tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post9152798685606083078..comments2024-02-07T03:12:59.031-05:00Comments on Blogenspiel: Training for the Dark Side?Another Damned Medievalisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-69096123314109462802011-05-24T14:08:01.103-04:002011-05-24T14:08:01.103-04:00I wonder if there is a connection between our inte...<i>I wonder if there is a connection between our interdisciplinary training and an ability to look beyond our very narrow fields/departments/divisions.</i><br /><br />I would have thought, yes, but possibly just because we have a natural rapport with the people who are interested in similar things. For medievalists that may well be more people outside history proper than late Western modernists. (Sorry, any late Western modernists reading.)<br /><br /><i>There were gasps, too, when I suggested that perhaps a way to deal with grade appeals was to ask someone else to take a copy of the rubric and the exam or paper and have them regrade. Threats to autonomy, dontcha know...</i><br /><br />If it's any comfort, that is exactly what Oxford history does with double-marking conflicts. In fact we possibly resort to it too easily so as to avoid having to hurt feelings by forcing an agreement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-54835429054957079352011-05-19T20:14:44.129-04:002011-05-19T20:14:44.129-04:00I suspect you're on to something about intelle...I suspect you're on to something about intellectual breadth and the ability to see the big picture. Looking at my colleagues who can do this, there are some common themes -- they are intellectually generous as well as intellectually curious. And they are intellectually flexible. Rigidity is a bad thing in this context....Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3671815.post-66934283682863269582011-05-19T00:31:21.442-04:002011-05-19T00:31:21.442-04:00Dead on about the challenge of being an area studi...Dead on about the challenge of being an area studies person: Asianists are like this, too.<br /><br />The problem with reasonable solutions to ocassional problems is that people are afraid they'll be regularized, routinized, required. <br /><br />The flip side of that, which I think we're seeing more and more, is student intolerance of ambiguity in requirements. We just went through a massive and frantic round of discussion to produce a standardized set of instructions for one of our graduate assessment options (and we're not done, as they were a bit rushed); all well and good, but it means that we're now locked into a model that may or may not work for some of the students who chose that path in the past.<br /><br />I've become a fan of what I'm calling "strategic ambiguity" but it requires a certain level of trust that you and your colleagues will maintain standards.Jonathan Dresnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04356112719229675996noreply@blogger.com