It has been 8 years now since I entered my first class that Winter day in a classroom in pretty Savannah, GA. I had 20 students watching my every move. I was all prepared with the syllabus to share, the information about the class, introduction phrases, a couple emergency ice-breakers and my lecture and assignments for the day. I began the lecture with fair ease. And then I was done. And it had only been 30 minutes. What do I do with the next 120 minutes?
It has been a long journey since. Mostly of my own education. I learn everyday from my students. As I teach in a culture I did not grow up in but adapted to instead, I get to know so many new things every day. Right from, the favorite cartoons, to life in high school, what certain slang means, how it is to grow up in the suburbs, how certain phrases may mean different things just with a change in tone. How much could I stretch my authority, how differently it is viewed by different students. And to make life more interesting, how I become the referee when diverse groups interact. These could be differences in gender, nationality, culture, regions of the same country, different social backgrounds and ethnicity to name a few.
And within all this where does learning design or communication or technology fit it?
When I signed up for the job, I thought I was going to talk about the principles of design, typography, hierarchy. I was going to teach how a software works and how you use it to convey your ideas in a refined fashion. I was going to help them develop strategies and apply them towards conveying ideas.
There has been all that but there has been so much more. And that's what this blog is about.
It has been a long journey since. Mostly of my own education. I learn everyday from my students. As I teach in a culture I did not grow up in but adapted to instead, I get to know so many new things every day. Right from, the favorite cartoons, to life in high school, what certain slang means, how it is to grow up in the suburbs, how certain phrases may mean different things just with a change in tone. How much could I stretch my authority, how differently it is viewed by different students. And to make life more interesting, how I become the referee when diverse groups interact. These could be differences in gender, nationality, culture, regions of the same country, different social backgrounds and ethnicity to name a few.
And within all this where does learning design or communication or technology fit it?
When I signed up for the job, I thought I was going to talk about the principles of design, typography, hierarchy. I was going to teach how a software works and how you use it to convey your ideas in a refined fashion. I was going to help them develop strategies and apply them towards conveying ideas.
There has been all that but there has been so much more. And that's what this blog is about.
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