Category / Research Blog

by shannonchance

Becoming

The crowd mulling over meanings posited by the curator of Alice’s retrospective exhibition, titled Becoming.

The Irish artist Alice Maher was once a Fulbright to California. She has accomplished enough over the years to be featured in the “Prominent Alumni Lecture Series” event held last week.

The event (coordinated by the Ireland United States Alumni Association and hosted by the US Embassy in Dublin) highlighted Alice’s exhibition, Becoming.

The exhibit is currently on display at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Earlsfort Terrace. (If you want to visit it, please note that it is not located at the Royal Hospital site–which is closed for renovation.  Alice’s work is across town in the rear of the National Concert Hall.)

During last week’s event, the curator of the exhibition walked guests around the museum. He shared his thoughts about Alice’s work and explained how the various pieces were selected and displayed.

I particularly enjoyed hearing Alice talk about the context of her work. I also enjoyed meeting the museum’s Head of Education and Community Programmes (Helen O’Donoghue) and catching up with the staff of Fulbright Ireland (Colleen and Joanne) and the current Fulbright scholars who attended (Bob Trumble and his wife Ann, Scott McDonald, and Matthew Baker).

Since the actual home of the Irish Museum of Modern Art is under renovation, the exhibit is housed in the former classroom area behind the National Concert Hall.

This is a close up view of an installation Alice created to highlight decades of graffiti on the old University College Dublin (UCD) desks.

by shannonchance

Expand Your World

US State Department video “International Education Takes You Places.”.

Secretary Clinton’s Remarks on International Education.

The U.S. Department of State says “studying abroad changes lives” and “takes you places.”

Hillary Clinton says international exchange is the best form of diplomacy we have.

It has certainly changed mine… and always for the better!

 

 

My US friends who want to find an international exchange program can visit http://exchanges.state.gov.  My Irish friends interested in studying in the US can get information from Fulbright Ireland.

Places I’ve travelled as an official representative of the US:

(1994) Virginia, USA > Switzerland

(2005) Virginia, USA > Tanzania

(2012) Virginia, USA > Ireland

Official study abroad programs I’ve lead for students:

Virginia, USA > Italy

Virginia, USA > Tanzania

Virginia, USA > Tunisia

Virginia, USA > Czech Republic

Virginia, USA > Spain

Virginia, USA > South Africa

Virginia, USA > France
“Where will international education take you?”

by shannonchance

Finding Kevin Donleavy

Jerry Crilly, Frank Cullen, and Shannon Chance craic-ing it up at the Cobblestone.

Thanks to an awesome third space, we’ve located Jerry Crilly’s long lost friend, Kevin Donleavy.  I met Jerry when I was in the Cobblestone with my mom last month, and he asked me to help him locate a guy he’d met here in Dublin in 1985. He knew the guy lived in Virginia–somewhere near Ivy–so he considered me an expert.

That night at the Pub, I Googled Kevin and found that he’s taught at UVA and the University of Richmond. He plays traditional Irish music, and is a scholar of all things Irish.

I had some trouble locating him, though. It seems there are NO free phone look up services on line anymore. What a terrible shame!

I tried sending a message to his UVA email address, and waiting patiently.  But, probably since Kevin has been retired for a while, I got no reply.

Jerry was persistent. He followed up a couple of times, just as I had asked him to do.

Last Saturday, he phoned me while I was sitting in a barber’s chair. He was headed to the Cobblestone to hear bluegrass. Could I come?

When I (finally!) got out of that chair, I hightailed it home to do some more searching.  I found Kevin’s home address and even the first six digits of his phone number.  I signed up for a people search service (the “free trial” type that has to be cancelled or will automatically draw monthly payments).  Nerve wrackingly, the company must have lifted those six digits from some other similar service (like Spokeo).  It failed to provide the four we’d need to place a call.

Frustrated and hungry, I phoned Dave for help and headed to the pub.

When my call came in to Dave, he was on our front porch in Virginia installing new floor boards.  (What an awesome Christmas present!  My baby knows how to do things right!)

A couple of hours later–after I’d grabbed some food around the corner and then some pints with Jerry and his friend–a text rolled in from home.

With a stroke of genius, Dave thought to Google “Kevin Donleavy” along with the six digit I’d found.  Dave then texted me a screen shot of the reaming digits.

I passed them on to an elated (and somewhat inebriated) Jerry

I soaked in a little more craic, and then headed for home. It appears this is a good time to introduce you to the term craic, which is pronounced “crack” and has been described by a helpful soul on UK Ask as:

Jerry’s text.

