Newspapers / Meredith College Student Newspaper / Jan. 23, 2008, edition 1 / Page 2
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CAMPUS NEWS Jamuir}' 2i, 2008 2 Star Tech Meredith General Education- Taking a Closer Look Kaitlin Briggs Staff Writer Fri., Jan. 11, the entirety of Meredith College's faculty was asked to attend a meeting concerning Meredith's General Education pro gram. All of Meredith College's programs— including General Education—come up for review every five years. This meeting was to promote a free exchange of information concern ing the recommenda tions that the outside review team and General Education work group- consisting of Meredith faculty—produced. As the dance depart ment's Carol Finley masterfully conducted a sea of confused, con cerned, and (the way we like them) feisty person alities that make up the Meredith College faculty, a series of issues brought forth by the outside and internal reviewers were sorted through one by one. Two faculty mem bers had spent several days with the outside reviewers, guiding them through the Meredith course guide book and the current construction of the General Education program. They relayed Bill Craft's, one of the outside reviewers, views of education which he used to shape his ideas and suggestions about Meredith's program. Craft saw education as a three sided triangle: one side being our CORE, an interdisciplinary pro gram; the second being the major (or depth in a field of study); and the third being "breadth of knowledge," or a chance to explore outside one's major. With this triangle in mind as scaffolding, the review team constructed eight broad goals for the entire college instead of the current 30 goals in place for General Education. Please remember that theses are a.) not all of the sug gestions/ recommenda tions and b.) that they are JUST recommenda tions-not things that are guaranteed to actually happen. There are many more meetings, propos als, and voting sessions that will go on for several months before any defin itive changes are made to the General Education program. 1.) Incorporating the summer reading book into CORE 100. CORE 100 is about American diversity—the summer reading book does not always fit this category. What about the CORE 100 classes held in the spring and those stu dents who read the book the semester before? 2.) A required 50 hours outside of the majors. Are they adding more hours in hopes of scaling back majors? What about larger majors that cannot handle the larger course load? Do they mean for this requirement to eliminate so called "double-dip- ping" where a course coimts for both a major and General Education? This suggestion was very controversial—Betty Webb suggested that, with this type of require ment, we were merely bringing students from helicopter parents to heli copter schooling. 3.) Eliminate English 200 as well as our science and society and social science requirements— among others. There had been some complaining earlier in the meeting about how students are already poor readers and writ ers (in the broad sense), so cutting programs like English 200, which is an integral (and may I say quite fun) portion of the English equation for Meredith College stu dents, seems counterpro ductive if our hope is to promote students' ability to analyze and critique form of textual informa tion. One of the sugges tions of the outside team was to promote a world view and global awareness on campus- through the classroom. Faculty felt that eliminat ing classes which count as a science in society or social science would be counterproductive as well. The report from the outside reviewers said that this kind of class already existed within the major or perhaps in the CORE classes. Those promoting the classes above—Bob Vance and Pamela Winfield—argued that the existing classes would not be enough. Some faculty mem bers suggested that we raise the entry scores in math for our students instead of incorporating a statistics or calculus class into the General Education curriculum. There was also a con cern of the variance in texts used in CORE and other classes taught by multiple teachers. Apparently there have been some changes since I took CORE three-plus years ago. A varied text G«d Ed cont. on pg. 3 I don't own an iPod. I'm serious, I really don't! That's not to say I'm mp3 player-less, however. I am the proud owner of a pink 30 GB Zune. Zune, Microsoft's lesser known answer to iPod, is now in its second generation of design. While it may not be as "cool" as its Apple counterpart, Zune still offers many features and has great bang for the buck. Zune is available in flash-based 4 GB (start ing under $140) and 8 GB (starting under $175) models and hard drive- based 30 GB (starting* under $160) and 80 GB (starting under $245) models. Zune comes in black, red, pink, green, white and brown (dblor choices depend on the model). Similar to iTunes, Microsoft offers Zune Marketplace to its customers. According to the official Zune web site, the Marketplace has includes 3 million songs, albums, DRM-free MP3s, music videos and audio/ video podcasts. So, Zune or iPod? Let's compare the two 80 GB models. iPod comes in two colors, has a 2.5" SCTeen, weighs 4.9 ounces and costs $249. Zune comes in five colors, has a 3.2" display, weighs 4.5 ounces and costs $245. iPod does offer contacts. Chelsea McGlaughlin Staff Writer a clock, calendars, notes, games, alarms and a stopwatch, none of which are found on Zune. Zime includes wireless sjmcing and wireless Ztme-to- Zune sharing (send full- length songs, good for three plays, and pictures to in-range Zune friends). It also has a built-in FM radio, which is handy. Both devices offer audio, video, movie, TV, picture and podcast capabilities, not to mention landscape and portrait viewing options. The two competitors offer solid, comparable products; if you're more into goodies and extras, perhaps iPod is your answer. However, if-you want a bigger screen (a major plus in my book) and don't really care about the fluff, Zune might be your answer. Hey, it works for me! If you're in the mood for an interactive, graphically amazing, sensory-pleasing Zune website, visit http://www. zunejoumey.net/. The site must have required countless hours of work from a gaggle of master ful graphic designers and animators. Listen to tunes, take a tour of a colorful galaxy and learn more about Zune all in one stop! Check out http:// www.zune.net for prod uct iriformation, Zime Marketplace, forums and more. Happy Zune-ing! The Zune Fam- Uy: 4GB/8GB, 80 GB, 30 GB Photo courtesy http://www. zune.net/en- us/products/ zune4gb8gb/de- fault.htm
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