Along the Divide

In no particular Order…

• ghost stories/local myths/superstition/folk tales
• history of UMass/land grant schools
• Shakers, Quakers, Puritans
• local industry
• Tourist sites, Emily Dickinson
• aboriginal (?) people of the area
• cooperative housing – what is it? where is it? why?
• community service opportunities
• who was Jeffery Amherst?
• local sports options
• hiking, biking, camping – trace trails and parks
• health
• environmental concerns, movement, conversations
• art – galleries, studios, craft shows, murals
• bookstores, textbooks
• history of area
• grassroots community/social organizations
• local spiritual opportunities/outlets
• UMass – student activism
• student run business
• banking (??)
• restaurants, bars, pubs
• music scene
• coffee shops – who serves what? who offers what in terms of seating, study space
• local farms and food systems; organic agriculture, sustainable living
• B&B industry
• local groups like Amherst Survival Center that connect larger social issues to local level
• local/state politics/politicians; info on voting and acts/laws being circulated or discussed; activity relating to City Council

so i am trying to figure out how to approach next semester —

end goals:

–> encourage action beyond classroom walls based on values/beliefs

–> build a sense of connectedness with area community (through encouraging students to explore and experience local culture/customs/rituals/flavors/traditions/values with potential to explore global issues within such a context as well) and classroom community (through working collaboratively with other students in the class on writing projects and presentation of these projects)

–>create a space that the public can access while keeping in mind the safety of students (perhaps they can use aliases instead of their real names? )

–>allow students to publish and circulate their writing outside the walls of both the classroom and the institution

–>writing to discover… uncover…

–>writing as a process that does not occur in a vacuum, as well as the importance of revision

–>discuss or begin discussing interface and creation/production of multimedia text and help students to work beyond the role of a mere consumer of digital literacy; especially drawing into question credibility, role of author, and global vs local context

–>explore to some extent the ways in which place helps to determine context??

(a brief accompanying rant)

the question is how to get to these goals. i am beginning to feel that the work of the classroom has to have implications for life on the outside – students have to want to learn, have to want to experience. we are facilitators for this yearning. i’m fighting the reinvention of the university as corporation, education as commodity, paid for at the door and merely used to access better paying jobs that have no roots in making the world a better place. i know on some level this is not something that will just stop – people are comfortable with things the way they are – and i understand that my approach to classes will not change the lives of many students. but i am frustrated with the world-views i come up against in my students, and i am getting comfortable enough in the classroom to take more of a stance against it. this is the general direction i want my teaching to take, and this seems like the chance to begin that journey.

(potential responses)

so how does all this go into a proposal/study?

i am thinking the culminating project for this course will take place in the launching of a digital publication in unit 4 – most likely at this point some sort of unofficial Umass wiki which gives students a chance to revise essays into shorter entries that are then posted. i still want to go with local fare (in its many interpretations) for the topics, though i would also like for there to be a way for students to address more global concerns as well, either through highlighting local organizations that deal with larger-scale issues, or through perhaps reviewing events in the area that raise awareness or interest for larger projects/situations. moving back from here, unit 3 would need to somehow focus research to topics that concern this area or are represented in the Valley, bringing the conversations much closer to the students but also putting restrictions on what they can work with (or encouraging them to make the connections between their interests and their community/communities, speaking into the void from a specific context and to a specifically located audience).

the problem lies in unit 2 and how one would integrate critical reading into this mix (as well as the text book). could the essays we read and discuss as a class be ones we could relate to ways to look at community? in what ways can i focus the unit to cater to the greater goals of the course – to social action based on beliefs, connectedness with people and place, collaboration, and finding a public voice? actually, this unit could be really interesting in terms of global/local events/issues, looking at larger issues and how they effect us locally (i am thinking of the kingsolver essay, as well as perhaps bordo, which is great for media/advertising and critical viewing). i would rather go local then global, but that is something that can be revised.

unit 1 will actually fit quite well into this, i believe, beginning with the understanding of context and the ways in which the way we view the world are shaped by our experiences, backgrounds, and so forth. if i can add values into this mix (with a healthy understanding of social construction?), i can make a lovely base for the rest.

i brought the wrong notebook today…

This is a pretty choppy entry…

So here is my thought: base the classroom activities around the final objective of creating some sort of area guide to UMass/Amherst/surrounding areas published on the web. Students can use their own names or pseudonyms to publish, and will have the option of serving as editors or other “behind the scenes” roles (this part I need to think about more…).

