Search Results for: Pedagogy

Feminist Pedagogy in a Time of Coronavirus Pandemic

March 28, 2020 | femtechnet.org
[ Download PDF version here ]

FemTechNet, a network of scholars, artists, and students working on, with, and at the borders of technology, science, and feminism, has a great deal of experience thinking about pedagogy and technology. We have produced real intimacy, vibrant classes, and insurgent pedagogy since 2012. The principles of our signature Distributed Open Collaborative Courses (DOCCs) are crucial (see below). In this time of crisis, we believe we need to think again, drawing the most power possible from the radical knowledges, tactics, and commitments of feminist pedagogies of past experience.

We write while schools, colleges, and universities have closed in a cascade of fear and also care in the hope of minimizing coronavirus infections. Mandated social distancing is critical, but difficult emotionally to sustain. At the same time, almost all campus authorities are requiring that classes be moved to an “online environment” to maintain physical distance. Most institutions are offering complicated, highly corporate, and narrow advice about how to teach online. While rapid conversion to standardized and detached Silicon Valley-type approaches is the prominent option, we have learned how quality instruction takes time, connection, careful planning, collaborative approaches, and local know-how.

Many are expressing dismay over “migrating” our courses with such a brief time for preparation. Many feel at a loss, not just technically, but also pedagogically. Many are also precariously employed and have little access to institutional support. This statement is not about HOW to teach classes online, but how to do this WELL, that is thoughtfully and with principles, and with the support that is at hand. We recognize that it’s not “the same” as face-to-face teaching, and we don’t know how it’s different (yet). However, FemTechNet can offer some ways we have learned to make digital learning work well.  Here are some insights from 8 years of working together as teachers, scholars, students, artists, technologists, and feminists.

What We Have Learned as an International Network Over 8 years

  • What we have is the possibility for distributed learning, and in real time (or in asynchronous time, see below). Worthwhile exchanges can take place across surprising distances and differences.
  • We encourage “minimum viable courses”: by this we do not mean less; it’s an opportunity to rethink what a class is and could be. For now, simpler is better.
  • They call it “distance learning,” but it can be intimate, horizontal, distributed, online, in real life learning.
  • Migrating a class into domestic space changes all interactions.
  • Everyone is in a digital space. Admit that it’s a new experience for you all.
  • Foster skepticism about techno-solutionism and the visibility of corporations who are promising a new normal.
  • Everyone has something important to add to a class. Digital learning can help us discover or allow this.
  • (Options for) asynchronous learning can be helpful for anyone who has responsibilities outside of work or school. Being co-present should be extended in the spirit of hospitality, not enforced as a demand.
  • Consider labor practices as you work as student, staff, or teacher: you should be doing less at work (or at school), for now, so you have the time and energy to care for yourself and your community.
  • Audio works just fine while opening accessibility to those without access to broadband and allowing for some privacy and distance. Help people to figure out how they choose to safely display their digital presence and how they negotiate online performance. Accessibility is a core principle. https://www.femtechnet.org/publications/accessibility-report/
  • Digital learning allows for exciting ways to connect, including pen pal classes, offering and accepting guest lectures by writers or scholars of what you are reading or learning about. Try reading aloud during class. Classes can connect with other classes all over the world. See FemTechNet’s “Key Learning Projects”: https://www.femtechnet.org/get-involved/self-directed-learners/key-learning-project.

Things to Consider as You Move Your Teaching Online

  • Uneven resources always exist, but the move online makes this structural inequality more obvious.
  • A variety of needs for privacy should always be accommodated in learning communities.
  • An online class is not the same thing as a class with physical persons gathered to learn together in a brick and mortar classroom in real time and physical space.
  • You don’t have a “flipped classroom.” You no longer have a classroom at all!
  • Reject calls to highlight prestige, peer institutions, and imitation of star systems on other campuses and instead explore what is needed and best about where you work and then also foster connections across difference.
  • Embrace DIY peer-to-peer improvised faculty and student connections, as did the first FemTechNet connected classes: https://www.femtechnet.org/docc/
  • Reject the push and rush to “learn” the technology; do this in your own way; admit that you are learning as you go.
  • The supposedly “born digital” generation needs just as much help as others.
  • Your online course is not simply about imparting information in one direction.
  • Consider what co-presence means in any learning situation and how we relate to each other newly through screens and with various technologies.
  • Consider how international students can be supported in a time of widespread anti-Asian racism.
  • Consider how to recognize and thank everyone who is participating in the class.
  • Online experiences can be unsafe. Please see our resources at the Center for Solutions to Online Violence at https://www.femtechnet.org/csov/.
  • Differences around race, class, nationality, gender, sexuality, and ability don’t disappear in online environments.  Online experience is as racist and sexist and homophobic as anywhere else.
  • Feminists have been thinking about digital learning since its inception. Please see our white paper on Transforming Higher Education with Distributed Open Collaborative Courses (DOCCs): Feminist Pedagogies and Networked Learning https://www.femtechnet.org/about/white-paper/

Feminist Collectivity is fierce, diverse, and creative.

