This is the third in a trilogy of books by Tara Brabazon about IT and its role in higher education. The previous two books received mixed reactions: academics either loved them or hated them. This book continues that tradition.
If the two previous titles were written in anger about how IT was ruining everything good in universities, this book appears to be a counsel of despair about how sharing information has replaced acquiring information – and, of course, ruining universities. This book examines previous IT and how it was used, misused and abused in higher education. Much of it documents and details the author's frustration at trying and failing to integrate IT into her curriculum.
The “information obesity” of the title refers to the glut of information to which students are exposed and (to Brabazon's despair) enthusiastically embrace. The “intellectual fitness” is Brabazon's view of how IT needs to be curated, corralled and controlled by librarians. Only when librarians once again become the gatekeepers and quality controllers of the torrent of tweets, likes and podcasts sprayed across students will information be formalised, approved and worthy of respect. Only then will order return to academia, and teachers once again have obedient, hard-working and loyal students who share their view of what study should be.
This book is highly opinionated, takes a too-narrow view of the sociology of technology and ultimately reflects the views and experience of one person trying to exercise control in a fast-changing environment. Like the other books in the trilogy, this one is liberally laced with verbatim e-mails from students, examples of student indifference, anecdotes of outrageous behaviour and many other entertaining snippets from academic life.
However, it is too personal and too politicised to be anything other than a diverting read. The world is not nearly as black and white as it is painted here: not all administrators are venal, not all lecturers are heroes and not all students are lazy.
Brabazon's experience is certainly recognisable by most academics, but few would agree to be feeling simultaneously overwhelmed and undermined by the onrush of technology. Many of us embrace it, enjoy and exploit it, and still manage to get students to engage in learning and scholarship. Many of us are adapting and accepting that, in a class of 300 students, 270 will have open laptops in front of them. That is the reality of today's classrooms. The trick is to use that in your teaching, not to try to ban it.
