femtechnet: the first docc,* a feminist mooc
DESCRIPTION
FemTechNet is a network of international scholars and artists activated by Alexandra Juhasz and Anne Balsamo to design, implement, and teach the first DOCC (Distributed Online Collaborative Course), a feminist rethinking of the MOOC. The course, Feminist Dialogues on Technology, will be offered in fifteen classrooms, at least one in every continent, in the Fall of 2013. This project uses technology to enable interdisciplinary and international conversation while privileging situated diversity and networked agency. Building the course on a shared set of recorded dialogues with the world’s preeminent thinkers and artists who consider technology through a feminist lens, the rest of the course will be built, and customized for the network’s local classrooms and communities, by network members who submit and evaluate Boundary Objects that Learn—the course’s basic pedagogic instruments. FemTechNet invites interested scholars and artists to join this project and help build this course. In this seminar, Alexandra Juhasz and Anne Balsamo discuss how this innovative project got started, explore the model of distributed online collaborative courses, and lead a discussion of how FemTechNet or similar courses might fit within the liberal arts curriculum. Speakers Alexandra Juhasz, Professor of Media Studies, Pitzer College, and Anne Balsamo, Dean of the School of Media Studies, New School for Public Engagement (New York).TRANSCRIPT
FemTechNetThe First DOCC,* a Feminist MOOC
Alexandra Juhasz, Professor of Media Studies, Pitzer College
Anne Balsamo, Dean of the School of Media Studies, New School for Public
Engagement (New York).
NITLE Seminar, October 4, 2012
* DOCC: Distributed Online Collaborative Course
National Institute forTechnology in Liberal EducationOnline Seminar
Speakers:Alexandra JuhaszProfessor of Media StudiesPitzer College, Los Angeles
And
Anne BalsamoDean of the School of Media StudiesNew School for Public Engagement, New York
Event Hashtag: #FemTechNet
FemTechNet
A global network of scholars and artists who workat the intersections of feminism, science and technology
Key Objectives
•To develop innovative uses for digital technologies that serve important cultural and social needs
•To involve women and girls in discussions about the history of feminist engagement with technology
•To demonstrate feminist contribution to technological innovation
•To contribute to the digital archive of the history of technology
Initial Commitments
Key Challenges•Cultural ignorance of the general history of technology and science
•Wide-spread ignorance of the historical relationship between women and technological innovation
•Lack of understanding about the contribution of feminist theory to technocultural innovation
•Authoritative structure of institutionalized MOOCs
•Persistent difficult in engaging women and girls in STEM fields & projects
Initial Commitments
Key Opportunities•Extensive global network of feminist experts in science and technology
•Deep history of innovative feminist engagement with technology
•Cross-disciplinary dispersion of feminist expertise
•Feminist design thinking
•History of innovative pedagogical practice among feminist teachers
•New digital technology infrastructures
DOCC: An Alternative MOOC
Distributed Online Collaborative Course
Key Objectives
•Recognize and engage expertise DISTRIBUTED throughout a network
•Understand Learning as a MIXED-MODE and BLENDED experience
•Design using COLLABORATIVE peer-to-peer process
•Collaboratively create the HISTORICAL cultural archive
•Collaboratively EXPERIMENT in use of online pedagogies
Feminist Learning Design
2013 DOCC: Dialogues in Feminism and TechnologyApproaches the creation of a MOOCfrom the perspective of feminist STS and media arts
Ten Week Course: September – November, 2013
Ten – Twelve VIDEO DIALOGUES
Shared Learning Materials: BOTLs
Collaborative Learning Activity: STORMING WIKIPEDIA
Differential Participation: NODAL classes
Feminist Learning Design
VIDEO DIALOGUESArchiveBodyDifferenceDisciplineEthicsLaborMachinePlaceRaceSexualitiesSystemsTransformation
Feminist Design Thinking
Boundary Objects That Learn: BOTLsApproaches the creation of LEARNING OBJECTSfrom the perspective of feminist STS
Learning Objects as BOUNDARY objects:“abstract or concrete frameworks that are adaptable to
different viewpoints yet robust enough to maintain a provisional identity over time and across different worlds”
Learning Objects that LEARN:.learning materials that are transformed through use when
participants annotate materials based on experience and context
Harding: Standpoint TheoryHaraway: Refraction Theory and Subjugated HistoriesStar & Greisemer: Boundary Objects and Translation
Feminist Design Thinking
Differential Participation: NODAL CLASSESNODAL CLASSES: > Fifteen “embodied” courses
Independent Studies
Self-Directed Learners
Drop-In Learners
Ad-hoc Instructors
Peer-to-Peer Discussion
DOCC: 1st Iteration Schedule
Dialogues in Feminism & TechnologyFall 2012: Networking, Fundraising, Wikipedia analysis
Spring 2013: Beta Courses
Spring 2013: Prepare Video Dialogues
Summer 2013: Material Preparation, Instructors’ Workshop
Sept – Nov 2013: DOCC Launch
DOCC: Opportunities
How You can ParticipateJoin the listserv: fembotcollective.org
(join from pull-down list “register”)
Teach a NODAL course
Help architect the technological infrastructure
Contribute BOTLs
Fundraise
Publicize the effort
Extend the network
Thank You
DiscussionAnne Balsamo: [email protected]
Alex Juhasz: [email protected]
Background and MORE information:http://fembotcollective.org/
http://fembotcollective.org/femtechnet/femtechnet-useful-documents/femtechnet-faqs/
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/liz-losh/learning-failure-feminist-dialogues-technology-part-i
http://dmlcentral.net/blog/liz-losh/learning-failure-feminist-dialogues-technology-part-ii