THE BASIS OF JAMES W. FOWLER'S UNDERSTANDING OF FAITH IN THE RESEARCH OF WILFRED CANTWELL SMITH: AN EXAMINATION FROM AN EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVE

This article focuses on the influence of Wilfred Cantwell Smith's presentation of the nature of faith on James W. Fowler's faith-development paradigm. Smith contended that, in the pre-modern era, terms translated by the English words “faith” and “believe” denoted a personal allegiance that did not require assent to any objective assertions. Two difficulties with Smith's research are highlighted: 1) In the premodern era, the terms translated as “faith” and “believe” denoted both personal allegiance and objective assent. 2) Although “faith” and “believe” primarily indicated personal allegiance in the premodern era, the primacy of personal allegiance within faith does not preclude the presence or the necessity of objective assent. The author suggests that, although Christian faith and Fowlerian stage-development are two distinct phenomena, the reality to which Fowler referred as “faith” describes the psychical context for Christian faith. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of this concept, suggesting that Christian faith emerges from Fowlerian stage-development, but that the content and development of both phenomena remain essentially distinct.     

A virtual student: Not an ordinary Joe

Some researchers and educators contend that distance education is the new, student-centered paradigm for future learning and one of the fastest growing areas in education. Despite its continued growth and popularity, distance education suffers from a number of problems. One of the most troubling is a much higher course “dropout” rate in online courses compared to traditional campus-based education. There are a number of factors that contribute to course noncompletion in Web-based distance education: feelings of isolation, frustrations with the technology, anxiety, and confusion. This article provides a discussion on certain tools used by the author to mitigate these negative factors, such as the use of electronic office hours. Explored in depth, however, is a tool that the author has had the most success using in reducing some of the chronic problems that seem to assail students taking online courses. This same tool promotes learner interaction and collaborative learning at a distance. This “magical” tool the author has created for his online classes is a fictitious virtual student who is “not an ordinary Joe.”     

Religious Education: The Depth of the Field

This article responds to sociologist Christian Smith's claim that many teenagers today have lost traditional religious faith and instead espouse a new and erroneous faith in God the “Cosmic Therapist.” The author challenges this claim by comparing two of Smith's chief complaints vis-à-vis teen faith to established portraits of adolescent faith. The comparison reveals that despite differences significant continuities exist between adolescent faith “then” and “now,” a finding that underscores the inherently (but not exclusively) developmental nature of religious faith. The article concludes by affirming Christian Religious Education as a dynamic process of bringing “life to faith and faith to life” with humility, compassion, and hope.     

Ethnography at a distance: globally mobile parents choosing international schools

The research we report on was conducted from our computer desktops. We have not met the people we have studied; they are part of what Eichhorn described as a “textual community”, gathered around the threads of online conversations associated with a website servicing the needs of English-language speakers in Germany. The thread in question started in 2008 with a query from someone about to move to Berlin, seeking advice about the best international school in which to enrol her three children. The ensuing conversations are revealing, not only because of the schools canvassed and the manner in which they are discussed, but also because of the schools that are not charted into the discussion. This paper raises questions about qualitative research methodologies in online settings, particularly in relation to studies of the global middle-class. It examines claims about an emerging commitment to “nonlocal ethnography” and the surmising one can make about research subjects one never meets, but who remain comprehensible because of the broader cultural context in which they are situated. The research carries the promise of “rich enough” ethnography, reflecting a commitment to understanding what people do, documenting and analysing the intricate realities influencing and shaping individual choices people make, the complexities they face and the realities they help create. The fact that it was done “at a distance”, in so-called virtual spaces, does not undermine its ethnographic authenticity.     

A simulated learning environment of history games for enhancing players’ cultural awareness

This research attempted to create the historical context of Southern Taiwan in the late nineteenth century based on the martial art novel “Xiao-Mao” (Pussy) by designing a role-play digital game “Taiwan Epic Game” about the war time; in which, Taiwanese history, geography, and culture are presented in an innovative way with virtual scenarios. Questionnaire surveys were conducted to investigate the effects of the digital game. The simulationist immersion premises were chosen to be the primary concern, with which the designers should pursue the supreme creation of situation, character, setting, and system. The results showed that the game can effectively enhance players' cognitive growth, as well as cultural awareness in terms of the sense of existence of the environment, local culture, folk arts, faith and festivals, and architectural characteristics. It can be concluded that the three-dimensional simulated learning environment created in the digital game can successfully merge “reality” and “virtuality.”     

