The process of sharing information and experiences online ultimately makes them the common possession of all who are in our networks.  Whether we produce the information or consume it, our viewpoints are modified for better or worse, though perhaps not so categorically.  Messages, photos, Likes, links and tags amend meaning; they do what shared experiences do, i.e. they change us. The alteration may be a small thing, a simple amendment. Multiple users may now know something more (perhaps new) about other users from their postings; or they just gain new insight on something previously known. Either way, online social networks enable the development of communities—especially democratic communities. When individuals “enter into the activities of others” as John Dewey explained, when individuals enter into communication with each other, they engage in the “cooperative doings” that democratic arrangements require. Is that what we do on Facebook? Is that what college students do on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest?

Certainly the research evidence is suggesting that college students are indeed changed by social networking. Or, more precisely, that students’ consumption of information on social networking sites like Facebook is just another form of social capital acquisition that has social and academic value.  The research suggests that Facebook and other social networking sites provide Dewey’s conditions for judging the worth of communities for democratic aims: how numerous and varied are the interests that are consciously shared? And how full and free are the interactions and relationships with other friends?

Based on these two criteria, it would appear that online social networking is pretty democratic and certainly communal, right?  Well, not all communication on Facebook, not all representations on Twitter, and not all image uploads on Pinterest are “cooperative doings” or shared experiences, or even sincere representations of genuine “interest in the activities of others.”  Certainly as producers and consumers all communications on social media change us, but not always in a positive way.  There’s lots of cruelty communicated on these sites; lots of examples of how networked communication can restrict one user’s autonomy and can undermine the collaborative spirit of the network. There are many cases of college students using these sites as a means to bully and harass.  On some campuses, Facebook has become the new “bathroom wall.”  Students have uploaded photos of other students on Instagram and asked others in the network to vote on all of the age-old, tired objectifying categories: women’s sexual appeal, men’s gay-ness or “fag factor.”  And it’s not just Miley Cyrus fighting the Twitter wars; Twitter “wars” are taking place on all our campuses.  Researchers are reporting that among college cyber bullying victims, 25% were harassed on social networking sites. Not surprisingly, women are more likely to be the targets of cyber bullying. And most disheartening given the democratic potential of social networks is that 42% of all college students have witnessed student-on-student cyber bullying. I wonder how many of these students turned an undemocratic blind eye?

Dewey would remind me that all democratic arrangements are imperfect and that the goal of democratic societies is to develop those opportunities that increase or broadened the scope and number of interactions and relationships between individuals so that communality can evolve.  More importantly, he would direct me to recall that democratic communities figure out how to “extract the desirable traits of forms of community life which already exists, and employ them to criticize undesirable features and suggest improvement”—straight-up Pragmatism. “Straight-up” means that like everything else on our college campuses, this, too, requires our attention.

For John Dewey, the ultimate challenge of American democracy was to achieve the “Great Community” (1927/1946).  Dewey recognized in the early decades of the 20^th century that technology would alter the development of democratic community, but only if realized effectively. If technologies could expand communication and extend the range of associations and relationships among women and men, they had the potential to become means to democratic community life.  As he wrote in 1927, the “[t]elegraph, telephone and now radio, cheap and quick mails, the printing press” made the distribution of “news” faster, cheaper and more common. But, as Dewey warned, the communicative worth of these technologies in a democracy was the extent to which these technologies enabled self-directed communication, the meaning that is made of the communication, and its social consequences.

Fast forward to the “new” technologies of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries.  Leave behind the  Touch-Tone phones, Apple’s first mass-marketed personal computer (anyone remember “Lisa”?), and those eight inch floppy disks, CDs, and DVDs.  Look at technology now and the setting for the distribution of news, and more importantly, our communicative acts: 80% of all teenagers use online social networking (primarily Facebook and if Justin Timberlake has his Suit & Tie way, the resurrecting MySpace will regain some social media share among teens); 62% of young adults get their news, information on current events and politics from these sites, and an overwhelming number of them (roughly 92%) have posted photographs of themselves on a variety of social networking sites.  Photos and videos are currency on social media sites. Instagram is especially appealing to Latinos, women and African Americans; women dominate Pinterest; and the urbanite is more likely to Tweet than someone down on the farm.

