Sunday, September 29, 2013

the "story" of our course: where are we in it now? and you?

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All important learning begins with making mistakes. You want to make them as quickly as possible, as many of them as are needed to learn or unlearn what is important.


"The concepts of intellectual virtue, epistemic responsibility, and personal “care-abouts” demonstrate the link between knowledge and values. . . . Intellectual virtues are character traits . . . that work in combination with knowledge . . . [and] have a motivational component. . . . [And because they are] so difficult to develop . . . consequently develop gradually over time. . . . [Indeed] knowers are responsible for their knowledge and responsible for knowing well. [Lorraine] Code has called this responsibility epistemic responsibility. . . . Care-abouts are personal character traits that motivate knowers to create, maintain and share knowledge." [from Sue Stafford's article "Epistemology for Sale," 2002:221)

The psychic investments of intellectual virtue, epistemic responsibility, and personal “care-abouts” make them all goods in themselves, as well as proper actions and practices and even complex cocreated “rewards” in mindful contexts of distributed production and being. Opportunities for practicing intellectual virtues in contexts of good faith are far better and much less addicting rewards than intensified and increasingly differentiated forms of discipline and control.

[from Katie's book, Networked Reenactments, 294]

writing about values: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/science/jan-june09/achievement_04-17.html


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Notice: we begin the second section of the course.


Focus your attention, be precise: hardly anyone "got" that the logbook must be customized, and must MATCH the reality of what you actually will do/have done/are in the process of doing. If you were one who didn't "get" it, what does that mean do you think?

This week: we finish the poster prototyping days, and have the first of the website ones. We won't be having prototyping days for a while. Why? How does that fit into the "story" of the course? 


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>>POWER, MOVEMENTS, WORLDS: FEMINISMS IN THE PLURAL, FEMINISTS IN MOVEMENT
Tuesday 1 October, This is the book I always wanted to write
·       Davis, Acknowledgements, Intro and all of Part I (Chs 1 & 2)
Be sure to read the Acknowledgements and come in with ideas about why we need to do this! What is an “epistemological project” and how does knowing help us? Throughout the class we will talk about looking at one reading through the lens of another one. This is more than just comparing them, although it may begin there. It is more too than just what an author says, although that is crucial. It involves imagination of an entire world as shared with a reading or book, using its words, but extending beyond them. Books can be boundary objects: how does that help? This will be crucial as we read Davis now! And a bit tricky too! Even fun!

Thursday 3 October, Prototyping: website creation and curation
·       Davis, Appendix 1 & 2
·       LOOK UP ALL YOU CAN ABOUT DAVIS ON THE WEB! BE SURE TO FIND HER WEBSITE AND BRING IN A PRINT OUT OF THE SPLASH PAGE!
Our fourth “flipping the classroom” Thursday! You MUST BE PREPARED so we can spend our time MAKING THINGS! Why are we reading these Davis Appendices? Why are we working to make something for the web as well as researching with it? If you have never made a website, you might start off with a Blogger version: https://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g  Blogger is what I use for the class website. I use Weebly for my professional website: http://education.weebly.com/ Both of these are very simple. Or you might like to build a site on Word Press: http://en.support.wordpress.com/using-wordpress-to-create-a-website/  If you have already begun crafting websites, pick your favorite platform for something new, or enhance what you already have going with projects from our course. A fun site with easy tools for all kinds of web prototyping activities you will find here: http://easyedutools.weebly.com 

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What is an epistemological project?



Google books: Davis, Making (2007): About, eBook 

please be clear and careful, honest with yourself and in the logbook and your other records: you cannot read the book this way online. You will need to go to the library, or figure out how to share or otherwise get the book if you do not want to buy it. Don't fall for thinking that taking a shortcut and not reading the whole book is smart: you just shortchange yourself. 

Think the smart thing is to get the best grade for the least amount of work? Sounds good at first glance. But it just means shortchanging yourself.

Instead: you want to get the most learning for the resources you have to put to the task. This is another issue entirely. I will do my best to support you in recognizing and finding resources, and in knowing what this thing "learning" might really be about! 




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...the book I always wanted to write....

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How is a course a "story"?