Examining workload models in online and blended teaching

Over the past decade, most Australian universities have moved increasingly towards “blended” and online course delivery for both undergraduate and graduate programs. In almost all cases, elements of online teaching are part of routine teaching loads. Yet detailed and accurate workload data associated with “e‐teaching” are not readily available. A search of the international literature indicated that there is limited rigorous literature and research that points to the actual effects on workload in online and blended higher education teaching environments. This paper reports on a research project in four Australian universities, and the perceptions of a representative group of staff who perceived that e‐teaching had increased their “teaching time” workload, and that Workload Allocation Models (WAMs) did not take account of contemporary teaching modalities.     

互联网销售公益彩票不构成非法经营罪之辨正

在国家有关部门明令禁止以前,我国曾有大量企业和个人从事互联网公益彩票的销售业务,绝大多数销售者并未取得过相关行政部门的授权,实质上一直处于“无证经营”的行政违法状态,司法实务中业已出现此类行为是否涉嫌非法经营罪的案件。通过对“国家规定”涵盖范围的分析,同地方彩票销售机构合作互联网销售公益彩票行为并不满足该罪的犯罪构成;对于其他类型擅自在互联网上销售公益彩票的行为而言,由于并没有严重侵害非法经营罪的法益,亦不宜作犯罪化处理。     

Putting Faith Into Action: A Model for the North American Middle Class

Pluralism presents faith communities with the challenge of continuity and discontinuity in relation to the community's tradition. The educational question becomes: How do we initiate persons into the tradition of the faith community so that they will function as agents who can extend the tradition in creative ways in changing contexts? Play is one area of human activity that is concerned with what is and what might be. This paper explores the nature of the pretend play of young children, especially its “as‐if'” and “what‐if” dimensions. It suggests possibilities for using play in the education of children and adults.     

CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND FAITH

Critical pedagogy has often been linked in the literature to faith traditions such as liberation theology, usually with the intent of improving or redirecting it. While recognizing and drawing from those previous linkages, Jacob Neumann goes further in this essay and develops the thesis that critical pedagogy can not just benefit from a connection with faith traditions, but is actually, in and of itself, a practice of faith. In this analysis, he juxtaposes critical pedagogy against three conceptualizations of faith: John Caputo's blurring of the modernist division between faith and reason, Paul Tillich's argument that faith is “ultimate concern,” and Paulo Freire's theology and early Christian influences. Using this three‐pronged approach, Neumann argues that regardless of how it is seen, critical pedagogy manifests as a practice of faith “all the way down.”     

基于数字孪生讲台的在线沉浸式教学体系分析与流程设计

随着新技术的迅猛发展,“大数据+AI”已成为现代社会一种新的驱动力和思维方式。一种可有效实现物理世界和信息世界智能互联与交互融合的新技术——数字孪生应运而生。基于数字孪生技术,可构筑联通现实教学空间与虚拟教学空间的数字孪生讲台,并成为在线教学空间的“数字大动脉”。数字孪生讲台可分为在线学习特征分析技术和虚实教学空间融合分析技术,通过“在线教”与“在线学”间的深度融合、映射与镜像,能为在线沉浸式教学注入新的数字生产力。基于此,从教学、技术两方面,探索数字孪生讲台的在线沉浸式教学流程设计与技术运用,即基于混合式平台的教学数据采集与管理,基于多维分析的教学数据分析与建模,基于精准教学和精准管理的数据应用,基于增强现实技术的在线沉浸式教学体验,进而设计其教学流程。旨在通过数字孪生讲台的多源数据融合、虚实融合映射、教学服务融合优化,促进数字化、智能化课堂的形成,推动数智融合在教学方面的创新性应用,从而形成一种基于大数据的课堂数据互动、映射的新形态,进而革新与重塑现代教育体系。     

