Dear Jim,
you and I have talked about this before, but I will put it on the list to possible elicit some comments. Technology is like a tool chest; it is very powerful but only if you know what you want to build. Each technology should
be taught as the solution to a problem, not just for the sake of technology. One of my complaints about the math classes I took as an undergraduate was that I learned techniques but no applications to make what I had learned meaningful. When I took quantum
mechanics in grad school and saw that the techniques were actually useful, I kicked myself. If I had only know what it was good for I might have truly learned it instead of just learning enough to pass the exams.
At the present, we seem to have an infinite number of different software programs, but the number of problems to be solved has not really increased much, if at all. If I had your job (and thank heavens I don't) I would lay out
some challenges and then ask the students to find ways to solve the problem. For example, I am leading a group of five experts in five different countries who are studying whether or not ethanol is a sustainable replacement fuel for cars. What is the best
way to get them to collaborate to create a single white paper that will be acceptable to all five participants. I can think of several ways that this could be done, but what is the BEST way. This requires students to survey the capabilities of each option
and make a decision on which one would work best.
To go back to your example about Wikileaks, it is a red herring to talk specifically about Wikileaks. I suggest that what you really want to talk about is privacy. If this discussion leads the way it should, I would expect many
(but not all) students to conclude that they would not want some group out there to read that they had accessed Wikileaks. The operative rule is, "Don't do anything on the WWW that you would be embarrassed to have announced in the Oneonta Star." Now that
leads to the question, how can you get to the information you want is such a way that you cannot be identified? Can you really be anonymous on the WWW? Which leads to practical questions like, "Who can read what I post on my Facebook page?" or "Will someone
read my college e-mail account if I use it to run a small business on the side? or "Why should I be concerned about Net Neutrality?" The software may change, but these are the kinds of questions that will always be with us. If Wikileaks vanished tomorrow,
there would be another site doing somewhat the same thing. The important thing to learn is what strategies you can use to protect yourself? (Read David Brin's Transparent Society?)
Since many of your students are communications majors, they need to go at this from the other side. "How can I create virual YouTube videos to help sell a product for my company?" "What is the best social networking strategy
for a company?" What if you interviewing for a job and they ask what you think about the social network strategy of the company you would like to work for? Can you analyze a companies social network strategy and suggest improvements? Suppose you work for
Johnson and Johnson. What is your social network strategy to contain the fallout from the discovery that Rolaid tablets contain impurities and the company has had to withdraw a large number of them? How do you track the image of your company across a variety
of social networks? What is the best way to make my indie band popular? How has Eric Whitacre become one of the most popular choral composers in this country?
It's a new jungle out there, but the wild animals are just as vicious as they always were. The big change is that now it is harder for a person to hide.
Cordially,
Harry
Harry E. Pence
SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus
SUNY Oneonta
Achim,
As always, your perspective is sharp. This is exactly what I want students to understand – how new technologies create (more and more it seems, but I have no evidence to support) instances where there is a fine line to walk. The technologies of WikiLeaks
(digital content, copy – ability, search-ability, the distributed nature of TCP/IP environments, hypertext as a powerful concept, the nature of a participatory culture, etc. ) are all at play. What I’ve found in teaching New Media is the more I push forward,
the more I find my students need a deeper understanding of history, philosophy, sociology, etc. Yes it is I, the “techno-booster” on campus who is arguing for more LIBERAL ARTS!! I believe more liberal arts helps students with walking that line. Comments?
Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820
blog: The 32nd Square at
http://32ndsquare.blogspot.com
wiki: The 32nd Square at
http://32ndsquare.wikidot.com
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 607-436-2701
fax: 607-436-3677
IM: oneontatltc
Twitter: greenbjb
"Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"
P
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From: <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 15:11:25 -0500
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Teaching of WikiLeaks
Dear Colleagues,
as I am teaching ethics, not law, the problem is: can we get our students in trouble by walking a fine line? or do we have to discuss cases of walking a fine line, as they will have to learn to walk fine lines in the future on their own? The clear cases do
not need critical thinking - this one does. The discussion, not the result, is important. And all those of us who want a spirit to get back into the bottle: "ye who entered (the information age), forget all hope...." (Dante knew this).
Achim
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/06/columbia-university-walks_n_792684.html
Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820