Microblogging the Drama

Microblogging the Drama

This semester, three Graduate Center colleagues are engaged in a pedagogical experiment with multiple Acting classes, using Twitter. (Skeptics, stay with me!) Hoping to prompt class discussion between CUNY colleges, they created a shared assignment between their Introduction to Acting, Acting 1, and Acting 2 classes at Staten Island College, City College, and Brooklyn College, aimed to get students expressing and connecting with #ACTweets.

In theory, this makes great sense, so stay tuned to see how it works in practice. With all of the Acting I courses taught across CUNY, the assignment reads like a productive way to network students while encouraging low-stakes, fluid discussion in a different medium.  It might be ideal for shy students with anxiety about Acting 1, or those who want opportunities to articulate the unexpected challenges of an acting course. Students at commuter schools can find like-minded others at campuses across town, others passionate about the finer points of strategies for sonnet memorization, or the ethics of diversity in casting at theater companies.

Instructors @rayelz, @Eero_Laine, and @defyinggravitas designed the #ACTweets assignment to inspire a few categories of comments from the students– quoting readings, reacting to a specific piece, responding to another students’ tweet, rehearsal notes, acting resources, or revelations. (That last one should get extra credit, no?) The instructors also made clear some basics of Twitter etiquette and guidelines.

The project is in its very first steps; student user handles were to be created by February 7, and the tweets get fired off beginning February 14 (swoon!). They’re encouraging anyone teaching a CUNY Acting course– any level– to contact them if they would like to participate. I plan to follow along, and perhaps post some responses along the way, as an interested outsider to their very public learning process. In the meantime, has any reader tried similar assignments in their courses, or know of examples to recommend, for modeling? “Looking for Whitman” is certainly one of the recent standard-bearers of multi-campus student learning using digital technology, and I’m curious to hear about the relative success of across-campus initiatives using Twitter and/or other microblogging platforms.

photo credit: Eric Fischer via photopin cc

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