Beep Boop Blog: learning to incorporate digital media in the classroom

  Creating with Words: Line and Caret This activity asks students to remix their thinking and challenge preconceived notions. What I love about this activity (beyond the wordplay, which is my jam) is that students are creating pathways out of negativity for themselves. They have a word with a negative connotation and through thinking about the meaning of that word, and thinking about the way they think about it - the stoppage of it - they find a way to flip and make a way forward. That’s pretty beautiful. I would use this as part of a poetry unit, but could also see it being a fun standalone activity for days between units.  Creating with Images: Haikonography This is a fun activity that plays with the haiku form to simplify even further into icon images. Students are encouraged to observe the form of the genre still, while exploring what is possible with images. I would include this with a poetry unit. I would probably employ this activity after doing an activity where I show...

One thing that has been on my mind recently is the relationship of literacy to power. Since I was a small child, I loved books and read voraciously. I was teased about being a reader, but I didn’t really take it seriously until I was openly mocked in front of my classmates by my 5th grade teacher for picking a Mark Twain book from the library. “Rachel thinks she’ll look smart if she picks the biggest book!” she cackled. I had never considered trying to look smart, because I was smart. Later when I read Frederick Douglass, I understood better how threatening intellect and access to literacy could be to people who like having control.  The power and threat of reading has been a problem for the marginalized throughout history. Recently I’ve learned more about how women in England were discouraged from reading novels, or the news, or anything political, during the 19th and early 20th century. Reading novels would cause women to lose touch with reality and neglect their family and house...

  Jeremy:  On a laptop. He has a small notebook and pen at the ready, but he never touches them. Backpack set up like a wall on one side of him - the side with people. Earphones. Two drinks present: One looks like a reusable water bottle - no stickers or identifying marks - the other is a large disposable soda cup. He alternately drinks from both, even though the soda cup sounds empty, he keeps sucking at the gurgling straw. Black band on wedding ring finger. Jeremy doesn’t type much, but plays with his fingers a lot while reading what is on his laptop. What’s on his laptop? Reading a document, that has little side windows open for extra info/dictionary. (I do not creepy at all, thanks Alex.)  Jeremy is a nice guy. If a bit squirrely. He’s sucking down soda at 9:30 am because he stayed up late helping his wife with her school assignment and now he’s doing extra research because he fears he got something wrong in the advice or direction he gave her. He really should be pra...

The process of creating this piece was more interesting and complicated than I anticipated. I first recorded several processes: making a PBJ for the collaborating artist in the above piece, preparing omelettes, getting the dog and collaborating artist ready to go for a walk, and a few different iterations of the hiding process. Whenever he was aware of the recording process, the resulting recording became less usable. So that became one of the constraints of the assignment I was giving myself -- I had to make a recording without the other people in the recording know it was happening. This lends to the concept of authenticity discussed by Barney, because when Ben was aware that I was recording, he threw in a lot of color commentary, random noises/singing, and would speak very loudly into the phone.  I found that Hide and Seek had a built in "beginning, middle, and end" to it. It begins with Benny counting and me running and hiding in the Harry Potter closet. (You know, the sp...

 This assignment is for one of my classmates to complete in 22 minutes in class.  Constraints Material: Anything available in your bag or that you can find/use in the building.  Process: The work should be completed in 22 minutes within the vicinity of the building.  Form: However you choose to capture it with your phone/device. Or write about or construct your materials to convey your message. Follow your muse! Content: Survival during a zombie outbreak. However you choose to interpret this – is it literal bodily survival? Mental/ Emotional/Spiritual?   -Image from Mr. Mault's Marketplace Context: A shareable message for members of this classroom if they suddenly found themselves caught in a zombie apocalypse. How would they protect themselves from any infected business majors that might try to invade? ;)