About Last Class

The purpose of Thursday’s class was to develop a consensus definition of globalization.  After working on that for a while, I began to feel that my presence was an impediment to your getting the job done.  It’s important for the success of this course that you develop a definition that makes sense to you, that you can buy into.  I could have given you my definition but that would have subverted the intent of the session.  So, I decided it would be more productive for me to leave.  After all, this course is ultimately about you and what you make of it, not me.

International Voices

This evening, I’ve been reading the blog I’ve chosen to follow: PostGlobal, which you can see in my blogroll at right (hopefully!).  The particular format this blog uses is to post a provocative question for a panel of experts to respond to.  The public is also invited to join in.  The topic if this discussion is whether tribal identities are becoming stronger as nation states weaken.  (The context for this is that some have argued that globalization tends to weaken nation states–for example, as Europeans buy into the European Union, they lose loyalty for their countries.  That’s the argument anyway.)

The discussion by the panelists was pretty good, but what I found absolutely fascinating were the comments by people from around the world, whose background and viewpoints differ widely from both the experts and mine.  That may be the real strength of blogs from a learning perspective.  I expect to learn alot from the blog this semester.