IT and Pedagogy: Interview with Professor Shafer

As part of a recent workshop involving IT and Pedagogy, I was given the assignment of interviewing an HWS instructor about his/her pedagogical process and use of technology in the classroom. I knew, as soon as I was given the assignment, exactly who I was interested in meeting with! I chose Professor Shafer, an assistant professor of the Media and Society department here at HWS, because I have worked with her both through my role at the DLC as well as a student in her classroom and have always been intrigued by her ability to utilize technology as an effective pedagogical tool.

While I had originally planned to discuss the interview in this blog post, I think it may be better to simply include a transcription of our discussion so that everyone can have the opportunity to better understand her process as she explained it.

One of the largest takeaways that I personally had from our discussion was that technology needs to be an enabler. In this case, it enables students to better grasp a learning objective and/or apply a skill learned in the course. While Professor Shafer obviously has significant exposure to a wide variety of technology and digital tools, she implements and utilizes these technologies only if/when they benefit her students and the curriculum as a whole.

Enjoy!

Megan: What is your process for creating instructional goals?

Shafer: Well, there are a number of things that I do. First, it depends on what level the class is. For some classes, like the intro class, I look at the curriculum for the more advanced courses. So, I try to determine what it is that people will need in a course after they take this course. Second, I consult other syllabi of people teaching the same kinds of courses at different places. Then, I think back to my own education and think about the things that I wanted to get out of these courses, what were the things I got out of these courses, and what are the things that I didn’t get out of them that I think I probably should have gotten. So, part self-reflection; part, where do the learning goals fit into the larger specific goals of this program; and third, where does it fit into the things that other people in the field are doing.

This year, in terms of goals, we’ve started trying to create consistent goals for the Intro and the 200/300/400 level courses. So, I’ve been collaborating with my colleagues and thinking about not just what the goals should be but how we should think about goals in general. I don’t think that when I was an undergraduate they had “learning objects” listed on syllabi, so this is kind of a new trend. I think that I was [in the past] thinking about what I thought people should get out of the class but, an insight that I got from a colleague is that you should think about this in terms of verbs; think about it from the point of view of the student instead of thinking about it from the point of view of the instructor. So, instead of taking a Top-Down kind of approach, thinking about it as coming from both the material and the audience.

Megan: So, how you design the syllabus is similar?

Shafer: It is similar. I’d say the syllabus also depends on the notes I’ve taken from previous times I’ve taught the class; which readings people seem to get something out of, which were too difficult, which were not interesting enough. Usually, at least once, I have students do reading responses so then I get a lot of data. I don’t do it every semester but it gives me some insight into that process.

For me, also, Syllabus writing is one of the must fun parts of what I get to do! My colleague Lisa and I, even before we were colleagues here, we used to get together every summer and every winter break and we’d have a “Syllabus Summit.” So, we’d bring out all our syllabi and we’d talk about the concepts behind our decisions and we’d compare assignments with each other. And, we’d usually end up telling each other to cut out about half of the things we had planned because, when you’re planning a syllabus, you do it with an imaginary “perfect” class in your head, and you kinda forget all of the work that everyone has to do for all their other classes and what you have to do for other things, so you create these amazing things that have no basis in reality. So, it’s really good to have collaborators to help bring you back down to reality. There’s also a lot of resources, now, for teaching media and technology in particular. There’s a great new website called “TeachingMedia.org” that has banks of syllabi and ways that other people have taught them. There’s also a Facebook page for the website, so on any one day someone will say, “I’m about to go into a class and teach such-and-such, do you have any ideas?” And, for me, collaborating is the most energizing part of what I do, so I always look for how I can collaborate.

Megan: So, how did you arrive at the different activities and tools you use in class; what works and doesn’t work in your classroom?

Shafer: Well, in part, working with the DLC has been a big piece with this. A lot of it starts out with inspiration and then you go in a say “I would love to do this!” and then you are told, “this is the reason that part A of this will work and part B will not work.” So, again, being part of a network of people who understand those skill sets is a big part of deciding the way that those assignments work. But, the inspiration can really come from all sorts of places. Hearing what colleagues are doing in their classes; I even, in my Media Theory class, originally had a project that was inspired by “Project Runway.” So, it comes from all sorts of places.

Megan: So, which activities and projects to you find to elicit intended outcomes the best?

Shafer: Well, I think if you plan your syllabus so that each element/assignment responds to one of your learning outcomes, then you can have a way to assess whether or not those learning outcomes were gained by those assignments. One thing that I’ve been doing is adding to the generic course evaluation with specific questions about the learning outcomes. That helped to remind everyone of what the assignments were and what the kind of language was of what we were doing in the class. So, evaluating whether or not they worked by going through that process of a sort of review is the strategy that I use most of the time. I mean, I find that sort of academic/institutional obsession with measurable outcomes a little bit counterproductive if you’re thinking about Liberal Arts thinking, but that’s the trend and so I think there are ways to make it actually productive; figure out what activities you want to do and balance that with what people need to know in order to progress through the curriculum or be part of the field. So, that, I think is assessable. 

Megan: How do you grade media projects? It’s a huge thing now because people in all different departments are doing them, but they don’t necessarily know how to grade them. I know it’s different in Media and Society because students are generally being taught how to use the technology to its full potential, whereas in other classes they’re kind of just using it as a medium for a presentation. So, I’m just curious about how you grade them.