See our manifesto https://www.femtechnet.org/publications/manifesto/.
Here’s how it begins:

FemTechNet is committed to making the accessible, open, accountable, transformative and transforming educational institutions of our dreams. We are feminist academic hacktivism.

FemTechNet understands that technologies are complex systems with divergent values and cultural assumptions. We work to expand critical literacies about the social and political implications of these systems.

FemTechNet is cyberfeminist praxis: we recognize digital and other technologies can both subvert and re-inscribe oppressive relations of power and we work to make these complex relations of power transparent.

Accountability is a feminist technology.

Collaboration is a feminist technology.

Collectivity is a feminist technology.

Care is a feminist technology.

Signal/Noise: A FemTechNet Conference on Pedagogy, Technology, and Transdisciplinarity

Special thanks to the Institute for for Research on Women and & Gender, Lisa Nakamura, Heidi Bennett, and Stephanie Rosen for all of their support in organizing and documenting this conference. 

In 2016, FemTechNet hosted its first-ever conference. The conference was titled Signal/Noise: A FemTechNet Conference on Pedagogy, Technology, and Transdisciplinarity. On April 8th, 2016, members of FemTechNet and other interested parties gathered at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor for three days to explore, exchange, and develop ideas about transdisciplinary feminist pedagogy with/through/on technology. Participants included scholars, artists, makers, activists, and students from Asia, America, to Europe. Organized by Karen Keifer-Boyd and Marla Jaksch, this conference was made possible with the support from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan and with the help of various committees members of FemTechNet, including the 2015-2016 co-facilitators Anne Cong-Huyen, T.L. Cowan, Paula Gardner, Veronica Paredes, and Jasmine Rault.

DAY ONE:

The three day conference was organized both by theme, as well as different formats of engagement. The first day featured panel presentations, these were livestreamed online, and are also documented here as videos below. The opening panel provided an introduction to FemTechNet, its DOCC (distributed open collaborative course) history and structure, along with an overview of the collective’s curricular materials and the conference program; presenters included Karen Keifer-Boyd, Marla Jaksch, Veronica Paredes, Karl Surkan, and T.L. Cowan.

Introduction to FemTechNet’s DOCC & Conference Overview from FemTechNet on Vimeo.

In the panels that followed, scholars and practitioners across disciplines presented their research on the themes of labor, mapping, and activism as they intersected with feminism and technology. To conclude the first day of the conference, we had an official launch party for the publication signal/noise: collected student works from a feminist docc. 

FemTechNet Conference Panel on Labor from FemTechNet on Vimeo.
Presenters: Khanh Vo, Lindsay Garcia, Jessica Parris Westbrook & Adam Trowbridge

FemTechNet Conference Panel on Mapping from FemTechNet on Vimeo.
Presenters: Leah M. Kuragano and Cait McKinney

FemTechNet Conference Panel on Activism from FemTechNet on Vimeo.
Presenters: Ellen Moll, Jade Metzger & Stine Eckert, Paula Gardner

DAY TWO:

The second day was composed of workshops, where participants and presenters worked together to explore various themes and projects. That day’s schedule included: Feminist Wikipedia editing; playful engagement with data, rulesets and systems via games and haptic interfaces; feminist mapping exercises; explorations of feminist writing and scholarship. To conclude the second day, we had a full group gathering to highlight and share experiences from DOCC instructors teaching or facilitating this year, and to make connections to the concerns, rewards and challenges identified from previous iterations of the DOCC.

DAY THREE:

On the last day of the conference, we heard from DJ Lynnée Denise and Marla Jaksch in a Radnote Dialogue on “Organic Intellectualism: DJ Scholarship, Black Feminism and Erasure Resistance.” This Radnote Dialogue was documented in both video and podcast form. Find the video documentation below, as well as an amazing podcast episode produced by Sandra Gabriele and Michelle Macklem.

On the last day, besides the Radnote Dialogue, we also broke into smaller working groups to discuss various aspects of FemTechNet, including pedagogical experiments, privacy and transparency in the network, statements of solidarity, and video dialogues and themes. In one of these breakout sessions, the FemTechNet Statement in support of Melissa Click and Concerned Student 1950 was developed and published.

FemTechNet Conference Radnote Dialogue “Organic Intellectualism: DJ Scholarship, Black Feminism and Erasure Resistance” from FemTechNet on Vimeo.


