The Hinck article, “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom”, linked here: http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/ addressed the difficult issues of using pre made templates, filters and drag and drop tools that can minimize the creativity of the person using it. Furthermore, students get anxious and frustrated if there is not a step by step instruction to follow when using technology. When using these platforms, making mistakes is a great way to learn; however, many of us feel like we are failing if we are making mistakes. I also feel this way, I am more comfortable when I know that I am completing the proper steps to achieve the desired end goal. I need to step away from this frame of thought so that my future students may be able to step out of the box and create things of their own in their own way. In many ways, we are programmed to assume that the creative process is linear and Hinck discusses this in the article. There is no step by step process in digital media and the mistakes you will make should be viewed as challenges and apart of the process rather than a failure. Digital media is the process of creating, and there is no right or wrong way to create something out of nothing.
As a future teacher, the process of creating, learning and trying new things is going to be a part of the job. I must become more comfortable with digital pedagogy and pushing myself out of my comfort zone so that my students may do the same. I also need to expose them to my own struggles and failures so that they can see that I do not expect perfection from them. I chose to use Imovie because I do have a little bit of previous experience with it but would like to play around with it more. I also chose Imovie because I enjoy video representations of ideas and would like to produce more video content in the future. I also chose to write by hand with chalk because I really enjoy brainstorming and producing ideas by hand with a tactile object like chalk. Also, the juxtaposition of chalk and the video representation is a blend of the past and future of learning in classrooms. Also, how I would like to have my own classroom, a blend of both ways of learning and teaching! I have never published a video on to a blog or Youtube, so I originally tried to use Uview but the video would not embed into the blog post. I started to get frustrated that it did not work the first time. I assumed it would be very simple without any struggle and immediately got frustrated. I had to create a Youtube account to publish it on there and then embed it and it finally worked. My own struggles and expectations of wanting it to be successful in the first try mirrored the struggles that students have in the classroom. Therefore, I realized I cannot have expectations that my students won’t get frustrated and want to give up because I feel that way myself when I am facing a new platform or project. For the next project, I want to try a platform I have never used before!
Thanks for watching!