Rollin' the Katamari ball forward

This term is off to a delightful start. The discussions about Macomber-related materials --the skills of the Liberal Artist, the life of the mind, Katamari-style learning, etc.-- have gained reasonable traction in all three sections.

I sort of vowed I wouldn't change things this term, but I'm beginning to think something different might happen in part three of the course this term. Part one is still all about the skills of the Liberal Artist. Part two is still all about applying those skills to the field of Media Studies. But in part three I'm kind of intrigued to see whether we might spin hands-on media-skills assignments out of the discussions we're having, perhaps organized around whatever concepts and so forth seem to be gathering energy. For example a group of interested folks might pursue a study of quantum mechanics that includes responding in text, image, audio, and video to the key concepts. Another group might pick a different concept or area to explore. It's possible that these groups could cut across section lines. The group work would involve research, website construction, image, audio, and video. We'll see.

I guess what I'm trying to address with this is a different kind of integration of part three into the course. In most iterations of the course thus far, part three has stood somewhat apart from parts one and two. It has tended to feature student-generated topics and projects. These have always been integrated in some ways. For example, last term the digital stories done in part three were interrelated closely with the structural content of parts one and two of the course in the sense that digital stories were used in parts one and two --in particular the introduction of Liberal Arts skills via the Meeting Macomber digital story. What I'm contemplating here and now is more of an extension into part three that is keyed to the conceptual rather than structural content of the earlier parts of the course. For example, we have talked about Katamari-style learning in part one, and we could practice it in part three if we did research --particularly research with a social/group dimension.

Another new element this term was the inclusion of a student who was in NY temporarily in a class session via the use of Skype. This worked really well even with only a very minor bit of setup. I basically used my laptop built-in webcam and microphone and we got good video exchange and audio interaction. The student in NY heard and participated in the class discussion just fine. A cool NY-style touch was provided by the student attending class while having breakfast at a McDonalds in Brooklyn that had good wifi connectivity :)