J.D. Swerzenski | University of Mary Washington (original) (raw)
Papers by J.D. Swerzenski
FLOW, 2032
J.D. Swerzenski and Brendan McCauley examine how BeReal creates discursive boundaries of reality ... more J.D. Swerzenski and Brendan McCauley examine how BeReal creates discursive boundaries of reality through its format and platform design. The authors argue BeReal shows how our contemporary conception of “real” is always already produced by and for screens.
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Communication Education, 2020
Pandemic pedagogy in its initial spring 2020 iteration was a process of rapid adaptation, focused... more Pandemic pedagogy in its initial spring 2020 iteration was a process of rapid adaptation, focused on the immediate technical concerns of refashioning lectures on Zoom, reshaping assignments into online formats, and mastering new terms like synchronous and asynchronous teaching (Moore & Hodges, [12]) Critical pedagogy and critical communication pedagogy scholars - focusing their analysis on in-person classrooms - have upheld dialogue-based communication as an ideal While the default discussion board tool might reproduce a transmission approach, a deeper exploration into discussion functions can reveal variants such as Blackboard's journals tool, which offers a more self-reflexive option suited to dialogue-based goals [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Communication Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )
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This article addresses the theoretical and practical differences between acritical and critical m... more This article addresses the theoretical and practical differences between acritical and critical media literacy as researched and practiced by United States'-based scholars. Drawing from the top-cited authors in the field of media literacy, the authors share their analysis of the similarities and differences in pedagogical approaches. Attention is paid to gaps in critical media literacy research and further research needed.
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Journal of Visual Literacy, 2021
Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is creating awareness of manipulatio... more Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is creating awareness of manipulation, a task made continuously harder by the prevalence of ‘Photoshopped’ or digitally altered photos through fake news or our everyday usage of photo editing apps. So how are educators to build awareness of visual literacy when manipulation has become ubiquitous? I argue that understanding the credibility of visual content must go beyond viewing the image as identifying whether a photo has or has not been manipulated. Instead, it requires a technical comprehension of the process by which images are created, allowing educators to discern between visual lies and everyday image editing. To this end, I position Photoshop as a teaching tool, one that offers educators and students a backstage view at the mechanisms of image alteration technology. In building a technical and rhetorical understanding of three key Photoshop tools—airbrush, layers, and filters—I outline a guide for using these tools...
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Journal of Communication Pedagogy
Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the me... more Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, this study calls for closer examination of these tools in order to rework teaching technologies toward critical ends.
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Web Design Basics for Educators. EdTech Books., 2019
This chapter from Web Design Basics for Educators focuses on how to create digitial resources tha... more This chapter from Web Design Basics for Educators focuses on how to create digitial resources that are accesible to everyone, regardless of their ability or situation. Content covers the a brief history of accesibility activism, design strategies, text accessibility tools, and tips for creating accessible user interface.
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MEDIA PRACTICE AND EDUCATION, 2021
As a supplement to its popular video editing program Premiere Pro, Adobe now automatically direct... more As a supplement to its popular video editing program Premiere Pro, Adobe now automatically directs new users to its series Learn More tutorials. This move to have the tool teach itself not only has the potential to sideline in-person instructors, but, under the guise of ‘neutral’ technology, naturalizes the professionalization discourse in video production pedagogy. This discourse emphasizes technical, ‘job-ready’ skill building to the exclusion of critically-minded production activities aimed at analyzing texts or challenging hegemonic representations through alternate production. Via a walkthrough analysis, I track how the Learn More tutorials reproduce the professionalism discourse by navigating users toward specific production practices and outputs. Lessons on Premiere functions including color correction, sequencing, audio mixing tools consistently foreground a technical, ‘how-to’ approach to video production, ignoring valuable ‘why’ questions of meaning and representation. I conclude by calling for media production educators to interrogate seemingly neutral technologies like the Learn More tutorials. By locating these sites of reproduction and understanding the means through which they reproduce the professionalism discourse, instructors can work to negotiate or challenge production tools to better allow critically-oriented media production approaches to take root.
