The Reflections of a Distance Learner 1977-1997

This paper explores one student's personal experience of the evolution of distance learning in the UK between 1977 and 1997. Reflecting on his experience, the author discusses the growth in opportunities available to the learner as more and more providers have entered the field; the changes in the nature of learning materials; differences in the assessment strategies adopted by the four different providers he studied with, and in learner support; and the extent to which the different providers exhibited degrees of openness. Based on this personal experience, the author discusses the changes that have taken place over 20 years: the increasing consumerism of the sector; the changes in the nature of the providers' response to the market, and in the nature of distance learners; and changes in the underpinning technology.     

Teaching Students to Infer Meaning Through Material Culture

Social studies students can learn to glean historical information from the study of material culture through active engagement as curators. Teachers can guide students through a pre-survey of helpful reading materials and then through selecting items of personal significance to them: creating labels that objectively describe the chosen items as to origin, composition, background, and provenance; exchanging the created sets of file cards; examining the cards received in the exchange; inferring factual information about the owner of the selected items; and sharing deductions with the class. From this exercise, students will have a chance to learn how historians, anthropologists, and other social scientists use critical thinking in their work, how much can be learned from material culture, and how missteps can result from overtheorizing.     

Increased fruit and vegetable intake among older adults participating in Kentucky’s congregate meal site program

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine if the amount and variety of fruits and vegetables consumed increased among community-dwelling older adults participating in Kentucky’s congregate meal site program following a series of five nutrition education lessons. A convenience sample of older adults attending senior centers (n = 35)—two intervention (n = 19) and two control (n = 16) centers—participated in this quasi-experimental pilot study. Following the intervention there was a significant increase in actual fruit and vegetable intake in the intervention group (p < .05) as assessed by platewaste measurements of the congregate lunch meal. In addition, from pre- to post-intervention, a trend towards increased self-reported intake in the variety of fruit and vegetables was observed among the intervention group. As well, a significant increase in the number of days intervention participants self-reported consuming at least 4.5 cups of fruits and vegetables in the last 7 days (2.44 ± 2.09 days to 4.28 ± 1.99 days (p = .004)) was observed; and knowledge pertaining to phytochemicals increased (p < .05). The phytochemical index (PI) score of the lunch meal, taking into account that the older adults' consumption of meal components, including phytochemical-rich foods, was 26.9. Overall, study results indicated that a short theory-based nutrition education program offered to community-dwelling older adults was linked to an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption and phytochemical knowledge.     

Hipster racism and sexism in charity date auctions: individualism,privilege blindness and irony in the academy

This paper follows one small, Christian university’s five-year experience with student charity date auctions. The contemporary re-emergence of date auctions represents a backlash against gender and racial progress. Student leaders believe that in a post-racial and post-sexist society, race and gender are decontextualised neutral elements of identity. Students see their expressions of racist or sexist practices as quaint or ironic, as markers that they have sufficient cultural capital to reference historical events or practices. This perceived mastery of cultural signs is what marks these expressions as hipster racism and sexism. The date auction is difficult to unpack and challenge as it rests on privilege blindness, individualism, and the powerful rhetoric of irony. Using a close reading of the student newspaper, we analyse the discourse surrounding the date auction revealing the maintenance of patriarchy and white supremacy within the academy.     

The Scope for Stimulation of Demand for Higher Education

Calls for the large-scale expansion of British higher education raise fundamental questions about supply and demand. An increase of 400,000 students by the turn of the century would require action both to stimulate demand and encourage institutions to meet it. This article considers the main types of market that higher education will need to develop in order to fulfil such an ambitious target and concludes that a very substantial marketing effort would be needed in addition to financial incentives if the opportunities available are to be grasped.     

Electronic publishing: what the Physiological Society is doing

The following article is primarily addressed to members of the Physiological Society, and is intended to explain the reasons for the changes in presentation of the Physiological Society journals. However, it is of much wider interest, and we are delighted to publish it in our series on the response of learned societies to electronic publishing possibilities.