Online communities continue to evolve as more people take on a virtual presence. This shift in online communities and the diversity of individuals populating the web has allowed for the emergence of virtual communities centered on niche topics of interests ranging from heavy metal music to indigenous and native culture. Educational, Psychological, and Behavioral Considerations in Niche Online Communities examines the presence of online communities centered around niche topics of interest and the impact of these virtual spaces on community members. Taking perspectives from interdisciplinary fields such as sociology, psychology, and education, this publication will appeal to educators, psychologists, behaviorists, students, and researchers interested in the impact of virtual communities on individuals as well as the opportunities these online communities present.

Shattering Myths on Immigration and Emigration in Costa Rica provides the first comprehensive examination of transnational migration patterns into and out of Costa Rica. This impressive edited volume brings together the work of 18 top scholars from diverse social science backgrounds to analyze Costa Rican migration patterns in the era of globalization. The first section focuses on immigration in Costa Rican history, including chapters on Nicaraguan, North American and European immigration to the country as well a chapter on transnational migration within Central America. The second part centers on the social and political status of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica that make up a sizable portion of the working-class similar to Mexican immigrants in the southwestern United States. The third section of the book analyzes outmigration of Costa Ricans with chapters on the role of international remittances sent back to Costa Rica (a major source of income in contemporary Latin America) and particular migration patterns of Costa Ricans living in the northeastern United States. The fourth part of the collection examines the timely topic of gender and cross-border migration with emphases on women in the actual migration transit process and the vulnerability of immigrant women in different industries including agriculture and sex tourism. The concluding chapters emphasize the social and symbolic images of immigrants to Costa Rica including the construction of in-group and out-group identities, the use of symbolic violence and racism against immigrants. This volume was originally published in Costa Rica in 2007 and reprinted in 2008 by the University of Costa Rica Press.

This edited volume explores a range of educational effects on student learning that resulted from a long-term study using a creative visual arts curriculum designed for mobile media (smartphones and tablets) and used in art classrooms. The curriculum, entitled MonCoin, a French phrase meaning My Corner, was initially designed and piloted in a Montreal area school for at-risk youth in 2012. Since then, it has been refined, deployed, and researched across secondary schools from a range of socio-cultural educational contexts. This book is comprised of contributions from researchers and practitioners associated with the MonCoin project who address critical insights gleaned from our study, such as the social context of teen mobile media use; curriculum theory and design; influences of identity on creative practice; and specific strategies for creative applications of mobile media in schools. The purpose of this edited book is to offer art education researchers and teachers innovative curriculum for mobile media and the networked conditions that influence identity, space, and practice with and through this ubiquitous technology.

This edited volume explores a range of educational effects on student learning that resulted from a long-term study using a creative visual arts curriculum designed for mobile media (smartphones and tablets) and used in art classrooms. The curriculum, entitled MonCoin, a French phrase meaning My Corner, was initially designed and piloted in a Montreal area school for at-risk youth in 2012. Since then, it has been refined, deployed, and researched across secondary schools from a range of socio-cultural educational contexts. This book is comprised of contributions from researchers and practitioners associated with the MonCoin project who address critical insights gleaned from our study, such as the social context of teen mobile media use; curriculum theory and design; influences of identity on creative practice; and specific strategies for creative applications of mobile media in schools. The purpose of this edited book is to offer art education researchers and teachers innovative curriculum for mobile media and the networked conditions that influence identity, space, and practice with and through this ubiquitous technology.

Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by "club opinions." It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to the unique truth. This is the topic of this book: to critically analyze the problems of the official (and sometimes illicit) mechanisms under which current science (physics and astronomy in particular) is being administered and filtered today, along with the onerous consequences these mechanisms have on all of us. Apart from the editors, Juan Miguel Campanario, Brian Martin, Wolfgang Kundt, J. Marvin Herndon, Marian Apostol, Halton C. Arp, Tom Van Flandern, Andrei P. Kirilyuk, Dmitri Rabounski and Henry H. Bauer, all of them professional researchers, reveal a pessimistic view of the miseries of the actual system, while a glimmer of hope remains in the "leitmotiv" claim towards the freedom in doing research and attaining an acceptable level of ethics in science.