I would like to respond to yesterdays class. According to Professor Dean we are afraid to take risks and we should do more exiting stuff in class. Apparently, this is the class to take risks and apparently we have done it before. We have been making PowerPoint presentations in 5 minutes and we have been making videos.
However I do not view this as a risk at all. Every time we have done something other than just talking, we have been told to do it by the Professor. Even in class (when the last group presented videos) it was after Professor Dean had told us that she expected more. I cannot remember one time where a student came up (in class) with a new way of presenting. We have been told to do those presentations EVERY time we have been doing it. We have never taken risks in this class and I am sorry, but I do not want to.
I do not want to take risks in this class because every time we do something other than a normal report of what the book says we get a (beep) load of critique. When we made a PowerPoint presentation we had done nothing right. Well, I am sorry but I cannot make a PowerPoint presentation that fast. We might be millennials but that does not mean we can do everything in 5 minutes. I understand that we cannot be cuddled every time we do something, you do not have to give us compliments. But you cannot blame us for never taking risks if the only option after that is getting bombarded with critique. I am afraid to take risks in this class, I AM PLAYING IT SAFE.
By
Merel van Helden
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10 comments:
Merel--I appreciate your remarks and am sorry that you have not felt like you could take any risks in this class. That means that I have failed in what I've tried to do with the experimental format of the class and will need to try other things.
On the one hand, this makes me disappointed in myself. On the other, it reminds me that there are more ways to do something wrong than there are to do something right (the goal of one of the cluetrain authors was to have one good idea for every nine bad ones).
I don't share your sense, though, that no one has taken any risks and that everything everyone has done has been directly assigned by me. Maybe my view is distorted, but I thought that the teaching days demonstrated some pretty risky endeavors, outside of what I would have predicted. I also thought that there was a range of responses to the power-point task.
But I take your point. For me, it raises the challenge of finding better ways to combine encouragement and critique, particularly because I see critique as integral to learning.
Thanks for your comment. I know I exaggerated a little for the effect. To be honest, I am a little afraid to take big risks in this class, but less afraid than in any other class and in addition this class itself is one big risk. I am having a lot of fun trying all the stuff out, all the different kinds of presentations and those in itself are risks. But I would say that at least most of what happened is because we were told to do it. Still I feel that there is nothing wrong with that.
I agree that critique is very important and I actually do not feel down because of it at all. Mostly because it is obviously not personal. To me it was just this one time that I did not like it and that was even restored in class when you responded to the response of the class. But besides, who ever likes their professor al the time.
I just wanted to say that (besides from last class) I really like the class and the experimental format we are having. I would encourage you to do it again next year because what I have learned is that there is more than the regular way of learning and thinking.
By Merel van Helden
I don't think that it is the way of teaching or anything that affects the way people take risks. I think it is way more about someone's personality than the format of the class. I think there are only a few people that will produce new risky things. I think also the way we were brought up in classroom settings also has alot to do with us taking risks. I think if we had this style class for more than one class I think we might get used to thinking outside the box. This is the only class that I have ever had that has taken this approach so I think we aren't used to it. I also think, personally at least, that I can't adjust to being risky all the time in just one semester. I definately tried but I think I just work more in the box.
Becky
I can see how the teaching days were seen as risks because the topics were completely random and unexpected, but I have to agree with Merel, and we talked about this in our groups on Thursday, that the times we have done the powerpoints and we have done the movies and the writing on the board, we have done those things because we were told to.
I must disagree however that I am afraid to take risks in this class, if anything this would be the class I would be most willing to take a risk in because this hasn't been like the typical class. Everyday is not the same, one day were in groups the next we aren't, the next were making videos and so on. For me, however when we were told to discuss our chapters and report back, to me that sounds exactly like what it means. I didn't take that as "come up with a creative way to report the information back to the class." I think if we were told to creatively present what information our discussions had uncovered, then we might have had a different outcome.
In regards to Becky's comment, I agree that it is the persons' personality that determines the risks they take and that we have not been challenged before in previous classrooms before like we have in this one. I also agree that if we had more time, more than just one semester to take risks and "think outside the box," then I think the change in the way we (the students) work would be much more noticeable.
I would take a risk if I felt the situation presented itself in such a way. The first class was open for risk. Then it became so structured. How can I take a risk? Or maybe as Becky said, it could be in who I am?
Jen's point is good. It could be that I was afraid of doing more 'outside the box' things after the first class. Like, I could have not shown up again, or only shown up on a screen. I didn't do that in part because I had done it but also in part because students had been unhappy/critical the first time (a version of being afraid of critique). Maybe if I had been bolder, then that would have let more risks occur.
Something else in response to Rebecca: if the assignment is 'respond creatively' can the responses be risky? or is being risky just another version of playing by the rules and doing what is expected?
I liked last class. I think the hard thing for most people is that this class focuses on current events. Every other teacher I've ever had has been all about the facts, theories, formulas, etc. Here, we already know the material we just have to analyze it. I think we know just as much about these topics, except for gamer theory but definitely CTM, as the authors do. We live it, we grew up with it, we're changing it, and we know what parts are right and wrong. What gets us tripped up is that sometimes we miss deeper parts of the discussion. Our facebook and juicycampus discussions could go on all day, but class thursday was hard.
For me the risks involve analysis, how and why something should be understood in a certain way; I would say I take risks that way instead of making a powerpoint or video. Also, I think risk and creativity are more important in a reaction to the material than a demonstration of the reaction. Basically its better to be risky in your thesis or argument than the way you show and tell it.
TOm
I agree with Tom, I think the information you present is more of a risk than the way that information is presented. One thing I have noticed when doing these group exercises is that once all the discussion has ended and we are preparing to present our findings to the class, the same question always arises, "who wants to talk?" I think we are hesitant to be the one to speak for our group in fear of getting completely rejected. It's a risk, are they going to agree or not? If they agree, great, if they don't, then it may seem like the person(s) disagreeing with your statement is disagreeing with you and not your group. I think some people are not always comfortable speaking up in class, including myself.
pat
Tom's comment resonates with me. When I was frustrated in class, I should not have mentioned the power points but emphasized thinking and critical analysis more. That's what I had in mind, a response that would, in whatever way, demonstrate critical reception of the material. Sometimes this can be done visually with an image or diagram. Sometimes with bullet points. Sometimes with a story. My hope was to hear responses that had a point of view, a focus or theme, that critically engaged the material.
So I think when I emphasized creativity and mentioned power point, this overshadowed the meaning of critical creativity. So Tom is absolutely right: the risk is in the analysis.
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