#scoping review

[cyber-opuscule]

I hadn't been reading much lately and couldn't figure out why. It just hit me today.

I haven't been spending hours reading books for fun because I've been spending hours reading hundreds of scientific articles on medical errors and mental healthcare access for teens for a scoping review and a systematic review for work.

So, I've been reading, just not the fun, relaxing kind of reading.

[for-the-win13]

Drawing on the Right Combination: The Impact of Comic-Based Learning Materials on Mathematics Learning and Performance

CPA 392 Scoping Review

The researcher gathered 14 research articles from two databases: Google Scholar and the Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO). The researcher read the abstracts of potential review articles and checked the availability of manuscripts. Only articles with available full manuscripts made the final list. The researcher excluded studies from predatory journals.

This review identifies the salient features of instructional comics based on studies that evaluated the effectiveness of comic-based learning materials. This review elaborates on the findings of previous studies regarding the impact of comic-based learning materials on mathematics learning and performance. Anchored in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, the researcher discusses the multimedia design principles underlying the positive impact of comic-based learning materials. This review answered the following questions:

What are the features of the developed mathematics comic-based learning materials?

How does comic-based learning material affect students' mathematics learning and performance?

The researcher was successful in answering the review questions. The review examined the different features of 14 developed comic-based learning materials. Most of the studies covered complex mathematics topics that require an alternative to traditional learning materials. The results found the developed comics appropriate to the context and interest of intended consumers. The studies involving participants from the primary level developed comics that feature localized characters and personified Mathematics concepts. Meanwhile, two main types of storylines were found in studies in intermediate, junior high school, and senior high school. Some comics use real-life situations and show the practical application of mathematics concepts. Characters in these comics were designed to resemble the students. Meanwhile, some comics utilized fictional characters with superpowers. Superhero plots highlighted the intended mathematics skills as superhero powers. The divergent storylines both lead to positive results based on the results of the reviewed research studies. These storylines can explain how instructional comics effectively capture and sustain the interest of students in studying complex topics. Notably, these storylines are not present in traditional learning materials.

The review found significant positive impacts of the use of educational comics on mathematics learning and performance. The direct impact of the use of comics on student performance was found in studies that investigated the effectiveness of comics in improving mathematics performance. Several reviewed studies targeted specific mathematics learning competencies as a response to low student performance and the need to innovate. These studies covered operations on integer, order of operations, steps in division, and topics in Physics. Meanwhile, the indirect impact of comics on mathematics learning and performance was found in studies that verified the impact of comics on the affective side of learning. The results of these studies indicated a positive influence of comic-based learning materials on motivation, interest, attitude, critical thinking, creative thinking, and mathematical representation.

[leetrevenaphd]

Happy to say that the first study has been accepted for publication by a Q1 journal.

Trevena, L., Paay, J. & McDonald, R. VR interventions aimed to induce empathy: a scoping review. Virtual Reality 28, 80 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-024-00946-9

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Those Beyond The Wall

sequel/companion to The Space Between Worlds, set a decade later

character-focused sci-fi set in an area divided in two, the rich protected city on one side and everyone else in the post-apocalyptic desert

follows a woman who works under the Emperor in Ashtown, keeping the peace

when mangled bodies start showing up with seemingly no murderer, she’s tasked with finding the cause, and finds out that it’s the result of corruption spanning both cities and multiple worlds

explores oppression and messy revolution, police violence and apartheid

bi & polyamorous MC

[communistkenobi]

does anyone have listening recommendations for like contemporary coverage of the far-right in north america. kind of like Knowledge Fight/Qanon Anonymous but less online-irony-jokey style and more informative. Or at least more theoretically grounded

[utilitycaster]

A few recent books I've read and disliked led me to this conclusion but it feels like there's been this switch over time with queer stories. It used to be that queer relationships (or queerness in general) had to be Show Don't Tell because, well, you could not make them textual! So you get, for example, shows like Legend of Korra, or Xena: Warrior Princess, where you have women who are clearly devoted to each other to a degree that goes beyond mere friendship, and a ton of effort and care is put into that depiction because they can't actually be shown in an explicitly stated relationship. And as a result, these relationships, while they never receive confirmation in the show, are rich and complex.

