VOICES conference!
I am super excited about the Virtual Ongoing Interdisciplinary Conferences on Educating with Song (VOICES) conference!
“VOICES will present the latest research, pedagogy, and practitioner perspectives on effectively communicating the ideas of STEM through song.”
…hey, I like using (rap) songs to communicate about STEM-related topics! Maybe that’s why I was asked to help organize. 🙂
The timing is great (September 27-28, 2017). Students who take my inaugural Hip-Hop, Communication & Society course will all be able (required) to attend the conference, which only costs $10 and will take place virtually.
https://www.causeweb.org/voices/
https://www.facebook.com/VOICES.Meetings/
Courses Taught
These are the main courses that I teach at MSU.
- Avatar Use, Psychology and Significance
Theory and research on the psychological experience and effects of avatar use
Example syllabus here
(note: this course is undergoing significant changes to focus more on a game/VR design-student audience) - Science Fiction, Communication and Technology
Examination of relationship between science fiction themes and our lives.
MSU AT&T award for Best Blended Course, 2015.
Example syllabus here - Media and Technology (PhD Seminar)
PhD seminar on theories of media and technology use.
Example syllabus here. - Understanding Media (large intro course for ~300 undergrads)
Introduction to various topics of research and history of media
Example syllabus here. - Video Game Impacts: Play with Meaning (Honors Research Seminar)
Hand-on research course in which honors undergraduate students conduct video-game studies.
Course only available for freshman/sophomores enrolled in the Honors College.
When the Saints Go March for Science
Interview about Avatars, Virtual Worlds and Stereotypes
I won a thing
I’m grateful to have won an MSU Teacher Scholar award – given to six tenure system faculty, “who early in their careers have earned the respect of students and colleagues for their devotion to and skill in teaching.”
My dept chair, Johannes Bauer, has been extremely supportive and was kind enough to nominate me. The write-up here is overly flattering and exaggerates some of my contributions, so I hope nobody expects me to live up to them. 😉
Professor uses skateboard to keep students’ attention
“Media and Information professor Rabindra Ratan knows that in a big lecture, students get distracted and fall asleep. To keep his students engaged and awake, he skateboards around the class. The potential that he could wipe out at any moment is what he says keeps the students’ attention. “It’s fun,” Ratan said. “It keeps their attention and it keeps me from getting bored too. The students watch me to make sure they don’t miss when I fall.”
Freestyling with a student in class to try to wake them up
CQ Researcher: Does video gaming have a gender gap?
I wrote part of a “pro/con” piece for CQ Researcher about whether video gaming has a gender gap. Although we were on opposite columns, Dr. Kishonna Gray and I made similar arguments: the gap seems to have closed in casual gaming, but not in more competitive, online gaming spaces. This is likely because of the hostility toward and stereotypes about women and girls that are prevalent in these spaces.
Here’s my half of the piece.
Sci Fi & Comm Tech – Summer Class (MI 401): Rap-vertisement & Flyer