MEDIA LITERACY TEACHES SKILLFUL BIAS DETECTION
For young people, being media literate is more than enjoying and learning from popular TV programs, music or Internet sites. A major component of multimedia literacy is the ability to detect even the most subtle bias in print and electronic media, says Dr. Ladislaus M, Semali, associate professor of education.. "Most students, having been raised with `Sesame Street' and having seen 5,000 hours of TV programming before they ever come to school, are reluctant to accept the fact that the media contains prejudices of all kinds -- racial, economic, gender, political and moral," he says. "They need to be aware that, while not all bias is deliberate, it is nonetheless insidious because the belief in journalistic objectivity is so well entrenched. In reality, every news story is influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors." He is author of a new book, "Literacy in Multimedia America: Integrating Media Education Across the Curriculum" (Falmer Press). For the complete story by Paul Blaum, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/mediabias.html
STUDY ON FUTURE OF E-LEARNING, LEADERSHIP
The potential role of the Internet in recruiting, training, educating, developing, leading, and earning a return on an investment in people is just beginning to emerge. But even in its infancy, the e-world holds great promise for enhancing the art and science of people management. "There’s no denying that the Internet has changed the business world, but I believe the Internet and e-learning will be forces for cataclysmic change in leadership and organizational development," says Dr. Albert Vicere, professor of business administration, specializing in strategic leadership, in the Smeal College of Business Administration. Vicere recently completed a study, "Ten Observations on e-Learning and Leadership Development," that will appear in a forthcoming issue of Human Resource Planning. An expert on leadership and organizational development, Vicere directed Executive Education at Penn State for over 10 years. For the full story by Steve Infanti, go to http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/index.html
DISPATCH FROM U. PARK: THE YOUNG AND THE WEIGHTLESS
Note: This article, written by Katie O'Toole, writer and co-host of "What’s In The News," a WPSX public television show for school children, is the first of a series of installments about eight undergraduate engineering students working on an experiment to test modifications to exercise equipment used in space. O'Toole will file regular reports as the students prepare, build, and test their design at Penn State's University Park campus. In addition, she will travel to the Johnson Space Center in March with the students to test their project aboard NASA's KC-135 project, nationally known as the "Vomit Comet."
University Park -- It’s almost 11:30 p.m. as the engineering students in Hammond Building review their assignments one last time. Flyin’ Lions team leader Bill Marshall, a senior in mechanical engineering, sets a deadline of noon on Wednesday. That leaves about 36 hours to order and pick up supplies, complete the submission form to the Biomedical Institutional Review Board, and work through some design problems. Team members Dawn Noga, a sophomore engineering science major, John Halenar, a senior in electrical engineering, and Ben Weber, a senior in mechanical engineering, nod confidently as they jot notes to themselves. Every nuts and bolts issue takes on heightened significance when the final product is headed for the stratosphere. For complete story, go to http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/otoole01.html
PSU PRESS BOOK ON 19th CENTURY PUBLISHER WINS AWARD
The Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers has awarded the Penn State Press book, "George Palmer Putnam: Representative American Publisher" by Erza Greenspan, the first prize in the category of biography. The book was edited by Dr. James West, distinguished professor of English and director of the Penn State Center for the History of the Book. George Palmer Putnam is a cultural biography of the legendary American publisher. For more on the Press, go to http://www.psu.edu/psupress.
MARKER LECTURES IN PHYSICAL SCIENCES, FEB. 14 TO 16
Albert Libchaber, the Detlev W. Bronk Professor of Physics at Rockefeller University, will present the 2001 Russell Marker Lectures in the Physical Sciences from Feb. 14 to 16. The series of three free public lectures is sponsored by the Department of Physics and the Eberly College of Science. The schedule includes a lecture intended for a general audience, titled "What is Life? A Historical Perspective," at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 14. All lectures will be held in 117 Osmond Laboratory. Libchaber also will present two specialized lectures-"Control of Molecular Information, Algorithms in Biology" at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, and "Molecular Evolution in the Laboratory" at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 16. Libchaber is known for his research cell biology related to self-organization and motion, with a specific focus on the form, growth, and motion of the cell cytoskeleton. For more, go to http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/MarkerPhys1-2001.htm
FUNDSOURCE A RESULT OF "DECADE OF BEHAVIOR" EFFORT
"FundSource," a new, free, searchable database for research funding in the behavioral and social sciences is just one of the early results of a multidisciplinary outreach and education effort known as the Decade of Behavior. Dr. Roger Downs, professor and head of the Department of Geography, is one of 16 distinguished behavioral and social scientists serving on the National Advisory Committee for this initiative. The Decade of Behavior (2000-2010) seeks to focus the energy of the behavioral and social sciences on meeting societal challenges like health, safety, and education. Its goals include translating research findings into the public policy arena and recruiting new scholars into the behavioral and social sciences. For more information about the Decade of Behavior, go to http://www.decadeofbehavior.org. For more information about FundSource, go to http://www.decadeofbehavior.org/fundsource/intro.html
"YOU'RE THE CHEF" TO BE DISTRIBUTED NATIONALLY
What started as a menu option for the Williamsport local cable audience now has the potential to satisfy the appetites of public television viewers nationwide. "You’re the Chef," Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Telly Award-winning cooking series, has been selected by a major distributor of "how-to" programs for satellite delivery to public television stations this winter. The National Educational Telecommunications Association will distribute "You’re the Chef" weekly beginning Feb. 11. NETA distributes about 2,000 hours of general audience programming to public television stations each year. Its lineup includes about a dozen cooking series, including the public television staple "Ciao Italia!," The episodes of "You’re the Chef" will be taped in a working kitchen designed and constructed by students, faculty and staff from the Penn College School of Construction and Design Technologies. For more on this story, go to http://www2.pct.edu/news/miscella/ytc0201.htm.
ENGINEERING CAREER FAIR AT HUB TODAY, TOMORROW
The 2001 Engineering Spring Career Fair, sponsored by the Penn State Society of Women Engineers, will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. today and Wednesday in Alumni Hall at the HUB Robeson Center. More than 30 companies will be on hand seeking to fill full-time, co-op, and internship positions. Companies attending include Corning-Asahi, Kimberly-Clark, IBM, Microsoft, Northrup Grumman, Hershey Foods, Johnson & Johnson, and Raytheon. The Career Fair is open to the public. A complete list of firms, including company descriptions, openings available and schedule is on the Web at http://www.engr.psu.edu/swe/career/