Scholarship IS ALWAYS public

Scholarship need not be labeled as "public scholarship" to be public. In the case of religion in the media, scholarship needs to counter misinformation about what, for example, archeological finds mean to a religious tradition with ancient roots. In a recent blog article, Biblical scholar and archeologist Jim West argues that unless scholars stay active in media-saavy ways through popular venues, the momentum of ridiculous claims repeated in the media will override the conventional spheres of academic influence. West puts forward five suggestions for reversing a tide of missinformation. They include empowering existing media relations to take a more visible role in the media, encourging scholars to publish shorter pieces in newspapers and smaller media outlets, write rejoiners when accurate reporting fails, and becoming proactive in popular media, assuming that one's finds and topics are of public interest. The more abstract advice relates to cultivating a different philosophical stance on the public:

"Develop an authentic concern for the public. Sometimes scholars are content to discuss with one another a particular discovery or fact at some conference and ignore the larger public. But, I would suggest that there are important reasons to take the public into consideration as you do your work. First, the public pays your salary (in one way or another if you teach somewhere) and you owe it to them to give them their money’s worth. Second, as teachers it is your duty to inform and correct- even if those you inform and correct are not sitting on seats in your classroom or passing along buckets at your dig site. And third, the public is worthy of your attention. This latter point may be widely forgotten, so it’s important for scholars to remember that people matter and what people are taught matters because falsehood is of no benefit to anyone."

Does your circle of friends and family understand your area of study? What are the media outlets they interact with and how can you combat misinformation about your research field in these places?

Taken from http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/stalemate_31419.shtml

What does it mean when learning isn't fun?

The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes a digest of reviews, articles, and criticism at at Arts and Letters Daily. It is an excellent repository for issues in culture that affect higher education.

On the topic of technology, there is a link to a review essay titled, "Is Stupid Making Us Google?" by James Bowman, published The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society.

In his review of several articles and books on the dumbing down of society and how students are increasingly unskilled at reading anything deeply, Bowman addresses the implicit operating value that learning must be fun:

But they are not likely to get either one so long as so many educators cling as they do now to the axiomatic belief not just that “learning can be fun” but that it must be fun, and the equally axiomatic rejection of that which may cause pain and humiliation, even if these are productive of real learning.

Bowman asks: what are the products of frustration and discipline in learning that are different than the products of skimming and assembling?

The essay is a thought-provoking meditation on the habit of reading online to avoid reading in the tradtional sense and cites several recent sources on electronic culture and its impact on knowledge in an age of information-gathering.

Just some food for thought.
-Holly White

Not Only How But Why: Technology in the Classroom

Welcome to the FPP, 2008-09!