Sheffield Hallam University Journals
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Marlowe's Strange Cities
Get PDFChristopher Marlowe is not an obvious candidate for thinking about the early modern city’s strangers. He was not born and did not study in London, England’s just-burgeoning centre of urban culture, and did not set any of his plays there. However, Marlowe’s figurings of the urban environment were attuned to the period’s sense of cities as places of uncanny flux, strangeness, and estrangement. Through close readings of texts including The Jew of Malta, Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Lucan’s First Book, I explore the ways Marlowe’s strange cities are made and unmade on stage and page, and how his audiences could both locate and lose themselves in the urban contexts he depicts. Marlowe’s works remind people past and present that a city like London can be strange to many, not just strangers
Who Wrote Dido, Queen of Carthage?
Get PDFThe title page of the 1594 Dido, Queen of Carthage states that it was "Written by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nash. Gent," and several centuries of speculation on authorship have followed. In 2008, Martin Wiggins claimed that the "available evidence" proved joint authorship to be beyond doubt, a position reiterated in the second volume of British Drama (2012), edited by Wiggins and Catherine Richardson. The authors of this essay disagree, finding instead that Marlowe wrote the play text and Nashe did not contribute. Our focus is upon the evidence, and we approach the problem of authorship in two, complementary ways. The first approach evaluates the verbal evidence (words, phrases, spellings) that has been proposed as indicating Nashe’s presence; this approach employs analysis of words in context, comparing Dido with the works of Marlowe and Nashe. The second approach is quantitative; it assesses previous quantitative work on the authorship problem before offering new quantitative tests for likenesses between segments of Dido and the works of Marlowe and Nashe. Our two approaches agree: we find no evidence for Nashe’s hand in the play. We suggest instead that Dido influences Nashe, most notably in what he wrote after the publication of Dido, but quite possibly before as well. We believe it should now be possible for students of the play to ignore the statement on the 1594 title page and approach Dido as Marlowe’s unaided work
Developing professional knowledge and expertise in educational technology: legacy, change and investment
Get PDFThis editorial reviews the curricular and pedagogical development of the international MSc TELIC programme and the work of the TELIC community since its inception in 2000. This review is used as the site of analysis to map the research undertaken and the professional practice that has emerged. Issues associated with the role, effects and implications of technology in education are examined in the light of this mapping of a professional curriculum. The notions of learning enhancement, innovation and change that are prevalent at this time in professional contexts, and which shape understandings and actions of TELIC professionals, are used to reflect on contributions to this issue and what they indicate about the state of play in the community and beyond. The paper concludes by considering what response we might make to the need for knowledge building in the professional field of educational technology and how to investigate it
A study of personal learning profiles of managers and the potential effect on professional development of teaching staff
Get PDFA set of predefined meetings during a college year, including planning, evaluation and rewarding meetings between line management and staff, is one step to formally discuss the development and qualities of teaching staff. It can be difficult for both managers and staff to get a grip on professional development. Key issues, for example, need to be addressed for agreement to be reached on performance and development. This paper addresses managers’ personal learning profile and the extent to which this affects professional development of teaching staff. A semi-structured interview was used to create a portrait of each manager: their own personal development, turning points in life, education and career, and the interventions they choose to support professional development of their team members. This learning profile was then examined to see if this related to the interventions taken by managers to develop their team. A questionnaire was used to collect data on managers preferred learning habits and learning environment (the learning profile). The questionnaires data was analysed and conclusions and further discussions have been shared among participants. Factors influencing professional development like organisational standards and policy, organisational culture, and financial or technical facilities were not part of this research, because all participants worked at the same organisation. Findings indicate that managers at a university prefer two orientations to learning, discover and participate, and that they prefer the standard possibilities available to them, and that this is influenced by the institution
Student Perceptions of Learning, as seen through a camera lens
No full textLearning has been studied from both theoretical and practical standpoints over many years, though almost invariably from the adult perspective. This study explores learning as perceived by teenage secondary school students, who used cameras to capture images to tell the story of their learning. This was approached through a qualitative, constructivist grounded theory methodology and drew on data from different levels within the study. Using the images as a starting point, interviews provided responses which were analysed to draw out a substantive theory. The young people in this study described their learning by ‘Linking it’ with other concepts, ‘Locating it’ space and time (predominantly in school), ‘Associating it’ with other activities, ‘Ascribing worth’ to different aspects and just occasionally ‘Thinking about it’ in abstract terms. The findings from this study should be extended to explore more purposefully the disconnect between the examples of formal learning providing most of the data for this study and the more rounded experience students enjoy across their daily experience
What does it mean to be a Digital Lifewide Learner?
Get PDFWhat does it really mean to be a digital learner? An immediate reply might be a learner who is taught online, engaging in an online course, using digital technology to access the learning experience. This learning is likely to be time limited (duration of the course) where formal learning takes place (accredited and assessed). But what does it mean to be a digital lifewide learner? This commnetary piece discusses my views on this
Motivated for Learning? The introduction of e-portfolios to Level 1 students in a Further Education college
Get PDFThis study examines the impact of the use of IT on the results and achievements of a group of Level 1 students. The study looks at models for learning, and the impact of curriculum modelling and learning networks within the classroom (as a form of communities of practice). It also examines the effect on student achievement that the introduction of online portfolio building brings. Using constructivist grounded theory the research sought to examine student results using an online virtual learning environment (VLE) as opposed to a paper based system and how this might be used as an indicator of motivation. Initial results suggest a significant improvement in submission times as well as students taking more ownership of the tracking and completion of their work and apparently being motivated to complete work more quickly and effectively. This is an initial study; findings from this project could form the basis of further research into the formation of learning networks, communities of practice amongst Further Education students and the impact of their education experience on learning identities
Implementing blended learning, in the form of a learning network, to enhance social learning
Get PDFThis study is an extended professional project exploring how new employees perceive the benefits and challenges of a blended learning approach, the ways in which a learning community can contribute to this and what the implications of using such an approach implies for my practice as a trainer. This research is conducted within the context of the Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding (VDAB), or the Flemish Employment and Vocational Training Agency, which is the public employment service of Belgium’s Dutch speaking region. The project involved the basic pedagogy of one specific course, and a specific employee group of new instructors, as part of their mandatory training. The blended learning approach is a combination of face-to-face with online learning. The latter includes synchronous sessions, namely Hangouts, as well as asynchronous learning, involving an online learning community. The research followed the exploratory single case study methodology and involved two stages: a preliminary survey to obtain participants’ background information; and a qualitative content analysis of the online community, involving participant-observations and semi-structured interviews. The study showed that a blended course not only requires more preparation time, but also different trainers’ skills. Although some benefits were acknowledged, i.e. user-friendliness and time- and place independency, it was the lack for socialization, i.e. direct and informal interactions with peers, that was disliked mostly. With regard to the learning community the teacher’s predominance was striking. The implications of this for improving the employees’ digital skills are discussed and some specific recommendations are made
Telling TELIC stories: celebrating practice in a learning community
Get PDFIn 2013 I completed my masters dissertation and I graduated. My research was on digital storytelling in an organisation, JISC Netskills, entitled ‘Becoming a storytelling organisation’ and I submitted my dissertation as an online blog. I was asked by Sheffield Hallam University to develop an online resource of stories for the masters in Technology Enhanced Learning, Innovation and Change (TELIC) professional community. This paper tells the story of what happened next