Goals addressed:

• helping students orient to new area (OK, second semester students, but really, how much do they know about the area?)

• encouraging students to interact with local attractions, businesses, service opportunities, community – fostering a knowledge of the area in which one lives to locate various resources available and create a knowledge of one’s community (as well as encourage students to then be active in their community – so perhaps we should add a sense of belonging in the area and some sort of responsibility towards its maintenance, though perhaps this is really stretching it)

• work on writing to a “real” audience (I say “real” because who knows who will be reading this, but perhaps it could be actually linked somewhere from the school)

• create a classroom community that extends beyond the walls of the classroom to encourage more engaged participation and activity

• collaborative writing

• context – both local (literally) and more global – how do students navigate a new context, a new place, a changing sense of self

Specific Ideas:

• stuff to do on campus, reviews of different food options, different study nooks, etc
• local resturants
• historicize markers (town commons, the mural at Food for Thought)
• local farms (so maybe I do have some sort of agenda…)
• music scene
• bookshops, clothing stores, neighborhoods, coffee shops, community events, community service opportunities/local non-profits
• a quick history of the area giving historical context to the University and to the Pioneer Valley

Reading the pieces for this week I was struck first by Hocks’ piece examining Christine Boese’s fan site dissertation, described as an exploration “of the constellations of social forces in cyberspace, which have led to the success of noncommercial, highly trafficked dynamic culture or what is sometimes called a ‘community’” (Boese quoted in Hocks 639). The fan sites achieved a level of community through common interest, interacting regularly and with zeal to create resources and relationships. This got me to thinking – how neat would it be to try to form a space for students to do this with a focus revolving around their community instead of media images (or drinking, as the “Zoo-Mass” sites already in existence have done). In approaching this project I am bringing a lot of my own values to the surface, but perhaps with an introduction to the project centering around critical multi-modal literacy and the principles of design brought forth by the New London Group, those values can be instead pedagogy at work? (I guess what I am really asking here, is at what point am I forcing students to do what I want them to do in creating this “community” that they may or may not be interested in themselves…) This project gives the class the chance to create a space for knowledge to be formed and transmitted about the area, perhaps giving space for responses to UMass/Amherst, discussion about ways to stay entertained, and maybe even an evaluation of the area in terms of its ability to foster learning and development outside the classroom or University campus.

The questions to answer now, are how to fit this into the 112 curriculum and what type of technology to use that will not require me (or my students) to have to learn something terribly complicated and intricate. I want accessibility and enfranchisement – meaning something students can gain access to through use of public computers (open software) and that will be simple enough to use that they can carry away from this project skills to use again. Hm.

I have been reading the Robert Samuels piece for quite some time now, and I have no idea how far I have gotten in the piece or how much farther I have to go.  In fact, half the time I am not even reading the right piece, having been shuttled off to another article by Paul Trout on Anti-Intellectualism in undergraduate students, for example, bouncing from link to link (node to node?).  I decided after reading the introduction to try and escape the linear essay, opting instead to brave the hypertext version, randomly choosing one of the several squares presented to the right of the screen and taking it from there, clicking on the links that seem interesting and trying to at least have the patience to finish the essays I begin.

To be honest, the process seems a strange combination of a case of ADD and a conversation of sorts, the information available to me if I can find it, or if I am willing to click on it.  It’s frustrating – I like my essays to lead, my author playing the fearless leader, guiding through the explanation in a genre I can diagram it is so precise.  On the other hand though, there seems to be so much room for something new to sprout from the rich texture of these works, which allow me to follow up on subjects that interest me.  It just seems like it is virtually impossible for me to get all of the information Samuels is providing.  Perhaps that is the point though – that I can format the text to suit my needs as a reader.  Is this an indicator that the academy is getting lazy?  And that we as readers are no longer willing (or capable?) to read through an entire essay?  Or is it a symptom of the post-modern?  A shifting in values from the static boundaried genres of the academy to a more fluid understanding of knowledge and communication?  My hope is the latter, though after reading some of these essays I am keeping the door open…