Cycling Through History: Making an American Sport 1880-present, Blog 1

Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

Learning fast: broadband and the future of education

Educational institutions have always had a central place in the online age. Before the advent of high-speed broadband, other communications technologies and services also played a big role in education.  University researchers were among the first Australian users of what became known as the Internet. When the domain name system was deployed in the mid-1980s, the .au domain was delegated to Robert Elz at the University of Melbourne. When the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee decided to set up a national communications network to support research, Geoff Huston transferred to its payroll from ANU to work as technical manager for AARNet, whose current chief executive, Chris Hancock, is interviewed by Liz Fell in this issue. When a 56 kbps ARPANET link with Australia was made by NASA and the University of Hawaii via Intelsat in June 1989, the connection was established in Elz’s University of Melbourne laboratory. (Clarke 2004: 31) In earlier times, the postal service made learning-at-a-distance possible by ‘correspondence’, particularly in remote areas of Australia. Advances in radio communications made it easier and the interactivity more immediate. Television sets and later video cassette and DVD players and recorders made it more visual. The telephone provided a tool of communication for teachers and learners; the best of them understood that most people were both at different times. Then simple low bandwidth tools like email and web browsing provided new ways for students, teachers and their institutions to communicate and distribute and share information. Learning management systems like Blackboard have been widely deployed through the education sector. Information that was once housed in libraries is now available online and social media platforms are providing new ways for students to collaborate. Ubiquitous, faster broadband and mobile access via smartphones and tablets promise further transformations. &nbsp

Une institution française : La nouvelle revue française de Jean Paulhan

Aujourd’hui La NRF est reconnue pour avoir constitué l’un des plus grands phénomènes culturels de la France moderne. Au sortir de la guerre de 1914-1918, la revue fondée en 1908-1909 par André Gide et ses amis est déjà en voie d’institutionnalisation. Dans cette contribution, on va tenter une analyse du rôle de Jean Paulhan dans le remarquable succès de cette revue entre 1925 et 1940. D’abord, on voit par quels chemins Paulhan arrive à la revue pour y apporter l’influence d’une nouvelle génération d’écrivains d’avant-garde. Ensuite, on va explorer comment Paulhan travaille à la consolidation du succès de la revue, et dans un dernier temps, on va découvrir comment le directeur de La NRF affronte les défis idéologiques des années précédant à l’éclatement de la guerre en 1939.Today LaNRF is recognised as one of France’s greatest cultural phenomena. Immediately after the First World War, the review founded in 1908-1909 by André Gide and his friends was already well on the way to becoming an institution. In this article we shall attempt an analysis of Jean Paulhan’s role in consolidating the remarkable success of the review between 1925 and 1940. First we examine how Paulhan arrived at the review, bringing with him the influence of a new generation of avant-garde writers. Thereafter we explore how Paulhan consolidated the success of LaNRF, and finally we shall suggest how he steered the review through the dangerous ideological waters of the 1930s towards the outbreak of war in 1939

Physiological Responses to Perceived Exergame Task Demands

Exercise videogames are increasingly popular as individuals seek to increase daily exercise. This study assessed physiological reactions to perceived task demands from a virtual exercise game and their influence on exercise during the following week. Participants completed a biking task in a virtual environment with an avatar that they were told would slim if they cycled fast enough (low task demand manipulation). Only half of participants’ avatars actually slimmed (high task demand manipulation). Individuals with high exercise self-efficacy (ESE) showed similar results in both task demand conditions with high levels of work output and cardiovascular reactivity patterns indicative of threat. However, individuals with low ESE with an avatar that remained constant (high task demand) worked less hard and completed less exercise than those with low ESE who observed their avatar slimming. Results confirm that high task demands for those with low ESE levels can be particularly damaging by reducing future exercise levels