MIT Press Research Articles

Teacher professional development and online instruction: Cultivating coherence and sustainability

AbstractAs we work to provide coherent and systematic professional development for online language teachers, a consideration of findings from teacher development research is essential. This essay begins by briefly overviewing this research as well as investigations into teacher learning related to online instruction, with a specific focus on studies grounded in sociocultural theory (Lantolf, 2000, Sociocultural theory and second language learning, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England; Vygotsky, 1986, Thought and language, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA). The main takeaways from this study are exemplified through the teacher professional development efforts currently underway at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota. The essay concludes with recommendations for crafting a research‐informed professional development program for online language instruction.

Making a place for technology in communities: PlaceCal and the capabilities approach

ABSTRACTWe discuss how a capability approach to information technology in neighbourhoods with low social capital can create embedded and sustainable Community Technology Partnerships (CTPs) that connect residents and institutions together, reducing barriers to social participation and collaborative action. Current research indicates older people in deprived neighbourhoods have chronic problems with the effective sharing of community information, a key factor in the ‘digital divide’ [Niehaves and Plattfaut (2014). Internet adoption by the elderly: Employing IS technology acceptance theories for understanding the age-related digital divide. European Journal of Information Systems, 23(6), 708–726. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2013.19]. Manchester Age Friendly Neighbourhoods had 4,000 conversations in four ‘age-friendly’ resident-led neighbourhood partnerships in Manchester. This fieldwork demonstrated that the inability to create and share information within and across residents, communities and service providers is a key contributor to social isolation and barrier to local collaboration. MAFN developed a CTP to correlate perceptions that it was difficult to find out what was going on in the neighbourhood, with an exhaustive audit of actual activity. The result was collective surprise at finding out about dozens of events in each area that were previously either poorly communicated or which were not normally published at all, relying entirely on word of mouth. The CTP was developed using a capability model [Kleine (2013). Technologies of choice? ICTs, development, and the capabilities approach. MIT Press] to discover and overcome both the social and technical barriers preventing the hosts of neighbourhood activities collaboratively and sustainably self-publishing their event information. This resulted in the production of PlaceCal, an holistic social and technical toolkit that ensures groups and individuals have the technology, skills, infrastructure and support to publish information, creating a distributed network of community information.

The qua-Problem, Meaning Scepticism, and the Life-World

Michael Devitt and Kim Sterelny (Language and reality: An introduction to the philosophy of language. MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999) argue that the pure causal theory of reference faces a problem, which they call the qua-problem. They propose to invoke intentional states to cope with it. Martin Kusch (A sceptical guide to meaning and rules. Acumen, Chesham, 2006), however, argues that, because Devitt and Stereleny invoke intentional states to solve the problem, their causal-hybrid theory of reference is susceptible to Kripke’s sceptical attack. Kusch thinks that intentional states are what allows the sceptic to get a foothold and thus interpret words in a weird way. In his view, Kripke is therefore correct in not regarding a causal theory as a solution to the problem. I think, however, that there is room to defend a causal-hybrid theory of reference. Drawing on Husserl’s notion of the life-world, I argue that this notion is helpful for overcoming some aspects of the qua-problem and the meaning scepticism which Devitt and Sterelny’s causal-hybrid theory of reference faces.

A Hybrid Method Based on Genetic Algorithm and Ant Colony System for Traffic Routing Optimization

TThis paper presents a hybrid method that combines the genetic algorithm (GA) and the ant colony system algorithm (ACS), namely GACS, to solve the traffic routing problem. In the proposed framework, we use the genetic algorithm to optimize the ACS parameters in order to attain the best trips and travelling time through several novel functions to help ants to update the global and local pheromones. The GACS framework is implemented using the VANETsim package and the real city maps from the open street map project. The experimental results show that our framework achieves a considerably higher performance than A-Star and the classical ACS algorithms in terms of the length of the global best path and the time for trips. Moreover, the GACS framework is also efficient in solving the congestion problem by online monitoring the conditions of traffic light systems.
 KeywordsTraffic routing; Ant colony system; Genetic algorithm; VANET simulator.
 References
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‘Firing cannons to kill mosquitoes’: Controlling ‘virtual streets’ and the ‘image of the state’ in Bangladesh

This article examines the historical, social and political legacies of the Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT Act) (2006–2018, amended in 2013) and the Digital Security Act (DSA) (2018–) in the Bangladeshi state’s attempt to control the ‘virtual streets’ of Bangladesh. The application of ICT and DSA has become an increasingly visible and controversial means to provide the spectacle of a state that extends disciplinary power and governmentality into proliferating online spaces—akin to ‘firing cannons to kill mosquitoes’. We use the lens of Tim Mitchell’s structural-effect (1991, The American Political Science Review 85(1), 77–96) to understand the state beyond the frameworks of its salience or elusiveness, arguing that the criminalisation of online speech has enabled the creation of ‘digital vigilantes’ who are predominantly the powerful, the sycophants, and the multitude of attention seekers who are driven by their personal contestations and ambitions. The legal outcomes, however, have been more ambiguous and uncertain—but the effect is to produce fear as an ‘environment’ (Virilio 2012, The Administration of Fear. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press) through frozen/suspended charges with the potential to be redeployed in different contexts.

