A LETTER to my STUDENTS

Remember, there are no tests or exams in this class. I don’t come to you as a didactic educator—the sage on the stage. No. I may be old, & I may be a ‘theatre’ professor—but I (greatly) dislike the stage. I’m an old-school media hack. I want to teach you. I want to share my ideas and thoughts. I want to share HOW I come to ideas and thoughts. I hope you want to share your ideas. I want to know what you think. I want to know how you think—and then, I can encourage you to grow.

The sage teacher (—those didactic educators) want. to make sure you know all the answers by testing your ability to recall information. They lecture at you, making deposits into your brains, and want to see a return on their investments. The model of education that you are (most likely) accustomed to is akin to modern banking. I am not a banker. I do not think you are a client, or that I’m a faceless institution looking to take you for a percentage. I don’t want to value information. Information is everywhere. You know that. If you need to recall a piece of information, look it up on your phone. Soon, the microchip will be implanted into human brains, so—in my imagination, the value of information is increasingly useless. It’s all there.

How do you know what to look up? Think I am going to tell you? Please don’t expect me to tell you what to know, what to believe, or the right answer. I don’t have many answers that are not open to your disagreement (framed as a persuasive argument). In fact, I like to say: I may disagree with you and will defend TO THE DEATH your right to your opinion. And I will. . . defend that right. And I will, in this course, argue that some opinions are better than others. Yes. You may have your opinion, but not all opinions are equal. Sorry-not sorry.

If I was a banker, this would be so much easier. Count. Deposit. Withdraw. Count. However, I admit it now, I am not such a fan of numbers. I prefer words. Is that reasonable? So, I resist all modes of banking (as a metaphor for my teaching practice). Instead, I see myself as a GARDENER. Every single one of you, in my imagination, are beautiful, living, sentient flowers. I love flowers. Flowers are always appropriate. Maybe you’re a tree. I love trees. Where would we be without trees? I’m a gardener. My job, then, is to do my best to care and nurture—so you grow. And I sincerely hope you grow into the most beautiful flowers or the tallest, strongest trees.

Flowers and trees do not disappoint. They grow in mysterious and unique ways and do not expect. Flowers don’t count. Trees have no need for banks—no coins, currency, or clients.

THST*1200 The Languages of Media respects and applies

CONSTRUCTIVIST approaches to learning.

What does that mean?
How do I learn in this course?

Well, to begin with, it means your experiences, opinions, and attitudes matter. Your symbolic responses to the ideas presented are important. Let your thinking guide you to your starting place. From there, access the variety of course readings and resources asking: What stands out? There are no wrong answers. What stands out for you?

Before you answer, evaluate the course materials, and consider the range of questions this book and course provoke. You are invited to browse through the range of issues and ideas. As you intentionally interact with selected ideas and materials, try to address the larger implication; put another way, as the question: what’s at stake? Reflect on this process of owning your learning. How might you experience new ideas with a beginner’s mind and a growth mindset?

As you progress through the course, try to accept the notion that the teaching team supports and encourages your autonomy and initiative. Consider the adventure.

You choose the ideas from this book for further study; you choose which ideas to skim, review briefly, or dig into more thoroughly. The course learning activities (assignments, assessments) ask you to do things like classify, analyze, predict, reflect, and create. Your actions are important. There are no wrong answers. The course specifies detailed guidelines, provided to encourage your success.

As you complete the course assignments, you fulfill the larger course outcomes. Each learning activity aligns with more specific outcomes and goals. As you meet these assignment goals, you also complete the holistic course goals. Aligning the learning outcomes to each learning activity allows you to engage with course content while simultaneously following your interests and concerns for the future.

Intentionally, this course is NOT structured in the typical ways.

As the world changes, there are new social needs to thrive in the 21st century. To this end, and following current educational research and promising practices, you must engage with the course materials, readings, and resources in a very personalized way. There are no facts to memorize, no formula to follow. You are encouraged (in fact compelled!) to consider your interests, passions, and questions. The single determining factor to help guide your success in this course is you. What you learn from the course is largely determined by you!

In learning theory, this is called a constructivist approach; learners rely on prior experiences, perceptions, and opinions to dig deeper into a given topic to expand what you know. With this method of learning, you construct knowledge.

