In his sometimes curiously conservative Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman writes: Some technologies come in disguise. Rudyard Kipling called them “technologies in repose.” They do not look like technologies, and because of that they do their work, for good or ill, without much criticism or even awareness. This applies not only to IQ tests and toContinue reading “Neil Postman On Disguised Technologies, And The Night Class”
Category Archives: Pedagogy
Trigger Warnings For Assigned Readings?
On Monday, I wrote a brief note here on Jose Saramago‘s Blindness, commenting on its very distinctive tragicomic style. Earlier in the day, my class had discussed–among others–parts XI and XII of the novel, two sections in which the violence and depravity in the abandoned mental hospital reaches new depths. Rape and a stabbing death areContinue reading “Trigger Warnings For Assigned Readings?”
The Unread Reading
In The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, Slavoj Žižek says: All too often, when we love somebody, we don’t accept him or her as what the person effectively is. We accept him or her insofar as this person fits the co-ordinates of our fantasy. We misidentify, wrongly identify him or her, which is why, when we discover thatContinue reading “The Unread Reading”
Nevil Shute’s _On The Beach_ And Normative Epistemology
The first reading in my Philosophical Issues in Literature class this semester–which focuses on the post-apocalyptic novel–is Nevil Shute‘s On The Beach. I expected, more often than not, moral, ethical, and political issues to be picked up on in classroom discussions; I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the very first class meeting–on Monday–honed inContinue reading “Nevil Shute’s _On The Beach_ And Normative Epistemology”
Back to Teaching – II
I returned to teaching today–after a hiatus of three semesters. The first semester’s release from teaching was due to a union-negotiated parental leave; I was exempt from teaching two classes that semester and because I was scheduled to be assigned that workload in any case, I was effectively exempt from teaching altogether. (I was notContinue reading “Back to Teaching – II”
Back To Teaching – I
On Wednesday, I return to teaching after a one-year hiatus (on sabbatical). Here are the–admittedly skimpy and sketchy–course descriptions of the three classes I will be teaching this coming fall semester. I am looking forward to them. I’m sure my enthusiasm will soon be tempered by encountering my university’s mind-numbing bureaucracy (and the dubious pleasuresContinue reading “Back To Teaching – I”
On The Possible Advantages Of Robot Graders
Some very interesting news from the trenches about robot graders, which notes the ‘strong case against using robo-graders for assigning grades and test scores’ and then goes on to note: But there’s another use for robo-graders — a role for them to play in which…they may not only be as good as humans, but better.Continue reading “On The Possible Advantages Of Robot Graders”
Steven Salaita and Academic Freedom in Academic and ‘Non-Academic’ Spaces
Steven Salaita might have thought he was headed for a new faculty position: the University of Illinois had made him a job offer, he had accepted, and resigned his position at Virginia Tech. But not so fast: the Chancellor of the university rescinded the offer, apparently because of Salaita’s aggressively vocal presence on Twitter, whereContinue reading “Steven Salaita and Academic Freedom in Academic and ‘Non-Academic’ Spaces”
Political Schooling Via The Usenet Newsgroup
As my post yesterday should have indicated, we are educated by a variety of modalities. A powerfully formative one for me was my exposure to Usenet newsgroups. I discovered newsgroups in 1988, shortly after I began work as a research assistant with the Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.Continue reading “Political Schooling Via The Usenet Newsgroup”
Why Get Arrested? Why Perform Civil Disobedience?
A Facebook friend of mine asked in response to my posts and photos about yesterday’s protest at the Israeli mission to the UN: It seems as though you all knew you were going to get arrested and almost seem proud of that? Isn’t there a way to protest without being arrested? This is a veryContinue reading “Why Get Arrested? Why Perform Civil Disobedience?”
Samir Chopra 