kabrenlevinson.com/blog/

I’ve been at Bard College for a month now; the Workshop in Language and Thinking is over, and I began my “real” courses last Monday. I went home last weekend to see family, pick up my bike, tennis rackets, and relax. It feels very different having upperclassmen on campus now(they arrived last weekend), Language and Thinking was a lot like high school, everyone had (almost) the same schedule, and studied similar material, but now that courses have started, everyone seems a lot more independent.

L&T was truly amazing - now that the workshop has ended, I appreciate what I learned even more. My teacher was fantastic, and I’m happy to have him as my First Year Seminar teacher, too. He helped me most with my writing and development of ideas. He is also the reason I’m now taking Ancient Greek. During L&T, we read such amazing texts; Hannah Arendt, Aristotle, Samuel Beckett, Susan Sontag, Franz Kafka, Charles Darwin, Prigogine and Stengers, and more. My final essay was surrounded around the question, “Why do we speak?” It was a political analysis of communication and media throughout history. I talked about the idea that speech makes us human, and humans are, by nature, “political animals,” in reference to Aristotle and Arendt. I also talked about Internet Censorship in china, and the importance of sharing our opinions using free new media tools available on the Internet. I touched upon sousveillance, or inverse-surveillance, surveillance as a means of speaking. You can read my essay, but please don’t steal it or use parts of it without my permission. Download it as a PDF.

My class schedule.

I started courses on Monday, Labor Day. Here’s what I’m taking: First Year Seminar, Media and Society, Intro to Philosophy: Philosophical Classics, and Ancient Greek. All of my courses have been great so far, though I have spent a fortune on books, 22 in total. To me, it is strange having most classes only twice a week.

My side of the room.

College has been an overwhelming positive experience, so far. On Friday night, I attended Shabbat services at Beit Shalom Salaam - twenty people showed up, in contrast to the two or three who would show up last year, the upperclassmen tell me. The school just got a new Rabbi, who really wants to reinvigorate Jewish life at Bard. I helped cook dinner, too - we made Challah, lasagna, and salad. I have not yet recorded a new episode of Nerd News Radio, but hopefully I’ll get around to that next weekend.

What was your college experience like?

I’m in college. A little early, but that’s the way Bard College does it. All freshman take a three-week workshop called “Language and Thinking.” So far, being at Bard has been an amazing experience. I love being in such an intellectually stimulating environment. I have an excellent teacher, Thomas Bartscherer, and a great class - everyone seemed to get along, right out of the box. L&T moves fast, and the course started in “the deep end;” no introductions or family histories. The class works, as Thomas said today, no one is sitting it out, everyone is involved.

I have never seen an entire class get along so well, so soon. In fact, the class began by writing for five minutes. Over the past few days, I’ve grown to love free-writing with a pen and paper. It’s nice to be unplugged. In middle and high school, free-writes never had a purpose, they were a filler, and if anything, they were too structured. The campus is so beautiful. Today with some people from my dorm, we went walking around the campus, hiking around, I forgot my camera, but I’ll be sure to make the walk again and take some photos.

My pen. On my paper.

My dorm room is almost all set up, only a few small details to tend to. Bard is great, I’ve been having a good time. I’m happy to have an actual break this weekend, though, I’ve been in “meet new people” mode for 7 days now, need some time for myself (you know, I’m a very quiet almost anti-social person). I’ll keep blogging. Podcast next week Sunday, I hope.

My desk.

I go to college this Saturday, August 9th, 2008. I will be a freshman at Bard College, in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. I have a little more packing to do (misc items and clothes). Bard College starts rather early, as they have a three week workshop for freshman, called “Language and Thinking.” I’m not so excited about doing work during summer, but at least it’s better than going right into a 4-5 course schedule.

Map of campus.

My roommate is from China, which is totally rad. I’m in the dorm Oberholzer, a 5-10 minute walk from campus. I’m excited and nervous. I’m happy I’m not going to be across the country, I’ll be 3.5 hours away from home, and 2 hours away from New York City. Also, it will be nice to go to school with a few people I know (there are 3 from my high school going to Bard, in addition to a few others).

The one thing I’m upset about, is that Apple hasn’t yet released new MacBook Pro’s. My college technology “situation” will be simple(r), as I’ll only have one computer (my MacBook, and in the future, a MBP). I’ve made a few purchases (hard drives, mouse, keyboard, monitor), but nothing major.

I can’t promise anything, but I hope to keep blogging and podcasting, maybe even more regularly. I’m sure my Twitter stream will be over-active, particularly in the first few days and weeks, and I’m going to take lots of photos. I’m bringing my (new) portable recorder, USB interface, and my microphone, so I’ll be well equipped to podcast. I’ll probably write a blog post a week after I settle in, but if I’m feeling particularly lonely, you may hear from me sooner.

Wish me luck.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post - and that doesn’t mean that nothing has been happening. In fact, a lot has been happening, in life, in technology, in everything. I’ve been accepted to two colleges in the past week! It’s reassuring, you know, to get into a school or two.

To start this off, spring is right around the corner. I love spring, it’s my favorite season, fall comes next, and summer and winter can fight it out. Everything just feels fresh in spring, metaphorically and literally. But spring isn’t all new beginnings, because, as a student, you’ve still got about a quarter of the year to finish up. So, spring is the earth refreshing itself, but it doesn’t forget what went on. Damn.

My technology program has been going well. I successfully deployed my technology survey around the school - now I am beginning the process of evaluation, going through each one and extracting the data we want right now. What we’re most interested in is laptop ownership around the school, and whether students thought computers were a vital educational resource. The main aspect of my project I’m focusing on now, is a Student Tech Fellows program, which would allow for students to work one-on-one with faculty and staff members on technology, whether it be designing course curricula that employs technology successfully, or simply learning how to set up a projector. Students would be able to get School Service credit for participating in the program, and they’d also have an official title, “Technology Fellow,” they could put on resumes and college applications. I’m designing the “rigorous” selection process for the program, because if it’s too easy to get in, or become a member, it won’t be as successful - we need to make sure people feel like they need to work to accomplish the title of “Technology Fellow.” Things have been going well, I think.

I got accepted to the beta of Aviary, “a suite of web-based applications (RIAs) for people who create. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for artists of all genres.” So far I’m impressed that this is all happening on the web. A few weeks ago, when I applied for the beta, I thought that this was like Adobe Creative Suite. So far, these seem to be amazing web applications that are taking the web in another direction. Expect a full review soon. The one bad thing: it seems to be based off M$ .NET ASP architecture junk. Eek.

I’ve missed blogging. I’ll do more.

Photo Credits:
Kabren Levinson
Aviary
visbeek