• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Winter 2006/07 A New Kind of Literacy ouis de Berniéres wrote that love is a temporary madness. St. Augustine said that love is the beauty of the soul. Still, Lope de Vega said harmony is Lpure love, for love is a concerto. But what if you had to explain love in a picture? The assignment for the multimedia lab class had been to bring in a powerful image representing love. “We’re going to ask you to think visually in a way that you’ve never done before,” Allison de Fren told her class recently at Taper Hall. Each student sat at a large comput- er screen depicting images such as an iPod, the cover of “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album, a mother breast- feeding her baby and primates snuggling. Bruce Zuckerman, professor of religion, holds up an ancient cylinder seal, while Georgiana Nikias, a senior majoring in archaeology and De Fren was a teaching assistant English, looks on. Nikias and her classmates do original research on the seal in a new multimedia course offered by USC College. in a pilot program launched this fall, dubbed Multimedia in the Core. The program extends USC’s multimedia pedagogy from a select group of stu- Technology + Teamwork = New Discoveries dents to the undergraduate community at large. This academic year, as many as 420 Students harness high-tech tools for new look at ancient seals students will take seven general edu- cation (G.E.) courses that offer hands-on experience in multimedia nside a darkened lab at University Village, two professors and a group of in USC College who is collaborating authorship. The program will expand students huddled around a computer screen depicting the image of a per- with UIUC religion professor Wayne next year. son or deity whose head resembled a fastener doohickey. Pitard. “But we have proven that this The enterprise is a joint effort “There’s the Wing Nut Man,” one student cracked. Everyone laughed, is wrong.” between USC College of Letters, Arts then launched into a discussion about the primitive-looking image and jot- The artifacts are cylinder seals & Sciences and the USC School of Ited down notes. Cinematic Arts’ Institute for A casual observer might dismiss the scene as one of the Multimedia Literacy (IML). A leader countless interesting research projects taking place at USC in undergraduate education, USC is Far right, every day. But take a closer look. These undergraduates from the image the first university to incorporate mul- USC College and the University of Illinois Urbana- dubbed timedia curriculum in a wide variety of Champaign (UIUC) are conducting original research on 3,000- “Wing Nut courses — from earthquakes to early Man.” to 4,000-year-old artifacts borrowed from a prized museum col- American Indian history. Only a few lection. universities offer a spattering of G.E. Such research is usually reserved for experienced scholars. courses involving multimedia projects. “The conventional wisdom is that undergrads are not able to do serious, used in Mesopotamia [modern-day “USC’s emphasis in multimedia lit- even groundbreaking research,” said Bruce Zuckerman, a professor of religion continued on page 6 continued on page 4 Learning in the Multimedia Age VOLUME 7 NUMBER 3 Podcasting Classrooms Nano Nose A Super L.A. Law, The Mongol Profs That Click PAGE 14 Starr Trojan Style Conquest of PAGE 8 PAGE 9 PAGE 21 PAGE 22 China PAGE 28 ZUCKERMAN PHOTO BY PHIL CHANNING; SEAL IMAGE COURTESY OF BRUCE A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN has gone wireless. More than a dozen rooms have been transformed into On Change & Continuity sophisticated studio classrooms for technology-enhanced learning. More and more, College professors are using podcasts, videos, simulations and even ear Friends, the College. wikis to enrich their courses. Six months ago, USC This fall, among other accomplish- But this sea change has not dimin- President Steven B. Sample ments, we came tantalizingly close to ished the importance of the human and Provost C.L. Max Nikias attaining the goal of our Senior interactions that are at the very core of Dasked me to take on the interim Hiring Initiative — to hire 100 world- the college experience — a student deanship of USC College. I was hon- class faculty in a few short years. We visiting her professor’s office hours and ored to accept this opportunity, and also marked the halfway point in our finding a mentor; students working delighted to appoint one of the Tradition & Innovation fund-raising together on a project of original College’s finest professors, Hilary initiative, with nearly $200 million research; students going out into the Schor, to replace me as the College’s raised thus far. world to put their knowledge to work. Dean Peter Starr dean of undergraduate programs. In this issue of the USC College Technology is at its most powerful Transitions in leadership can be Magazine, you