Liberal Arts Voices

Read the perspectives of our current students

High Schooler Challenges the Internet Generation

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On April 8th, the Composition Program held its banquet for the Annual Pennsylvania High School Writing Contest. It’s now in its 29th year! We recognized 20 students: 17 finalists and the top 3. The winner was Joy Wang, a student from Council Rock High School, South, which is in Holland, PA.

The essay question this year was on globalization and the Internet:


In “Global Village Idiocy,”New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman provides a relatively pessimistic view of how the Internet affects users, especially in an age of extended social relationships. Based on your personal experiences, what is your take on his arguments and on the global dimensions of the Internet? Do your experiences, views, and opinions align with those of Friedman? Have your experiences been more positive? If global networks are here to stay, and they appear to be, how might we use them for learning, community building, and other productive purposes? In your response, (1) describe and evaluate your experiences with the Internet and (2) explain how the Internet has assisted you in becoming a member of a more global community, or has failed to live up to its potential to do so. Use your personal experience with school, community service, and other programs to illustrate and support your points.

This was a challenging question, which Joy handled expertly in her thoughtful, insightful response.
Professor Stuart Selber

Below is a post Joyce has written for LAUS@PSU about the essay she wrote:

Hello everyone, guest blogger here. I’m Joy Wang, a junior at Council Rock High School South. And you may ask, with good reason, “Joy, why are you writing for the LAUS blog?” It’s a long story that starts with an essay contest, of all things–the one that Penn State’s composition department runs for high school juniors.

So on a frosty day in December, I was locked in a computer lab with two other juniors from my school and was told to agree, disagree, or qualify a prompt which included an article by the New York Times columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, that ran in 2002, titled “Global Village Idiocy.” My essay, entitled “Information Overload: Skepticism and Social Organization in the Internet Era,” was apparently sufficiently ingenious to catch some reader’s eye for a reason I’ve yet to discern.

In any case, the thesis of Friedman’s argument is this: That the internet, however convenient and accessible, has fundamentally become a force for polarization and misunderstanding rather than a catalyst for harmony and societal interaction. A bold claim, to be sure, but one that has some traction given the horror and blind stupidity of the dregs of internet forums and comment threads. (For a particularly telling cross-section of these internet denizens, I recommend the comment section on CNN.)

The luxury of near-complete anonymity, Friedman argues, has brought out the virulent haters, the extremists, the fringe elements of our society who would have otherwise remained isolated, quarantined from the rest of the world by the analog divide. And this is not untrue–but it’s only half of the story.

I’m not really all that big on the Internet. I keep an email account that I check religiously, and I follow a couple of news outlets online. Webcomics are my guilty pleasure. But other than that, there’s no Facebook, no Twitter. I’m not interested in the sordid details of the lives of a host of casual acquaintances nor do I need to read the inane mental diarrhea of the world’s self-perceived rich, famous, and important. Social networking, in case it weren’t already clear enough, holds no appeal to me. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that the Internet has become a powerful force for good as well.

I cited the death of Neda Agha-Soltan in the street protests that followed the Iranian elections of 2009. Her death, captured on video, became a rallying cry for the Iranian people in the wake of brutal government crackdowns. Little did I know or anticipate any of the events in the Middle East that would occur a little over a week after I wrote my essay. The self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia has since then sparked a series of protests and revolutions that has spread throughout the Arab world to Egypt and Libya, Syria and Bahrain. Unsurprisingly, social networking and the Internet have played a critical role in these revolutions even more directly than it did in Iran two years ago.

In Egypt, for example, the We Are All Khaled Said movement, a Facebook-based dissident network and protest group started by Google executive Wael Ghonim, was formed to mourn and decry the senseless beating at the hands of Egyptian authorities that led to Said’s death. In the days after the initial revolution, Egypt’s government even tried to shut down all Internet access–a clear indicator of exactly how important of a role the Internet itself played in the organization of this popular revolt. In truth, even before there was the spark of revolution in Tunisia that touched off the dry tinder of the Arab world’s underrepresented class, there were the rumblings of discontent and social activism on the Internet.

As it stands, the last paragraph of my essay still has as much resonance as it did when I first typed it almost five months ago:

The world has changed drastically in the past twenty years, in no small part because of the Internet and all its trappings, both good and bad. But in the end, the Internet–like any other technology–is only a tool. Just like the use of nuclear fission in bombs and power plants can both kill and sustain (respectively), so too can the Internet breed both hatred and hope. In the end, it is the actions that its users choose to take that will determine history’s ultimate verdict. Which road shall we take? In the years to come–in the generations that follow–will the Internet be known as the technology that forged a better world, or the one that tore it asunder?

