Final project due in class on Thurs. Dec. 8th
(or via email by Thurs. Dec. 15th)
(or via email by Thurs. Dec. 15th)
Option One: Quest/ion Essay
Based on the questions you’ve been developing in your journal, this project give you the opportunity to develop and sharpen your key personal philosophical question/issue. What is the (or a) key question for you? How do you sharpen that question? How do you devise a plan – an experiment or attitudinal adjustment or research idea – into order to work towards an answer? This writing assignment (4-5 pages) can take the form of an analytical-argumentative paper or a more narrative or creative paper.
Option Two: Technology Abstinence Meditation
REQUIREMENTS: 1) Abstinence Experiment, 2) Creative Expression, 3) 4 page interpretation
AIM: To understand and express artistically your relationship with the technologies in your life that you depend on everyday.
Instructions: This project is has three parts.
(1) Choose a technology/medium, or a combination thereof, that you use, on a daily basis and that is important to you. DO WITHOUT the use of that medium for a period of 100 hours (approx. 4 days). Some examples of media: email, cellphone, instant messenger, video games, TV, cars, clothing, typography, spoken language, digital screens, shoes, i-pods and stereos, refrigerator, as well as mood-enhancement technologies such as caffeine, salt, alcohol, etc.)
(2) Create, in any medium, a self-portrait (of the artist) – that is, of YOU – as a user of a technology. Your self-portrait should explore the truth of your relationships to the technologies that matter to you. How does your use of them shape your attention, relations to other, sense of self, priorities, values, etc?
(3) Write a 4 page essay explaining your portrait and relating it to ONE of the following questions:
What is the media ecology of the technologies you abstained from?
How much technology is too much?
How do we learn to be present to each other and to ourselves?
What are the struggles with avoiding being programmed by our use of digital media and how do we overcome them?
What would REAL PROGRESS in social evolution look like?
Option Three: Mindfulness Practice Framework
Form: Creation of a meditation space in your abode, a one month meditation plan, together with a 4 page writing reflection. Your writing should focus on what meditation is, the psychological theory behind it, connections to worldview or whatever angle is most useful in your own attempts to understand it, etc. Create a meditation space / altar and document your space with a photograph. For the creation of the meditation space, be as minimal or elaborate as you feel is appropriate. Then come up with a realistic meditation plan for the next 4 weeks. Be realistic but a little ambitious too. Try to keep to your plan. At the end, congratulate yourself for your new Jedi mind skills.
Option Four: Reflection on the Purpose of Education
This class has been designed as an experimental departure from many standard practices used for teaching in higher education. If you found these departures interesting or useful to you, you can use your final project as an opportunity to reflect on your college experience, and on what our seminar has revealed or served as an alternative to. What should education strive to offer? How well does this work given standard teaching/classroom practices in college? Did the experimental methods you experienced during our class highlight any limitations on conventional practices or suggest other aspects of learning which are important for growth?
No comments:
Post a Comment