest determinate of student achievement is the teacher, yet questions remain as to what characteristics of teachers are the most influential and where these attributes can be influenced through professional development. This paper explores the teacher effect through the evaluation of the interaction among characteristics of four teacher profiles using Surveys of Enacted Curriculum®. This Teacher Effect Model was designed to evaluate the future impacts of sustained professional development.
Systematic Support for STEM Pre-Service Teachers
Authors: Rogers Reenay R.H. , Winship Jodie , Sun Yan
Published: July 2017

Developing a strong STEM teacher workforce is essential to improve K-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade) STEM education and to strengthen the STEM talent pipeline in the United States. Based on the successful experience in Project Engage, a grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, this chapter proposes an authentic and sustainable four-pillar STEM professional development model. Grounded on social constructivist and interactive approaches, this professional development model is intended to cultivate STEM pre-service teachers' ability to provide K-12 students with authentic STEM learning experience as defined in the four types of authenticity (i.e., context authenticity, task authenticity, impact authenticity, and personal/value authenticity) identified by Strobel and his colleagues (Strobel, Wang, Weber, & Dyehouse, 2013).
High School Turnaround
Authors: Stobaugh Rebecca , Chandler Wanda G. , White Crystal
Published: July 2017

After implementing Response to Intervention (RTI), a high school in a rural Kentucky community made a dramatic turnaround within 2 years after establishing structures to support both teachers and students. The principal, special education director, other administrators, district personnel, school improvement specialists, teacher leaders, interventionists (i.e., a high school content area specialist), and school faculty implemented changes that were responsible for the turnaround. High expectations, a positive school culture, professional development, guided planning, student assessment, data analysis, research-based intervention programs, and a systems change approach are some of the contributions that led to widespread improvements at the school level and in individual student gains.
Self-Assessment of Principals Based on Leadership in Complexity
Authors: Fındık Leyla Yılmaz
Published: July 2017

This study is designed to provide a picture of principal leaders in the school. The focus of this study is to identify and describe the characteristics of principal's leadership process in complex situation based on self-assessment. The study conducted by qualitative approach consisted of volunteer principals working in the city center of Ankara, Turkey. We discuss how these findings provide a deeper understanding of the latest principals' leadership process in complexity based on principals' self-assessment. The researcher gathered and analyzed data in an effort to create a template of essential leadership characteristics that could be utilized at other schools or in other educational environment. The results likely to suggest that self-assessment of principals in complexity are well worth revealing how the principals perceive their leadership process and what leading characteristics are viewed when they have complex situation.
Implementation of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through an On-Line Masters Program
Authors: Laksov Klara Bolander , Silén Charlotte , Boman Lena Engqvist
Published: July 2017

In this case study, the introductory course in an international masters program in medical education (MMedEd) called “Scholarship of Medical Education” is described. Some of the background to why the MMedEd was started and the underlying ideas and principles of the program are provided. The individual course, which consists of 10 weeks part time study on-line with an introductory face to face meeting, is described in terms of the intentions and pedagogical principles underlying the design, the teaching and learning activities, and how the students were supported to achieve the intended learning activities, as well as the challenges and concerns that arose throughout and after the course. Finally, some solutions to these problems are discussed.
Joint Professional Development of Teacher Candidates and Mentoring Teachers in Using Project-Based Learning for 21st Century Learning Outcomes
Authors: Shambaugh Neal
Published: July 2017

One teaching strategy that engages students and teachers in 21st century learning outcomes is project-based learning (PBL). This chapter documents two years of professional development with PBL involving 72 teacher candidates, 19 public schools, and 41 mentoring teachers who jointly created, taught, and evaluated 43 PBL units. An online teacher education course structured the professional development over the last semester for teacher candidates. The semester-long course used the state's professional development materials to structure the design, teaching, and evaluation of the PBL units. The chapter is organized around four main ideas. (1) PBL is an appropriate over-arching teaching approach for classroom teachers to address 21st century learning outcomes. (2) PBL teaching provides teachers a relevant setting for media and technology use. (3) PBL implementation requires ongoing professional development and mentoring. (4) Professional development and PBL teaching can involve both teacher candidates and their mentoring teachers learning from each other.
A Paradigm Shift for Teachers' Professional Development Structure in Turkey
Authors: Günel Murat , Özer-Keskin Melike , Keskin-Samancı Nilay
Published: July 2017

