Hall of Fame Reflections
Last Friday my students took center-stage in Full Sail’s largest auditorium to reflect on the educational extravaganza that was Hall of Fame 10. The ever-growing annual event is part conference and part carnival, but for Media Communications (MCBS) students, it’s also part classroom.
From this educator’s perspective, Hall of Fame is a wild constructivist ride through experiential and social learning opportunities. That is to say that it's the students who assign significance to what they're learning and how they'll meaningfully apply those skills and abilities in the future. It's real world.
It's also really challenging if you're a faculty member attached to any particular outcome. When your job is simply to provide structure and support, there's the possibility that all your students will learn is what NOT to do next time.
But isn't that what school is for? To make those mistakes here and not on the job?
In reflecting on what it takes to hold this kind of space for learning, I think back on the education I received here at Full Sail and all the ways the university has taken my dreams seriously as a teacher. So many of us on the MCBS faculty, 66% to be exact, are grads or groupies of Full Sail’s Education Media Design & Technology (EMDT) master’s program. It was an experience so enriching that it continues to inform my professional practice, even 10 years later. I came into the EMDT program a designer and left an inspired educator. And I know I am not the only one!
It gets really meta to think about how the MCBS program, specifically our approach to Hall of Fame, is the beautiful manifestation of so many EMDT dreams comes true.
