CIES Secretariat Florida International University 312 ZEB Miami, FL 33199
Number 150
CIES Panel Report
“New Pedagogies of Expressive Culture: Integrating Technologies and Broadening Horizons”Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)
“Politics of Comparison” 53rd Annual Conference
Cultural Contexts of Education and Human Potential (CCEHP) SIGCenter for Expressive Culture (hereinafter, CEC)
Bell Building, Room 207
The College of Charleston
Charleston, South CarolinaWednesday, March 25
10AM to 11:30AM
Panel Title: “New Pedagogies of Expressive Culture: Integrating Technologies and Broadening Horizons”
Panel Members:
E. Moore Quinn, Linguistic Anthropologist and Chair
Meghan Welsh, College of Charleston Anthropology Major
William Danaher, Sociologist
Jolanda-Pieta van Arnhem, Visual Artist and Instructor
Jerry Spiller, Information Specialist and Language Resource Center Coordinator
Panel Proceedings:
1. Chair E. Moore Quinn explained the historical aspects of the creation for the College of Charleston's CEC; she also gave an overview of Anthropology, noting the discipline's ongoing needs to clarify its mission and correct erroneous perceptions. Focusing on expressive culture is an attempt to address these concerns.
2. Anthropology major Meghan Welsh revealed her initial misgivings about approaching the course Research Methods in Expressive Culture. She shared that anxieties were overcome as she discovered the benefits of this type of project. “People are more interested in what I have to say now that I am using new technologies,” she offered, adding, “I am able to engage in a deeper conversation” in which “I can say it and show it.”
3. Demonstrating the advantages of having a portable laboratory in which “students can move” and see themselves “in action,” William Danaher explained how his course gave students an historical and contemporary feel for his Sociology of Music course and helped them understand how “technology changed culture and performance” and vice versa. Enrolled students made their own music with electronic and acoustic instruments (guitars, piano, percussion, etc.) and disseminated it on the Internet. A role-taking exercise enabled them to “self-correct,” perform differently, and analyze electronic media's impact on production and reception. After viewing video-recordings of their performances, students admitted that, although they had feared physical movement initially, they would have performed differently in retrospect. Exercises like these will challenge future students to think sociologically, according to Danaher.
4. Expanding upon the work of usability specialist Jakob Nielson and others, Jerry Spiller explored the theories that influenced the creation and development of the CEC. Heuristic parameters for usability included user control and freedom, consistency and standards, flexibility and ease of use, and the importance of equipment portability. Delicious.com, a social book marking website, served as a container for updating and storing materials for upgrades. The use of Open Source software freed students from temporal and spatial constraints and factored into the shaping of their portfolios. Spiller also noted the pros and cons of “running a Mac lab on a PC campus,” which translated to constant upkeep. The advantage, he said, is that “we had much more control.”
5. Frequently, traditional scholarship and methods of publication are confined to relatively outdated technologies whose life cycles have become passé. Furthermore, new tools and strategies are often overlooked in print. For new directions in culture study, ubiquitous Internet technologies are available that ameliorate limited textbook exposure to data collection, digital sustainability, visualization of information, etc. Jolanda-Pieta van Arnhem tackled these issues by explaining that the Research Methods in Expressive Culture course required a willingness to “lose some control and to be organic” and allow students to make mistakes. Today, information strategies are integral to research, van Arnhem argued, not mere addenda to it, an initial and incorrect student assumption. She felt that the challenge in curriculum design is to balance the necessity to teach research methods and simultaneously provide students with current technological methodologies. The lack of attention to social web applications like virtual fieldsites and digital methods of collection and display prompted the expansion of the lab curricula to provide students with solid foundations in these technologies.
6. Van Arnhem shared some of the more current websites and software programs like Survey Monkey, iMovie, Flickr, and Google Docs. She underscored that the steps ethnographers take in research are directly analogous to what artists refer to as “process.” Correspondingly, the research methods course enabled students to visualize data, customize approaches, use Web and multimedia applications and present fieldwork in ways that transcended video diaries, photography, ethnographic film, etc. The password-protected Research Methods blog “allowed students to see that they could work anywhere” and facilitated “interactive learning.”
7. The opportunity for audience members to access the laboratory equipment followed. Attendees familiarized themselves with the teacher's station, programs like Photosynth, and various multimedia transcription applications. Embracing technology for their personal pedagogies, they toured the facility and asked questions about its operation. Their behaviors produced the expected dynamic flow and replicated the classroom/lab atmosphere.
8. Quinn then reflected on the CEC’s “work-in-progress” nature and discussed future goals for additional equipment and greater use.
9. In follow-up e-mails, audience members revealed that the panel had motivated them to use technology more creatively. One wrote that she saw this course as “a completely new way to teach research methods” and said that she planned to incorporate some of its ideas. Such responses confirmed the panelists’ accuracy in heeding the call for the creation of more digital ethnographic projects and new approaches.
10. Specifically, Danaher plans to maximize the lab's musical equipment by assembling a “combo” of students to perform popular music. In a role-taking exercise, students will evaluate their identities as performers/audience members. Spiller is eager to continue the partnership between the CEC and the Language Resource Center and to facilitate digital ethnography in other courses. Quinn and van Arnhem hope to expand classroom and lab experiences by promoting student teamwork for projects involving local historic preservation. The two also plan to “cross list” their course to attract students from other disciplines, a decision that will disseminate the broad scope of Anthropology.Respectfully submitted,E. Moore Quinn, Chair
(Electronic signature approved)
Report Contributors:
William Danaher
Jerry Spiller
Jolanda-Pieta van Arnhem
Meghan WelshDate: April 20, 2009
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E. Moore Quinn
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In Memoriam:
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1933–2009
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