A New Path on the Long Road

I began blogging in earnest shortly after my arrival at Penn State in 2004, but it was not until June 2007 that I created this blog, the Long Road, to reflect on my experiences and share my work with a wider public.

Shortly after meeting @ColeCamplese, then the Director of Education Technology Services at Penn State, in 2006, I agreed to beta test an early version of the Blogs at Penn State platform in one of my courses in Ancient Greek Philosophy.

In that class, and those that followed, I began to develop a cooperative approach to teaching and learning with technology in which students are empowered to give voice to their own experience with the assigned readings and to share these experiences with a wider public audience. This pedagogical approach meant cultivating in my students the same commitment to regular public writing that I was myself trying to develop on The Long Road.

Then, in the Summer of 2009, I became a Faculty Fellow in Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State. The project I undertook that summer, “Socratic Politics in Digital Dialogue,” was designed to explore the opportunities digital expression offers to enhance, deepen, expand and promote my academic scholarship in philosophy by focusing on issues related to the Socratic practice of politics.

Central to this effort was the creation of the Digital Dialogue, a podcast dedicated to cultivating the excellence of dialogue in a digital age. On it, I invited colleagues to join me to talk about their scholarly work, and in the process, my own book project on Socratic and Platonic political philosophy was enriched. That book, itself born in digital dialogue, is now in the process of being published as an enhanced digital book with Cambridge University Press.

In preparation for the appearance of that book and in the wake of my appointment as Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Education, I wanted a more dynamic and integrated digital public space to reflect upon my family, academic and administrative life and to engage those interested in my work in ongoing digital dialogue. So, I decided to move the Long Road, and its sister blogs, my Digital Vita and the Digital Dialogue, to a new WordPress site with a simpler URL: www.cplong.org.

With the help of Amy Grant of Lucid Digital Designs, this vision was developed into the site on which you are reading this post. Her insights, technical skill and patience brought this site to life, and I thank her for her excellent work.

I invite you to explore the site, read the posts, listen to the podcasts, enjoy the pictures and comment when you are so moved. The long row of social media icons at the top of the page provide you with a opportunity to find and share with me via social media. Don’t forget to visit the Curated Daily page where you will find what I am watching, seeing, hearing and reading. The page changes daily as I curate content from across the web.

I am interested in your insights and the work you are doing too, so please don’t hesitate to share with me links to things that interest or are important to you.

This blog is animated by my attempt to live a philosophical life in a digital age. Such a life is enriched by those kind enough to share their ideas, thoughts, questions and creative content with me.

Welcome to this new path on the Long Road.