University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: December 24, 1999
Faculty on the Site.
A Jeanne SiteCalifornia State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: December 24, 1999
Faculty on the Site.
Theoretical analysis of faulty information distribution as structural violence. Discussion of power as sovereign or disciplinary, after Covaleskie. Discussion of Foucault's concern with power as central. Intertextuality, through creation of non-traditional texts as a foil to such structural violence, suggesting an academy role in educating for public discourse.
Later summary, though above abstract will fit into review of literature: In intertextuality, what I really mean to focus on is the importance of getting some of the practice of teaching down in writing, both from teachers and from students, so that the site can play a role in providing flexibility around scheduling problems when commuting has become a problem, which it has on most campuses, including rural, where students and faculty don't or can't live on campus. By treating student texts as texts for intertextuality, we grant them social distance from the routine completion of "ritual assignments," and make a number of acceptable interpretations available to all students. We also provide a more manageable approach to working with student writing, since all of them can watch the development of a discussion thread, and follow detailed editing samples on the site. Term papers and tests are very much isolated endeavors which do not encourage academic discussion and involvement. Threaded discussions, fairly immediate publication of what we all produce with respect to this learning, provides us with more readings, more perspectives, and makes better use of all our time. In addition, an emphasis on intertextuality takes away the false sanctity of publication and makes students realize that they are responsible for evaluating authority, not for memorizing a given authority's answers. And intertextuality provides a forum in which students have attained, at least on Dear Habermas, collegial status. In such a fast moving world as many campuses represent today, new tools of collegiality take on an importance in their own right.
Fit with first case study: The fit for teaching should not limit us to that application. There are numerous areas in which we need to see new textual roles, that broaden the reach to professionals in many different contexts. Teaching has been too long cut off from research, and we are paying for the consequences in the resulting structural violence of our institutions. Our need for texts to guide each other into the new technologies is as great as our need to hear our students and each other in good faith.
Cases in which information dearth is occuring and intertextuality could provide a more responsible information path.
Virus alert at CSUDH. Analyze e-mail to show inclusiveness, exclusiveness of path, unstated assumptions of technical sophistication or lack thereof, expansion, retraction, re-creation of in-groups and out-groups.
We need to recognize the importance of putting that correspondence in an appropriate form as important information for understanding current issues that affect our work. By looking at such communication patterns we could begin to use the expertise available to us. That means more than immediate solutions to the virus crisis. That means the crisis should serve as data for the system disruptions we are experiencing. Then scholars, who normally deal only with formal texts, should address the issues of distribution, inclusion, exclusion, levels of expertise, levels of available training, and an over-all structural understanding of our needs. That scholarly study should produce texts that become available to all for the more accurate reading and understanding of the technical issues we face. Our present tendency to refuse to turn our scholarly interests to our own situatedness must cease, as must our refusal to recognize our own situtational context as a valid arena for study and textual production.
The current distribution path on technical knowledge tends to offer repeated introductory workshops at entry level, and upper level informal networks, totally decentralized, and consequently not readily accessible, above entry level. The recent virus crisis was temporarily defused by an Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, who tested the suspected files with his own (or available only to him and those with whom he is in contact) software.
Innovative administration of communication, together with a much broader understanding of the importance of our academic expertise to the very functioning of the university would dictate the serious involvement of faculty in structuring and maintaining new communication paths that would allow for the diversity of skills to be addressed, and both professional and client training needs.
disabled kid reports no attention to his disability - forum serves as foil to bring that to attention of system, turning it into a learning system
techs - what we need, what we're telling each other, and how there's no forum
the beauty of the capability offered by distance to liberal arts - susan and I can actually stay in intellectual touch by complete exposure to each others' work, even if not close enough to team in traditional sense.