On November 12, 2009, Pecha Kucha Night Greenville held Volume 1at The Huguenot Mill at The Peace Center. Clemson University's "Cultural Literacies Across Media" Instructor, Randy Nichols presented to the audience the challenges of communicating in a digital age - and what CLAM is doing to help students meet these challenges in"Helping Johnny Become Digitally Literate."
Pecha Kucha is an innovative presentation format that began in Japan, but is fast becoming a tool in favor with architects, educators, community planners, engineers and artists. Pecha Kucha Nights have sprung up across the globe, and Greenville, SC has now joined the list of progressive cities hosting this engaging communication event.
The July 22 Issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education featured a story on Study Abroad experiences, and highlighted the work of the students and faculty involved in our own beloved CLAM! The article features interviews from the instructor, Randy Nichols, from students Meg Sparkman and Jennifer McAmis, and from Dr. Tharon Howard and Dr. Constancio Nakuma, who were instrumental in facilitating the development of the course.
Dr. Constancio Nakuma, Associate Dean - CAAH, is quoted in the article as saying, "“CLAM is a way to teach students how to reflect on the permanent message etched into them while they study abroad, that they are part of a bigger picture. CLAM was designed to help our students learn how to paint themselves into that bigger picture consciously and as true to self as they can."
Many of the videos from CLAM students studying abroad have been posted on Clemson's Office of International Affairs YouTube Channel. The exceptional work of our CLAM students is getting international exposure through this channel. Check it out!
Our CLAMmers are wrapping up their Spring Term, but our CLAMmers will not really leave. You can click the links to the right to see some of their projects already posted in their own blogs. As soon as evaluations are done, and Clemson OIA's YouTube channel is updated, we will let you know and provide links. Congratulations, CLAMmers - you lived to tell the tale! (in multimodal fashion, no less!)
CLAMmers recently received some next-to-last-minute instructions and are putting together their projects. Some of the earlier blog posts hint at some very interesting projects in the works. These video projects will allow our students to share their newly gained cultural literacies with the greater Clemson University community at large.
Do we have grand expectations for these projects? Sure. But then again, we think we have some pretty grand students working on these projects. Watch here for announcements of their project postings on the Clemson OIA YouTube channel. These students are examples of how Clemson University is navigating the ever-changing global and dynamic cultural climate in which business, education, and life will be lived in the future.
Oh, yeah. The future is already here. Welcome to it.
(CLAMmers might enjoy looking for indicators of culture in the video below.)
This week, CLAMmers will post more rhetorical analyses of media artifacts from within their cultures of focus. These should be interesting! But as they prepare to dig into preparations for their final projects, I offer a last resource for more last-minute video helps.
Randy D. Nichols is a speaker, writer, and Professor of Professional Communications at Limestone University, where he directs the B.A. in Professional Communications. Dr. Nichols is a life-long learner and communicator who now learns alongside college students as they engage the ever-shifting literacies of our modern digital world. He has a passion for engaging communication issues with fellow-communicators in the workplace, community, and the classroom.
