Dear Collegues,
lately, I tried to move, as chair, some of the dept. discussions to the internet.
My experience was bad, to say the least.
Two fractions oppose each other re. email discussions: the one which likes the "fankness" or the all but civil discourse, and the other that feels so offended by it that to mend fences becomes almost impossible.
Problem: do you archieve the (flaming) exchanges? Especially junior faculty feel vulnerable in this, and it is not truly a free exchange. We also have a generation gap: how to include the non-media literate oldtimers?
Now, in my SUNY Senate expereince, none of this became an issue: the listserves have been very sucessful.
My STUDENTS seem to navigate this medium (not facebook) much more cautiously.
In my view, for the colleagues, the electronic medium is causing a decline in civil discourse.
What is your expereince?
Achim
"Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind."
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, “Transcendental Logic,” Introduction, # 1
Dr. Achim D. Koeddermann, Chair, Philosophy Dept.
SUNY-Oneonta, NY 13820
"Gedanken ohne Inhalt sind leer, Anschauungen ohne Begriffe sind blind"