Is this what Dewey meant? Is this the expanded communication that Dewey believed would promote democratic community?  Are Tweets, video uploads, News Feeds, and photo streams the “associated or joint activity” that is Dewey’s condition for the formation of a democratic community? Are my friendship-based online networks a means of meaningful communication that associates me to individuals and to groups and those groups to other groups? Are my  social network communications simply virtual forms of interaction—the 21^st century’s equivalent to bowling leagues?

Political scientist Robert Putnam has concluded that with the decrease in ‘real-life’ (non-virtual) interactions since the 1950’s, civic engagement has been compromised and consequently, democracy has been weakened. Putnam’s solution is to re-connect, to join a bowling league, to forego bowling alone.  It is in association and connection with others that Putnam believes civic engagement and democratic sociality is achieved.  The mid-1960s were the halcyon days for bowling leagues, a time when civic engagement and political participation was a very American thing to do. Putnam wants the technology of automatic pinspotter to create the conditions necessary for the communication required in democracy.

I am not so convinced that bowling leagues are the way to ensure the growth and evolution of democratic communities that Dewey theorized. [Full disclosure here: I am a NYC high school bowling titleholder and long ago belonged to a bowling league. I respect the ten-pin, big ball roll.] Research on social media use—especially among youth and young adults—indicates that Facebook use exposes young people to diverse perspectives, i.e. young adults are exposed to ideas and views unlike their own through the communications on their network. Friends closest to them (perhaps those friends they’d bowl with?) tend to have similar views. It is the network association with ‘friends’ in the distal nodes of the network that present divergent perspectives.  These are those “weak ties” that provide us with social capital outside our kin and that (at least for Dewey) are of social consequence in a democracy.  There is also growing evidence that political views are shared by college students through Facebook communications and that these messages create the fabric of students’ political and civic engagement.  Some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that Facebook use positively impacts civic engagement among college students. In Networked, Rainie and Wellman demonstrate that when large, loosely knit groups of individuals are connected in an online social network, they are free of the restriction placed on them by tightly knit groups. In other words, their autonomy is increased and their opportunities for learning are amplified.

In 1927, Dewey mused about the effects of the new technologies that would connect individuals and could enable meaningful communication. In 2013, I wonder if online social networking—and especially among college students—is this century’s bowling league.

I regularly look to pragmatic philosopher John Dewey to explain most things American. As a political philosopher, Dewey recognized the possibilities of American life; his was a social hope for post-colonial equity that resonates with my immigrant sensibilities.

Thus, long before journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell (2008) made the observation that even among the most intellectually gifted in America, self-realization and achievement “is less about talent than it is about opportunity”, John Dewey had crafted a philosophy grounded on the same conclusion. Dewey’s pragmatic metaphysics had established that as a democratic society, America’s central mission was to provide opportunities for individuals through which they could realize individual potential. This was the central goal of all democratic arrangements—to create the “Great Community” in which the self-realization of individuals was paramount. Self-realized individuals brought forth social advancement and improvement, which in turn expanded opportunities for further individual growth. Democratic means and aims were coinciding processes. If democratic ethics determined the distribution of and access to society’s goods—if means and aims were democratic—Dewey maintained that American society would flourish.

In the 21^st century, America flourishes online. Online social media are part of the American experiential landscape now. How am I to understand the impact of social media technologies on democratic self-realization and achievement? Do online social media expand our range of experiences and deliver more occasions for accomplishment? Closer to home, does an online social networking site like Facebook do more for college students than meets the panoptic eye?

I’ve spent the greater part of the past five years thinking about 21^st century social media, particularly Facebook, in light of Dewey’s democratic aims.  Is Facebook—or whatever online social media replaces it in the future—a means to the 21^st Century’s “Great Community”?  Are students’ Facebook networks  “communities” that will provide opportunities for self-realization and achievement that talent alone won’t? Can students leverage their online social networks to develop and deploy talents, to self-realize more fully, and to extend the landscape of experiences that determine their destiny? Can Facebook’s online networks provide students with greater familiarity, social fluency, and reach so that they will have many chances to offset real-world social and cultural forces that restrict self-realization? And to circle back to Dewey’s democratic ethics, can Facebook provide college students the opportunity to build the 21^st century’s “Great Community?”