Best Answer – Chosen by Asker

Irish word for fun/enjoyment that has been brought into the English language. usu. when mixed with alcohol and/or music. 
‘Bhi craic agus ceol againn’ : We had fun and music. 
Fun doesn’t really cut it though. General banter, good times had by all. 
Also, a person who is good fun/great company. 
It was great craic. 
She’s great craic when she gets going. 
He’s great craic when he has a few pints on him. 
What’s the craic? 
How’s the craic? 
The craic was mighty.
Note: Very tricky to get away with saying this in the US without getting strange looks for police officers.
After yoga tonight, I found a text waiting from Jerry. I’ve uploaded the text for you to see.  Feel free to celebrate by grabbing a pint of Guinness or Bulmer’s!
And that, friends, is part of the magic of third space!
by shannonchance

Applying for a Fulbright to go to the US

I’ve been promoting the idea of applying for a Fulbright to many people I have met here in Ireland.  Up until now, I wasn’t entirely clear on the specific types of awards available for Irish folks who want to be Fulbright-ers in the USA.  I’ve recently discovered that there are three types of awards offered.

  • Fulbright Student Awards: For up to one academic year for postgraduate study or research in the United States in any discipline, including the arts. Grants are a maximum of $20,000. Applicants may stay to complete their academic program if it is longer than one year.
  • Fulbright Scholar and Professional Awards: Grants available for up to €35,000 (Irish Language) and $20,000 (General Awards) for academics and professionals with more than five years’ experience to research and/or lecture in the US, lasting between and three and twelve months.
  • Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistantship (FLTA) Awards: Ten-month Awards for Irish language teachers to refine their teaching skills in the US by teaching at a US college and taking classes at a post-graduate level. Grants are available for approximately €20,000.

The applications are due tomorrow (November 14) for travel in 2013-14, but this information can help my Irish friends as they plan for the future.  Additional information is available from Fulbright Ireland.

by shannonchance

What’s a MOOC? (And can it help us save humanity?)

A diagram from Dave Cormier’s video.

I’ve been scratching my head, wondering “what’s a MOOC?”

Someone at SCUP sent me a helpful link to a succinct four-minute video by Dave Cormier that describes MOOCs and explains that the acronym stands for “Massive Open On-line Course.”  I also found a helpful blog posted by Lou Mcgill titled  What is a mooc? Massive Online Open Course and the learner perspective.

SCUP is using a MOOC to facilitate communication among its members.  I’ve been visiting SCUP’s MOOC for weeks now but I haven’t been able to “see the forest for the trees.”  I haven’t understood what’s going on all around me.  I find my way to some places that seem like classrooms and other places where discussion is going on, but I don’t yet understand how to navigate effectively.

Thanks to Dave and Lou I can finally stop scratching my head!  And, once I understand how the platform works, I can start using it to generate knowledge about planning and sustainability — rather that just about how to use MOOCs and the internet more effectively.

In any case, I believe that this on-line communication platform (i.e., SCUP’s MOOC) is the reason that my article got so many downloads so quickly after it went “live” on the internet.  The splash page for the article was viewed 644 times between November 9 and November 12.

To be honest, up until now I didn’t actually think people read the academic articles I’d published.  But now that I think about it, several people did contact me regarding an article I published with SCUP in 2010 titled Strategic by Design: Iterative Approaches to Educational Planning.  So perhaps SCUP’s audience reads and communicates more about its publications than is the case with many other organizations!

MOOCs provide a platform for learning that can help communities develop new knowledge quickly.  SCUP’s is aimed toward generating knowledge about how universities run and how they can improve their approaches over time.

Perhaps humanity will develop viable paths to achieving sustainability by using tools like MOOCs to share and build knowledge.  That’s part of the focus of my article just published by SCUP and something I think society MUST focus on if we are to persist on this planet.

But I’m quite interested in knowing more about how people work together to generate new knowledge.  The research project I’m conducting right now with Gavin Duffy and Brian Bowe (as part of my Fulbright) investigates how a group of teachers here at the DIT (i.e., a learning community) has been able to implement changes in the way DIT teaches Electrical Engineering.  These are topics I learned a lot about in the Ph.D. program I completed at The College of William and Mary on educational policy, planning, and leadership.

And interestingly, so many of the women I’ve bumped into recently–Esther, Joan, Máirtín’s wife, and myself–have been studying topics of leadership and change management.  Now that I’ve joined SCUP’s MOOC, I have found a whole new community discussing change, strategy, and the university’s role in addressing social and environmental issues. I hope we can elicit the types of sweeping change that this world needs, and do it fast enough to save ourselves.

by shannonchance

Fulbrighters Sharing Ideas

I just received great news about my article from one of the editors of Planning for Higher Education.  Terry Calhoun left me this comment:  “Shannon, as of this morning, we have 345 article/summary downloads. So, people are reading, even if not yet commenting.”

