Students Nominate Emerson's Use of Media Archaeology Lab for Teaching with Tech Award
Does new media correlate with technological progress? That's whatstudents investigate in Assistant Professor of English Lori Emerson's Introduction to Media Studies course. To understand the extent to whichtechnological media has progressed over the past century, Emerson asks herstudents tohandle old computers, typewriters, recordplayers, etc. at theon GrandviewAvenue in ǸԹ. There, students,"Take things apart, and seewhat's going on underneath the hood ... Ireallybelievethat you can't understand how media work without using it. Youcan't understand without hands on access," says Emerson. She created the Media Archaeology Lab in 2009 andcontinues to direct it. The lab collects older word processors, sound equipment, and recording devices. Emerson cites that one suchrecent addition to the lab is a 1920s era Edisonphonograph. "Itworks with a crank," she says.
InIntroduction to Media Studies, Emersonteaches students aboutthehistory of computing andabout the progression of media from past to present.Shesays that she helps students "...think about how things could workotherwise and could be otherwise--howto reimaginepossibilitiesfor computing."Emerson encouraged her students to bring their own media devices into the lab during their monthly visits there to compare the artifacts in the lab"... upagainst new media."Emerson says that spending time with older machines allows students to consider "... how long their computers and old cell phones could last ... Someold machines can do things better than our machines today."She says thatshe tries to challenge students toreconsider the value of older technologies and:
...think critically about old and new media of all kinds ... Iget[students]to see that every new technology that comes out isn'tnecessarilybetter. Oneof the ways that I do that is bringing them into the MediaArchaeologyLab.
Students in the Spring 2015 semesterof the class enjoyed their time in the lab so much that theynominatedEmerson foranASSETTExcellence in Teaching with Technology Award. One student wrotethat Emerson“... [centered] the class around forms of technology–new and old, visiting the multi-media archaeology lab, and using technology to teach.”
Emerson's students wroteblog posts to reflect on their time in the Media Archaeology Lab. Then, theywrote research papers and collaborated for finalgroup creative projects. Groups' projects respondedto topics thatthey talked about in class. One group created asoundart project about the soundsthat old machines made in the lab. Another group created a typewriter art exhibit.