After reading Ashley Hinck’s Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom, I am enlightened about an issue I had never been aware of. She talks about how students are accustomed to a template based technological world. She argues that we need to move away from these types of platforms and teach students from the ground up – like having them code a website instead of using aides like Wix or GoDaddy. She encourages students to be creators instead of imitators and recognizes that failure is part of the process. She refers to digital ghosts when students become disappointed or frustrated when technology challenges them in ways a drag and drop platform may not.
In the spirit of this article, I chose to try something without a template as my first multimedia reflection. I highlighted some important words and sentences from the article and had many different people read them aloud for me to film. I then put it all together into a quick video summarizing the article. Unintentionally, it also tells the story of my day from school, to work, the gym, then home later that night. Please enjoy by following this link: https://youtu.be/aVi2EDgG9u4
In all honesty, I haven’t yet figured out how I feel about this publication. I agree with Hinck on many levels, but am not sure we need to change everything about the way technology is taught. I do not see the issue in embracing technology and the ease that template based platforms allow as long as we also incorporate template free platforms as well. Students are fascinated by their instant fabrications which develops a quick interest that may potentially lead to a deeper desire to learn – I would hate to take this away from them. Also, we as teachers would be so limited due to time constraints if all technological expressions were made from scratch throughout the semester. However, I understand the merit of allowing for some truly original work and the appreciation that comes from learning about how things operate in the background. I wonder then if there is a balance. If we can explore template based technology as well as original work from the ground up, I feel a student’s education would be maximized.