>>AN INTRODUCTION TO READING, MAKING AND ACTION IN WOMEN’S STUDIES
Welcome to Our Course!
Broken Realities? Learning & action
*Prototyping: a Platforms poster
Intensity and Fiero! What to do with frustration & confusion
*Prototyping: a Timelines poster, subjects in history
Transforming Yourself & Caring About It All
*Prototyping: an Identities poster, agency & structures


>>logbook 1

>>POWER, MOVEMENTS, WORLDS: FEMINISMS IN THE PLURAL, FEMINISTS IN MOVEMENT
This is the book I always wanted to write
*Prototyping: website creation and curation

WORKSHOP #1 – Power, Movements, Worlds
We explore how feminists analyze how power structures our worlds. You will investigate two class texts carefully, and chose EITHER • to analyze Zandt’s book through the analysis (eyes, lens) of Davis’ The Making of Our Bodies, Our Selves; OR • to analyze Davis’ book through the analysis (eyes, lens) of Zandt’s Share This! • Davis’ book explores power in transnational and transdisciplinary frames. NOTICE what it demonstrates and assumes about what counts as power, which social movements matter, and how worlds are connected across differences. Zandt’s book explores accessibility and the currency of social media today. NOTICE who is addressed in this book, and why? No matter which of these approaches you take, also NOTICE that you will need to do some additional research. You will need to find out more about the various editions of the book Our Bodies, Our Selves, and you will need to play around with social media yourself, and do some web research checking out both Our Bodies, Our Selves and also how feminists today are using social media, as well as how social media and marketing are interconnected.

Always make a point of connecting projects to class readings and lectures. Presenting and discussing in workshop mode means that by attending and listening we will all benefit from the hard work of everyone. Notice that both sorts of projects in both workshops should be begun several weeks ahead of their due dates. Not only do you need this time to do the additional research required, but to get good grades you need to • write papers in at least three drafts, and • plan out posters carefully to demonstrate both the results of your research and also how you got to those results.

Tuesday 22 Oct & Thursday 24 Oct
Tuesday we will share our work poster session style: divide in two groups, and all move around talking to each other about work during the class time. Thursday we will have a conversation about what we learned, noticed, thought about, and draw from the last class presentations. Make notes after Tuesday so you can run the discussion yourselves on Thursday.


>>logbook 2 

>>DYNAMICS IN OUR FIELD OF WOMEN’S STUDIES: NOTHING STAYS STILL
Tuesday 29 October, KATIE AT UPENN, YOU RUN THE CLASS!
·       Berger and Radeloff, all of Section 2 (Chs 3 & 4)
Thursday 31 October, KATIE AT UPENN, YOU RUN THE CLASS!
·       Berger and Radeloff, all of Section 3 (Chs 5 & 6). You have finished the book!

WORKSHOP #2 – Dynamics in Our Field of Women’s Studies
For our second workshop we explore how feminists remember, participate in, and analyze the dynamics in our field of women’s studies. What is its history? What ways of analyzing power are best? How do particular disciplines locate the central concerns of women’s studies? How do feminist scholars share the work they do? You will explore two class texts carefully, and chose EITHER • to analyze Hewitt’s book through the analysis (eyes, lens) of Berger’s The Intersectional Approach OR • to analyze Berger’s book through the analysis (eyes, lens) of Hewitt’s No Permanent Waves • Berger’s collection demonstrates paradigm shifts in our field. NOTICE that it explores how to think THROUGH feminisms ABOUT feminisms. Hewitt’s book demonstrates that history doesn’t stand still. NOTICE and ask, why do we keep remaking our feminist pasts? No matter which of these approaches you take, also NOTICE that you will need to do some additional research. You will need to use the web to follow-up or look in greater detail at the kinds of feminisms displayed here, other ways of thinking about histories of feminism, and ways all of these are promoted in popular and scholarly media. Always make a point of connecting projects to class readings and lectures, starting work several weeks ahead, writing papers in at least three drafts and plan posters to show both results and how you got to them.


>>logbook 3

Tuesday 26 November, NO CLASS: WORK AHEAD DAY for Website & Learning Analysis
·       Look at and download Instructions for the Learning Analysis
Thursday 28 November, NO CLASS: HAPPY THANKSGIVING

>>REFLEXIVITY IN WOMEN’S STUDIES: SOLIDARITY IN RESISTANCE, FLEXIBILITY IN BUILDING

*Prototyping: website creation and curation
·       YOU HAVE A WEBSITE!
LAST DAY! Learning, sharing, making, doing, thinking, acting


>>logbook 4 

[logbook image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logbook]
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