Reflection on F2F Session: A brief reflection on the Graduate-Level Summer Camp Experience

I know this blog doesn’t necessarily align with the suggested blog topics listed on the syllabus. But I wanted to post a few reflections about the experience of the F2F sessions, not only for my own synthesis practice but to generate some larger class understanding about how we all experienced the F2F and where that leaves us now.  As a teacher and as a student, I find reflection very generative and helps situates the next steps/process to undergo. Often times in graduate school, I feel so rushed to move from one experience to the other without the opportunity to critically reflect and understand how the experience has influenced new understandings. So as always, feel free to comment and share what you took away from the experience.

What I Took Away From the F2F Experience:

1. Graduate “Summer Camp” Rocks – now, last week I probably would have not said that. I think it is fair to say that most of us struggled sitting in a classroom for 6 hours each day. However, now that I survived that experience, looking back I must say that the time spent together was very generative. Plus, as this course occurs in the summer it really is perfect timing. I now feel that I am in a great position to really work on my syllabus and course design plans well in advance from the start of the fall semester. And I must say that a summer course has a much different vibe than a fall or spring course. A summer course, especially a summer online course, feels less rushed and creates space for reflection and generating new course ideas. For me, I really see a benefit being away from the classroom – having physical space away from the classroom to really think about what the classroom space offers as well as what an online classroom space offers. With time for reflection, I plan on incorporating this then in my final project.

2.  Workshops/Tools Are Awesome – In a way this relates to #1, however, because of the impact the workshops had on my project descriptions and teachnology statements I felt this could be it’s own category. Like any peer review, the workshops for the course provided the opportunity not only to receive feedback but also to read others and “sneak a peak” into their understandings and their ideas. For me, that “sneak a peak” moment was most generative. And as I stated in class, it would be wonderful for Eli to have a tool that allowed reviewers to take notes as they are reviewing other’s in order to track and mark ideas that they want to incorporate in their drafts. 

Similar to Workshops, the tool review sessions were invaluable. It was wonderful to learn about multiple tools that support and afford an online learning space. Further, since we all come from a variety of backgounds, the tools that were presented offered a variety of insight and generated multiple ideas. I know that I plan on incorporating more mapping tools and plan on playing with the avatar site. 

3. Talking About Theories – Thinking about the F2F session in particular, the time spent in class talking about learning theories was also very interesting and something that I think we have been attempting to do in campfire yet not totally successful. I think campfire is a great tool to spend an hour of time with students and check in on progress and questions but it really doesn’t easily afford the opportunity to lecture and then discuss theory. The F2F time when Bill spoke about communities of learning and other learning theories then enhanced my own comprehension of such theories but it also provided a place to attempt to apply theories. This ability and skill of knowing how and when to apply theory in the classroom is something I believe vital for good teachers to know how to do and be successful at doing so. Thus, I think discussing those theories and then pushing us to incorporate some of those theories into our course descriptions and plans will serve all of us well once (and if) we determine to incorporate these practices into our future courses.

Critical Ideas:

Overall, the F2F sessions made me question my own future in the field of writing and rhetoric but in a much larger way.  While I am interested in the power of technology in writing and rhetoric, the F2F session asked me to expand my thoughts on technology into the field of education and higher education in general. I think this was because of the various fields we represented in the class. And so, leaving the F2F session I couldn’t help but think about:

·      What is next (technologically speaking),

·      What my role (as a teacher and graduate student) is in this,

·      And finally, how to best evaluate and support good technological options.

As someone who wants to make change in our field, specifically with applying more decolonial theory into our writing classrooms in order to make space for all of our students to represent their thoughts and writing, I can’t help but think about technology may be a tool to assist in creating such space. These ideas are fresh and still need development. Yet, overall, this class and the specifically the F2F session has really allowed me to begin pondering such questions and has pushed me to attempt to formulate some sort of an answer to them.

What I Would Like To Do More Of:

So here we are at our “independent” work time and after ending our F2F session, I was thinking where should I go from here? Yes, I will start going over Eli comments and start polishing up my teachnology and project descriptions. But what about the other drafts? With that, I was thinking that it might be helpful to conduct a few more workshop sessions. I know for some they may think, well that is just more work which it is, but I found the workshops on Eli quiet generative and I don’t think they took much time. So I am boldly proposing that we conduct one more Eli review session before the symposium. I know campfire will provide ample time and space to discuss issues and questions we have about the projects, but the opportunity to actually see the drafts in progress is something that I value and learn a great deal from. I am curious what others think and I’m not trying to give more work, just trying to best improve my drafts and incorporate these learning and technology theories into my course design.