My name is Michael Harcourt and I am a secondary school history and social studies teacher in Wellington, New Zealand. Last year I finished an MA at Victoria University looking at what an ecological philosophy of history education might look like as opposed to the dominant individualist philosophy of education.

I am especially interested in the implications complexity theory has for history and social studies teachers, but especially history. There are a number of historians who have grappled with complexity theory, most notably John Lewis Gaddis from Yale, but I have found nothing about school history education. Sometimes I wish I had studied mathematics; that way I would have the advantage of Brent Davis’ literature. Is there anyone interested in exploring what implications complexity theory and enactivism might have for history and social studies education? Or has anyone come across anything that they could alert me to? My email address is michael.harcourt@whs.school.nz.

CARL and SPARC offer Canadian authors new tool to widen access to published articles

For more information go to http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/07-0815.html

CARL AND SPARC OFFER CANADIAN AUTHORS NEW TOOL
TO WIDEN ACCESS TO PUBLISHED ARTICLES
Popular author copyright addendum adapted for use in Canada

Ottawa, ON and Washington, DC - August 15, 2007 - The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) today announced the release of the SPARC Canadian Author Addendum, a new tool for authors in Canada to retain key rights to the journal articles they publish.
Traditional publishing agreements often require that authors grant exclusive rights to the publisher. The new SPARC Canadian Author Addendum enables authors to secure a more balanced agreement by retaining select rights, such as the rights to reproduce, reuse, and publicly present the articles they publish for non-commercial purposes. It will help Canadian researchers to comply with granting council public access policies, such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Policy on Access to Research Outputs. The Canadian Addendum reflects Canadian copyright law and is an adaptation of the original U.S. version of the SPARC Author Addendum.

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L’ABRC ET SPARC OFFRENT AUX AUTEURS CANADIENS UN NOUVEL OUTIL POUR ÉLARGIR L’ACCÈS AUX ARTICLES PUBLIÉS
Un addenda populaire sur le droit d’auteur est adapté pour utilisation au Canada

Ottawa (Ontario) et Washington, DC - le 15 août 2007 - L’Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada (ABRC) et SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) ont annoncé aujourd’hui le lancement de l’Addenda de l’auteur canadien SPARC, un nouvel outil permettant aux auteurs du Canada de conserver d’importants droits sur les articles de revue qu’ils publient.

Selon les ententes traditionnelles de publication, les auteurs doivent souvent concéder des droits exclusifs à l’éditeur. Le nouvel Addenda de l’auteur canadien SPARC permet aux auteurs de conclure une entente plus juste du fait qu’ils conservent certains droits, comme les droits de reproduction, de réutilisation et de présentation publique des articles qu’ils publient à des fins autres que commerciales. Il permettra aux chercheurs canadiens de se conformer aux politiques d’accès public des conseils subventionnaires, comme la Politique sur l’accès aux résultats de la recherche des Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada. L’Addenda est conforme à la loi canadienne sur le droit d’auteur et il s’agit d’une adaptation de la version originale américaine du Author Addendum de SPARC.

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Watch this space for further information… coming soon!!! 

This fourth Complexity Science and Educational Research conference will be held at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC) on February 18-20, 2007. Check under the “Conference” button on the complexityandeducation.ca site for updates on proposals, accommodations, and so on.

Here’s an interesting website from the Washington Centre for Complexity and Public Policy, which identifies itself as a place for education, research, and consulting.

 http://www.complexsys.org/

As someone new to complexity and education, I was unfamiliar with Stephen Wolfram and his mighty tome, A New Kind of Science. The entire book is now available on-line at http://www.wolframscience.com. Wolfram Tones which is a musical generator that can be changed through a rich series of mathmatical rule rewriting is linked to this site. Many genres are available, including world, rhythm and blues and classical.

This year’s conference is in Baltimore, MD featuring workshops by Dr. Liebovitz (Florida Atlantic University) who will conduct an introductory workshop in chaos theory and fractals, Dr. Glenda Eoyang (Human Complex Systems Institute) discusses the applications of nonlinear dynamical systems to peace and conflict, and Dr. Mary Ann Metzger will offer a methodological workshop on the use of time series analysis and interpretation of results.

The deadline for abstract submissions is APRIL 22, 2006. Abstracts should be between 150-250 words for posters, individual papers, short workshops and other alternative formats. The connection to nonlinear dynamics, chaos, complexity, fractals or related concepts should be clear to the reader.

http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/conf2006/