social media as play, play as learning, learning as movement, movement as social change, social change in social media, social media as play, play as learning, learning as movement … it’s time to join this circle of scholarship and practice with feminist visions in hand and heart! Commerce and knowledge work today backdrop so-called transmedia stories, those told across technology platforms, as well as the making, sharing and patterning of knowledges across economic and social sectors, making up what some call the transdisciplinary.
In this class we will be studying this context as well as the practices of social media and the possibilities it offers for feminist activisms, learning and play. Where do you come in? Where do I come in? This women’s studies senior seminar is going to be your chance to share scholarship and practice with two feminist thinkers about media possibilities today and how feminists might move and shape them. I am a feminist scholar of media and technoscience and I like to tell stories about different media and what they are good for. My partner is Jarah Moesch, a new media artist and technologist who will be teaching us all ways of playing with activist media and workshoping skills and ideas. This will be an exciting, experimental semester! A new course in our department!
We will not be using Blackboard in this class, but rather working here with Blogger, a public online site, using it for class multimedia presentations, for class preparation and review, and maybe for other possibilities! Blogger is one example of the kinds of social media available on the web today, and we want to be studying it as well as using it, seeing what it is good for!
A senior seminar is required for all women's studies majors, minors and certificate students. To create our own community of theorists and activists, we want to all get to know each other and work with each other. Ours here is an active and ambitious learning community for scholarship and practice.
All students please do come to office hours to just talk. I want to get to know each of you personally! I am excited to see again students I already know and very much looking forward to meeting those of you I don't know yet! This should be a very fun class, demanding I hope in the most satisfying ways, and full of comradeship and excitement. I want to know how the class is working for you, what touches and excites you, how your projects are going.
Let me know in office hours or after class when you need help, or any special accommodations, the sooner the better. Folks with disabilities or who need time from class to observe religious holidays, please contact Katie ASAP to make any arrangements necessary.
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how the class will be organized
This will be a media and technology intensive course. So-called constructionist learning and collaboration open up our analysis of interconnections among social media worlds. Bring your own laptop, netbook or iPad if you can, to connect with social media, to become increasingly savvy about web resources, and to use data visualizations and virtual environments for cognition and collaboration. Throughout the course we will share resources for all these. • The first half of each class will work off of Katie’s blogger presentations to collectively work out and discuss how we might use the stories these knowledges tell. • The second half of each class will involve active participation in a variety of forms, sometimes more discussion, often hands on practice. What you will complete by the end of the course is a project that combines both the scholarly and the practice aspects. Our course term will be structured using the five steps that have emerged from the Learning, Freedom and the Web project online: http://learningfreedomandtheweb.org/
1. Strategy — what’s your big idea?
2. Story — help people understand it.
3. Tools — set up simple tools that make it easy for contributors to see what’s happening and get involved.
4. People — who are you trying to reach? how can they help right now?
5. Prototype — build fast. test and improve it together.
(Shake and repeat.)
In other words, the course will involve both taking things in, absorbing them and learning to put them in context; and also actively using what we come to know, sharing it others, thinking on one's feet, brainstorming and speculating, figuring out how it all fits together. Scholarship and Practice. Both require careful preparation before class and keeping up with the reading. Some educators call these forms passive and active learning. One can take in and absorb more complicated stuff than one can work with and work out, at least at first. We do both in the class, but we also realize that active learning requires patience and imagination, a bit of courage to try things out without knowing something for sure yet, and a willingness to play around with being right and wrong, guessing and a lot of redoing.
Graphics, lecture materials and notes, communications and assignment help, and other vital class information and presentations live here, the site you are using now. You can complete your assignments properly only if you stay very familiar with our class website. Bookmark it immediately! Plan on revisiting this site and reading email often, at least every couple of days, not just a few minutes before class. These are course requirements. If you have any difficulties getting access to these resources come and talk to me as soon as possible. Any announcements about cancellations due to weather or other considerations, and general class requirements will be sent out on coursemail and you need to see those immediately.
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graded assignments
This is an experimental class and will involve a lot of shaking, stirring, doing, and figuring this out on the fly! Grades will be determined generously, but hard, imaginative, collaborative work in good faith and using smart processes are essential. Working with the five step process altogether is key. Each step involves team work, demos and products of various sorts; their presentation and documentation will be worth 20% of your grade each time.
1. Strategy — what’s your big idea?
• inventories and brainstorming write ups, document online presence, logbook & LOA materials
We will start off the class with inventories of who we all are, when we can be available for partnerships, workshops and team work, what we can do, what we want to learn to do, what web presences we already have, and what we might be working toward. Brainstormings will be the first write-ups to share. All through the class you will keep a logbook of what you have done, what you are in the middle of doing, what you are working toward. You will turn in a cumulative log each time you work through one of the five stages of the class. [Learning Outcomes Assessments or LOAs are taken for our department from this class. At the end of this course you will turn in extra copies of some assignments to be used anonymously in department assessment efforts. Your turning these in are a part of this 20% of your grade.]
