I am here to talk about the Learner’s Body in the face-to-face classroom. Now, we have a lot of smart people developing creative online and hybrid pedagogies in ways that surpass anything we can accomplish in the classroom. But that’s only if we don’t change the classroom in this post-digital or new digital era. What…
Category: The Body
How They Became Athletes
During the summer of 2011, I collaboratively taught a special-topic communication course designed specifically for incoming student-athletes at Georgia Tech. The class seeks to equip student-athletes with the communication skills they need to succeed on campus, in the classroom, and in the community. Playing off one of the strengths of student-athletes, we built the course…
Mosquito Meditation
In Awakening the Buddha Within, Lama Surya Das addresses the problem of “meditation with mosquito.” He’s simply referring to the moment when we are deep in mediation practice and a mosquito, or any other irritating distraction, appears buzzing at our ear. What do we do? Of course our natural instinct is to swat it away…
Combating Laziness
Pema Chodron identifies three kinds of laziness: comfort orientation, loss of heart, and “couldn’t care less.” Comfort orientation, in particular, she describes as our tendency to over accommodate our physical needs, such as by turning up the heat at the first sign of brisk weather, and by doing so, we “dull[] our appreciation of smells…
“The World Out of Clothes”
Of course Teufelsdrockh’s Philosophy figures clothes – in one way at least – as the invisible fabric of society, but this passage – with its crude literal denunciation of clothes – does indeed convince us to desire a “world out of clothes,” though our German philosopher would have us believe we are nothing but an…
Technologies of the Individual
Classes began today. I’m teaching an introductory survey of English literature on the “Technologies of the Individual.” Here is the course description. “Never judge a book by its cover.” A simple truth, and yet, our culture is driven by its obsession with creating “image.” Magazines and television shows teach us hair, styling, and exercise techniques…
I need c-o-f-f-e-e
I am completely “awed” by this video song performed in mummenschanz style: The Coffee Song with Mr. Sketch-it The Coffee Song was written by Ralph Covert, former indie bandmember of Bad Examples, and now children’s musician. He wrote and performed the song on the spot after he arrived at a musical event with a cup…
Material Bodies
I am fascinated by this article from Salon on “Big Breasts for Dummies”:http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/01/03/boob_mannequins/ At first I was struck by the concept of reshaping mannequins to take on the form of surgically-enhanced women, but there’s more. We’re already dulled to the criticism that advertising sets unreasonable standards for real bodies to attain, most evident in the…