Casting Learning into Flowing Streams.
We perform when we compose. And these performances reveal boundaries, leading edges and liminal spaces.
[00:17]
[Transition to "[revision]," by Sean Mattio.]
[The next segments weave excerpts from student projects with segments of narration:]
[Excerpt from "[revision]," by Sean Mattio: So my initial attempts at brainstorming for the Web essay, seemed to be going nowhere."]
[00:30]
[Narration: Sean worked at the edges of print on his Web essay. But his screencast embodies performance through sight, sound. . . .]
[Excerpt from "[revision]": Although admittedly I'd never done a Web essay before and wasn't entirely sure what it was outside of what it sounded like, an essay on the Web. But it seems not only did I not know . . . Google didn't have very many ideas either. Behold, the Web essay.]
[End of excerpt from "[revision]".]
[01:05]
We're pushing modes that perform with image, sound, and motion. Essays happen in this space as well, and they make compelling claims.
[01:18]
[Transition to "The War Goes On: Watchmen, Vietnam, and America's National Identity Crisis," by Katie Meyer.]
[Excerpt from "The War Goes On: Watchmen, Vietnam, and America's National Identity Crisis": In the Watchmen universe the US victory in Vietnam does significantly alter the course of history. However, some very important things do no change: there is still disunity and rioting in the streets. People still distrust their leaders. There is still divisive partisan politics. Rather than ending the cold war, victory in Vietnam only intensifies the conflict. And the inevitable threat of nuclear holocaust persists throughout the entire novel. Maybe Moore and Gibbons are suggesting that the Vietnam war wasn't traumatizing because we lost, but because of the way that we fought. We were confronted with facts that contradicted the way we wanted to see ourselves. Superman wouldn't drop napalm on villagers. The Vietnam war, like the novel Watchmen, forces us to ask, Who are the superheroes, and who are the villains]
[02:12]
[End of excerpt from "The War Goes On: Watchmen, Vietnam, and America's National Identity Crisis".]
We aren't just saying we can put ourselves into digital as well as written compositions. We say these modes offer new repertoires for telling stories.
[02:25]
[Transition to excerpt from "All the Heroes," by Kelley Wollman]
[Music plays during "All the Heroes"]
[End of excerpt from "All the Heroes," by Kelley Wollman]
[03:23]
We know performance and composition are linked through the writing process, that we perform when drafting or revising. But often this performance links us together. We give feedback. We rethink and recreate. We listen and respond, then we offer our own performative acts hoping to connect with others.
[03:55]
[Transition to excerpt from "Dixie Chicks: The Road," by Austin Shaw]
[Music plays during "Dixie Chicks: The Road"]
[End of excerpt from "Dixie Chicks: The Road," by Austin Shaw]
[04:18]
We know that, through language, performance controls us, binds our identities and shapes our thinking about the world. But we can also recognize how performance pushes boundaries, liberates us from constraints and connects us with others.
[04:33]
[Transition to "I am a. . . .," by Sydney Stegall]
[Narration continues during "I am a. . . .,"]
We believe improvisational learning is in tune with the liberatory mode of performance.
We believe learning offers a lens for performance. And that portfolios focus the lens, casting new knowledge through reflection.
[04:52]
We offer new media composing as a model that embodies performance. And that brings us together. We say yes to writing. And to image, sound, and motion.
We want new registers of meaning, the fluid currents of creativity. We want to feel the currents and hear all the voices. This is what we did in our class.
[05:19]
[Transition to "McCarthy's The Road and Camus," by Sydney Stegall]
[Music plays during "McCarthy's The Road and Camus"]