FemTechNet Conference Radnote Dialogue “Organic Intellectualism: DJ Scholarship, Black Feminism and Erasure Resistance” from FemTechNet on SoundCloud.

signal/noise: A FemTechNet conference on Feminist Pedagogy, Technology, Transdisciplinarity

FTN-ConferencePoster3-24

Welcome to the first FTN conference – Signal/Noise: A FTN conference on Pedagogy, Technology, and Transdisciplinarity.

The title Signal/Noise draws our attention to the ways in which we communicate and collaborate with each other as artists, activists, and academics in a variety of contexts using a multitude of technologies. Whether this communication comes in the form of a series of beats, data vibrations, through parallel wiring or text messaging – the goal of the conference is to create a dynamic space where we might engage, reflect, and learn from this work, each other, and to further transmit and amplify it by imagining anew or (re)working our existing networks.

FemTechNet’s conference on Feminist Pedagogy, Technology, and Transdisciplinarity begins with four panels on Friday, which introduces the DOCC, explores issues of labor, and pedagogical possibilities through mapping and activism. On Saturday we will be making and working together in workshops on feminist mapping, writing, wikistorming, exquisite engendering, and hACTIVISM. The purpose of the workshops is to experience a range of DOCC pedagogical approaches based in DOCC pedagogical principles, and to engage in collaborations and create situated knowledge. Sunday’s dialogues will be activated by the signal/noise performative radnote dialogue of Lynnee Denise with Marla Jaksch, followed by modulated grooves of small group conversations brought back to the full circle of participation.

Thank you for your participation!

Thank you to all who contributed to making the conference come to life including sponsors at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender Studies, University of Michigan, the Department of Afroamerican & African Studies, Department of American Culture, Digital Studies, Digital Education & Innovation, Office of Research, Rackham Graduate School, and the Institute for the Humanities, Lisa Nakumura, Heidi Bennett, Stephanie Rosen, Heide Solbrig, Ann Wu, Veronica Parades, and all the presenters and participants.

Karen Keifer-Boyd and Marla Jaksch
Conference Coordinators

Please register at https://tinyurl.com/jou3y44

Registration is FREE although it is important to register so that we can plan food for lunches and receptions.

For the comprehensive schedule, please visit Schedule.

Friday, April 8, 2016

02:10 PM - 03:00 PM | Introduction to FemTechNet's DOCC & Conference Overview
03:15 PM - 06:45 PM | Panel Presentations
07:00 PM - 09:00 PM | SIGNAL/NOISE Launch Party

Saturday, April 9, 2016

10:00 AM - 10:15 AM | Workshop Intro + Coffee
10:15 AM - 01:00 PM | Concurrent Workshops
01:00 PM - 02:00 PM | Lunch
02:00 PM - 05:00 PM | Concurrent Workshops
05:30 PM - 06:30 PM | DOCCs in Action
06:30 PM - 09:00 PM | Catered Reception + Music

Sunday, April 10, 2016

09:00 AM - 10:00 AM | Breakfast
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM | Organic Intellectualism: DJ Scholarship, Black Feminism and Erasure Resistance by Lynee Denise
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Dialogue Sessions
12:30 PM - 02:30 PM | Lunch Buffet + Presentations from Dialogue Sessions

Please visit the Presenters page.

The conference will be held in the Michigan League, located in Central Campus just north of the Michigan Diag at 911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109.  Saturday workshops and lunch will be held in the Hatcher Graduate Library and Shapiro Design Lab, on the first floor of the Shapiro Undergraduate Library (about a 6 minute walk from the Michigan League). There will also be online streaming and meeting rooms for various parts of the conference.

Physical Meeting Locations

See a campus map at campusinfo.umich.edu/campusmap/campus/central

Online MEETING LOCATIONS

      • USTREAM Conference Streaming Most of the conference events, excluding workshops and dialogue sessions, will be streamed through this platform.
      • Blue Jeans Meeting Rooms Please consult the conference schedule and click on the "Join Virtually" link to various Blue Jeans meeting rooms for concurrent workshops and dialogue sessions.
      • Twitter #FemTechNet Please follow the conference on Twitter using the hashtag FemTechNet.