This chapter concerns the importance of in-service training programmes for the professional development of science teachers. A description will be given of the general structure of in-service training activities in Turkey and the results will be presented of an in-service training project, which was conducted as part of a three-year longitudinal study. Within the scope of the project, an in-service training programme for science teachers was conducted based on the argument-based inquiry approach and the theoretical premises upon which it is built. The project aimed to direct science teachers towards student-centred teaching. The training activities focused on the scientific thinking underpinning the teachers' professional knowledge and practices, their perceptions on learning, and their pedagogical practices and epistemological beliefs. The extent to which these activities affected classroom applications and learning processes was investigated and the findings suggest that they had a statistically significant impact on the teachers' pedagogical development and on the students' academic performance and thinking skills.
Educational Management Leadership
Authors: Brzozowski Maciej , Ferster Ilan
Published: July 2017

This chapter examines new directions in educational management leadership theory and practice. Relevant literature is synthesized to provide a holistic picture of current knowledge of the topic, highlighting meanings, principles, prerequisites, process and consequences. The major aim of the research is to investigate the interrelation between nigh school principal's management style and parental involvement in school management in Israel. The chapter illustrates recent educational reforms in Israel as the context for introducing a specific style of managing school organizations and staff in a goal-oriented forward-thinking manner. Educational leadership moves the principal beyond upholding the status quo and towards setting an individual vision towards which to lead the school organization. Properly applied, it should help school principals forge a vision of educational success that can anticipate and adapt to the demands of the overall state requirements as well as the localized needs of school staff, the local community, the students, and their parents.
Educational Leadership for Enhancing Quality in Teacher Education
Authors: Baporikar Neeta
Published: July 2017

Educational leadership refers to the process of soliciting and managing the capacities and vitalities of teachers, pupils and parents toward achieving common educational aims. Educational leadership also refers to an individual or group of people who are in charge and lead schools, institutions, programmes and students. The development of leadership as a separate entity goes some way in arguing that an effective educational leader will share much of the same characteristics as a successful business leader. If one sees leadership as a distinct vocation, then one can see that many of the skills and traits are transferable. However, education is a special case, because teaching students has to be the central purpose that educational leadership must reflect. Hence, even if it is drawn from various existent theories of leadership, yet the success is dependent on how much it would enhance the quality of teacher education. The overall mission of this valuable study is to aid researchers in recognizing and understanding the need of educational leadership for enhancing the quality of teacher education.
Culturally Responsive Educational Leadership in Cross-Cultural International Contexts
Authors: Santamaría Lorri J.
Published: July 2017

This chapter provides a model for thinking about educational leadership responsive to dynamic multicultural and global societies. Leadership conditions and behaviours associated with the author's experiences in five cross-cultural international research projects across 6 countries (United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, and Canada) are presented as a comparative case-study. A definition for culturally responsive educational leadership is proposed with examples of circumstances under which this type of leadership might occur. This contribution is framed by empirical findings and characteristics identified in previous research. Current findings suggest leadership in cross-cultural international contexts is culturally responsive when grounded in (1) the kaupapa or ethos of participating cultures; (2) shared and distributed power; (3) the collective being more highly regarded than the individual; (4) collective knowledge generation based on strengths individual members bring to ‘the table;' (5) reciprocity; and (6) a prevailing spirit of pro-activism.
Diversity in Undergraduate Medical Education
Authors: Castillo-Page Laura , Eliason Jennifer , Conrad Sarah S. , Nivet Marc A.
Published: July 2017

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) developed the Diversity 3.0 framework to reflect this current, evolving literature on diversity and inclusion, as well as the increasing need to broaden the scope of diversity work. This framework illustrates the major components of organizational culture and climate: Institutional and social context, institutional structures and policies, and the key groups of people within the institution: administrators, professional staff/non-faculty, faculty and students. This chapter will explore various aspects of the Diversity 3.0 framework, presented by experts in the field of institutional culture and climate. Additionally, the chapter will provide information on how institutions can engage their surrounding community, what metrics to consider when assessing organizational culture and climate, and how to best leverage data and findings once they are obtained.
Potential Skilled Labor Migration, Internationalization of Education with Focus on Medical Education
Authors: Achehboune Amale , Driouchi Ahmed
Published: July 2017

