Event Media

Aaron Delwiche provided the opening keynote for the Fall 2006 NMC Regional Conference, hosted by Trinity College in San Antonio.

Many cyberspace residents feel that America's current body of law is incapable of dealing with the complexities of digital culture. This serious problem transcends traditional ideology. Our legislators have spent most of their lives seeking and maintaining political office, and many have had little exposure to new media.

Is there any validity to the claim that current regulations affecting digital media are endangering the vitality of our democracy and sapping the economic health of our nation? Do restrictive copyright laws inhibit scholarly debate while weakening teachers in the classroom? Is it true that these laws throw roadblocks in front of artists while doing very little to protect the rights of creators?

Get a sense of the level of activity captured in this smorgasboard of sounds as the participants in the 2007 NMC Directors meeting share ideas on the NMC Initiatives.

At the 2007 NMC Directors Meeting held March 8 in Denver, we asked some of the participants to reflect on the meeting and to let other Directors know the value of these meetings. Listen to this 15 minute collection of comments in their own voices.

The American author Frederick Buechner wrote, "The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt."
Education and cultural heritage professionals, individually and collectively, are approaching a giant interchange-not just a crossroads-but an interchange. Will we let the new technologies shape us? Or will we use mankind's latest set of tools to build a legacy, as best we can for future generations? Is this simply a period of controlled chaos? Or are we spiraling out of control? Has the room full of hammers gotten so big, we've forgotten what it was that was so important for us to nail down?

The long-honored traditional path of scholarship goes something like this: ask a question - do the research - see a pattern - summarize the evidence - tell a new story or add an original ending to a familiar one. Anyone with a doctorate degree has been well-trained in the variations, and the pathway is well-worn and clear.