[Air-L] Lesson plans for teaching for a peaceful, diverse world that is safe for everyone

Chris Peterson chris at cpeterson.org
Thu Nov 10 04:56:31 PST 2016


Hi all — 

Last night, I was scheduled to teach an internet studies course here at MIT. I felt like cancelling it but ultimately moved it to Lobby 7 (where students had created an installation <https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/11/09/after-stunning-election-trump-students-share-hopes-and-fears-mit/pmx6GFPACcc40RDdIBUkIJ/story.html> voicing their hopes and fears about the election). We spent the first hour of class talking about the election, different places that the students were coming from (geographically, culturally, politically, etc), the idea that there is a way forward, even if it is hard (can’t just wait for the next vote in four years), and the non-neutrality of whatever work one does in life (can’t simply solve math problems out of this). I also gave them an extension on their project which had been due. 

This is, of course, short/immediate term, not curricular. But a lot of students emailed me after that class saying they were very appreciative to have a space they could talk about this, to have an adult acknowledge their hopes/fears and also their agency, to say that yes, this isn’t a normal moment, and it shouldn’t feel normal, and we shouldn’t pretend it is normal, and the ability to recognize and build in the space for that is equally a part of a college education. A number of students emailed me after the class to thank me for doing that since not all of their professors had. 

All of which is to say that if you are teaching this fall, and your class hasn’t met since the election, trying to work this election in immediately and explicitly, as topic rather than as background, text rather than subtext, has value that complements the long-term curricular work that everyone has been sharing so helpfully below. 

Best, 

— Chris 

> On Nov 10, 2016, at 7:35 AM, Ezequiel Pablo Korin <ekorin at uga.edu> wrote:
> 
> I agree with Brian's basic premise that there should be no differentiation in the magnitude in which we frame the positive/negative impact of technology and that the resulting categories (good/bad) are socially constructed.
> 
> However, I think that the key here is not to qualify the outcomes (or even the process itself), but to provide tools & framing for a critical approach toward the use of technology. Promoting that students question - and ultimately understand - the reasons for the decisions they make regarding the use of technology from a solid theoretical space seems to be the key here, at least for me.
> 
> E. Korin
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Nov 10, 2016, at 7:28 AM, Brian Butler <bsbutler at umd.edu> wrote:
> 
>>> I try to te[a][ch this as my believe is that technology acts as a
>> magnifying
>>> lens: good wo[u]ld be better, wrong will be catastrophic.
>> 
>> Just out of curiosity: Why the imbalance?
>> 
>> Technology magnifies "good" incrementally and it magnified "bad"
>> exponentially?
>> 
>> It seems like it would be more helpful to encourage students to think about
>> how technology takes human tendencies and change the world (i.e. good ->
>> better and bad -> worse), not that good is better and bad is
>> fatal/catastrophic/etc.
>> 
>> Moreover, given that a key challenge of living in a truly diverse world is
>> coming to consensus on what is "good" and what is "bad", how should we
>> frame these conversations so they are useful/constructive/etc?
>> 
>> Brian B.
>> 
>> —————————————————————————————————
>> Brian S. Butler, Ph.D.
>> UMD iSchool
>> University of Maryland
>> College Park, MD  USA
>> —————————————————————————————————
>> 
>> On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 7:20 AM, Cristian Berrio Zapata <
>> cristian.berrio at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear Jill:
>>> 
>>> I try to tech this as my believe is that technology acts as a magnifying
>>> lens: good wold be better, wrong will be catastrophic.
>>> 
>>> I propose you and our colleagues to engage in small videoconferences to
>>> talk to our students around the world. I can arrange some sessions where
>>> you can make a brief intervention to show what is happening in you region,
>>> and your perspective about it.
>>> 
>>> Most of us people, students also, live in our little boxes with our petty
>>> problems, too busy to look ahead the cellphone or Facebook. The global
>>> information society has been used to divide and reign, but not to awake the
>>> mind of youngsters and take them out of the box.
>>> 
>>> I already did this with a professor in the USA and it was a good
>>> experience. Talk to others with video conference or recording a video
>>> message; get students to know each other and talk about what is happening
>>> here in Brazil with the impeachment, in Colombia the plebiscite for peace,
>>> in UK with brexit, and now with the Trump era in the USA.
>>> 
>>> There is the problem of language and translation, time zone differences,
>>> technicalities, but we can solve it all if we join.
>>> 
>>> That would be my proposal and invitation. Now, in regard to the topics to
>>> share, I think we can create a webpage, a blog or Facebook group, to get
>>> the topics together. I would help in maintaining it if it helps. Again,
>>> there the language barrier might be a problem so, we have to think how to
>>> use the web's transition in our advantage.
>>> 
>>> If you agree, I am open to discuss this via Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp,
>>> Hangouts or Telegram and make a plan.
>>> 
>>> Greedy corporate leaders and unscrupulous politicians are already joined
>>> into global networks. We citizen are not. This can be an opportunity.
>>> Thanks for you invitation.
>>> 
>>> Em 10 de nov de 2016 7:58 AM, "Jill Walker Rettberg" <
>>> Jill.Walker.Rettberg at uib.no> escreveu:
>>> 
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> 
>>>> After the US elections I am sure many of us, whereever we live, are
>>>> thinking about how to plan next semester’s teaching so that it helps
>>> equip
>>>> the next generation to deal with an increasingly frightening world.
>>>> 
>>>> Within internet research, some obvious topics we can discuss are things
>>>> like polarisation of polticial views, filter bubbles, algorithmic news
>>>> filtering and the increasing spread of fake news. More generally, we can
>>>> design activities that foster critical thinking, empathy, understanding
>>> of
>>>> people who are not like oneself, and relate this to
>>>> technology/internet/media.
>>>> 
>>>> Maybe this would also be a good time to bring discussions of pre-internet
>>>> media and technology and their role in the years before WW2, or even
>>>> earlier dangerous times, and to compare this to social media etc today?
>>>> 
>>>> I don’t yet have very clear ideas about this, but I would love to share
>>>> ideas with other internet researchers who teach and who want to do the
>>> best
>>>> we can in our teaching to counteract the racism, sexism, hatred, distrust
>>>> of government and of others, and general division that is not only
>>>> affecting the USA but obviously Europe and other parts of the world as
>>> well.
>>>> 
>>>> I know many of us already teach these things, but maybe not in as focused
>>>> a way as I think we may need to do in future? Or maybe the resources I’m
>>>> longing for already exist?
>>>> 
>>>> If you have ideas, please share them! If this is something several of us
>>>> are interested in, we could set up a syllabus/Google doc / Facebook group
>>>> or something. I’m thinking case studies with readings and lesson plans
>>>> would be a really useful resource and might be a way we could do some
>>> good
>>>> in all this.
>>>> 
>>>> Jill
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Jill Walker Rettberg
>>>> Professor of Digital Culture
>>>> Dept of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies
>>>> University of Bergen
>>>> Postboks 7800
>>>> 5020 Bergen
>>>> 
>>>> + 47 55588431
>>>> 
>>>> Blog - http://jilltxt.net
>>>> Twitter - http://twitter.com/jilltxt
>>>> My book "Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs
>>>> and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves" is out on Palgrave as an
>>>> open access publication - buy it in print or download it for free!
>>>> http://jilltxt.net/books
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>>>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>>>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/
>>>> listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>>> 
>>>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>>>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/
>>> listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>>> 
>>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>>> http://www.aoir.org/
>>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
>> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
>> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>> 
>> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
>> http://www.aoir.org/
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
> 
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/




More information about the Air-L mailing list