We are the Internet generation. Where do you think this brave new world will lead?

Joy Wang

Lector: A Virtual Book Club – The New Frontier in Reading

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eBook Readers Galore
Originally uploaded by libraryman
Part II – Turning the Page

At Lector, our motto is “elevate the conversation.” The key concepts that separate Lector from regular student blogs or the course-discussion systems on Angel are focus and exposure. Labeled as a virtual book club, Lector is the first of its kind among American universities: a hub for students to talk about the books they read in class, expanding upon discussions from class or making their own observations. Although it operates on WordPress, Lector has its own URL, which gives it strength in terms of branding. Unaffiliated with any particular class or content, Lector has the markings of a strong brand: abstract and broad, yet official. Unlike other student blogs, which can be randomly titled and scattered from subject to subject, Lector’s central home for these comments promotes solidarity and a form of legitimacy: it has all the markings of a professional website, and it seems as though that helps the students take it more seriously. The students who participate in Lector are not assigned topics; they either bring up aspects of the texts that gnaw at them, or respond to others’ comments. Although the students are required to post at least once a week, they post with a zeal that has defied our expectations. Each student produces substantive, worthwhile content each and every week.

We can only “elevate the conversation” if we can affect the conversation–and we can only affect the conversation if we can get our arguments into the hands of the people. Lector’s other great strength comes from the chance of exposure. In my experience, professors have assigned blog-like tasks to be posted on Penn State’s Angel course-management system. Normally, these experiences have not gone so well, due to either problems with the Angel interface or a lack of motivation–what’s the point of posting to a website when no one can see your work? Lector makes sure that students have the opportunity to make comments that the world can see and interact with. Moreover, anyone and everyone are encouraged to contribute in some way, by commenting on the students’ remarks. This feature is currently open to the public, and therefore must be policed by my fellow administrators and myself, but it allows outside parties to contribute to the classroom conversation. Parents and family members have the opportunity to share in their students’ activities; alumnus who miss strong, intellectual conversation can participate; and we’re even trying to get some professionals to weigh in on the discussion (Mr. Gladwell, we’re looking at you!).

If asked to describe Lector in one word, we would say: promise. Lector has promised to accomplish so many things: to elevate the conversation, to provide students with a platform to have their voices heard, to shatter restrictions on intellectual conversation, and to prove to alumni that age-old adage, “you can always come home again” holds true. Right now, Lector is in its infancy. We only cover one reading list for two small sections, but we chose to begin with readings that cover issues with vast contemporary importance. As of the writing, we have over 5,000 hits, a number that greatly exceeds our expectations. Not all of these hits can be from ours students; it shows that people are taking notice. The eyes of the academic world are focused on Penn State to determine the legitimacy of a virtual book club, and it’s up to us to remind the world that books matter. We invite you to check out our website. If you’re familiar with the books we’re discussing, or the topics they’re based upon, feel free to chime in on the students’ remarks. Follow us on twitter (@Lectorbookclub) or “like” us on Facebook (search “Lector: A Virtual Book Club“), and watch as the social network and intellectual network combine.

Welcome to the new frontier in reading.

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 26

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John Dolan, College of the Liberal Arts Director of Digital Media and Pedagogy, and Geoff Halberstadt, Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council President join Dean Long for episode 26 of Liberal Arts Voices.

In this episode, the group discusses their recent presentation at the 2011 Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium. Dean Long, John, Geoff, and Jillian collaborated on a panel session titled “Engagement and Community in the College of the Liberal Arts” at this year’s TLT Symposium. 

In this podcast, the group discusses many of the themes incorporated in their presentation. Specifically, they talk about the ways in which the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office is attempting to use social media to cultivate a community of education. They speak about how their technology initiatives are rooted in the educational mission of the University and the College. They discuss the strategies and tactics they are using with digital and social media in hopes of empowering students, faculty and staff to give voice to their educational experiences. Geoff also spends some time discussing how social media has impacted the dynamics of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council.

For more information about the 2011 TLT Symposium, visit their website. 

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 26

To subscribe to Liberal Arts Voices through iTunes, click here.

We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.

Lector: A Virtual Book Club – The New Frontier in Reading

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Lector Web Banner.jpgPart I: Opening the Cover

In the spring of 2004, four Harvard sophomores, led by Mark Zuckerberg, set out to move the college experience online. The result of their efforts, the social-networking website Facebook, which launched on February 4, 2004, has achieved just that, extending the social experiences of college online. Students can–and do–add people they meet in class, outside of class, campus club-mates, and potential love interests to their online friends list. We can “like” each others’ comments, tag ourselves in images, and we always know when some event is going on, whether it be a party around campus, upcoming tests, or even world events. Facebook has revolutionized the ways in which we communicate with our peers. In the social sense, Facebook has placed the college experience online–but remember, the “social” aspect is only half. 