This week I will mull over and reflect on what it means and can mean for college students to leverage online social networks for democratic purposes. Up to now, my thinking has been shaped by social science research on social media technologies, scholarship that is unsurprisingly proliferating at an accelerated pace. And of course, to provide the scaffolding for my thinking, I will turn to Dewey’s and other American pragmatists’ musings on what constitutes American democracy, and what it means to live fully in such a community.

I taught in a district that was a punching bag for critics of underperforming schools. Scandals appeared in local newspapers and on nightly news reports. In my school, teachers then debated the issues, including cheating, sexual assaults, theft, embezzlement, bribery, racism, dropout factories, fired or defecting leaders, and on and on and on.

At a certain point, dysfunction and scandal became integral parts of our school culture. The best teachers and students were not defined by the merit of their work; they were praised for their ability to excel in such bleak conditions. The most effective administrators were not identified for their ability as change agents; they were recognized for their skills at navigating flawed and corrupt bureaucratic systems. Worst of all, many students stopped believing in education as the great equalizer and started opting out.

Postsecondary education had largely eluded the degree of scrutiny and criticism allotted to secondary education. While politicians targeted high schools for placing the nation at risk, universities continued to be the international standard for academic rigor. As Bill pointed out in a previous blog, scrutiny—and all of the bombastic language and poorly chosen metaphors that come with it—has found higher education.

With student debt at nearly $1 trillion, college is no longer a sure bet. Scandals are only heightening the sense that something is awry. Imagine you are a student who is incurring over $100,000 in debt at USC and you regularly get racially profiled. Even more, imagine you came from a school like the one in which I taught. How would you feel?

St. John’s University, where I am employed, has endured a leadership scandal this year. I asked a few undergrads—both first-generation students from low-income households—about the president’s recent retirement. One student replied, “They talk about all these [Catholic] ideals, then a guy’s gonna take a Rolex.” His friend laughed: “I’d just be happy if my professor answered an email.”

From community outreach to applied scholarship, universities are involved in substantial and beneficial endeavors. For the most part, higher education still represents hope and opportunity. However, one injustice often overshadows one thousand good deeds.

I don’t know what higher education will like in five, ten, or fifty years. The sky isn’t falling (which may be just as worrisome as if it were). Large universities motor on and tuitions and student debts continue to increase. I do know that it’s time to reconnect with core values such as truth and justice and refocus on essential tasks like teaching, learning, and service.

So, what’s my advice for the 5% besides throwing my arms up in the air and declaring, “shoulda … woulda … coulda … !”

My first piece of advice is to look at you financial aid offer now. Take a calculator and add up all of your expenses for the academic year and subtract your financial resources (i.e., your total financial aid [excluding your work study award which is typically used as pocket money], savings, parental contributions, etc.). Look at how much you’re short and see if there’s something that you can save money on like your housing choice. You cannot change how much your institution costs in terms of academic fees and tuition but you do have some control over how much you are spending to live. Be realistic … you need to eat and you need a place to sleep but do you need to have a private bathroom or one roommate instead of three?

If you can fill your financial gap by decreasing your living expenses, great! If you’re still short on money, you may need to ask your financial aid office for more aid. If that doesn’t work, you may have to accept the fact that you’re not able to attend University X. Then what?

I’ll talk about what a student’s options are in the middle of summer if they need to find another institution to attend next time I blog in early July. Stay tuned …

Around graduation some USC seniors had some parties off-campus. The parties got out of hand for one of the groups. Apparently two parties were held across the street off-campus from one another. Mostly white kids were at one of the parties and mostly black kids were at the other. The parties got loud and a neighbor complained. The cops came. LAPD told the white kids to take it inside and to be safe. They then started to arrest some of the black kids.