I have to say: that’s a truly amazing number of downloads.  It’s a testament to the quality of the organization (the Society of College and University Planners) and its new platform for sharing ideas.
——–

Erin Eife and I discussed the ins and outs of applying to grad schools in between programmed sessions at the Fulbright Orientation.

On another note, Fulbright Ireland just posted a piece on taking the GRE in Dublin that was written by Erin Eife who is a recent college graduate who is conducting research on recidivism among females who have been jailed.

Erin and I sat next to each other at the Fulbright Orientation in September.  We got to talking about grad school and I answered some of her questions about degree paths and about selecting and applying to grad schools.
Erin has since written to thank me for the advice and let me know that she’s following through!  I love getting this type of feedback!  It’s not often that you hear you’ve made an important difference simply by sharing your experiences.
 Erin has got big dreams and I have every confidence that she’ll succeed with the applications she’s submitting this fall.
by shannonchance

Rathfarnham Castle and Other Delights

Dublin is full of architectural gems and Máirtín D’Alton of Gerry Cahill Architects seems to know something about every one of them!  He and his delightful six-year-old son, Thomas, gave Esther and me a tour of several places last Sunday.  I’ve included photos of our attempted walk along Dublin’s historic South Wall and our subsequent visits to Rathfarnham Castle and the Irish National War Memorial Gardens.

Máirtín provided extensive, astute commentary.  I wish you could have been here to hear all the details!

Incidentally, Thomas’ mom was at school this day, studying leadership and administration.  Go mom!!!!!

Esther and I have each earned degrees in this area over the past six years.  We’ve actually become more and more alike in the past decade.  Until this past week, however, Esther and I had no idea the other was studying leadership and educational administration!

South Wall and lighthouse from the air, one of the world’s longest sea walls.  (Image downloaded from groundspeak.com)

We were headed out to see the lighthouse when some nasty weather rolled in.

Máirtín and Thomas astutely determined it was best to turn back rather than hike out the the lighthouse in the rain.

We found a cosy place at Rathfarnham Castle where we could wait out the rain. This picture shows typical Irish weather: sunny with rain.

I really had fun with Thomas. He’s a delightfully precious six-year old!

What a cutie!

The toy and costume exhibition at Rathfarnham Castle was fascinating.

What women will do for “glamor!”

Hat? Or, umbrella?

We ended the day at the Irish National War Memorial Gardens.

Irish National War Memorial Gardens is dedicated, one inscription says, “to the memory of the 49,400 Irish soldiers who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914–1918.”  With a farewell wave from Thomas!

by shannonchance

Visitor Map

It’s always fun to see who is tuning in to Ireland by Chance.

Viewing my statistics map in WordPress helps me assess how well I’m doing my duty as a Fulbright scholar, which I view as helping build and share cultural understanding.

WordPress tracks the number of clicks onto the site shannonchance.net. It’s maps don’t include the people who have the blog delivered to their email boxes, however.

The past couple of weeks, I’ve had far more visitors from Ireland than from home.

Thanks TC, Laurie, and Sima for visiting so often from Germany, France, and UK!  I can thank Esther’s family and friends (like Heidi) for putting Switzerland high on the list, too.

To all of you I don’t know yet, I hope you enjoy your visits and that I’ll get to know you somehow, someday!

Visits to this site up until 10 November 2012.

by shannonchance

Painting the Town Red

Esther loves musical productions.  Surprisingly, she wasn’t much interested in seeing plays while she was here.  That’s because English is her fifth language and she was worried she’d have trouble understanding.

You heard right.  She speaks five languages: (1) Swiss German (in Berne dialect), as well as (2) High German, (3) French, (4) as much Italian as I speak, and also (5) English.

Esther used to take in exchange students like me as a way of building her skills in English.  I was the  first in a long line of American exchange students to frequent her Ferenberg home.

