{"product_id":"the-classroom-and-the-crowd-poetry-and-the-promise-of-digital-community-paperback","title":"The Classroom and the Crowd: Poetry and the Promise of Digital Community - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAl Filreis\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor more than a decade, Al Filreis has taught a free online course about experimental poetry, known as \"ModPo,\" that has drawn some 435,000 students from 179 countries. Online classes even a fraction of ModPo's size have been criticized as impersonal and unengaging. But the citizens of ModPo have formed a generous and enduring intellectual community as together they read poems typically dismissed as difficult and inaccessible. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Classroom and the Crowd\u003c\/i\u003e, Filreis reflects on his decades of experience as a founder of participatory literary communities and teacher of online courses, demonstrating that student-centered education offers new possibilities for humane social networking. Introducing readers to ModPo participants and their open-ended, round-the-clock conversations, he shows how online learning can not only be accessible and educational but also deepen our commitment to democracy. Filreis argues that the emphasis on collaborative learning, space for discussion, and the inherent openness of poetry allows for a sense of community, continuity, and even intimacy that often eludes other online educational endeavors. ModPo embodies principles underlying both modern poetics and cooperative education: Writers and readers, like teachers and learners, create meaning together; many voices are clearer than one; and democracy is a creative practice. Proposing an optimistic vision of mass learning, this book contends that asynchronous education has surprising advantages over the traditional classroom, that panics about a crisis of attention and the death of reading are overblown--and that instead of logging off, we should all start reading with a crowd.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAl Filreis is Kelly Family Professor of English, founding faculty director of the Kelly Writers House, director of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, codirector of PennSound, and publisher of \u003ci\u003eJacket2\u003c\/i\u003e magazine, all at the University of Pennsylvania. His recent books include\u003ci\u003e 1960: When Art and Literature Confronted the Memory of World War II and Remade the Modern\u003c\/i\u003e (Columbia, 2021), and he is the host of the podcast \u003ci\u003ePoemTalk\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 336\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.75 x 9.21 x 6.14 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 25, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44516431069286,"sku":"9780231221597","price":74.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/8PoYGYJbUq9780231221597.webp?v=1770749673","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/the-classroom-and-the-crowd-poetry-and-the-promise-of-digital-community-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}