Airport

Detroit Metropolitan International Airport (DTW) is only 20 miles from Ann Arbor, about a 45 minute drive (at the most). Major hubs are: Delta, Spirit, and US Air among others. For more information, call 734-AIR–PORT(247–7678).
Ground transportation between the airport & Ann Arbor:

      • AirRide: This shuttle runs 13 times during the day and stops at the downtown Ann Arbor Blake Transit Center (10 minute walk from campus) and the Kensington Court Hotel.  A one way ticket on AirRide is $15, however, if a reservation is made in advance the fare is reduced to $12. Get more info & make reservations at MyAirRide.com.
      • Ann Arbor Metro Shuttle: $40 University of Michigan Rate for transportation between DTW and Ann Arbor. Must call to make reservations: (734) 507-9220.
      • MetroCabs provide convenient, on-demand transportation from the Airport to points throughout the region. Taxis are available 24/7 from each terminal’s Ground Transportation Center, and no advanced reservation is required.  
      • A-1 Airport Cars: $55 flat rate between DTW and Ann Arbor. Reservations recommended. Contact info: 877-276-1335;  info@a-1airportcars.com
      • Rental Cars at Detroit Metro Airport: Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW) is served by most major rental car agencies. All rental car shuttles pick-up and drop-off at each terminal’s Ground Transportation Center. To access your rental car agency, once you have claimed any checked luggage, follow terminal signs to Ground Transportation. Advanced reservations are strongly recommended, however, courtesy phones for contacting each agency are located in each terminal’s baggage claim and Ground Transportation Center. There are no rental car desks inside the terminals.

Train

The Ann Arbor Amtrak Station is served daily by Amtrak's Wolverine, which runs three times daily between Chicago and Detroit. Visit Amtrak’s website for more information: www.amtrak.com. The Amtrak Station is located at 325 Depot Street within the city of Ann Arbor, 0.8 mile from central campus.

Bus

      • Greyhound:  The Greyhound Station is located in downtown Ann Arbor at 115 E. William Street. See the Greyhound site for scheduling and tickets.
      • Megabus:  This station is located on the University of Michigan’s campus at the State Street Commuter Parking lot. Tickets can be purchased at the Megabus site.

Michigan League
911 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109

The Michigan League is located in Central Campus just north of the Michigan Diag. View the League on a campus map, or get directions via Google Maps and MapQuest. Driving Directions here.

      • From Detroit and Metro Airport (heading West) - Via I-94 (Ford Freeway)
        Take State Street Exit 177. Turn right (north). Continue on State Street approximately 2 miles to the main campus area. Turn right onto North University, which is one block past the Michigan Union. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University and Fletcher Street.
      • From Chicago (heading East) - Via I-94 (Ford Freeway)
        Take State Street Exit 177. Turn left (north). Continue on State Street approximately 2 miles to the main campus area. Turn right onto North University, which is one block past the Michigan Union. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University and Fletcher Street.
      • From Ohio (heading North) - Via I-75/US-23
        Take Washtenaw-Ann Arbor Exit 37B and turn right (west) onto Washtenaw. Where Stadium Blvd and Washtenaw split (approximately 2-3 miles), stay to the right on Washtenaw following the "Hospital" signs. Turn left at Hill Street (you'll see "The Rock"). Continue down Hill Street (campus buildings will be on your right). Turn right on State Street. Go three blocks. Turn right on North University. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.
      • From Northern MI (heading South) -Via I-75/US-23
        Take US-23 South to M-14 West. Take Exit #3, "Downtown Ann Arbor," which will become Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left at Huron Street. Continue down Huron to State St. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.
      • From Northwest Suburbs - I-275/I-696 (W.P. Ruether Freeway)
        Take I-696 to I-275 South to M-14 West. Follow M-14 West signs closely. Take Exit #3, "Downtown Ann Arbor," which turns into Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left onto Huron Street. Continue on Huron until State Street intersects. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University Street. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.
      • From Parts of Detroit, Redford, M-14, Plymouth and Canton - I-96 (also called the Jeffries Freeway)
        Take I-96 to M-14 West. Follow M-14 West signs closely. Take Exit #3, "Downtown Ann Arbor," which turns into Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left on Huron Street until State Street intersects. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University Street. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University Street and Fletcher Street.
      • From Lansing - I-96 (also called the Jeffries Freeway)
        Take I-96 to US-23 South. Drive on US-23 South to M-14 West (Downtown Ann Arbor) Exit. Take Exit and drive about a mile to Exit 3, also marked "Downtown." Take exit ramp, which turns into Main Street. Follow Main Street to Huron Street. Turn left on Huron Street until State Street intersects. Turn right on State Street. Turn left on North University. The Michigan League is on your left at the corner of North University and Fletcher Street.

Additional Resources

Friday & Saturday

Parking for Michigan League, Hatcher & Shapiro Libraries Parking is extremely limited near the U-M campus. There is no free parking on Friday or Saturday near campus.

Ann Arbor Public Transportation Park & Ride Lots (free parking + paid bus fare)
      • Free parking in commuter lots approximately 2 miles from campus.
      • Please check the AATA trip planner or Google Maps to find out the bus schedule that fits your needs.

