Reading Response for 10/07/09

Some thoughts on multi-modality:
I download lectures off of itunes university and listen to them when I drink my coffee in the morning. I love it. I just finished a lecture series on the history of the monarchy in the UK. How awesome is that. I know, that I (and most likely we) are freaks of education that can help fueling that belly-fire within us to keep hoarding knowledge. But I don't think we can discount the practicality and ease with which knowledge can be disseminated and eagerly anticipated if put within the right modality. But what is it that makes me so comfortable with a stodgy old man from Kings College in London while I eat granola in a bathrobe...is it the acquisition of knowledge on my own terms? I don't really know, but I think there is something of merit in the fact that the medium of transmission (downloaded video lecture) makes me much more willing and eager to listen, learn and engage.
I wonder if it is the medium itself that causes this excitement in myself. I watch the television show the Office which is on NBC. I do not watch the show on my 26 inch T.V. on the network broadcast. I don't watch the show on my dvr, even if I recorded it. I like to watch it sitting in bed, on Hulu.com before I go to sleep. This is my routine now. This is how I anticipate my engagement with a sitcom. I don't think I'm subverting the proper way of watching the show. I've found a better way to appreciate it.

Can we use this in the classroom. Why not? In my junior year of college I took an Art History course on the art and architecture of the Byzantine period. My professor was on Ellena Popovich, and 84 year old Polish professor that was as dogmatically anti-tech as possible. She was the one professor at the University without an email address. She used an old projector and slides from the slide vault (a dusty cricket trap in the bottom of the Art History building that looked like a set piece from a David Fincher [Se7en and Fight Club come to mind]) and refused to use digital projections or digital images online for the class. Please remember that a great deal of work in an Art History course is remembering all the works of art that were presented. This isn't particularly hard in a Renaissance course where you can print out note cards with images and names and dates. However, in a Byzantine architecture class (pun intended), memorizing slides which your professor took during a sabbatical in 1964 and which aren't available online at all poses a greater challenge.
The classes solution...we set up an email list server and each week a student with a digital camera would go to the slide vault and snap images of the slides and take down their details. We passed these images around freely. With a collaborative attitude and the functionality of the internet, we were able to have a free exchange of information which saved us time and increased our knowledge of the subject.

What could we do with this? A twitter account for a course in which everyone must register and follow. Any question can be raised. The teacher would check it regularly and address concerns. Why twitter as opposed to a message board? I think the ability to sync with portable communication tools is impressive and effective.

And what of multi-modality as the subject of the course. Something I've been considering for the multi-modal assignment in this course: Go to Ted.com, watch something cool, tell me why its cool, why does it interest you, write 500 words for class on Monday. This seems to me to be something that could really inspire students to write and think critically while being easily accessible.

I agree with the statements made in the Carlson article by Professor Baron in which she iterates that we have the obligation to get students to think academically by enforcing the academic standards of class room lecture protocol. But I don't think this negates the efficacy of multi-modal student engagement.