Helping out by helping in : approaches to electronic submission of coursework

In this paper, we seek to address a range of issues that affect the use and applicability of electronic coursework submission. Key among these issues is the need to characterise the available mechanisms for supporting such submission. Allied to this, we require an appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses that would enable us to distinguish and choose wisely among the alternatives

Informal proof, formal proof, formalism

Increases in the use of automated theorem-provers have renewed focus on the relationship between the informal proofs normally found in mathematical research and fully formalised derivations. Whereas some claim that any correct proof will be underwritten by a fully formal proof, sceptics demur. In this paper I look at the relevance of these issues for formalism, construed as an anti-platonistic metaphysical doctrine. I argue that there are strong reasons to doubt that all proofs are fully formalisable, if formal proofs are required to be finitary, but that, on a proper view of the way in which formal proofs idealise actual practice, this restriction is unjustified and formalism is not threatened

Challenging heroic masculinity: leadership myths of nineteenth century King Shaka Zulu

The Zulu of southern African have long been held as a particularly strong example of African patriarchy. Over almost two hundred years, king Shaka Zulu (b. 1787, d. 1828), has been credited with founding the great Zulu state, and he has often been described as a brilliant leader, warrior and military strategist conquering all in his path − the ‘black Napoleon’. Popular history books abound with ‘facts’ of Shaka’s life. Two books have been published in recent years that translate so called leadership secrets of king Shaka to modern leadership and management practice. Leadership lessons from Emperor Shaka Zulu the Great by Phinda Madi (2000), and Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic by Manfred Kets de Vries (2004). On the basis of lessons learned from Shaka, or aspects of his psychology, Madi manages to produce 10 leadership lessons including ‘leading the charge’, while Kets de Vries provides 15 lessons. Not only is much of what is written about Shaka based on myth, but also totally ignores the leadership role of chiefly women. It is curious that these myths of Shaka still hold so strongly despite research findings to the contrary. Leadership by women was an intrinsic part of several pre-colonial systems in southern Africa, and Shaka did not rule alone. This is all very far removed from any lessons on modern management and leadership to be learned from king Shaka. Many of the points in this paper in relation to women have raised in previously published work (Weir 2006), but it is worth repeating in an effort to go some way towards limiting the impact and reproduction of Shaka myths in the modern leadership studies, and because the role of women has been left out. There’s enough evidence to show that the long enduring picture of Shaka Zulu presented by Kets de Vries, and many before him, is questionable

Book review: Stumbling over truth: the inside story of the'sexed-up' dossier, Hutton and the BBC

The 2004 Hutton Report ushered in an age of self-doubt and caution at the BBC. It was also the end of the most extraordinary experiment in news management Britain has ever seen: the decade of Alastair Campbell, the Blair courtier who delivered New Labour’s mission to ‘create the truth’. In Stumbling Over Truth, Kevin Marsh tells of his growing disillusion with the British media’s appetite for holding power to account. An important book for anyone who wants to understand the toe-to-toe confrontations between Tony Blair’s government and the BBC, and the fight to keep BBC journalism independent in the face of unprecedented government pressure. Reviewed by Patrick Weir