On Thursday, February 3, 2011, English 30 students under the tutelage of Diana Gruendler took the first step in completing the process. As part of the Sony Reader: New Frontiers in Reading research project, Gruendler’s undergraduate TAs launched Lector: A Virtual Book Club, a website devoted to expanding the classroom experience to the internet. In the New Frontiers in Reading research project, students have been exposed to Sony Readers in order to gauge the readers’ compatibility with the classroom atmosphere. In the past, the research group has run classes using the same syllabus, one a “control” class using regular, codex books, and the other an “experimental” class, in which the students had to use the readers. Now we’re taking that one step further, by incorporating a medium natural to an electronic device, a website, and opening the invitation for others outside of the project that have eReaders to participate. Lector takes its name from the Latin word “lector,” which referred to a reader in ancient times, one whose job it was to read from texts in public forums, when literacy wasn’t common. It’s a play on the fact that we call devices such as the Sony Reader, Kindle, and Nook “eReaders” and not “eBooks” — because they display the text of eBooks (strings of code), and sometimes can actually read to us.

The theory behind Lector is this: give students contemporary literature and provide them with a public forum to engage in meaningful discussions about the text. The texts chosen: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, War by Sebastian Junger, The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick, and Iran Awakening by Shirin Ebadi all discuss topics pertinent to college-age students. For half of the average eighteen-year-old, first-year student’s life, this country has been at war. In an ever-changing, fast-moving world, first-year students at University Park know that it takes something a little extra to be successful, a point which Malcolm Gladwell examines in Outliers and which Mark Zuckerberg, through the eyes of David Kirkpatrick, exemplifies. Believe it or not, Facebook continues to grow, and with each country that Facebook expands to, the ease with which ideas can cross cultures also expands exponentially. In this era of unparalleled communication and connection, understanding how this communion of ideas affects society is invaluable.

As Facebook connects people socially, Lector connects people intellectually. Right now, the key constituency consists of two English 30 sections on campus, taught by the same instructor. But this is only the beginning. Consider the student who misses class, for whatever reason it may be. As a conscientious student, I hate missing classes; the guilt gnaws at me relentlessly. But a student whose class is on Lector can afford to miss a class and still contribute to the conversation online. One of the amazing things about Lector is that two of our TAs (and my fellow research assistants) aren’t on campus. One is currently in Michigan on a co-op for chemical engineering, and the other is in Australia studying abroad–half a world away! No matter where they are–either three states away or literally on the other side of the planet–these students still contribute to the conversation, by helping with the design and maintenance of the website, posting videos that go with the current content we’re discussing in class, or commenting on the students’ remarks. The only limits are those that we place on ourselves–time, day, and location are no longer an issue.

Stay tuned next week as I further explore the vast potential of Lector and where we envision it going. In the meantime, please check out our website and join in the conversation.

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 21

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In episode 21 of our bi-weekly Liberal Arts Voices podcast, John Dolan joins the program to discuss his new position as the Director of Digital Media and Pedagogy, a shared position between the College of the Liberal Arts and Penn State’s Education Technology Services (ETS).

As a liaison between the College of the Liberal Arts and ETS, John discusses how he is working to make the classroom experience more engaging and interactive for students. John talks about some of the initiatives he is currently working on, including: the liberal arts Faculty Advisory Board (“The FAB”), technology-focused professional development opportunities, and the CLA Social Media Forum. Each of these initiatives is designed to provide CLA staff and faculty with the opportunity to share information about and to get more familiar with the variety of available technology.

Heather Summerlin, CLA Information Technology Consultant, also explains how the College is working to make technology opportunities more available and streamlined for departments. For instance, Heather has helped set up a new blog platform through Blogs at Penn State for CLA departments interested in creating a blog.

Also, make sure to check out John’s U Report podcast which highlights the many different jobs around the Penn State campus. Lastly, take a look at the Xtranormal video John made for his COMM 471 course this semester (you have to listen to the podcast to figure out what this is!)

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 21

To subscribe to Liberal Arts Voices through iTunes, click here.

We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.

Associate Dean Long on New Media Literacies

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Pharmakon
Originally uploaded by cplong11

On Saturday, November 13th, I gave the keynote address at the Media Commons Tailgate, a community organized “unconference” where students, faculty and staff gathered to explore the impact new media technologies are having on teaching and learning.

