News and Notes

If the first bit of news is Hamilton College\u27s effort to showcase one of its special collections and to serve as a connector for researchers interested in all aspects of communitarian endeavors, the second is the reporting of events and activities which promote learning about the contributions of these communities to society at large. Serving as correspondent for several recent gatherings dealing with matters Shaker and Harmonist, I submit the following report

News and Notes

The Synanon community site, now the Marconi Conference Center outside of Marshall, California, was the setting for the thirty-third (2006) annual meeting of the Communal Studies Association

News and Notes

News and notes related to: the Communal Studies Association annual meeting in Kirtland, Ohio; the Shelburne Museum’s exhibition: Out of this World: Shaker Design, Past, Present, and Future ; an interview of ninety-one year old Owen Edgington (a direct descendant of West Union Shakers William Edgington and Jane Johnson) by Dorothy Jones and Carol Medlicottin; a report on the signing of preservation and conservation easements by Shakers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine, to preserve nineteen community buildings and prevent future development of the property; an update on Koinonia Farm

Putting Sodus Shaker Village On The Map

The interplay of historical evidence with the researcher’s skill at historical reconstruction is what is at stake in this study of the formation of the Shaker settlement on the southern shore of the Great Sodus Bay. Although the Shaker settlement there lasted for a decade, from 1826 until 1837, attention here is on the years 1825-1827, which were the formative years of the community. Through the use of maps, and with the corroboration of Shaker journals and other writings, I will demonstrate that the Sodus Shakers did not purchase virgin land but rather a deserted, previously- settled town. This is the “what” of the article. In this case, however, the “how” — i.e., the process of discovery, the role of chance and serendipity, the need to address my own “hidden” assumptions, the mysteries created by incongruent facts and the detective work required to solve them — is perhaps of equal interest, and shapes how I will present my findings. Any historical inquiry is dependent upon artifacts from the past, which for the most part are written documents. All too often maps are not extensively used. For this study, however, I found them invaluable. When used in comparative research, maps raise some unique issues, and these will be highlighted as they apply to specific maps under discussion. Additionally, like all artifacts of human creation, maps may be flawed. Detecting errors and erroneous conclusions drawn from them is as necessary as it is a challenge. Attention, therefore, will be paid to the quality of the data gathered, and, as in all empirical research, while singular findings are important, it is when they are substantiated by other sources, i.e., independently verified, that they achieve their greatest significance

Estimating the active space of male koala bellows: propagation of cues to size and identity in a Eucalyptus forest

Examining how increasing distance affects the information content of vocal signals is fundamental for determining the active space of a given species’ vocal communication system. In the current study we played back male koala bellows in a Eucalyptus forest to determine the extent that individual classification of male koala bellows becomes less accurate over distance, and also to quantify how individually distinctive acoustic features of bellows and size-related information degrade over distance. Our results show that the formant frequencies of bellows derived from Linear Predictive Coding can be used to classify calls to male koalas over distances of 1–50 m. Further analysis revealed that the upper formant frequencies and formant frequency spacing were the most stable acoustic features of male bellows as they propagated through the Eucalyptus canopy. Taken together these findings suggest that koalas could recognise known individuals at distances of up to 50 m and indicate that they should attend to variation in the upper formant frequencies and formant frequency spacing when assessing the identity of callers. Furthermore, since the formant frequency spacing is also a cue to male body size in this species and its variation over distance remained very low compared to documented inter-individual variation, we suggest that male koalas would still be reliably classified as small, medium or large by receivers at distances of up to 150 m

Student Professional Development: Competency-Based Learning and Assessment

This case study examines the implementation of competency-based learning (CBL) and assessment as a measure of student professional development. Students enrolled in an industrial technology undergraduate course at a Midwestern university participated in this study. Based on the degree program outcomes, the “top five” course competencies were identified, and their key action items were assessed using an industry-based, 360-degree assessment process. Significant differences in the average initial and final assessed values were used to determine professional development gains. Findings showed that self-assessed professional gains were achieved, self-assessed results were higher than peer results, and overall peer assessments indicated aggregate gains in professional development. This case study provides a foundational framework for further research studies in competency-based learning and assessment

Examining the Use of Engineering Internship Workplace Competency Assessments for Continuous Improvement

This study explored how workplace competency assessment data from internship studentsand their supervisors, collected by College of Engineering programs between fall 2001 throughfall 2011 are applied toward continuous improvement practices. The continuous improvementprocess is integral to the accreditation and evaluation of the engineering curriculum. This mixedmethods study examined three separate practices using internship workplace competencyassessment ratings in the continuous improvement process. The study examined how assessmentrankings of the internship students’ workplace competency strengths and weakness have changedfrom the 2001-05 assessment terms in the past accreditation cycle, to the 2006-11 assessmentterms of the most recent accreditation cycle. In addition, this study examined competencyachievement percentages related to the ABET Criterion 3 (a-k) outcomes across the sametimeline. The third part of the study investigated how workplace competency assessment data areused to support continuous improvement for program curricula in the College of Engineering.The intent of the study was to gain better understanding of how the workplace competencyassessment data has benefited the continuous improvement process that enhances studentlearning. The results can also provide suggestions to programs in the early stages of developingnew program evaluation techniques