International Cross-Cultural Online Learning and Teaching: Effective Tools and Approaches

“Study abroad” college programs can transform domestic students into a kind of “global citizens” with international experience and cross-cultural competences demanded in the emerging global market. Can a full-time international online undergraduate class serve as a virtual alternative to study abroad experience? Two questions were asked of a virtual class on Social Control that was taught for more than ten years: (1) Can an international online class can be a virtual option to the study abroad and (2) Which selected pedagogical tools and approaches can stimulate creativity of students and contribute to achieving a sufficient level of student satisfaction in this class? Students from several countries were taught in a virtual classroom while being physically “at home.” The research was based on observations and analysis of student-led discussions that were required of students. The class improved students’ substantive knowledge and created a learning environment to develop their skills in cross-cultural open dialogue with virtual classmates. The teaching design allowed instructors to attain many educational goals, enhance students’ understanding of foreign countries and cultures, and learn from each other through online communication. The results confirmed the effectiveness of selected pedagogical approaches and asynchronous communication technology in an international online class. Their effectiveness was demonstrated through the students’ postclass feedback and evaluation of the class. Findings indicate that an international online class can indeed help the students learn cross-cultural communication firsthand and obtain knowledge beneficial for future jobs in a global market.

In higher education, online distance education is useful for teaching large classes distributed among different campuses and universities or for teaching students abroad. Web 2.0 tools are widely used in the United States with transnational partnership programs (Martins 2015; Starke-Meyerring and Wilson 2008c). The American Center for the Study of Distance Education helps newcomers in this field learn transactional distance theory and tap into the broad experience already assembled by U.S. universities and other centers (Open University in the United Kingdom, similar Centers in Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden).     

By‐Products of the College Classroom∗

Postmodern media scholarship suggests that mass media are best described as naturalized aspects of our cultural environment, raw materials we use in shaping our identities, our relationships, and our communities. Rather than being reliably produced and predictably consumed, mass‐media “texts” provide space for creative negotiation and even resistance between the author of a given media “text,” the receiver of that text, and the context in which the text is produced and consumed. In this landscape the role of religious educator is one of giving people access to the symbolic, narrative, and sacramental resources of our faith communities.     

应用型本科环境工程学实验混合式教学模式改革

以"工程化"理念为基础,在原有"环境工程学实验"教学改革的基础上,针对教学中现存问题,采用"线上+线下""实际操作+虚拟仿真""固定+开放"几种混合式教学模式,进行了工程化实验教学的全过程改革探索.通过优化整合实验室资源,规范开放实验室管理制度为实验教学提供支持与保障.采用"线上+线下"全过程评价方式,完善了教学过程管...     

Bolstering the quality and integrity of online collaborative university- level courses via an open Sim standalone server in conjunction with sloodle

The contemporary era provides several challenges which extend from the reconstitution of an innovative knowledge domain and curricula to candidate learning platforms that support online course delivery methods. Educators and scholars on these demands have recently started to rethink alternative ways for the assimilation of the experiential knowledge in three-dimensional (3D) technologically advanced environments, like 3D multi-user virtual worlds. In spite the widespread dissemination and proliferation of novel educational implications by utilizing 3D multi-user virtual worlds combined with the 2D interface of LMS (Learning Management Systems) and the assessment of the effectiveness based on the online course delivery method in a long-term usability is still absent from the international academic literature. This study presents interoperability issues focused on the utilization of the virtual world Open Simulator (Open Sim) in conjunction with Sloodle (Simulation Linked Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) as a free plug-in module. The evaluation of this online learning process according to an empirical research method became possible with the assistance of ninety-five (95) students by two different academic sectors that participated in this project and measured the capabilities and instructional affordances of this platform. The evaluation process was focused on four multi-dimensional parameters (psychological-pedagogical, technical-operational, organizational-financial, and socio-cultural). The study findings based on students’ experiences revealed that both platforms could be sufficiently connected as a unique platform which can increase the users’ learning abilities. This “hybrid” platform can adequately convert the ordinary multi-user virtual world of Open Sim and Sloodle in a common “incubator” of knowledge for online courses at university level. At the end, the instructional affordances and implications for future-driven directions are also discussed.     