Now not only is it much easier to make explicitly queer stories outside of niche areas; it's even popular (and, cynically, a marketing tactic). The problem is I've run into a bunch of stories that are marketed very clearly as A Queer Story that forget to like...be a story, or show me why these characters should be in a relationship. It's All Tell No Show: I'm told that the characters are gay and are in a relationship, but no work is done to actually explain why I should care about this beyond "well they are gay and in a gay relationship."

I'm not going to rehash what I discussed here, but Baru Cormorant is an example of those books where I'm given no real reason to care. The protagonist is a lesbian but the prose reads like a phone book. On the other hand, while Starless has a queer disabled woman as a one of the two protagonists, it also provides her with traits other than "queer, disabled, woman, important" and grants her a rich interiority (even though the story is told entirely from the first person point of view of the other protagonist.)

And the thing about the good examples in that link (Starless, Teixcalaan): they show and tell. It's both explicit that these are queer stories with a canon romantic relationship, but the little moments that make up the tapestry of a relationship are given the time that moments in a subtextual - or frankly, even a queerbaiting work are. That's the real tragedy; for queerbaiting to work, you have to actually make the relationship compelling enough for people follow it until you pull the rug out from under them; whereas you can slap a cold fish kiss on a cold fish queer relationship and technically you are Better because it was Explicit Representation even though everything about it was poorly constructed. I would rather have an lazy and shoddy explicit relationship than queerbait just on principle; but honestly I'd rather have a good story that does neither.

One of my more cynical interpretations of this is that writers are either intentionally or inadvertently taking advantage of the legacy of the Show Don't Tell era of queer coding to place the burden of those small moments on the audience. They know that people looking for queer relationships in fiction are used to having to dig for moments and subtext; but instead of providing that subtext, they set up the clunky text and assume the subtext to support it will emerge from the fandom. Or perhaps, more generously, especially for younger queer writers, they are just so used to having to provide that work themselves that they forget they are doing the writing and are able to (and should) layer subtext and text together and weave something actually good.

Either way, it's this that's led to the "Lesbian necromancers in space, need I say more"* era of recommendations, taglines, and writing, in which explicit representation is, if not plentiful, at least available; but a worrying amount of it forgets to actually write realized characters or a relationship with chemistry or a plot that makes sense.

I should also note: there's obviously a TON of straight romances and books that range from mediocre to abominable. I am under no circumstances arguing that "gayboring" media shouldn't exist. But while I don't think queer stories should be held to a higher standard, I don't think I should be obligated to settle for a lower standard either simply because it's gay. I know it's fraught, in that we're at risk of publishers and producers taking away the message "people hate this because it's gay" rather than "people hate this because it's poorly developed," but like...at the very least, could we recommend things in terms of "this is a great book that has a wonderful queer romance" and "this show is gay but it is also deeply mediocre, and if it weren't gay I wouldn't recommend it at all; do what you will with this information."

*I should note: I happen to like The Locked Tomb (of Lesbian Necromancers in Space fame) a lot! I know it's not for everyone; I know it can feel very gimmicky at times. But no matter how you feel, that tagline is DIRE and does a miserable job of representing the books. Like, that premise could suck, actually (and plenty of people find it does) if you're not sold on the mere fact that it's got lesbians, necromancy, or space in it. Worth noting that neither Starless nor the Teixcalaan books were heavily marketed as Queer Romance Fantasy/SF even though both very much are, which does further make me think this is a case of people writing good books that are queer, vs. people writing books with the intention to be on some New Queer SF list or, god forbid, Booktok.

