Smarter Googling?

Google

Here's a link to the Google engine I brought up in class.

LW&PN,
Santos

Readings

I can somewhat see what he is trying to say about how the Universities have come to just build up our society. I can see what he trying to do in the main section when he discusses the word excellence. He is basically trying to say that all universities are looking for ways to use the term excellence in reference to any part of the school that they can prove as being worthy. He discusses how a university will find any way to make their statistics stand out from the rest. He also makes the connection between universities, economics and society. Just like Aronowitzs has done. Readings tries to make it seem like a university is shaped to society. For the most part their ideas were very similar.

Whitehead

Whitehead begins his argument by narrowing down the general problems he finds with the Universities to the specific ones he believes he can discuss. He narrows it all the way down to the school of business with many universities which was a new thing during the late 1920’s and early 30’s. He believes that this school illustrates all that is wrong with universities. His main belief is revealed about half way through the document when he states “Thus the proper function of a university is the imaginative acquisition of knowledge”. This statement while somewhat confusing at first becomes clearer once you analyze a few of his earlier remarks. He really believes that a university is here to prepare us for an intellectual career. I think what he means by this is that we will learn are real life situations once we get there but for the time being learning is learning and no one should look at it any differently.
“Imagination is a contagious disease. It can not be measured by the yard, or weighed by the pound and then delivered to the students by the members of the faculty.”
This quote really stuck out in my mind because he finally points out that we can not be taught all that we need to know at school. Part of what we learn is up to for us to figure out. I personally believe that there is no way that everything we learn in school can be verbally delivered to us. It is up to us to learn some of life’s lessons and become imaginative to create things and get yourself out of certain situations.

Aronowitz

The sections from Aronowitz’s “The Knowledge Factory”, basically state his beliefs in why education is set-up the way it is in America today. He believes that all of the things taught to us are there to strictly prepare us for the industrial world ahead of us. The other thing he states is that even from a young age school is there to just make sure we start to fit into society. It says that it is there is discipline us and make sure that we are obedient to our elders. I personally see all of what he is saying as true, but I don’t think that it is a bad thing. If it didn’t teach us these things then what would its purpose be. He thinks it would only be there for us to learn real materials such as math, writing and other such fields. Then I sort of lost him when he started talking about how kids were rebelling and fighting the system. That whole section sort of lost me. I did like how in the final section he talked about how immigration has had an impact on the education system. Overall he did a good job of using facts and statistics to begin the topic of education and economics. The numbers really show how our education and economic growth were closely linked in growth at one point. Now it just seems that our education keeps growing a little bit at a time while our economy has sort of leveled off. Aronowitz talks about how universities today are similar to corporations which would agree with Readings. He talks about how students today should teach each other their own insight to become creative and imaginative. The positive side to having education in universities become a corporation throughout the world would be that it helps students to accuire the "skills" needed in society and also eases them into the economy. Education in a large university, especially one like Purdue, introduces thousands of students to various beliefs, traditions, and people. Education passes on one culture to another, and supports social and political integration. Having the knowledge of multiple cultures, beliefs, political viewpoints and also religions allows for better opportunities when it comes to finding a job. “Numerous sociological studies have revealed that increased years of formal schooling are associated with openness to new ideas and more liberal social and political viewpoints.” (Robin Williams) Sociologist Robin Williams states, “better-educated people tend to have greater access to factual information, more diverse opinions, and the ability to make subtle distinctions in analysis.” I disagree with what Aronowitz says about going back to focusing teaching on science, philosophy, and literature. The times have changed and education should prepare you for more than those basic subjects, especially with the variety of occupations out there. I think universities do a better job than what Aronowitz gives credit.

Florida

Floridas idea for creativity as a resource is awesome, but there are a few things that i disagree with. I feel that there is like a bourgeois and a proletariant class when it comes to creativity today. The engineers and artists are thriving on creativity but the service working class has just given up. Its like the service class is blaming the creative class for themselves not being creative. I think thats bullshit. If the service class becomes more creative they will get the money that they deserve. Then they can classify themselves as that creative class. Florida states, “The service economy is the support infrastructure of the creative age.” I agree with that. Everyone has different talents, just apply your talents to your job and be creative. If you want these lower paying jobs to become more creative, to better society, then do you need to increase wages for this service class? NO. They should make it their own initiative to be creative, to better society and themselves. This is where i think Florida contradicts himself. He supports creativity, he states creativity will improve society, then why give a "free" handout to people who are not being creative on their own? This service class should step up and quit bitching about not being paid enough. Theyre using the fact that they dont get paid as much as an excuse to not be creative. Take the salon worker for example. A bunch of salon workers are underpaid because they dont take pride in what they do. But then look at the big salons, Mario Tricoci is freaking creative, the stylists get paid well and can eventually go on and do their own thing like being a celebrity stylist....or whatever. So if you want to be a kick-ass salon worker do it with some distinction, take some pride in your job and go balls out creatively and you should be fine.

comment on Evans blog

Commenting on what Evan says about creativity, technology, and inventions. I believe that while technology is improving, todays amount of inventions are slowing compared to what it was over the last 50 years. I think this is caused by the lack of creative minds. This would make creativity in individuals minds very valuable. Students in universities need to think more creative to improve on technology. Florida would agree that through creativity, technology can be improved. I agree that when you look at the computer 10 years ago, it does not add up to what today's machines are capable of doing. That type of creativity improves technology tremendously.

The Five Most Important Games of All Time

This is an experiment. A playground. An arena? Perhaps not--arenas have high stakes and here we play for fun and games. Fun and games? Sounds great!

I challenge you--throw down the gaunlet we might say (but then we would need an arena) to bring your "A" game and compose a little list:

What are the five greatest games of all time?

