[iDC] Undermining open source: iTunes U

[apolli at hunter.cuny.edu]

Thanks, Trebor, for the good, practical thoughts.  I agree that courses 
have to be concept driven and have to confess that I probably wouldn't 
be able to teach a software driven class if I had to (too boring!), but 
I do think we have a responsibility to make sure students have the 
ability to do what they want with the software.  Students who have 
computer experience prior to entering college aren't the issue, it's 
the ones without the experience (immigrant populations, students from 
underfunded grade and high schools, etc.) that worry me.  Programming 
of course is key, that's something I've been focusing on with students 
for a long time, and something I think should be core knowledge in 
public k-12 education.  It's a literacy issue, those with the knowledge 
of programming not only have the ability to succeed professionally 
(including starting businesses), but like reading and writing, have the 
ability to express themselves and be active social and political 
actors.  I've been teaching for a while so I've had the pleasure to see 
students transcend social and economic class by gaining a high level of 
programming skill and creativity.

One last anecdote: Trebor, I relate to your experience after you 
graduated from Slade, when I graduated from the school of the art 
institute of chicago where I did primarily programming interactive 
systems for performance and installation, I didn't even have the funds 
to buy a computer!  It sounds strange now, but at the time computers 
were not as ubiquitous.  I finally ended up winning a used one in a 
raffle!

Has anyone else on the list had experience with these hybrid classrooms 
Trebor is talking about?  How has it worked?  Andrea

Quoting Trebor Scholz <trebor at thing.net>:

>> Requiring the use of open source tools by not providing access to the
>> industry standard software applications in a digital art/media program
>> seems like an extreme position that would require total restructuring.
>> It seems a program would have to: