The Long Road

Episode 26 of the Digital Dialogue is a special edition in which Jaimie Oberdick, Associate Editor for Publications at Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) at Penn State, turns the tables on me and interviews me about the way I have used blogs in my Philosophy courses.

The Digital Dialogue podcast itself grew out of my 2009 Summer Faculty Fellowship at TLT on Socratic Politics in Digital Dialogue. This interview is part of an article Jaimie has written and a video TLT is putting together to highlight the way I am using blogs to cultivate community in my classroom. (read more)

Upon reading the 2010 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium, I was struck by how the key trends in technology they identify might help us meet challenges they articulate.

Let me mention a two challenges in particular and suggest how three recent trends could in fact help cultivate abilities that help us meet these challenges.
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This post invites responses, video and otherwise, as to how your education has shaped who you are. Please join the discussion by commenting or posting a video of your own. (read more)

As I begin as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State, I have been thinking about how to articulate the power of social media to those who are unfamiliar with it. (read more)

LAUS Dwight watching over campus Originally uploaded by LAUSatPSU A few years ago, I received the Dwight bobble head pictured here looking out of my office window as I work. This picture was taken by Heather Summerlin, IT Consultant in the College of Liberal Arts, and posted on our LAUSatPSU Flickr page. Dwight has become a mascot of sorts for the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) office. He has recently returned from a trip to his hometown of Scranton, PA, where he joined a dedicated group of students from the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council (LAUC) as they raised money... (read more)

Jeremy Engels, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences here at Penn State University, joins me for Digital Dialogue, episode 25. Jeremy's work focuses on the rhetorical foundations of democratic practices. His first book, Enemyship, the difficult question of how talk of "the enemy" functions in political rhetoric and action. (read more)

One of the highlights of the Fall 2009 semester was the celebration of 100 years of Liberal Arts education at Penn State. As we begin our second century, it is perhaps fitting to pause a moment to consider: how will liberal arts students, faculty, staff and alums commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the College, what will have changed and what will endure? (read more)

As many of you are aware Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake this past week. One of our own advisers, Marie Villefranche, a native of Haiti, has extended family who live in the Port-au-Prince region.

To date, they have not been in communication with Marie and her family in the States. The College of the Liberal Arts Office of Undergraduate Studies would like to extend our thoughts and best wishes for Marie and her family. For those who would like to support the recovery and the relief effort, please visit the following organizations: Yele Haiti, the Red Cross, World Vision, Oxfam, or Partners in Health. (read more)

As I begin my work as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of the Liberal Arts, I want to pause here to mention a few things about how this space will shift over the next few months. (read more)

I hope everyone has had an excellent break and is ready for the spring semester. Although it doesn't feel much like spring at the moment here in State College, we in the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies (LAUS) office are very excited about the new semester.There have been a number of changes in our office over the break. The first change I should probably mention is that I have officially started as the new Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies. I look forward to working with the students, faculty, staff and alums in my new role. Rather than spend much time introducing... (read more)

Emanuela Bianchi, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte joins me for episode 24 of the Digital Dialogue to discuss her book manuscript with the working title The Feminine Symptom: Aleatory Matter in the Aristotelian Cosmos. (read more)