The article I chose to review and summarize by using Piktochart was Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom. The article explains how students think that creating a digital media piece is a simple task that just involves drag & drop, simple steps, and a final product that is perfectly made. This is not the case! Standardized education has been ingrained in many students and much of students learning has resembled by the way students view digital media platforms. There is a lack of knowledge of how to use digital media efficiently and effectively in the classroom and tools need to be given to students in order to know how to use digital media in a positive way to promote learning.

The platform I used was Piktochart. I thought it was a simple way to visually explain some significant points from the article. I mostly had a positive experience with the platform, but I thought it was difficult to manoeuvre through the platform. I think I had a difficult time because there are so many tools and devices to use to assist you in the developing process. So, having all the options can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. I feel like this would be a great resource to present to a class and introduce them to how to use digital media platforms and to illustrate how making digital media might be difficult, but worth it to go through the learning process and use digital media platforms to create pieces in any subject.

Personally, as a learner, there are still many things that I want to learn and I am learning about creating and using digital media. Using the digital media platform has opened my eyes to the possibilities that are out there when it comes to utilizing digital media platforms to create work. I think to have digital media platforms that are simple to use and straightforward are user-friendly and as a beginner think they would benefit the learner in order to learn the basics. Simplistic platforms that have generic layouts and features I think as a student would benefit the learner because it is easy to access and promotes confidence in the user. So, using it in a K-12 school learner would only promote a growth mindset attitude for the students. As a teacher, introducing students at a young age the basics of digital media platforms would only benefit students and the teacher; together the teacher and the student can learn together. With digital media platforms, the learning process is trial and error and so allowing room for failure will allow students to learn from their mistakes and become more technically sound when it comes to digital media platforms. The experience of creating my artifact connected to the text I was reflecting on because in the article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom, the author was trying to explain how students need to move from users of shortcut/template platforms to makers, creators, and speakers, and the digital media platform directly went against what the article was suggesting. Piktochart was the exact opposite of what the article was trying to promote. Piktochart involved drag and drop/ copy and paste with a simple layout and was easy to use. I did have to create my own visual with words and important text from the article, but I think the article is trying to say that students need to be able to create their own platforms from scratch in order to learn, which I totally disagree with. Like I said before, these digital media platforms set the foundation and you can build on them.

I chose to read Ashley Hinck’s article ‘Digital Ghost in the Modern Classroom‘. This article talks about how teachers have been incorporating more and more technology into their classroom. According to Hinck, classrooms have yet to leap from the standardized education. Teachers are simply replacing the paper and pencils with a digital templates. The article explores how shortcuts and template websites and platforms influence students while in the classroom and in their everyday lives. When the students are given a platform with shortcuts and templates allows students to complete their work as long as it’s in the predetermined spaces within their selected template.

I chose to summarize this article using a canva template. I chose this because I wanted to attempt to stay within the the predetermined template. Through this process, I realized that it was difficult to formulate what I wanted to say about the article. I believe that to truly integrate digital technologies into the classroom where they can truly benefit students, we (as teachers) need to provide them with the opportunity to explore and create. When gearing away from template based platforms will most likely result in failure but it is important to understand that failure is necessary in the process of learning. Shifting from template based learning to active exploration will help shift from standardized to authentic education.

Ashley Hick’s article on digital Ghosts in the modern Classroom is a perfect study of what has become of today’s learners. Children love creativity no doubt and has become so used to the traditional platforms that are readily available and easy to use;the drag and drop,well laid out linear and standard steps and several working products that are easily used.The students create the products that the teacher wanted using templates as worksheet and other forms that accommodate multiple choice projects.Ashley was right when she asserted that most of these short cut templates hardly leaves the students even when they try their hands on open end working soft wares and platforms.
When you give a project to students especially in the intermediate grade their first search is to hook up with all these short cuts platforms and when they are absent it affects learning and they become restless from my own class observation.Ashley was of the view, we should help the students move from from users of shortcut/template platforms to makers,creators with very in-depth understanding of a complex system with open ends.
She was also right about her submission that When we look at the shortcut/template websites and platforms that makes digital image production very easy,it has removed the need for any technical know how because it is copy and paste in most cases.Ashley position is that students has become a garbage container from teachers who take in all that is released because they operate with a rigid platform /application with very little open space for students work and a narrowed predetermine correct answer.