This chapter is a contribution to the new economics of skilled labor emigration that focuses on the mobility of students with application to the Arab countries with a special focus on medical education in these economies. With limited data on the emigration of students, descriptive statistics besides regression analysis are pursued to support the empirical investigations. The findings show statistically significant trends in emigration of students from Arab countries. They also indicate that the relative expected benefits and the emigration rate have major effects on the net relative human capital who leave for international destinations. The effects of the relative expected benefits in the destination and sending countries besides the yield of education are found to likely affect the emigration patterns. The empirical results based on the available data mainly from UNESCO (1990-2010) and OECD (2005-2009) allow further use of the model to understand the current trends in the emigration of students. These trends confirm the magnitude of relative wages besides the level of education and the attitude toward risk as determinants of the international movements of students. The complexities taking place in the education systems in different countries with the internationalization and delocalization of universities and schools are likely to introduce more options for students but also new possibilities to understand the outcomes of migration decisions.
The Rural Learning Challenge
Authors: Lauzon Al
Published: July 2017

This chapter examines how technology is supporting the health and health care system for rural/remote people, specifically telehealth and the Internet, with a focus on the Canadian context. I will begin by outlining the opportunities and the challenges that technology presents to rural people and communities. This is followed by highlighting the divide between rural and urban in the Canadian context, with a focus on inequities related to health. This is followed by exploring the role of ICTs in health and health care with a focus on changes in the Canadian healthcare system, telehealth and the Internet as a source of health related information. These issues are then examined through a rural lens, asking the question what, if any are the implications for rural people and communities. I end with a section of reflections followed by the conclusion that ICTs present new opportunities for rural people and communities, but if they are to be able to take advantage of these opportunities they must learn to develop the necessary capacities, both as individuals and as a community. Their challenge is a learning challenge.
Emotional Intelligence and Political Skill Really Matter in Educational Leadership
Authors: Taliadorou Nikoletta , Pashiardis Petros
Published: July 2017

In this chapter, the authors investigate the social skills that school principals ought to exhibit in order to be more effective in the complex environment that characterizes modern schools. Thus, the main aim of this chapter is to provide an in-depth exploration of those social skills that are needed in order for school principals to become more flexible to external and internal requirements and to balance the need for change with stability. Therefore, an attempt is made to investigate the linkages between school leadership, emotional intelligence, political skill, and teachers' job satisfaction, as well as to examine the correlation of emotional and political skills of principals with the job satisfaction of their teachers.
Adult Education
Authors: Ellington Linda
Published: July 2017

This chapter analyzes literature in adult education at the intersection of health and the ageing society. In a contemporary context characterized by movement towards ageing societies, a current challenge of adult education planning can be attributed to the shifting global demographic profile; migration has resulted in higher percentages of older people throughout most of the world, as well as greater diversity within the older population (Grenier, 2012). Education about adult health must go beyond the traditional practice of knowledge dissemination, not only because of the sheer size of the 65+ age cohort, but knowing that this particular population does not want to lose their locus of control in their independent status within their society. Established literature illustrates the significance of adult health education and highlights the importance of medical, sociology, psychology, and social policy for not only stimulating the interest of senior adults, but of society in whole.
An Investigation of a Computer Training Company's Migration to a New Distance Learning Platform and the Implementation of an Online Professional Development Program
Authors: Rudd Denis , Bernadowski Carianne
Published: July 2017

The purpose of the study was to determine if the Training Partner Program was successful in preparing trainers to use a new distance learning platform. Results indicate the program was a success in improving self-efficacy, engagement, and collaboration among trainers. Additionally, characteristics of online trainers are identified. Online learning in higher education, business training, and elementary/secondary schools is increasing exponentially and developing effective professional development programs to prepare instructors is of paramount importance. The current study provides valuable insight for any training managers or educators developing activities and exercises to train their faculty on distance learning software and systems.
Integrating Technological Innovations to Enhance the Teaching-Learning Process
Authors: Estes Judi Simmons , Dailey-Hebert Amber , Choi Dong Hwa
Published: July 2017

