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Unlock the Library – A Virtual Escape Room

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September 22, 2020
Experience Design, stuff to check out
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Usually when I develop new sessions it is to address a specific need in my practice, but today I want to tell you about what happened when I came across an idea I immediately wanted to try out, but initially couldn’t really fit into what I do…

The Virtual Escape Room Idea

Experience Design is one of the things I am interested in and do research on. I now realise it was a large part of my Masters thesis, although back then I didn’t know that’s that what it was called. And creating learning opportunities, which is my job, is in a way creating experiences for students/learners/participants/add-your-own-preferred-term-here. No wonder I am fascinated by Escape Rooms and have played a few. I have analysed what works and what doesn’t. So when I came across a tweet by Emma Thirkell offering guidance on how to build a virtual escape room via Microsoft One Note, I was immediately intrigued and messaged her to get my hands on this. (You can find her write-ups of her work on this here and here. And if you follow her on Twitter @EmmaThirkell and ask nicely, she’ll probably send you the guidance she wrote, too.)

Added to my own fascination was the fact that we were in lockdown and there was no telling to what extent we would be able to teach on campus for the foreseeable future, so developing my own virtual escape room would be a fun little CPD project for me to do, which could be used for the students once they came back.

There were really only two issues with this: I don’t get on with Microsoft One Note – which is a problem if this is the infrastructure you are building this on. However, I do really like the Class Notebook function in MS Teams, and that is basically One Note linked in, so doing a bit of work on this was probably a good idea and would help me develop my skills in this area. However, the second issue was more problematic – it seemed to me that the most basic form of a virtual escape room (and I did play some of the ones that are around for free as research) is based on a multiple choice test. I don’t really have anything to test that way… I currently teach Animation Studies. My classes don’t end in exams, they end in students making an argument in form of an essay or other genre of their choice. Could I make them memorise dates and similar? Sure, but I don’t think that is the point. I’d much rather they start thinking about the issues within animation, and then they will hopefully have the skills to let those thinking skills develop their animation practice. Now there probably is a way to develop a virtual escape room based on Animation Studies, but I was looking for something straight forward, because I was trying to learn how to design one by doing. So I needed a subject area/collection of topics that a) were somewhat related to my teaching, so I could actually use this for my students; and b) I knew at least something about, so asking technical details about animation processes and the pipeline, for example, were out.

I thought back to one of my areas of expertise, study skills, and wondered whether maybe the library might be able to provide a solution.

Enter the Library

My students need to use the library, and, to be honest, this is a weak point for most of them. (Imagine my shock when a student recently asked me what I meant by telling her to do a search on “the library page” – I meant the Staffordshire University Library Website… but maybe I need to be clearer in spelling things out!) So a fun way that reminds them of the stuff we covered in class would be great. I got in touch with some of the nice folk I know in my library to check whether they already had a virtual escape room, and if not, whether they would be up for helping me put one together. Turns out there hadn’t and yes, they were indeed up for it, so off we went on our little adventure.

Starting Points

Just as with any experience design, it is important that you figure out your audience and objectives before you start designing in earnest.

  • My initial idea had been to do something that would introduce students to library skills and the library itself, but after some thinking about this, we decided to focus on the online library (also considering the current context, this would be most useful in the next few months as access to the physical library is restricted. Staffordshire University is also in the process of constructing a new building to house the library holdings, and we didn’t want to make something that would have a very limited usefulness).
  • An audience of returning students, they should be somewhat familiar with library services already. This would mean 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates. (Post-grads could use it as a basic refresher, but wouldn’t be the main target audience.)
  • Possibly also a way of familiarising students with some of the features of Teams and the OneNote Class Notebook within it as this might become a way of delivering teaching.
  • Focus on the online library, rather than the physical one.
  • It should be possible to use this as a stand-alone activity, i.e. link it to the library website so students could take it on their own, although it would be possible to play it within a class and/or as a group.
  • There should be as little need for updating it as possible, i.e. puzzles should be written so that all the information used would be likely to remain the same, as we didn’t want to spend time on future maintenance.
  • There should be the possibility for subject specialists to customise the experience for their subject somehow, but this should be aimed at academics wanting to include this into their teaching, rather than at library staff.

