We’ll use Perusall to annotate and read together. Nick’s Multimodal Project
Hi everyone- I just wanted to share my first-ever Tumblr page with you all. I chose a new platform to convey the connections between English 431 and my volleyball team this semester. There’s a fair bit of writing on my page, but in addition to my own text, I incorporated video clips, pictures, and more!
Here’s the link to my page:
http://nickisreddy.tumblr.com/
Background: I interviewed four of my rookie teammates on the Chico State men’s club volleyball team. Three of them are first-semester freshmen while the fourth is a 6th year senior and former collegiate baseball player. My teammates have intriguing personal histories and gave insightful responses to my questions.
Key terms and concepts (taken from the “Start here, go anywhere…” section of my Tumblr page)
How my teammates identities have changed, from whatever it was before they joined the team this semester and/or started college, to one that is hopefully that of “contributing member of the Chico State men’s volleyball team”. My hope is that they they learn about our team and what it means to be a member of our community without necessarily embodying an identical identity of myself.
– Drawing from Chapter 3 of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation about apprenticeship, I delve into how the learning of my rookie teammates is akin to some of the apprenticeships the authors present, in terms of similar and dissimilar characteristics.
– Inquiry into my teammate’s perspectives on the “learn by doing” approach implemented upon them by myself as the most experienced member of the team.
– The paradigm of “process > product”. Especially in teaching composition, but equally important for my team this season, is the mindset that the journey is far more important than the destination.
– Varying perspectives regarding expectancy theory, in how it relates to a teacher’s perceived notions of his/her students’ abilities and my teammates’ expectations for our team, while also touching on my own expectancies for the team given my informal role as the teacher in this community.
– What my teammates have learned from September open gyms to now after just completing our first tournament in December, examining and evaluating what, and to what degree, they have learned, as well as what I have learned from them. The last clause reverts back to the idea that the best teachers are never stagnant dispensaries of knowledge, but are constantly evolving and learning from themselves and their students.
Assignment review: As far as final projects go, there was quite a bit of planning, brainstorming and note-jotting on a Google Doc before I even started to acquire content (interviews, pictures, video, my own text). Also, deciding what platform on which to display everything took some time (I ultimately sought out Kim’s help and she encouraged me to dabble with Tumblr; which paid off really well, I think). This honestly was my first-time using Tumblr, so learning how to navigate the site and produce my page was a learning process by itself, but I’m glad I did it. I experienced several instances of technical difficulties that were slightly frustrating, but I found ways around those issues. All in all, this is one of the final projects that I’ll remember for a long time, as I did put a lot into its formation, and also because of its great relevance to me as a future educator and club volleyball player.