1. What do you want to do?
We propose that Grinnell College be a leader in critical study of hypermedia, the World Wide Web, and associated technologies such as the Internet, multimedia, and video conferencing as they relate to education and knowledge in the liberal arts. This early preliminary proposal is to fund two half days of a workshop on Hypermedia and Liberal Arts Education to be held this summer, led by Samuel Rebelsky, with the aim of stimulating faculty discussion and identifying course development opportunities in the area of hypermedia and its application in liberal arts education. The workshop would involve reading assignments and discussion on the history and critical study of hypermedia, study of courses that examine hypermedia critically or apply hypermedia creatively for teaching purposes, and generation of ideas for course development and programs to encourage the critical study of hypermedia in the liberal arts context at Grinnell. The workshop would take place in late July or early August, with faculty invited to attend from targetted departments that have a contribution to make to the critical study of hypermedia in the liberal arts context. These departments include art, English (literary studies), music, anthropology, psychology, education, economics, sociology, American studies, and math/computer science. We would expect the workshop to lead to Mellon- or Culpeper-funded course development proposals in the area of hypermedia. Resulting courses might ultimately contribute to a new hypermedia studies concentration or a hypermedia studies track within the technology studies concentration that would institutionalize the interdisciplinary study of hypermedia on the Grinnell campus.
The larger goal of becoming a leader in critical study of new communications technologies as they relate to the liberal arts would have the following components:
The Academic Computing Committee will prepare a "Fund for Excellence" preliminary proposal next fall that will address the full range of this initiative, but we believe that the time is ripe for conducting a faculty workshop to stimulate thinking about hypertext, the Web, and course development ideas that could strenghten our curricular focus on their critical study.
2. How does this idea fit in with Grinnell's core values and future direction?
As an institution devoted to creative and critical thinking stimulated by the free, open exchange of ideas the College needs to prepare its students to use new media effectively and to understand the potential and limitations of these media. These would be the main purposes of the envisioned hypermedia studies concentration and the innovative course development that we would like to promote. We need to seek out ways to use media appropriately to enhance excellent teaching and to engage with on-line communities to promote active scholarship and connection with the world beyond campus. Appropriate use of these media should promote varied forms of learning that cross disciplinary boundaries, with students learning to organize knowledge in new ways, apply diverse expertises in collaborative projects, and express ideas through effective coordination of words, images, and sounds. As multimedia and global communication permeate our culture, we need to reflect seriously on their impact. How do they change the content and mode of our learning?
As an institution devoted to a diverse community the College needs to reflect seriously on the problems posed by new technologies. Who will have access to these technologies, and how will communities change as they connect to the global community on-line? How are conceptions of race and gender problematized or reinforced in the world of on-line communication? How might the College's strength in computing be used to foster a more diverse and egalitarian community?
As an institution with a strong commitment to social responsibility the College needs to cultivate students prepared to use communications technologies responsibly to effect social change. The future value of new technologies depends partly on the sense of social responsibility and activism among the on-line community.
3. What problem or opportunity does your idea respond to?
This proposal capitalizes on the College's strong investment in computing, its history of training innovators in the development of computing and communications technologies, and the recent explosive growth of the World Wide Web to establish the College as a leader in the study of the Web and related technologies from the perspective of liberal education. Rather than duplicating Web-related research and development facilities at major universities, this proposal would establish a new concentration and a structure for developing courses that attempt to reflect deeply and critically on the potential, impact, and limitations of this pervasive new technology from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective grounded in a commitment to liberal education. We believe that liberal arts institutions have a valuable role to play in influencing the development of new communications technologies in directions that favor broad access, diversity, interdisciplinarity, depth, and rootedness in humane values. We will serve our society well if we graduate students prepared to use these technologies effectively and in the Grinnell traditions of activism, service, and creativity.
4. What difference will it make, and to whom?
Students will develop new skills of communication and collaboration and will be challenged to integrate their learning from a variety of disciplines (see attached endorsement of Hypermedia Studies Concentration and course development from Student Academic Computing Committee.) Faculty will have opportunities to explore innovative teaching ideas. The College will gain recognition and a sense of focus from being a leader in applying liberal arts perspectives to the critical study of new media.
5. What result will be achieved? How will you know whether the project has succeeded?
The immediate project -- presenting a workshop on Hypermedia and Liberal Arts Education -- will have succeeded if proposals for new or thoroughly revised courses focussing on hypermedia or the Web are generated by workshop participants over the following semester. The broader initiative will succeed if students subscribe to the new hypermedia studies concentration in sufficient numbers and evaluate its impact positively, new or revised courses are developed that capitalize on the potential of new media or study them critically, external reviewers evaluate the program positively in five or so years, and the College gains external recognition for the quality of its leadership in studying new media critically from an interdisciplinary, liberal arts perspective.
6. When should this project begin, and why is that the right time for it?
The workshop needs to take place during the summer of 1998 in order to generate course development ideas that might enter in to the hypermedia studies concentration or track under consideration. Several components of such a concentration are already in place or under development, including the Mellon-funded special topics course on "The Arts, Multimedia, and the Internet," the new computer science course on "A Social and Algorithmic Overview of Computer Science," and the anthropology course on "Technology Assessment." The Mellon and Culpeper grants provide funding options that encourage course development in this area.
7. What would it take -- in equipment, staff, expertise, facilities, or other resources -- to turn your idea into a reality?
Workshop funding for summer, 1998: