Dirigo!* (Maine takes the lead)
The University of Maine's New Media Department has approved new promotion and tenure guidelines that take into account social media, so professors get some credit for a widely read blog, contributions to popular or professional wikis, and so forth.
A "rationale," "New Criteria for New Media" was written for the peer-reviewed journal Leonardo (but you can be sure 99% of people will read the link just cited). As David Weinberger writes:
"This the right thing to do not only because it is a more realistic assessment of an academic’s worth. It’s also the right thing to do because it helps to build the value of the network. If knowledge and expertise are becoming properties of the network, it is the social responsibility of our institutions to encourage the enhancement of that network."As a Mainer, I take special pride in this. I only wish the New Media Department, at Orono, outside of Bandor, were closer to Portland.
*Dirigo, I lead, is the state motto. Maine has a lot of pithy mottoes. Portland, ravaged by fire four times, has the doughty Resurgam, "I'm gonna get up again!"
posted by Tim at 12:12 PM
3 Comments:
At last. An institution of higher learning recognizes the value of online contributions. Ironically, institutions of "higher" learning remain closed to innovation longer than other institutions. I remember a time not so long ago when my colleagues would not allow students to cite "any" internet source in a research paper.
old hat really, many universities have been doing this for years, the number of faculty that i know that have had new media considered as a strong or contributing part of their tenure package is well over 100 at this point.
Hmm, can we get librarians who contribute a lot to LibraryThing, Open Library, and the like on this bandwagon? Especially as more institutions make this official policy.
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