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Journal of Visual Literacy, 2021
Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is cre- ating awareness of manipulat... more Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is cre- ating awareness of manipulation, a task made continuously harder by the prevalence of ‘Photoshopped’ or digitally altered photos through fake news or our everyday usage of photo edit- ing apps. So how are educators to build awareness of visual liter- acy when manipulation has become ubiquitous? I argue that understanding the credibility of visual content must go beyond viewing the image as identifying whether a photo has or has not been manipulated. Instead, it requires a technical comprehension of the process by which images are created, allowing educators to discern between visual lies and everyday image editing. To this end, I position Photoshop as a teaching tool, one that offers edu- cators and students a backstage view at the mechanisms of image alteration technology. In building a technical and rhetorical understanding of three key Photoshop tools—airbrush, layers, and filters—I outline a guide for using these tools grounded in critical considerations of how their use affects visual meaning. From this understanding, educators can move beyond blanket criticism of visual manipulation and into the ethical nuances of photo editing that distinguish meme from misinformation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Communication Education, 2020
While pandemic pedagogy strategies have often focused on adapting to online tools, more important... more While pandemic pedagogy strategies have often focused on adapting to online tools, more important now is that educators and scholars adapt technology to our purposes. Learning management systems (LMS) such as Blackboard and Canvas require special attention, due to their increased role in structuring communication in online classrooms. This essay tracks the ways in which LMSs can undermine dialogue-based and collaborative pedagogy in favor of a transmission model through graded discussions, performance tracking tools, and other functions. Imaging a new role for communication in the online space must begin by acknowledging the tools that will structure that communication, and conceiving ways of working with or against these tools to achieve pedagogical aims.
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Books by J.D. Swerzenski
Web Design Basics for Educators, 2019
What are the basics of digital accesibility and how should educators adapt its principles to ensu... more What are the basics of digital accesibility and how should educators adapt its principles to ensure all students can engage with multimedia content? Co-authored piece with Adam Lopes & Yaxin He.
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FLOW, 2032
J.D. Swerzenski and Brendan McCauley examine how BeReal creates discursive boundaries of reality ... more J.D. Swerzenski and Brendan McCauley examine how BeReal creates discursive boundaries of reality through its format and platform design. The authors argue BeReal shows how our contemporary conception of “real” is always already produced by and for screens.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Communication Education, 2020
Pandemic pedagogy in its initial spring 2020 iteration was a process of rapid adaptation, focused... more Pandemic pedagogy in its initial spring 2020 iteration was a process of rapid adaptation, focused on the immediate technical concerns of refashioning lectures on Zoom, reshaping assignments into online formats, and mastering new terms like synchronous and asynchronous teaching (Moore & Hodges, [12]) Critical pedagogy and critical communication pedagogy scholars - focusing their analysis on in-person classrooms - have upheld dialogue-based communication as an ideal While the default discussion board tool might reproduce a transmission approach, a deeper exploration into discussion functions can reveal variants such as Blackboard's journals tool, which offers a more self-reflexive option suited to dialogue-based goals [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Communication Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This article addresses the theoretical and practical differences between acritical and critical m... more This article addresses the theoretical and practical differences between acritical and critical media literacy as researched and practiced by United States'-based scholars. Drawing from the top-cited authors in the field of media literacy, the authors share their analysis of the similarities and differences in pedagogical approaches. Attention is paid to gaps in critical media literacy research and further research needed.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Visual Literacy, 2021
Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is creating awareness of manipulatio... more Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is creating awareness of manipulation, a task made continuously harder by the prevalence of ‘Photoshopped’ or digitally altered photos through fake news or our everyday usage of photo editing apps. So how are educators to build awareness of visual literacy when manipulation has become ubiquitous? I argue that understanding the credibility of visual content must go beyond viewing the image as identifying whether a photo has or has not been manipulated. Instead, it requires a technical comprehension of the process by which images are created, allowing educators to discern between visual lies and everyday image editing. To this end, I position Photoshop as a teaching tool, one that offers educators and students a backstage view at the mechanisms of image alteration technology. In building a technical and rhetorical understanding of three key Photoshop tools—airbrush, layers, and filters—I outline a guide for using these tools...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Communication Pedagogy
Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the me... more Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, this study calls for closer examination of these tools in order to rework teaching technologies toward critical ends.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Web Design Basics for Educators. EdTech Books., 2019
This chapter from Web Design Basics for Educators focuses on how to create digitial resources tha... more This chapter from Web Design Basics for Educators focuses on how to create digitial resources that are accesible to everyone, regardless of their ability or situation. Content covers the a brief history of accesibility activism, design strategies, text accessibility tools, and tips for creating accessible user interface.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
MEDIA PRACTICE AND EDUCATION, 2021
As a supplement to its popular video editing program Premiere Pro, Adobe now automatically direct... more As a supplement to its popular video editing program Premiere Pro, Adobe now automatically directs new users to its series Learn More tutorials. This move to have the tool teach itself not only has the potential to sideline in-person instructors, but, under the guise of ‘neutral’ technology, naturalizes the professionalization discourse in video production pedagogy. This discourse emphasizes technical, ‘job-ready’ skill building to the exclusion of critically-minded production activities aimed at analyzing texts or challenging hegemonic representations through alternate production. Via a walkthrough analysis, I track how the Learn More tutorials reproduce the professionalism discourse by navigating users toward specific production practices and outputs. Lessons on Premiere functions including color correction, sequencing, audio mixing tools consistently foreground a technical, ‘how-to’ approach to video production, ignoring valuable ‘why’ questions of meaning and representation. I conclude by calling for media production educators to interrogate seemingly neutral technologies like the Learn More tutorials. By locating these sites of reproduction and understanding the means through which they reproduce the professionalism discourse, instructors can work to negotiate or challenge production tools to better allow critically-oriented media production approaches to take root.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Visual Literacy, 2021
Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is cre- ating awareness of manipulat... more Among the most difficult aspects of building visual literacy is cre- ating awareness of manipulation, a task made continuously harder by the prevalence of ‘Photoshopped’ or digitally altered photos through fake news or our everyday usage of photo edit- ing apps. So how are educators to build awareness of visual liter- acy when manipulation has become ubiquitous? I argue that understanding the credibility of visual content must go beyond viewing the image as identifying whether a photo has or has not been manipulated. Instead, it requires a technical comprehension of the process by which images are created, allowing educators to discern between visual lies and everyday image editing. To this end, I position Photoshop as a teaching tool, one that offers edu- cators and students a backstage view at the mechanisms of image alteration technology. In building a technical and rhetorical understanding of three key Photoshop tools—airbrush, layers, and filters—I outline a guide for using these tools grounded in critical considerations of how their use affects visual meaning. From this understanding, educators can move beyond blanket criticism of visual manipulation and into the ethical nuances of photo editing that distinguish meme from misinformation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Communication Education, 2020
While pandemic pedagogy strategies have often focused on adapting to online tools, more important... more While pandemic pedagogy strategies have often focused on adapting to online tools, more important now is that educators and scholars adapt technology to our purposes. Learning management systems (LMS) such as Blackboard and Canvas require special attention, due to their increased role in structuring communication in online classrooms. This essay tracks the ways in which LMSs can undermine dialogue-based and collaborative pedagogy in favor of a transmission model through graded discussions, performance tracking tools, and other functions. Imaging a new role for communication in the online space must begin by acknowledging the tools that will structure that communication, and conceiving ways of working with or against these tools to achieve pedagogical aims.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Web Design Basics for Educators, 2019
What are the basics of digital accesibility and how should educators adapt its principles to ensu... more What are the basics of digital accesibility and how should educators adapt its principles to ensure all students can engage with multimedia content? Co-authored piece with Adam Lopes & Yaxin He.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact