[Air-L] digital literacy takes a field trip to a farm

[David M Silver]

aoir folk,

late last week, i posted a message to air-l (msg title: "digital
literacy takes a field trip to a farm") in which i suggested that barry
wellman may have a "hissy fit" about the contents of the message. as
barry notes in his reply to the list ("msg title: "hissy fit?") my tone
was uncalled for and for that i apologize.

i've been subscribed to air-l from the start, back in 2001, and for the
most part the list has been interesting and engaging and useful. from
time to time, flamewars develop, which are usually a drag, and i hope my
post doesn't contribute to such an outcome.

for the record, in his reply, barry mentions one of my blog posts (msg
title: "barry wellman, that ain't right";
http://silverinsf.blogspot.com/2007/10/barry-wellman-that-aint-right.html
), in which i question barry's attempt to stop a conversation on air-l
about race. i strongly believe this field - as well as all academic
fields, but *especially* this field since it is so new and young and
can, conceivably, develop in directions we decide to take it - benefits
greatly from conversations about cultural difference (race, gender,
sexuality, age, disability, and class) and thought it was wrong of barry
to thwart such a conversation. i not apologize for the blog post - and
encourage all of us to work hard to make our list and conferences
exciting, vital places for discussion, research, and teaching about
cultural difference and digital media.

my real mistake, however, was to direct attention towards barry wellman
and away from what my post was about - about teaching internet studies
and digital literacy, about encouraging students (and ourselves) to log
off for extended periods of time, about sharing some learning
experiences my students and i had while on a magical organic farm, and
about asking others to share their teaching/learning experiences.

so, with that in mind, i express my apologies to barry and to the list
and extend an invitation for folks to post and share more about teaching
internet studies in general and introducing logging off activities in
particular.

thanks,

david silver
http://silverinsf.blogspot.com

----- Original Message -----

> Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:38:00 -0400
> From: Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>
> Subject: [Air-L] hissy fit?
> To: aoir list <air-l at aoir.org>, David Silver <dsilver at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID:
>
> 
> 1. Despite David Silver's astonishing assertion, I have no 
> recollection of
> objecting to teaching-oriented posts to this list. I, too, teach (and
> Internet-Society to boot, and I welcome learning more about 
> teaching the
> subject.
> 
> 2. I do object to gratuitous personal attacks on the AoIR list, 
> such as
> David Silver saying I will have a "hissy fit". I don't know where 
> it has
> come from, as David Silver and I have not had any contact for many 
> months.And the last time was when David launched another gratuitous 
> personalattack on me -- on his blog.
> 
> 3. I don't know where Dr Silver's animus stems from. For the 
> record, I
> have not had anything do with any administrative or scholarly matter
> involving him.
> 
> 4. I wouldn't have thought it was necessary, but I ask AoIR leaders to
> remind list members to avoid personal attacks on each other.
> 
> Barry Wellman
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
>  S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC              NetLab Director
>  Department of Sociology                        University of Toronto
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