Through an experiential learning format, this 6-week plan is divided in three segments, each corresponding to the steps of the development of a digital project: theory, design and building of digital product, and public outreach. It has been designed to incorporate digital praxis into your courses, and move from theory to praxis.
Lesson helps students build on prior learning about indigenous civilizations in Mexico to evaluate how the encomienda system connects to the later casta system, and to compare and contrast colonialism of 1490’s with U.S. imperialism in early 1900’s, using a Venn diagram.
This unit aims to critically examine the ways colonization shaped Mexico, particularly in the years leading up to the Mexican Revolution. By analyzing the colonial system of encomienda and its postcolonial manifestation of casta, students will be able to understand the complex and racialized power dynamics contributing to the increased poverty and disenfranchisement of peoples across Mexico.
Students will learn about the work and life of educational scholar and activist, Dr. George I. Sanchez. Topics for critical exploration include Sanchez’s educational research, legal assistance, Mexican American organizations, Bilingual Education, Pan-Americanism, and Chicano Civil Rights. Students will make either a hand written/drawn zine or a digital zine based on the students’ preference and availability of materials and technology.
Students will learn about Chicano Studies pioneer Américo Paredes through his literature and activism. Students will learn about ethnography as a research method and form of analysis. Students will come away with a historical perspective of the value of oral transmission of heritage such as the corrido, oral histories, and poetry. Students will compose a poem or song and combine it with images to create a digital video or interview a family member or community elder to document local history.
Students will learn about Austin printmaker and arts activist, Sam Z. Coronado. Lessons contextualize and connect Coronado’s work to the history of printmaking and Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada. Students will create their own print based on a social/political issue of their choice and compose an artist statement that describes their work.