现状、风险与培育:铸牢当代大学生中华民族共同体意识的红色路径思考

中华民族共同体意识的提出,顺应时代发展的主题,适应我国社会现阶段发展特征,是实现中华民族伟大复兴中国梦的重要举措,也是把握好“两个大局”的智力支持和动力源泉。当代大学生的中华民族共同体意识存在着“双金字塔”模式的特征,由浅及深的三重层次中,以过度自我关注、散漫的行为文化盛行为表象,以目的指向和功利实用观点泛滥为中间层,以“习以为常”且不易显的高度爱国爱党情怀为最深层,形成指针式流动过渡,即朴素的文化自信与不稳定情绪性的认同现象并存。近年来,高校大学生群体的网络意识形态风险事件频发,折射出当前高校思政教育手段存在着一定弊端。破解此种境地可从红色教育路径加以着手和反思,充分发挥其“信念之根”“道路之源”“力量之魂”的作用。     

“中国梦”背景下加强大学生理想信念教育的研究

"中国梦"科学内涵对大学生理想信念的培育有着重要的指导作用。通过分析大学生个人理想与"中国梦"的内在契合性,提出引导大学生在学习中坚定"中国梦",在感悟中凝聚"中国梦",在实践中践行"中国梦"的对策以加强和改进大学生理想信念教育。     

Transforming clinical imaging and 3D data for virtual reality learning objects: HTML5 and mobile devices implementation

Web deployable anatomical simulations or “virtual reality learning objects” can easily be produced with QuickTime VR software, but their use for online and mobile learning is being limited by the declining support for web browser plug‐ins for personal computers and unavailability on popular mobile devices like Apple iPad and Android tablets. This article describes complementary methods for creating comparable, multiplatform VR learning objects in the new HTML5 standard format, circumventing platform‐specific limitations imposed by the QuickTime VR multimedia file format. Multiple types or “dimensions” of anatomical information can be embedded in such learning objects, supporting different kinds of online learning applications, including interactive atlases, examination questions, and complex, multi‐structure presentations. Such HTML5 VR learning objects are usable on new mobile devices that do not support QuickTime VR, as well as on personal computers. Furthermore, HTML5 VR learning objects can be embedded in “ebook” document files, supporting the development of new types of electronic textbooks on mobile devices that are increasingly popular and self‐adopted for mobile learning. Anat Sci Educ 6: 263–270. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

“互联网+”教育康复人才培养CLP模式的构建与应用

集教育与康复技能于一身的教育康复人才是受到特殊儿童教育与康复双重需要而催生的紧缺型人才,社会需求量具大。而高校在教育康复人才培养方面普遍面临专业师资缺乏,理论课、实验课和社会实践课等教学资源短缺等问题。基于此,文章利用“互联网+教育”和“互联网+康复”新理念将高校教育康复人才培养的课程体系、实验室、实践基地虚拟到云平台,建立数字教育资源共建共享的人才培养机制,构建了集“在线课堂(C)、虚拟实验室(L)、智慧实践基地(P)”三位一体的教育康复人才培养CLP模式,旨在探索一套科学、高效、规模化的教育康复人才培养模式。     

基于网络传播视角的信仰教育路径

在分析网络视角下信仰教育研究现状的基础上,结合网络传播的全球性、交互性、超文本链接方式、虚拟性和群体化等特点,有针对性地提出做好网络传播“把关人”角色,充分利用“议程设置”功能,制作“综合形态文本”,创设“实践惯习场域”,培育“网络共同体”。     

信息化时代下“推拿学”线上线下虚拟仿真教学体系构建

“推拿学”是一门传统外治疗法中医学科,其传统的教学模式难以适应现代复杂的教学要求,特别是遇到学校教学环境难以对教学进行有效支撑时,“推拿学”要与时俱进,在信息化时代背景下必须通过改革适应复杂的教学环境。阐述了本教学团队通过融合线上线下混合式教学和虚拟仿真教学项目相结合的方式,深化构建了“推拿学”“线上—线下—虚拟仿真”三位一体教学体系,重点探讨了信息化时代背景下“推拿学”教学的发展方向。