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At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

washingtonpost.com

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Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#11

Post by nutate »

hxrts wrote: post #10

It's worth taking a look at the instructor, Kenneth Goldsmith's, bio[0]. He's one of the founders of UBUweb and MoMA's first poet laureate. He also had a recent interview with Stephen Colbert where they talk about his new book which consists of live television and radio transcripts of the moment announcers found out about major events in US history (JFK's assassination, 9/11, etc.) as a study on the language of impro…

Also his show on WFMU was / is amazing and fully archived. Lot's of weird stuff... weird weird stuff.

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#12

Post by filmgirlcw »

I love this. I unsuccessfully tried to get my University to let me create my own major in Pop Culture back in 2005. A decade later, it's an actual option for comms students now.

Also, I bet doing well in this class will be much harder than it appears.

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#14

Post by sfall »

hxrts wrote: post #10

It's worth taking a look at the instructor, Kenneth Goldsmith's, bio[0]. He's one of the founders of UBUweb and MoMA's first poet laureate. He also had a recent interview with Stephen Colbert where they talk about his new book which consists of live television and radio transcripts of the moment announcers found out about major events in US history (JFK's assassination, 9/11, etc.) as a study on the language of impro…

that sounds like a really interesting idea for a book

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#15

Post by GuiA »

hxrts wrote: post #10

It's worth taking a look at the instructor, Kenneth Goldsmith's, bio[0]. He's one of the founders of UBUweb and MoMA's first poet laureate. He also had a recent interview with Stephen Colbert where they talk about his new book which consists of live television and radio transcripts of the moment announcers found out about major events in US history (JFK's assassination, 9/11, etc.) as a study on the language of impro…

Ubuweb is the coolest thing ever. If you're into art and weird things, check out their website and follow them on Twitter.

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#16

Post by Havvy »

taylorbuley wrote: post #4
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #3

Worth noting from the course listing that this is an English/Creative Writing class, not a Computer Science class. So I imagine you would be writing papers about wasting time on the internet rather than actually doing so.

As part of its so-called core curriculum, Penn typically requires students in all schools to take a writing class. They kinda go out of their way to offer a variety of interesting options because writing is not everyone's thing. My class was "Man in Nature" and featured Thorough, Emerson, etc. It focused a lot on being in nature, which is also atypical for an English class, just not the kind of atypical that gets rep…

I read Thorough in high school. So it's not that atypical...

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#17

Post by anmonteiro90 »

I suppose we'll have some post-course experience shared on the internet, but I fail to see the point of the course only from the news article. Maybe I lack creativity?

Although I agree that "[...] the Internet is actually making us smarter.", I wonder what will students write after a semester of 3-hour weekly lectures surfing the web.

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#19

Post by smhinsey »

sfall wrote: post #14
hxrts wrote: post #10

It's worth taking a look at the instructor, Kenneth Goldsmith's, bio[0]. He's one of the founders of UBUweb and MoMA's first poet laureate. He also had a recent interview with Stephen Colbert where they talk about his new book which consists of live television and radio transcripts of the moment announcers found out about major events in US history (JFK's assassination, 9/11, etc.) as a study on the language of impro…

that sounds like a really interesting idea for a book

This appears to be the book in question. http://www.amazon.com/American-Deaths-Disasters-Kenneth-Gold...

Re: At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’

#20

Post by GuiA »

Havvy wrote: post #16
taylorbuley wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As part of its so-called core curriculum, Penn typically requires students in all schools to take a writing class. They kinda go out of their way to offer a variety of interesting options because writing is not everyone's thing. My class was "Man in Nature" and featured Thorough, Emerson, etc. It focused a lot on being in nature, which is also atypical for an English class, just not the kind of atypical that gets rep…

I read Thorough in high school. So it's not that atypical...

I read Shakespeare in 6th grade and in grad school. You can study works at many different levels.
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