The black guy who was host of the party, Nate Howard, wasn’t having it. He filmed what he had to put up with on Youtube, and then spoke out about it. If I were his father, I might have suggested he take the hat off when speaking to the media, but what impressed me was he was clear, articulate, and well-spoken. He wasn’t having it. He organized a protest during finals and later that week a large meeting was held on campus about what to do about LAPD.

LAPD, as we all know, has a long, troubled history in Los Angeles. They are the proverbial one step forward, two steps back sort of organization. They stayed mum and said they would do an investigation. Fair enough. My interest has less to do with LAPD and more with my university.

Over the last year or two USC has had a touch of bad, or unwelcome, press. Two Chinese graduate students were murdered off-campus. A shooting occurred on campus; the university was quick to point out that the shooter and the victim were from off-campus. The result is that we have the equivalent of a barbed wire fence that rings the perimeter of the University Park campus. We are playing hardball with the incompetents who run the LA Coliseum where we play football. Although we are pressing our advantage in a legitimate way at times, when we throw our weight around we can look and act like a schoolyard bully. We had better get our way or we’ll take our football away. We also have argued with the Science Museum.

In this latest incident there seemed to be a mixture of relief and worry. “It’s not our problem,” some seemed to be saying, “but we don’t want it to morph into a problem,” said others. I’m not one who constantly seeks to blame an organization or institution, as if all the woes of LA’s historic racism can be laid at USC’s feet. I also appreciate that the timing of this incident could not have come at a less inopportune time—the end of the school year when classes had ended, people are studying for finals, and others are headed out the door. But these sorts of incidents are teachable moments. There are a number of possible actions that the university could have instigated, but really we had to leave it to a university senior to speak out on what is unacceptable behavior on the part of the police.

What we really need to do is consider these various incidents and think about how we might more forcefully confront bias, rather than choosing the easy option of building chain link fences to keep “them” out and “us” in. Some of “them”—actually a lot of “them”—are “us”.

Gil Scott Heron once said:

“The revolution that takes place in your head…nobody will ever see that.”

As I approach the 4^th year in my doctoral program, I find more conflict with this statement than resolution. The revolution taking place in my own mind is now evidenced in my writing, research, advocacy, and practice. But in the absence of my own words, these quotes speak volumes about my reflections of this journey.

On being a force to be reckoned with….

“You are not accidental. The world needs you. Without you, something will be missing in existence and nobody can replace it.”

                                      Osho

“Everything about her seems to be saying, Listen, if you don’t look attentively, if you don’t go beyond my simplicity to detect the simmering volcano in me, you are not it.”

Rawi Hage

“Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.”

Leo Buscaglia

“Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.”

Andre Dubu

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

Albert Camus

“Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true.”

Fran Chan

“Understand I’m a warrior first, and I can love you simultaneously.”

Malak Salaam

On being in this space but not of it…

“I was just tired of seeing white walls, with white people, with white wine, you know?”

Jean-Michel Basquiat

“I wanted my own words. But the ones I use have been dragged through I don’t know how many consciences.”

Jean-Paul Sartre

“She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.”

Monique Duval

“I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.”

Zora Neale Hurston

On being visionary without borders…

“Go out and do something. It isn’t your room that’s a prison, it’s yourself.”

Sylvia Plath

“Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.”

Osho

“What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are.”

Albert Camus

“I am interested in language because it wounds or seduces me.”

Roland Barthes

“Part of being a revolutionary is creating a vision that is more humane. That is more fun, too. That is more loving. It’s really working to create something beautiful.”

Assata Shakur

On thriving and not just surviving graduate school…

“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”

Epictetus

“Is there not an idea in your head sometimes that you must live close to the borders of mental trouble in order to create at your best? Which comes first your health or your work?”

Scott Fitzgerald to Zelda Fitzgerald

“Be happy for no reason, like a child. If you are happy for a reason, you’re in trouble, because that reason can be taken from you.”

Deepak Chopra

“some people,
when they hear
your story,
contract.
others,
upon hearing
your story,
expand.”

