This critical making (Ratto, 2011) workshop aims to explore several of the main themes of the 2015 HASTAC conference through a hands-on reimagining of the teaching philosophy statement. As scholarship in the Humanities shifts to incorporate and include new affordances of digital technologies, other traditional academic genres are also experience a push to incorporate these new tools and methodologies. Following Cathy Davidson’s (2014) challenge to explore “the way to inventive, digital, experimental new forms of dissertations,” we expand this exploration to the realm of teaching philosophy statements. 

This workshop gives participants an opportunity to explore both the socio-technical affordances of particular technologies, as well as how the changing nature of humanities research impacts the ways one thinks about his or her teaching philosophy statement. After a brief discussion of the traditional genre of the teaching philosophy statement and the notion that the medium in itself constitutes a message (McLuhan & Fiore, 1967), participants will work in groups to create a teaching philosophy using an assigned tool. Technology tools available will include the following: 

MakeyMakey
Play-Doh
3D design software
Data visualization software
Legos 
SparkFun Arduino Inventor’s Kit
Digital Camera

Each group will be limited to only the materials assigned to them as they work together to create a techno-teaching philosophy statement. 

A debriefing discussion will follow the creation of techno-teaching philosophies, as we explore the following questions related to HASTAC conference themes:

1. What were the affordances and constraints. of the technology used by your group?

2. How did the technology you use affect the way that your group communicated knowledge?

3. What role did creativity play in this re-imagining of a traditional educational document?

References:

Davidson, C. (2014, August 28). What Is a Dissertation? New Models, Methods, Media. HASTAC. Retrieved October 21, 2014, from http://www.hastac.org/blogs/cathy-davidson/2014/08/28/what-dissertation-new-models-methods-media

McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1967). The medium is the massage. New York: Bantam Books.

Ratto, M. (2011). Critical Making. In Abel, B.V. (Ed.) Open design now: why design cannot remain exclusive (pp. 202-213). Amsterdam: BIS Publishers