Dear Professor Sample and Schrum,
I want to respond to your essay titled "What's Wrong with Writing Essays: A Conversation" in Hacking the Academy by addressing each author separately in order of their contribution and then end by addressing the arguments collectively. I hope that's cool.
Dr. Sample,
I really like how you diss the standardized test. I always came to standardized tests with a lot of anxiety and I'm glad that my teachers think they're bullshit too. I found it interesting that you say "I don't believe my mission as a professor is to turn my students into miniature versions of myself" (87). My response to that would be, what if I want to be like you? What if I hope to someday produce a "thesis" or a "dissertation"? I guess the bigger issue here is what level course is this argument addressing? Does that matter? I think it does. The higher I climb into my major the more critical I become of how what I'm asked to do will contribute to preparing me for graduate school or life outside of college. I totally see where you're coming from with this whole argument of "why must writing, especially writing that captures critical thinking, be composed of words?" (87). But I think that you need to check yourself when you start to diss the type of work that comes with being a professor, or at least getting there. If your argument holds true, can't a dissertation be composed of something other than words? You set up a stereotype in the beginning of your argument that nods towards the thesis or dissertation being something only comprised of words, and I think you would have more cred in this whole issue if you came back to that discussion with your argument of how these documents in particular can transcend the notion of text-only. I'm just sayin.
Dr. Schrum,
Your digital story telling assignment for your graduate students sounds super cool, and I wonder how that might be adapted in an undergraduate course for me, or if it even would be at all. Why five photos? Is it because you're following a particular narrative arc that firsts identifies a problem/establishes a setting, provides 2 details that propel a forward motion, has a climax, and then a resolution? If you argue against standardization that seems pretty standard to me. I do really like how putting the photos out of order changes the story, and it totally blew my mind in your goldfish example. Putting things out of order encourages students to look at things in a different way. Super awesome. How would animation in the images (like GIFs) mess with the story? I use GIF's all the time outside of the classroom to communicate with my friends, so I would be someone who might want to play around with that. I also like that you ask students to give credit to where the images are coming from, because thinking about how I use GIF's recreationally, I have no idea where they were created. I really like how there's some method to the madness in the project (not that your story is crazy!). This is clearly demonstrated in your discussion where you say "the process was intentionally scaffolded to emphasize experimentation, reflection, peer feedback, and iterative learning" (94). Sometimes it's helpful for us as students to understand the process for projects, but it's also helpful to hear about the goals and outcomes, and I wish you would have included a discussion about that and how it may be different from a traditional textual story. But anyway, it's still cool. I also like that you are asking your students to do a relatively low stakes project with technology. I know that you've thought about this because you say "why digital storytelling?...because it is accessible, relatively easy to teach basic technical skills, and a useful practical skill. It allows students to engage with visual and multimedia sources while researching a topic and crafting thoughtful arguments; it also creates an end product that ca be shared and revised" (96). As a student, I like knowing that this project will have benefits for me beyond the grade I earn for it in this class. Also, when I'm asked to use a particularly difficult technology as a tool without much experience, I kind of shut down and get super stressed out, so I'm happy that the technology isn't the focus, but rather the story.
In short, I really like that you're both making these arguments with us (the students) in mind. It really seems like you care about us and what literacy means in reference to being able to compose within the 21st century, and that really matters to me. I use technology so much outside of the classroom, and I think it's cool that you're asking us to incorporate that knowledge and skills into ways that are more critical and more in-depth. I don't like being uncomfortable at first (and I especially don't EVER want to feel paralyzed), but usually when I look back on projects or assignments that made me uncomfortable, I find that I'm not uncomfortable anymore and that I'm usually pretty proud of what I produced. In navigating places of tension and sticking it out, we have an opportunity to grow and get something out of it. Besides, who wants to ALWAYS be comfortable and boring? Not me.
Sincerely,
An undergraduate student.
Lucy,
ReplyDeleteYou do a great job embodying the undergraduate voice to express the concerns they most likely have when confronted with these kinds of projects. Honestly, this is a response I would expect to hear from my 101 students if asked. Also, I like how your blog projects an underlying assumption that you as an undergraduate has plans to continue with your education beyond your bachelor's--sometimes, I feel like articles treat the bachelor's as somewhat as a terminal degree, by assuming the students have no interest to pursue a Mater's or PhD. One question that, for me, arose from your blog concerns the treatment of students who vary in the academic pursuits. For example, how do you teach a class that contains students who want to be like the professors and those who don't--or a student who wants to pursue academic and one who wants to pursue a most industry based profession?
Also, during your post to Schrum, you inquire about the use of GIF in the classroom; I appreciate your wanting to use other forms of media in the classroom. This kind of addresses a concern I had while reading: how do we demonstrate the relationship between text and visuals? More importantly, how can students apply this understanding to classroom projects?
Anywho, those are just some thoughts I had between your post and the book reading. Thanks for posting!
--Lacy
Lucy,
ReplyDeleteI really like the tone that you struck throughout your letter here. It was combative and probing in all of the right ways and you did well in pushing back against Sample's efforts to demonize "traditional" text-based writing genres, like the thesis and the dissertation. In asking Sample to "check" himself, you not only extolled the prospective virtues of embodying some of the characteristics of professors and academics, you also challenged him to consider how some of these characteristics might be "hacked" in important and critical ways. You also made some great (but subtle) gestures to the sorts of "gray areas" that emerge when when instructors define what constitutes "discomfort" and "paralysis" and how these definitions could seriously impact how students will or will not engage with the theoretical and ethical promise of digital technology and culture if they are not attentive enough to where, specifically, students might fall on this continuum. It's certainly important for students to meet instructors where they're at, but it's just as important that instructors do the same for students. You're right when you imply that, that cannot be lost in the shuffle and scramble among instructors to integrate this sort of work into various classroom environments. Thank you so much for sharing your blog entry!
Mark