Suchergebnisse

What can we do in the face of irreconcilable conflict, when two opposing parties (be they individuals, groups, nations) have disagreements in which there seems to be no common ground, no hope for resolution? Further still, what do we do when both sides of an argument appear to be rational? In this paper, I explore this kind of 'tragic' im-passe through the lens of Aeschylus' Eumenides. This play has been taken by some scholars to be the precursor of the Western legal system (establishing the jury trial and neutral, third-party judge). Others see it less optimistically, as a portrayal of a misogynistic abuse of power. I diverge from these lines of interpretation and suggest that the Eumenides offers a useful approach to disagreement, building on the idea that those bitter struggles that result in impasse can be resolved only through a deliberate reorientation of identity, guided by an engaged judge whose most important actions come after the trial.

During the last five years, the maturation of incident and disaster management training has evolved substantially with widespread evidence that ICT positively impacts disaster outcomes. Virtual world (VW) technology with the use of avatars appears commonplace and widely accepted as either a stand-alone or a complementary learning strategy. However, the primary goals of emergency preparedness training (EPT), increased collaboration, leadership, and decision-making skills, have not been altered. This retrospective article briefly reviews the evolution in ICT learning theories and applies them to a virtual world simulation developed in Second Life™ for MHA graduate students completing an Emergency Management course. After five years of implementing the VW training, student results continue to show increased comfortability with the use of virtual worlds as a training platform, positive knowledge attainment, and marked improvement of emergency management skills. Additional research is recommended, but findings suggest that ICT appropriate learning theories (constructivism, situativity, visualization, and interactivity) still remain the most integral components for a successful virtual world training simulation.