by Todd Herzog, PhD 

When Microsoft closes the website for its digital, multimedia encyclopedia Encarta at the end of this month, few people will notice. Those who did hear Microsoft’s announcement to discontinue Encarta this summer probably reacted much as I did—with surprise that it still existed. When the first edition of Encarta appeared in 1993, this year’s freshman class was potty training. By the time they were ready to do real research, they had about as much use for Encarta as I did for that 24-volume, 100 lb. set of Collier’s Encyclopedia that my parents bought when I was born. But even though the demise of Encarta is largely symbolic, it signals a major shift in what constitutes research in the 21^st century. The era of the encyclopedia officially ends this month. For, despite its slick, multimedia interface, Encarta was based upon the same basic principles as those Enlightenment-era works were: a hierarchical, vetted, well-defined presentation of information.

In one of those wonderfully symbolic confluences of events, I was in the process of reading a set of seminar papers when I heard Microsoft’s announcement. As I scanned the bibliographies of the research papers, I noticed what I think was a first for me, but which I had known would someday happen—every source in every paper began with the letters: http://www. Now, this was a particularly engaged group of students in a course in which we read actual printed books and articles. But when it came time to write a research paper, that meant only one thing to them: the internet. I know that many professors have reacted to this fact by banning Wikipedia (or even all online sources) from being cited in research papers. But in my opinion, this is not the right move. The era of WikiResearch is here. Our task—as researchers and teachers—is to understand what this means and to harness its full potential. What follows are four basic principles to help us begin to navigate this new era in research.

by driftword

So what is the big deal about semester conversion anyway? Semesters, quarters, year-long programs…these are all just artifacts with no real inherent meaning at all. Isn’t it just another convenience? A pre-packaged collectable, consumable, ready-for-our-cost-consciousness consumption? What is this education system all about, really? And what are we asking our students to get from their educational experiences?

by Joseph F. Clark, PhD

All people have unique personalities, but what those outside of education may not fully realize is that when you put a group of people together, the group forms a personality all its own. This is clearly seen in classes meeting regularly over an academic year. It never takes long for the class’ personalities to emerge…often after only a few lectures. Some classes are quite serious, others can be playful, and others run the gamut of everything in between; rarely does a significant change in that personality occur during the term or school year.

When I began regular college lectures, it surprised me how diverse the depth of classroom personalities could manifest. I could give the exact same lecture to two different groups of students, but their responses to those lectures would be quite distinct. My observations had nothing to do with the motivation or competencies of the students even though I tried to be consistent in my presentations. Nonetheless, the classes behaved very differently.