Non-Fictional Prose Course

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imjio167nJo

War of the Worlds Trailer (1953)

Today in class, we revisited various Serendip posts regarding the progress of the class: what has been working and not working so far in the course. 

1. The majority of the class feels that the classroom discussions turn into debates because of a lack of understanding and clarity. In order to get a better understanding of a classmate's opinion, we need to ask questions. It will not only clarify the opinion for the classmate expressing her opinion, but for other students as well. 

2. If a particular discussion seems to occupy a majority of class time and most students want to move to another topic, students who want to promote discussion should use Serendip as a place to further discuss ideas. 

 I found War of the Worlds extremely interesting, and while listening to the broadcast, I found myself convinced of an alien invasion. It sounded very real, and sort of credible. If I missed the three statements that said the broadcast was fiction, I would have believed that there indeed was an alien invasion. This seemed to be the problem at the initial broadcast as well. I looked up some information about the War of the Worlds and saw that many who heard the broadcast thought that either Martians or Germans had invaded London. It is understandable seeing that at the time of the broadcast, tensions with Germany were escalating. 

I'm in a class on History and Theory of Anthropology, and this week we read this incredible book by Michel-Rolph Trouillot called "Silencing the Past," discussing the production of history and the role that power plays in the past AND present. While this may not sound like its super related, I just had this ah-ha moment in class when we were discussing the text in more depth... allow me to explain...

I like the fact that we post online, but I would like a bit more direction in what types of things we should be posting. I often find myself unsure of what topics and ideas are post-worthy.

I appreciate the fact that we collectively decided what we would do with the rest of the remaining classes after having experienced six weeks of class. As I am currently in an Education seminar for my ESEM, it is helpful to get a sense of what goes into making a syllabus.

Mid Semester Evaluation

 In the past, radio was a source of entertainment for people, but also a source of news. This explains why the people have trusted the radio show, War of the Worlds, as they thought of it as a reliable source of information. I can't deny that the way the story of the radio was presented had some effects that made it sound so real. Here are a couple of examples: choosing real places and names of cities, constantly reminding the people of the places, bringing people from different parts of the country from scientists to eyewitnesses, and the background noise made the experience of listening to the radio show more real. They made the radio show so personal to the listener by bringing it close to the things they are most familiar with.

 What's working? Well, we all seem to be able to work cooperatively, especially online. I like how our class is able to feed off of each other's ideas on the course forum. Actually, I'd say that what works most in this course is its heavy use of an online community. By posting online, whether it be the webpapers or a weekly posting, I have found that my attitude toward writing has shifted. No longer do I write for a professor - I'm writing for something more global. My writing is about conversation, about involving as many people as I can in a dialogue. And even more exciting, that dialogue has a chance to cross from the virtual world into reality as my classmates respond to what I've posted.

 I enjoy this course and I've noticed that I've been able to find something in each of the books useful or interesting, even if the work as a whole did not impress me. 

I like what we've done and I'm really interested to see where we're going, especially now that we're going to be shaping the course ourselves. 

 The first half of the semester in this class has been interesting.  Like veritatemdilexi, I tend to watch the clock in most of my classes, but time in this class seems to fly by.  My participation in class could definitely be worked on, but I think the class discussions so far have brought up a lot of different view points and opinions.   Sometimes it seems like the discussions move a little too far from the original topic, and more into just debates about smaller details, but at least there is participation from the majority of the class.  I like that there is opportunity for everyone to give their opinions if they want to.