This approach to learning may be new to you. Welcome your beginner’s point of view. To support learners in determining what to do first, second, third, etc. the learning activities provide details and guidelines to help structure your time and thinking.

REQUIRED READINGS & RESOURCES link you to readings and media to enrich and strengthen how you undertake and complete the learning activities. SUGGESTED READINGS & RESOURCES provide additional materials we think you will find helpful.

AN APOLOGY

Many call for “SAFE” spaces in post-secondary education. Emerging from feminist rhetoric, I have been one of these voices for over three decades. However, my experiences working in and around this education intervention have taught me a critical lesson that I share with you: Nothing is SAFE.

The language of SAFE belongs to basic human survival, safe from harm. Trust me, there are no intentions of causing any damage to anyone. And the entire concept of LEARNING is a dangerous activity. From ancient times, learning was reserved for a small group of privileged white men. When folks like me began showing up, the learning environment, at times, was a place where personal attacks were acceptable, as was ongoing harassment. Imagine a faculty allowing name-calling?

I remember classes where my instructor (often unwittingly, nonetheless) called me blatant homophobic anti-Semitic names (including inappropriate explicative). Learning, I quickly realized, could be dangerous terrain as I had no legal recourse. However, I learned several strategies for managing these unhealthy situations, including self-care and a compassionate and courageous voice. Don’t mess with LIPTON.

Much of my growth for me occurred while the HIV/AIDS pandemic swept through the queer spaces I inhabited in New York City. I lived surrounded by danger. EVERYWHERE. In my personal and professional lives, I felt unsafe, and no one could promise absolute safety.

HACKING VIRTUAL SPACES

I learned to DEMAND educational environments that worked to be SAFER spaces. Without wanting to shut down anyone’s sense of freedom and freedom of speech, I joined spaces where others foregrounded a standard set of values that offered a haven in a heartless world.

These VALUES emphasize providing welcoming environments where threatening & exclusionary behaviour is not tolerated. This represents a commitment to SAFER spaces in higher education. Simultaneously (and as an outcome), supportive environments encourage community, communication, and reflection.

Any need for greater openness or free-speech-at-all-costs is unapologetically negated. I insist that my LEARNING SPACES uphold these values; I favour enacting openness critically and reflectively, more conducive to welcoming those who feel marginalized in any way.

I may disagree with your opinion and will DEFEND TO THE DEATH, your right to speak. & I believe NOT ALL OPINIONS are EQUAL. I do not value some ideas more than others based on blind faith. It is a simple matter of fact and sense that those opinions with more significant evidence argue an irrefutable point of view and persuade others hold greater WEIGHT.

My point: I seek to create the SAFEST learning environment possible. My outspokenness means that I raise challenging issues; I invite difficult conversations; I share my vulnerabilities and (mixed) past experiences.

I actively share my vulnerabilities, so you don’t have to; you may not be as experienced in telling others how your life experiences have hurt. I have many wounds. My scars only visible as shared stories.

I promise to frankly discuss challenging topics like disease, sex, bodies, poverty, addiction, pain, loss, trauma, death, suicide, oppression, injustice and other activities or behaviours others might view as bad, wrong, illegal, hurtful, and downright unkind. I also work to pair these stories with a sense of POSITIVE light.

AND I am sorry. Suppose I push too hard, too far, too fast. PLEASE tell me if I have hit dangerous territory for you. If you feel a twinge of pain, please tell me so I can apologize and try to support you in the best ways I know. I come from a world of education that promotes these kinds of interactions.

This approach is CARING. I usually spend hours trying to learn everyone’s name. I’m pretty good in a lecture hall of over two hundred, and my ageing brain tries its best.

These are my experiences. This is my voice. By opening my book of life, I invite you to take in and process your own & in your own time. I come from a world of education that promotes these kinds of interactions. The deliberate and intentional design of this online course works from these philosophical approaches. In addition, the course materials and selected interfaces sought to apply the most accessible, universal course design imaginable. If you have a question, very likely, the answer is yes/and.

Let’s hack this space together. The TEACHING TEAM has your back.

