“In today’s society we’re using technology to interact with others on so many levels, simple and complex. I think as educators, we’re all worried about how this will affect our students’ ability to connect to one another. I see a thread of ‘it still feels good to be with humans’ and I don’t see that changing completely, but the interactions are going to look different in the future. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m excited to be a part of launching Alverno’s online radio station in fall, 2008. Alverno Inferno Free-Form Radio (AIFR) will give students a forum outside the classroom where they can learn broadcasting, recording, digital and audio design, production and management. But the more exciting aspect of it will be that it will provide another place and time for a shared experience on this campus, for different kinds of connections. It’ll be lively and interesting and controversial and informative enough to draw in a broader community of learners and listeners. My hope is that faculty will be a part of it, someone in dining services will be a part of it, students will be a part of it, and alumnae will be a part of it. On a daily basis it may have everything from a book talk to how to care for a toddler to a political conversation. We’ll broadcast Alverno athletic events, the Alverno Debate Series and Alverno Presents. We could even broadcast class discussions, which would further extend the notion of a shared experience out into the community and to our alumnae. Because it’s free-form radio, we are not imposing a genre or a style on it. It should sound like this place looks.

One of my students last semester told me she’d love to embrace more of the opportunities that Alverno has to offer outside the classroom, but she’s in ‘survival mode’ most of the time. ‘I can’t do anything,’ she told me. ‘First of all,’ I said to her, ‘you are doing something. You’re here and you won’t always be in survival mode.’ As a teacher, I’m interested in helping students prepare for the day when they are not in survival mode. I want them to use their time here to think about how they want to construct their lives in the future.”