Informed by a sociomaterial approach to teaching and learning, this technique uses an artifact as a point of inspiration for a short written work (in the case of WRIT7050, this takes the form of a creative fictional short story). Students select (or could be assigned) an object at random, and use this as a stimulus from which to craft a 500 word written piece that engages with an element or theme from the course content; or helps to develop a professional skill (e.g. story-writing; reflection; conceptual analysis). In dedicated class time students recite their work aloud to an audience of their peers, who offer constructive feedback for possible amendments. Marks are allocated both for the quality of the written pieces, as well as for proficiency of oral delivery and ability to engage others. This task encourages a reflexive examination of the sometimes tacit relationships that exist between our material culture and various themes of interest relevant to the course (be this story-telling; or applying theoretical concepts). For this reason this technique is readily adaptable to various year levels depending on the degree of interpretation desired.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 20-40
- CLASS LEVEL
- Second year, Third year, Post-graduate
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Low security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Medium time
- CONDITIONS
- Work-related
- FEATURES
- Authentic
- TAGS
- presentation, object-centred learning, multimodal
Advantages
Build skills in both written and oral communication and therefore equips students with transferrable skills that enhance employability. Encourages lateral and creative thinking in using seemingly inapplicable objects as springboards for higher level thinking. Easily transfers to disciplines interested in material culture, but also a highly useful exercise for encouraging reflexivity in professions otherwise disengaged with material culture.
Challenges
Students often select sentimental items as points of inspiration. This can sometimes delimit the writing process, where students approach the exercise with preconceived ideas about the object's meaning. Encouraging students to randomly select an item can inspire creative more thinking.
Tips for implementation
Encourage students to think beyond the personal meaning they may have attached to their chosen artifact, as a means of better using the item as a point of inspiration for a new exercise.
How it supports academic integrity
Offering students an opportunity to select their own artifact encourages a sense of ownership over the task, which is a potential deterrent to academic misconduct. Pairing written and spoken components also serves to verify students' engagement, and will alert the convenor (or tutor) in the case of marked discrepancies between written and spoken delivery.
Associate Professor Kim Wilkins
k.wilkins@uq.edu.au
Kim Wilkins is a recognised expert on creative practice, popular literature, and the publishing industry. She is the author of more than 30 full-length works of fiction, and her work is translated into more than 20 languages globally. Her scholarly research centres on creative communities, such as writing groups and fan cultures. She is most recently the author of Genre Worlds: Popular Fiction and 21st-Century Book Culture (with Beth Driscoll and Lisa Fletcher), which outlines a new theory for understanding popular fiction through its related industrial, social, and textual pleasures and processes.
Kim is also passionate about interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration and methodologies, and is currently undertaking funded research on technology foresight with Dr Helen Marshall for the Commonwealth Department of Defence. She leads creativity workshops for academics in other disciplines, to help them imagine different perspectives on research problems and their stakeholders, and has worked on teams researching digital health, defence innovation, and zero net emissions in agriculture. Since 2019, she has served a leadership role as Deputy ADR in the Faculty of HASS, with a special interest in research training and HDR strategy. Find out more