TRIGGER WARNINGS

Ha. I wrote “trigger warning” after triggering my own tears. Teaching and learning require all kinds of labour. The emotional struggle is usually invisible, but I need to turn the tide and work to change education, change distance education, change our university, change our country & change the world. I have some ambitious goals. Sometimes, when searching for a word, or forgetting where something is – er, um. I cuss. I swear. I say ‘bad’ words. My habits are unexpected in higher education. Fuck.

I am sorry if you find this disgusting. Please let me know if you do, and I’ll try to curb my habits. In a class about media, my use of this language hardly seems surprising in the media world. Nonetheless, I apologize and express the goals and intentions of my teaching: it all comes from a place of caring. Should we talk about this more? You let me know.

The folxs at OPENEd write a “course content disclaimer” because of this. . . They wrote:

There is content & language used in this course intended to describe & encourage thought on a variety of difficult topics. Some content & language could be offensive. If you find this to be the case, engage with other materials in the course. The course itself is one of self-discovery & no material is mandatory.

Did they capture the spirit of this course? of my point of view? I guess?

TESTING THE LIMITS

This online learning is new for many of us. The Internet, as a human communication system, has never experienced this kind of burden. Is its capacity endless? Despite digital divides, more people are online, more frequently. Our value for the platforms and networks of this technological infrastructures grows exponentially. The invisible implications are not clear. Do you recognize any unintended consequences that are radically changing the world?

I think the networks I’m plugged into are merging many symbolic systems; I am attending to critical ideological divides as public/private, state/industry–and even teacher/learner differences begin to fuse into something new. As a result, our senses overtax previously-held strategies for problem-solving and meaning-making. I honestly don’t know the answers, so I try to ask specific questions to make clear distinctions. For example, our learning is contained in COURSELINK and is NOT controlled by any centralized authority. There is no big brother.

I conceptualize this course as polysemic and multivocal because I value and want to exploit prior informal learning. Was your smartphone your ‘first curriculum’? What thing or device helped guide your sense of the world? I think television was the first tool available to me that led to learning about the world without a teacher or classroom—just me, sitting on the couch in my parents’ house. I am probably eating Oreo cookies (still my favourite), and watching Sesame Street or cartoon reruns.

Antiauthority, polysemic, and multivocal ways of knowing are challenging—for you and THE TEACHING TEAM. Their past training may have followed traditional learning methods, and now, we are working to decolonize our worldviews. This means we resist authority. We may make suggestions, debate vigorously and share neat ideas—and we cannot tell you what to do or how to do it. We may point, cheer, and suggest next steps. The TESTING THE LIMITS COLLECTIVE works towards an ontological subject position with no right or wrong answers. Instead of solutions, we have more questions. And more.

Your futures are somewhat determined by the social and cultural contexts of the twenty-first century. We can ignore COVID and refuse to wear a mask, but there is this viral reality. We can go to bed because we can’t deal. Instead, let me encourage you to play the hand you’ve been dealt. In this game of life, there are no winners or losers. Imagination and creativity allow humanity to find meaning in the world. Everyone is creative. The limits of your imagination only limit you. The clock keeps ticking. What are you going to do next?

(Okay, time is limited. I agree. More importantly, you are constrained by common decency and the law –please don’t get me in trouble.)

Regardless of where you come from, we head into a future when self-regulation and mindfulness help guide and manage our creativity and creative processes. If the pace of technological change continues, new tools will require flexibility and specializations—change management allows us to apply our imaginations to ideas we find most inspiring.

Part of the challenge (in this course and life) means you are ready & able to adapt and evolve with unpredictable fluctuations. COVID has required this of you; the pandemic demands adjusting to new social, intellectual, and educational demands.

CYBER PEDAGOGY

I am not happy with parts of this situation. The competing claims and complexities of democracy and capitalism still frame our education systems. This connected learning experience is no value-neutral or depoliticized utopia: we are still entangled in complex social, economic, and cultural ways of thinking. I recognize how my methods may not always feel liberating or empowering for all learners. Change is no picnic.

At times, you may feel a sense of disconnection and/or dysfunctionality. IF YOUR LEARNING feels stuck in destructive conflicts, exploitative habits, or other negative states, PLEASE LET US KNOW IMMEDIATELY. If you disappear and remain a faceless name on our enrollment list, you aren’t taking advantage of your OPPORTUNITY to LEARN. If you PROMISE to try, we can too.

This networked and horizontal utopian vision of learning tends to flatten out and glide over persistent educational inequalities and asymmetries. As OPEN instructors, the systems that contain us (and learning more generally) romanticize community, respect, equal power, and capitalist innovation.

In turn, the TEACHING TEAM embraces new educational concepts like complexity, connectivity, convergence, emergence, intra/inter-activities, openness, playfulness, systems, and webs. This ideology is our effort to explain our new social world—it helps to construct a worldview. It is unknown how this worldview ultimately impacts LEARNING and education. Save to say, LEARNING must now explore new ways of thinking, seeing, and practicing in the world.

Embrace the potential of a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach; let’s apply DIY to online learning cultures and contexts. To authentically GROW, this course empowers LEARNERS (that’s you) to use a do-it-yourself ethos of creative collaboration. The emphasis on the autonomy, agency, and creativity of LEARNERS can be pleasurable and playful. This approach may provide an opportunity for LEARNERS to multiply identities—into intensely political states. Your LEARNING identities are social, personal, and progressively remixable.

The self-remixing DIY discourse stems from our belief in promoting self-reflexive social practices, including self-responsibility and self-shaping. I sincerely object to any old-time, colonialist, elitist education requirements that claim absolute definitions of formal content and official knowledge.

This course encourages self-activation, self-focus, and self-regulation. Come to this experience with a playful and adventurous spirit. Lean into what YOU loved about prior creative practices. You are cerebrally, perceptually, and intellectually plastic. You are self-directed and self-enterprising. Be BOLD. Take charge of your own life and world/s. This is your permanent project.

Keep in mind that this digital age education is determined, in part, by particular kinds of design decisions and algorithmic assumptions rooted in the logic of computer engineering. These technological constraints include embedded values that come before our intellectual concerns.

The future of LEARNING heads toward some hybrid of learning vernaculars & media languages where platformed, network-based discourses, the technological systems & global/local (glocal) communities provide direct links to capital, like money —as well as social, cultural, shared, embodied and other new means of exchange. Your networked and connected learning drive (push and shove) you to psychological competence in inquiry and creativity. A goal is to harness your abilities to make your interests and ideas a lifelong endeavour.

COURSE STRUCTURE

This course is organized around the Assessments. You may choose to engage with the materials presented here; address ideas in any order; and study to the depth to which you are interested. This book provides you with a lens from which you consider the work you are required to do for every assignment.  All assignments require your in-depth engagement with the online text, as well as additional assigned readings and resources.

Choose your own adventure. There are many ways to move through this course and its material. There is no single prescribed method, telling you what to read or watch. . . You are asked to build knowledge based on your initiative, prior learning, values, strengths, and passions. This course is structured to encourage you to develop skilled metacognition. What’s that? Basically, meta-cognition refers to ‘thinking about your own thinking’.

Reflections about your SELF, your processes of learning, and your understanding of course content also encourage metacognitive regulation –the adjustments you make in how you think, and how these adjustments help you manage and improve your learning.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

As you read –take time to pause. Stop. Reflect on the questions. Contemplate. Formulate your informed opinions in ways that represent and extend your experiences. The moments of pause provide an opportunity for you to grow and develop your learning. Include new knowledge, examples, and experiences from the course content into what you already believe. Think purposefully about how new information has added to or changed your perceptions, opinions, and beliefs. Several guiding questions are provided to support learner reflections, meta-cognition, and symbolic responses.

