Degrees of Failure by Randle W. Nelsen

Author:Randle W. Nelsen [Nelsen, Randle W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771133357
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Between the Lines
Published: 2018-07-04T00:00:00+00:00

From the Playing Field to the Classroom: The Ever-Widening Circle of High-Tech Entertainment Culture

In recent years even smaller liberal arts universities have jumped onto the increasingly downward slide of higher education into fun culture – taking up, as a popular strategy, the promises of a lusty edutainment.44 In their attempts to market their discipline to prospective students, several departments have been putting forth the kind of accessible curriculum that might entice busy students who are pressed for time – often holding part-time jobs to cover rising tuition costs – and absorbed with social media as entertainment. As a survey of marketing practice found:

Programs would promise ‘fear, fun, advertising, youth, action film, the entertainment industry, consumerism, and many more.’ Another department describes the content as ‘cutting edge social issues such as sweat shops, hate crimes, gang violence, professional wrestling.’ One department enticingly asks ‘What can we learn from watching and analyzing films like Trainspotting?’ In short, not only will the degree be easy and accessible, but entertaining as well.45

Such marketing attempts indicate more than higher education’s transformation to edutainment. They also reveal institutions driven by internal competitions for the administrative funding that is routinely doled out in accordance with enrolment figures and formulas based on student-faculty ratios. Similarly, on an individual instructor level, if professors can make their courses look like “fun” or provide the promise of “a good time,” they can improve their chances of securing full rather than prorated pay. Recently, I must admit, the unexpected need to pay for a new roof on my house led me to play this game in a spring-summer course offering, where the professor needs to attract a minimum of fifteen students to receive a full stipend. Fortunately, my third-year course on the “Sociology of Everyday Life” was tailor-made for an edutainment appeal. As the description of the course that would keep my home dry stated:

This course will focus on how the sociological imagination can offer important insights useful in understanding our everyday/everynight lives. Lectures, discussions and readings will emphasize the interplay between work and leisure to aid students in understanding the importance of class, ethnicity and gender in various settings – on the job, at school, at a sporting event, as car drivers, as users of public transportation and social services, as taxpayers, as contributors to screen culture (users of cell phones, the computer, television and video-games), as shoppers at the mall, as party goers, as patrons of a neighbourhood bar, and so on. All are invited to come to the party, contribute to our discussions and have some fun in school this summer.

The discussions and any fun to be had were only available to those who made time to come to the party. This was an in-person classroom experience where you literally had to be there rather than having your presence simulated and mediated by the high-tech edubusiness world of edutainment. Confusions and differing definitions of what it means to be in the moment are plentiful, and the new technology not

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