Virtual reality is one of the latest technologies to be integrated into the teaching-learning process and it holds significant potential to enhance instructional processes and impact student learning. Historically, technology integration for instruction has been initiated primarily within institutions of higher education, while K-12 integration has been gradual to become part of mainstream education. Likewise, as teachers play a pivotal role in the process of technology integration, it is imperative to train teachers not only in computer literacy, but also in the requisite technological knowledge and skills needed to use technology in instruction. Furthermore, such training should be accompanied by support for teachers in developing a pedagogy and self-efficacy for technology integration. Self-efficacy can also serve as a foundation of motivation for teachers to keep abreast of new technologies and to determine how and when to use such emergent tools to enhance instruction.
Adapting and Advocating for an Online EdD Program in Changing Times and “Sacred” Cultures
Authors: Paulson Elan Nicole
Published: July 2017

The purpose of this chapter is to underscore the importance of recognizing how complex cultural and structural forces shape the design and delivery of a fully online professional doctorate (EdD) program. This chapter considers various challenges and opportunities of a new distance-delivery EdD program in Educational Leadership offered by a leading Canadian university in order to examine how the pressures of educational reform and academic cultural norms shape professional doctorate programs and their components. Ultimately, this chapter calls for promoting greater adaptability within EdD program designs and stronger championing of the program's value and distinctiveness, especially its capacity to be adaptable to the expectations of student stakeholders.
Exploring the Educational Potential of Internet of Things (IoT) in Seamless Learning
Authors: Demirer Veysel , Aydın Betül , Çelik Şeyma Betül
Published: July 2017

One of the new concepts that appear in the learning revolution with emerging technological advances is seamless learning. This type of learning involves the continuity of learning experiences by means of technology regardless of environment and time, and without any interruption. A necessary and useful technology in realizing seamless learning is “Internet of Things”. IoT technology is an infrastructure on which things can communicate with one another or with human beings by connecting to the Internet, and which has the capability of simultaneously storing and exchanging the collected data on cloud computing systems. With its potential in a wide area of applications in the future, this technology is expected to be used in education as well. Furthermore, it has a huge potential to contribute to seamless learning experiences. Development and expansion of this technology will make future educational institutions feel the necessity to accept and adapt this technology. In this regard, this study aimed to introduce IoT technology and to explore educational potential of seamless learning.
User-Centric Social Interaction for Digital Cities
Authors: Synnes Kåre , Kranz Matthias , Rana Juwel , Schelén Olov
Published: July 2017

Pervasive computing was envisioned by pioneers like Mark Weiser but has yet to become an everyday technology in our society. The recent advances regarding Internet of Things, social computing, and mobile access technologies converge to make pervasive computing truly ubiquitous. The key challenge is to make simple and robust solutions for normal users, which shifts the focus from complex platforms involving machine learning and artificial intelligence to more hands on construction of services that are tailored or personalized for individual users. This chapter discusses Internet of Things together with Social Computing as a basis for components that users in a “digital city” could utilize to make their daily life better, safer, etc. A novel environment for user-created services, such as social apps, is presented as a possible solution for this. The vision is that anyone could make a simple service based on Internet-enabled devices (Internet of Things) and encapsulated digital resources such as Open Data, which also can have social aspects embedded. This chapter also aims to identify trends, challenges, and recommendations in regard of Social Interaction for Digital Cities. This work will help expose future themes with high innovation and business potential based on a timeframe roughly 15 years ahead of now. The purpose is to create a common outlook on the future of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) based on the extrapolation of current trends and ongoing research efforts.
Citizen Science, Air Quality, and the Internet of Things
Authors: Black Ilze , White Graham
Published: July 2017

This chapter discusses the emergence of the Internet of Things, using a case study of a citizen science initiative, focusing in particular on issues involved in measuring air quality. The core of the citizen science initiative was formed by a world-wide network of early adaptors of the Internet of Things who, motivated by public health issues, set out to create widely available tools for air quality measuring. With these tools, they established a global, citizen-led, air quality measurement network. Besides highlighting a number of social and technological issues which are involve any such enterprise, this chapter engages with the discourse surrounding the use of IoT in collective sensing projects. Two questions are salient here. Firstly, can IoT technology be used in a citizen science context to monitor air quality? And secondly, does the construction of these devices lead to a successful mobilisation around issues of air quality?
Security Issues and Challenges in Internet of Things
Authors: Panda Sudhosil
Published: July 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims at connecting a large number of communication and information systems. With the further development of pervasive computing, these systems can be integrated into everyday objects, such as household devices and tools. When complex systems are interconnected, it is complicated to keep track of how secure a system or connection is and to distinguish which devices are connected within the IoT and which devices are not. As to the security, the IoT will be faced with more severe challenges. There are the following reasons: 1) the IoT extends the ‘internet' through the traditional internet, mobile network and sensor network and so on, 2) every ‘thing' will be connected to this ‘internet' and 3) these ‘things' will communicate with each other. Therefore, the new security and privacy problems will arise out of which authentication and access control are the most vital security issues that need to be taken care of. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the issues for confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of data in the IoT.
A Key to 5G Networks of Tomorrow
Authors: Rehman Aqeel ur , Alam Syed Muhammad Kashif , Murtaza Ahmar , Khan Iqbal Uddin
Published: July 2017

