Colloquium HOME       WebCT Discussion Focus of Module 1 is: "Introduction" Week 1 Week 2 Media...   An on-line colloquium involves more than understanding the content of the colloquium. The technology becomes an instrumental component of the presentation. Participants must deal with the logistics, the mechanics, the techniques, the idiosyncracies, as well as the hidden curriculum within the medium itself. We hear the McLuhanesque echo, "the medium is the message," and think, indeed, media are messages, and media distort messages, and media drive messages, and media are merely a vehicle for messages, "there is no message," and so on. Thus, it may be critically important that scholars know more than how to use the Internet, or how to communicate effectively in Chat Rooms or in Discussion Threads. It may be important that you know more than how to construct hypertext documents, use streaming video, and hold attention with image. We are moving from a face-to-face world to a place-to-place world where caution is, at the least, warranted. In this new world we are shelving our sensitivity to pragmatics and paralinguistics, but we are not sure of the cost. There may be psychological and philosophical implications of media that extend to shifts in personal identity, in personal culture, in interpersonal relations, in citizenship, in meaning, and in the essence of communication.  The technology that facilitates such a shift seems to hold much promise, yet....   A colloquium type message in an on-line format has a synergistic relationship to the media themselves. Thus, there may be a need to think about media globally, and then specifically how the various media you use or encounter relate to the message you encounter, or the message you present.  In the second week of this module you will have the opportunity to read a paper that raises a number of media issues--issues that link to the postmodern philosophical climate. You will have the opportunity to think about the media you use expressively and receptively. In the article questions will be raised about equivocation and slippery language about Truth, Irony, Self, Education, Curriculum, History and Reality itself.  Can these media issues be extrapolated to an the media encountered in an on-line colloquium? Keep in mind that your colloquium topic is embedded in media as well as the more conventional contexts of philosophy, language, culture, psychology, history, tradition, research, authorities, stories, and so on. Ask yourself the question: is the media merely a vehicle, or is it something more? Does it lead to something more, or something less? Media Philosophy Culture Presentation Thinking "Out-of-the-Box"