Class reflections
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to say. With this class I feel I have a better handle on some key conversations in rhetoric and composition studies. For example, I never really understood this form/content debate. I mean, I understand it, intellectually and historically (not that these two are separate), but I never really understood what the big deal was. After reading the articles on invention, coding, democracy, and control I started getting a better understanding of the power of creative design. These articles prompted my thinking about labor arts and aesthetics, which further solidified my understandings about form/content addressed by many of the readings from the 737 class last year.
I also learned how to think differently. Not only think, but compose differently. This was a huge shift for me. I reflected earlier on feeling like I was a kid learning how to hold a pencil. This is because I am in the process of learning a new way of creating–using the Prezi and the mindmapping software to write was challenging, but useful. Sometimes I felt like different parts of my brain were tweaking–like I’ve been using certain neural connections and networks that have become routine over time. Whenever I felt a strong resistance to something I tried to push past it and sure enough, a new “tweak” would happen. It’s funny because at first I wanted to use these technologies to present my research and my argument(s). I’m thankful for our class discussion around weeks 10-11 because reading peoples’ experiences and watching their presentations made me realize I was going about this wrong. Once I tried composing with this software (if that’s even the right word) the Prezi, for example, clicked into place.
I had a hard time a few aspects of the class, however. While I tried my best to push past some resistances to digitally networked learning, I think they rumbled underneath the surface enough to encourage me to put off participating in discussion until the last-minute. I became very involved with presenting my research ideas to my union members and pretty invested in making sure I was prepared to “speak” to the readings on my blog. But I had a hard time wading through all the conversations–I would get lost and confused and run out of time. I eventually learned to manage my time a bit differently, but ultimately I was not satisfied with my participation in class. This was a shift for me, because in ftf environments I’m almost always participating. Here I would just read and read–kind of an equivalent of staying quiet! I’ve never been the quiet student in class! I would lurk and read, but always felt out of the loop or never quite a part of the conversation. I remember perking up when we talked about which games made an impact on our lives growing up. This was my favorite discussion thread.
I haven’t developed the skills to read quickly through this much text. I am a slow reader and get very distracted when I read. I find my eyes jump all over the text and somehow the printed page has helped slow me down and focus. I’ll be thinking of the strategies I stared developing in this class when I start reading for my preliminary exams. I think they’ll be helpful in that context.
I also like being challenged. When I started feeling wierd and resistant I tried to tune in to that discomfort. I’m rarely one to shut these moments down because I think they can be generative.
If I were to take this class over again, I’d do the following differently:
- I would take it in a semester where I had a lighter course and teaching load. I am on the fence whether there was too much work. I know some of our class discussions centered on this point of contention, but I feel once I figured out that I’d need to shift my learning strategies the workload felt easier to manage. Still, I didn’t have enough time to get everything done on time.
- I would work harder to balance reading and writing about the readings on my personal blog with reading other peoples’ work.
- I might try to experiment more with the presentations. While I feel I got a lot out of what I did, I would have liked to make the PK20X20 work.
I like that I now have a project with a future. As I mentioned in my paper, I’ve taken these ideas to my union and there’s a real possibility we’ll reconsider the role of art, technology, and “critical play” in how we organize. This is pretty exciting, and one of the first times I’ve actually used a seminar project to do something real in the world. Part of why I chose this project was because many of the readings encouraged us to rethink audience. When I write seminar papers it’s mainly for myself and my professor. With this project, however, the form of the Prezi or PK 20×020 forced me to think about audience. This made me want to address more than a couple people; I felt encouraged to get creative about the possibilities this project has for the future.
We’ll see if these technologies make it into my own classrooms. I am in love with teaching ftf, and many of my scholarly interests are centering on ways of teaching. The “ways” I’m interested in would not work online and I’m not interested in cultivating them in the online world, but I think I’ll have my eye out more for discussions, theories, and philosophies about ways of teaching in digital space.