[lexalovesbooks]

I can actually understand people being upset with the name of all things because like, the summary really doesn’t prepare you for the fact that this book more or less has a completely different main character and that’s a big shift to just throw at your readers but it also makes me so sad like guys… GUYS if you give up now you’re going to miss out on so much good stuff… guys PLEASE we’re establishing information we’re getting the other half of the story GUYS

[a-passing-storm]

A thing that I found out that I think is interesting (fucked up) is that the US Supreme Court doesn't recognize any kind of parent-child or familial evidentiary privilege. It recognizes spousal privilege, but not familial privilege. I think that's so fucked up!

(Also, this was from a really quick search. Don't take this information as the absolute truth or anything.)

[the-cloudwatcher]

you know 99% of my issues with discourse online and everywhere else boil down to "maybe we should start using "I" sentences and not "you" sentences when we're fighting."

[sufficientlylargen]

#Excel is actually a decent editor for writing Java#it makes it very difficult to make some of the most common Java mistakes#like writing code in Java

"Lol"

"Lmao" even.

Is this an "I have written too much Java" emotion or an "I refuse to touch Java" emotion?

I am, perhaps, overstating my aversion to the language - I don't really hate Java, I just don't find it terribly fun to work in (although it's been years since the last time I had to, so maybe IDE advances have made it more palatable now). I've worked on some Java projects that were quite well put together, but I've also seen my share of code with types like ProducerFactory<FactoryProducer, IGatewayFactoryFactory>.

In general if speed is not an essential part of a project I prefer to write in Python for its terseness and extremely effective syntactic sugar (context managers, generators, etc.), and if speed IS essential then various C variants, Rust, or even Go will almost certainly outperform Java. So it's not entirely clear to me why Java is still used outside of legacy code.

[fiddletwix]

Pokemon Episode 74 Analysis - All Fired Up!

CotD: Charles Goodshow – President of both the League Competition Committee and the Pokemon League Torch Committee, Charles is a very jovial and caring old man who has a passion for battling and Pokemon. He’s extremely dedicated to his job, and makes appearances at several League conferences. Reappears?: Yes, several times – around League tournaments, of course. Pokemon: None, which is insanely…

[cappurrccino]

you'd think the sun would be the easiest thing in the world to find with a telescope, but it's really not

[magistralucis]

I KNEW IT WAS YOU!!! It was either you or Ghost who wrote THIS Masterpiece! And I bothered my friends for HOURS because Unravel gave so so much feeling man you CANNOT imagine!! Two idiots in love with each other and that walking Sexy disaster known as Trazyn. (I read that over and over again and there is NO WAY Imotekh isn't in love with Trazyn too 🥹🥹 God that is SUCH a masterpiece.

Orikan's desperation to be loved and be a part of a family while loving someone is so terrifying to them they hate him too as well as whatever he feels for Imotekh...he is SUCH a stubborn mess. I wonder what happened to those 3 pairs of eyes he worked hard to support...

Imotekh just got the short end of the stick. Love turn to hate yet not completely but the effects of their mutual fuck ups also twisted him into a worse version of himself in so many ways. His contradictiry thoughts at times shows how much he is STILL conflicted about...everything. while also continuing to lie to himself about many many things. Wonder what would have happened if he went with Trazyn dragging Orikan kicking and screaming...maybe they'd get the therapy they so deserve. Sennet is probably good at that.

And Trazyn himself...not gonna lie I wonder how he would feel if he remembered everything as Imotekh does...a good deal more depressed I imagine..looking at Solamnace now it is obvious many parts of his family is dead. And while he was having the time of his like in Sautekh dynasty the bonds he created there with tbese two...damn dude gave you guys literal rings how open could he get???? I wonder what would it be like if they took him on his offer. Wouldn't be easy and Orikan would need good GOOD kick in the feels to start reflecting on himself but they could have been the strongest polyamory the universe has ever seen!