Starting with these objectives we set out to brainstorm the different areas we wanted to include. By that we were guided on information we wished the students had retained from our teaching, as well as frequently asked questions and frequently made mistakes.

The first prototype (a terrible first draft)

We wanted to come up with about 10 different topics to make 10 sections or ‘rooms’ within the Virtual Escape Room, the last of which we wanted to be subject specific. As Animation is my subject area, we used this as the subject to construct the example room.

Then we broke these down into possible questions we could ask, or started with the information we wanted to test for, for example, do the students know the best way to search for a physical book is different than searching a database?

Our first version of the Escape Room was very basic and very cumbersome for a number of reasons:

  • It was very obvious the questions had been written by different people in the way the player was addressed.
  • The different passwords were complicated codes that sometimes (but not always) combined letter and number combinations of different lengths.
  • It seemed very long.

Test playing this through by ourselves, i.e. looking at the sections each of us hadn’t written themselves and giving each other feedback on this, really helped to identify these sticking points, and we decided to simplify it before going public with it.

  • We split the whole thing in half, sort of a basic version that focused on searching and referencing, and a more advanced version that considered outside services the university has access to and included the subject specific section. Then we focused on the basic version with the more advanced one something to tweak in the future, if people wanted to actually play a second one.
  • We also decided to change the format of the passwords from random to making up words, so that if people were almost there, they could take a guess as to what the right answer was. In the end this meant cutting some questions, but overall it made the playing of the rooms more enjoyable. We also decided that the basic Escape Room should feel easier than the second one, and therefore made those passwords all the same length, whereas the second one might have passwords of different length, and possibly anagrams that need to be unscrambled.

Theming

What I was particularly concerned with was a story to frame this. I didn’t want this to be a random exercise that asked library related questions, because in that case, you might as well just write a multiple choice test. I thought we should try to come up with a compelling story that would provide some sort of motivation for the players and an (albeit made up) reason for why they are being asked all these questions. With the focus of the online library, I came up with some vaguely cyber-security related framing, i.e. the library has been hacked/invaded by a mutant algorithm and the players are asked to reset it step-by-step to make it usable again for themselves and other students. My team liked the idea, so I wrote little introductions to each room that try to keep this theme alive, although they are basically just techno-babble. At some point we were wondering whether we could make it look like this is a conversation that uses the live chat function of the library page, but that seemed to much detail to get into. Maybe once we have good feedback on the whole thing this is something to do to pretty it up a bit.

Testing the refined prototype

The next step was to put this out there, and ask people from outside of the team to test it. We invited some library professionals, as well as lecturer colleagues, one of my experience design friends, and I also tried to get some students on board as testers. We had some feedback, but not as much as I would have liked, and simplified instructions a bit more based on that feedback. (I can recommend having somebody screenshare with you while they are playing and talking you through their thinking, that was a very valuable exercise for me!)

And this is the stage we are currently at. We have decided to make it available to the wider university now, but make it clear it is still in the testing phase. Keep your fingers crossed!

(and yes, I will update you about this at some stage ;-))

Stretch goal added: integrating movement into online teaching

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June 3, 2020
stuff to check out, Uncategorized
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elastigirl

My trusty Elastigirl mug

Like Elastigirl on one of my The Incredibles mugs (yes, I have more than one, I teach on an Animation course, they were basically a work expense!), I feel like I am ‘Stretched to my Limits!’ at the moment. Global pandemic, quick pivot to teaching online, learning to use a new virtual learning environment (we seem to be now moving to MS Teams), preparing for more online delivery for next academic year (and possibly beyond), on top of normal marking and grade admin… there is a lot going on. And, ironically, at the same time I (and possibly you, too) am just not stretching enough.

