Abstract
I am teaching Integrated Studies of Cultural Management this semester. The course aims to provide an opportunity for students to curate projects that engage with communities, stimulate cultural heritage awareness, and impact society. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, students are not able to meet with local communities face-to-face or conduct live events. Instead, the course relies on telepresence technology and social media to build effective online engagement between instructors, students and the outside world. The course adopts a discussion-oriented approach via Zoom, as well as a blog-based course website, which includes various forms of eLearning materials, ensuring students can learn and reflect. For their final project, students adopt a networked approach enabled by social technologies, working with members from community partners to co-create content that promotes a positive message to the broader community. This project aims to try out innovative strategies in eLearning due to the current real-world context. By the end of this project, a perspective identifying good practices and problems, examples of students’ social media projects, as well as documentation of such practices and projects will be disseminated and shared.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
This project aims to document and reflect on a course that relies on telepresence technology and social media to build effective online engagement between instructors, students and the outside world. Students have adopted a networked approach enabled by social technologies, working with members from community partners to co-create content that promotes a positive message to the broader community.
Activities, process and outcomes
Students on my course have conducted extensive community projects via various social platforms in the past few months. This course demonstrates how students could empower different communities in Hong Kong via social platforms during the time of the pandemic. This course aims to improve students’ understanding of the ways in which communities could be potentially empowered by curating cultural activities.
Deliverables and evaluation
There are altogether five projects that address various issues, such as the minority groups in Hong Kong, farming, the history of mahjong, neon light culture in urban settings, and local travel. Students have been using various social platforms to generate and disseminate their research concerning different issues, and they have connected with various community groups and attempted to create a positive impact for them.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
I have attended 2 conferences, including Online Education: Teaching in a Time of Change (AMPS, Routledge, University of Manchester) and Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo 2021(CUHK). One conference paper will be published.
Impact on teaching and learning
Through the use of blog-based and social media apps, students are given greater opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of culture by working together through global online platforms and experiencing real-world projects. The students on my course have never felt that they could create impact by conducting non-traditional cultural projects, and they believe that the course is important for them to develop skills that are necessary in the 21st century creative industries. This echoes the global trend that highlights the necessity of adapting interdisciplinary and innovative approaches – a culture that embraces fluidity, collaboration and creative mobility.