I hope you'll write more about these guys! Would be amazing to see a proper necrontyr Orizyn from you ❤️❤️

Thank you so much! This ask actually came on the 1st; I was saving it until I was done with the fic post reblogs. A very happy new year to you, anon 💖🎄

Canon seems to be marking Trazyn out as a surprisingly well-adjusted person for WH40K standards (I'm aware that bar is at the bottom of the ocean, but still), someone who's principled, if light-years distant from social acceptance. It seemed natural that our disaster couple would be drawn to his stability, if only to learn from him how to make each other so much worse 🙃

Imotekh certainly felt comforted by Trazyn. Whether he could've felt for Trazyn the same passionate love/obsession he felt for Orikan is up for debate, but I think Imotekh could've learned to survive in Gheden with him, and it wouldn't have been as painful as Orikan tried to convince him it would be. He's willing to seal off his acts of love towards Orikan in Trazyn's name, after all, there is an element to which Imotekh sees in Trazyn a lover. Not necessarily a fellow lover, but not necessarily an enemy. A triangulating force that Imotekh feels he and Orikan need to conquer, or else perish... and they did not conquer Trazyn, no sir, the dude barely even knew all this was going on 😩

By the time of biotransference the three pairs of young eyes were no longer young. Saved them from becoming warrior-drones in the conversion, but the life of a necrontyr is already brutal as it is. Chances are that Orikan's siblings did not outlive him - I haven't thought about it much, I admit - and honestly, that may not have been the worst way to go, given the horrors of biotransference.

Ah yes, the rings. 💍 You'll note that Orikan has never worn his, though he still refused to let it go, and Trazyn remembered it enough to gild a homage to it at the end. I don't know if you're familiar with Anglo-Saxon literature (it's my specialty, I'm a medievalist), but there's a kenning meaning 'king/lord' ('beaga bryttan') which literally translates to 'ring-giver'. That's the image I have of all noble/royal characters of older time periods (or inspired by history) - generous, doling out treasure and favours to their retainers, while fully expecting that loyalty to be repaid with their lives if it comes to that.

When Trazyn gave them those rings, he was expressing his adoration of them, while also anticipating either he or his dynasty would have a use for them in the future. It's a contract as well as a gift. If they'd gone through with this throuple successfully, they'd have ended up yielding a lot of control to Trazyn - perhaps for the best, perhaps for the worst, since they'd have been subject to the whims of the Nihilakh Dynasty or Trazyn himself for however long that went on. Nothing is only good or only bad forever. It is a loss of great potential, nonetheless, that Orikan was so utterly unwilling to put in any work to salvage this triad 🤧

I do think the 'how much do they remember' problem is something I could've done a better job of. Trazyn and Orikan remember way too much here compared to their I&D depictions, I fear some of their aspects veer off into OOC territory by the end. That's something I need to work on a bit more, but in the meanwhile I'm glad people enjoyed it all the same 💖

[priafey]

Gwilin of the Day: "Golden" Gwilin

Today's Gwilin of the day is brought to you by: Thanatopsiturvy on ao3!

Hollow Men

(wowie, this one's title looks really nice in cursive)

Published: Oct 29, 2020

Rated: Mature

Length: ~53,000 words

Featuring: A few OCs, Elenwen, Malborn

Set in: all over tbh; Windhelm, Riften, Ivarstead, the Thalmor Embassy, Skyrim's border with Morrowind, and quite a few places in between

REVIEW

Gwilin will never be the same again, and I have this story to thank.

This time around, I cannot comment on this Gwilin without first touching on the author's OC, Corimir. My heart broke and was put back together about a thousand times for him throughout this story. He was an Altmer prisoner of war, degraded and deprived at the hands of the Stormcloaks, and a slave to the whirlpool of seemingly incorrigible thoughts that enveloped his mind after his rescue, which were rooted in the months of abuse he had endured. Two characters helped keep him from surrendering to this whirlpool; helped him keep his head above water. The first was Elanwe. The second... was Gwilin.

