Critical Pedagogy
Critical and Digital Pedagogies: a Virtual Unconference
May 14, 2013 | Filed in: Commons
by Valerie Robin
Most of us are not strangers to the concept of the forum. Forums are attached to nearly every type of community building platform that hopes to encourage continuing discussion. But what do we do with forums? If you’re anything like me, you dip your typing fingers in the forum pool about twice a year, but mostly forget they exist. In their recent article “The Discussion Forum is Dead; Long Live the Discussion Forum,” Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel claim “the forum itself does not automatically promote meaningful conversation -- or conversation at all.” In truth, the forum, any forum, is a metaphorically empty room when no one is in it. But it is much more than just a potential place to gather. It is a space with potential: “In the right hands, it can do wonders,” Jesse and Sean remind us.
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Most of us are not strangers to the concept of the forum. Forums are attached to nearly every type of community building platform that hopes to encourage continuing discussion. But what do we do with forums? If you’re anything like me, you dip your typing fingers in the forum pool about twice a year, but mostly forget they exist. In their recent article “The Discussion Forum is Dead; Long Live the Discussion Forum,” Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel claim “the forum itself does not automatically promote meaningful conversation -- or conversation at all.” In truth, the forum, any forum, is a metaphorically empty room when no one is in it. But it is much more than just a potential place to gather. It is a space with potential: “In the right hands, it can do wonders,” Jesse and Sean remind us.
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A Scholarship of Resistance: Bravery, Contingency, and Higher Education
April 01, 2013 | Filed in: Profession
by Lee Skallerup Bessette and Jesse StommelDigital pedagogy, or any experimental critical pedagogy, is necessarily dangerous, often with real risks for both instructors and students, much of which can be valuable for learning. But when we experiment with our pedagogies, we confront an establishment that can be hostile to anything new -- an establishment that often punishes rather than rewards innovation -- that increasingly enforces the standardization of curriculums and classroom practice. With approximately three-quarters of all classes being taught by contingent faculty, any deviation can trigger a non-renewal, leaving the critical pedagogue on the outside looking in. Read More...
Bright Lines and Golden Rules: Copyright, Fair Use, Critical Pedagogy
September 05, 2012 | Filed in: Open Education
by Robin Wharton
The slippery semiotics of the word “fair” render fair use/dealing a murky and changeable concept. What is “fair” in one set of circumstances will not be “fair” in another. […] When I was a practicing attorney, I thought answering the question, “Is this fair use?,” with the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” was a pretty good strategy. Because context matters in the fair use/dealing analysis, many professionals can do a quick fairness check by asking how they might respond as a copyright owner to whatever use they might be contemplating.
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The slippery semiotics of the word “fair” render fair use/dealing a murky and changeable concept. What is “fair” in one set of circumstances will not be “fair” in another. […] When I was a practicing attorney, I thought answering the question, “Is this fair use?,” with the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” was a pretty good strategy. Because context matters in the fair use/dealing analysis, many professionals can do a quick fairness check by asking how they might respond as a copyright owner to whatever use they might be contemplating.
Read More...Occupy the Digital: Critical Pedagogy and New Media
August 06, 2012 | Filed in: Critical Pedagogy
by Pete Rorabaugh
Teaching is a moral act. Our choice of course content is a moral decision, but so is the relationship we cultivate with students. Both physical and digital learning spaces require us to practice a politics of teaching, whether we’re conscious of it or not. However, traditional relationships between students and teachers come freighted with a model of interaction that often impedes learning. They are hierarchical. Progressive teaching, informed by a critical attention to pedagogy, resets the variables and insists on the classroom as a site of moral agency.
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Teaching is a moral act. Our choice of course content is a moral decision, but so is the relationship we cultivate with students. Both physical and digital learning spaces require us to practice a politics of teaching, whether we’re conscious of it or not. However, traditional relationships between students and teachers come freighted with a model of interaction that often impedes learning. They are hierarchical. Progressive teaching, informed by a critical attention to pedagogy, resets the variables and insists on the classroom as a site of moral agency.
Read More...