darren wershler-henry's pedagogy.
Some information on my teaching practice:
teaching philosophy
Every time I walk into a classroom, I strive to keep one fact in the forefront of my mind: it has been less than a decade since I was a student myself.
Though my accumulated expertise and experience as an academic, public intellectual and media worker differentiate me from the people enrolled in my classes, I remember very clearly what it was like to be sitting on the other side of the desk. There were times when I was excited almost beyond words by the sudden relevance of newfound knowledge to my life. There were times when I knew more about the subject matter than the lecturer. There were times when I was too distracted or bored or overworked to contribute to the classroom discussion to the best of my abilities. What happened in each of these circumstances was determined largely by the acuity of the instructor in question; those that could gauge and sympathize with my moods and circumstances (even on the rare occasions when they had to deliver some form of corrective) were much more likely to be able to steer my learning experience in a fruitful direction. Accordingly, I would characterize the tone of my overall pedagogical approach as an empathy for the interests, circumstances and vagaries of student life ... tempered with knowedgeable skepticism.
The academics that I admire most, those that I aspire to emulate are people that create environments for learning by providing students with the tools, materials and knowledge that they require to develop and pursue their interests (a large part of this sort of teaching involves helping students to identify exactly what their interests are, because many may not know yet, especially at the undergraduate level). From such a perspective, the classroom is not simply a pulpit for the dissemination of an instructor's knowledge. It is also a space that makes it possible for students to showcase their individual talents and interests and apply them to classroom discussion.
Discussion is an essential component of the classroom dynamic I strive to achieve, a dynamic that is rooted more in Bakhtinian dialogism than the dialectic. I want students to have permission to speak and the freedom to respectfully disagree (with me and with each other), because I want them to realize that ideas are complex, that the narratives that convey them are always subjective, and that robust discussion is beneficial even if it doesn't always produce a single definitive answer. Fostering vibrant classroom discussion is a first step toward emphasizing the importance of collaboration and group work, which encourages students to regard themselves as active producers of knowledge as well as passive consumers.
Grappling with complex ideas is an excellent way for students to develop their critical and rhetorical skills. In order to make their arguments convincingly, students need to regard language as a technology that they desire to manipulate with as a great a degree of facility as they have in, say, programming C++, animating in Flash or rendering Counterstrike levels. Students in my classes do a significant amount of writing, and I encourage them to consider the impact of the stylistic choices that they make as an important aspect of how they present an argument.
Similarly, I treat what I know of history, popular culture, literature and philosophy as a Deleuzean toolbox, introducing a heterogeneity of concepts and techniques in applied contexts to address particular problems. (For example, in a discussion of contemporary retailing strategies, I might contextualize a technology such as RFID tags with references to ongoing discussions on Slashdot, scenes from the film Minority Report, the marketing concept of "lifetime value" and Althusser's notion of subjectivity as a function of "hailing".) The goal is to broaden students' vocabularies in a number of fields at once, and to make them realize that technological choices always have political and ideological implications.
current courses
Laurier CS 100: Introduction to Communication Studies
Laurier CS 325: Digital Media and Culture
Laurier CS 400: Free Culture
older courses
York AS/SOSC 3310.06: Communication for Tomorrow
York AS/SOSC 4320.06: The Electronic Information Marketplace
York AS/SOSC 4300C.2: Popular Culture: Digital Interactive Media: Visions And Realizations