Did you miss me? I want to start by saying a big thank you to Ida for her wonderful takeover of The Spaces in Between, it is easily my most read issue which is thrilling and slightly disconcerting at the same time. I’m only kidding, it is a wonderful way to share the work of others and foster a community of practice. It was great to receive a few likes and emails, it seems you enjoyed welcoming a visitor, so I have a few other people lined up in the coming months, keep an eye out.
I’m writing late into Thursday evening, having just returned from the pink out - a High School Soccer match raising money for Breast Cancer Awareness, it was a great occasion although the footy (soccer) itself was played at a breakneck pace and with break leg finesse. I seriously worry about a player suffering a career-ending injury, mostly because they aren’t afforded any protection from the referees. I watched the game through my fingers.
I hope that you’re well, thank you again for all the comments, if you’re a regular reader and you’ve not sent a note, then I invite you to say hello, let me know what you’re up to.
This week I’m thinking about process, play, and pot plants.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
It was the last week teaching Doha-based students on the Multicultural Immersion course. This doesn’t mean the end though, just the beginning of the end and students will have around ten days to complete their final projects, short digital stories inspired by the immersive technology that we have been exploring in class. Students are shooting with 360˙cameras, creating panoramas, either illustrated or photographed, sometimes combining both, and some using a platform called Thinglink where you can create 360˙ tours and include hotspot information, links, and embedded media. Other instructors will recognize this fun, scary part where you hold your breath and hope you’ll see wonderful results. I’m on hand throughout to troubleshoot and answer questions. Here we go.
I have tried to impress on the class the need for tests and experiments which are essential to a creative process. You’ve got to have some time to play but often students will find the first time using the technology will be when they’re making final pieces. This is a high-risk situation that often leads to compromise, dissatisfaction, and regret. You have to get to know your tools and materials, you have to discover things on your own and reflect on the results.
I’m thinking about this experimentation and exploration process as I finalize my next course Everyday Learning. I want students to make activity packs, this feels like a great way to explore learning in the wild. The challenge is to draw the design process out into the open where everyone can see it taking shape. This is anathema to students who would rather work individually, away from the light, and fret about deadlines than let the process guide them. That’s probably unfair and I’ll read this in a week and know that it’s harsh on those who do trust the process and listen diligently and use the roadmaps provided to them.
As a last-minute change, I’m wondering about moving from individual projects to group projects, mostly inspired by my colleague Dr. Craig Moreau who guided our team so well in another recent course. Of course this time I won’t have Craig on hand, but I’m hoping enough of what he said has stayed in my head, that it gives me the necessary courage to give it a go.
Life Lessons
As the semester unfolds I have tried to contact people I lost touch with during lockdown. I’m armed with a butterfly net to catch conversations fluttering around above my head. I’ve started emails with “How are you?” or “Hope you’re well” hoping that they’ll at least remember who I am, even if they have long lost the thread of what we were discussing.
I mentioned before that looking through photos of the past year is a strange experience, I feel as if a whole year and a half has been erased from my memory. Perhaps it was worse, because we had only been here in the US for a short time, and that we were still forming relationships. Now we’re picking up again it feels as if we skipped a bit, friends and colleagues have now known me for much longer than it feels they have. I know, I’m feeling a bit confused too.
Somewhere during the pandemic, I helped to write a thing, and this week it appeared.
I’m so fond of this paper, especially because it has meant staying in touch with brilliant colleagues in the UK. I’m hoping to give a talk at the Playful Learning Conference, as a sort of companion piece. I’ll let the paper speak for itself, but there are few parts that still really resonate, that it is an appeal for playfulness and creativity within academic practice, and for risk-taking too. I have had this conversation so many times, that content isn’t form and that are so many ways to tell a story and engage audiences, and still communicate ideas. I hope the paper encourages academics to experiment (there’s that word again) without feeling guilty about it.
Caspar S. & Whitton P. & Whitton N., (2021) “A framework for re-imagining video in Higher Education using playfulness”, The Journal of Play in Adulthood 3(2). p.131-147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5920/jpa.858
Lost and Found
A few things from this week.
An excellent article, which outlines a series of e-learning principles and how they can be folded into in-person delivery. (via FLTmag)
Zoom classes during the pandemic meant more locals learned CHamoru, Guam’s native language, so many good things here that other less-commonly-taught languages might benefit from.
There are few weeks left of National Hispanic Heritage Month and so many events across the US to recognize and celebrate the positive contribution that Hispanic Americans have had on their communities. My wonderful colleague Kenya Dworkin is participating in a series of talks and readings, some of which are listed in this calendar of events.
As the evenings draw in, you might be looking for a new course, etchr studio has a few that might tempt you. Look out for a few offers and free content.
Thank you
I’m going to publish a revised syllabus for 82.288 Everyday Learning via my educate spaces site and try and hope to publish student outcomes via The Global Languages & Cultures Room Digital Festival page - if you go there now you’ll see last year’s work.
I’ve been enjoying the entries in the creative non-fiction micro-essay contest running on Twitter @cnfonline, here’s one I enjoyed that seemed to speak to this time of year.
The cicadas have left. Yesterday hubby saw a garter snake in a sunny patch of grass. Last stretch before winter dark. We’re arriving at the bottom of the year. I look at the flowers before they go away. Impermanence, reincarnation written in the Morse code of light.
I’m going to leave it there, it’s already a muddled ending and my eyes are sending me urgent rest signals.
I hope that you have a good week, look after yourselves.
Thanks for the shoutout, Stephan! So happy to have found here. My apologies I can't be "on hand" anymore but I'm always an email away. :-) Hoping to get your article on playfulness sometime down the road.