World War I had a profound impact on the United States of America, which was forced to 'grow' an army almost overnight. The day the United States declared war on Germany, the US Army was only the 17th largest in the world, ranking behind Portugal - the Regular Army had only 128,00 troops, backed up by the National Guard with some 182,000 troops. By the end of the war it had grown to 3,700,000, with slightly more than half that number in Europe. Until the United States did so, no country in all history had tried to deploy a 2-million-man force 3,000 miles from its own borders, a force led by American Expeditionary Forces Commander-in-Chief General John J. Pershing. This was America's first truly modern war and rising from its ranks was a new generation of leaders who would control the fate of the United States armed forces during the interwar period and into World War II. This book reveals the history of the key leaders working for and with John J. Pershing during this tumultuous period, including George S. Patton (tank commander and future commander of the US Third Army during World War II); Douglas MacArthur (42nd Division commander and future General of the Army) and Harry S. Truman (artillery battery commander and future President of the United States). Edited by Major General David T. Zabecki (US Army, Retired) and Colonel Douglas V. Mastriano (US Army, Retired), this fascinating title comprises chapters on individual leaders from subject experts across the US, including faculty members of the US Army War College.

Gregory the Great (+604) was a master of the art of exegesis. His interpretations are theologically profound, methodologically fascinating, and historically influential. Nowhere is this more clearly seen than in his exegesis of the Song of Songs. Gregory's interpretation of this popular Old Testament book not only owes much to Christian exegetes who preceded him, such as Origen, but also profoundly influenced later Western Latin exegetes, such as Bernard of Clairvaux.This volume includes all that Gregory had to say on the Song of Songs: his "Exposition on the Song of Songs," the florilegia compiled by Paterius (Gregory's secretary) and the Venerable Bede, and, finally, William of Saint Thierry's "Excerpts from the Books of Blessed Gregory on the Song of Songs." It is now the key resource for reading and studying Gregory's interpretation of the Song of Songs.

This book showcases contemporary examples of three-dimensional virtual world use for Internet and web-mediated tertiary education from across the globe that cut across a range of disciplinary contexts and settings. By doing so, it seeks to promote scholarly dialogue as well as to assist the development and dissemination of good practice and best practices in the field. While there have been a number of other volumes published on virtual worlds and learning, many were written prior to the existence of mature applications and thus consist largely of early proof-of-concept reports; a number of practical or "how-to" guides for teachers considering using virtual worlds in their teaching have also been produced that have to do with either the technology or learning design. In general, much of what is available in the area is "show and tell" and does not engage deeply with theory or with key researchable questions and issues. This book is unique in the way it combines analysis and discussion of recent theoretical and empirical research with descriptive accounts and evaluations of exemplary and innovative discipline-based applications, all of which are focused on factors influencing the successful uptake and use of virtual worlds in online learning at universities and colleges. The book is a useful resource for educators with an interest in virtual worlds, irrespective of their level of experience and/or proficiency. The collection of exemplars presented will not only expose newcomers to the potential and possibilities of the technology but will also alert them to the problems and pitfalls of whose existence they need to be mindful of as they make their foray into the educational virtual worlds arena. Potential solutions and mitigating strategies for many of the common problems are suggested as well. For those who are more seasoned virtual world users, they will benefit from the evidence-based perspectives offered and from opportunities to situate their practice within the scholarly knowledge base, comparing their own experiences with those of others and learning from the stories, vignettes, insights, and reflections being shared. Novices and veterans alike will find the book valuable in helping them manufacture a sustainable business case to put forth to their managers and in their quests to champion investment in virtual worlds at their institutions.

Uniting the Liberal Arts: Core and Context is a selection of essays, presented or further developed from the 1999 Association of Core Texts and Courses conference in New Orleans, focusing on a few of the vertices or vortices, where an intensified sense of the interplay between the ways of knowledge may be glimpsed, or a memorable moment in the past when all briefly achieved a greater congruity may be revived for new consideration. These essays fall into an organization according to the major scheme each posits as unifying, or attempting to unify, the liberal arts.

Three-dimensional (3D) immersive virtual worlds have been touted asbeing capable of facilitating highly interactive, engaging, multimodallearning experiences. Much of the evidence gathered to support theseclaims has been anecdotal but the potential that these environmentshold to solve traditional problems in online and technology-mediatededucation—primarily learner isolation and studentdisengagement—has resulted in considerable investments in virtualworld platforms like Second Life, OpenSimulator, and Open Wonderland byboth professors and institutions. To justify this ongoing and sustainedinvestment, institutions and proponents of simulated learningenvironments must assemble a robust body of evidence that illustratesthe most effective use of this powerful learning tool. In this authoritative collection, a team of international expertsoutline the emerging trends and developments in the use of 3D virtualworlds for teaching and learning. They explore aspects of learnerinteraction with virtual worlds, such as user wayfinding in SecondLife, communication modes and perceived presence, and accessibilityissues for elderly or disabled learners. They also examine advancedtechnologies that hold potential for the enhancement of learnerimmersion and discuss best practices in the design and implementationof virtual world-based learning interventions and tasks. By evaluatingand documenting different methods, approaches, and strategies, thecontributors to Learning in Virtual Worlds offer importantinformation and insight to both scholars and practitioners in thefield.