Is Truth the Gold Standard of Inquiry? A Comment on Elgin’s Argument Against Veritism

In True enough, (The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2017), Elgin argues against veritism, which is the view that truth is the paramount epistemic objective. Elgin’s argument against veritism proceeds from considering the role that models, idealizations, and thought experiments play in science to the conclusion that veritism is unacceptable. In this commentary, I argue that Elgin’s argument fails as an argument against veritism. I sketch a refutation by logical analogy of Elgin’s argument. Just as one can aim at gold medals and still find approximations to gold, such as silver and bronze medals, to be acceptable and honest achievements in competitive sports, one can aim at full truths as the paramount epistemic objective and still find approximations to truth, such as models and idealizations, to be acceptable and honest achievements in scientific inquiry.

Performa Punch: Subverting the Female Aggressor Trope

Performa Punch: Subverting the Female Aggressor Trope

Translations in Time

This text is a modified excerpt from YEAR 1, a project in the reconfiguration of knowledge (as well as a book forthcoming from MIT Press in 2021). The focus is on the first century that starts the numerical countdown to the present. All of the schemata of modernity—time, space, concepts, and categories [as in Kant's First Critique]—are put to the test of comprehending this alleged beginning, and none survives unscathed. Walter Benjamin's understanding of the task of the translator, when applied to historical rather than linguistic translation, provides the methodological armature for the analysis. The excerpt printed here is the methodological introduction to Chapter 2: “Translations in Time.”

Unsupervised Idealization of Nano-Electronic Sensors Recordings with Concept Drifts: An Information Theory Approach for Non-Stationary Single-Molecule Data Analysis

Unsupervised Idealization of Nano-Electronic Sensors Recordings with Concept Drifts: An Information Theory Approach for Non-Stationary Single-Molecule Data Analysis

The Paradox of Scale: How NGOs Build, Maintain, and Lose Authority in Environmental Governance. By Cristina M. Balboa. 2018. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

The Paradox of Scale: How NGOs Build, Maintain, and Lose Authority in Environmental Governance. By Cristina M. Balboa. 2018. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Imposters and their implications for third-person feature specification

AbstractImposters, seemingly third person nouns with speech act participant reference, have been varyingly analyzed as being licensed through an elaborated DP syntax (Collins and Postal. 2008. Imposters. Manuscript. http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/000640 (accessed 12 May 2017), Collins and Postal. 2012. Imposters: A study of pronominal agreement. Cambridge: MIT Press) or through lexical specification (Kaufman 2014. The syntax of Indonesian imposters. In Chris Collins (ed.), Cross-linguistic studies of imposters and pronominal agreement, 89–120. Oxford: Oxford University Press). Looking at Korean and Indonesian, two languages that make frequent use of imposters, we show that both can be accounted for without appeal to an elaborated DP syntax and that, in fact, such a structure makes the wrong predictions. Rather, other heads in the clause, in conjunction with differences in lexical specification, can account for both languages. In Indonesian, which freely allows imposters to bind anaphors with person features of the referent, the imposter is lexically specified for those features. In Korean, where such binding is restricted, imposters are underspecified for person and so anaphors only occur when there is another person feature-carrying head to supply the necessary features (Zanuttini et al. 2012. A syntactic analysis of interpretive restrictions on imperative, promissive, and exhortative subjects. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 30(4). 1231–1274). Previously left unexplained was why Korean imposters were unable to bind any person-marked anaphors, including third person, under an assumption that person-underspecified DPs get valued with a default third person feature. We argue this is a result of the difference in types of third person, those specified for third person and those that are not (Sigurðsson 2010. On EPP effects. Studia Linguistica 64(2). 159–189).

