Students:

This experimental class uses multimedia via the WORD, Youtube, podcasting, blogging, twitter, facebook, myspace, et. al – to teach students how to tell and disseminate stories about issues in immigrant and ethnic communities.

It is a real-world oriented course unlike any of the other journalism courses in D:F/M because one of its goals is to teach students how to disseminate news and information. Of course, what students learn in this course in terms of telling stories and how to disseminate them can be applied to other areas of interest.

399.31 may be too much for students cruising for C’s and B’s (and, dare I say, easy A’s) but for students who are serious about journalism and want to learn how to make a difference in their lives and the lives of their communities, this is a course to consider. Because of the work of previous students who took this class or worked on projects similar to those assignments in 399.31 (plus some recent developments and some other “stuff” in the works), this class is linked to some of the most significant emerging institutions, persons of influence and movements in journalism today as this profession undergoes radical change. 

 

*Sometimes completely unavailable, sometimes partially unavailable. It’s all the same to me: Down.

Excerpt – Lead: Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.

Excerpt – Second Graph: “Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.

Excerpt – Fifth Graph: A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.

Excerpt – Selected Quote: “I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

I wonder how many colleagues in and out of the Department of Film and Media Studies have default grades? I embraced default grading after I started my publish or perish imperative several years ago with the start up of the WORD.  [I wonder if the College has a default department? Could it be F/M?]

I wonder how many departments have the equivalent of The Four Barnacles of the Apocalypse in my department? The Four subvert the learning process for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with learning.

So, I’m getting a copy of the U of C study.