Media multitasking, or engaging in multiple media and tasks simultaneously, is becoming an increasingly popular phenomenon with the development and engagement in social media. This study examines to what extent video content affects students' reading comprehension in media multitasking environments. One hundred and thirty university students were…

Theatre is a dangerous witness, challenged with multiple responsibilities of integrity, imagination, inspiration and craft. I explore the relationship between failure, witnessing, and displacement in a class grappling with their own backgrounds, migrations and interrogations of the idea of place and home. We approach performing testimony as an…

Comedy Central's popular program "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" is the best critical media literacy program on television, and it can be used in valuable ways in the classroom as part of a media literacy pedagogy. This Media Literacy column provides an overview of the show and its accompanying website and considers ways it might be used in the…

In an effort to live up to Elaine Richardson's dictum that educators and researchers must address "the total linguistic, cultural, and historical background of the learner" (19), basic writing scholarship has addressed a wealth of competencies that basic writers bring with them to the university. The literate lives they lead beyond the…

"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" is one of the best critical literacy programs on television, and in this Media Literacy column the author suggests ways that teachers can use video clips from the show in their classrooms. (For Part 1, see EJ784683.)

"Playesque" (in the manner of a play), Volume 1 features original plays for performances in high school, junior college, and other amateur venues. The plays are reproducible and royalty free for educational and nonprofit performance. They are easily duplicated and performed, and provide complete directions for costuming and staging. Each…

Argues that when the comic world or worlds" are examined as independent entities . . . useful information about comic character, plot, and setting" can be obtained. (Author/SW)

The central argument of this paper is that adopting some of the techniques practised by stand-up comedians can help teachers in higher education challenge students in ways that will ultimately improve the student learning experience overall. It will suggest that developing co-dependent relationships and over-engaging with students is disabling…

Educators often take themselves a bit too seriously. To remedy the situation, the author, who is a veteran educator and illustrator, offers a little perspective with this collection of lighthearted cartoons. These cartoons can be used as overheads for staff development meetings, for an individual break in a busy day, and perhaps, even for a…

An analysis of Congreve's use of the traditional comic image of disguise in the subtle and revealing forms of artifice in this play." (Author)

Describes the performances and performers in the international mime festival (Prague, Czechoslovakia, September 14-28, 1969). (SW)

Amy Richlin, a professor of classics at the University of California at Los Angeles, has just translated "Poenulus," a comedy likely written between 224 B.C. and 184 B.C. by the Roman playwright Plautus. To make the comedy comprehensible for modern audiences, Richlin came up with with a bolder and deliberately controversial approach: Seek out…

This case study involves investigation of freshman students' abilities to engage in the pursuit and appreciation of complex thinking through their study of comedy and laughter in a Freshman Seminar at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. We offer an analysis of students' reflections on their confrontation with complexity as they attempt to…