UAC - Think Differently

Think Differently: Inventing Electrate Thinking Practices

Richard Smyth, C.M.Full DigressorUnderAcademy College 1 January 2013

Introduction: How I Became A UAC Digressor

Richard Smyth, C.M.

Richard Smyth, C.M.

Some UAC Course Titles

THE INVESTIGATION OF WHATEVERCONFISUON: LOST IN LANGUAGE, A

TAUTOLOGYADVICE ANIMALS 4 PHUN + PROFITUNDERWATER PROCRASTINATION

AND ADVANCED DESUBLIMATION TECHNIQUES

UnderAcademy College

http://bit.ly/12QF4gh

UnderAcademy College

“UnderAcademy is an experimental alternative form of a MOOC that does a better job of delivering liberal-arts curriculum, Mr. Memmott argues. One faculty member jokes that UnderAcademy delivers 'Micro Outrageous Online Courses.'”

UnderAcademy College

“One could argue that MOOC’s dehumanize the humanities,” Mr. Memmott said in an e-mail interview. And if liberal arts and the humanities “are being marginalized within traditional academic institutions, and the MOOC model doesn’t facilitate a liberal-arts education―another model must be sought, or invented. At its core, this is what UnderAcademy College is attempting to do.”

UnderAcademy College

“The assignment I gave them was, Come up with a class you would love to teach but couldn’t teach in an institution,” Mr. Memmott said of the instructors. “The idea was wacky.”

UnderAcademy College

“Based on some spirit of humor that seemed to underlie everything, I assumed it was largely a joke,” [Marino] said. “But Talan would say that this project is research into alternative pedagogical practices that are collaborative, less hierarchical, and take place online. That piqued my interest.”

An Heuretic Education

“Heuretics continues a project of invention . . . applying to academic discourse the lessons arising out of a matrix crossing French poststucturalist theory, avant-garde art experiments, and electronic media in the context of schooling.”

--Gregory L. Ulmer. Heuretics: The Logic of Invention. p. xi.

Inventing New Thinking

“Electracy is not against literacy but is the means to assist our society in adding a new dimension to our language capabilities. This project. . . proposes that our discipline also has primary responsibility for inventing the practices of reasoning and communi-cating in ways native to new media.”

--Jeff Rice. The Rhetoric of Cool: Composition Studies and NewMedia. p. xi.

UnderAcademy College

UnderAcademy College is an unaccredited undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate anti-degree institution. UnderAcademy College situates itself as a shadow-academic environment offering alternative courses and anti-degree programs in a variety of subjects. The primary mission of UnderAcademy College is to remain open, marginal, and unaccredited.

References

Azevedo, Alisha. “'UnderAcademy College' Satirizes Massively Open Online Courses.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. 14 September 2012. Viewed 01 January 2013. http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/underacademy-college-satirizes-massive-open-online-courses/39716.

Rice, Jeff. The Rhetoric of Cool: Composition Studies and NewMedia. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 2007.

Ulmer, Gregory L. Heuretics: The Logic of Invention. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1994.

UnderAcademy College. Viewed 01 January 2013. www.underacademy.org.

Contact

Richard Smyth, Ph.D.rsmyth64@yahoo.comtwitter: @rsmythslideshare.net/rsmyth