This hit home when a colleague of mine posted a time-lapse video of him working through a morning, where he really didn’t move around enough. So I asked myself, what am I doing? And what can I do more to form better habits of working from home? And – maybe most importantly – how can we as lecturers foster good habits in working from home (and working on a computer) for our students?

Flashback to the online session I facilitated the previous week, which I thought would take about 45 minutes, but that ended up taking more like 2 hours. (…what can I say, they kept me talking…) Where I didn’t schedule a break. Where I didn’t really move around, and didn’t encourage the students to either. Of course they might have, most of them didn’t have their camera on, but to be honest, I doubt it. A horrifying scenario, now that I come to think of it!

Weirdly, when I used to work at/from home before, my habits were quite good (I think, at least). I usually don’t work all day at the computer. I usually follow the basics of the Pomodoro technique, working in 25 minute focused chunks with 5 minute breaks in-between and a longer break after 4. During those breaks I move around, getting more water or making a hot drink. When I have a lot of typing to do, I often work on a standing desk, or at least standing up with my laptop on a box on top of my desk. But none of this had transferred to my teaching, probably because I was so stretched that I focused too much on content, rather than stop and think of mode of delivery.

Of course this is a big issue to tackle and I’m making headway little by little (at least I hope so). But it was time to add a little ‘stretch goal’ by finding a way to include breaks, movement and particularly stretches into scheduled teaching (and hoping it rubs off and allows them to build good habits for the future). Luckily, I knew exactly who to call for advice, as my friend Marina is behind SittingDuck.co which is all about ergonomics when working from home. A real-life Mrs Incredible to the rescue!

Once I told Marina about my idea to somehow get stretches into teaching sessions, she made me three backgrounds that I could use as video chat backgrounds (you can add your own in Teams, or at least unless you’re on a Mac as a colleague informs me), but would that be too distracting? Maybe, I thought, it would make more sense to add them as slides into the deck I wanted to cover for my session – one for before the session starts, one for the break, and one for the end of the session?

And that is what I tried out today: Marina made me three slides

  • a sort of ‘holding screen’ welcoming students to the session, telling them when it would
    start, encouraging them to sit or stand comfortably and have a drink nearby, and suggesting a stretch before we started
  • a break slide that suggested another stretch, as well as encouraging students to move
    around and top up their drink
  • a Goodbye slide that suggested another stretch

After building them into my slide presentation, I realised that sharing the screen at the beginning with the whole presentation didn’t really work for me, so I instead shared just the image. (After starting the meeting really early, to make sure no student would be there before me…) Just sharing the image also allowed me to continue working in other windows on my computer.

The break image came in the middle of my presentation, which was well-timed. I turned my camera off and muted my mic, but at least one student left their camera on and at some point did move around. They didn’t do the stretches the slide suggested exactly (or not that I saw, I was at some point also away from the computer moving around and topping up my glass of water), but even if they didn’t, they were moving around, and I hope others were too!

The Goodbye slide, I have to admit, I messed up. After covering the content I needed to get through I came out of the presentation to answer questions and mop up concerns the students might have, and then we just said goodbye to one another, without me remembering that there was another stretch I wanted to suggest.

So, a little try-out today, and I have to say that I am really happy with it. The idea, I think is a great one which I definitely want to keep and get my colleagues to also include into their teaching for next term. I’ve sent a call out to my students to see if any of them would be up for helping to custom-make us some stretch images or even animations (as we borrowed images from the internet for the prototype). The how to integrate this logistically (and logically) into the sessions itself, with swapping from application to application and screenshare to on camera is something I’ll still have to work out.

What do you think, worth developing further?

…and if you want to check out Marina’s work, you can find out more here: sittingduck.co (the tag line is ‘For duck’s sake, don’t forget to stretch’ – how hilarious is that?)

