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MAPPING THE FUTURES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

IDS 70200

Feb 3, 2015 415-615

Materials, Ideas

Room 3207

FIRST CLASS: In Which Thirteen People (and assorted others) Become One Class and Four Teams and, Together, Map the Semester

All photos by Futures Initiative Fellow Kalle Westerling

The first day of class is a bit like a cross between a kindergarten and a AA meeting. Since the point is to have the tools and foundation so students can design their part of the course, the following materials are important.

Tools and links:

CBOX site: futuresinitiative.org

HASTAC and the HASTAC Futures Initiative Group

Futures Initiative group on CUNY Academic Commons

Twitter #FuturesED

Futures Initiative Facebook page

Google (for Docs and Hangouts)

 

Name Tags–Class begins with self-introductions and name tags. Essential.

Index Cards. Lots.

1) 415-430pm: On 5 x 7 cards: Students fill these out and arrange them down center of table for everyone to read–Useful to have everyone walk around and read each card

• Name
• GC Discipline/Department
• CUNY College In Which You Teach
• S 2015 Course title (contact info, etc)
• Class meeting time
• Location (building and classroom )
• Technology skills
• Super Power (s) (useful skill that never appears on a syllabus–ex. mind mapper, mapping software expert, HTML ninja, Drupal coder, comics artist, radio announcer, videographer, graphic designer, mime, magician, musician, dancer, singer, superb note taker, firestarter (tech world term for great inspiring creative person), finisher (the person who always makes sure the product is ready to ship), administrator, business manager, budget genius, fundraiser, institution shaper, activist, public speaker, bilingual (what languages?), blogger, tweeter, event planner, party planner, carpenter, painter, proofreader/copyeditor (infallible grammarian), time manager, project manager, many other wondrous things that can take a multimedia project to the next level.
• Network (s) Who can help get out the word to the public beyond our course? Media connections? Social media networks?

Link to student bios: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_gDcxWH6ufbriwNaTYsMAlAl-98rphkctNG2qVdp3b0/edit#heading=h.fa3v7smtgr3y Please add in super powers to the bios.

 

2) 430-455: Think-Pair-Share (regular FI index cards): [it requires speed]

• 90 seconds: What three things are you most nervous about in this course?

Other side of card:

• 90 seconds: What three things are you most confident you can help with in this course?

• 90 seconds: Working in pairs, people read outloud to one another what they wrote, first fears, then strengths. They discuss what is most important that they want to share with the class, from both sides of the cards.
• 90+ seconds: Go around the room and each person reads out one item out loud, first a fear, then next person in the pair reads the contribution.

FI Fellows collect these index cards–and add the list to the Google Doc for today’s class (without attribution).

3) 5:00-5:45 Wall-size Post-It notes plus Pencils, colored markers, pens, small colored post it notes, sketch pads

Everyone but the graduate students in the course will leave the room for 30 minutes. Students will design the core of the course while we are away. When we return, they will present their “unit” to us.

Template for each Group:

Group 1: Feb 17 and Feb 24
Group 2 Mar 10 and Mar 17
Group 3 Mar 24 and Mar 31
Group 4 Apr 21 and Apr 28

• Date
• Name of Group (can be changed later)
• Topic, theme, focus, pedagogical goal*
• Members’ names, Dept/Course, CUNY Campus
• Job Description** (unique for each member)
  • Project Manager
  • Tech Manager
  • PR/Communication Manager
  • Community Wrangler

*Topic/Theme/Focus/Pedagogical Goal: These will change, evolve, be refined before your group is in charge but this original discussion will help focus the theme–including for your collaborative mapping project. Ex: one group might concentrate on STEM learning; another might concentrate on non-textual learning experiments; another on experiential learning or adaptive learning.

**Job Descriptions: This is part of the first group discussion and important, even if the descriptions change over the course of the term. Everyone is put at ease by limiting the scope of the task, knowing someone competent will take the lead on something where one’s own skills are less great, assigned to each member [particular responsibilities where one person is in charge or leads everyone else–useful exercise even if roles change later–and that takes advantage of the Super Powers]

Some other possible ones–

Cartographer (point person for the map(s) produced by the group–decision point is whether all the CUNY classes represented by this Group will work on one map or on separate maps but with similar look, design, variation on a theme, technology?–point is that we’re also connecting students to one another through this network and through our maps and shared project)

Web Curator

Copy Writer

Institution/Bureaucracy Wrangler

Event Planner

External Communications leader

Graphic Designer/Photographer/Videographer

 

2nd Post It Poster: THEMES. Students can begin to sketch/draw/mind map ideas for their two class sessions. Ideas for readings, exercises, topics. They might also begin to think through how ideas for the class session they are leading for IDS 70200 ties into what everyone will do in their CUNY college courses and to think how these ideas will relate to the group’s contribution to the CUNY Map of New York.

 

 

4) 5:45-6:00 Reconvene as group and survey our course

5) Add all finalized scheduling to the Google Doc Course Schedule (see link below)

6) LOGISTICS: 6:00-6:15

Make sure everyone is on CBox Course site: https://futuresinitiative.org

• Shawn report on CBox
• Kalle – Twitter discussion and pedagogy project (teaching resource)

7) Assignments for next class

Required Reading

• William Kelly, “Forgotten Alternatives: The Crisis of Public Institutions” Available here
• Cathy Davidson, “Changing Higher Ed from the Classroom Up: How the Connected, Peer-led Classroom Can Model Institutional Change” Available here
• Podcast: “How to See What We’re Missing in Higher Ed” Available here
• Wood D. 2010. “Unleashing the Power of the Map,” From: Rethinking the Power of Maps. Available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8addj5hfvpjabl/Wood%20-%20Rethinking%20the%20Power%20of%20Maps2.pdf?dl=0
• Monmonier M. 1991. “Introduction” and “Maps for Political Propaganda,” (required) From: How to Lie with Maps. Chicago: Chicago UP. Available here

 

Optional

• “From Digital Humanities to Digital Literacy: Or, Why We Need More Hack And More Yack To Reunite the “Two Cultures” and Tear Down the Disciplinary Silos” Available here
• Wood D. 2010. “Counter-Mapping and the Death of Cartography,” (optional) and “Map Art: Stripping the Mask from the Map.” (optional) From: Rethinking the Power of Maps. Available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8addj5hfvpjabl/Wood%20-%20Rethinking%20the%20Power%20of%20Maps2.pdf?dl=0

 

Preparation Exercise for Feb 10:

• Think about how thinking spatially may be applicable in your own discipline. Do a little preliminary research and bring in something to share with the rest of the class. It might be an image, a map, a drawing you do yourself.
• Do different genres of mapping matter for your discipline? How might thinking in terms of genre help as you think about projects to do with your class for mapping?
• Please do a preliminary search for maps that you find interesting or that inspire you so that we may discuss them at our next class meeting. Please add them to our shared google doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZpZ1tBGy91_daXKW_QJuQqEKG8WDqZhq4DeYHFH0JG4/edit?usp=sharing

 

Mapping the Futures – Tentative Course Schedule

Regular class sessions take place at the Graduate Center in room 3207