Keywords
synchronous, video chat, Skype, Google Docs, sophistry, accessibility, online education, staff anxiety, human connection, pedagogy, space
First Paragraph
Perhaps it’s because I’m reading for my preliminary exams, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the sophists lately. The sophists are enticing figures from the classical world who made their livings and reputations by traveling through the city states teaching oratory and other subjects for a fee. The accessibility of their teachings, among other things, raised some hackles amongst the more elite philosophers of the day. When I first started thinking about sophistry, I had trouble understanding the vehemently low regard in which their contemporaries held the sophists. In trying to wrap my brain around the sophistic reputation, I found myself looking for the sophists’ contemporary parallel and in so doing, I recalled my own consternation regarding the ever-expanding field of online education.
Citation Information
Type of Scholarship: Blog
Author: Anne Wheeler
Year of Publication: 2013
Title: “Looking Gorgias: Coming to Be in the Online Writing Center”
Blog: Another Word