just notes on mdfs

# just notes on mdfs 20211005 steps on the page: * mdfs * the history * if all you have is a hammer * the role * the work * the outcomes / accidents * [drill bits and holes](https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/03/23/drill/) * investment, intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation (touching on organic farm) * the future * writing to admin * future of academic communication and the defense of teaching add: quotes steps: * descript on site: clearly we have to provide some value beyond this today * history * puzzles and problems * (alphabet soup, uncertain funding and nomads vs the empire) * laws & roads & aqueducts vs tents & horses * MDF role basics * * technical skills in labs * the day to day work with examples * accidents and discoveries * what's next? * new for this year = writing to admin * only thing better than a hammer is ### Prompt So we want to get a sense from you about what media and tools you would be excited for us to drill into this year--either because you yourself are interested in learning this, Or if you are someone who supports faculty, it could be what is at the cutting edge of what they're doing? Now, literally around the "edge" of your card, write down what tools or media you are excited for us to help you with this year. ## MDFs ### Description from the Website Media & Design Fellows support innovative course development within the FAS, partnering with faculty and staff to design a variety of digital tools, course materials, and assignments for undergraduate courses and departments. Departmental Media & Design Fellows are based in a department and develop tools and materials for that department’s courses, consult the full job description for Department/Program-Based Media & Design Fellows. Bok Media & Design Fellows are based in the Bok Center’s Learning Lab and support a range of related departments and/or General Education courses, consult the full job description for Bok Center-Based Media & Design Fellows. Most MDF appointments span the full academic year, allowing Fellows to develop technical expertise, create activities and resources for an upcoming semester, and support implementation of new activities. We welcome inquiries from faculty and departments interested in engaging Media & Design Fellows for their courses, and also accept applications from graduate students who would like to serve as Media & Design Fellows. However, priority is given to departments, so interested graduate students are encouraged to reach out to their departmental administrator or DGS to see if they can apply as a departmental MDF. (more [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1afv_okcKTzRjPnQzHFOrPDD96ou6ApbFR_zY1bHc2vU/edit) and [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1afv_okcKTzRjPnQzHFOrPDD96ou6ApbFR_zY1bHc2vU/edit)) ### History 0. puzzles * job market = tough * the literacies that matter in the external world are shifting (too quickly for the U to keep up) * there is also lots of work that seems to go beyond what a typical TF can do in a course * how do you do new things? you can't start until you're asked, but you can't know how to do them until you start? * phone/human hybrid thing * within the ed-media space, a division between thinkers and makers * backward design's problematic assumptions * the danger of platforms * do you *know* something? or have you memorized a set of behaviors 1. history (it has taken a while). funding, empire and nomads. high-level goals. * perform work for faculty and their courses * including direct instruction for undergrads * develop graduate student skills (both to make them better teachers and better at whatever they choose to do next) ### ROLE SPECIFICS 2. what they do. specifics of the role (Katie) * paid hourly * 10 hours/week for up to 150 hours each term (which ends up being about a fifth if they work all the hours) * we contact departments and give preference to any nominees they suggest * but we also allow students to apply directly * if from a dept we ask that dept if they'd like them to be the departmental MDF * if not, we consider whether to hire them as a Bok MDF * [link to job description]() * [link to Bok website description]() * we also employ MDFs for smaller chunks of time (50-hour projects, for instance) throughout the year, as this frequently matches faculty and grad needs more than a full-year position. - [list of this year's fellows](https://hackmd.io/Mxiw-Uz-RAG0anmWfJ3WKw?view#THE-FELLOWS-BOOK) - x from depts - tunnel down into a couple - x bok - non-GSAS fellows' special skills - past fellows - media production assistants part of mdfs - return fellows for flexible $$ ### THE DAY TO DAY 3. the day to day and week to week * meetings * weekly, but alternating, full team meetings * weekly "lab" meetings * learning & researching * designing & building * testing & practicing * this year's labs - av-lab - datavis-lab - reality-lab - map-lab - theatre-lab - story-lab - essay-film-lab - visual-essay-lab - illustration-lab - poster-lab - graphics-lab - graphic-design-lab * consulting with Bok Staff (Grace?) * leading workshops (Grace & Jessi?) * making things * written resources * websites * media content ### ACCIDENTS AND DISCOVERIES 4. the big picture * projects (up from 1 per term) 5. accidents and discoveries * a mix of something you've planned an something that emerges (the Jessi activity) * teaching is bigger than you might think * where does new stuff come from? * if you already know something it's not new; if you don't know it, you can't find it. * does new stuff emerge like sleep---you aren't aiming directly at it. It just happens when you prepare the conditions? * or practices? ### WHAT'S NEXT? 7. new things this year * writing to admin writing to admin: Whoever said "if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail" didn't have much experience with hammers (or nails). First of all. Hammers are awesome. No one who has wielded one for long could have said this. (and if they did, shame on them; we should consider taking away their hammer) Truer words: if all you have is this cliche, then everything is going to look like a deficient tool, and you'll be consigned to a life of management – or at best "ideation" – rather than making. or Truer words: if all you have is this cliche, then everything is going to look like a deficient tool, and you'll be consigned to a life of making sentences rather than things. - projects - project prop form - project docs - event reports . . . q's in airtable surrounding milestones, etc. - teaching as something larger than teaching - american scholar metaphor? - mindich program? - if we're so smart, how come we keep losing? - if we're the experts on the beautiful and the sublime . . . on meaning, on the good, on everything that matters most to human beings . . . why can't any of us get paid? - event reports - list of fellows and depts - update on the past - moves - intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation - VM and DTFs here til the early hours of the morning - phil up all night before covid - fellows living in the space - david videos, observables, interactives, - project proposals and reports - Grace as comeback fellow - Ignacio learning from Grace - Eduarda in Brazil, virtually here - maps - ### SURPRISES & INSIGHTS * the cool thing is that we get to have 100 iterations a term (at least!) of something faculty and grads get to do once per project (the graphical abstract, the video interview, the podcast, etc) * do you *know* something? or have you memorized a set of terms and behaviors? * broader impact * future of academic communication * Noelle, etc. * how can you get to new things? - is it like sleep? you have to get out of the way and let it happen? - does it happen through a quantitative intensification of what alread exists? (which leads to a kind of qualitative leap?) - does it happen through strange conjunctions (and those, if not yet familiar with the content and result of this particular conjunction, are expert at the choreographies of relating, relationships, partnerships and duality that underlie any such conjunction)