This presentation happened at the Northeast Popular Culture Association annual conference in October 2017. The presentation focuses on different creative and useful strategies for creating and running a course on popular culture, using student choice, open educational resources, and creative prompts.
Good tidings,
Lance
Lance Eaton
he/him/his
http://www.ByAnyOtherNerd.com
https://twitter.com/leaton01
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leaton01/
____________________
I wish I had all the answers; better yet, I wish I knew all the questions to ask.
Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode
Wanna Play? Creative Strategies for Teaching Pop Culture
1. Wanna Play?
Creative Strategies for
Teaching Pop Culture
Lance Eaton
Brandeis University
North Shore Community College
leaton01@brandeis.edu
@leaton01
http://www.ByAnyOtherNerd.com https://goo.gl/bss4Jc
8. Open Pedagogy
Open/Free content
OER Content
Archive.org
Library Content
Assignments With Purpose or Re-Use
Blog
Annotating Learning Guides
Student As Learning Contributor
Module Creation
Learning Guide Annotation
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12. Choice Design
Choose Content
Articles
Primary Sources
Videos & Other Media
Sign-Up
Choose (some) Modules
Case Studies
Choose Assignments Focus
Which Assignment to Do
Choose Assignment Content
Which Content to Cover
Open Pitches
Make Me an Offer
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16. Scenario/Role Playing Discussions
1. Get them into the materials.
2. Put them in a place to think more deeply about how popular
culture affects society and how society affects popular
culture.
3. Allows for a bit more creativity
4. Makes discussions a bit more fun to read
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17. Discussion Example 1
You've been tasked by the Cloning Panel with determining whether a cloned cowboy from the wild west could assimilate to
the world today and what could be done to help him assimilate to modern society.
You can make your argument either pro (let's clone him!) or con (don't clone him!). But to prove your point, you need to
rely on the articles that you read and the primary source material that you explored this week (that is, whatever radio
shows, videos, dime novels you read), to help illustrate the quality traits of the Cloned Cowboy. After identifying key
quality traits of the cowboy derived from the readings, you need to discuss how these skills translate into modern society
and where the Cloned Cowboy could look to in order to better assimilate (that is, what modern sources of popular culture
that happen in the present or future are similar enough for the Cloned Cowboy to learn from or even join).
Replies: Though you can provide substantial replies in whatever format you choose, I would encourage the following
approach:
● Further add to the original post, with elements from your own exploration that reinforce or further elaborate what the
original post said.
● Respond as a member of the Cloning Panel with critiques and challenges to what the original post said.
Initial post (200+ words) is due by Thursday by 11:59pm. 1 Reply to another student's Initial Post (100+ words) and
replying to any questions to your own Initial Post are due by Sunday by 11:59pm.
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18. Discussion Example 2
You have been selected as a Comics Evaluator, in charge of deciding what comics are allowed to stay and need to go,
what stories are acceptable and which ones will never see the light of day. You have three comics that you need to
evaluate (the three comics you chose for this week) against the Comics Code of 1954. You need to report to the
Comics Czar and explain why or whether these comics should move forward or not.
In your explanation you should discuss whether you agree with the mission of the Comics Code Authority or to reject it
(maybe this will be your resignation letter as well) and what are the major factors contributing to the agreement or
rejection. Such a discussion should include references to the recent comics history of the 1940s and 1950s as well as
some of the discussions and issues the culture at large had (or didn't have) with horror comics.
Replies: Though you can provide substantial replies in whatever format you choose, I would encourage the following
approach:
● Reply as the Comics Czar to comment on what the Comics Evaluator said.
● Reply as a Comics Evaluator providing an addendum with further elaboration to the original post.
Initial post (200+ words) is due by Thursday by 11:59pm. 1 Reply to another student's Initial Post (100+ words) and
replying to any questions to your own Initial Post are due by Sunday by 11:59pm
https://goo.gl/bss4J
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19. Thank you!
Lance Eaton
Brandeis University/North Shore Community College
leaton01@brandeis.edu
@leaton01
http://www.ByAnyOtherNerd.com
https://goo.gl/bss4J
c
Hinweis der Redaktion
Wanna Play? Creative Strategies for Teaching Pop Culture
This presentation will explore different strategies used for teaching popular culture in an online environment (many of which can be altered for face-to-face courses). The presentation will help faculty consider the flexibility available to them when teaching popular culture specifically or using pop culture for other courses. In particular, the presentation will provide some ways of taking students exuberance for engaging in discussion of popular culture to delve deeper into materials as well as creating more valuable discussions and complex thinking about the subject. The presentation will examine the benefits of role-playing in discussions to create more engaged conversations and debates, illustrate how open pedagogy can intersect with teaching popular culture, and consider how final projects can reflect learning in the course.