2013 Summit Programme - The Centre for Excellence in Media ...

PARALLEL SESSION 5: Friday 20th 09.45 - 10.25
MERJ CONVERSATION:
A Bric-a-Brac Approach to Arts & Media Education
Jonathan Shaw
Cantor
9131
When faced with a broken and out of date methodology, structure and systems, how do
we as academics find our purpose, value and relevance within the 21st century classroom
or perhaps a more relevant question should be how would we re-imagine what that classroom
could look like Here, I am not meaning what shape of rectangle or square room and
colour chairs or even what type of physical building, I am thinking what tools, skills will we,
as learners and teachers, need to make this ‘place’ an effective, enjoyable environment to
experiment and work together to help create and propel the next wave of creatives out into
the big wide world!
In 2011 Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun at Stanford University shook up educational
institutions by opening their doors to their introduction to artificial intelligence interactive
MOOCS (Massively Open Online Course). Two years earlier in the back of a converted
cinema in the UK, Jonathan Shaw and his team seeking to enhance student engagement
with photography and connect them with their wider professional networks, had explored
a similar idea, allowing the world to peer into their classroom. Picturing the body, better
known by its hashtag #picbod, a free and open undergraduate photography class was
born. #Picbod, together with its sister open class #phonar (short for photography and
narrative) are now referred to as open boundary by Jisc as a third distinct thread running
within the wider weave of what might be commonly termed MOOCS.
This conversation will reflect upon and explore the motivations, rational and strategies for
development and support of open, online courses specifically within the contexts of arts,
media and design education.
It is aimed at people who are interested in exploring how the practitioner led educator may
have privileged insights into defining new practices for the fast changing higher education
and professional landscapes.
Keywords: open, photography, disruption, MOOCs, 21st Century.
Jonathan Shaw is a photographer and Associate Head of Media at Coventry University.
His work has been published alongside Muybrige & Edgerton and he led the team which
pioneered free & open photography classes picbod.org & phonar.org.
34 Media Education Summit 2013