Ann Arbor Public Buses:

Campus Buses (free to ride):

        • U-M Buses are big and blue. They go all over campus.
        • The bus system is free to the general public
        • Operating hours are from  5:00 AM to about 2:30 AM weekdays (7:00 AM to about 3:00 AM weekends).
        • Visit the Parking and Transportation Services website for information on all campus buses.

Paid Parking

Metered street parking:

        • In effect Mondays - Saturdays from 8am-6pm on surrounding streets for $1.60/hour
        • Maps of metered and structure parking on the Ann Arbor DDA's website.

Paid parking structures:

        • 6-10 minute walk of central campus
        • The Forest Avenue Parking Structure is the closest to the libraries.  
        • Liberty Square or Maynard structures are the closest public structures, within a few blocks of central campus. The rate is $1.20 per hour.
        • University Visitor parking is available on Central Campus at the Palmer Drive structure located on Palmer Drive just west of Washtenaw Avenue. The visitor parking rate is $0.75 per half hour. (Spaces are limited.)

Sunday 

Parking is FREE in Ann Arbor (street parking and structures)!!

Resources

Getting Around Ann Arbor (courtesy: VisitAnnArbor.org)

Ann Arbor’s downtown area  - including the University of Michigan’s campus  -  are known for being very walkable, but for those looking to make up time or get further out of the city, we have many options that are likely to suit your needs:

      • Public Bus System - The Ride
        Operated by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, ‘The Ride’ is a top-notch public transit system, offering over 1500 stops in Washtenaw County. Fare is $1.50 per person. Exact change is needed. Passes are available at the downtown AATA Blake Transit Center and online. Check bus routes and schedules.Visit
        TheRide.org for more information.
      • Taxi
        There are over 20 taxi cab service providers in Ann Arbor. You will need to CALL for pickup within 5-15 minutes.
        See the full list.
      • Car Rental
        If you need to rent a car during your visit to the Ann Arbor area, there are several companies that can assist you. Many have multiple locations so you can get exactly what you need, where you need it. For a full list of rental car agencies in the area,
        click here.
      • Zipcar
        Zipcar is a national car-sharing service that allows you to reserve and rent cars by the hour or day without the hassle of a traditional car rental. Cars are located all around Ann Arbor. Zipcar members can reserve cars online then swipe their card at the vehicle to unlock doors. Gas and insurance are included.
        See Zipcar map for locations.
      • Uber
        It exists in Ann Arbor. You know what this is.

Getting Around Campus

      • Walk
        The University of Michigan’s Central Campus is large but easily walkable. Conference venues are very proximate, about 0.3 mile apart (6 minute walk). View an interactive campus map here:
        https://campusinfo.umich.edu/campusmap
      • Bike
        Arbor Bike
        - Bike share system intended for short trips around town. Members have access to an unlimited number for 60 minute trips while their membership is active. As long as each trip is kept under 60 minutes, no additional fees, outside of the initial membership fee, are incurred.
        • Anyone over the age of 18 with a valid credit card or debit card can become an ArborBike member.
        • Fees & Sign up:
          • 1-day............ sold at any ArborBike kiosk & online - $6
          • 1-month....... sold online - $10
          • 1-year...........sold online - $65
      • Campus Buses (free to ride!)
        • U-M Buses are big and blue. They go all over campus. The University's 12 bus routes carry approximately 7.2 million passengers per year. The bus system is free to the general public, and generally operates from about 5:00 AM to about 2:30 AM weekdays (7:00 AM to about 3:00 AM weekends), with reduced hours during spring/summer terms and on holidays.
        • Visit the Parking and Transportation Services website for information on all campus buses.

The University of Michigan Work-Life Resource Center provides information and options for childcare services in Ann Arbor.
Can’t find what you need?
Contact Amy Szczepanski, Community Child Care Resources/ Campus Child Care Homes Network Manager, University of Michigan Work-Life Resource Center(734) 763-9379.

For University of Michigan students, faculty & staff

      • MWireless is the most secure WiFi network and should be used by all U-M faculty, staff, students. Login required.

For Guests

      • MGuest is free wireless network provided for University of Michigan visitors. It is open and insecure, no encryption is provided by the network. It is available in most campus buildings, including conference venues.
      • eduroam is a secured WiFi network service that allows students, staff, and faculty to use their home institution's WiFi credentials without having to set up a guest account. Check if your home institution participates: https://www.eduroam.us/institutions_list.
This conference is sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and Gender Studies, University of Michigan, with support from the Department of Afroamerican & African Studies, Department of American Culture, Digital Studies, Digital Education & Innovation, Office of Research, Rackham Graduate School, and the Institute for the Humanities.

