A Sociocultural Imagination: Studying the Formative Effects of 'Everydayness'

Series

Embed

Harry Daniels is Professor of Education at the University of Oxford. He previously held Chairs at the Universities of Bath and Birmingham. He is co-convener and Research Director of the Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research (OSAT).

It has often been claimed that the notion of mediation lies at the heart of Vygotsky's contribution to social science. However developments of his account of the social formation of mind have tended to have been empirically constrained by limitations in attempts to capture aspects of the 'social' which lie beyond the interactional.

In this session Prof. Daniels draws on a number of studies which provide glimpses of the need to nuance further the notion of mediation as part of the response to these limitations."

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Department of Education Public Seminars

People

Harry Daniels

Keywords

education

research

Department: Department of Education

Date Added: 13/12/2013

Duration: 00:54:56

Download

The Physics of the Violin

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

Embed

Jesse Liu, winner of the the departmental Speaking Competition for undergraduates, gives a short talk on the physics of a violin.

The violin and elastic band are both string instruments. Yet what is it about the first that allows it to produce sounds many would regard as beautiful? I'll explore the physics behind music and the violin to illuminate this intersection of art and science.

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

People

Keywords

Department: Department of Physics

Date Added: 13/12/2013

Duration: 00:12:11

Download

The coldest place in the Universe

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

Embed

Tiffany Harte, Oxford Physics, discusses absolute zero temperatures and how by cooling atoms in a lab we can aim to replicate the coldest place in the Universe.

I will be discussing how we cool atoms to create the coldest place in the Universe in the middle of a lab, and the fascinating states that emerge from these ultracold gases. We will look at cooling using lasers and evaporation, and see how the Highland Fling can explain giant quantum states.

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

People

Keywords

Department: Department of Physics

Date Added: 13/12/2013

Duration: 00:13:11

Download

Heart of Darkness: The Interplay of Galaxies and Dark Matter

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

Embed

A short flash talk from Peter Hatfield, Oxford Physics, who discusses the origins of the galaxies we see in our night sky and the mysterious nature of dark matter.

Galaxies are huge clusters of hundreds of billions of stars - the Milky Way is our galaxy, itself just one of many billions more. But even these are diminutive compared with the sea in which they swim, dark matter, an unknown substance we cannot see with our telescopes. We will look back in time over more than half the age of the Universe to see how galaxies sloshed about in this ocean of dark matter during their creation and development, hopefully helping us learn more about the galaxies we see today and potentially even something about the mysterious nature of dark matter itself.

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

People

Keywords

Department: Department of Physics

Date Added: 13/12/2013

Duration: 00:09:15

Download

Superconductivity -- alchemy for the 21st Century?

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

Embed

An exciting talk and demonstration about superconductivity and its potential practical applications by Ben Williams, Oxford Physics.

Superconductivity is a weird property of some materials that has exciting applications both in the lab and outside, in new technologies. The only problem is, we don't quite know what makes superconductivity work! In this talk, you'll see superconductivity in action and find out how, just like modern-day alchemists, physicists are looking to turn the mundane into the magical!

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

People

Keywords

Department: Department of Physics

Date Added: 12/12/2013

Duration: 00:13:23

Download

Sea Ice Growth: Mushy layers, Convection and Brinicles

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

Embed

Joe Hitchen, Oxford University Physics Department, describe the different stages of sea ice growth and the formation of hollow tubes of ice in the ocean known as brinicles.

Every year, millions of square kilometres of the Arctic ocean freeze over as sea ice forms but this growth is controlled by processes on the scale of millimetres and centimetres. At this scale, sea ice is not a pure solid but a mixture of ice crystals and concentrated brine known as a "mushy layer". I will describe the different stages of sea ice growth and the formation of hollow tubes of ice in the ocean known as brinicles.

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

People

Keywords

Department: Department of Physics

Date Added: 12/12/2013

Duration: 00:10:04

Download

Matter, Antimatter and The Mystery of Existence

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

Embed

In this talk Nazim Hussain, Oxford University, will provide an introduction to matter and antimatter and the interplay between them.

As far as we can tell, our universe is filled with galaxies and planets (and people) all of which are made of matter. But, our universe could have been absolutely empty with nothing in it at all! In this talk, I will provide an introduction to matter and antimatter and the interplay between them. I shall also explain how the fact that we live in a universe filled with matter is one of the mysteries of modern physics, a puzzle that particle physicists are trying to resolve using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory.

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/

Episode Information

Series

Oxford Physics Short Talks and Introductions

People

Nazim Hussain

Keywords

antimatter

CERN

large hadron collider

universe

galaxy

Department: Department of Physics

Date Added: 12/12/2013

Duration: 00:11:03

Download

TORCH Book Series: ‘Thomas Wyatt - The Heart’s Forest’ by Susan Brigden

Series

TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities

Embed

David Starkey, Chris Stamatakis and Diarmaid MacCulloch discuss ‘Thomas Wyatt - The Heart’s Forest’ by Susan Brigden as part of the TORCH Book Series

Winner of the 2012 Wolfson History Prize, 'The Heart’s Forest' is a biography of renaissance poet Thomas Wyatt, which reveals the fascinating history of his life in Henry VIII's court. His poetry held a mirror to this secret, capricious world, and alluded darkly to events which it was dangerous for him to mention. Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) was the first modern voice in English poetry. His poetry holds a mirror to the secret, capricious world of Henry VIII's court, and alludes darkly to events which it might be death to describe. In the Tower, twice, Wyatt was betrayed and betrayer.

But this original biography is much more than a conventional life. It is an evocation of Wyatt among his friends and his enemies, at princely courts in England, Italy, France and Spain, or alone in contemplative retreat. Using new research, Susan Brigden aims to show Wyatt in all his diversity, exploring his love, faith and politics and the beginnings of Reformation England. Above all, this new biography is attuned to Wyatt's dissonant voice and broken lyre, his paradoxical inwardness and will to 'make plain' his heart, revealing a complex, elusive, endlessly fascinating figure.

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK (BY-NC-SA): England & Wales; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/