Leeann Hunter, Ph.D.

I have had great success with the following in-class activity when discussing assigned readings, images, or videos.

1. Ask basic, generative questions at the beginning of class in the large group, and list responses on the whiteboard.

• Promote short-answer responses by asking questions such as: “identify major terms or keywords in the text,” “identify modes of communication used,” “what are some types of X that we see in our own lives?”
• Use this brief activity as a way to gain a sense of students’ grasp of the text. Also use this opportunity as a way to pull together a basic understanding of the text.

2. Break into small groups with specific roles (during the first session, introduce these roles; during the second session, have students identify and describe the roles for you).

• Moderator: keeps the conversation going, asks follow-up questions, encourages every group member to actively participate
• Responder: provides a ready answer to every question
• Challenger: challenges the responder, seeks new ways of looking at the material, asks probing questions
• Reporter: keeps track of the discussion, asks clarifying questions, records the discussion in a document, presents the material to the class or instructor

3. Ask 4-6 questions that move from “old knowledge” to “new knowledge.” Always start with easy, familiar, and provocative questions to get students comfortable and excited about the text.

• Ask questions one at a time by writing them on the whiteboard at intervals. This tactic allows you to moderate how much time each group spends discussing each question.
• Actively listen in on group discussions. Are they performing their roles correctly? Are they responding as you expected? Do you need to tweak your next question to get them on the right track?

4. Have students wrap-up their discussions with conclusions that summarize the themes and big ideas unraveled during their discussion.

• When there’s time, ask the reporter to share the group’s conclusions with the class.
• When time runs out, ask the reporter to submit a copy to you (be sure to specify that the notes are to be typewritten, not handwritten!)

5. Reflect. What was your objective? Did you meet it? Should you use this text again? How could you improve the activity? Record your notes in an annotated syllabus for future reference.

My spring 2012 course at Georgia Tech considers the ways in which nineteenth-century authors began constructing visions of what would come to be known as the posthuman. We’ll also turn toward contemporary new media that echoes these early visions. Visit the full course website at: www.leeannhunter.com/posthuman.

“In this course, we will examine the commercial viability, social implications, and ethical consequences of posthuman technology that appears in selected science-fiction series. Our social and cultural critiques of this technology will serve as inspiration for our own inventions to change the way humans interact with each other and with the material world. During the first half of the semester, students will pitch ideas and designs for a new invention, focused primarily on the advantages to science and business. During the second half of the semester, students will integrate these inventions into a science-fiction narrative that interrogates the social and ethical consequences of these technological advancements. In our final reflection on these inventions, we will consider the ways in which these technologies might become a reality.”

From the Preface of Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians (1933):

“The history of the Victorian Age will never be written: we know too much about it. For ignorance is the first requisite of the historian–ignorance, which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits, with a placid perfection unattainable by the highest art”

“It is not by the direct method of a scrupulous narration that the explorer of the past can hope to depict that singular epoch. If he is wise, he will adopt a subtler strategy. He will attack his subject in unexpected places; he will fall upon the flank, or the rear; he will shoot a sudden, revealing searchlight into obscure recesses, hitherto undivined. He will row out over that great ocean of material, and lower down into it, here and there, a little bucket, which will bring up to the light of day some characteristic specimen, from those far depths, to be examined with a careful curiosity”

“Human beings are too important to be treated as mere symptoms of the past. They have a value which is independent of any temporal processes–which is eternal, and must be felt for its own sake”

My glasses are no more. The same nerdy frames I’ve worn almost seven years. And then, on a night just like any other, they lie on the area rug next to the couch, mere feet away from lying atop the coffee table, the safe space. How they arrived in their flung state on the carpet–or rather, the deed committed in exchange for the loss–remains only in language and vague images in my memory. And when, in my absent-mindedness, with the heaviness of my soul, I push myself up from the couch amid all the pillows and blankets, in that instant, they snap.

And yet, it’s not the first time I’ve stepped on these glasses. They’ve held up through many a crisis, enduring all sorts of ruthless punishments and carelessnesses. Last night, they simply couldn’t hold up any longer. They snap with a voice of exhaustion, pain, anger. And for now, I must walk in a blur, temporarily blinded.

And again I’m entirely fascinated, but this time impressed. Leave it to a non-American country to devise a progressive and politically engaged doll for children. The shopping doll–carrying a reusable cloth shopping bag–is part of Japan’s campaign on global warming. Yes, it’s a governmental tool for reinforcing an ideology via children’s toys, but, even if you (gasp!) don’t believe in global warming, there could not possibly be anything wrong with encouraging reusable materials. Wait, aren’t the dolls themselves a threat as plastic products of consumer culture encouraging more consumption?