Anthropology, Musings

The (Non)Convivial LMS

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This is a draft paper, based in part on some of my older blog posts and continuing and building on those ideas in conversation with the work of Ivan Illich and others. I’m presenting this today–momentarilly–at the 2021 4S conference. Abstract The last two decades have seen an increase in the number of online university classes operating under any of several commercial Learning Management Systems (LMS). Online classes expanded dramatically in the US during 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students, faculty, and administrators frequently assume that LMSs …

Anthropology, Musings

Online classes and the Unbirth of A.I.

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Happy Late Halloween! This could be a horror story. It isn’t, not in the Stephen King sense, but it is an idea that someone could take and develop further. Last year, I wrote a post about online education, in which I argued that all classes–online or in-person–can be looked at as intentional projects in culture-building. I believed then, and now, that online classes can’t be primarily about delivering information to students, and that college classes in particular are about creating learning communities.  Along the way, I wandered into some thoughts …

Thinking about tacos
Anthropology, Musings

Now All Restaurants are Taco Bell

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[This post will soon be published in the class Zine from my Fall 2018 ANTH4417, Hidden Worlds of Food, class.] Cyril:  …I can quite understand your objection to art being treated as a mirror.  You think it would reduce genius to the position of a cracked looking-glass.  But you don’t mean to say that you seriously believe that Life imitates Art, that Life in fact is the mirror, and Art the reality? Vivian:  Certainly I do.  Paradox though it may seem—and paradoxes are always dangerous things—it is none the less …

Anthropology, Musings

Online Education

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Starting this summer I have been developing some online classes for both International Studies and Anthropology at the University of Memphis. I’m excited by the prospect, and at the same time I am facing what I hope will become a productive tension between the technology of learning and the technology of the Internet. In this blog post I want to unravel that tension and jot down some fragments of ideas for the future. For any students who might be reading this, when I use the term “technology” here I am talking …

Anthropology

Late to the Party of Things

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I’m coming late to the party. Sorry everyone–I brought more beer. I was in the audience for Bruno Latour’s talk on ontological pluralism at the AAA meetings in Chicago last year. I overheard several people talking about how sparks were going to fly, or how this was nothing new, or how this was an important moment in Anthropology. I’ve been slow to respond, and I want to throw out just a few thoughts. Jeremy Trombley over at Struggle Forever wrote a short post on The Value of a Turn that, …