And while she was here we painted the town red!  We soaked in all these musical performances during her one-week stay in Dublin:

  • The musical An American Idiot which, like so many musicals these days, has a plot contrived as a way to package a band’s album into a Broadway show. Wikapedia explains “American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day.”  Although the plot is understandably disappointing, Green Day’s “punk” music is actually quite festive.  The performance concluded with the whole company singing “It’s something unpredictable but in the end it’s right. I hope you have the time of your life!”  I’d been looking for an opportunity to visit the theater building itself, because it was designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind (the firm that designed the building to replace the World Trade Towers), and so I was perfectly happy that Esther actually asked to spend an evening immersed in American idiot-ry.  The theater is quite beautiful. However the knee-room was lacking where I sat and I determined once and for all that nose-bleed seats and traveling Broadway shows don’t mix.  The sound balance is often poor in the far upper corner when the show hits a new space.
  • Arlington Hotels Traditional Live Irish Music and Irish Dancing dinner show. The musicians sang “take me home country roads” (which is a favorite drinking song in Switzerland and pub song in Ireland). They also dedicated a song to Esther and me that was quite fitting.  Something about friends and traveling, if I recall correctly after this whirl-wind week. I was the only one in the place getting the host’s jokes. (He used to be a city planner, so perhaps we share some mental wiring?)
  • Gavin and his brother playing with other musicians at Hughes Pub. One of the guys in the band recognized the faces in Glen McClure’s photos from Achill Island (see my posts Leader of the Band and Drummer Girl).
  • The opera Hansel and Gretel, performed in the beautiful Gaiety Theater. I enjoyed this production more than any other opera I’ve ever seen. So I wasn’t too opposed when Esther asked to go see Disney on Ice for her last night in town. (It wasn’t my own top choice for the evening, but I gave in!)
  • Esther had never attended an ice-skating show in person and throughly enjoyed seeing Disney on Ice’s Passport to Adventure held at the Royal Dublin Society last night.
  • Two back-to-back visits to The Cobblestone pub. Thursday night we visited with Fulbright scholar Bob Trumble, his lovely wife Ann, and Ann’s her sister and brother-in-law.  When we’re in Virginia, Bob and Ann live in Williamsburg–just up the road from Dave and  me. On Thursday Tom gave Esther a copy of his CD.  She glowed with happiness.  Her eyes sparkled with excitement.  She’s so lovable!  We visited the pub again last night and got to hear Tom’s brother Neil (and Neil’s son) play.

Esther has just left for the airport, and things are now quiet and still. I’ve got mounds of work to do and yet hundreds of memories of this past week that I still want to share with you.  I hope to find time to post more for you in the coming days.

Gavin (far left) and his brother, Aidan, are among the musicians who play at Hughes Pub on Monday nights. Esther (far right) was soaking in the melodies.

Grand Canal Commercial Development and Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
Logo from the musical “An American Idiot.”
Theater by Studio Daniel Libeskind. http://daniel-libeskind.com/projects/bord-gáis-energy-theatre-and-grand-canal-commercial-development
Reflection on the Theater facade.
Inside of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind.
The Samuel Beckett Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava’s office.
Gavin (far left) and his brother, Aidan, are among the musicians who play at Hughes’ Pub on Monday nights. Esther (far right) was soaking in the melodies.
This musician was at the Achill Island St. Patrick’s Day parade that Glen McClure photographed last March. He knows many people in Glen’s photos.
The American Embassy threw an election-night party with All-American flair.
Election Night at the Guinness Storehouse.
An election night discussion led by a lecturer from Trinity College Dublin.
The Ambassador to Ireland spoke to us from Pittsburgh on election night.
Poster from the opera “Hansel and Gretal.”
Shannon and Esther after the opera.
Shannon mimicking the witch.
Captain Hook got quite bossy in Disney on Ice.
Scenes from Passport to Adventure a Disney on Ice production.
I finally got to hear Tom’s brother Neil play the pipes last night. My camera didn’t have any juices left, so I downloaded this photo from http://www.chuckbrodsky.com, but all these guys were at the Cobblestone last night.
by shannonchance

Focus on the Student

All these students voluntarily attended two back-to-back lectures last night–isn’t that amazing?

The Architecture Student Association got a great turn out for its symposium on the architecture student last night!  I’ve posted a photo of the crowd that made it all the way to the end of the two lectures… pretty amazing.  They came straight out of a day of classes into the lecture hall!

Maxim Laroussi of Architecture Republic talked about growing up in Morocco as well as what he learned about architecture by living in France, England, Scotland, Brazil, and Ireland.  Very interesting indeed!

Then I talked about “Learning Together” and how we can/should improve the way we teach architecture.  The main idea is that we need to focus more on understanding how students learn rather than on what content teachers deliver (i.e., what they say in class).

The speakers and organizers for last night’s ASA symposium: Andrew Ó Murchú, Shannon Chance, Colin Mac Suibhne, and Maxim Laroussi.