The way we experience this Gwilin is filtered through the lens of Corimir’s extreme prejudice, at first. In his first appearance, he is labeled the “dirty little Bosmer”. A lesser thing. Soon enough, Corimir is the one who is made “lesser”; made to feel small for being so curt and suspect towards the stranger who opened his home and his heart to him. In a mere five days, Gwilin manages to ease Corimir's harsh exterior, to begin to buff out –in dribs and drabs– the mistrust from his tense and restless mind.

In the process, the journey of healing that Corimir began the second he'd stepped foot outside of Windhelm became intertwined with the fondness he felt himself develop for this irresistibly emphatic, almost unbelievably chipper Bosmer. This man was a fountain of patience and kindness, always willing to lend a hand or an ear, even at times when Corimir was more inclined to push the first away, and leave the second swimming in silence.

This Gwilin, though not appearing to be the boldest at first, had his heart set on Corimir from the beginning, and doesn't beat around the bush for long. He is quick to show Corimir that he's caught his eye, and quicker to respect his boundaries when it becomes clear that Corimir is still sifting through the debris in his mind, still cobbling his personhood back together. And when he has to leave Gwilin behind, Gwilin can do little else except bite his tongue, and quietly lament what could've been. And I was right there lamenting with him.

There was a pit in my stomach that grew bigger as the story progressed, product of my feeling Gwilin's absence. Corimir felt it, as well: that enchanting little Bosmer existed only as a gnawing memory in his mind, then, one which which refused to leave his side. How could it? In lieu of his person, Gwilin's memory became Corimir's respite from his nauseating experience touching base with his Thalmor superiors. In moments of quiet, of deafening silence and unbearable stillness, he wanted him to be there. To help fill in the gaps.

One of my favorite things about this story is that, in it, Gwilin is unmistakably queer. In his body language, in his self-expression, in his deeds, in the way he loves. When I first went to read this story and saw the "Trans Character" tag, I thought perhaps Corimir was the character the tag was referencing. Somewhere in Chapter 4, when Corimir and Gwilin are making out and the author dropped the line about Corimir's knee grazing between Gwilin's legs and not feeling much there, I understood Gwilin was the trans character, and became overjoyed. I am constantly thinking about all the beautiful and varied depictions of Gwilin, and I love that what they usually have in common is how understanding they are, and what a ray of light they are to the people in their lives. Queer people especially are rays of light, and to say that I appreciated being able to see a Gwilin who feels so at peace with himself and content about where he is in his life is the understatement of the century.

To balance out those strong emotions is Gwilin's ever-present good humour. Near the end of the story, in Chapter 12, Corimir asks Gwilin about his top scars, and Gwilin responds somewhat nervously –but with the earnest candor I've come to expect from my favorite Gwilins– about his being trans. He's so sincere and affable in the way he goes about it; he could disarm anyone with just the glint of his eyes, I swear.

The only pitfall of this Gwilin was that his sweetness, patience, and perkiness could occasionally drift into the overly-saccharine (though I won’t lie and pretend most everyone wouldn't love to be looked after as Gwilin looks after Corimir). Perhaps seeing Gwilin's patience wear thin at one point or talk more about what Corimir leaving made him feel like would've made it easier for me to connect with his character beyond his pleasing demeanor and his charm.

The only other thing I can think of that seemed off was that in moments where Gwilin's naiveté poked its head in, he had a tendency to come off as rather childlike, which is not a particularly endearing trait for me to detect in a character who's an adult. But that could just be me.

On the whole, there is something to be said about the kind of people who “go the other way”, who –instead of becoming hardened by years of trying to carve out their place in the world– become softer, perhaps sweetened by their wisdom. In this story, within and through everything, that is Gwilin.

Moment that my mind chose to fixate on: I really, really liked the scene where Malborn and Gwilin are speaking Bosmeris and Corimir is just like "I will now be retiring myself from the hut at this time". Also, all descriptions of Gwilin's smiles that were like “Every now and then he’d catch Corimir’s eye and would offer one of those impish little smiles, his eyes crinkling at the corners." or “Gwilin laughed and scooted closer, smiling up at him in that impish way.” instantly had me imagining the kind of smile where the eyes do most of the smiling, y’know? And how can you not fall in love with that?

