Multimodal Response 3: The Embodied Classroom

In this article, Leeann Hunter points to ways that hearing classrooms, students, and teachers might make use of Deaf practices in order to better understand how space, gesture, and nonverbal communication shape learning.

As you complete this response, consider: How do you use gesture as a student to communicate ideas, emotions, reactions, and alliances? How does gesture shape communication and identity in your life at large? How can you increase your awareness of gesture in your leadership and composition?

For this response, I'm going to have you use a highly gestural medium: the vlog. This can take a lot of different forms, but in general you'll be taking a slice of a day-in-the-life approach, where you consider your use of gesture across one day. Aim for about 5-10 minutes (but no worries if you go over). Your vlog should do 3 things:

1. Explore how you use gesture throughout your day

2. Take place in at least two different locations, at two different points in time

3. Connect your reflections on your use of gesture to the reading

Overall, your vlog should explore your experience, as Hunter puts it, of being an "expressive [performer] on the stage" using "human technologies in motion, [and] embodying a range of identity markers and cultural expressions." In other words, what does embodied nonverbal communication look like in your daily life, and how does that connect to or differ from Hunter's discussion?

Don't worry about doing extensive editing of your video for this response, or about maximizing video quality. You're welcome to check out a camera from the Loanable Technology desk, but a webcam or phone camera will work just fine as well. It's also up to you how much you want to delve into editing. If you plan on working with video in the future (or already have experience in this area) then this could be good practice. But if it's new to you, feel free to use a more stream-of-consciousness, one-take style, and either upload separate videos, or use an editor to combine the different clips. Clipchamp is a good basic (and free!) online video editor, and Lightworks is another good option that is a bit less user-friendly, but has more features. Let me know if you run into any questions on the technical side of things.

Response due September 17 at 9:30am. Upload to your individual website.