On the one hand I am drawn to this idea, make the classroom space totally public and open to all who have a high speed internet connection and want to participate. This corrects one of the significant problems of academia: The way that it has been used to close or gate off knowledge, allowing only a few access. Indeed one of my complaints about academia, America is particular, is the term “public intellectual” as if an intellectual being public is something extra. Here the professor, Alex Juhasz, forgoes this tradition and opens up the space of her classroom, calling pedagogy itself into question.

But on the other hand, this opens the whole class up to critique and discipline. Watch the video from the first class where the professor explains to the students that they are being filmed. Now this is one level of control, but the second more insidious level is that in posting to the net, students subject themselves to critique from a range of sources, including rather harsh critique by YouTube commenters.

You can also read some of my longer comments on this over at the EMAC blog.

First the one you should avoid.

Miss South Carolina Teen said:

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the- the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or- or- should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future

Obviously the talent contest is failing if this is the best they have to offer.

The preferable version:

During a recent talent show, Miss South Carolina Teen was asked a question about Americans lack of geographical literacy. Her response revealed more about her ability to handle pressure than her thoughts about high school education:

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the- the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or- or- should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future.

While she starts off with what is a scripted line, “I personally believe,” (notice how many of the other contestants use this “I personally believe”), her answer quickly looses focus, moving from maps to listing third world countries. In the middle of her answer it seems that she tries to recover and return to a set answer she had prepared about helping third world countries, but is unable to do so. More telling than her awkward phrases, “the Iraq,” is her inability to recover and answer in a way that would signal that she understands her incomprehensibility. Perhaps, the competition and live cameras were too much pressure for her to handle.