How important is academic discourse that promotes new understandings and allows us to question what we know? In the current age of instant-messaging and Twitter(R), does academic conversation have a place? Frankly, we think that academic discourse is more important now than ever. Our civil society functions best when students, instructors, neighbors, and communities come together to question the information before us, so that decisions and directions are viable, helpful, and ethical. Academic conversations help us sort through the important and not-so-important themes of our lives and how we...

How important is academic discourse that promotes new understandings and allows us to question what we know? In the current age of instant-messaging and Twitter(R), does academic conversation have a place? Frankly, we think that academic discourse is more important now than ever. Our civil society functions best when students, instructors, neighbors, and communities come together to question the information before us, so that decisions and directions are viable, helpful, and ethical. Academic conversations help us sort through the important and not-so-important themes of our lives and how we...