Friday, September 2, 2016

Worlding as Participations

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Thursday 8 Sept – Transformative Change: participations

If this is your first time in this class, as soon as you arrive, introduce yourself to two people already there and ask them to help you get up to speed on what happened in the first class. Be sure to read the syllabus online and to note what to do when one misses any classes. If necessary, read or REREAD last week's assignments, esp.
• WEB ASSIGNMENT: Redmond, L. 2014. "Subversive Spinning." On Made by Lea Blog. Leafcutter Designs. http://www.leafcutterdesigns.com/blog/subversive-spinning
• READ: Embedded excerpt from Barber. 1994. Women's Work: the first 20,000 years. Norton.
Embedded on course website <Home> tab. Free Scribd Mobile app: http://www.scribd.com/about

>BEFORE CLASS:

NOTICE ANYTHING NEW ON THE CLASS WEBSITE AND READ BOTH POSTS AND LINKS.
WEB & WORLD ASSIGNMENT: FIND OUT ABOUT MAKERSPACES IN THE AREA. Go to one. Bring in your research to share.   
READ: look at the pics on the right side of the course website. Click each one and examine and read the materials linked in. Find the one from SEW ELECTRIC, one of our class texts. Read that carefully because we are going to MAKE what's there in class next!

>IN CLASS:

HANDED OUT: Syllabus, Info Sheet
MAKING: 45 mins. The Sew Electric Project you found on the website.
CLASS BUDDIES

We will review all the knotted materials for the course, strategizing how we will synthesize MAKING and other kinds of research. We will brainstorm projects, ideas, processes, class practices, and more!

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Perkins. 2016. "Using Project-Based Learning To Flip Bloom’s Taxonomy For Deeper Learning." Teach Thought: we grow teachers Blog.
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/project-based-learning/using-project-based-learning-flip-blooms-taxonomy-deeper-learning/

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We are asking everyone in our WMST classes to consider attending at least one of the panels of this fabulous event created by Dr. LaMonda H. Stallings in our department. To see the full schedule and plan which panel you will attend click HERE and to register click HERE (it's free!)


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The stunning geographic divide in American creativity By Christopher Ingraham
The Washington Post, September 5, 2016: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/09/05/the-stunning-geographic-divide-in-american-creativity/



"...What's driving these differences? A separate analysis by the NEA has some answers. Education is a big part of it. The percent of state residents with a bachelor's degree or higher is positively correlated with creating artwork: in other words, more education, more art.

"This relationship is even stronger in some of the other categories the NEA looked at, such as attendance at art exhibits or performing arts events.

"Conversely, poverty rates are a strong negative driver of arts participation. If you're working three minimum wage jobs, you're probably not going to have a lot of time to indulge in crochet or creative writing.

"Of course, education and poverty are big drivers of each other, too. States with more money can spend more on better education, which leads to higher wages, which leads to more education, in an ongoing virtuous cycle. Unfortunately, the reverse holds true as well.

"Rates of participation in the arts are a powerful and under-appreciated proxy for human well-being. "Self-actualization," including creative activities, are all the way at the top of Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs. If you're able to spend the time and resources necessary to, say, practice with the local theater group or join the local community band, it's highly likely that you've got all the basics like food, shelter and safety taken care of.

"The NEA numbers suggest that a lot of folks in Southern states are falling behind their Northern counterparts on some of those measures. This mirrors what researchers see in other domains too, such as child well-being...."

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TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT AT THIS LINK:
http://sewelectric.org/diy-projects/bookmark-book-light/

• Beuchley. 2013. Sew Electric. HLT. Paper ISBN: 9780989795609 Amazon  Google   
=Companion Website: http://sewelectric.org/about/ 
LilyPad Arduino Websitehttp://lilypadarduino.org  
SparkFun Electronicshttps://www.sparkfun.com  

what is this project "good" for? 
why do it in our class, and why now?
where does this MAKING take us? 
where can one do making on campus and in the area?

how many ways do folks use this term MAKING?
how many ways do feminists use it?
how many way should we use it?

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IN THE SECOND PART OF CLASS TODAY 

1) we will inventory our desires, skills, and resources, and decide on some making activities together. we will decide on the next weekly activities. 

2) we will talk about how to use making to participate in activisms, knowledges, learning processes, worldly change, social justice. 

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