The emergence of mobile telephony increases the options of its deployment and utilization. As the research goes further, it also delivered Generations of Mobile Communication to us after rapid intervals of time. Each advancement is considers as the generation. Till now Forth Generation (4G) is in its maturity phase and researchers are planning to see 5G commercially around 2020. In upcoming Fifth Generation (5G), vision is to reduce latency typically it will be of less than 1ms, as the latency decrease one more thing will be achieved which can be named as Virtually Zero Distance. As the world is becoming the connected world, the availability of data on global network is going to be huge in size. In addition to that the new emerging concepts like Internet of Things (IoT) are giving boost to the requirement of big data storage and analysis. Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept of providing uniquely identifiable objects connectivity to Internet. This chapter is proposed to highlight the IoT concept and its requirements that are directly linked with the 5G Network technology services.
Energy-Efficient Computing Solutions for Internet of Things with ZigBee Reconfigurable Devices
Authors: Chmaj Grzegorz , Selvaraj Henry
Published: July 2017

Nowadays we are witnessing a trend with significantly increasing number of networked and computing-capable devices being integrated into everyday environment. This trend is expected to continue. With computing devices available as logic structures, they might use each other's processing capabilities to achieve a given goal. In this paper, the authors propose an architectural solution to perform the processing of tasks using a distributed structure of Internet of Things devices. They also include ZigBee devices that are not connected to the Internet, but participate with the processing swarm using local network. This significantly extends the flexibility and potential of the IoT structure, while being still not a well-researched area. Unlike many high-level realizations for IoT processing, the authors present a realization operating on the communications, computing and near protocol level that achieves energy consumption efficiency. They also include the reconfigurability of IoT devices. The authors' work is suitable to be the base for higher-level realizations, especially for systems with devices operating on battery power. At the same time, the architecture presented in this paper uses minimal centralization, moving maximum responsibilities to regular devices. The proposed realizations are described using linear programming models and their high efficiency is evaluated.
Internet of Things Services, Applications, Issues, and Challenges
Authors: Nayak Padmalaya
Published: July 2017

Internet of Things (IoT) is not a futuristic intuition, it is present everywhere. It is with devices, Sensors, Clouds, Big data, and data with business. It is the combination of traditional embedded systems combined with small wireless micro sensors, control systems with automation, and others that makes a huge infrastructure. The integration of wireless communication, micro electro mechanical devices, and Internet has led to the development of new things in the Internet. It is a network of network objects that can be accessed through the Internet and every object can be identified by unique identifier. By replacing IPV4, IPV6 plays a key role and provides a huge increase of address spaces for the development of things in the Internet. The objective of IoT application is to make the things smart without the human intervention. With the increasing number of smart nodes and amount of data that generated by each node is expected to create new concerns about data privacy, data scalability, data security, data manageability and many more issues that have been discussed in this chapter.
Digital Divide, Data Trash, and the Commodification of Information
Authors: Sewchurran Anusharani
Published: July 2017

In an attempt to build a theoretical framework for new media within the African context, this chapter considers terminology that routinely surface around ICTs. Terms such as knowledge economy, information poverty, the digital divide, information, knowledge and data though used interchangeably or roughly to mean similar things, they are laden with value, meaning and reflect power relations within a global and local context. Routinely used terms in a field create discourses which in turn reveal sociocultural, economic practices and power relations which reflect certain hegemonies. This chapter attempts to review some of the terms in the field of ICTs in order to make visible the sociocultural and economic power relations embedded in them. The digital divide offers a key entry point into ICT discourses and the opportunities and challenges presented by new media technology within the context of Africa. The theoretical concepts of the digital divide are reviewed within the larger context of global constructions of information wealth and information poverty.
Nature and Outcome of Nigeria's #NoToSocialMediaBill Twitter Protest against the Frivolous Petitions Bill 2015
Authors: Oladapo Oyewole Adekunle , Ojebuyi Babatunde Raphael
Published: July 2017

