The space between us: considering online media for interreligious dialogue

ABSTRACT

The internet has been conceptualized as a public sphere in which constructive dialogues – such as inter-religious dialogues – can occur. Public spheres, however, require reason, reflectivity and sincerity rarely found in most web spaces. Therefore, this approach might be counterproductive. Instead, I suggest we consider online communication as a Foucauldian discourse, a site of struggle, in which norms and concepts are negotiated. This chapter considers a few theoretical frameworks that allow researchers to critically survey online inter-religious dialogue. Four case studies are then reviewed in light of these theoretical considerations. The chapter argues that online discourses need to be examined by paying attention to the technological affordances, the social and cultural context, and the linguistic strategies employed. It is suggested that, for interreligious dialogue to happen, it needs to carve out a space within this online media that is dedicated to contemplation and openness.     

Giordano Bruno and the Historical Task of Higher Education

The mission and goal of the Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University is to provide education to young people that is affordable and meaningful and enables young people to be self-reliant and responsible members of society. To develop new thinking and a new consciousness is the challenge awaiting the young generation. Meeting it calls for questioning established values and dogmas, much as Giordano Bruno did in regard to the Aristotelian view of the cosmos embraced at the time by the Catholic Church. Bruno's “heresy” laid the foundations for the modern scientific worldview, and it continues to inspire the view that will rise above it. It inspires the Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University to question the dominant materialist and reductionist paradigm in science and society, offering in its place a holistic, dynamic, and evolutionary view, and foundation for a more peaceful, equitable, and sustainable world.     

Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Training for Therapists: Outcomes,Acceptability, and Impact of Support

The objectives of the present study were to assess the effects of online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) training for therapists on measures of CBT knowledge, skills, confidence, and utilisation; to determine what differences might exist between a group supported by regular telephone contact and an independent group who undertook online training without additional support; and to determine the acceptability of CBT online training among rural and remote mental health professionals. Mental health practitioners were randomly allocated to a supported training group (six sessions of 15‐min support) or an independent group. They undertook a 12‐week online CBT training program. The two groups showed similar gains on an objective test of knowledge of CBT, and on self‐report measures of knowledge, skills, confidence levels, and utilisation of skills. However, the supported training group had a significantly higher program completion rate than the independent group. Participants evaluated the program favourably. The results suggest that online CBT training represents a promising and cost‐effective approach to training the mental health workforce, and may be particularly attractive for those who live in regional, rural, and remote communities. A challenge is to determine the most cost‐effective ways to enhance program completion rates and trainee skills.     

Synchronous online CPD: empirical support for the value of webinars in career settings

The careers profession in England is facing unprecedented challenges. Initiatives to improve service delivery while keeping costs low are attractive and online training holds the promise of high impact at low cost. The present study employs a qualitative methodology to evaluate a series of online ‘webinars’ conducted with 15 careers advisers. Results showed that the technology itself could impede learning, and participants missed out on the peer-to-peer interaction that takes place in a ‘bricks and mortar’ setting, but overall participants found that access to relevant, good quality training from the convenience of their workplace more than compensated for the challenges. The article offers conceptual support for the viability of online learning through the theory of equivalency, andragogy and transactional distance theory, and makes recommendations for practice.     

Early Positive Information Impacts Final Evaluations: No Deliberation‐Without‐Attention Effect and a Test of a Dynamic Judgment Model

Evaluation judgments were affected by information order and not by subsequent unconscious versus conscious deliberation. In three experiments, we examined the influence of early positive information on final evaluations of four objects. Based on a task analysis, we predicted primacy effects in judgments in a sequential data acquisition task. Thinking periods following presentation were used to manipulate conscious or unconscious processing. In all three studies, we found no effects of thinking manipulations but instead found reliable order effects. We developed and tested an online judgment model on the basis of the belief updating model of Hogarth and Einhorn. The model accounted for large proportion of the individual level variability, and model comparison tests supported the presence of a primacy effect. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forum: A New Culture of Learning

These brief essays by Mary Hess, Eugene Gallagher, and Katherine Turpin are solicited responses from three different contexts to the provocative book by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, The New Culture of Learning (2011). Mary Hess writes from a seminary context, providing a critical summary of the authors' major concepts and their ramifications, positive and negative, for theological education and the church. Eugene Gallagher writes from a liberal arts setting, identifying characteristics of the face‐to‐face classroom that would go missing in a careless adoption of online learning environments. Finally, Katherine Turpin reports from the classroom, chronicling her experience in a course she redesigned for a graduate theological setting to employ some of the authors' pedagogical principles and strategies. Together, these responses offer critical appreciation and constructive critique of the work Thomas and Seely Brown have done – and point the conversation forward.     

Working with psychosis Part 4: Therapy online – ending by email

This is the fourth and concluding paper from a series about psychotherapy with a man suffering from a psychotic illness. The paper describes the ending of the therapy which was precipitated by my decision to leave the country. News of ending was extremely disturbing for my client and stirred fears that he would again break down and need re-admission to hospital. Six weeks before the ending he stopped attending but continued to stay in contact by email. I decided to reply to his emails during the session times, and we developed what he came to call his ‘email therapy’. This online technology provided a means for my client and me to separate, to find a third perspective and to begin to mourn this ending without him losing his mind and breaking down. Following James Fisher's ideas about ‘mourning in the presence of the loved object’ I understand aspects of this email ending as enabling a relinquishing of projective identification used to possess and control, a recognition of the freedom of the other and of the need to mourn omnipotence. I discuss some of the problems presented by premature ending with a vulnerable client – problems which can be seen in my difficulty of mourning and working through the ending reflected in the long time it has taken to finish writing this paper.     

青少年网络道德与其网络偏差行为的关系

青少年已经成为中国互联网的最大用户群体,他们在使用互联网中表现出的偏差行为与道德的关系值得关注。该研究使用问卷法探讨了496名青少年的网络道德特点与网络偏差行为表现以及二者之间的关系。结果发现:(1)青少年的网络道德表现较积极,网络道德认知、情感和意向之间存在显著正相关;(2)青少年的网络偏差行为不算严重,但男生的网络过激行为和网络色情行为显著多于女生,且网络过激行为随着年级升高而减少:其中网络攻击性、易怒、敌意和冲突水平都随着年级的增长而呈下降趋势;(4)青少年的网络道德认知和意向对网络偏差行为有反向预测作用,网络道德情感不能预测其网络偏差行为表现。网络道德越积极,表现出来的网络偏差行为越少。