Invitation to an Academic Afternoon Tea

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February 15, 2019
Alternative Presentations, stuff to check out, Workshops
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Looking back at conferences I have attended, I seem to remember little about the large themes, but so much about the people I actually got chatting to – sometimes in the scheduled tea/coffee breaks, sometimes over lunch, sometimes at the conference dinner and sometimes while deciding to miss part of the scheduled programme (and yes I admit to feeling slightly naughty for ‘skiving off’). These conversations (some of them struck up because of me seeing the other person give an inspirational paper, some through the simple coincidence of sitting next to each other) have led to me making changes to my practice, but also long-term collaborations.

Having the time to talk to each other is so valuable, but in today’s Education context this seems to become a more and more precious resource. Whenever I get to plan a conference or workshop, I have always tried to build in some extra time to just chat – whether that is a long lunch or (as in the case of the 2017 ReGenring conference) even an afternoon sharing session without formal programming. Sometimes this leaves attendees a bit surprised – there’s nothing planned? they say. Actually, there is something planned, the plan is to give YOU the opportunity to start to react to the all the content we’ve already thrown at you, to start digesting, and this works best if we can allocate some time for that.

I was absolutely delighted to be at a residential conference/course last September, where a whole day was declared a ‘Day of Conversation’ with the brief for us to go out and finish the conversations we had started with other attendees and start the conversations we hadn’t had yet, but really wanted to have. Partly this became an Unconference – people forming little groups around subjects, and partly this was tiny groups of two or possibly three people sitting together talking to each other – and if any of the others were like the conversations I had, they were scheming and laughing – making lifelong friends with people you had only met three days before and laying the ground work for future collaborations.

So it might not be a surprise that my upcoming workshop is experimenting with a different format – I wanted a framing that would let people chat and give them time to exchange ideas and practice. But I also wanted a little bit of structure. And delicious food. In fact, I wanted an environment that was different to the corporate teaching rooms at a university, changing expectations…

Academic-Afternoon-Tea-Blackboard-for-web

And so, the Academic Afternoon Tea was born.

Loosely structured by the three traditional courses of savouries, scones and sweets, this will give us the opportunity to explore subjects, share practice and network. The first one is open for booking now – join us at LEAF in Manchester, UK on 10th May 2019 to explore ways that principles of experience design can help thinking differently about students and our own roles! There will be tea, food, some guided creative activities (we might even start with the ever popular making of our own name tags) and – most importantly – lots of time to chat.

To get your ticket, check out the EventBrite page here.

Hope to see you there!

Bibliography Bingo

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May 23, 2018
stuff to check out, Workshops
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My soon-to-be final year students have the option of starting their final year research projects this month, and I’m running a little ‘research boot camp’ to remind them of some of the procedures and share some extra tips and tricks in preparation for this. As the quality of secondary sources has been a weak point in the research my students typically produce, I don’t just remind them of the Fishscale of Academicness analogy and exercises we do in their first year, but I also wanted to give them a straightforward, but playful, reminder of some of the things to look out for when looking at (and for) sources.

How about a round of Bibliography Bingo? I produced a bingo card (download and try it for yourself here: TacAc Bibliography Bingo) with some things they might encounter in their sources, and some, such as index or reference list, that give hints that this might be an academic source. The idea is to use a card for each source encountered, and mark each of the spaces that apply. As I arranged the more academic clues in the middle 9 squares, scoring those squares gives a higher indication of an academic source having been found.

When I presented this to my students, one asked whether we were going to actually play a round of Bibliography Bingo. I have to admit that I had thought of this as a fun diagnostic tool, rather than turn it into an activity in class. This time round we didn’t have time, but next time a round of bingo is definitely on the cards!

