I teach writing and rhetoric. I make films, mostly documentaries and experimental shorts; this is my preferred method of participating with/in culture, although social networking venues afford interesting opportunities ...
I imagine that students want to do similar work (i.e., make films that feel important to them and enable a sense that they are participating meaningfully with/in culture). My pedagogy aims to honor this hopeful desire. Fall of 2010 marked my first semester teaching DIY digital filmmaking to my First Year Composition students. In Spring 2011, I began using film-composing pedagogies in my Rhetorical Theory class. These days, most students make a short film in each of my writing classes. The results have been spectacular.