There is little question that new media technologies are transforming the practice of education, and our practices of education must change in the wake of the emergence of new media technologies.

In my presentation, the YouTube footage of which I embed below, I outline how, in the course of the history of transformative technologies — from writing, to the printing press to the social web — there have always been those who recognize and emphasize the ways the new technologies will impoverish the human enterprise.  I go on to suggest that these impoverishing dimensions must be recognized and confronted even as we seek to cultivate the more enriching dimensions of the new technologies.

I conclude the presentation with some examples of how we have sought to cultivate enriching new media literacies with our students in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office.  I specifically discuss the work of Nicole Zinni and Justin Ogden, and I highlight some of the things we discussed in Liberal Arts Voices 15, when we focused on our DC interns.

Please take some time to watch the video.  I welcome feedback in the comments on this blog.

For those of you who want to investigate the videos associated with this post a bit further, I have embedded a playlist that includes all the videos I touch upon in the presentation. They give articulate voice to the kinds of enriching literacies our students are cultivating in and through their engagement with social media on our site.
 

Finally, I include a link to the Traditional and New Media Literacies Prezi itself for those who want to navigate through in more detail.

Please allow me to introduce myself . . .

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I’m actually not a huge Rolling Stones fan, but the words popped into my head, so I went with it. I’m John Dolan, and I have the honor of taking on a brand new role here in the College of the Liberal Arts as the Director of Digital Media and Pedagogy. This is a shared position between the College and Penn State’s Education Technology Services, whose primary mission is to provide leadership and support in the appropriate use of technology for teaching, learning, and research.

My role here serves several purposes. I will be working closely with Associate Dean Chris Long and the LAUS office to coordinate and direct the effective use of technology for teaching, research and student engagement. I will also be working with our faculty, departments, institutes and staff to better understand the impact of technology on the liberal arts and to help the College adopt and implement pedagogical strategies that take full advantage of the affordances new technologies offer. Ultimately, my goal is to ensure that the College is positioned to play a leading role in the creative and effective use of technology in education.

Though I am new to the College of the Liberal Arts, I am not new to Penn State. In fact, I am originally from State College, and returned to Happy Valley in 2002 after being away for about 13 years. During those years, I lived in Washington, D.C., Nashville and Atlanta, and then Washington D.C. again, before returning with my wife and two sons to be closer to my family. I received my B.A. in Advertising from Penn State and my M.B.A. from Vanderbilt, with an emphasis in marketing. I am currently in the “ABD” stage of my doctoral work in Penn State’s College of Education, with an emphasis in human resource/organization development. The topic of my dissertation is the use of social media in the workplace. In addition, I am an adjunct instructor of public relations for the College of Communications.

I’ve been working in the technology space for many years. I was a product manager for several years with Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (now called Washington Post Media), where I was responsible for the management of several online classified advertising products. This was in the heyday of the web economy, and I got to see the swell of excitement and then the crash back to reality.  Before coming to Penn State, I was an online general manager for two Knight Ridder (now McClatchy) newspaper properties as well. I have also worked at BellSouth (now AT&T), AT&T (still AT&T, sort of) and The Washington Post newspaper. I come to the College from Penn State Outreach, where I was the assistant director of Continuing and Professional Education (now called Penn State Business Solutions). (Are you getting the sense that my departure from organizations seems to lead to upheaval, mergers and name changes? Me, too.)

I have been an avid producer and user of social media tools for several years now– podcasts, vodcasts, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Flickr, etc. and am looking into even more in the future. To commemorate my new role, I have started a new blog, called “Walking in LA”, which chronicles some of my thoughts and observations about the use of social and digital media in education. I am also the co-host of a podcast called “The U Report”, which profiles Penn State faculty, staff and students to try to make this huge university seem a little bit smaller. This can be found on iTunesU and via Facebook, Twitter and our blog. I also incorporate social media into the course I teach, and will experiment this spring with the new “groups” feature on Facebook to see if that will be a viable source for communication and collaboration in my class.

Social media tools are sometimes described as “disruptive technology”, a term that is credited to Harvard professor Clayton Christensen from an article he wrote in 1995. Disruptive technology is an interesting term, as it connotes some sort of out-of-control software program wreaking havoc in the workplace, turning desks upside down and spilling boxes of paperclips and folders all over the floor. However, what I believe it to mean is that it’s the development of technology tools that improve (fill in the blank). It is disruptive because it is shaking up what was being done previously, not because it is passing notes in class. Any innovation, whether technology-based or not, could be considered disruptive to what was the state-of-the-art previously. It was said at the Educause conference I just attended last week that at one point in our history, a disruptive piece of technology in the classroom was this:

Blackboard.jpg

Which of these tools will we still see in classrooms 100 years from now? I couldn’t venture to say, but I am excited to be part of the journey.