Dungeons & Dragons & Drama

Players sit around a table. A group of adventurers pause in their pursuit of escape. Stunned, they stare at the die that just rolled poorly, resulting in the loss of a dear friend, his throat ripped out because they could not save him. The players mourn the death of a fictional character who only ever existed within the game. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a popular role-playing game illustrating the interconnectedness of drama, performance, and games. My presentation will examine this relationship, identifying factors from gameplay that suggest how performance fosters success in D&D for both actual players and fictional characters. Research into dramatic theory and game theory reveals how interdisciplinary concepts such as the “magic circle”, the “lusory attitude”, and uncertainty can apply to elements of D&D (Salen and Zimmerman, Suits, Costikyan). Data collected from in-person observation of D&D sessions, coding participants’ behaviour, and watching for instances of performance (e.g. voice change, pronoun switches, or mimetic gesture), has been combined with theoretical research to determine elements that better facilitate success in the game/campaign. These elements range from emotional situations that provoke players, to forms of invitations encouraging participation (Isbister, White). I have discovered that while in theatre performance acts as a vehicle for story, in D&D the story acts as a vehicle for performance. The in-game performance often facilitates fun between players, as well as leading them to success in the game, so a campaign that maximizes theatricality will not only result in more fun, but also more success.
 Works Cited
 Costikyan, Greg. Uncertainty in Games. MIT Press, 2013.
 Isbister, Katherine. How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design. MIT Press, 2016.
 Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. The MIT Press, 2004.
 Suits, Bernard Herbert. The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. Broadview Press, 2014.
 White, Gareth. Audience Participation in Theatre: Aesthetics of the Invitation. Springer, 2013.

The things we make that make us who we are The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another Ainissa Ramirez MIT Press, 2020. 328 pp.

Our cultural values get baked into the materials we create, changing humanity along the way

Play-based strategies and using robot technologies across the curriculum

ABSTRACT Formal education is constantly influenced by a determined curriculum, which teachers are more or less forced to follow. But by following Sicart (2014. Play Matters. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press), and thereby considering children's democratic rights and their right to play we can ask important questions, such as: How can we make schools more playful by giving teachers inspiration and tools for making their subjects in school more creative, engaging and inspiring? How can we use technologies in curriculum-oriented and cross-curricular ways? How can we learn about the influence of technology, about culture and societal development, in age-appropriate ways? The paper investigates which pedagogical approaches and strategies that are most useful as inspiration and as educational exchange on a transnational level. Furthermore, the paper discusses new robotic influenced pedagogies for transforming traditional school activities into more play-based approaches to be implemented with twenty-first century learning skills: creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

Carbon Capture and Storage: Efficient Legal Policies For Risk Governance and Compensation by Michael G.Faure and Roy A.Partain Published by MIT Press, 2017, 360 pp., 19.75, hardback.

Carbon Capture and Storage: Efficient Legal Policies For Risk Governance and Compensation by Michael G.Faure and Roy A.Partain Published by MIT Press, 2017, 360 pp., 19.75, hardback.

Meryl Alper, Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2017

Meryl Alper, <i>Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality.</i> Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 2017

How farmers “repair” the industrial agricultural system

Scholars are increasingly calling for the environmental issues of the industrial agricultural system to be addressed via eventual agroecological system-level transformation. It is critical to identify the barriers to this transition. Drawing from Henke’s (Cultivating science, harvesting power: science and industrial agriculture in California, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008) theory of “repair,” we explore how farmers participate in the reproduction of the industrial system through “discursive repair,” or arguing for the continuation of the industrial agriculture system. Our empirical case relates to water pollution from nitrogen fertilizer and draws data from a sample of over 150 interviews with row-crop farmers in the midwestern United States. We find that farmers defend this system by denying agriculture’s causal role and proposing the potential for within-system solutions. They perform these defenses by drawing on ideological positions (agrarianism, market-fundamentalism and techno-optimism) and may be ultimately led to seek system maintenance because they are unable to envision an alternative to the industrial agriculture system.

Exclusion, Penance, and the Box: Retracing Mercy in the Birth of the Confessional

