Readings: Henry Jenkins. “Fan Activism as Participatory Politics: The Case of the Harry Potter Alliance.” DIY Citizenship. Pp. 65-73.
Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. The Walking Dead #1: Special Edition. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics. (May 2008). Comic book. Watch: Zombie Apocalypse (Discovery Channel, 43 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=75&v=YdAe18Xvs4Q This weeks reading was very interesting. I am not particularly interested in science fiction so I was very much intrigued to find out more about zombies. This week we were required to watch Zombie Apocalypse on the Discovery Channel. I was truly blown away by the seriousness and lengths people go to to protect themselves in the case of a zombie apocalypse. In class a fellow peer presented on zombie based learning (ZBL). The idea of teaching geography/environment through zombie’s. This does seem very familiar to teaching within the Primary Years Programme (PYP) within the International Baccalaureate. Educators allow students to drive the curriculum through their interests. Teachers find out what students are interested in, what questions they have and then they move forward incorporating this new knowledge knowing that students will be engaged. Giving the scenario of a zombie apocalypse to students allows them to look at different perspectives and work together focusing on a range of aspects from the distribution of resources to planning their post outbreak settlement.
1 Comment
11/19/2016 09:39:40 am
I think that the idea of using student interests to drive curriculum is an example of good pedagogy. I think what is becoming more difficult is the fact that much of what students are interested in these days seems very foreign or difficult to incorporate. Zombies, for example, does not seem like an easy thing to use in one's classroom teaching. However, upon learning about Zombie Based Learning, the connections the teacher-creator made seem very logical and appear to drive a very thoughtful and complex curriculum. I also see a lot of teachers online using Minecraft for a variety of curricular uses, which again can initially seem a little far-fetched but upon further study just makes good pedagogical sense. It is up to us, as educators, to find those ways into our students lives and minds so that we can connect with them. It definitely isn't always easy to do this, but I think the importance of doing so cannot be denied.
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