BlogU

  • An IHE Book Club?

    By Joshua Kim December 13, 2009 8:27 pm EST

    Inside Higher Ed should start a virtual book club.

    This idea came to me after finishing Googled: The End of the World As We Know It.

    I wanted to discuss with someone the impact that Google is going to have on the future of higher education. The book inspired me to want to brainstorm about how Google's massive data center infrastructure and talented engineering talent could be direct to solve some of the educational technology issues that we face. I was hoping to compare and contrast the corporate Google culture with our academic culture.

    But I don't know anyone at my institution who has read the book. I have no academics and ed. tech people to book club with.

    That's when I thought about an Inside Higher Ed book club.

    Here's how I envision it working:

    1. A book is chosen of interest to the readers of Inside Higher Education. Maybe the community nominates the books to be discussed.

    2. The book must be available in digital and audio format, as well as paper (if it's not an audiobook - I'm not reading it!). Perhaps IHE could do some deal with Amazon or BN or some publisher where IHE readers get a code for a discounted download of the book. This seems like an ideal marketing opportunity for authors and publishers.

    3. The book club lasts for one week. The format of the book club revolves around a set of structured questions and prompts. The existing IHE blog platform is used, with the comments field being the mechanism that the community discusses the questions and prompts. The main questions and prompts may change each day depending on where the discussion is going.

    4. Ideally, the discussion is led by the book's author. If that is not possible, then perhaps volunteers from our community write-up the initial discussion questions and keep the dialogue moving.

    What do you think? Would you participate in such a book club? How much lead time between the announcement of the selected book and the kicking off of the week long book club would you need? Any ideas for books we could read together? What are you reading now?

    If you don't like this idea for an IHE book club then maybe you'll like my next idea -- for an IHE dating site!

Go to comments (13) »
Advertisement
On the Job Market Together?

Comments on An IHE Book Club?

  • Interesting Idea
  • Posted by Matt on December 13, 2009 at 9:45pm EST

  • I like the idea. Of course, I like the IHE dating site idea, too. I'd like to read more books on the subject, but never know which ones to get. And I never have anyone to talk to about the book, either. I'd join.

  • interested
  • Posted by Fizziks in MN on December 13, 2009 at 9:45pm EST

  • I'd be interested, though I don't think the audio book requirement is needed, speaking for myself. I, too, have been looking for people to talk with about new technology and education ideas.

  • Posted by Mike on December 14, 2009 at 5:00am EST

  • I think it's great idea, and would love to participate. Though, why would it be ideal that the book club be led by the book's author? Some authors could do this very well; others would do it very badly.

    BTW, we've done this twice on our higher ed-related blog:

    http://blog.emergingscholars.org/category/esn-book-club/

    The book club we ran during the summer seemed to garner more participation.

  • And going even further...
  • Posted by Ken McElrath , CEO at Skoodat on December 14, 2009 at 9:00am EST

  • Work a deal with knetbooks.com, who just launched a "book sharing" site, so we can all just rotate the books at a much lower price.

  • Author
  • Posted by Rebecca on December 14, 2009 at 10:15am EST

  • I like the idea a lot although I don't usually think it's a good idea to have the author lead the discussion. That usually intimidates people and limits the discussion. Also, the author often has one particular viewpoint that s/he is pushing, whereas readers may have many interpretations. I would only invite the author to participate in a one-off Q&A session, if possible, but not lead the entire discussion.

  • Refinement
  • Posted by sibyl on December 14, 2009 at 10:30am EST

  • I also like the idea.

    I agree with Rebecca that having the author lead the discussion is a bad idea. Better to have a moderator (ongoing or rotating) who can prime the pump, and then have the author on for a Q&A at the END of the week, after the discussion has produced some clear themes for conversation.

    I also think that we need some lead time for reading -- for instance, if the club "meets" during the last week of the month, the next book needs to be announced at that time.

  • Love the idea
  • Posted by Elaine , Academic Learning Technologist on December 14, 2009 at 12:00pm EST

  • I would join. I like the notion a book club without geographic limitations, and one garnering a book discount. I look forward to exchanging views with other readers. (No digital version needed for me either, as I like the tactile sense of paper.)

  • IHE Book Club
  • Posted by Doralee Brooks , Professor Developmental Studies at Community College of Allegheny County on December 14, 2009 at 12:00pm EST

  • I think that this is a great idea, and I am all for book discussions.

  • Posted by Sandy Thatcher , Penn State University Press on December 14, 2009 at 1:15pm EST

  • One source of possible books for this kind of discussion is the series of very short books that Princeton University Press started putting out a few years ago with Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit." These are books one can read in just an hour or two and focus on topics of broad interest. One recent book in this series is "Scroogenomics," about the wasteful spending that is associated with gift-giving, and it is both intellectually insightful and humorous. --- Sandy Thatcher, Penn State University Press

  • ideas for book clubbing
  • Posted by Joshua Kim at Dartmouth College on December 14, 2009 at 3:45pm EST

  • Hi everyone......

    Okay....it seems like folks like the general concept. The idea of the author leading a book club seems dead.

    Thanks for the examples.

    Short books sound great. I'm convinced that we should set an example by having books in multiple formats - paper, e-book, audio. I believe in this pedagogically, philosophically, theologically, economically, sociologically, epistemologically (what ally am I missing?)

    Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays sounds great in terms of length - and is available pretty cheap from Audible and in e-book format. What would be the argument for relevance to higher ed innovation?

    Let's keep batting around ideas and see if we can come up with a workable model with the publishers of IHE. In the end, it will be their call.

  • IHE Book Club
  • Posted by Monica Berger , Library at NYC College of Technology, CUNY on December 14, 2009 at 6:15pm EST

  • Love the idea of a virtual book club.

  • Thanks, Joshua Kim
  • Posted by DFS on December 14, 2009 at 8:00pm EST

  • Since the only books that you "read" must be by those still living, at least you cannot be confused with someone who might be prone to the 'ideals' in Das Kapital?
    There's hope for you?

  • Book Club
  • Posted by Harry Pence , Professor of Chemistry at SUNY Oneonta on December 17, 2009 at 8:30am EST

  • A book club sounds like a wonderful idea to me and the book about Google is an excellent place to start. I think that in only ten years Google has created a position for itself in the world of knowledge that has not been matched since the Catholic Church in the late Middle Ages. Academic response has mainly been to either ignore this or else to complain a lot about the fact that Google does valuable work that no one else seems to want to do. I don't think Google is perfect, but I think academics need to stop complaining and become more involved in the evolution of Google.

Print
© Copyright 2011 Inside Higher Ed