Blogging (as) Feminist Digital Pedagogy

By Alexandra Juhasz, Pitzer College

Enjoying a much-deserved drink with highly-Twitterate Jessie Daniels (@JessieNYC) after a few days of talk, workshops, and video dialogues in Ann Arbor, Michigan about Feminist Digital Pedagogies, I was discussing with her the changing culture of blogging, and other social media forms in relation to our own ever-changing digital metronomes. Which is a fancy way to say here what I said there: “I always used to blog about conferences, but now it feels like it takes too long to blog; the work is too hard. What’s the deal with this quickening?”

Digital Pedagogies Panel, University of Michigan, L to R: Inderpal Grewal, Laura Wexler, Lisa Nakamura, Maria Cotera

(more…)

Feminist Pedagogy Initiatives

by T.L. Cowan, The New School

When groups of DOCC 2013 faculty met in July 2013, we realized that we were convening not only around a project, but also, importantly, around a process. As we came to decide how the course would be structured and how we would use online capacities (and work around online limitations) to do collaborative teaching across institutions, we wanted to figure out ways for our students to have access to a number of DOCC 2013 faculty, since one of the core principles behind the DOCC is that it matters not just what you are learning, but who you are learning with. So we devised this idea to hold online Open Office Hours that would be open to all DOCC 2013 students. These office hours can be found in the yellow highlights in our calendar https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/teaching-learning-resources/the-calendar/. During these office hours, students can contact faculty from many institutions and disciplinary backgrounds and have the opportunity be in an online discussion with students from diverse learning locations.

FTNPedagogyCalendar

Another crucial aspect to the DOCC 2013 is that this is a world-making project not only for students, but also for faculty. DOCC faculty have collaborated on all aspects of the course: sharing syllabi, skills, funding and other resources, co-producing Video Dialogues, generating closed-captioning for the Videos Dialogues, and building the (always in development) online space that is the FemTechNet Commons. Through this course-building process we realized that most of us crave the opportunity to learn about teaching from other teachers, to have a chance to talk about our classes, assignments, grading habits and innovations, and to cultivate and share our pedagogical philosophies and practices. So we developed Open Teaching Hours for faculty (in green on the calendar), as times for us to converse about what we’re thinking and doing when we’re teaching. In addition to these Open Teaching Hours, we have also scheduled Focused Pedagogy Sessions for faculty to share their expertise on special topics related to DOCC 2013 specifically, and on feminist pedagogy more broadly.

These Focused Pedagogy Sessions (also in green in the calendar) include discussions on the following topics:

September

Making Keyword Videos – by Alex Juhasz – Pitzer College – This session is passed, but you can read about the key assignment: https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/key-word-videos/.  You can also learn how to make a Keyword Video here: https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/docs/videoinstructions/ thanks to the prowess of AJ Strout.

And you can check out Keyword Videos up & running here: https://vimeo.com/channels/femtechnetkeywords Stay tuned for new videos throughout the term.

October

Object-Making/Gift Exchange – cross-institution collaborative project– Alex Juhasz, Pitzer College and Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University –

https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/object-making/

You can watch a video of the discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaarwUPyOMA

Mark your calendars for upcoming Focused Pedagogy Sessions!

November

Effective Blogging – Liz Losh, University of California, San Diego – Wednesday, Nov. 13 12pm PST

https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/blog-commenting/

Feminist Mapping – Karen Keifer-Boyd, Penn State University –  Friday, Nov 15 – 3pm EST https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/feminist-mapping/

Feminist Online Pedagogy – T.L. Cowan, The New School – Friday, Nov 22 – 12pm EST

December

Grading Non-Traditional Assignments – Laura Wexler, Yale – Monday, Dec. 2 – 1pm EST

Building Activities Across (International) Contexts = Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University – Wednesday, Dec. 4 – 4pm EST

Digital Storytelling – Karen Alexander – Rutgers University – Thursday, Dec. 12 – 2pm EST

In addition to this work, DOCC Faculty have been doing amazing things: from collaborating on accessibility and ensuring that all of our Video Dialogues are available with closed captioning/subtitles (go here to find them: https://ats-streaming.cites.illinois.edu/digitalmedia/download/femtechnet/embeds.html), to holding a course for self-directed learners, run by Penelope Boyer – https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/selfdirectedlearners/ and here https://plus.google.com/u/1/communities/102819821160046892301?cfem=1

You can also check out Sharon Collingwood’s DOCC 2013 hosted on Second Life https://elliebrewster.com/2013/09/02/update-on-the-sl-discussion-group-on-feminism-and-technology/

These activities reflect the ways that DOCC 2013 faculty appreciate feminist pedagogy as an ongoing collaboration—across disciplines, institutions, stages of career and employment status. We learn from each other’s successes and failures; we build on each other’s knowledges and borrow from and add to each other’s teaching work, design, and principles. No one holds the trademark on feminist pedagogy—it is collective intellectual property.

