karen louise smith

This post was originally created for the Center for Teaching Support and Innovation, where I also blog. (See: http://blogs.ati.utoronto.ca/wordpress/ctsi/2011/11/17/curriculum-guides... for the original post)

This post addresses a question I have fielded as a TATP trainer who teaches a workshop on video in the classroom.

Partcipants sometimes ask, where can I find video curriculum guides to help me teach in my discipline? This question does not emerge out of thin air. It comes up because when I teach the workshop, I bring along a curriculum kit called Teaching the Levees. Hurricane Katrina caused devastating damage to New Orleans. The curriculum guide is intended to support discussion of the associated social and political issues that are raised in Spike Lee's film When the Levees Broke.

In my experience, TAs and instructors alike are very enthusiastic that other people prepare discussion questions that may be appropriate for their classroom! It is often a novel concept that such resources are available.

A challenge for post-secondary educators, is that most curriculum guides for film seem to be directed towards the teachers of kindergarten to grade 12 students. In researching this blog post, Jenaya Webb, Public Services Librarian, OISE Library, indicated to me that they have a collection of curriculum guides to assist their student teachers on placements in the K-12 educational system. Jenaya also helped me to compile a list of more widely available resources to the U of T community (see below).

In order to find curriculum kits or guides that may be useful in your post-secondary teaching, I recommend using the web as a starting point to find resources that you can adapt to make relevant for your course. Some options in alphabetical order include:

1) Amnesty International Film Curriculum Guides
As a human rights organization, Amnesty has a number of PDF downloadable curriculum guides for films that address issues such as war, race, and gender. I downloaded the curriculum guide for Born into Brothels, an academy award winning documentary, and found that some of the grade 9-12 level discussion questions could be easily adapted by linking to a university course level reading.

2) HotDocs: Toronto's own documentary festival has film resources in their HotDocs library for K-12 learning. Here you may find materials that link to your courses. In the words of the HotDocs team, "these docs will engage students with issues of our day; with vital ideas, critical questions and new perspectives outside the mainstream media and school textbook."

3) National Film Board (NFB) of Canada:
The NFB has a comprehensive section of their website devoted to educators. There is a section of the website where teachers can search for teaching guides on various topics. Additionally, I find the playlists for educators organized thematically (i.e. films about Science and Technology) to be a great resource.

I hope that you are able to find curriculum materials for films that are relevant for your classroom. If you have experiences or tips you wish to share, please comment.

My day tomorrow, seems to center around Aarhus, Denmark. I am currently collaborating on a paper with IDLab colleagues in Toronto and our friend Nik Borchorost in Aarhus.

In addition to the paper (and the pastries I might pick up from the Harbord St. bakery) the Danish theme continues tomorrow. Nik's use of future scenarios with Susanne Bødker and colleagues through the eGov+ project, inspired my class project for the Knowledge Media Design graduate pro-seminar I am teaching this semester. The student videos are being premiered tomorrow evening.

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In one of my roles at U of T, I work with the Teaching Assistant Training Program in the Center for Teaching Support and Innovation. Yesterday, I proposed running a new workshop in the winter semester, 2011.

YouTube, the website launched in 2005 which allows us to broadcast ourselves allows for new possibilities in the integration of video content in the classroom. This workshop begins with a brief history and overview of participatory media traditions. Subsequently, this (propsed) workshop will cover 4 main topics:

• Incorporating YouTube and Video in the Classroom:
  The skills required to effectively integrate a YouTube video in the classroom will be covered such as: incorporating a hyperlink in PowerPoint and including a screen capture of the images in your presentation.

• Explaining Difficult Concepts Using Video:
  Online video repositories can be a source of videos which explain course concepts, appropriate for post-secondary education. Multiple examples including 'Dance your PhD' will be presented (see below).

• Fostering Discussions Using Video:
  Active learning strategies which allow you to use video to help foster discussions will be practiced within this workshop.

• Using YouTube to Help Teach Participant Observation:
  The use of YouTube to practice participant observation will be role modeled through an exercise in this workshop using YouTube.
  
  

Additionally, each participant of this workshop is requested to bring the URL of a YouTube video and a description of how it aligns with the learning objectives for the course for group discussion.

Selection of a DNA aptamer for homocysteine using SELEX from Maureen McKeague on Vimeo.

As a teaching assistant for Information 1001 at the Toronto iSchool, I maintain a Twitter account for the course under the moniker of @ i1001. Although we are only half way through the term, the use of Twitter for the class has already been an interesting journey. The course has approximately 250 students enrolled and the Twitter account was originally envisioned as an auxiliary channel for participation and engagement. Here are some of my initial observations:

1) Creating a presence
I am the primary ‘tweeter’ for @i1001. This means I picked the photo for the account. In creating the @i100 account I was inspired by a course reading by Susan Leigh Star’s work on infrastructure and my summer visit to the Seattle Central Public Library. The image is a rainbow of RJ-45 or, Ethernet cables taken in the hallway before entering the book sorting room. In creating a presence or an identity for a course, the intention may need to be made transparent, just like infrastructure.

2) Sharing
As a tweeting TA, I share a lot of links on Twitter. Typically, I post links which extend upon concepts discussed in lecture. The benefit of being on Twitter however, is that students send links back! Course relevant YouTube links, web comics, and other resources are frequently shared by students. A rudimentary liveblog of the lecture sometimes emerges from the aggregated tweets.

3) Backchannel conversations
Some of the most interesting conversations always happen on the backchannel. Twitter is a place where questions can be asked and participation can be directed without having to speak to the entire lecture hall.

4) Getting to know each other
Tweeting for a course allows me to get to know the tweeting students a little better. What are their hobbies? What news stories peak their interests? What do they find interesting and relevant.

Having finished this blog post, I’ll now tweet it back to i1001 and introduce some new people to my blog.