Shafer: I definitely use rubrics. I think they’re fairer. I think they also give people a sense of what they should be focusing on. I will say that I probably don’t grade media projects as harshly as I grade other projects, in part, because if I’m one of the few faculty members who’s teaching them in a methodical media studies way, I can’t expect people to have the level of competency that they would have if they were fully integrated into a media studies/production curriculum where you could really expect people to have those skills. So, I think part of the issue is what kind of exposure people have to the resources before they hit the class. And there’s this assumption that your generation is like all tech wizzes, but it does not seem to actually be true…

Megan: That’s true! And I find that it’s different for people when they’re making something for “fun” than when they’re using it intentionally and applying it to a curriculum; I always struggle with then when I’m teaching iMovie. It’s hard to know when to insist that they don’t just put something in there “just because” and, rather, to have a reason/intent for it. But when you’re teaching it to a French or History class, that’s not always worth it.

Shafer: Well, I think that the “Remix” project [a project she did with her upper level Media and Theory class where students studied the theories and techniques of remixes and then applied it all to their own Remix video on a subject of their choosing] is a good example of one where it fits into the curriculum; it’s the stuff that we’re actually studying. There are examples that people can look at. And then, the assignment itself is scaffolded so that you have the material already that you’re going to be working with, so it’s not like you’re coming up with stuff out of thin air and then trying to figure out how to fit it into a kind of aesthetic mode. So, I think that is a particularly effective media assignment in part because there are specific technical skills that you need for doing remix, but they’re not all the skills. It’s some skills, some material, and a specific outcome.

Megan: Have you ever run into the problem of having a really cool idea and wanting to use technology but then finding that it wasn’t worth the time that it took the teach the technology?

Shafer: Well, I had a fantasy project that I still haven’t gotten off the ground! I would really like people to do a sort of animated, frame-by-frame analysis of advertisements. So, going through and adding and then slowly picking it apart, highlighting different things with a voiceover and having pop-ups….. But, no one can ever figure out what tool to have me teach the students to use. Every time I try to do a version of it – well, it ended up last time that they just used screen grabs and then used markers, which is totally reasonable. It essentially gets the same result, except it’s less awesome.

Megan: How do course evaluations influence your approach?

Shafer: Well, I think they absolutely influence it when I use them for very targeted things. So, reflecting on learning goals, yes. General course evaluations, not really. I mean, it’s interesting to me to know if people think that I was organized or if they liked me, but that doesn’t have that much to do with the learning content of the class. And also, I used to hate filling out evaluations! They made me feel really on the spot and I felt uncomfortable feeling like I had authority. I think that has changed some, but I never knew what they were for or how they would be looked at. So, I think there is a real gap between what students think they’re about, what they’re about, and how they get used. It’s not something that students usually end up being that thoughtful about – it’s the end of the semester, your minds already on other things. So, in general I don’t put that much stock in them, except to be terrified about them because they can be used to destroy your career…

Megan: That’s not fair!

Megan: What are your general expectations for students to be able to utilize the technology that you request. What are your expectations for them to be able to just own it and do it.

Shafer: It’s changed radically since 2008. I mean, the first year I said “let’s do a podcast” and it took us three sessions to teach people Garageband, and they were really stressed out. And now, half of the people have used FinalCut when you’re trying to teach them iMovie. So, I usually try to survey people about what skills they have before going into class. But, at this point, I do expect...I mean, I assume that most people have Smart phones at this point. We did that survey [campus wide technology survey to see what sorts of things students do and do not use and/or like to use, etc.] and it just sort of seems like it from the number of people surreptitiously texting in class, you can kind of see that everyone pretty much has a Smart phone. So, one day in Intro  [MDSC 100] this semester I just said to people “Ok, go out and take photos, I’m sure someone in your group of three will have a Smart phone” and nobody had even the slightest difficulty taking the pictures, sending me the .JPEGs, some people even edited it in to a little movie; it all came together without any anxiety or difficulty.

But, I’ve found that students here for the most part haven’t taken advantage of the opportunities for learning it, even though they say they want to. When we offered everybody an account for learning Photoshop, etc., nobody did it. And when you guys [DLC] were holding those training sessions, I feel like none of the Media and Society students went to them. So, I don’t know what that’s about.

….. I think people [students] want to outsource their labor. So, if they can get you [IT/DLC] to do it they will. I mean, personally, I don’t think it’s easier to walk to the library and wait to talk to a person. But, I think part of it has to do with what people perceive as “labor” and what people don’t think of as labor. I mean, if you think of the number of hours people spend on Facebook, that is a digital skill; you’re manipulating things, you’re uploading things. But, somehow, uploading something for class becomes very complicated. And so, I wonder where that gap is and why it’s in different places for different people.

Megan: In the program, we had talked about media literacy in terms of presentations and how, in general, people tend to struggle with effectively expressing themselves digitally without messing it up somehow…I’m kind of curious to know what you think about media literacy in general.

Shafer: Well, I think it’s crucial. I think it’s what everyone’s going to be doing. I feel like, no matter what you’re job is, you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with email. Most of my day is about email management, and it’s going to get worse, it’s not going to get better. I think, obviously, critical media literacy and understanding the effect and power of images is something that is shockingly under attended to. I mean, maybe some people going through the Media and Society and probably Women Studies curriculum will get it, but not everyone, and that’s just some people.