Focusing on the #NoToSocialMediaBill Twitter protest against the introduction of The Frivolous Petitions (Prohibition, etc.) Bill 2015, in Nigeria, this chapter examined the composition of the loudest voices that framed the protest, explored the level of engagement of those voices with the content of the bill, and analysed the nature and outcome of the protesters' reactions to the bill. To achieve these objectives, the study adopted a mixed method sequential design consisting of quantitative and qualitative content analyses with framing as the theoretical framework. Findings show that hashtag and retweet features of Twitter together functioned effectively as collective framing tools in the #NoToSocialMediaBill Protest. However, the protesters adopted fear-induced collective frames that ignored the contents of the bill. Though the frames drew global media and human rights activists' attention in support of the protesters' goal of resisting an attempt to restrict freedom of speech, they did not achieve the same with the recall of the initiator of the bill.
Education, Gender, and Child-Rights
Authors: Abioye Taiwo O. , Oyesomi Kehinde , Ajiboye Esther , Omidiora Segun , Oyero Olusola
Published: July 2017

Promoting and improving quality education is one of the core missions of the United Nations at ensuring sustainable future; hence, the slogan: Change towards a better quality of life starts with education. This paper examined the place of education, gender and child rights within the current status of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Ado-Odo/Ota local government of Ogun State, Nigeria. Questionnaire and interviews were used as instruments of data collection. School children between ages 7 and 18 in both private and public schools formed the study population. A sample size, 1000 respondents, was drawn from the population out of which 976 responded effectively to the questions. The findings revealed that education and child rights remain in a precarious state in the local government. There was a limited awareness about child rights among children in primary schools and secondary schools; teaching materials and instructors were grossly inadequate in many of the schools sampled and basic needs such as water and electricity were unavailable. It was also observed that the number of enrolled male children in schools is 24% higher than the females. These challenges should be put into consideration when formulating policies for education in developing countries. There is therefore the need to prioritize education, especially female education, as well as child rights in general in the local government through adequate funding, investment in teachers and creation of awareness about the rights of the child.
Women Entrepreneurs in Nigeria
Authors: Kayode-Adedeji Tolulope , Ige Oyinkansola , Ekanem Thelma
Published: July 2017

For ages, the African culture has limited the activities of women and conditioned, to a large extent, the mentality of most African countries about the place and positioning of women in the society. The mass media have been used as a tool in this. Promoting the abilities and achievements of women in the society is one of the important roles of the media in reducing the rate of gender discrimination. These achievements are becoming noticeable in politics and entrepreneurship; thus, setting a standard for other women in the society to build on. This chapter will explore the role of the media in promoting the woman entrepreneur in Nigeria. The study employed the survey research method for data gathering. Findings showed that women have equal opportunity to grow their businesses. Data shows that this growth is slow as there are no significant differences between respondents who agree or disagree with the availability of enabling environment for women to grow their business as compared to their male counterpart. The study recommends that the mass media need to give more voice to their businesses and activities to pave way and encourage the younger women in the society.
Nigerian Government's Attempts at Removing Fuel Subsidy and the Attendant Mass Protests
Authors: Aderogba Adeyemi , Gbenga Olanipekun
Published: July 2017

The Federal Government of Nigeria made several unsuccessful attempts at stopping petrol subsidy by arguing that the policy is unsustainable. Seven unsuccessful attempts were made between 1999, when the country returned to democratic rule, and 2012. Though the government might have good reasons for removing petrol subsidy, it was clear that there was an obvious disconnection between the government and the people as the people were not in support of the policy. This chapter examined coverage of petrol subsidy removal by three national dailies. Content analysis was adopted as the research method. It was discovered that 49.4% of the stories published by the selected newspapers in the study period were not in favour of petrol subsidy removal. It was therefore recommended that government should endeavour to carry Nigerian citizens along ever before introducing such kind of policy and that media practitioners should set an agenda for fighting corruption in the oil industry.
Press Freedom and Socio-Economic Issues in the Nigerian and Ugandan Democratic Landscape
Authors: Nelson Okorie
Published: July 2017

