The New Residential Academic Community: Virtual and Vital

The history of higher education shows academic institutions as both repositories of received wisdom and places where new knowledge is created. Historically, students attended to learn from faculty, both presuming that most learning occured in the classroom. The problem was and is, of course, that the majority of learning in residential institutions of higher education occurs outside of the classroom - in discussions, reading, studying and research.

So now that technology has thoroughly transformed what the current generation of undergraduate student thinks of as their "community," where and how does learning take place? And are we as academics aware of this new residential space where students live much of the time?

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, along with instant chat and other forums, provide a much wider residential area, not all of which is conducive to the aims of critical liberal education. Compounding the lack of intentionality in this new residential space of liberal education, most faculty are not a part of the "net generation" and are genuinely uncomfortable in the cyber community.

I think that we as academics need to create intentional space within this new residential space. This intentional space should be related to who we are, what we are teaching and the physical communities where we leave and breathe. Students should be engaged in both places, one connecting to the other and back again. But at the same time, we need to be aware of the larger community students have joined and learn from along the way. Students need to be connected to both communities, cyber and physical, with the clear understanding of the implications of one for the other.