Michelle Trim will be using Adobe Connect in her Summer Online GST 332-OL Wonder Women: Rhetoric and History of Female American Superheroes class to provide a synchronous learning environment for students where they can watch video clips, engage in discussion and share content.
She is taking advantage of the synchronicity of the Adobe Connect session by asking students to participate in the session in real-time. As part of the section of the course dealing with mixed messages in representations of female superheroes, students will log in to the class session at a prearranged time.
They will begin their participation by uploading links to WWW content, providing context for the 1970s television characters they will be studying. After sharing links to 1970s commercials, headline news stories, and other reflections of the cultural events of that time, Michelle will synthesize students’ observations about the content and course readings in a short lecture delivered via web cam.
Next, students will view short clips of the Bionic Woman (1976) series that illustrate mixed messages about gender performance, reflecting 1970s conflicting cultural attitudes about gender. While viewing these clips students will have the capability to chat in real time with each other, shaping questions as they go along.
Michelle closes the session by moderating a discussion with students in which they contrast the representations of gender they’ve seen previously portrayed in Wonder Woman (1977) with those of the Bionic Woman. At the end of the 30-minute session, students will be asked to post observations and reactions to the discussion and its connections to course readings on the class’s web log.