Press freedom is a global concept that encourages the freedom of the press from external influences or interferences. In Africa, press freedom is enshrined in the constitutions of most countries. However, there are several factors and issues that limit press freedom in Africa. Using Nigeria and Uganda as examples, this chapter explores press freedom and socio-economic issues in a democratic media landscape. Furthermore, the chapter was organized in a number of rubrics; it x-rayed the concept of press freedom. It also examined the constitutional basis of press freedom in Uganda and Nigeria. The chapter concludes that Press freedom promotes transparency and flourishes more in countries where there are constitutional and legal provisions are greatly promoted because of the democratic principles and ideals which are conducted with openness.
A Discourse on Mass Media and Society
Authors: Anozie Nneoma A.
Published: July 2017

Mass media and society, a popular concept in media studies, has constituted much discourse due to roles media play in society and perceived effects that can result thereof. This chapter is inspired by the term ‘medicalization of the society' whereby ailments are regarded as medical issues and subjected to medical diagnosis and treatment, regardless of their true causes. Similarly, the violence, moral decadence and ethno-religious crises witnessed in the society are largely ascribed to the media. This chapter examined the said effects of mass media with society's social systems, cultures and values, with a view to finding a relationship. It argues that these societal makeups especially ones as formidable as Africa's also affect largely members' conducts and reactions to media contents. However, it advocates children's news segment, adherence to media ethics, and use of media programmes to enhance learning, proper socialization, abolishment of negative cultures, media literacy among others.
Awareness and Education on Viral Infections in Nigeria Using Edutainment
Authors: Usaini Suleimanu , Kayode-Adedeji Tolulope , Omole Olufunke , Oyedepo Tunji
Published: July 2017

Researches in clinical and medical science have shown that Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B, and to some extent Hepatitis C viruses, constitute a major public health challenge in the Sub-Saharan Africa. This is without prejudice to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) that is more deadly than the other three put together, and had affected some countries in West Africa- Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. There is little awareness and education via the mass media on some common viral infections in Nigeria like Hepatitis compared to HIV. Therefore, there is dire need for information, sensitisation and education on the viruses, means of transmission, preventive measures and also therapy. Edutainment is the fusion of education into entertainment programming which can come in form of drama, music, poetry and lots more, and it had been used as a platform to create awareness for positive reproductive health and HIV/AIDS by leading health organisations like WHO, USAID, DFID, SFH, and UNFPA. This paper therefore, examines why edutainment should be used and how it can be used to educate media audience in Nigeria on some viral infections that pose serious health risks and how they can live healthy lives.
An Assessment of Media Contribution to Behaviour Change and HIV Prevention in Nigeria
Authors: Elegbe Olugbenga
Published: July 2017

This chapter explores media influence on behaviour change and its implication for HIV prevention programmes in Nigeria. Using the agenda setting, and the uses and gratifications theories, it analyzes how the media set agenda for public opinion and the gratification that audience receive from media information vis-a-vis behaviour change initiatives in reducing HIV epidemic in Nigeria. The chapter through a descriptive and literature review approach assesses effective communication framework for behaviour change and some of the factors contributing to HIV prevalence in Nigeria. The chapter sums up case studies of interventions that have documented the effectiveness of the media in HIV prevention initiatives. The chapter concludes on the positive influence of media intervention in sexual behaviour change programmes but notes that behaviour change still lies with individual decisions. Therefore it recommends other forms of communication like interpersonal communication, community mobilization and advocacy to support media strategies for effective HIV prevention initiatives in Nigeria.
Uncertain Static and Dynamic Analysis of Imprecisely Defined Structural Systems
Authors: Chakraverty S. , Behera Diptiranjan
Published: July 2017

This chapter presents the static and dynamic analysis of structures with uncertain parameters using fuzzy finite element method. Uncertainties presents in the parameters are modelled through convex normalised fuzzy sets. Fuzzy finite element method converts the structures into fuzzy system of linear equations and fuzzy eigenvalue problem for static and dynamic problems respectively. As such method to solve fuzzy system of linear equations, fully fuzzy system of linear equations and fuzzy eigenvalue problems are presented. These methods are applied to various structural problems to find out the fuzzy static and dynamic responses of the structures. Also the chapter analyses the numerical solution of uncertain fractionally damped spring-mass system. Uncertainties considered in the initial condition of the system.
Comparison of Uncertainties in Membership Function of Adaptive Lyapunov NeuroFuzzy-2 for Damping Power Oscillations
Authors: Khan Laiq , Badar Rabiah , Ali Saima , Farid Umar
Published: July 2017