Unknown

The page received about 200 posts and when I looked at them I found them offensive and sophomoric.  They were explicit, graphic, and lewd; some were funny; many were disgusting.  One of the individuals who sponsored the resolution to take the page down said “it paints a negative portrait of our university.”  The problem, apparently, was that it was “open” so anyone could view it—parents, alums, prospective students.  One of the resolution’s sponsors said that it was important to create “a safe, tolerant, and welcoming atmosphere in the USC community.”

I had a different response. The information was graphic and obnoxious. But the comments worried me less than the presumed actions. If one of my students or mentees had written that he had sexual relations with someone who was unconscious I’d talk with him. If one of them had told me a story about his roommate who had unprotected sex with numerous partners and been envious I’d have spoken with him. If someone described a story that appeared like rape and laughed about it I’d have spoken with him (and then reported him).

My concern is not with the language. I appreciate that cyber-bullying exists, but at a quick glance at the website, the comments largely did not talk about sexual exploits where an individual was named. Instead derogatory words for women, gays, and multiple other categories were used that are offensive. But because they are offensive I do not necessarily think that such comments should be barred. I am less concerned that a public page “reflects badly” on the university, as if public relations is what should drive action.

The much larger concern is that these sorts of acts are happening and we allow them to happen. This Facebook page, however lamentable, however repulsive, was an eye into the seamier side of undergraduate student life. And our reaction was to shut the page down. As if not speaking about an issue will make it go away. In essence, we do not condone people speaking about offensive acts, but in our silence we condone the acts themselves.

But Smith is not alone. Competency Based Colleges and Universities are sprouting up all over. Credit hours may be a thing of the past, as colleges like Western Governors University and College for America are exchanging classes and even formal course material for assessments that prove specific competencies. What becomes of teachers when there are no lectures or other guided paths through courses? The US Department of Education gave its blessing to Southern New Hampshire University when approving degrees that do not rely on credit hours. I am reminded of a response my dear friend, Laura Palmer Noone, gave many years ago when testifying at the Senate HELP Committee (the committee that looks at higher education), “If you are worried about seat time, you are worried about the wrong end of the student!”

You might have read that very large companies are the latest to jump on the bandwagon. I reported in November that the publishing giant Pearson announced a mega deal where it acquired higher education provider Embanet-Compass for $650 million. Embanet partners with traditional colleges and universities to deliver online coursework. Last week, Pearson announced a most interesting add-on acquisition, Learning Catalytics, which dives deeply into the new world of formative assessment and the evaluation of student performance.

All these developments led The Chronicle of Higher Education last week to convene a panel of university presidents to answer the question, “What is college for?” This comes amidst a conversation of whether college is a good investment (I suppose we need to decide what college is for before we can decide if it is worth the price). My old buddy, Bill Pepicello from University of Phoenix  (Laura Noone’s successor), really puts up one for the farm team: “A degree itself is no longer a ticket to economic stability. The degree, and the coursework that constitutes it, must be relevant, substantive, and reflective of today’s skill requirements. College is for creating a pathway to career success.”

But on to old media for an alternate view. In the late 70s, Don Novello, a writer for Saturday Night Live, became Father Guido Sarducci. Sarducci foreshadowed  the current trend of short and inexpensive university alternatives with what might be considered the first non-term, non-credit hour university—Five Minute University. If you haven’t ever seen it, I urge you to. Sarducci laments that most education around the world involves memorization for regurgitation. The idea for his alternate university is that in five minutes, you learn what the average college student remembers about each class five years after they graduate. His tuition in the 70s was $20 (could be adjusted for inflation) and includes cap and gown rental as well as pictures. An exaggeration? Not really. If all we are interested in is whether someone knows a fact, then perhaps we are missing the point.

