Part of my reason for making use of a blog for the course is to get us thinking about the various artifacts (i.e., journal entries, blog posts, short videos) that emerge from and feed back into this discussion as things that we can collect, archive, and refer back to both during the course and after it is over. Courses like this one have been taught time and time again, but this one is a unique experience for all of us who are invested in it. Together we can produce a unique document that chronicles the experience as it unfolds in both predictable and unpredictable ways. If we are willing to do just slightly more than would be required of us in a more traditional class, I believe we can collaboratively create something that we will all be proud to have been a part of.
Exactly how to do this is something that we can determine collectively along the way, but I have a few suggestions for getting us started:
- Write on the course blog as frequently as you can, and comment on what others have written. If you would prefer to distinguish between the privacy of the journal and the public discussion, that is absolutely fine. In that case, I would encourage you to ‘think out loud’ on the blog in response to questions that are posed about the readings, and to read and respond to what others are thinking.
- Tweet out to the class using the hash-tag #phil003 when you come across something online that may be relevant to our discussion. That way, we can work together to create a pool of online resources for ourselves and for others who might have an interest in some of these topics.
- If you want to make some point in response to an article you read or a video you come across, write a post on the blog that links to and quotes the article, or that embeds the video, and then provide your commentary along with it.
- If the discussion in class moves in a direction that makes you think you should let it go rather than bringing it back to some point you would like to make, send out a tweet with your point using the hash-tag #phil003. That way the point can be easily picked back up in discussions that take place outside of class.
- Think about the video project you will be doing, your writing for the course, and the final group project as having an audience beyond your instructor, or your classmates. Treat these assignments as opportunities to express your current understanding of issues that are, in principle, relevant to everyone, in ways that are accessible to people with varying backgrounds and interests. Think of the work we do in class and on the blog analyzing and discussing your ideas as part of the collaborative process of refining them and getting them ready to share more broadly.
- Don’t just let the course happen to you. Be a co-author of this collaborative learning experience. Help me fill in the outlines I have prepared with content that is engaging and meaningful for you. Otherwise, I will be forced to ramble on endlessly, with occasional pauses to say ‘uh’!
If you have other ideas for how to make the intellectual labors of the course more engaging, challenging, and fulfilling, or ideas for archiving the artifacts we create along the way in dynamic and interesting ways, please feel free to share them below.