Way back in 1994, an entertainment review was published in the Penn State student newspaper, The Daily Collegian, of a reality program that showed plastic surgery. The student reviewer emphasized how "gross" it was to see the blood and guts of the surgery. I sat down immediately and wrote a tongue-in-cheek response. I fired it off to the paper. A few hours later, the assistant editor called me to determine if I really had written the outrageous letter. Why, yes, I told her, I had. In fact, I told her, putting her on even more, that the surgical scene reminded me of grinding hamburger, and, wow, was I fond of hamburger. Lacking any sense of irony or humor, the assistant editor blandly thanked me for my contribution.

They printed the letter the next day.

Due to the magic of the Internet, I found the published letter through a search engine. I reprint it here for the posterior of posterity and your potential enjoyment (if, that is, you have found the sense of humor the assistant editor lacked).

July 18, 1994

Letter to the Editor
Not gross

I am extremely offended by your paper's brief, offhand review of The Learning Channel's coverage of actual surgery that appeared in the Playground column on the Weekend Recess page of the July 15 Collegian ("The Ugly").

Your unnamed reviewer writes that surgery on TV is a "bloody mess" and that "Nobody wants to see ribs being spread apart or a hand under the skin of someone's face while they're eating." Says who?

I often have watched The Learning Channel's coverage of surgery while eating steaming bowls of spaghetti without the slightest rise of the gorge. It's really interesting. I mean, doesn't it make your reviewer wonder what that subcutaneous fat under the face skin really feels like?

At first, I thought, well, it's like tapioca. But, then, I got out some of my daughter's "gak" -- you know, the jellylike slimy stuff that kids play with, and twisted my hands through it. It just didn't match the slipperiness that I saw on TV.

So, I moved on to lemon jello. To be sure, I wasn't getting a great feel out of it because I was wearing dishwashing gloves, not thin surgical gloves like I saw on TV. However, the jello squiggled a lot like the subcutaneous fat on the TV, just colder probably and not as bloody. How's that for home science!

And, as far as seeing "ribs spread apart," where, I ask, is your reviewer's sense of awe? Don't you ever wonder how they pack all that stuff in there? A liver, a stomach, a couple of kidneys . . . enough alimentary tract to tie up the entire Board of Trustees.

Most of the meat is the same color, and I was very surprised to see that none of it has those neat little numbers so you can look up the names in Gray's Anatomy.

Then those surgery guys and gals do the deed they're paid for, put the stuff all back on so it fits, sew up the slice like a Thanksgiving turkey, and chit-chat with the family. They bill the whole thing to some accountant working for a big insurer so that nobody close to the act feels gouged. Your reviewer, who probably wrote this vicious little screed while soaking sun in a twine thong at the Natatorium outdoor pool, can never hope to understand this public service.

Your reviewer might believe that The Learning Channel's coverage of surgery is gross, but I believe that it upholds the highest standards for educational television: it informs, it entertains, and it's a great condiment.

David L. Passmore
education professor

Oh, by the way, did I mention I have tenure at Penn State?

Rose Baker and I are invited to present a paper, "Stock Markets For Information
About Policy And Practice In Patient–Focused Care," at the Patient Focused Care Symposium, June 23, 2006 at Magee Women's Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sponsored by the AMD3 Education and Research Foundation and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Center for Continuing Education in the Health Sciences. A brief summary is available.

My coffee this morning was a Danish mild roast. Kinda bland.

Henry Jenkins III is the DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and Director of MIT Comparative Media Studies. He has spent his career studying media and the way people incorporate it into their lives. He is one of the founders and directors of The Education Arcade which is examining the educational potential of computer and video games. He has testified before the U.S. Senate on media violence, the Federal Communications Commission about media literacy, and spoken to the governor’s board of the World Economic Forum about intellectual property law. Jenkins earned his doctorate in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a master’s degree in communication studies from the University of Iowa.

Had dinner with him last night at the Carnegie House Carnegie House, 100 Cricklewood Drive, State College, PA 16803.
Participants in dinner:
Henry Jenkins, DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and Director of MIT Comparative Media Studies
Brett Bixler, Lead Instructional Designer, Education Technology Services
Cole Camplese, Director, Education Technology Services, TLT
David DiBiase, Director, John. A. Dutton e-Education Institute, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Renata Engel, Executive Director of the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence and Associate Dean for Teaching Excellence
Glenn Graham, Director, The Jack P. Royer Center for Learning and Academic Technologies
John Harwood, Sr. Director, Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT)
David Passmore, Professor of Education in Workforce Education and Development, College of Education
Magy Seif E-Nasr, Assistant Professor, Information Sciences and Technology

Jenkins is developing a white paper to discuss what skills kids need to acquire to deal with media. He is working with middle school and high school kids.

Jenkins says that a lot of the discourse is about what media is doing to kids rather than what kids should be doing with media. The assumption appears to be that media participation is passive and receptive. Jenkins says he is interested in what kids do productively with media.

Jenkins provided a number of examples of how teens are using the Internet for media creation. Fifty-seven percent of teens who use the Internet could be considered media creators. They belong to a participatory culture. Low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement. Strong support for creating and sharing. This culture requires new forms of relationships, circulation, and problem solving.

Jenkins just said, "Kids live in a different world tha their parents." Yes, so true. The generational differences in uses of technologies are amazing. Different culture, actually. The teamwork, collaboration, etc. all are different between parents and kids. For sure, for sure. Tolerance for ambiguity, multi-tasking all represent generational differences.

The podcast of my presentation, Wikis in Instruction, at today's Penn State Symposium on Teaching and Learning with Technology is available at: