Media ecology classroom assignment: Comparative media paper

This essay discusses a foundational theory in media studies and uses an experiential approach to learning the concept. Based on the foundational writings of Sapir, Innes, McLuhan, Postman and others, the following is a two-part assignment that appears simple but can be quite complex. When looking at the cultural influence of media, we are often misled by the illusion of content. This assignment requires the student to examine how the form of a medium of communication influences the content. The student is asked to write a brief comparative analysis (two to four pages) of the same story in two different media, e.g., television news story and print journalism; a novel and a film; a blog and an audio story, etc. Again, students find this assignment quite difficult because now they are asked to show how the medium of communication being used actually changes the content.

The CanLit Dinner Party: Feasting on Books in the Literature Classroom

This article examines the “CanLit Dinner Party”, a multimedia exhibition undertaken in an undergraduate seminar on Canadian literature where food was the central topic. Modelled in part after Judy Chicago’s art installation The Dinner Party, this 24-hour exhibition featured interpretive plates inspired by literary food scenes. As a form of experiential learning, the classroom assignment was designed to enhance the students’ critical appreciation for the art of storytelling through food, to think across disciplines, and to synthesize food-related themes studied over the course of the semester. A departure from essay-writing assignments typically found in English literature courses, the “CanLit Dinner Party” underscored food’s role as a cultural idiom by requiring students to engage with its material dimensions.

Generating SEG Wiki articles to improve student geoscience content and literacy

From instructional tools to devices used in the laboratory or in the field to facilitate student interactivity and data collection, the use of technology in the higher-education geoscience classroom is not new. However, as the 2014 Summit on the Future of Undergraduate Geoscience Education stated in its summary report, the geoscience community has not fully embraced existing and emerging technologies to engage students that already are connected with digital information and tools. It is not that technology is viewed as an ineffective tool for teaching and learning, but that the pedagogic challenges lie in technology adoption and raising awareness of the educational impacts with individual faculty, as well as within departments. One opportunity to broaden student experience with technology is through a classroom assignment designed to utilize several technologies as tools to improve student geoscience content as well as overall science and information literacies. Challenging students to author a new “geology 101” article for the SEG Wiki addresses these components. In addition, an SEG Wiki article-authoring assignment serves as an opportunity for students to perform digital outreach by providing a reliable resource that can be used by geoscience professionals, K–16 teachers and students, and the general public. Through contributing to the SEG Wiki, students also satisfy a university's mission of service learning and engaged scholarship.