The Picture of Tomorrow

17 July 2012

 The photograph handed to me as part of an exercise in journeying and guiding got me thinking about sense of place.  I'm wondering how—and if-- that sense of place works in virtual classrooms as I continue to sort out my own feelings about students, the internet, and the effects of social media.  The photograph foregrounded an empty eating area just outside Fretwell Hall.  The tables were empty and the trees were bare, indicating that the picture was shot in winter.  One member of our group saw the setting as institutional and sterile.  I saw the lights in the building's windows as warm and inviting—a beckoning to come in from the cold outside.

In the photograph some twenty or so tables sat waiting for people to sit and talk, reflect on a lesson or book, or just be still with each other.  But there were only four people in the picture, all appearing to be walking toward a destination other than the tables and a conversation.  Obviously, the tables would not be so empty in warmer weather; and perhaps leaves on the trees and flowers around the edges of the patio would soften the starkness of this winter scene.  With little thought or imagination I could switch that scene to one of noisy students laughing and talking at one table while those at another pondered weighty academic subjects.

I have followed the physical construction of the campus of UNCC since it was Charlotte College on Elizabeth Avenue in downtown.  I have watched the architecture change from squat cement buildings to the imposing brick and glass structures that pervade the ever-expanding landscape.  My alumnus head swells with ecstasy as I view that photograph and the lights inside the building wrap me with the security of learning I found in those buildings.  Others in my group did not see the same thing.  One of them saw the starkness and the institutionality of the scene—there was not that pride and joy that I felt.  So as I wonder whether all this beautiful brick and mortar rising up among the trees and shrubs will last, will continue to be a mecca for learning.  Or will it become something else as students and professors opt to learn and to teach in front of a computer screen rather than a real classroom.  Will the tables be tweet decks and facebook pages, conversation flowing from fingertips on keyboards rather than mouths and breath? 

Evolution?