2. Story — help people understand it.
• storyboard (crafty, electronic, or online), includes presentation & digital picture
A storyboard is a form of visual thinking and planning. It allows you to visually demonstrate to yourself and others a sequence of steps in an interactive and/or collaborative process. It allows you to reorder your procedures, to brainstorm with others, and to create consensus. You will present your storyboard and turn in a digital picture to document it.
3. Tools — set up simple tools that make it easy for contributors to see what’s happening and get involved.
• tools & skills: demo and write up of what you learn new and what you get better at
You will participate in skills building in the course of the class, perhaps in workshops, with team members or partners, or on your own. You will demonstrate a new skill or something you got especially better at and write up how that happened and how it matters.
4. People — who are you trying to reach? how can they help right now?
• people analysis in written form with contact log
Some students will be developing a project with an NGO or activist group in mind. Others will be thinking about audiences for projects. In these and other cases analysis of who is involved in what you are doing and what it is supposed to make happen are essential. You will write this up and may include a contact log of people involved.
5. Prototype — build fast. test and improve it together.
(Shake and repeat.)
• demo your prototype, turn in digital pictures
You will present the prototype for your project and will document both presentation and any objects with digital pictures.
SUMMARY OF GRADED MATERIALS: Each part is 20% of your grade:
• inventories and brainstorming write ups, document online presence, logbook & LOA materials
• storyboard (crafty, electronic, or online), includes presentation & digital picture
• tools & skills: demo and write up of what you learn new and what you get better at
• people analysis in written form with contact log
• demo your prototype, turn in digital pictures
Wondering how grades are determined? What they mean?
• A work is excellent, unusually creative and/or analytically striking
• B is fine work of high quality, though not as skilled, ambitious, or carefully presented as A
• C is average work fulfilling the assignment; should not be hasty, or insufficiently collaborated
• D work is below average or incomplete; shows many difficulties or cannot follow instructions
• F work is not sufficient to pass; unwillingness to do the work, or so many difficulties unable to complete
See http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/grades.html
for more discussion of each grade. Remember, you can always talk to Katie about grades and your evaluation concerns during office hours anytime.
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what to do when you must unavoidably miss class, perhaps for illness:
• TALK TO AT LEAST TWO CLASS BUDDIES IMMEDIATELY. Before you even come back to class, call them up or email them and find out if any thing you need to plan for is happening the day you return, and make sure that you know about any changes in the syllabus. Try to have done the reading and be as prepared as possible to participate in class and with your projects when you return.
• MAKE A DATE TO MEET WITH CLASS BUDDY TO GET NOTES AND DISCUSS WHAT WENT ON IN CLASS WHILE YOU WERE GONE. You are responsible for what happened in class while you were gone. As soon as possible, get caught up with notes, with discussions with buddies and finally with all the readings and assignments. Always talk with class buddies first. This is the most important way to know what went on when you were gone and what you should do.
• AFTER YOU HAVE GOTTEN CLASS NOTES AND TALKED ABOUT WHAT WENT ON IN CLASS WITH BUDDIES, THEN MAKE APPOINTMENT TO SEE KATIE. If you just miss one class, getting the notes and such should be enough. But if you've been absent for more than a week, be sure you make an appointment with Katie, and come in and discuss what is going on. She wants to know how you are doing and how she can help. Or, while you are out, if it's as long as a week, send Katie email at katking@umd.edu and let her know what is happening with you, so she can figure out what sort of help is needed. You may need to contact team member as well.
• IF YOU ARE OUT FOR ANY EXTENDED TIME be sure you contact Katie. Keep her up to date on what is happening, so that any arrangements necessary can be made. If you miss too much class you will have to retake the course at another time. But if you keep in contact, depending on the situation, perhaps accommodations can be made. Since attendance is crucial for the process of this special course and thus for your final grade LET KATIE KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING so that she can help as much and as soon as possible.
• IF AT ALL POSSIBLE YOU SHOULD ATTEMPT TO DO TEAM OR PARTNER WORK VIA CELLPHONE WITH OTHER MEMBERS. Similarly if you are, say, too sick to attend a demo session but are perhaps at home recovering, you might make arrangements with a class buddy to “attend” via cellphone, listening to presentations and even possibly giving your own. Consult with Katie, but especially with class buddies for such possibilities.
• THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN EXCUSED ABSENCE AND ANYTHING ELSE: generally speaking you are only allowed to make up work you missed if you have an excused absence. That the absence is excused does not mean you are excused from doing the work you missed, but that you allowed to make it up. I usually permit people to make up any work they miss, and do not generally require documentation for absences. Be sure to give explanations in your logbook and do make up all work you have missed.
Check our blog and http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/missmore250.html
for these instructions.
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FIRST WEEKS:
course outline, • scholarship and • practice
Wednesday, January 26 – Welcome to our class in the scholarship and practice of feminist social media activisms!