I. Compellingness

Very compelling Gwilin, what with his pinky promises and swishing ponytail and alchemical expertise and all. Something about him is that he speaks in quips; he is rather quippy. But the quips stem from a sort of merry drunkenness he has from living and being alive, so he gets a pass, I suppose. 8/10

II. Swagger

Getting caught admiring someone's beauty while they're asleep and still putting the moves on them? And having them reciprocate? SWAG CITY. 10/10

III. Talent

This Gwilin is a master alchemist, though he’d never call himself such for fear of appearing to put on airs. He's also an excellent caretaker, a chef, and a woodworker (obviously). Overall, a super talented and multifaceted Gwilin with a true love for his craft, and for those he gifts the fruits of his labor to. 10/10

IV. Backstory

Decent amount of backstory bestowed on this Gwilin. He has a good relationship with his mom, apparently, as well as a love for travel, having seen a decent chunk of Tamriel after leaving home at thirty and roaming around for ten years. He had a few Khajiit lovers, as well, and had some tough experiences with the Spinners (who I must confess I do not know much about). Wow. What a worldly Gwilin. 8/10

V. Pleasure of Reading

In this story, the verbless clauses sprinkled throughout were deliciously jarring to read (e.g. “A blanket fluttered down overtop of him, smelling of cedar and woodsmoke. Gwilin’s firm hand on his shoulder.”). Moreover, there were a quite a few interesting bits of grammar and word order usage that were new and unfamiliar to me, but felt very distinctive to the author's style of writing (e.g. “‘What all is in that?’” or “Either way, he’d been too frightened to ask after her.”).

I love how the author clips narration when the final thought of a sentence or paragraph can clearly be surmised, like so: “He’d had very little to tell the Stormcloaks, being a low-ranking officer. Sometimes he’d lead them on, bait them into thinking he was holding something back. The physical beatings were a relief compared to—”.

Because the substance of this story more than merits it, I have to take a moment to digress here and say Corimir’s characterization is exquisite. There are two shining examples.

One is during his interrogation in Chapter 5. He’s so, so terrified at the thought of failing to please. It illustrates how the prospect of failure lingers constantly in his mind, rearing up when in the presence of an authority figure. He's so well-conditioned with Thalmor ideology, they have his own mind keeping the knife at his throat, so they don't have to. It’s Chilling.

The other is when Kordin appears at the embassy in Chapter 7. Gosh, Corimir losing his sense of security the way he did… After weeks of reassuring himself he's safe, accepting that it's over a little bit more each day, only to have to see the irrational fear materialize? To have it be true? I couldn't imagine what that's like, but the author did an excellent job of carrying the reader through his disbelief, nausea, distress, and, finally, the anger he takes out on Malborn.

On the whole, the prose is decidedly haunting: it sticks with you and carves into you as much in the calming and tender parts of the story as it does in the harsher, more tense ones. This author presented the best imagery out of all the "gwilin" tag fics I've read, bar none. Whatever the opposite of White Room Syndrome is, is what this author had going on. I could visualize depth, space, and time super vividly in nearly every single scene of the story. 10/10

VI. Horniness

One line of supreme importance: “Gwilin nuzzled into his hand like a pleased housecat, sliding closer until he was nearly sitting in Corimir’s lap.” That, plus the way he runs his fingertips through Corimir's hair and scalp. Ooga Booga. 10/10

Final Tally

My

autistic ass

gives this Gwilin a 9/10!

[novelmonger]

Finished the transcript production unit (it was short), which was dry but necessary as an introduction to all the formatting sorts of things that go into putting a transcript together. Mostly it boils down to "reporter preference."

Next up: legal terminology, a section I have to purchase now because it was made after I first signed up for this course x.x

[cowdragons]

starting a collection of images where i take photos with some of my favorite dinosaur models (shyly) (they're so tall <\\<;) (😳)