
At Penn, students can get credit for ‘Wasting Time on the Internet’ - jkopelman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/28/at-penn-students-can-get-credit-for-wasting-time-on-the-internet/
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hxrts
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 improvisation.[1]

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith)

[1] [http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/5tqazj/kenneth-
goldsmi...](http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/5tqazj/kenneth-goldsmith)

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sfall
that sounds like a really interesting idea for a book

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smhinsey
This appears to be the book in question. [http://www.amazon.com/American-
Deaths-Disasters-Kenneth-Gold...](http://www.amazon.com/American-Deaths-
Disasters-Kenneth-
Goldsmith/dp/1576876365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414796227&sr=8-1&keywords=Seven+American+Deaths+and+Disasters)

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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.

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AdmiralAsshat
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.

~~~
taylorbuley
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 reported.

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

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iamdave
Surely you mean Thoreau...? Given that you read him in high school..

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hueving
His name didn't appear that often...

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jaredmcdonald
Kenny Goldsmith [0], the guy who teaches this class, has done a lot of
thinking about internet-based poetics... highly recommend his book "Uncreative
Writing"[1] for those interested

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith)

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Uncreative-Writing-Managing-
Language-D...](http://www.amazon.com/Uncreative-Writing-Managing-Language-
Digital/dp/0231149913)

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untilHellbanned
Love the idea, and how it exposes the absurd rip-off of american higher
education. $60K a year to waste time on the internet? That's what you do in
most classes anyway. I seriously love this guy. He and UPenn are just
flagrantly robbing all these rich, Ivy League kids' parents. Now I really
don't feel bad about Googling the course material the 10 minutes before the
MIT classes I TA'd.

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autokad
I go to UPenn. I grew up with a single parent making less than 15k a year, but
that is less important then the fact that I find classes at Upenn incredibly
rewarding in both education and improving my industry skills.

Its an undergrad class ENG 111 (15 seats), so I imagine those who take it
costs them around 3600$, so its hardly fair to say they are spending 60k to
waste time on the internet. Who knows, maybe people who take it find it
rewarding / helpful.

~~~
untilHellbanned
Of course, focusing on details. It is more about spending money on something
that you can easily do for free. This was not to pick on UPenn. Rather it was
more to point out the irony of this professor's class when thinking about the
value of American college education.

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SandersAK
This could also read: "At Penn, students get credit for going to college."

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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.

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higherpurpose
But that sounds like work.

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dang
The WaPo article provides so much more info that we changed to it from
[http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2015/Spri...](http://www.english.upenn.edu/Courses/Undergraduate/2015/Spring/ENGL111.301),
even though the latter is an original source.

~~~
taylorbuley
This is a great example of how journalism can provide narrative value.