The Boardgame Blueprint

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April 22, 2017
Alternative Presentations, stuff to check out, Uncategorized, Writing by Pictures
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I’m very pleased to report that my latest Kickstarter Project was fully funded! Thank you to everybody who backed it!

paper mock-up of Boardgame Blueprint in action

So, what is it all about, you might ask…
I have been playing with the format of boardgames for a while to get my students to reflect on the essay writing process. Getting students together in groups to design their own boardgame themed around essay writing is a really good way of getting them to think about different steps that go into this process, and to identify things they find challenging. It allows me to later talk about the steps they might not be aware of – and how we are going to address this in class. (It is also a pretty fun session, and I would recommend it to anybody who teaches a process to try out.)
Before last term, however, I had always left the fun of designing these games to the students. I have seen some wonderful ones, a lot based on Snakes and Ladders, some on Monopoly, memorable versions of Twister and Cluedo, and other that freestyle it. But then I was wondering what my version would look like. I also was trying to explain to my students how the sessions we do in class map onto the researching and writing they should do, which I always struggled with. So one day I started doodling a game, fitting it into the analogy of the iceberg (which you might be familiar with from Writing Essays by Pictures), that some things are visible over the waterline – i.e. the writing of drafts and the finished piece – and some are invisible under the waterline – i.e. the research. But what in my experience students often didn’t understand (or at least failed to put into practice) is that you don’t do all the research first and then just write it up; in order to put together a great essay, you do some research, some writing, some more research, some rewriting, etc. And the iceberg shape works for that – if you are on a path starting in the middle, going down, then coming up, then going down (this time deeper), and coming back up again. Putting this together as my own sketched version of the game, I could explain this journey much more clearly than with just a timetable – and I liked it so much I made a basic handout for my second years as well, to remind them of the stages that should go into writing an essay.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After sharing this with some colleagues as well (for example at the session I wrote about here) I thought why not turn this into a version that is shareable, hence the Kickstarter project.
Once they are finished, I will share how they turned out in a new post.

current version

Creative HE Conversation about The Role of the Body in Creative Processes & Practices this week

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April 18, 2017
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Here an invitation by Lisa Clughen that you might be interested in:

NEXT #creativeHE CONVERSATION APRIL 18-22th: The Role of the Body in Creative Processes & Practices

April 21st has just been designated a UN World Creativity & Innovation Day and we are inviting you to join us to explore the theme of ‘the role of the body in creativity’ at:
https://plus.google.com/communities/110898703741307769041

We tend to think of creativity as an imaginative cognitive process that is often depicted as a light bulb sparking off in our heads. In this conversation, though, we want to explore the ways in which our whole bodies are involved in creative processes and practices.

The conversation is open to anyone who has an interest in the theme of the body and creativity, and all perspectives and shared experiences are welcome. We are particularly interested in the views of people who work in higher education as the role of the body in teaching and learning processes is not often addressed. We also welcome the involvement of creative practitioners and tradespeople, who will have particular insights into this phenomenon.

 

Discussion Outline:

DAY 1 April 18: Introductory activity

DAY 2 April 19: The role of the body in helping others to learn

DAY 3 April 20: Your body and the way you inhabit particular spaces that encourage your creativity

DAY 4 April 21: The role of the body in disciplinary or work contexts in which you are creative

DAY 5 April 22: The challenge of enabling learners to become more aware of the ways in which their bodies are involved in their own creativity

 

Further information will be provided daily at: #creativeHE  You can participate at:
https://plus.google.com/communities/110898703741307769041

 

The conversation takes place during World Creativity and Innovation Week and it is Creative Academic’s and #creativeHE’s contribution to this event.

The conversation is being led by Lisa Clughen (Nottingham Trent University) and supported by Norman Jackson and Maria Kefalogianni

Thinking Through Genre: exploring genre as a pedagogical resource

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September 24, 2016
Alternative Presentations, Redrawing the Textbook, stuff to check out, Workshops, Writing by Pictures
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writing-pad-logo

Come and join us on November 8th 2016 at Middleport Pottery in Longport (near Stoke-on-Trent) to find out about using genre as pedagogcial resource. The first in a series of Writing-PAD events this academic year focusing on genre(s), this day introduces a theoretical framework for exploring genres and their affordances, including a recent example of how this can work as pedagogical practice. Via a tour of this very special venue, we will not only explore a valued English Heritage site, but also use this as a starting point for playing with the idea of genre and regenring in our own teaching practices. The day will also include the launch of the recently published book Writing Essays by Pictures by Alke Groppel-Wegener.

