The Importance of Having Fun

We're about to begin our third unit discussion on the Arms Race and Nuclear Strategy. The question this time:

What role did nuclear weapons play in Soviet–American relations in the 1950s and 1960s?

I am looking forward to this discussion. We're getting into parts of early Cold War history that I find very interesting not just for the events but because of the strategic issues involved. In this era we really get into how a series of important thinkers were grappling with the problem posed by nuclear weapons for traditional notions of strategy.

I was fairly pleased with how the last unit's discussion went, although one of you has mused, ruefully it seemed to me, on whether Group 1 (we need a group name!) dominance of the discussion board was threatened as Group 2 and 3 had posted more. Having thuoght about it I think number of posts is a crude and misleading measure of the effectiveness of a discussion. For better or worse our group has a tendency to long and quite detailed interventions. I am pleased about this; in fact, I think the tendency to think more deliberately and compose one's thuoghts more calculatedly is a strength of this medium of education. Having said that, I would like to repeat a point I made after the first discussion: short, pithy comments are also effective. Basically, we're after quality rather than quantity.

A related point: last time around I suggested that some posts which seemed a bit tangential--albeit interesting--be moved to Blogs. My intention was, and remains, to keep the unit discussions quite focussed for good pedagogical reasons as well as with a view to keeping people's workload under control. This does not mean I don't want you to go off on to tangents. I do! That's often where people show their real brilliance.

But there's not been a lot of activity on Blogs lately--some but not a lot--which makes me wonder if I've put the brakes on too hard. Let me know your thuoghts in comments if you have any. Advice is always gratefully received (if not always followed).

I suppose at root what I mean to say is that from an academic perspective I am relatively comfortable with how things are going. In both previous units we covered more ground and in more detail than I'd ever dare hope accomplishing in a 2 hour face-to-face seminar. What I'm hoping is that you're having fun with it too.

Skype Internet Telephone

You've all received an email from me about Skype. This is an internet telephone system which I have downloaded and added to my machine at work. It will allow you to see when I am on-line and, if you should choose to do so, to speak to me directly--for free. I should point out to you that this is really completely optional. As one of you has pointed out to me already:

One of the benefits of this course, as well as its limitations, as we've already
discussed, is the means by which we communicate. For the last few weeks I have
really enjoyed having the luxury of deliberate thought, knowing that my every
interaction with this course has been an opportunity for a deliberate and
prepared statement. I have regretted very little of what I have written to date
because I have had this liberatingly limited communication opportunity.

On the other hand, some conversations are more efficient spoken than written. (Case in point: I had to think about whether the preceding sentence was grammatical or not). In short, it's another communication tool available to you. Use it or don't, as you prefer.

Scraps of Consciousness, Vol. 2: Midway through Unit 2

I've been somewhat neglectful of my blog it would seem, having posted nothing for over a week. Nick, on the other hand, has been industrious as ever and has a post on nuclear weapons over on his blog which I will respond to in another post. For the time being my purpose is to make a few passing comments on the events of the last week.

1. The discussion is shaping up nicely. Thanks to the presenters. It's a little more structured this time which is to the good as it makes it easier to follow the logical progression of people's thuoghts. I wonder if we are going to come to a natural synthesis as we did last time. Perhaps not, which is not surprising to me as the parameters of the assignment--'discuss NSC 68 and Korean War--are looser.
2. There are a lot of important threads in this unit which don't figure directly (or haven't yet anyway) into the discussion: the origins of Containment, the Marshall Plan, Kennan's Long Telegram, Stalin's role in the outbreak of the Korean War. All of these are covered in the unit contents in which some Learning Objects ask you to consider something (example: LO3 'Comparing Truman and Marshall' says 'Consider the audience being addressed in each case in these two speeches. What similarities and/or differences do you detect in the tone and focus of each?'). Are you considering these things? You should be even if you do not post your thoughts on your blog. This is a 'meaty' unit with a lot to take on board. I expect that you will be au fait with these concepts, that you know what the Truman Doctrine was and how it related to the Marshall Plan, to pick an example, as we go forward. It's important.
3. Blogs--not much traffic lately. This is a shame. I know it can be difficult to post something lengthy when you've got a zillion other things to do. As you can see from my own neglected blog I can sympathize. Try posting short comments and updates. Let me tell you how it helps me. With my 'analog' students on campus I usually have a gut-feeling for how they are doing. I see them on the street or in the hallway and I deduce from the fact that they are standing upright that they are alive and at least physically present. I see them in class and deduce from the presence (or absence) of dark circles around eyes, caffeine jitters and nicotine stained fingers whether or not they are feeling stressed about assignments etc. Here, I have much fewer cues as to your mental state. In short, help me out by giving me more cues on blogs.
4. In that vein, I take note of several quite interesting digressions in the discussion forum which I'd really rather took place in the blogs.

More later...