My last example from old media comes from 2001, just after my daughter was born. I had one of those famous driveway moments noted on your favorite public radio station. It shook me in many ways. At the time, I was a college administrator. I was busy breaking new ground with the Apollo Group, but now I had a daughter. This was no longer a rhetorical question of what higher education should look like. Years later, I was interviewed by Martin Smith for a Frontline documentary about for-profit education. He asked if I was so optimistic about for-profit colleges where would I send my children. In candor, I had to admit that I would want my children to attend an elite university. As students around the country graduate in the next few weeks, we are reminded that more than providing skills and documenting knowledge, that college is a rite of passage. It challenges our students to think of new ideas, to begin to reason by understanding consequences, intended and unintended, and demands that students be discriminating purveyors of fact. It shapes a disciplined mind, and seasons us with context. If college were to become a collection of “merit badges” and an accumulation of certificates of knowledge and skills, then we miss the moment when we celebrate that a student is no longer a child, but can discern important things. We celebrate that there are things that are more noble and indeed more important than the handful of skills that get us a job.

So I end today with a reverie presented by American cowboy poet, Baxter Black, as he reflects on a parent’s thoughts at graduation. Not only is it a wonderful consideration of the incredible passage that defines what college is, it is a wish that the consequence of college brings what is truly meaningful to those we love. For those of you, like me, who are not adept at new media, I end today’s blog with his thoughts the old-fashioned way. I can’t think of a better wish for a graduate, or for the folks tasked with defining what a college is.

A Parent’s Thoughts At Graduation

by Baxter Black

Did you ever stop and think to yourself, ‘This will be the last time … ’

Well, today will be the last time I’ll kiss my little girl. Tomorrow she

steps into womanhood.

Confident, confused, comely, coltish, curious,

charming, garrulous, fierce and fearing.

Who will take care of her? Who will she love? What will she remember? What will she forget? What star will guide her?

Will she forgive herself when she can’t always live up to her own expectations? Will she choose the right way when the easy path beckons?

Will she discover the difference between pride and vanity, between

courage and posing, between distance and privacy?

Will she experience the joy of the golden rule, the heartbreak of losing, the satisfaction of an anonymous kindness, the love of a child?

Will the boulders in her life make her strong or break her spirit?

How will she handle random acts of fate, accidents and blessings?

Will she need to assign blame?

Will she make messes or clean them up?

Will she find passion in her life, of the mind and heart? A burning, a

yearning, a calling, a cause, a reason to get up every day?

Will she know peace of mind, contentment, solace in her own company?

Will life be good to her?

And will she always know that no matter what happens, I will always

love her? that she will carry the burden of my love even when we are

separated by miles and years and harsh words and the vacuum of minutiae, even beyond life itself?

So many questions.

So, today I stand here, quietly thinking all these thoughts as I watch

her whirl about in preoccupied flurry, knowing this will be the last

time … She will be a woman in the blink of an eye.

And as I kiss her cheek, I can only ask, “Where did she go, this little girl

of mine?”

Summer is here and it’s time to change things up. While it doesn’t have quite the same ring as, Thursday is TechDay, from here on out, Thursday will be WriteDay. The new theme focuses attention on Pullias’ annual SummerTIME Writing Program, an academic writing intervention to support the high school to college literacy transitions of first generation students. As the curriculum developer (and a SummerTIME classroom instructor), I’ll offer a bird’s eye view of our research-based program approach. I’ll also reference data from my year-long dissertation study and the findings that imply how classroom discourses sustain, amplify, or reduce academic writing outcomes for students on either side of the college preparation gap.

The goal of Thursday is WriteDay is to bring awareness to issues surrounding both writing remediation and the understudied population of high-achieving students from low-income backgrounds. The WriteDay perspective assumes that remedial writing needs are not reflective of underachieving students, but of an underperforming system in need of reform. As institutions rush to innovate new ways to address the remediation ‘‘crisis’’, I would simply like to sketch how first generation students are experiencing one pre-college writing curriculum during its implementation.

Why might this be worth your reading time, you ask? Well, if nothing else, it will be interesting to watch how a research-based curriculum fares both with students and instructors. This year’s program treads the dicey waters of standardization, a longtime enemy of composition instruction. We have asked our instructors to trust the research, however theoretically unpalatable it may be to all be teaching the same thing at the same time. This is a test not just of the research, but of our ability as a center to apply our own research to immediate (albeit local) policy and practice. We are bound to have both successes and failures, and I’ll keep you apprised as the drama unfolds.