Monday, March 23, 2009

teaching college students in poland

now that the new media/new democracy forum is over, i am spending my remaining days in poland giving guest lectures at universities - five lectures in four days at three universities.

on saturday, deputy cultural attache at the US embassy candace faber and i took a train to poznaƄ where i gave a lecture to journalism and political science students at adam mickiewicz university. my lecture was based loosely on one i gave in seattle and i said over and over again like some crazy mantra: make media, share media, collaborate using media.


(update! someone in attendance summarized my talk in polish. an adequate translation can be found here. also, candace faber blogged about the talk on the US embassy in poland blog.)

this morning, susan parker-burns of the US consulate in krakow picked me up and we walked a few blocks to jagiellonian university where i gave a lecture in professor jolanta szymkowska-bartyzel's american studies class. similar to my talk in warsaw, i introduced the september project, discussed its rules and history, and explained how we used online tools to encourage offline participation. i also strongly encouraged students to organize the first september project in poland!



finally, this evening, iwona sadecka from the US consulate in krakow picked me up and we walked to papal university where i conducted a workshop in professor krzysztof gurba's journalism course. what a treat!

i showed the students the map of san francisco my digital journalism students created and informed them that we would create a similar map for krakow. within minutes, the students (and professor gurba and iwona!) divided into groups (architecture, sport, fun-nighttime, fun-daytime, people, green spaces) and began researching their own city. within an hour, the students collectively created a map of the krakow.


feeling particularly proud of our efforts, we decided to celebrate over periogi and dumplings.


thank you papal university students and professor gurba for a very inspired evening.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear prof. David i would like to thank you very much for your enthusiasm, great ideas how to create new media, and how to think about journalism in new way- future way. Your words are great inspiration for me!:)I'll use my imagination and start a fire - a fire of creative thinking.

Anonymous said...

Dear professor, we are very grateful for your visit in our country! That was a real pleasure to listen about all the great stuff you talked about.

Anonymous said...

Great lecture, thanks a lot!

Bryan Alexander said...

How excellent, David. I envy you your trip, and I envy these Poles your company.

david silver said...

Joanna, Christopher, and Tom - thank you! one of the highlights of my trip to poland was meeting smart, creative, and curious college students like you. it was a pleasure to meet you and i am excited to see what all of you create in the future!

Bryan - we should figure out a way to assemble a collection of social media teachers and professors and tour around the world - not to give lectures to other professors but to give lectures to college students!