For more on the feminist pedagogy informing this work, see the FemTechNet White Paper here: https://femtechnet.newschool.edu/femtechnet-whitepaper/

2015-2016

The DOCC 2015-2016 cycle spans from August of 2015 to June of 2016; this cycle features two courses: Collaborations in Feminism & Technology and Global Media Activism. These courses model collaboration as a feminist technology through a series of connected, open learning events that will allow participants to explore DOCC resources in conversation with other FemTechNet learners. If you would like to start your own node, please visit “how to get started.” For 2015-2016, the DOCC are being taught at these nodes below.


 

2016

 

Brown University

  • Elisa Giardina Papa
  • Modern Culture and Media
  • Course Title: Art/Gender/Technology
  • Number of Students: 12
  • Level: Undergraduate

College of William & Mary

  • Elizabeth Losh
  • American studies, cross listed with Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
  • Course Title: Gender and Digital Culture
  • Number of Students: 22
  • Level: Undergraduate

Cornell University

  • Renate Ferro
  • College of Architecture, Art and Planning, The Department of Art
  • Course Title: Introduction to Digital Media
  • Number of Students: 12 to 15
  • Level: Undergraduate

The City College of New York

  • Diana Mincyte
  • Course Title: Global Media Activism 
  • Level: Graduate

McGill University

  • Carrie Rentschler
  • Course Title: Global Media Activism 
  • Level: Graduate

McMaster University

  • Paula Gardner
  • Course Title: Global Media Activism 
  • Level: Graduate

The New School 

  • Anne Balsamo
  • Course Title: Global Media Activism 
  • Level: Graduate

Pennsylvania State University & University of Helsinki 

  • Karen Keifer-Boyd & Martina Paatela-Nieminen
  • Art Education Program in the School of Visual Arts (PSU) & Dept. of Teacher Education (U of Helsinki)
  • Course Title: New Media & Pedagogy
  • Number of Students: 21
  • Level: Graduate

Temple University 

  • K.J. Surkan
  • Course Title: Gender and Media 
  • Number of Students: 20
  • Level: Undergraduate

Texas A&M University 

  • Cara Wallis
  • Department of Communication
  • Course Title: “Gender and Technology” or “Feminist Studies of Technology”
  • Number of Students: 25
  • Level: Undergraduate

University of Alberta

  • Mo Engel
  • Women and Gender Studies (undergrad) / Humanities Computing (grad)
  • Course Title: Digital Feminism(s)
  • Number of Students: 16
  • Level: Undergraduate & Graduate

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • Anita Say Chan
  • Course Title: Global Media Activism 
  • Level: Graduate

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  • Lilly Nguyen
  • Women’s and Gender Studies, cross listed with Anthropology
  • Course Title: Women in Science: Gender, History, and Labors of Information Technology
  • Number of Students: 25-30
  • Level: Undergraduate 

University of Washington

  • Ivette Bayo Urban
  • The Information School
  • Course Title: Collaborations in Feminism and Technology 
  • Number of Students: 20
  • Level: Undergraduate & Graduate

Wellesley College

  • Jenny Musto
  • Women’s and Gender Studies Department
  • Course Title: Gender, Sexuality and Contemporary American Society
  • Number of Students: 18
  • Level: Undergraduate & Graduate

 


 

2015

 

Community Venues

  • Caroyn Elerding and colleague 
  • Columbus, OH; Public Library (starts October)
  • Course Title: Dialogues in Feminism and Technology
  • Number of Students: TBA
  • Level: All levels

Colby-Sawyer College

  • Melissa Meade
  • Humanities
  • Course Title: Introduction to Media Studies — not a full DOCC, but I want to find a way to incorporate an FTN unit
  • Number of Students: 30
  • Level: Introductory undergraduate

College of New Jersey

  • Marla Jaksch
  • College of the Humanities & Social Sciences
  • Course Title: Feminist Theories [Women’s & Gender Studies 325]
  • Number of Students: 18 
  • Level: Upper level WGS with mostly WGS majors/minors and 2 gender grad certificate student; feminist theories cluster in collaboration with Ileana Jimenez and her High School fem theories class in NYC

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

McMaster University

  • Paula Gardner
  • Course Title: Feminism, Technology and Science
  • about 12 students
  • Level: Grad

The New School, Eugene Lang College

  • Marcea Decker & T.L. Cowan
  • Course Title: Designing Digital Knowledges: Labor, Action, Production
  • Number of Students: 18
  • Level: Upper-year undergrads

