Seminar Abstract: I have been using social media platforms such as padlet, pinterest and tumblr as part of my teaching with undergraduates on the BA (Hons) Dance in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. In this session I will demonstrate some of the ways in which I have used these platforms to collate useful online resources, document creative practice and encourage discussion/critical reflection.
Digital Dates: Using Social Media Platforms in Learning and Teaching
1. Using Social Media Platforms in
Learning and Teaching
Ms Kelly Preece BA (Hons), MA, FHEA
Research Associate and Lecturer in Dance
School of Performance and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds
School of Arts, University of Northampton
Executive Board, DanceHE
2. SEC3 2014 Engaging Leeds Aims of the Project
explore the use of social media platforms as
alternative educational interfaces to the VLE
collate useful online resources in my subject
area
help students to recognise reliable online source
materials
6. SEC3 2014 Engaging Leeds Emerging Themes
Autonomy over learning
Bitesize/ongoing engagement
Engaging visual appearance and clarity
Awareness raising of online resources
Facilitating critical reflection
Content sharing and discussion amongst
students
Need for video tutorials
I have been using social media platforms such as padlet, pinterest and tumblr as part of my teaching with undergraduates on the BA (Hons) Dance in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. In this session I will demonstrate some of the ways in which I have used these platforms to collate useful online resources, document creative practice and encourage discussion/critical reflection.
Teaching dance history (second year module Theoretical Concepts in Dance)
Balance which of theoretical and practical knowledge
Reconstruction alongside lectures and analysis
Essay (analysis) and presentation (reconstruction + reflection on learning)
Online resources using social media platforms to support reconstructions
Multimedia memoboards – digital repositories of critical and contextual information of choreographers/works being studied. Primarily used padlet – used pinterest for one but padlet is better for evidencing and linking to the soruce of the material, and is more flexible in terms of media format.
Focus groups to facilitate evaluation
Memoboards used in two ways…
After a lecture on Merce Cunningham, I taught exercises from Cunningham technique classes and introduced them to the choreography software he invented ‘LifeForms’ and set them a choreographic task based on this. The memoboard contained resources to support and extend the understanding gained in the lecture and practical class, and to facilitate further research.
Variety of media – images, videos, interviews, excerpts of piece, ebooks, company website and bibliographies listed online…
Very famous choreographer on whom there is a plethora of online materials. Well known also means written about proflifically and badly. This links them to official resources from the Merce Cunningham Trust and his collaborators, as well as library archives, academic texts available online and video interviews of youtube. It facilitates online engagement without using dodgy web resources i.e. wikipedia, newspaper reviews etc.
Lecture on Dance Analysis, class teaching Hofesh Shechter technique class and repertory from Political Mother, then set a choreographic task based on the work. Asked them to use the practical work, and these resources, to engage in a verbal analysis of the constituent features of the work.
About the synthesis of a range of information about the work for analysis – embodied experience, videos, images, interviews, critical reviews, promotional materials (they analysed a new work for one of the assessments – this demonstrated the type of sources available when they work is yet to be written about in books/journals).
Lecture on postmodern dance, followed by reconstruction of seminal work Trio A by Yvonne Rainer.
Instead of setting a reading before the session, I asked them to choose two different types of sources on the padlet wall (one had to be a journal article) and look at them in advance of the session. As they are a small group, I also asked them to co-ordinate with each other to ensure all the materials were looked at. We then used the varying knowledge based to discuss the piece. Facilitated an interesting seminar discussion due to a variety of perspectives.
The focus groups and my own reflection on the module delivery has identified the following emerging themes:
A choice of learning resources to prepare in advance of lectures/seminars/workshops gives the students a sense of autonomy over their learning
Multimedia resources alongside book chapters and journal articles facilitate a ‘bitesize’ engagement with materials in advance of sessions, with students frequently returning to resources in-between lectures, for example
Social media platforms have an engaging visual appearance and navigational clarity in comparison to VLEs (specifically Blackboard)
Collating multimedia resources raises students’ awareness about the breadth and quality of material available online, and can be used as an impetus for their own research/assessment work
The posting of videos of class work on the multimedia memoboards would be a useful addition to the work to further facilitate the integration of practical and theoretical knowledge
Students like opportunities to share educational content with each other online
Students would appreciate and informal learning space, akin to a study group, to discuss themes/ideas/resources on the module
Students would like video tutorials on how to use these tools so that they might utilise them in their private study
Use of tumblr blogs with the same cohort on the third year module Choreography 3: Experiments in Performance
Enhances: discussion, content sharing and critical reflection
Module runs semester 2, in semester 1 I got them to set up the blogs and beginning posting resources/ideas for their choreographic work. I can then comment on what they are posting and give suggestions/feedback as their ideas develop.
Plan for when module is running – post class work, developing choreographic work (record in class and post online), and use it as a critical reflection space for whole group to comment/discuss.
Collaborative project at UoN with Matt Gough and Tim Halliday
Developing Masters levels modules in collaborative media arts practice
Using a multi-authored tumblr blog to document our collaboration as we research, plan and develop a screendance work
Use this as a case study to develop modules/assessment/pedagogy
Posted it on my twitter account, picked up by scholar in residence at Merce Cunningham Trust Nancy Dalva. They shared my resource on their twitter and facebook and developed their own…
