Information R/evolution

And the grades. I still have not fixed the grades and I can’t figure out what is wrong, but I have students thinking they are getting Fs when I give them As. That can’t be helping. I will get that fixed.

So I have to work on a way to get feedback to students and encourage them to continue. Because I am really happy with the work they have been doing. It’s a small group of active students but they seem to be embacing (with some caution) the whole 2.0 mindset.

Three pedagogical principles for media studies
1. Empowerment

• Gained through a set of theoretical & critical tools
• Set in relation to the media and hegemonic ideology
• Critical analysis as a social/political practice

2. Experience

• Teaching media takes into account students’ social experience:
  • With media
  • With social institutions
  • With values and assumptions
• Learning can be integrated with that experience to foster:

3. Relevance to Everyday Life

• Change students’ relationship to media and their meanings
• Change students’ relationship to social experience.

Elearning network model:
Critical theory maintains that meaning is social, shared, dynamic. It structures our perceptions & social relationships. How is this paradigm applied to learning & knowledge? To the traditional classroom? To the virtual classroom? A network model.

• Elearning environment as a network – unlike hierarchical, podium-centric classroom.
• Learning emerges from network formation
• Instructors and students are nodes on a network
  • A network knows more than any one individual
  • A network is dynamic
  • Network allowed to self-organize, adapt to individuals, context, information & learning tasks.
  • Less hierarchical
  • A network can decentralize learning
  • Students and instructor collaborate with peers with social networking
• Students actively participate in generating knowledge – learning how to learn and share knowledge.
  • Students contribute to a knowledge base
  • The web preserves and makes accessible that knowledge base for future learners
• Activity Oriented
  • Analysis
    • Find a present relevant examples to peers
    • offer critique
  • Discussion on forum or blog platform
    • Sharing experience online
  • Writing
    • Student blogs
    • Student podcasts
    • Wiki contributions
    • Image based documents, PPT, video
    • Formal essays

Connections to external network: The virtual world is the real world

• Learning how to access relevant information is the most important skill in a world of exponentially expanding knowledge.
• Sharing knowledge in the public realm should be a goal
  • addressing student discomfort with public performance

To be continued: Meeting the Challenge: Strategies of course development