It is the concern of this paper to retrace, rather than diachronically expound, some of the events that substantiate the forging of the confessional box within the historicity of confession. It exposes that the birth of the confessional (box) is an issue of how confession evolved from the varying historical instances that project man’s yearning for reconciliation and salvation. It thereby retraces the formulations of mercy within such context. Hence, the paper will delve into confession’s history vis-à-vis its roots, practices, and evolution from its ancient, medieval, and eventual modern institutionalization in the Council of Trent. The paper runs in two parts: 1) it discusses the art of exclusion and control of penance that is distinctive of the ancient and medieval practices of reconciliation respectively, and 2) it proceeds into a discussion of the crisis of mercy and the eventual forging of the confessional box.&#x0D; References&#x0D; Bossy, John. “The Social History of Confession,” in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 25 (1975): 30.&#x0D; __________. Christianity in the West, 1400–1700, Oxford, 1985.&#x0D; Butler, Perry. “Introduction: Confession Today,” in Martin Dudley (ed.), Confession and Absolution. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1990.&#x0D; Cantor, Norman. Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: HarperCollins Publishing, 1993.&#x0D; Cornwell, John. The Dark Box, A Secret History of Confession, 1st ed. Cambridge: Basic Books, 2014.&#x0D; Dallen, James. “History and Reform of Penance,” in Robert Kennedy (ed.), Reconciling Embrace: Foundations for the Future of Sacramental Confession. Illinois: Liturgy Training Publications, 1998.&#x0D; Daniel-Rops, Henri. History of the Church of Christ, vol. 5, The Catholic Reformation, trans. John Warrington. London, 1962.&#x0D; de Boer, Wietse. The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan. Leiden, 2001.&#x0D; Dooley, Catherine OP. “The History of Penance in the Early Church: Implications for the Future,” in Robert Kennedy (ed.),&#x0D; Reconciliation: the Continuing Agenda. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1987.&#x0D; Duchesne, Louis. Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution. London, 1904.&#x0D; Favazza, Joseph. The Order of Penitents: Historical Roots and Pastoral Future. Collegeville,&#x0D; Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1988.&#x0D; Foucault, Michel. “Christianity and Confession’ (lecture),” in Foucault, The Politics of Truth. Los Angeles, 1997.&#x0D; Fox, Robin Lane. Pagans and Christians in the Mediterranean World from the Second Century AD to the Conversion of Constantine. London, 1986.&#x0D; Hamelin, Léonce. Reconciliation in the Church: A Theological and Pastoral Essay on the Sacrament of Penance. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press.&#x0D; Jedin, Hubert. A History of the Council of Trent, trans. Dom Ernest Graf, vol. 2. St. Louis, 1961.&#x0D; Mahoney, John. The Making of Moral Theology: A Study of the Roman Catholic Tradition. Oxford, 1989.&#x0D; Martinez, German. Signs of Freedom: Theology of the Christian Sacraments. New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2003.&#x0D; O’Malley, John. Trent: What Happened at the Council. Cambridge, MA, 2013.&#x0D; Orsy, Ladislas. The Evolving Church and the Sacrament of Penance. Denville, New Jersey: Dimension Books, 1978.&#x0D; Pope John Paul II, “Apostolic Exhortation on Reconciliation and Penance,” no. 28, in Origins, 14:25 (1984).&#x0D; Poschmann, Bernhard. Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, trans. Francis Courtney. New York: Herder and Herder, 1964.&#x0D; Haliczer, Stephen. Sexuality in the Confessional: A Sacrament Profaned. Oxford, 1996.&#x0D; Taylor, Chloë. The Culture of Confession from Augustine to Foucault: a Genealogy of the ‘Confessing Animal’. New York: Routledge, 2009.&#x0D; Von Speyer, Adrienne. Confession, the Encounter with Christ in Penance. Frieburg: Herder, 1964.&#x0D; Žižek, Slavoj. The Puppet and the Dwarf: The Perverse Core of Christianity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2003.&#x0D; __________. Žižek’s Jokes. London: MIT Press, 2014.

Dream Machines: The Motorcar as Sign of Conquest and Destruction in F. Scott Fitzgerald's &lt;em&gt;The Great Gatsby&lt;/em&gt;

Dream Machines: The Motorcar as Sign of Conquest and Destruction in F. Scott Fitzgerald's &lt;em&gt;The Great Gatsby&lt;/em&gt;

Appraisal of certain methodologies in cognitive science based on Lakatos’s methodology of scientific research programmes

Attempts to apply the mathematical tools of dynamical systems theory to cognition in a systematic way has been well under way since the early 90s and has been recognised as a “third contender” to computationalist and connectionist approaches (Eliasmith in Philos Psychol 9(4):441–463, 1996). Nevertheless, it was also realised that such an application will not lead to a solid paradigm as straightforwardly as was initially hoped (Eliasmith 1996; van Leeuwen in Minds Mach 15:271–333, 2005). In this paper I explicate a method for assessing such proposals by drawing upon Lakatos’s (in: Lakatos, Musgrave (eds) Criticism and the growth of knowledge, Cambridge University Press, London, pp 91–195, 1970) methodology of scientific research programs (hereafter: “MSRP”). MSRP focuses on the heuristics of a particular field and gauges the model/theory building stratagems by reference to theoretical and empirical progress, on the one hand, and the continuity and the autonomy of the way the field’s heuristic generates its series of models/theories, on the other. The requirement of continuity and autonomy afford distinct senses of ad hoc-ness, which serve as an effective tool to detect various subtleties which may otherwise be missed: the present approach identifies shortcomings missed by Chemero’s (Radical embodied cognitive science, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 2009) radical embodied cognitive science and falsifies Chemero’s claim that the methodological powers of his model-based account is on a par with computationalism. In general, I claim that MSRP is relevant to current methodological issues in cognitive science and can supplement debates regarding “local” assessments of methodologies, such as that between mechanical versus covering-law explanations. MSRP must at least be viewed as a necessary constraint for any methodological considerations in cognitive science.