Cost £145 : Includes the whole day, with refreshments on arrival and in the afternoon, a delicious buffet lunch, a special tour of the venue and your own copy of Writing Essays by Pictures.

Book via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/thinking-through-genre-exploring-genre-as-pedagogical-resource-tickets-28084047141?aff=eac2

(Draft) Programme:

10-10.30 Registration and Refreshments

  • Let’s start the day as we mean to continue by making our own name-tags – regenring a tiny part of conference/symposium tradition into something more expressive.

10.30-11 Welcome

11-12  Genre as Pedagogical Resource by Dr Fiona English

  • Fiona introduces a theory that could frame genre as pedagogical resource, updating thoughts from her book Student Writing and Genre.

12-12.30 Writing Essays by Pictures by Dr Alke Groppel-Wegener

  • Alke shares the story of the development of her recently published book Writing Essays by Pictures, an example of regenring the traditional study skills textbook into a picture/work-book.

12.30 – 1 Discussion

1-2      Lunch

2-3.30 The Pottery and beyond

  • Explore Middleport Pottery via a special tour and then use this experience to start thinking about ways of genring teaching practices.

3.30 – 4.15 Linking Theory and Practice

  • Fiona and Alke start us off using the Writing Essays by Picture books as an example to explore gains and losses of this particular regenring process to demonstrate an example of using the theoretical framework established at the beginning of the day. We will then move into the discussion of the outcomes of your genring activities.

4.15 – 4.45 Discussion of the day

4.45    End

The Speakers

Dr Fiona English is Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL Institute of Education with a background in linguistics and language and literacies in education. Much of her research has been concerned with student writing and academic literacies, with her book Student Writing and Genre using a social semiotic perspective to explore the relationship between genre and the production of academic knowledge. More recently she has published Why do Linguistics?: Reflective Linguistics and the Study of Language with Tim Marr.

Dr Alke Groppel-Wegener is Associate Professor of Creative Academic Practice at Staffordshire University and a National Teaching Fellow. Having trained as a theatre designer but ending up teaching study skills, she became frustrated with the traditional ways of teaching academic practice, which has led her to develop her own approach being inspired by the creative processes of art and design and collated her strategies as Writing Essays by Pictures: A Workbook for students. She blogs at www.tactileacademia.com.

The Venue

Middleport Pottery is home to Burleigh Ware, which is still made on site using traditional craftsmanship. (And there is a shop where you can get your own Burleigh Ware, too). It was restored with the help of the Princes Regeneration Trust, has become a top visitor attraction and the home of The Great Pottery Throwdown.

It is a short walk from Longport Train Station, a 5 minute train ride from Stoke-on-Trent, and we would encourage participants to use public transport.

Please note that this is an old site and some of the areas are cobbled and might present a problem for people with mobility issues. It is advised that you wear sturdy shoes (no high heels) for the tour, and that you let the organiser know of mobility issues in advance, so that she can discuss your needs.

The Series

This exploratory workshop is the first in a series that will stretch through the academic year and culminate in a special issue of the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice.

Through discussion within the Writing PAD community, we know that very often lecturers, and particularly practitioner/teachers, are doing a lot of interesting things in their teaching, but they seem to lack the confidence to share this work, specifically within the academic conventions of publication beyond a description of what they are doing.

To address this, we have decided to pick the focus of Genre, Genring and Regenring for this academic year, and are organising a series of events that will provide support for this issue and culminate in one (or possibly two) special issues of the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, guest edited by Fiona English and Alke Groppel-Wegener.