will see that the bal- when it serves as a supplement to the challenging. My predecessor Joseph ance implied in the title of our rich human interactions that make Aoun’s great success in increasing the initiative, “Tradition & Innovation,” analysis. In recognition of this, the learning at a premier academic institu- quality, stature and visibility of USC very much applies to the College’s College and the USC School of tion meaningful and lasting. College has made this transition an response to the increasing importance Cinematic Arts recently launched especially critical one. Now more of technology in the world of higher Multimedia in the Core, a pilot pro- Sincerely, than ever, we need to push on to education. gram that integrates the authorship ensure that USC College continues Living in the age of digital tech- and critical analysis of multimedia its rapid ascent into the very top tier nologies requires a whole new texts into the university’s general edu- of American research and teaching literacy: an ability to manipulate and cation curriculum. colleges. To stand still, or even to to analyze audio and visual texts, to At USC, the multimedia age has slow down, would be to compromise supplement competencies in the tra- arrived. All USC classrooms are now Peter Starr our ambitious vision for the future of ditional forms of writing and textual wired for the Internet. The campus Dean of USC College USC College Taps Literature Scholar for Dean Post Hilary Schor leads College’s undergraduate programs his summer, USC College USC Center for Law, History and working on a book about women, appointed Hilary M. Schor, pro- Culture. curiosity and novels, titled Curious fessor of English, as the new Her previous leadership experi- Subjects: Women and the Trials of dean of undergraduate pro- ence includes serving as chair of Realism. In 2005, she published a Tgrams. gender studies, director of the Center scholarly article exploring curiosity in Schor replaced Peter Starr, profes- for Feminist Research and past presi- Henry James’ novel The Golden Bowl. sor of French and comparative dent of the USC Academic Senate. She has written essays in compan- literature, who assumed the post of “As someone who has taught at ions to Dickens, Jane Austen and dean of the College on an interim USC since 1986, I appreciate the con- film, the Victorian novel and Victorian basis in July. tinuing strengths of the College as literature and culture, as well as essays In his letter to the faculty well as the new possibilities that come on Bleak House, Bastard Out of Carolina announcing the appointment, Starr with the bright, lively, imaginative and Victorian “character” trials. wrote, “Those of you who know students we’ve been attracting,” Schor received her bachelor’s Hilary know her as an exceptional Schor said. “These students bring degree in British and American litera- scholar of Victorian literature and cul- more to USC and expect more from ture from Scripps College in ture, a brilliant teacher and as fine an us — and I’m looking forward to Claremont, Calif., and her master’s institutional mind as we have at this working with them to diversify our and doctoral degrees from Stanford university.” curriculum and make undergraduate University, where she specialized in In her new position, Starr wrote, education at USC richer and more 19th century literature and culture, “Hilary will be instrumental in our challenging for all of us. I can’t think Hilary M. Schor drawing on work in intellectual histo- efforts to implement the new College of a better job right now.” ry, feminist studies and the history of Honors Society, the Multimedia in Schor’s scholarship focuses on nar- many graduate seminars and organ- the novel. the Core program and our undergrad- rative theory, as well as on law, ized conferences, the titles of which She has received numerous fellow- uate team research initiatives. property and the nature of subjectivi- include “Victorian Soundings,” ships and awards, including a John “But I dare say that she will also ty in literature, popular culture and “Victoria Redressed: Feminism and Simon Guggenheim Memorial be taking the undergraduate programs film. Nineteenth-Century Studies,” and Foundation Fellowship, Stanford office in directions not yet foreseen.” Schor, an avid scholar of Charles “Victorian Terror.” Humanities Center Fellowship, Schor holds a joint appointment in Dickens, is actively involved in the Her books include Scheherezade in Graves Foundation Fellowship and the department of comparative litera- University of California Dickens the Marketplace: Elizabeth Gaskell and USC Zumberge Faculty Research ture and is a professor of law in the Project. Known for her ability to the Victorian Novel (Oxford, 1992) and Fellowship. Gould School of Law. She is an active communicate the relevance of liter- Dickens and the Daughter of the House —Pamela J.

Load more

  32

Copy Link