No8 (Education, new media and the concept of a stage)

If University is a stage than I would like to be a comic relief...

Like Wittgenstein said: "A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes."

But seriously ("where's the booze"):

In the concept of the stage I'm an actor, my students are the audience.

Ach ja oder nicht nicht?

In the concept of the stage my students are actors, I'm the audience.

Ach ja oder nicht nicht?

Both true to my opinion. I try to start with a stand up comedy, do a bit of drama and than encourage them to improvise on their own. Let's call it a performance:)

Sometimes my script is well written, sometimes I just have some basic goals and try to see what comes, what the audience likes... I try to create myself and to influence their parts.

Sometimes the audience plays their parts too. The are well known ones like: Cute Idiot (who in fact is smart as hell but knows that being soooo cute should bring profits), the Rebel (OK so I am here but do not think for a second that I'm going to enjoy a single minute at the University), the Nerd (oh please stop trying to be amusing and give me some reading), the Fool-Challenger (Let's see who's smarter and more funny) and so on...

If me and them are the audience and acotrs, the classroom is the stage then what is new media?

IMHO we could compare it to FX, visual effects, blue(green)screen. Such an act would allow us to see further analogies:


FX/New Media
- do not carry any meaning on their own
- can make a movie/class more attractive
- can be used too often and make the message superficial
- are not essential for a good movie/class

We all know classic and even quite new movies which are shocking although the effects are not used (e.g. I was terrified while watching Blair Witch Project) on the other hand we have movies like 2012 which would unbearable without new technology... Same is with classes/education.

Maybe education should follow the path of Avatar? Take some basic message the one that so many people have seen in Pocahontas and other pop-culture pieces, give it some bells and whistles and enjoy the praises. Maybe the new generation would find it revolutionary?

Technological determinism? The young ones are not able to focus if something is not NEW SPARKLY FLASHY?

Should we put Freud's theories into youtube movies and Aristotle's ethics to flash games?

Should we be shocked to do so?


I always considered myself to be pragmatic:)