I graduated college in 1996, darn that is almost 20 years ago! Then coming back to academia to do graduate school work was a little intimidating. I had been engaged in many fields like architecture, art, the environment, progressive politics, human rights and much more. But very rarely did I have the opportunities to write papers on these topic. This course, New Media and New Literacy, captured my imagination and opened me up to new ways of thinking that I had not before anticipated. The media course encouraged me to participate by using the new ways of expressing my self
I want to use the analogy of fish who may not understand a that it lives in water. As a consumer of the digital age it was great to read books, essays and videos that helped to introduced me to new ways visualizing the world. That help me explore, notice and analyze the media world. I enjoyed these great essays specially Literacies: Social, Cultural and Historical Perspectives by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. Through this process I became aware of multiple intelligence theories. These expanded my thinking literacy constructs from different angles, and helped me articulate challenges with architecture and more over helped me to understand why the public does not understand.
I wish there are better books on media than The text that we reviewed Reading Images.
The class review on looking at commercials was a great exercise, and I enjoyed working on my class project. I was surprised that I could write a three page paper on 16 second commercial. They sure cramp lots of messages in a tiny ad!
As a teacher, In taking this course I have learned that teaching methods that are currently in practice are the great divide teaching. I still there is not one definitive way to teach there so many variables on how people learn. It seem to me that the best approach is to use an educational model that best fits the teacher and the student. In the past, being in a physical classroom and relating to the students and teacher was very effective for me.
On the other hand, sharing my thoughts in a blog format enabled me to have a large conversation with whole class and encouraged all of us to think of broadened ideas.
I am also happy the class forced me to learn how to use video as a teaching tool. I personally learned well by watching educational videos and I am now able to make my own videos.
This on line class format, worked well for all of us busy people. In contrast to attending a physical classroom where there is a specific begin time and end time the online class environment made me always feel the stress of not knowing if I am doing enough or missed someone post or comment . It would have been helpful if we met online once a month and did a Google Hangout meeting so I can see faces and hear voices. That would have helped me feel I belong to a community of learns. I love to be challenged I am even happy when something that I thought was 100% trued out to be totally wrong. The class pushed me many time to question my assumptions.
The the culmination of my learning came together naturally in the final paper. Writing a paper on architectural literacy was the perfect project for me. I have been thinking about this subject for 20 years and I am so glad I had the chance to write in and do research to develop my concepts. I hope to spend more time in other courses digging deeper into this new literacy.
Over all this class was very enriching and the blogs I can remind me of how much we accomplished. Internet leaning broadens everyone ability to share and to learn. That is very exciting. I will end with my favorite saying (Don't believe everything you think or see). Thanks Professor Forbes for your support and encouragement.
No comments:
Post a Comment