The direct focus of this chapter is to explore the potential of online Adaptive NeuroFuzzy Type-2 (ANFT2) control system for damping inter-area oscillations using Static Synchronous Compensator (STATCOM). The nonlinear ANFT2-based direct control scheme is proposed to damp inter-area oscillations by utilizing its model free and universal approximation capabilities. The Gaussian and triangular membership functions with different variations of uncertain mean and standard deviation are considered for ANFT2. The adaptation mechanism utilizes gradient descent-based back-propagation algorithm using Lyapunov stability criteria to update the rule parameters. The performance evaluation of proposed control strategy has been validated using two and three machine power systems. The nonlinear time domain simulations reveal that ANFT2 has excellent damping capabilities as compared to conventional PI control. Simulation results for different performance indices further emphasize the optimal performance of ANFT2 with uncertain mean and variance of triangular membership function in transient and steady state region.
A Novel Approach of Restoration of Digital Images Degraded by Impulse Noise
Authors: Kumari Rashmi , Asthana Anupriya , Kumar Vikas
Published: July 2017

Restoration of digital images degraded by impulse noise is still a challenge for researchers. Various methods proposed in the literature suffer from common drawbacks: such as introduction of artifacts and blurring of the images. A novel idea is proposed in this paper where presence of impulsive pixels are detected by ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System) and mean of the median of suitable window size of noisy image is taken for the removal of the detected corrupted pixels. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed restoration method both by qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Early Warning System Framework Proposal Based on Structured Analytical Techniques, SNA, and Fuzzy Expert System for Different Industries
Authors: Klepac Goran , Kopal Robert , Mrsic Leo
Published: July 2017

Early warning systems are made with purpose to efficiently recognize deviant and potentially dangerous trends related to company business as early as possible and with significant relevance. There are numerous ways to set up early warning systems within company. Those solutions are often based on single data mining methods, and they rarely provide the holistic and qualitative approach needed in modern market uncertainty conditions. This chapter gives a novel concept for early warning system design within company, applicable in different industries. The core of the proposed framework is hybrid fuzzy expert system, which can contain a variety of data mining predictive models responsible for some specific areas in addition to traditional rule blocks. It can also include social network analysis metrics based on linguistic variables and incorporated within rule blocks. As part of this framework, SNA methods are also explained and introduced as a very powerful and unique tool to be used in modern early warning systems.
Fuzzy Finite Element Method in Diffusion Problems
Authors: Chakraverty S. , Nayak S.
Published: July 2017

Diffusion is an important phenomenon in various fields of science and engineering. It may arise in a variety of problems viz. in heat transfer, fluid flow problem and atomic reactors etc. As such these diffusion equations are being solved throughout the globe by various methods. It has been seen from literature that researchers have investigated these problems when the material properties, geometry (domain) etc. are in crisp (exact) form which is easier to solve. But in real practice the parameters used in the modelled physical problems are not crisp because of the experimental error, mechanical defect, measurement error etc. In that case the problem has to be defined with uncertain parameters and this makes the problem complex. In this chapter related uncertain differential equation of various diffusion problems will be investigated using finite element method, which may be called fuzzy or interval finite element method.
A Hybrid Model for Rice Disease Diagnosis Using Entropy Based Neuro Genetic Algorithm
Authors: Lavanya K. , Durai M.A. Saleem , Iyengar N.Ch.S.N.
Published: July 2017

Disease prediction is often characterized by a high degree of fuzziness and uncertainty. This may reside in the imperfect and complex nature of symptoms that aids in diagnosis.. For precise rice disease diagnosis, domain knowledge of expertise pathologists along with clinically screened database of crop symptoms is considered as knowledge base. The hybrid method pre treats the crop symptoms for removal of noise and redundancy. It forms as target data for rice disease diagnostic model. The Entropy assisted GEANN algorithm reduces the n- dimensionality of diagnostic symptoms and optimizes the target data search space for higher accuracy. Finally the neuro fuzzy system make way for prediction of diseases based on the rules derived from qualitative interpretation of crop symptoms uniqueness. The algorithm is tested for real time case studies of Vellore district, Tamilnadu, India and the results evolved consistent performance against regression, back propagation algorithm and fuzzy network in disease prediction.