Education Shmeducation
¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Chun et al., “Darkside of the digital humanities” brings up a lot of valid points regarding the sanctity of digital humanities. Within all this, the question with Universities are brought up and how we can save corporatization with universities.
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 1 I personally believe that Wendy Chun makes a valid point when she states, “I also want to stress that my sympathetic critique is not aimed at the humanities, but at the general euphoria surrounding technology and education.” I think if we were able to start looking at education in a broader sense, we would steer away from corporatization. Think of it like this, back when my mother went to school, they were taught a wide range of topics. Between all of this, though it was not so in-depth of what we are taught now, they had a broader range of knowledge that helped them as they could dive into a subject and learn more deeply.
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Compare that to now and we are taught to do the total opposite in universities. We are taught to have a specific categorization. We are taught to have a specific major with a special emphasis. I think this is the problem that Chun is trying to address. We don’t generalize anymore. We have this need to get down to the details, the nitty gritty. So, it is not just the humanities that has this problem. It is education in its whole. It is the way that we believe we ought to learn because it is how we are told to do so. This is the argument we have been arguing all semester.
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Instead of what is the Digital Humanities, we should consider what ought to consider the general sense of how the digital humanities fits in with other departments. As a student at a University, we focus so much on defining what we know and how we practice it that we forget that there are other components to learning.
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 “Now, if the bright side of the digital humanities is the dark side, let me suggest that the dark side—what is now considered to be the dark side—may be where we need to be. The dark side, after all, is the side of passion.” (Chun)
¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 1 Now, if what I have been saying has been true the entire time, then maybe the we ought to look at digital humanities and education as a whole as a dark thing. We are taught from a young age that education is important. That it is vital to succeed. What if education isn’t as fulfilling as we believe it is? These are the thoughts that I come to think when I read some of the articles in this class. Why is learning important? Why must we do this? The Digital Humanists create conflict between everything and everyone they encounter. I think that in order to be successful, you do need to create conflict. You need to look at everything in a pessimistic way. You need to play devil’s advocate. You need to see the light in the dark but also realize that with that, there is also dark in the light.
“taught a wide range of topics”-interesting to note. We deal with essential studies these days, which I feel lays claim to that same goal. As an observer, it seems like a good example of the neoliberal university system, in that it forces students to take more classes, and more expensive classes, to graduate in the name of teaching a broad perspective. I don’t know anything about it’s predecessor though, so that’s mostly speculation.