Shawn Peters is “remixing” his teaching style this spring by bringing social media into the classroom.
Peters is an instructor in Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS)—an undergraduate program in the College of Letters &Science that emphasizes interdisciplinary learning by incorporating several academic disciplines into each course.
Students in Peters’s class –“Remix and Appropriation in the Western Tradition”– are using social media inside and outside of the classroom as a way to generate discussion. The class uses a closed Facebook page to post discussion topics and links related to course concepts.
“I am convinced that social media can facilitate communication and foster creativity for both students and faculty,” he said. “Through Facebook and Twitter, my students accumulate, disseminate, and interpret knowledge in new and interesting ways.”
The course is all about challenging the notion that innovations arise from “eureka!” moments that strike supposed geniuses. Instead, Peters says that during the creative process, artists, scientists, musicians and other innovators draw from each other when creating something new. This results in works that are hybrids or remixes.
This is not the first time Peters has used social media in the classroom. He was featured in the Wisconsin State Journal for using Twitter to stimulate discussion in his class about the HBO series, The Wire last semester.
“Social media provide tools that allow for discussion and debate to flow more freely. I've always resisted the notion that all interactions must flow through and by controlled by an instructor who allegedly knows all of the answers,” he said.
Posts on the Facebook are wide-ranging, from funny videos like a remix of Mitt Romney’s speeches to the tune of rapper Eminem’s song, “The Real Slim Shady,” to serious discussions of copyright law in the age of remix and the internet. Although humor is often present in the posts, students use the Facebook page to help each other break down course concepts like postmodernism and bricolage.
Peters also hopes that the students in his class will reflect on their “intellectual journey” leading up to graduation.
One of the ways students will do this is by completing a final project called an “intellectual autobiography,” in which students are free to choose how they want to document and present the history of their intellectual interests at UW-Madison.
Peters let students speak for themselves and invited the College of Letters & Science to join the Facebook conversation
Sam Petricca, a senior studying Sociology with a certificate in ILS, said he plans to explore how his religious beliefs have developed over the years.
“My intention is to ascertain the extent to which my beliefs have been based on my considerations of truth,” Petricca said.
Another student, Dan LaBonte, a junior majoring in Communication Arts (Radio, TV and Film) and Philosophy is pursuing a different route. He said that his project will look at his journey as an aspiring filmmaker, beginning with videos made at a young age for fun and moving toward more serious works created for classes.
He said that ILS classes like this one allow him to learn in a different way.
“In ILS, every course is like a remix, drawing on ideas, themes and topics from various subject areas. I value it because it makes me test my creativity and interact with other students more than any other type of course at UW-Madison.”
Story by Holly Hartung, College of Letters & Science