In spite of our resistance to consumer “must have” technology, we are making use of them. Though we are strictly land line telephone users, we brought two dumb phones from home, thinking that we would buy and install SIM cards when we arrived. Neither worked but our landlady’s son retrieved a couple of old phones for us to borrow. They are rather foreign to us and we have struggled to figure out how to make us of them. Felt a bit redeemed when we asked Krzysztof to change the setting from Latvian to English and he struggled for awhile to make the damn machine do what he wanted it to do.
With Jo’s Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space project she is making use of Google Hangouts which required a crash course in Google Plus, Hangouts, Groups, Drive. All of which are less than intuitive with less than clear instructions provided. She spent nearly 6 hours trying to figure out how to use an external camera (that was recognized by every other app on our computer) with Hangout. Had to add a 3rd party app and designate my computer for the project as it has a more updated OS and we are not willing to upgrade to Apple’s beta OS being offered for free as that will entail many more hours of trouble shooting.
Online courses seem an anathema to good teaching pedagogy as there is no direct, corporeal link to the students. I’m making use of the Academy students for my World Dance class to present my lecture in front of a live audience and then uploading the video for the Idaho students. I had attempted to lecture to my computer camera but was thoroughly distracted by having to look back at my image on the screen. The Google Drive is actually a good tool for giving feedback to students on their projects for my Management and Production class. I think I would keep using it even in “live” teaching situations. Our WiFi at the apartment has little bandwidth so uploading is annoying – especially when we both need to work on the internet – hopefully I will find a solution.
That said….it does feel like we have given in a bit to the the all-devouring consumer culture. Google is known for its carnivorous data-mining. We were a bit smug about not having a trackable cell phone, not being on Facebook and making very small digital footprints to be tracked by Capitalist Big Brother. We had created a FB account for Callous Physical Theatre but, when they asked for our cell phone number to text us a code to change our URL into a more useable name we got stopped – we had no access to text. But now….we have been assimilated into the Borg.
We have been teaching here for a week (Jo has one more class on Saturday). The College is a two-year “professional preparatory” program with tracks in Contemporary Dance and Hip-Hop (still wrapping my head around that – a Latvian program in Hip-Hop). I teach Improv to the 1st year Hip Hop and Contemporary students and Contemporary for 1st year and 2nd year – back to back all in one day. I am tired, but in a really good way. I don’t know yet if I will be able to choreograph on the students.
The Academy is a four year program with one class brought in every four years. The 17 students (originally around 20) take all of their classes together for four years. As a result they have created a very tight company of performers. Jo is teaching Contemporary technique, Composition and the Collaborative project with the ISU participants. I’m helping with the Collaborative project and Jo wants me to come on Saturday to team-teach Capoeira during the technique class. I think she will begin choreographing soon but their schedule is a bit up in the air right now. Both of us are really enjoying the opportunity to work with dedicated students in serious programs that aspire for excellence. They don’t get the breadth of the traditional Liberal Arts curriculum but they are far more focused on the discipline of the art.
With Jo’s Collaborative Choreography in Digital Space project she is making use of Google Hangouts which required a crash course in Google Plus, Hangouts, Groups, Drive. All of which are less than intuitive with less than clear instructions provided. She spent nearly 6 hours trying to figure out how to use an external camera (that was recognized by every other app on our computer) with Hangout. Had to add a 3rd party app and designate my computer for the project as it has a more updated OS and we are not willing to upgrade to Apple’s beta OS being offered for free as that will entail many more hours of trouble shooting.
Online courses seem an anathema to good teaching pedagogy as there is no direct, corporeal link to the students. I’m making use of the Academy students for my World Dance class to present my lecture in front of a live audience and then uploading the video for the Idaho students. I had attempted to lecture to my computer camera but was thoroughly distracted by having to look back at my image on the screen. The Google Drive is actually a good tool for giving feedback to students on their projects for my Management and Production class. I think I would keep using it even in “live” teaching situations. Our WiFi at the apartment has little bandwidth so uploading is annoying – especially when we both need to work on the internet – hopefully I will find a solution.
That said….it does feel like we have given in a bit to the the all-devouring consumer culture. Google is known for its carnivorous data-mining. We were a bit smug about not having a trackable cell phone, not being on Facebook and making very small digital footprints to be tracked by Capitalist Big Brother. We had created a FB account for Callous Physical Theatre but, when they asked for our cell phone number to text us a code to change our URL into a more useable name we got stopped – we had no access to text. But now….we have been assimilated into the Borg.
We have been teaching here for a week (Jo has one more class on Saturday). The College is a two-year “professional preparatory” program with tracks in Contemporary Dance and Hip-Hop (still wrapping my head around that – a Latvian program in Hip-Hop). I teach Improv to the 1st year Hip Hop and Contemporary students and Contemporary for 1st year and 2nd year – back to back all in one day. I am tired, but in a really good way. I don’t know yet if I will be able to choreograph on the students.
The Academy is a four year program with one class brought in every four years. The 17 students (originally around 20) take all of their classes together for four years. As a result they have created a very tight company of performers. Jo is teaching Contemporary technique, Composition and the Collaborative project with the ISU participants. I’m helping with the Collaborative project and Jo wants me to come on Saturday to team-teach Capoeira during the technique class. I think she will begin choreographing soon but their schedule is a bit up in the air right now. Both of us are really enjoying the opportunity to work with dedicated students in serious programs that aspire for excellence. They don’t get the breadth of the traditional Liberal Arts curriculum but they are far more focused on the discipline of the art.