This book analyses technology enhanced learning through the lens of Disruptive Innovation theory. The author argues that while technology has not disrupted higher education to date, it has the potential to do so. Drawing together various case studies, the book analyses established technologies through a Disruptive Innovation perspective, including virtual learning environments, and includes Wikipedia as an example of successful innovative disruption. The author also examines the disruptive potential of social media technologies and the phenomenon of user-owned technologies. Subsequently, the author explores strategic narratives for technology enhanced learning and imagines what the Disruptive University might look like in the future. This book will be valuable for scholars of technology enhanced learning in higher education as well as those looking to increase their understanding of and practice with technology enhanced learning.

This book is about how technologies are used in practice to support learning and teaching in higher education. Despite digitization and e-learning becoming ever-increasingly popular in university teaching settings, this book convincingly argues instead in favour of simple and convenient technologies, thus disrupting traditional patterns of learning, teaching and assessment. Michael Flavin uses Disruptive Innovation theory, Activity Theory and the Community of Practice theory as lenses through which to examine technology enhanced learning. This book will be of great interest to all academics with teaching responsibilities, as it illuminates how technologies are used in practice, and is also highly relevant to postgraduate students and researchers in education and technology enhanced learning. It will be especially valuable to leaders and policy-makers in higher education, as it provides insights to inform decision-making on technology enhanced learning at both an institutional and sectoral level.

This book explores the theme of gambling in a wide range of nineteenth-century English novels. It examines the representation of gambling in the novels themselves and the role that gambling played in the lives of the individual novelists. It also considers the significance of gambling in the novels within the wider context of the development of Victorian society. Gambling in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel not only provides fresh readings of established texts within a distinctive social and cultural context, but is also a comprehensive barometer of the social history of the time as attitudes towards leisure change.

This book analyses technology enhanced learning through the lens of Disruptive Innovation theory. The author argues that while technology has not disrupted higher education to date, it has the potential to do so. Drawing together various case studies, the book analyses established technologies through a Disruptive Innovation perspective, including virtual learning environments, and includes Wikipedia as an example of successful innovative disruption. The author also examines the disruptive potential of social media technologies and the phenomenon of user-owned technologies. Subsequently, the author explores strategic narratives for technology enhanced learning and imagines what the Disruptive University might look like in the future. This book will be valuable for scholars of technology enhanced learning in higher education as well as those looking to increase their understanding of and practice with technology enhanced learning.

This book explores the theme of gambling in a wide range of nineteenth-century English novels. It examines the representation of gambling in the novels themselves and the role that gambling played in the lives of the individual novelists. It also considers the significance of gambling in the novels within the wider context of the development of Victorian society. Following an historical overview, the book comprises individual chapters on: Benjamin Disraeli, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Anthony Trollope and George Moore. Gambling in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel not only provides fresh readings of established texts within a distinctive social and cultural context, but is also a comprehensive barometer of the social history of the time as attitudes towards leisure changed. It is essential reading for all those interested in the development of English society and culture in the Victorian era. Gambling occurred in all strata of society and was a national pastime. The pursuit of gambling took many forms: from after-dinner cards to pugilism, and indeed Stock Exchange transactions were considered by many to be gambling at its worst.

December 2004 marked the bicentenary of Benjamin Disraeli's birth. The Novel as Political Discourse examines Disraeli's novels in order to construct a portrait of the man, his context and enduring reputation. Disraeli's literary career ran from 1826 to 1880. Within this time he became an M.P., Leader of the Opposition, Chancellor and Prime Minister. His novels can be read as the breeding ground for his ideas, gestated away from the pressure cooker of Parliament. From his first novel, Vivian Grey, about the formation of a new political party, through to the overtly political Young England' trilogy (named after a faction of the Conservative Party with which Disraeli was aligned) and beyond, Disraeli's novels expose the development of his thinking while also reflecting the anxieties of his age. This book will appeal to those fascinated by Disraeli and Conservatism and anyone interested in the development of Britain in the Victorian era. The book enhances our understanding of this charismatic figure who continues to cast a formidable shadow across the nation's politics and culture.