OCAD University

The Pennsylvania State University

  • Karen Keifer-Boyd
  • Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Course Title: Diversity, Visual Culture & Pedagogy [Art Education AED 225; gaming, cultural artifacts-feminist mapping with other DOCCs]
  • Number of Students:  30
  • Level: Sophomore level undergrads
  • Karen Keifer-Boyd
  • Art Education and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
  • Course Title: Visual Culture & Educational Technologies [Art Education AED 322; Exquisite Engendering with other DOCCs]
  • Number of Students:  5 
  • Level: Junior level undergrads

Temple University

University of California, Riverside

  • Dana Simmons 
  • Units: 4
  • Course Title: Technopolitics [HIST 254]
  • Number of Students: ~9
  • Level: Graduate

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

  • Sharon Irish 
  • Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Media and Cinema Studies, and Gender and Women’s Studies
  • Course Title: Collaborations in Feminism & Technology
  • Number of Students: 12
  • Level: Graduate

University of Maryland, College Park

  • Instructor: Alexis Lothian
  • Unit: Women’s Studies (College of Arts and Humanities)
  • Course title: Transforming Cultures and Technologies: Race, Gender, and Digital Media
  • Number of students: 15 enrolled before start of classes, caps at 25
  • Level: upper division undergraduate

University of Washington

  • Regina Lee
  • Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies
  • Course Title: Gender and Online Engagement
  • Number of Students: 22
  • Level: mostly upper-level undergraduate

Wellesley College / Women’s and Gender Studies Department

  • Jenny Musto
  • Units: 1
  • Course Title: Transnational Feminisms
    • This seminar is structured as a critical engagement of feminism(s) in transnational context. In it we will engage with notions of “collaboration,” “solidarity” and “praxis” and creatively imagine, digitally curate, and methodologically explore what the practice of these ideas may consist of.
    • Note: This too isn’t a full DOCC course but I’d like to introduce students to readings and possibly any podcast(s) drawing upon tech and transnational feminisms
  • Number of Students: 15
  • Level: Undergraduate seminar with mostly WGST undergraduate students

Yale University

  • Laura Wexler and Vanessa Agard-Jones
  • Course Title: Gender & Sexuality in Media & Popular Culture
  • Number of Students: TBA
  • Level: Undergraduate and Graduate

 

funded student work

Q: What if I wanted to fund a student (or few) to work with FemTechNet?

A: Excellent! More funding for students is always better! Graduate and undergraduate students are doing amazing work in and as FemTechNet – that is, the network would not exist without the research, teaching, programming, designing, artistic, political and cultural work of undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty in the network are sometimes able to find and use funding to pay students for some of this work, and to help encourage and grow this kind of funding, we have come up with a set of tips for helping students and faculty understand and develop RA-funded work within the network.
NB: FemTechNet does not currently have funding for student work, but if you manage to get some on your own, here are some tips on how best to use it.

1)    FemTechNet is an ever-shifting network of scholars, artists, makers and activists that can provide camaraderie and collaborative energy, but cannot provide supervision. That is, student workers are supervised/advised by the faculty, staff or employers who have arranged funding for the student’s work.

2)    The supervisor/advisor should be (or have been) a working participant in FemTechNet (having worked on a committee, working group or as a DOCC instructor).

3)    Undergraduate students need to be supervised/advised by someone who works in the same institution, and who can have regular contact with the student.

4)    Ideally, students who are working with FemTechNet will have a working knowledge of anti-racist, decolonizing queer, trans- feminist practices in addition to their interest/skills/energy to participate in the network.

 

What we offer

  • The five co-facilitators of the network this year (the F5 for 2015) can provide an orientation to the network – contact us at femtechnetinquiries [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Network of scholars, teachers, researchers, artists, designers, makers and activists in camaraderie and  collaboration around projects of shared interest.
  • Working group/committees organized by participant interests.
    • This year (2015-2016) our committees and working groups are: Steering; Operations (working group is Tech Praxis); Critical Race & Ethnic Studies; Pedagogy Projects (working groups are Wikipedia, DOCC instructors); and Operations. Find out more about each committee at https://www.femtechnet.org/about-the-network/who-we-are/committees/
    • These committees and groups were decided during the summer workshop (2015) and the network may decide on different groups next year. Also, new projects can be proposed and developed within any committee at any time. Just take the initiative to propose a project and ask for participants with shared interests and go for it!
  • Working experience and relationships with scholars, teachers, researchers, artists, designers, makers and activists beyond your immediate network.  
  • Weekly or bi-weekly committee meetings via online video conference (through the very functional Blue Jeans software), to move collaborative projects along and check in with everyone about workload and direction.
  • Monthly steering committee meetings to check in with the rest of the network, share your committee’s work and get to know what’s happening on other committees and propose new ideas and direction for the network