Pedagogy Apr 2023

What a Trip

Rachael Zeleny

Abstract

Abstract This essay details the evolution of an interdisciplinary course at a university with proximity to Baltimore, Maryland. The original course relied entirely on experiential learning via field trips. During these trips, students conducted analyses of museums as rhetorical and political spaces. As a result of the pandemic, the course evolved into one that relied entirely on students making virtual field trips for cultural organizations and for those at home. In both courses, students focused on issues of social justice as they pertain to museums: issues of access (who is able/encouraged to visit the museum?), issues of diversity (which artists/works of art are featured and who is offered positions of power within the organization?), and issues of engagement (does the museum offer exhibits/programming that is relevant to the public they serve?). In the revised class, students (1) virtually met with museum representatives to discuss their needs; (2) researched the types of resources, events, and objects that can be found in the different locations; (3) learned how to use technology such as Nearpod as multimodal composing platforms; and (4) created a virtual field trip to be used by that organization for educational and promotional purposes. By creating material for specific audiences, students not only learned the rhetorical skills of composing for diverse groups but also grappled with issues of equity, access, and engagement. While the revisions were made out of necessity, this essay details the transferable methodology that can continue to be employed in online classes and integrated into in-person learning.

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2023-04-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-10296094
Open Access
Closed
Topics
multimodality race and writing revision

Citation Context

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Also cites 5 works outside this index ↓
  1. Krakowka (2012)
    Field Trips as Valuable Learning Experiences in Geography Courses
    Journal of Geography  ↗
  2. Lukes (2014)
    A New Take on the Field Trip
    Science Teacher  ↗
  3. Topaz (2019)
    “Diversity of Artists in Major U.S. Museums
    PLoS One  ↗
  4. Wang (2014)
    A WebGIS-Based Teaching Assistant System for Geography Field Practice (TASGFP)
    British Journal of Educational Technology  ↗
  5. Zeleny (2020)
    Putting US Back in Museums: Increasing Student Engagement via Experiential Learning Writi…
    Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments  ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network →

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