Course Overview
Hi everyone!
This is just a summary of what happened in the in-person classes during Week 1, for anyone who missed class.
Day 1:
During the first class, I did the following:
- I gave an overview of what we’re doing this semester, the grading system, the types of work you will do in this class, etc. (i.e. the contents of the syllabus).
- I talked about my expectations of you in the class: what is my job and what is your job.
- I answered students’ questions about the class.
If you missed class, but have questions about any of these things, please ask me about it next class, after checking in with a classmate about what you missed.
Day 2:
During the second in-person class, we’ll spend a little time getting to know one another, and talk about your preferences for the course’s content and method, as well as discussing your habits and interests related to media, and how you interact with English language screen media in general. I will collect some information about your media interests, share some of mine.
In class, we’ll use the following survey paper to help you figure out what kinds of Screen Media, and English-language Screen Media, you use regularly in your life:
Looking Forward
Today, we mostly talked about your interests and consumption habits as they relate to screen media, in English and otherwise. (For those who missed, we discussed our patterns of media consumption and of English media consumption and interaction on screens, ranging from streaming services and Youtube to social media, games, and more.)
As noted in class today, your homework for includes the following:
TASK 1: Please check out the following Youtubers—by which I mean, look at some of their videos and think about them. (Their names are links to their Youtube pages.)
In our classes next week, we will watch a few short videos or excerpts by some of them, and discuss them in terms of the following questions:
- What do you think about each of these Youtubers’ approach to similar kinds of topics? (Broadly speaking, all of these are psychology/self-help Youtubers.)
- What do you think may be each Youtuber’s differing motivation for making these videos?
- What do you think may be good about more people are turning to Youtube for free self-help? What are some potential problems with this?
- Who do you imagine are the main audience for these kinds of videos?
You can consider the discussion we’ll have a rough (partial) example of the kind of discussion leading that you will do during a later class when your turn to lead a discussion comes later this semester.
That’s it for now!