The other events in planning are:

  • a first follow-up in February 2017 which explores the traditions and conventions of academic writing. There will be speakers in the morning, which are still to be confirmed, but we are talking to Julia Molinari, Lisa Clughen and Julia Lockheart, who will explore academic writing as a genre – and discuss the changes it is going through. The afternoon will be given over to a sharing session/exhibition where delegates have the opportunity to show off examples of their genre-ing and regenring practice, either as artefacts or in a poster format. The will allow the opportunity for people to share best practice, but also to get feedback and ideas for potential research designs in order to explore their practice more and on a more theoretical level. This event will probably be held at De Montford University in Leicester.
  • A second follow-up in the form of an academic conference, either at Easter time or early May 2017. Here people can share their practice in an academic format, and those presentations could use the feedback from the conference to inform papers for the Special Journal edition. This might be hosted at Nottingham Trent University or Staffordshire University.
  • If there is interest, there are plans for a writing retreat to facilitate the writing of the papers, possibly at Nottingham Trent University.

We are currently investigating funding to keep costs down, but it might be the case that we need to break even on this. You will not have to attend all these events to be considered for the special issue, but as we are trying to build up a mutually supporting network, it would be nice if you could come and join us at as many as possible.

Writing, identity, learning: the affordances of genres

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May 5, 2016
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As Fiona is part of the Tactile Academia family, some of you might be interested in this talk:

Applied Linguistics Research Seminar Series Hosted by the Centre for Applied Linguistics, UCL Institute of Education, University College London

Writing, identity, learning: the affordances of genres

Dr. Fiona English

5:30 pm, Tuesday, 10 May 2016
UCL Institute of Education, Clarke Hall, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H OAL

Most discussion about genre and writing focuses on describing and analysing the structures and functions of different genres in particular contexts, typically academic or professional, often using those analyses to develop students’ writing by showing them how to produce these genres. What I focus on, however, is what genres enable us to do, what they enable us to learn and how. In other words, I am interested in the affordances of genres.

In this talk I use examples from different phases of my work to show how I came to this particular understanding starting with writing produced by two fifteen year olds and finishing with the work of a mature non-traditional student on a Master’s programme. Each case explores what might be called genre transgression – that is using what would be considered the wrong genre for a given writing context (e.g. a play instead of an essay, a literary genre instead of a scientific one). Using the theoretical framework oforientation which emerged out of my research into student writing and genre (2011), I hope to demonstrate how the genres we use shape, not only what we write about but what we can write about and even who we can be as writers.

My aims are twofold. On the one hand I want to show that genre can be used a transformative resource in learning and teaching rather than simply as a pedagogical goal and that working with different genres offers students the chance to develop new ways of understanding their disciplinary work whether at school or at university. On the other hand, I want to promote the idea of genre choice by drawing attention to the different communicative options that genres allow.

Reference

English, F. 2011, Student Writing and Genre: Reconfiguring Academic Writing. Bloomsbury

ALL WELCOME!

Teaching by doing: making Renaissance clothes. For soft toys.

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February 18, 2014
Beyond the Display, stuff to check out
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Meant to re-blog this ages ago: a great way of facilitating learning in a very creative, tactile – and above all fun – way! (The pictures don’t seem to appear, so it is really worth checking out the original blog post)

renaissanceissues

One of the modules I am teaching for finalists is quite a challenge from the point of view of delivering it. ‘Renaissance luxuries’ takes, in a way, it’s inspiration both from Richard Goldthwaite’s work on Wealth and the Demand for Art in Renaissance Italy, and AD Fraser Jenkins’ musings on magnificence. In the course of a semester, I range quite widely across a range of genres and materials, and look at what constituted a luxury item in the Renaissance and what their possession and consumption meant for their owner. So, you could argue that the Third theoretical plank for this module is Stephen Greenblatt’s concept of self- fashioning; as a concept, it certainly helps with thinking through some of the issues.
A tight theoretical framework is certainly a necessity for this particular module, as the focus on case studies shifts on a weekly basis, so while we might be looking…

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