Ps. I am feeling a little stressed myself today. I must rush off now to lead a seminar on Vietnam, Beirut and the Weinberger Doctrine. It's a very interesting subject but I'm feeling a slight crunch as I change mental gears from early to late Cold War.

Scraps of Consciousness: End of Unit 1

We have reached the end of Unit 1. I have posted my 'round-up' of the discussion in which I point out the three 'takeaway points' that I'd like you all to have gotten from the exercise. I won't repeat them, presumably you are here reading this because you've just been on the platform reading what I said there. (Actually, that's a good question. Do you check your Bloglines aggregator first or the platform? I always start with the discussion forum, myself. Reply in comments, please).

Here are some other things I'd like for you to bear in mind, in no particular order:

1. I expect specialized students students (in this case Gordon and Peter) to submit their short essays to me today (the last Friday of the unit), unless we have agreed a different date.
2. Please use the Assignment tool on the platform to submit your essays. You may send it to me by email attachment also if you feel nervous about whether or not it went through. But i assure you that the system works and I'd like you to use it.
3. Specialized students should recall that they are obliged to post a response to commenters at the beginning of the second week of discussion.
4. I have made this point before but it bears repeating: You have all subscribed to my blog, now you must do the same with your colleagues' blogs. This is important. If you do not aggregate your blogs you are missing a lot of discussion and, to put it plainly, you're probably not having as much fun as you might otherwise.

I thuoght that we had a very interesting free for all discussion in which a good deal of excellent points were made. I was frankly impressed, first, by Bill's very fine summation earlier this week and his incisive comments, second, by Jim's aggregation of the key areas of agreement, and third, by Owen's putting them in order. This is very much a strength of this mode of learning. I was enthusiastic about it before but I am tentatively more confident about how it will work in practice now. (See my post below about synthesis). There was a lot of self-synchronizing going on which really is how it is supposed to work.

That said, there are areas we need to work on. Perhaps the 'free for all' got a bit confusing to follow. Do not take this to mean I would like fewer interventions! More please! But if we are to make this more efficient we need to exercise a bit more discipline. I suggest:

1. When the 'presenters' make their first post they remember to 'Create Mesage'. Do not post it as a 'reply' to a previous message.
2. When commenters introduce sustantively new interpretation or evidence they take care to change the title of their post (ie., use 'reply' so it stays in the same thread but is distinguishable from the rest by the title). This way we can avoid having long chains of RE: XXXX. I found myself having to search through a lot of posts to find things I had recollected reading but couldn't remember exactly where.

A final thuoght. I spent the last two days attending a departmental event at Cumberland Lodge which is a large country house located in Windsor Great Park. I brought along my laptop in order to connect to the course. The connection, however, while wireless was not fast. It brought home to me the importance of broadband. For those of you using dial up I salute your patience and dedication. It works but it is slow. I appreciate your effort.

Do you have any ideas for improving how we work? I'm eager to hear them. Sound off in comments please.

On Promptness

With the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar coming up (21 October) I have been doing some light reading about Britain's greatest military leader, Admiral Nelson (anyone want to challenge that?). I came across this Nelson quote which struck me as a highly sensible approach to life and elegantly and succinctly phrased in a manner which modern writers of English rarely seem to achieve:

I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time, and it has made a man of me.

It got me thinking about what other military leaders had to say about it. Here's the famous Marine General John Lejeune:

In war, procrastination is a crime, and promptness is a handmaiden to victory.

I would not go so far as to draw a direct parallel--as it is in 'war' so it is in 'War in the Modern World. Nobody's actually going to die if your essay is late. But still there is a not-so-tenuous link. My view 'On Promptness' in academia is this. Procrastination is the main cause of poor performance. Occasionally you have absolutely genius students and sometimes you have students who are just genuinely thick. Yet more often than not the difference between an excellent student and a poor one is the difference between someone who has started early enough on a task that they have the luxury of subjecting the penultimate draft to one more round of 'sobre second-thuoght' and someone who has left themself no time at all.

'Promptness', that is meeting deadlines in our context, is to some extent a relative rather than absolute virtue. It is absolute in the sense that managing your time in order to meet your obligations and work within the time constraints set for the assignment is a 'transferable skill' (to use the jargon) which we are meant to inculcate in our students. However, I do see it also in relative terms. Or perhaps 'relational' terms is more to the point in the sense that a deadline is a contract which defines a part of the relationship between you and me. You meet your obligations to me, and to your colleagues, and I reciprocate. In this course, we also try to make things work in relation to your Real World day-job. What it boils down to is this:

1. You should endeavour to meet all deadlines, notably for the submission of assignments and first and second posting in the units in which you are specializing;
2. When you can't meet a deadline for reasons relating to, inter alia, your health, work or personal life you let me know so that,
3. We can 'renegotiate' the terms of our contract in a way that is mutually acceptable.