The Practice of Nonviolence: Teaching an Undergraduate Course in Nonviolent Communication

This Best Practices article outlines 10 tips relative to teaching a course in Nonviolent Communication (NVC). It outlines suggestions for readings, activities, and projects throughout a semester-long undergraduate course. The article addresses how students can learn both the theory and practice of nonviolence by means of readings and activities that address social problems such as sexism, racism, bias, and violence against oneself and the earth. Specific suggestions are provided for creative ways in which students can be engaged with readings so that they have ownership of their in-class experience. Details regarding an independent long-term project providing freedom of creativity in out-of-class work are included, as well as suggestions for interactive, face-to-face activities in class

Ludic Pedagogy: Taking a serious look at fun in the COVID-19 classroom and beyond

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected deep reflection in higher education classrooms: how do we attract and retain students to (temporary but nevertheless increasing) online learning experiences, how do we keep them at our universities and colleges, and how do we give students a learning experience from which they will remember meaningful information? In this paper, we introduce a new pedagogical framework that we call Ludic Pedagogy. We address the four elements of this model: fun, positivity, play, and playfulness. Each of the elements is described in turn, together with literature outlining how each contributes to a positive classroom environment that helps students engage with and learn course content. Examples of how the authors have used this pedagogical model are included and described. We suggest that instructors consider using the Ludic Pedagogy model so as to improve engagement, learning outcomes, and retention in their classes and broader university/college contexts

Economic and social influences on marriage in Banbury, 1730-1841

This thesis was digitised by the British Library from microfilm. You can acquire a single copy of this thesis for research purposes by clicking on the padlock icon on the thesis file. Please be aware that the text in the supplied thesis pdf file may not be as clear as text in a thesis that was born digital or digitised directly from paper due to the conversion in format. However, all of the theses in Apollo that were digitised from microfilm are readable and have been processed by optical character recognition (OCR) technology which means the reader can search and find text within the document. If you are the author of this thesis and would like to make your work openly available, please contact us: [email protected]

Acknowledgement: A Way Toward Spiritual Communication

Acknowledgement is a communicative act through which we confirm, affirm, or validate another (Hyde 2006). This paper is an autoethnographic account of my experiences in conducting a personal experiment in which I wrote letters to students, friends, colleagues, family, and even strangers in order to acknowledge them for the difference that they make to me and to others. I suggest, based on published literature and my own experiences, that acknowledgement is a spiritual act, and that by acknowledging others, we recognize the interconnectedness of our lives to those of others. I also argue that acknowledgement is an evolved form of gratitude, and offers a more sophisticated means of communication which focuses on equality and wholeness rather than hierarchy and ranking. The paper concludes with the experienced benefits of an acknowledgement practice, together with how future iterations of the project will be changed

Exploring the use of text and instant messaging in higher education classrooms

This article examined how higher education students used text and instant messaging for academic purposes with their peers and faculty. Specifically, comfort level, frequency of use, usefulness, reasons for messaging and differences between peer-to-peer and peer-to-instructor interactions were examined. Students noted that they were very comfortable with using both text and instant messaging. Text messaging was used weekly with instructors and daily with peers. Instant messaging was used rarely with instructors but weekly with peers. Students rated text messaging as very useful and instant messaging as moderately useful for academic purposes. Key reasons cited for using both text and instant messaging included saving time, resolving administrative issues, convenience and ease of use. Text messaging appears to be the preferred mode of communication for students with respect to communicating with both peers and instructors. It is concluded that both text and instant messaging are useful and viable tools for augmenting student's communication among peers and faculty in higher education

Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Using Laptop Computers in Higher Education Classrooms: A Formative Analysis

Because of decreased prices, increased convenience, and wireless access, an increasing number of college and university students are using laptop computers in their classrooms. This recent trend has forced instructors to address the educational consequences of using these mobile devices. The purpose of the current study was to analyze and assess beneficial and challenging laptop behaviours in higher education classrooms. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 177 undergraduate university students (89 males, 88 females). Key benefits observed include note-taking activities, in-class laptop-based academic tasks, collaboration, increased focus, improved organization and efficiency, and addressing special needs. Key challenges noted include other student’s distracting laptop behaviours, instant messaging, surfing the web, playing games, watching movies, and decreased focus. Nearly three-quarters of the students claimed that laptops were useful in supporting their academic experience. Twice as many benefits were reported compared to challenges. It is speculated that the integration of meaningful laptop activities is a critical determinant of benefits and challenges experienced in higher education classrooms

Investigating the Benefits and Challenges of Using Laptop Computers in Higher Education Classrooms / Étude sur les avantages et les défis associés à l'utilisation d'ordinateurs portables dans les salles de classe d'enseignement supérieur

The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefits and challenges using laptop computers (hereafter referred to as laptops) inside and outside higher education classrooms. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 156 university students (54 males, 102 females) enrolled in either education or communication studies. Benefits of using laptops in class were active note taking, particularly when instructors provided materials ahead of time, searching for academic resources, use of subject-specific software, communicating and sharing information with peers, and engaging with online interactive tools. Challenges of using laptops inside the class included surfing the web for personal reasons, social networking with peers and, to a lesser extent, entertainment in the form of watching video podcasts or playing games. Benefits were reported far more often than challenges inside the classroom. Benefits of using laptops outside of class included collaboration with peers, increased productivity, and conducting research. Challenges of using laptops outside of class included surfing the web for personal reasons, social networking, and entertainment. Benefits and challenges were reported equally often outside the classroom. More research needs to be conducted on the extent to which distractions impede learning and productivity inside and outside the class. Cette étude avait pour but d’examiner les avantages et les défis associés à l'utilisation d’ordinateurs portables à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur des salles de classe d’enseignement supérieur. Des données quantitatives et qualitatives ont été recueillies auprès de 156 étudiants universitaires (54 hommes, 102 femmes) inscrits dans des programmes d’éducation ou de communication. Les avantages de l'utilisation d’ordinateurs portables en classe incluaient la prise active de notes, en particulier lorsque les instructeurs fournissaient la documentation à l'avance, la recherche de ressources universitaires, l'utilisation de logiciels spécifiques, la communication et le partage d’informations entre pairs, ainsi que l’utilisation active d’outils interactifs en ligne. Les défis incluaient le fait que les étudiants naviguent sur le web pour des raisons personnelles, utilisent les réseaux sociaux avec des pairs et, dans une moindre mesure, se divertissent en regardant des podcasts ou en jouant à des jeux vidéo. Les avantages ont été beaucoup plus souvent signalés que les défis. Les bénéfices de l'utilisation d’ordinateurs portables en dehors des cours incluaient la collaboration entre les pairs, une productivité accrue et la recherche en ligne. Les défis de l'utilisation d’ordinateurs portables en dehors des cours comprennent le fait que les étudiants naviguent sur le web pour des raisons personnelles, utilisent les réseaux sociaux et se divertissent. Dans le cas de l’utilisation des portables en dehors des salles de classe, les avantages et défis ont été signalés de manière égale. Des recherches supplémentaires doivent être menées pour déterminer dans quelle mesure les distractions entravent l'apprentissage et la productivité à l'intérieur et à l'extérieur de la salle de classe