Students decipher takeaways from class in form of memes, professor puts them on internet
In the last season of her class, Sulafa Zidani, a professor at MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing Department, asked her students to express their thoughts or takeaways from her critical internet studies class through memes. The results that she on a Twitter thread went viral with over 31,000 likes.
Sharing the memes on December 13, Zidani wrote: “Today was the last session of my *Critical Internet Studies* class so I asked students to make a meme about the class. I learned what from them stuck/resonated, and that many of them may be reading this tweet. I present to you my course meme summary (shared with student’s permission)”.
Today was the last session of my *Critical Internet Studies* class, so I asked students to make a meme about the class. I learned what stuck/resonated with them, and that many of them might be reading this tweet. I present to you my course meme summary (shared with students’ permission):
— Sulafa Zidani, PhD (@sulafaz) December 13, 2022
— Sulafa Zidani, PhD (@sulafaz) December 13, 2022
— Sulafa Zidani, PhD (@sulafaz) December 13, 2022
The memes ranged from students’ own struggles with completing coursework, breaking down the complexity of topics such as intersectionality, and commenting on issues such as racism.
In a follow-up tweet, Zidani mentioned that it was an ungraded assignment meant to spark a conversation with her students about their course. She also thanked the audience for participating in her tweet in “good faith” but closed the comment section.
favorite readings, most important topics, how to make a great class community, deadlines to change, a fun course evaluation exercise if you want. Student feedback will help me create the next iteration of this class. Thanks always to my student💖
— Sulafa Zidani, PhD (@sulafaz) December 13, 2022
Appreciating Zidani’s approach, one Twitter user wrote, “This is amazing! I love the idea of creating memes!! Definitely going to incorporate this idea into my spring semester! Your students didn’t miss out!!! Thanks for sharing.”
Subscriber stories only
Premium
Premium
Premium
PremiumAnother person expressed a conflicting opinion, noting, “This is a class at MIT, so these kids paid like $8,000 for this class to teach them how to make creepy, unfunny memes. If we’re talking about college talk, we also need to talk about eliminating anything approaching this class. No taxpayer should be on the hook for this.”
