This article presents an interview with Chere Campbell Gibson, a professor emerita in the School of Human Ecology and graduate program in Continuing and Vocational Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gibson shares her years of experience in distance education, discusses her book titled "Distance Learners in Higher Education:…

Critically examines Dilsey Gibson, one of William Faulkner's archetypical Black mammies, who appears in "The Sound and the Fury." Contrasts Gibson's two mothering styles in dealing with her Black and White families as well as their treatment of her. Comments on other critics' reaction to the portrayal of Gibson. (ML)

With its roots in ancient rhetoric and medieval liturgy, the term "trope" now refers to a figure of speech that organizes a set of complex ideas into a kind of linguistic shorthand. A trope is thus a phrase or image that conveys more than its literal meaning. In this article, two tropes are pertinent: the "pastoral" and the "fortunate fall." The…

Includes "Community Education (CE) Development in the States" (Clark, Zemlo); "State of the States" (Clark, Zemlo); "In Support of State-Level CE Development" (Decker, Romney); "CE in Florida" (Hanley, Robinson); ""CE in Kentucky" (Christenson, Whitus); "CE in Minnesota" (Kerns,…

This book contains a collection of 12 articles first printed in the magazine Scientific American. These articles show how life manages to eke out an existence where, by all rights, it shouldn't and helps in explaining the roles of energy and the building-block elements in the cycles of life. The titles include: (1) "The Evolution of the…

Within this document is the testimony delivered by 15 individuals at congressional hearings. Among the issues spoken to are: the combat exclusion law and its effect on the careers of women in the military; the kinds of jobs open to female armed services personnel; special problems that women in the military face; their promotion and retention…

This report provides a brief description of a 1985 conference on distance education together with the papers presented by six of the seven keynote speakers. It is noted that, in addition to these papers, the conference included 30 application sessions which allowed the 182 participants to select issues and topics to explore in small groups. The…

William Gibson's 1984 cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer" continues to be a touchstone in cultural representations of the impact of new information and communication technologies on the self. As critics have noted, the posthumanist, capital-driven, urban landscape of "Neuromancer" resembles a Foucaultian vision of a panoptically engineered social space…

The shortcomings of the dominant information processing models of cognition are outlined, and two alterative models derived from semiotics are presented. In addition, the possibility of incorporating J. J. Gibson's ecological theory of affordance within the semiotic models is explored as a means of addressing some criticism of the latter models.…

Engle's (this issue) analysis of framing students' contributions in learning interactions to construct generality and Marton's (this issue) discussion of learning to discern differences make valuable contributions to the ongoing scientific effort to understand transfer. This commentary characterizes these articles as contributing to 2 valuable…

Reviews the background of and salient issues raised by a 1982 Supreme Court decision in the case arising from a boycott (begun in 1966) of certain Port Gibson, Mississippi, businesses by local Blacks and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (GC)

The curriculum discipline of Social Studies in the United States has historically been the field charged with preparing democratic citizens to participate in a complex political landscape that will serve to perpetuate the US national story of democracy, freedom and equality. However, it is our contention that the field of social education has…

Responds to a critique of the author's work on the changing social composition of schools in England and Wales since 1988, discussing the critique's three criticisms of the original study, examining some minor points, and concluding that the original study is the fullest examination of the polarization thesis to date, with no really good evidence…

Categorizes attempts to account for how viewers garner meanings from motion pictures as either semiotic, realist, or conventionalist. Proposes an alternative explanation based on J. J. Gibson's ecological theory of perception. Offers his concept of "affordances" as the key to an explanation of how meanings in motion pictures are…

Seven articles on telecommunications are: "Introduction and Overview" (Lunin); "Networks and Distributed Information Services" (Meadow); "Regulatory Development in the United States" (Bernard); "Trends in Technology" (Sherman); "The International Telecommunications Environment" (Davison);…