Hidden in Plain Sight: Remembering the Upbeat

“He would tell us we were like a fat lady on a stool hanging over!” According to Barbara Tuceling, Gettysburg College Class of 1970, that was what Professor Parker B. Wagnild would say to the Gettysburg College Choir when they did not stop singing on his cue. It was one of many sayings that Professor Wagnild, affectionately known as “Wags,” used with the Choir. He founded the College’s premiere vocal ensemble in 1935 and directed it for forty-one years. During his long tenure, he also founded the Music Department and earned the respect of scores of students. His impact on campus was so significant that he was memorialized in October of 2010 with a bronze statue outside of Schmucker Hall. Though many people dislike or are indifferent to the statue, Wagnild earned the right to be memorialized because of his founding of the Choir and the Music Department, the reputation and prestige of the Choir under his direction, and the impact he had on the lives of his students. [excerpt

Strange Bedfellows : The Rise of the Military Religious Orders in the Twelfth Century

Most people would not describe Christian monks as militaristic. However, there are instances in history when Christians have strayed from their basic pacifist beliefs in the name of defending their religion. The most famous example of this would be the Military Orders of the medieval Crusades, when full scale war was encouraged by the Catholic Church in order to protect the Holy Land. These militant monks formed a new breed of religious organization where brothers were soldiers willing die defending Christianity against the infidel. Although the Order of the Temple, or the Templars, was the most infamous of the Orders, the Order of St. John, or the Hospitallers, was also highly influential. Both came to wield immense power in the twelfth century, despite their counterintuitive identity as religious warriors. Yet it is precisely their contradictory nature that makes them so intriguing. Although they were devout members of a pacifist religion, they were also its dominant military force. By the most basic tenants of Christianity, the Military Orders should never have existed. It is the goal of this paper to uncover the various factors that allowed for their ascendancy through the analysis of primary sources and secondary research. The rise to power of the Military Orders was due to shifts in religious military thought, acquisition of immense wealth through donations from prestigious patrons, ecclesiastical privileges, and a military need in the Crusader states

I, the Queen: Power and Gender in the Reign of Isabel I of Castile

The role of women in society, in particular, women in leadership positions, constantly is debated. However, this discussion extends far back in history. As one of the most memorable rulers of Early Modern Europe, the life and reign of Queen Isabella of Spain, more accurately known as Queen Isabel I of Castile and León, can provide answers. Scholars have long grappled with the degree to which Isabel embodied or transcended the gender norms of her time as well as whether she ruled more through the joint monarchy with her husband King Fernando of Aragón or as a sovereign in her own right. The careful examination of primary and secondary documents relating to Isabel’s life, her fight for the throne, the joint monarchy, propaganda used during her reign, and her more notable achievements, reveals her unshakable belief in her own right to be queen and the complexity of her sovereign power. Far from adhering to the expectations of her time period, Isabel challenged gender norms and ruled independently as a sovereign queen. The strength of her independent power shows that even when faced with societal and political adversity, women can successfully hold powerful leadership positions. Female leaders today can learn important lessons from Isabel’s determination and strength

Guide to using Screen-Cast-O-Matic

Insgtructions for using freeware Screen-Cast-O-Mati

Is there a role for online repositories in e-Learning?

Many universities across Europe are introducing, or thinking of introducing, an online repository for learning and teaching materials. Evidence from development projects in the UK suggests that tutors are willing to share resources with each other. Yet they do not at present make much use of online repositories. Why is this? What can be done? Are repositories a good idea? Our article will explore and answer these questions. The authors together lead a project called “Developing Repositories at Worcester” (DRaW) funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

A sphere of resonance for networked learning in the ‘non-places’ of our universities

The logic of ‘time’ in modern capitalist society appears to be a fixed concept. Time dictates human activity with a regularity, which as long ago as 1944, George Woodcock referred to as The Tyranny of the Clock. Seventy years on, Hartmut Rosa suggests humans no longer maintain speed to achieve something new, but simply to preserve the status quo, in a ‘social acceleration’ that is lethal to democracy. Political engagement takes time we no longer have, as we rush between our virtual spaces and ‘non-places’ of higher education. I suggest it is time to confront the conspirators that, in partnership with the clock, accelerate our social engagements with technology in the context of learning. Through Critical Discourse Analysis I reveal an alarming situation if we do not. With reference to Bauman’s Liquid Modernity, I observe a ‘lightness’ in policy texts where humans have been ‘liquified’ Separating people from their own labour with technology in policy maintains the flow of speed a neoliberal economy demands. I suggest a new ‘solidity’ of human presence is required as we write about networked learning. ‘Writing ourselves back in’ requires a commitment to ‘be there’ in policy and provide arguments that decelerate the tyranny of time. I am, though, ever-mindful that social acceleration is also of our own making, and there is every possibility that we actually enjoy it

MOOCs and quality:a review of the recent literature

This literature review presents a number of different perspectives from a broad range of sources relating to the nature of MOOCs and pertinent considerations of quality. Higher education providers are adapting to recent and rapid global changes, markets and technologies, seeking to maintain and improve quality, as well as develop partnerships with their students. MOOCs are resources that could potentially support many positive changes. Thinking about the stakeholders involved and how they might contribute helps maintain a balanced approach towards MOOCs. MOOCs might offer inspiration for higher education providers to revisit both student and staff engagement, and what quality assurance and enhancement entail in the MOOC context

Learning from a deceptively spacious policy discourse

Networked Learning, e-Learning and Technology Enhanced Learning have each been defined in different ways, as people's understanding about technology in education has developed. Yet each could also be considered as a terminology competing for a contested conceptual space. Theoretically this can be a ‘fertile trans-disciplinary ground for represented disciplines to affect and potentially be re-orientated by others’ (Parchoma and Keefer, 2012), as differing perspectives on terminology and subject disciplines yield new understandings. Yet when used in government policy texts to describe connections between humans, learning and technology, terms tend to become fixed in less fertile positions linguistically. A deceptively spacious policy discourse that suggests people are free to make choices conceals an economically-based assumption that implementing new technologies, in themselves, determines learning. Yet it actually narrows choices open to people as one route is repeatedly in the foreground and humans are not visibly involved in it. An impression that the effective use of technology for endless improvement is inevitable cuts off critical social interactions and new knowledge for multiple understandings of technology in people's lives. This paper explores some findings from a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis of UK policy for educational technology during the last 15 years, to help to illuminate the choices made. This is important when through political economy, hierarchical or dominant neoliberal logic promotes a single ‘universal model’ of technology in education, without reference to a wider social context (Rustin, 2013). Discourse matters, because it can ‘mould identities’ (Massey, 2013) in narrow, objective economically-based terms which 'colonise discourses of democracy and student-centredness' (Greener and Perriton, 2005:67). This undermines subjective social, political, material and relational (Jones, 2012: 3) contexts for those learning when humans are omitted. Critically confronting these structures is not considered a negative activity. Whilst deterministic discourse for educational technology may leave people unconsciously restricted, I argue that, through a close analysis, it offers a deceptively spacious theoretical tool for debate about the wider social and economic context of educational technology. Methodologically it provides insights about ways technology, language and learning intersect across disciplinary borders (Giroux, 1992), as powerful, mutually constitutive elements, ever-present in networked learning situations. In sharing a replicable approach for linguistic analysis of policy discourse I hope to contribute to visions others have for a broader theoretical underpinning for educational technology, as a developing field of networked knowledge and research (Conole and Oliver, 2002; Andrews, 2011)