Pedagogies for
Contemporary
Media + Fiction
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Acknowledgments
I acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional
territory the University of Victoria stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. I teach and conduct my research as a grateful, uninvited guest on these lands.
Office of Indigenous Academic & Community Engagement at UVic
Acknowledgments
I would also like to thank Susan Navarette and everyone at Hartwick for making this event happen, as well as Faith Ryan, Samuel Adesubokan, Tracey El Hajj, Julie M. Funk, Stefan Higgins, Hector Lopez, Danielle Morgan, Alana Sayers, and Lexy Townsend, each of whom has contributed
to the work I am presenting today.
Today
Something like a tour of media + fiction pedagogies at UVic
Touching on stress points across a decade of teaching here
Changes I have made to my teaching, why + to what effects
But really, the story of an OA textbook (ack!) + how it got that way
Image and cover of Contemporary Media and Fiction care of Danielle Morgan.
About Me
I edited three books (1, 2, and 3).
I've been trying to write one, too.
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My Pedagogy
I tend to concentrate on . . .
Learning in medias res, or making rough cuts (see Barad; Kraus),
Expanding what "writing" means (see Shipka).
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Five Things Pedagogical
for the Next 30 Minutes
Technology
Content
Frameworks
Engagement
Access
For each of these, I will address three "periods" or pedagogies I have tried at UVic.
They are not progressions from "worst" to "best," but rather iterations with distinct positions on
the more general question of media's role in humanities pedagogy.
Most of it boils down to what works best in the context I am in.
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What's learned over time
from classroom experiments with media?
How is that learning a part
of humanities research?
About "experiments": I mean "critical media practice." I do not work much with tools or data
(in any strict, quantitative sense), and the Praxis Studio does not oversee any digitization projects.
I lean, then, toward media studies, with an awareness of humanities computing.
For more on HC, see the HCMC and OCAM at UVic.
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Tech + Pedagogy
Less required tech = less debugging or "correcting"
+ more art, media, and fiction on the syllabus.
But (!!!) options afford space for technical work + media practice
while piquing interest in how fiction and culture are mediated.
Here's an example of the most technical options in the CMF book . . .
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2. Content
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Content + Pedagogy
Starting with stories, and grounding media practice in fiction,
puts instructors and students on the same page,
but with attention to ambiguity and variety of experience.
We may go in different analytical directions from there.
Here's an example of content in the CMF book . . .
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3. Frameworks
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Frames + Pedagogy
Attention to mediation, including how our experiences of fiction are
mediated and how fiction addresses us, helps students to
articulate "sense" (apprehension) with "making sense" (comprehension) and to evaluate the ways politics are aestheticized and aesthetics are
politicized across audio, images, and text.
Here's an example of the framework cooked up for the CMF book . . .
4. Engagement
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Engagement + Pedagogy
Responsibility for practice shifts the question from novelty to
accountability, and even from reflection to how stories and
situations materialize (see Barad).
Engagement also becomes less about documenting a process
or producing a project and more about "making your own fun"
(see Riendeau), or addressing conventions and genres by stretching or
warping them. Students rely on their lived experiences as part of,
if not central to, their media practice. They make it theirs?
Clear assessment criteria, with options, is still key: a rubric that
applies to multiple prompts in the same module, for instance.
5. Access
2009-14: Course website with modules and links to OA materials
Recently: OA textbook with an emphasis on accessibility
(see Hamraie; Mingus)
Image care of Danielle Morgan. Thanks as well to Faith Ryan for educating me on the topic of "access intimacy."
Thank You
With thanks again to Susan Navarette and everyone at Hartwick
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