1. Strategy — what’s your big idea?
2. Story — help people understand it.
3. Tools — set up simple tools that make it easy for contributors to see what’s happening and get involved.
4. People — who are you trying to reach? how can they help right now?
5. Prototype — build fast. test and improve it together. (Shake and repeat.)
• this week the first part of the class will take up our introductions: to each other, the books, the syllabus, the website, and the shape of the term
• the second part will begin our starting-things-out exercises: inventories begun, examining Share This! and Jarah’s poster fun.
1. Strategy — what’s your big idea?
Wednesday, February 2 – Share This! our handbook
• read all of Zandt, Share, choose the chapter that excites you the most and become an expert on it
• brainstorming and team building
Wednesday, February 9 – Media Ecologies
• read Ito, Hanging, intros and section 1 (xi-78) and look through Mitchell, Data, for contexts and politics, for example, Flanagan, Woodward, Hayles; and/or check out Pink Noises, book and website.
• teams and partners begin project visioning: Tara Rodgers will inspire us by visiting to discuss the history of her website Pink Noises, the book that came out of it, and her projects. The book is available as a Google ebook, and the website is: http://www.pinknoises.com/
Wednesday, February 16 – Friendship
• read Ito, Hanging, section 2 (79-116), look through Boler, Hard Times, read the Introduction (1-50)
• what stories are you going to tell?
Wednesday, Februrary 23 -- Activisms & Stories
• we will examine the four required books, Ito, Boler, Zandt, and Hands, together with the recommended books, Mitchell and Rodgers, to think about the activisms feminists consider, implement, critique, share, disagree about, and entangle. What scholarly maps do these draw upon?
• we will work on the stories for projects, for the workshop we will participate in for the Theorizing the Web conference, and for the learning outcomes women's studies considers meaningful for those finishing the program. How might these all come together in a meaningful way? What will it take to interconnect them?
2. Story — help people understand it.
Wednesday, February 23 – Visualizations as stories, plans, relationships
• Hands, @, chapters 6 & 7 (142-190 + notes; if cannot, then choose another chapter we haven’t read in both Ito and Boler)
we want to revisit all books in order to map them across feminisms – this is a story? story, argument, persuasion
• project planning and storyboarding
Wednesday, March 2 – People and their lives, how to touch others, to empathize
• read ALL BOXES in Ito. Remember what Zandt has to say about empathy and sympathy.
how are these stories? what do they do? how do they help people understand the arguments of the book?
• how does your project touch you? how can it touch others? how do you plan to reach out?
=> • inventories and brainstorming write ups, document online presence, logbooking
All through the class you will keep a logbook of what you have done, what you are in the middle of doing, what you are working toward. You will turn in a cumulative log each time you work through one of the five stages of the class. [Learning Outcomes Assessments or LOAs are taken for our department from this class. At the end of this course you will turn in extra copies of some assignments to be used anonymously in department assessment efforts.]
=> • storyboard (crafty, electronic, or online), includes presentation & digital picture
A storyboard is a form of visual thinking and planning. It allows you to visually demonstrate to yourself and others a sequence of steps in an interactive and/or collaborative process. It allows you to reorder your procedures, to brainstorm with others, and to create consensus. You will present your storyboard and turn in a digital picture to document it.
3. Tools — set up simple tools that make it easy for contributors to see what’s happening and get involved.
Wednesday, March 9 – What counts as a tool? “Tools” across technologies and media.
• Boler, chapters 4, 9, 10, 16
• is your project a tool? does it use tools? what are the tools you have to offer or that you need?
Wednesday, March 16 – Creative processes and products as tools, using tools, generating tools
• Ito, chapter 5 (during the break read chapter 6 as well)
• games as learning as play
=> • tools & skills: demo and write up of what you learn new and what you get better at
You will participate in skills building in the course of the class, perhaps in workshops, with team members or partners, or on your own. You will demonstrate a new skill or something you got especially better at and write up how that happened and how it matters.
Wednesday, March 23 – SPRING BREAK
4. People — who are you trying to reach? how can they help right now?
Wednesday, March 30 – KATIE IN SWEDEN, JARAH TAKES ON
• projects and conference workshop
Wednesday, April 6 – Creativity, people, things and relationships
• look again at Zandt, Boler ch 17, 11, 15
• projects and conference workshop
FRIDAY, APRIL 9 – THEORIZING THE WEB CONFERENCE
• we are creating a workshop for the conference! Be there!
=> • people analysis in written form with contact log
Some students will be developing a project with an NGO or activist group in mind. Others will be thinking about audiences for projects. In these and other cases analysis of who is involved in what you are doing and what it is supposed to make happen are essential. You will write this up and may include a contact log of people involved.
5. Prototype — build fast. test and improve it together. (Shake and repeat.)
Wednesday, April 13 – Always in development
• pick 3 ch we have not read yet in any book, according to your interests
• project workshop
Wednesday, April 20 – Testing things out
• pick 3 more.
• project workshop
Wednesday, April 27 – What happens next?
=> • demo your prototype, turn in digital pictures
Wednesday, May 4 – LAST DAY: SCHOLARSHIP AND PRACTICE
• LOA materials due, and a discussion of the course, what we have done, what we could do
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