Since I never assign anything without first doing it myself, I begin:

1. Chess
2. Billiards
3. Poker
4. Monopoly
5. Everquest

Happy listing. Our eventual goal will be Survivor like, k? From many to one-- or from potentially 165 to 10. So we need to keep this conversation together: just keep responding to this post. And remember,

Play Nice

Espen Aarseth

Digital Textuality

Anyone interested in Hayles' discussion of Aarseth might want to check out a site I was working on last semester. I never finished the rest of the site, but I did get a lot up there on Aarseth. This link goes to a discussion of Aarseth's textonomy (the basic categories he develops to explore a text's properties).

I once vowed that no one would be allowed to look on these pages, but perhaps they are worth sharing. Just, please, recognize that they are my first attempts at web design and should be treated like a kindergartener's first finger painting...

Santos

Comment on Whitehead for Allison

Whitehead conveys to the reader his views on how a University should function. Through imagination and discipline our education can be strengthend. He explains to the reader that education cannot be based on simply professors handing over knowledge to students, but more that the students and professors should interact and learn old information in a new, creative, and imaginative way. I agree with allison when she talks about how there needs to be a "freshness" when dealing with teaching in a university.

If you haven't posted yet...

Then allow me to give you some advice. Although I would like to see you summarizing the main ideas of each article, I would also like you to focus on and work through specific passages. For instance, I hope you would recognize Whitehead's thesis (the argumentive statement that much of his essay seeks to prove--look for it early in his second section).

You might want to work through difficult passage, or a "sound bite" kind of sentence. If you don't know what to write about, try to offer an explication of the following idea:

"It is a libel upon human nature to conceive that zest for life is the product of pedestrian purposes directed toward the narrow routine of material comforts."

What is Whitehead here saying about human nature? Work through word by word (and you probably want to go back and find this passage in the essay!)

Santos and Mendoza

I am hesitant to share this material since I do not want to overly influence your initial exploration of our topic, but I also think it might help to have some orientation to focus our attention in the upcoming readings.

This discussion, composed of three emails between Jade and myself, explicitly began with my flippant response to her clothing / accessory paper (I highlight explicit because I, as explained in one of the emails, began thinking through them earlier). I mentioned that the goal of project 1 is to make students realize, to some degree, that culture influences the ways we think, which in turn structures the things we can write. I discuss her response in the second email below. She can choose to post the paper if she wants to--although I don't think you need to know what she wrote to access the discussion here.

I will discuss these emails later, probably in a few weeks, and relate them to the material in class. For now I hope you recognize that the ideas we will be discussing are open to interpretation, and that they have immediate impact on your life: in fact, today I had a debate with 4 other graduates students over whether or not we should be discussing culture in a composition class...

Santos

Santos to Mendoza:

Jade,

I just wanted to clarify that I enjoyed your paper and, although certainly teasing you, was not belittling your ideas. I enjoyed your paper for the fact that it did state a belief and support it with engaging arguments: if you are not saying something controversial, then you are probably saying something not worth saying.

I do believe your ideas on sexuality as empowerment is pragmatic: your essay offers women (of a certain class: short, attractive, shapely) practical ways of reversing power dynamics in workplaces saturated with male sexual desire. But is this the kind of answer we should work for? Should we teach people how to play the game, or should we work to change the ways the game is played?

These ideas tie back to our earlier conversation regarding culture, context, and composition and certainly will carry over into our examinations of the University. I am not sure how divergent our opinions will be (perhaps they are closer than I now think), but I want you to rest assured that I look forward to reading your blogs and enjoying class discussions. The road to knowledge is paved with confrontation. Til then

Live Well and Play Nice

Santos

Mendoza to Santos:

Santos,

Thank you for clearing up your goofy comments about my paper. When I was writing the paper, I was just writing a paper. I didn't think it was going to strike such a cord with you. A few things are exaggerated and not explained correctly. I didnt put too much research and deep consideration into what I was saying. I had a paper due the next day and you got a paper.

As for my opinions, I have a lot of them but I'm learning to pick my battles otherwise we would of had a brawl in class today. And in a few other class sessions too, for that matter. But anyways, I believe my email was about the current project and if it is okay that I send it via email. I read your reply twice and you didnt address my question. I'd appreciate if you would. asap

Hang loose

jade

Santos to Mendoza II:

Jade,

I, too, should be working on a paper right now (actually, its all but done--I just don't want to proof read it yet), so I'll respond to your response.I wouldn't say that your paper "struck a cord" with me, so much as it presented me with a "teachable moment." O.K., that sounds condescending, let me try that again.

I'll start in left field and bring it back:When you said the other day "I thought this was a composition class..." THAT struck a cord. Not because I expect you to immediately make connections between exploring cultural contexts and producing texts, but because academics constantly debate about what we should teach in composition. Is composition about grammar? Maybe its about thesis statements? Or maybe it has to be larger than that: maybe it has to focus on who we are as individuals and what "writes us" before we can approach how to write.

How does culture "write us?" I believe that we are not nearly as autonomous as many of us like to think: our social interactions limit what we can think, what thoughts are available to us, as much as they make thought available at all. Culture is a creative paradox: it both presents us with opportunities while limiting our opportunities. It focuses our vision while blinding us to alterity.

To bring it back to your paper, which I of course realize was written with a spirit of jest (being a big comedy buff that's one of the reasons I liked it so much... I don't compose 500 word emails over papers I dislike, its also the reason I showed it to my office mate--I hope that doesn't upset you). Again, your paper: So what does this have to do with black stillettos? Only that the environment defines what choices are open to a women (use sex / don't use sex); and, as with my example of "If you really loved me, then you would have called" the best strategy is attacking the supposition. You probably haven't read this far. I didn't want to write this much. I'm going to go now. See you in class.

Santos