We Are All Public Now:
Surveillance, Technology, and the Sanctity of the Classroom
a lecture by
Siva Vaidhyanathan
Department of Culture and Communication, New York University
April 4, 2007
Abstract: As information and communicative technologies pervade the higher education classroom; academia has been justifiably enamored of the democratizing potential of constant connectivity and inexpensive information distribution. But these technologies -- Web sites, blogs, social networking sites, course management systems, digital video, and camera phones, instant messaging, etc. -- have generated some profound negative externalities as well. Chief among these is the loss of the sense that the classroom is a special, even sacred, space. Professors and students now operate in an environment of almost constant surveillance. And for those teaching and learning controversial subjects, the potential for abuse is clear and present. This talk argues that we in the academy should avoid the temptation of "quick fixes" such as restrictive technologies and regulations. Instead, we should foster a structures conversation that generates better norms, protocols, and ethics and aims to restore the classroom as a safe and special place for the deliberation of ideas and the dissemination of knowledge and wisdom.
Biography from Sivacracy.net
Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and media scholar, is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash between Freedom and Control is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (Basic Books, 2004). Vaidhyanathan has written for many periodicals, including American Scholar, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Magazine, MSNBC.COM, Salon.com, openDemocracy.net, and The Nation. After five years as a professional journalist, Vaidhyanathan earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught at Wesleyan University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Columbia University, and is currently an associate professor of Culture and Communication at New York University and a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities. He lives in Greenwich Village, USA.
Sponsoring Organizations:
- Cornell University Libraries
- Cornell University Computer Policy and Law Program
- Cornell University Information Science Program
- Cornell University Department of Communication
- Department of Science & Technology Studies