‘Hip Happy Prof’ teaches over MySpace, bosses protest:
N.C. State Professor Tom Hoban is offering Sociology 395-M, “Social Movements for Social Change,” on the popular social networking site that claims to have 100 million active users worldwide. But administrators say it’s the wrong space for teaching a university course.
Hoban says he received approval over the summer from his department head to teach via MySpace. But last week, Katie Perry, senior vice provost for academic affairs, told Hoban to move the course to university servers.
Hoban has refused.
“N.C. State’s distance education is primarily oriented toward what I would say is pushing information into students’ brains and then trying to get them to prove that they’ve learned it,” Hoban says. “I want my students to build relationships, to build friendships and to build trust in one another. No one can show me another tool. I’ve told the university, if they can show me one, I’ll move.”
A tenured professor, Hoban is citing academic freedom, saying the university’s applications don’t include social networking components that are essential to the course. He taught it last year using the university’s WebCT Vista site, but found it “impossible” to create social interaction.
Ah, but there is always more – the true reason he is in trouble is because the worst rightwing scum in North Carolina, the John Locke Foundation, does not like his politics:
There’s another aspect to controversy over SOC 395-M: the content. Hoban is both a scholar and a proponent of 1960s counterculture. Students are expected to participate in a social movement as part of the course. Hoban’s syllabus suggests they pursue issues such as “animal welfare and environmental issues; consumerism and healthier eating; peace in the Middle East and social justice; racial equality and spiritual tolerance; sensible drug policy and medical marijuana.”
Then there is Hoban’s reputation. He refers to himself as the Hip Happy Professor, and his personal profile on MySpace–which he makes clear is not affiliated with the university–features a background image of pot leaves, reggae music on the audio player and videos of himself and a young woman taking hits of marijuana and singing songs such as Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry.”
Last October, a profile of Hoban and his “apologetics course on hippies” ran in Carolina Journal, a publication of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative group that criticizes what it considers to be liberal bias in higher education.
Gotta love the guy! I hope he wins this and I hope his classes are always full!