This is an OPENEd Distance Education (DE) course, meaning the course design is asynchronous. There are no required class meetings. Any scheduled synchronous events or meetings are invitations to optional resources. Nothing synchronous is ever required

LEARNING ABOUT LEARNING OUTCOMES

I include these again because your final self-reflection: Assignment SIX: THE LAST WORD, asks you to review these and reflect on your learning. Sometimes learning outcomes are challenging to articulate. They point to the acquisition of skills which, gosh, I hope you feel good about. For me, I prefer to focus on learning values. Please share your insight: if your learning values shift as a result of this material or anything I have instigated —I will celebrate. Will this work have an impact on you? I hope you give it a chance and find joy in the work and in learning.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. apply elements of information, visual, media, and digital literacies to advance knowledge by analyzing and creating media messages and products
2. create writing and media products that apply communication skills through ongoing engagement with learning activities
3. demonstrate and appraise the value of risk-taking, symbolic play, strategic planning, and failure through media creation, multiple forms of writing, including systematic and ethical reflections
4. recognize uncertainty, ambiguity, and the limits of knowledge by selecting and responding to course materials, creating unique and responsible written and digital communication
5. evaluate individual beliefs, truth claims, and the importance of multiple points of view for all writing and media creation
6. demonstrate autonomous learning and evaluate intellectual independence, personal responsibility, time/task management

SKILLS

There is nothing to memorize in this course. Learners are encouraged to adapt all course materials to suit learner engagement with requested activities and content. In COURSELINK you will see a tab called Skills. These resources are provided for your support; they are not required. And, if you find yourself having difficulty with any assigned tasks or learning activities, specific resources are available to help answer your queries and concerns.

General skill goals are identified for learners to consider, practice, and apply. Knowledge is always accumulative and new applications of ideas mean that every day the state of knowledge evolves and expands. This course is designed to incorporate new theories and models of teaching and learning, encouraging learners to construct meaningful knowledge based on prior experiences and interests. Consider how the required learning activities foster competence in:

1 Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Learners use skills to resolve issues related to research, reading, writing, and the challenges associated with creativity. Learners engage with course materials in an intensive, comparative, and detailed manner. Keep in mind that critical does not necessarily mean negative; instead, demonstrates active engagement in all aspects of the learning process.

2 Reading & Viewing
Learners need to take on self-directed study and an independent reading load to complete this course. In addition to weekly assigned readings, learners select appropriate readings, resources, and other media to engage their own thinking and writing.

3 Writing & Creating
This course provides opportunities for learners to write and create media. The first few assignments require both writing (AltText + additional writing) and media creation; the fourth assignment is about creating a “script” or “play” through writing; and the fifth assignment invites learners to create a short video related to course content. In addition, all assignments require learners to include self-reflective writing, which includes learner engagement with related aspects of course content, learning activities, and learner progress.

4 Personal Organization, Time Management, Resource Management
As a half-credit asynchronous course, learners are expected to organize, manage, and complete all learning activities according to their own schedules. This includes weekly reading, research, and specific learning activities. Learners need to balance the demands of this course with other courses and outside commitments. The goal is for learners to attain the qualities, transferable skills, and characteristics necessary for further study, employment, community involvement, and other activities requiring the exercise of initiative, ethical reasoning, academic integrity, social responsibility, and time management.

5 Research
Learners must work to a level that is greater than what may have been required in secondary school. While online sources are acceptable, learners also need to demonstrate an understanding of the research tools available at the library and evaluate what types of sources are appropriate for the various tasks.

6 Communicating Through Media

Learners must demonstrate some proficiency in media production. Learners experiment with digital creations and are encouraged to experiment with desktop publishing, web development, and video production. All assignments must be produced and stored electronically.

This course offers openness and flexibility, embracing unique learner negotiations and affordances. Learners are encouraged to move through the course materials in their own manner, selecting readings, resources, and other materials of interest that address or respond to required assignments and activities. Learners actively pursue topics of interest, selecting (with proper citations) course materials in ways that contribute to the development of holistic maturity.

LEARNING VALUES

Holistic maturity reflects learner growth and development. As a result, the open design promotes and reinforces contemporary learning values and attitudes. Consider how course materials activate your thinking, efforts, and learning behaviours. For each of the following, consider the learning-oriented actions you plan to practice to help demonstrate your growing holistic maturity.

• active involvement with class materials
• independent ownership of learning processes
• self-reflection and metacognitive growth
• expressions of emergent critical awareness of media
• contributions to the meaningful learning of others
• exercising creative, curious media creation

FINAL NOTE

I am grateful for this opportunity to work with you. Remember what’s important and take care of yourself, your family, community, and the world. The world needs you. Hear its call.

All good things,

mark