Embarrassment of Riches

         

 



Framing, Language, & Ownership Issues

Dear Colleagues Across the Curriculum,
 
We've got in residence on the one hand and
on the other, anthropologists, sociologists,
linguists, historians, economists, humanists
and artists, mathematicians, librarians and
media technicians, a range of scientists
environ-mentalists, land scapers & farmers,
local food-ists,  heavy duty crews, rape &
violence-binge& purge-anxiety-panic &
body dysmorphic counselors & wellness
experts,  presbyterians, catholics, buddhists,
jews, hindus, atheists, agnostics, administrators:
A community if not of starving liberal artists,
liberal  at least. .Resource Galore.
 
                         @@@@
 
As our society approaches major transitions
ahead, we may welcome or resist the changes,
find them fearful or exciting. How we react will
rest partly on how we frame those changes and
the metaphors our words evoke
 
This is a great time to frame needed changes
in ways that help us all embrace the best
possibilities ahead.
            Fran Korton: “Winning the Frame Game”
 
                       ^^^^^^^^^
 
How can We Frame This? Can We Count the Ways?
 
Frame Discourse: A professional phrase indicating
talk that talks about how the talk might be going on
in some given context: community, say, or family;
its environmental frame of mind, parameters,
thermostatic range, tolerances, boundaries; FD
addresses  something like the invisible hand: tacit
assumptions & controlling  metaphors normally
implicit and unnoticed: transparent in the
no-see-um sense…
 
       (not to be confused with normal discourse
       re devilish details doing this and that and
      taking care of the business as usual: house-
      keeping and production, assessment and
      evaluation: GetRDone-ness)
 
…transparent until we call efficient attention to IT,
phase  shifting  collectively to consider  the  frame-
of- game going on & de-toxing  the transparency:
reflecting on noetic/affective structures that,  sphinx-
like, rule & regulate transactions the way, say,  style
&  fashion dictate tolerances toward pain of tattoo
&  body mutilation as Environmental Frames of  
Mind  sanction what recently signaled  nasty boys,
sailors & circus   freaks,  the ubiquity of bottle water,
back packs &  tiny helmets for small sidewalk  roller
skaters. Etc. Not to mention the transparent game-
shifting effect of I-Pad et al. ..
 
Frame Discourse, a form of repentance:  mind
“turning back” on itself, tending to the  boxes
& bubbles, brands & shapes that form its surface
activity & product,  studying the deep grammar
& eco-logic of Community Converse-Action,
properly demoralizing habit and disillusioning
:doctrinal addiction: consummations devoutly to
be desired in any serious sustainability agenda..

Practicing :Liberal Art.—(not to be collapsed,
conflated or confused with the liberal arts,
those majors & minors that constitute our
capstone & trade.)   
            
                     *************
 
”The language commonly associated with
assessing student learning -- "accounting,
testing, evaluation, measurement, bench
marking, and so forth" -- hasn't helped,
drawn as it is from "business and education,
not the most respected fields on most
campuses," Hutchings writes. "It is striking
how quickly assessment can come to be
seen as part of 'the management culture'
rather than as a process at the heart of
faculty's work and interactions with students."
 
Given the fierce protectiveness with which
 people tend to view their professional
responsibilities, that has often made
assessment seem like a tool that
could be used against professors,
to prove that they're not doing a good
job. Not surprisingly, that hasn't exactly
encouraged them to get with the program.
 
"From the faculty point of view, [assessment]
looks a lot like someone else’s agenda – and
not an altogether friendly someone else, at that,"  
        (Doug Lederman, “The Faculty Role in
                                          Assessment.”)


Talk therapy: a faculty that brays together.
The silence of the spam. A faculty that don't.
Resource Galore: an embarrassment of riches. .

xxxooo, Sam.