Twenty-first century developments in ecophilosophy argue for a growing awareness that nonhumans ('organic' or otherwise) possess both vibrant agency and dark interiority and, therefore, humans – even environmentally conscious ones – must relinquish their presumed centrality and apartness from other things (anthropocentrism). Standard motivations for environmental responsibility, such as appeals to the crisis of human-caused global warming, are here postponed in order to seek means of allowing nonhuman agency and interiority to 'speak' or make itself felt. The article claims mountains themselves initiated this human-nonhuman entanglement and tries to follow their lead into reconfigured (non-anthropocentric) visions of coexistence. Its many-appendaged ecopoetics is comprised of photographs and recollections of mountains stitched together with the conceptual tools of monster theory, object-oriented ontology, and vital materialism. Viewed through this theoretical nexus, a hole in a photograph of the Lysefjord provokes the suggestion that holes in ontology are perforations through which human being seeps into nonhuman being and is therein transfigured, emerging porous and suffused, as much 'the environment' as anything else. The article's necessary provisionality means further engagement – especially from other 'witnesses' of mountains – is required to test its effectiveness as an aesthetic-contemplative preface to deeper, wiser ecological ethics.
The annual Conference of Parties (COP) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place since the establishment of the Berlin Mandate in 1995. Since then the on-going climate change negotiations have produced little progress in preventing the ultimate objective of the Framework Convention that is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Mainly responsible are three overarching conflicts, which have overshadowed all effort for an effective agreement so far. While the first and second conflict is within the developing and within the developed countries, the third conflict is between developing and developed countries. The latter conflict debates the question of how much and by whom emissions should be reduced in the future. The discipline of international relations provides two theoretical perspectives to predict the success of this year´s climate change negotiations. Whereas Realism perceives power to be the main reference for explaining international cooperation, constructivism puts the recognition of material as well as ideational factors in the centre of observation. If applied on the different negotiation parties, the realist perspective provides a far more pessimistic outlook for a successful agreement than constructivism.
Despite the euphoria about MOOCs, a final evaluation of the educational value is still pending. In our paper, we question the recent research focus which tends to solely quantify educational success by referring to certain numbers of completion. We think it is promising to give more consideration to the subject of students' individual learning success and thus complement recent research about the impact of MOOCs. Empirically, we draw on experiences gained throughout a climate MOOC.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. ; The Lived experience of climate change: interdisciplinary e-module development and virtual mobility project concerns education and lifelong learning in relation to climate change, to contribute to an informed and active European citizenry and to inform EU policy on this major challenge. Focusing on the lived experiences of climate change - how individuals, communities and organisations conceive and respond to its perceived local impacts (e.g. extreme weather, biodiversity changes) – the project complements other work in the area. Through collaboration between nine participating institutions, designing innovative teaching modules and a virtual learning space, it aims to create a European community of scholars, students and citizens who collectively make a major contribution to the United Nations decade on education for sustainable development. This document contains Module 1 Workbook : "Introduction to climate change in the context of sustainable".
The notion of virtual mobility has gained prominence not only in the field of distance education. Virtual mobility is entrenched in the idea to enable students to exchange and collaborate with teachers and fellow students from other countries by the means of the latest information and communication technologies (ICT). In this paper, we argue that especially non-traditional students regularly found in distance education can benefit from virtual mobility as they are normally omitted from regular exchange programs. However, hitherto there is little empirical data about how to best implement virtual mobility in courses in distance education. We therefore present our own experiences with developing a university course which implemented virtual mobility. The course brings together students from two Master programmes in Finland and Germany. We used the ADDIE model which allowed us to tailormade the course striving to enhance the learning experience of the students. Seamless learning, problem-based learning and peer-assessment were implemented as activities to spur the students' interaction and thereby enriching their experience with virtual mobility. The results of our evaluation are twofold. First, students indicate a high level of satisfaction with the instructional course design, the different activities and the collaboration with fellow students from abroad. Second, the results suggest that students need additional assistance as well as skill improvement and training to be able to perform eLearning. In a nutshell, the ADDIE model proved to be valuable for instructional course design by allowing testing and evaluating the merits and risks of a course with virtual mobility.
In recent decades, a vast amount of literature has been published discussing the educational use of simulation games in higher education. Since their emergence in the 1960s, simulation games have had a substantial effect on the way we think about teaching and learning in higher education. One reason simulation games are regarded as superior to traditional teaching is that they encourage students to interact and collaborate. Simulation games can therefore be subsumed under Kolbs learning model of experiential learning referring to learning through experience. Experiential learning follows a recursive cycle of experiencing, reflecting, thinking and acting to increase students' learning motivation and learning success.
In the broader field of education, the added value of gaming in general is incrementally becoming more evident. A large number of articles from various fields have been published stating the benefits of simulation games in higher education. In spite of the success of gaming as a tool to foster learning, the way it affects learning success and learning motivation of students needs further clarification. In this paper, I want to contribute to the debate by critically examining whether, and if yes to what extent, the use of simulation games in higher education can lead to enhanced learning motivation and learning success. Based on the findings of existing literature, boosted students' interaction might be one key reason to explain the success of simulation games.
As a case study, I present empirical findings from the incorporation of a simulation game into a university course about climate change. The course is part of a Master program on interdisciplinary environmental science. The aim of the course is to teach students the basic knowledge about causes and effects of climate change with a special focus on the political understanding of the international negotiation process. The course is offered as a blended learning course combining a virtual collaboration phase with a three-day attendance seminar. For several years, this attendance seminar was comprised of students' presentations, scientific lectures and joint discussions. In 2015, we tested whether the use of a simulation game instead of classical teaching methods would affect the students' learning motivation and learning success. As our results indicate, the boosted student´s interaction increased through the use of the simulation games lead to an enhanced learning motivation and learning success.
As for the structure of the paper: In the first section, I discuss the potential benefits of simulation games for teaching in higher education. In the second section, I present how the simulation game was integrated and conducted during the course. In the third section, I present and critically examine the influence of the simulation game on the students' performance. To this end, I compare data from previous course evaluations with the recent course evaluation. To secure the reliability of the findings, an additional survey was conducted to gauge whether the simulation game was decisive for the variances in the regular evaluation. In the last section, I discuss the results in the wider context of simulation games in education.
