Barcode scanning has become more than just fun. Now libraries and businesses are leveraging barcode technology as an innovative tool to market their products and ideas. Developed and popularized in Japan, these Quick Response (QR) or two-dimensional barcodes allow marketers to provide interactive content in an otherwise static environment. In this…

For nearly 40 years, according to this author, "follow the money" has been an axiom in both journalism and politics--although, as Shakespeare might complain, one "more honour'd in the breach than the observance." It is useful to resurrect the axiom in analyzing the multimedia buzz and policy debates swirling around the movie "Waiting for…

The use of podcasting has attracted the attention of teachers because it is content-rich and is of wide general interest. Users can listen to podcasts via the Internet or download them on to a portable music player. Some also offer video or animation to make the contents more interesting and easier to understand. Accordingly, podcasts that tend to…

Infant DVDs typically have titles and even company names that imply some educational benefit. It is not known whether these educational claims are reflected in actual content. The present study examined this question. Of 686 claims (across 58 programs) listed on packaging, websites and promotional materials, implicit claims were most frequent…

This study analyzes infant vocal responses in order to determine whether infants exposed to both linguistic and musical stimuli exhibit different types of vocalizations in response to those two different kinds of stimulation. Twenty-one infants, from 9 to 11 months of age, were observed in four weekly sessions over the period of a month. Each…

A film script is a useful tool for allowing students to experiment with language variation. Scripts of love stories comprise a range of language contexts, each triggering a different style on a formal-neutral-informal linguistic continuum: (1) technical cinematographic language in camera directions; (2) narrative language in exposition of scenes,…

This guidebook for teachers documents the "Harry Potter in Translation" project undertaken at the Language Research Centre at the University of Calgary. The guide also offers 5 sample lesson plans for teachers of grades three to twelve for teaching world languages using the Harry Potter books in translation to engage students. (Contains…

This multi-phase study examined the influence of retrieval processes on children's metacognitive processes in relation to and in interaction with achievement level and age. First, N = 150 9/10- and 11/12-year old high and low achievers watched an educational film and predicted their test performance. Children then solved a cloze test regarding the…

This article is a description of a graduate pedagogy course on using film in language courses at the university level; the principles and methods taught are adaptable to any level and any second (L2) or foreign language course. The focus is the methodology, or topics and themes covered by the course, and results of the implemented method: student…

Prior research states that the use of living animals in the classroom leads to a higher knowledge but those previous studies have methodological and statistical problems. We applied a meta-analysis and developed a treatment-control study in a middle school classroom. The treatments (film vs. living animal) differed only by the presence of the…

Instead of focusing on the "stuff" of recording technology, this column explores ideas about the music that comes from the recording studio. Based on the author's experience working with Mark Rubel, four ideas about music are explored--one, the rise of alternatives to performance; two, the "get it done early" school of thought; three, recording as…

Every day, Americans borrow 2.1 million DVDs from public libraries. Barely beating libraries out for the top spot is Netflix, at 2.2 million daily rentals. This is according to the OCLC 2010 survey "How Libraries Stack Up." (Redbox vending-machine rentals lag behind at 1.1 million, while DVD rental chain Blockbuster is no longer in the running,…

The Notable Children's Videos, Recordings, and Great Interactive Software for Kids lists are compiled annually by committees of the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). This article presents the lists for 2010 that were released in January during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in…

This column describes multimedia resources available to teachers on the Smithsonian Folkways website. In addition to massive collections of audio and video recordings and advanced search tools already available through this website, the Smithsonian Global Sound educational initiative brought detailed lesson plans and interactive features to the…

Technology educators who teach digital photography should consider incorporating an infrared (IR) photography component into their program. This is an area where digital photography offers significant benefits. Either type of IR imaging is very interesting to explore, but traditional film-based IR photography is difficult and expensive. In…