Finding a solution ,we can help our students create their own application signature as makers rather than continue to depend on platforms and templates with close ends that does not encourage creativity.I really love it when Ashley wrote “We might help our students redefine good learning apart from the the dustbin dump concept by giving them explicit permission to try and fail and start again”Thinker trial and error approach methodology in classroom”.

As a teacher for several years in a different environment,i observed that students capacity and attitude to learning is always different.As illustrated in my blog,life is like a ladder,some people use the quick way and get to the top,others take the rough and lengthy route to achieve a desire .In our society ,majority always want to conform with established standard,they lack the fire power to seek and acquire more knowledge,to discover new platforms and hold patent .The comfort zone is always peak on their life radder and surprisingly most of them end up being very successful.

Ashley Hick’s article is good enough knowing that ultimate desires of students and why the interest in digital class was mainly to learn how to make GIFs,YouTube videos, and HTML/CSS websites.They want to make funny photo shopped pictures of their friends and several other social purposes which the world has conformed to.

Ashley also agree that the internet has created several platforms for make and remove,drag and drop and has made things so easy for any student to think of going the path of troubleshooting and creating platforms with open end.What they have is good and convenient for their primary purpose.

We also see why the ghosts worksheet,templates and shortcuts will for ever remain in classroom and i absolutely agree.I love to work with open end platforms as suggested by Ashley like; Raspberry Pi,Scratch,and HTML and CSS ,as Skallerup Bessette calls us to do,but why do i need to go to such level of uncertainty and possible failure when am comfortable with already established platforms that can meet my demand ?These are the questions “Ghost” that will be going on in the mind of these students for a while. Agreed open end platform is good when you know it gives advantage because the programs and computer language give the user much more control over the final product than the template/shortcut websites and platforms, but where there is no will there will be no power.In any situation the ghost of worksheet is always there.

http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/

Drop the drag’n’drop

The idea of the drag-and-drop type of assessments (full poster linked above) is still very prevalent in the classroom.  This is where students determine what the teacher wants, uses already existing technology platforms to “select from a list” of options for their design, and generally answers the teachers question in a right answer/wrong answer scenario.  The article contends that this type of assessment, although using new age technology, is still a form of non-authentic, standardized education.

As I completed this very assignment, I found myself doing the exact thing that this article describes.  Using pre-existing design technology to create something that isn’t creative at its heart.  However, in the early stages of this class, using the platform that I did (Canva), it was still a learning experience for me (not having a web page design  background)… Therefore, although the method I used wasn’t at the peak of creative allowances, I still feel as though I was able to “dabble” with something new that allowed me to (restrictively) create something that has a visual message.

Looking at “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom“, the author dives into the effects that using template and drag-and-drop style of instruction with many technological platforms can often limit our students creativity and it teaches them the uniform, standardized approach to education we have used in our classrooms for ages.

This can become a bit of a bore in the classroom…

The template/shortcut options can relay back to having a narrow or a singular right answer after following rigid, structured guidelines. Thus, “ghosting” progression in the students ability to show a sense of discovery or exploration when approaching activities or assignments.

Moving forward, we must adopt a more authentic experience for students in the classroom… Get students out of their comfort zones and give it a try!

We, as educators must move towards a less standardized approach when it comes to giving out activity guidelines or restrictions. I believe introducing students to software programs and computer languages in order to avoid restricting their choices, creating a much more diverse finished product among all students, and letting their creativity and problem solving skills reflect through their learning.

In my own personal experience, I had the chance to work with students using the Piktochart and Mindmap platforms to develop their own inforgraphics regarding health-related topics. This was an excellent opportunity for me to see which students would take the opportunity to show me their creativity and really make the assignment their own. The end result? many students opted to choose comfortable layouts and familiar icons or styles based on the templates the programs provided. When I urged several students to think outside of the box and try different features that were available to them, many struggled with the lack of strict, easy to follow guidelines and it was evident many of them were lacking the problem-solving skills required to do what I was asking. By taking away the template, drag-and-drop approach at an earlier age, and showing students more advanced computational mathematics coding platforms, I believe we will afford students with the opportunities to develop their creative sides rendering them much more proficient in technology and digital media in the future. Working with the younger students who had already been practicing with different open-ended coding platforms, you could already see an increase in the comfort level of working on something with little restriction or guidelines, this is what we need for our students!