100 Sparks.jpg

I can be contacted via email at dolan@psu.edu, via Twitter @dolanatpsu, by phone at 814-867-4412, or in my office in 100 Sparks. 100 Sparks doesn’t yet have a number or my name on it, but it’s next to 101 Sparks and has a Lion Shrine stained glass hanging in the window, so you can’t miss it.  

I would love to meet you, either in person or virtually, and talk, Tweet or exchange posts with you about your perspectives on the use of digital and social media within the College.  I’m thrilled to be here.  

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

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Hello all, my name is AnneLiese Nachman and I wanted to take the time to introduce myself to this blogging community before I started contributing to it.

First thing’s first; I have never blogged before, so I am very new to this. However, I am a Freshman, and trying new things is all part of the experience right? After I learned of this opportunity, I thought it would be a good way to contribute to this growing technological way of communicating.

So if you follow my blogs, you will be peering through a window into the life of a Freshman here at PSU. I will discuss some of the activities here on campus that I take part in such as the Eco-Rep program,the Blue and White Society, and the Paterno Fellows program. I hope to give you a sense of how some Freshmen perceive this Penn State community and all that comes with it.

I look forward to sharing!

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 12

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Episode twelve of Liberal Arts Voices also marks our first podcast of the fall 2010 semester. In this episode, we are joined by two fabulous members of the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council – LAUC president Geoff Halberstadt and LAUC Digital Media and THON chair Lauren Perrotti.

The group begins by talking about the College of the Liberal Arts orientation meetings held for first year students and change of location and transfer students on August 22, 2010. They discuss the main theme of the presentations, “It’s Your Time: Take Ownership of Your Education.” The orientation meetings included the use of Poll Everywhere, allowing students in the audience to text questions or comments that would appear on one of the large screens in the front of the room. The group reflects on the impact that this tool had on the orientation presentations.

Lauren and Geoff also share their plans for LAUC this year. They discuss some of the upcoming events and programs that will be sponsored by LAUC, like the Shermanski Mentor Program which helps to match first year or change of location students with upper classmen in the liberal arts. The LAUC members also talk about their plans for THON and Homecoming. Be sure to visit LAUC’s new website and blog for more information.

Lastly, Heather Summerlin announces the recent launch of the redesigned Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) website. The group discusses how this new website is part of LAUS’ initiative to make the experience of liberal arts undergraduates more dynamic, informative, and engaging. You still have a chance to win a Creamery Gift Certificate by filling out our short survey about the website.

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 12

To subscribe to Liberal Arts Voices through iTunes, click here.

We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.

Join Our Digital Community

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Hello Liberal Arts Undergraduates:

Over the past year, our Undergraduate Studies Office has developed an extensive online and social media presence dedicated to building community around the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. Our goal is to use social media technologies as an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to engage one another and to reflect in public about the liberal arts experience at Penn State. As we begin this new academic year, I want to invite you to participate in our online community.

Our newly redesigned website serves as a HUB for all the activities in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies office. I hope you will visit it frequently and make it a favorite bookmark.

Our main LAUSatPSU blog is co-authored by liberal arts faculty, students, and staff. This blog focuses on the undergraduate experience in the College of the Liberal Arts. Here you will find posts from students writing about recent internship experiences; tips about advising from CLA advisers; episodes of Liberal Arts Voices, a bi-weekly podcast produced by the LAUS Office which highlights undergraduate life in the College; and much more.

Our LAUS Announcements blog draws attention to news, updates, and announcements that are important for CLA undergraduates. You should subscribe to LAUS Announcements to get the most recent internship postings, study abroad application deadlines, dates for a variety of College events, and other information related to life in the College.

The Education Abroad Experience blog is generated by the stories and experiences of Liberal Arts undergraduates as they study abroad and travel around the world. If you are interested in studying abroad this is a great opportunity to hear directly from your fellow students and to start thinking about the type of program that is right for you.

If you are an admitted or aspiring Paterno Fellow, make sure to check out the Paterno Fellows Program blog. You will receive direct messages from the PFP Director Jack Selzer and read posts written by students involved in the program when you subscribe to this blog.

I invite you to follow me and the LAUS office on Twitter, to become our fan on Facebook, to subscribe to all of our blogs, to listen to the Liberal Arts Voices podcast and, most importantly, to join the ongoing conversation about the Liberal Arts undergraduate experience.

Sincerely,

Dean Long

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