Blog Synthesis

I like travel and sightseeing so I often see learning like exploring a national park. In a park, we may find many things that are interesting, like deep valleys and clean creeks, colorful trees and flowers, rare animals and birds, and breathtaking sunrise and sunset. We take pictures of these things and keep them in our memory. I have the same feeling when I review all the blogs I have posted for the course this semester. There are several things that I would take away for later use in teaching.

Hooks. In music, a hook refers to a catchy musical idea, a passage or a phrase, which often comes at the beginning of the piece of music and sometimes repeats and develops throughout the piece. In my blog about music, I mentioned the magic power of a music hook. Could we apply the idea of hooks to our daily teaching? I think we can and we should. For example, we may start a lecture with a personal connection with some element of the lecture to arouse students’ interest, and periodically, refer to that connection and until the end of the lecture. This needs some good thought and design to avoid excessive repetition and make the hook a pleasant device.

Sense of suspension. A related concept I grabbed from the discussion of “My Best Friend’s Wedding” is a role of sense of suspension. In the episode we watched, the plot is the telling of a made-up romantic story between George and Julianne. Everyone at the table was eager to hear the story and the curiosity introduced a great deal of involvement. However, George did not tell the whole story all out immediately. Instead, he paused and again, and that generated even stronger interest. I think this “form” of design is especially helpful in lecturing if we can use it smartly.

Rhythms. Good music and choreography is characterized by beautiful rhythms that can synchronize our heartbeats. However, I don’t think rhythm is not limited only to music. Instead, harmonious rhythm is good for everything we do, including teaching. A nice pace and balance of rise and fall, fast and slow, tense and relax, and high and low all can simulate a rhythm in life, like “yin and yang” in the Oriental culture. The opposite of rhythm is monotony and dullness. We as educators all know the importance of avoiding them in our teaching. So, thinking of the use of rhythm as a form of teaching design should be encouraged.

Space. Of the discussion about interior design, one of the terms I found important is space. A good interior design often leaves adequate space for people to pause, breath and imagination. And a psychological space can be effectively created with skillful arrangement of different objects in interior design, as we have learned from the design literature. An implication of the space concept for our teaching is to me that we need to make the pace of learning and give students enough time to pause and participation in the co-creation of knowledge.

Multimodality. Although we actually did not discuss this concept but I have come to realize the role of multimedia in engagement of learning. We have watched a lot of video during the course and we each have developed several video projects. What really stuck me is, when I review either my own work or other classmates’ projects, I have enjoyed much more of the video with narration than those with only captions over the video. I think a big difference is that the former type addresses both visual and auditory sensory organs while the latter addresses only our visual sensory organ. That is why I decided to narrate my WOA project although I developed hey fever and coughed often. I overcome my coughing to complete the project. When I played it back, I enjoyed it.

Storytelling. When we shared pictures as part of our understanding the forms in photography that create a compelling experience, I came to realize the role of story telling. I have seen some pictures (e.g., a piece of bread, a baseball cap) that, at the beginning, mean little to me. However, after I read the story before each of the pictures, my appreciation of the pictures changed. I think it is because I know the story behind the picture so it becomes more meaningful to me. I come to have two categories of pictures, one with universal meanings, like sunset, forest, and snow mountains, and the other with personal meanings, like those daily pictures with a personal story behind it. How to tell the story often determines the way other people appreciate it. I still try to figure out the implication of story telling for our teaching.

These concepts are a sample of things that I have discussed in my blogs for the course. I think they are distinct for me to add to my knowledge structure that I have build from other courses in the MAET program and these ideas are also concrete enough for my immediate use in our teaching. Overall, I have a better knowledge of the forms that can create a compelling experience in life as well as in our teaching.

Thought about my WOA

I have to say the Work of Art project is the most challenging and also the most enjoyable project for the course. It is a capstone assignment and is supposed for us to reflect on many ideas we have learned during the course and use them to make this project. My understanding is that I should integrate some “forms” that I believe can simulate a compelling experience in the creation of my WOA. A challenge is that the course has covered several subjects, from photography to file and television, architecture and interior design, music and fashion, focusing on the nature and design of compelling experience in each subject. How could I best use the juicy ideas from the reading, discussion and blogging on these subjects to make this WOA?

I decided to explore how a dance show “thousand arms Guanyin” became so popular. After having watched it numerously times, I found the forms that made it different. The show demonstrates marvelous choreography, lavish costume, colorful stage lighting, moving music, and beautiful stage prop. More importantly, 21 profoundly deaf dancers performed the show. The have lived in a no-sound world but their elegant dancing matches the rhythm in extraordinary precision. My feeling was mixed when watching the show—I was thrilled by the shape, pace, and movements of their dance; I was taken into dreams by the beautiful props and colorful lighting; and I felt empathetic with their laborious practice for perfection of each act. By the time I prepared my narration, I have the WOA in my story as a moving story.

Thousand Arms Guanyin - WOA from Julie Jiang on Vimeo.

Some Thoughts on Fashion

People are always fascinated with fashion in their lives. To me, fashion is important because it creates an identity, lends confidence, and entail emotions. Fashion is expressive so its effect is always immediate. As a result, I had not thought about the relationship between fashion and teaching until I read the article "If Ideas Were Fashion."

I think there are some similarities between teaching and fashion. Teachers work with students on ideas, often new ideas that we wish students to accept and integrate into their knowledge systems. Like asking people to get rid of old clothes and put on new ones, teaching sometimes affects the identity of a person so it may create a similar discomfort among students. They have to be willing to open their minds, consider new ideas, try to see how new ideas change their existing psychological identity and become more "fashionable" with these new ideas.

While unlike new clothes that result in an immediate change, the role of new ideas is gradual but fundamental for a person. Try to find and simulate the same level of sensational feeling from fashion to education is probably a challenge for educators. No doubt - emotion plays an important role in the acceptance of new ideas. For example, we often see students accept new technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and iPad with great enthusiasm. These applications not only offer some kind of utility but only psychological satisfaction. Oftentimes, what we teach in the classroom lacks of emotional elements even it is new knowledge and certainly useful.

As the article "If Ideas Were Fashion" states, "To fashion is to imagine, create, and express" and the experience from consuming fashion is what makes a difference. If our teaching can simulate a similar experience that allows students to imagine, create and express, it is possible that students can experience excitement and engagement. A way to achieve such an effect is to make teaching a knowledge co-creation process. From such a process each student can find something that fits their "style of thinking" and forms their psychological identity. This is what characterizes our students in the age of Web 2.0. And we should teach like a fashion expert.