#UWinDig

For this first Multimedia Assignment, I chose to represent the key ideas from the article, “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck: http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/, using a Sketchnote.  This was my first time developing a Sketchnote and I tried my best to use different sizes and colours to represent the main points, in addition to the doodles.  This article brought up the problem of students following the worksheet and template models in the classroom and in digital media.  Students have fallen into a comfort zone of producing work that their teachers want to see and this limits their creativity.  I think we should be pushing our students outside the box and having them create and make things across the subject disciplines and shaking the idea that there is a single right answer or way of doing things. The idea that failure is bad and means that you are no good at something is the mindset students adopt, when really failure should push you to try again and discover success.  The school system has been built on linear steps of learning and we should be challenging this idea by having students do more creating and discovery, through inquiry-based learning.  Worksheets and template can help students learn and achieve knowledge but they should not be the only things students do and learn from. Adding variety to teaching and learning will reduce these expectations students are developing and increase new expectations surrounding creativity, failure and successes.

As a learner, the shortcut/template model was the only model.  I learned how to do basic things on the computer and Internet.  I learned how to use Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Publisher- following the template and examples as I went.  Art assignments, projects and worksheets were completed similarly to exemplars that were shown to us.  Creativity was limited and I think that has developed me into a leaner that requires and strives off of the linear steps given to complete anything.  I think that this assignment challenged me to create something given limited steps to follow, pushing me to think creatively, while providing meaning in the Sketchnote.  As a teacher, I want to push my students to think in many different ways, including creatively.  We, as teachers, should be breaking this cycle of the template model and developing negative expectations when it comes to digital media and schooling.  Students should be doing more than just worksheets and using templates.  Instead, they should have the opportunities to create, make and speak without being provided concrete instructions.  We should push comfort zones when working on digital media too.  They should be given experiences prior to post-secondary schooling to interact with and use technologies that force students to make decisions, engage and create media and experience failures that when worked on can become success.  Based on the article and my own experiences as a learner in our K-12 system, I believe that we as teachers should be working on getting our students to the top of Bloom’s taxonomy and changing the mindsets and expectations that students have developed.

The article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck was not only a good representation of our modern day classroom in terms of technology or lack there of, but also represented how technology affected us in our everyday life. I particularly enjoyed the idea of the “drag and drop” model. I believe that many students, myself included, use this idea in many aspects of our lives. We tend to take shortcuts in our lives whether it be online shopping or online classes.

In today’s world we simply skip steps but still manage to get to the finish line. Since we are used to convenience and getting everything instantly, this can translate over to our academics. Unfortunately, this is hindering the creativity of many students. This is particularly alarming in today’s world because technology is advancing rapidly and technology is a skill that is required in almost every job now. This drag and drop mentality ensures that students do not use their creativity and instead look for the easy way out.

As I was reading this article, I found myself relating to many things the author was saying. Even though I grew up in the technology generation, I fear technology to a certain extent. I am very nervous of walking into a classroom where the students are more tech savvy than me. I am also nervous about using technology and failing. The author mentioned that learning how to use technology is not a linear process. This is an extremely powerful sentence because we have been engrained to believe that everything we learn in school is linear and that there is a right and wrong answer. This however is not the case for technology. These drag and drop templates fool us into believing that we are being creative when in reality, they are limiting our creativity. I decided to make a canva and use a grid as a background because it reminded me of the rigid, standardized way we are thought to think in school. I also added some quotes to emphasize how we are receiving conflicting advice from our teachers when it comes to technology. I purposely made this look like a drag and drop piece of work to emphasize how these platforms almost encourage our students not to use their creativity. I even left the words “item 1, 2, 3,4,5” on my chart to showcase how little imagination we have to use nowadays and how oftentimes we, students and teachers alike, struggle to make the connection between school and technology.

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

The article I chose to look at was “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Hinck, A (2018). http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/

The Ashley Hinck begins writing about how students are interested in taking digital media classes because the want to learn to create media through, photoshop, HTML/CSS, and even personalized GIFs. However, what they are really looking for is to learn how to use drag-and-drop platforms to make what they’re looking for. These shortcut/template platforms have huge effects on students because similar to everything else in the classroom, there are blank spaces that the student copies information and pastes to. To me, this was often the case when using technology in the classroom. My teachers always gave us projects where we would just learn about how to create posters, presentations and such from programs what required us to just find information and paste it into the spaces. As a music teacher, I expect my students to use expression, and creativity when performing because music is about personal and group discovery and learning to bring out the beauty within. How can I as a teacher expect these things when I can’t do the same when using digital media.

As well, the article states that these shortcut/template websites and platforms are becoming the new “worksheets” and that we should be trying to get away from this and turn to technologies that promote openness and experimentation. The issue with these approaches is that students will draw from their previous experiences which happens to be the programs that are holding them back. We need to find a way to get students away from these programs from the get go so that these habits are never instilled in them.

On the other hand, when we look to these programs like HTML/CSS, Raspberry Pi, and Scratch, what we don’t realize is that these platforms don’t guarantee a finished product in the end. There is so much openness and exploration that students become very frustrated from working for long periods of time only to be met with error after error. Students are not comfortable with making mistakes and having to diagnose the problem by themselves but through trial and error and a little bit of patience, the struggles do eventually pay off. Digital media is a struggle and is full of the unknown, but allows more control over the final product.

Moving forward, we must learn from our mistakes and take the time to learn about these programs so that we can effectively teach our students. As well, we must lead the way and help guide/show them that mistakes are okay and that they must learn to try and try again until it works. If we can get to this point, out students will see that they can become great makers, creators, and speakers in the digital world.

Lastly, when I started this assignment, I decided I would look at a bunch of the recommended platforms to see which one I thought I could get fairly comfortable with before starting any of the reading/listening. When doing so, I found that Piktochart was really interesting and stuck out, especially because all I needed to do was to find a template and copy and paste my information into it… However, once I read the article, I had a moment where I laughed out loud because of how ironic it was. From here, I decided I would go and start with a completely blank page and see what I could come up with. This was an interesting time because I actually had about three other info graphics that I started only to change my idea and start a new one. I ended up with this one because I thought it worked well for what I was aiming for. There is a lot I would change but I am happy with where I ended up at with all the trial and error and I know now to try to get away from all of the copy and pasting.

– Jon Chaif

https://create.piktochart.com/output/32980414-new-piktochart

Hinck’s article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom discusses how most students only know how to create digital media using the template/shortcut platforms, and I am one of them. I remember taking a course during my undergrad where I had to use coding to create a basic website, and I can recall feeling frustrated and discouraged by the difficulty. I’ve always been more comfortable using applications and websites that don’t have a big learning curve so that I can get through the task, and move on to the next one. I like assignments that require me to give an answer that is either right or wrong, because it’s the way that I’ve been trained. Hinck compares template/shortcut platforms to using worksheets in the classroom, which reflect a standardized model of education. Students are using pre-set fonts, colours and layouts, while their ability to make choices is restricted in the digital media making process. As teachers, we need to show our students that they are not limited to using templates, and that there is much more available at their disposal so that they can showcase their creativity. By promoting students to become creators and makers of original and thoughtful digital media, teachers can embrace an authentic model of education. As teachers, it is our job to design tasks for our students that involve technology based on Puentedura’s SAMR model. When technology is integrated to redefine a task, it allows for more creativity.

After reading Hink’s article several times, the word that stuck out to me the most was “tinkering”. I knew the meaning of the word, but looked it up in a dictionary to see the true definition: “attempt to repair or improve something in a casual or desultory way, often to no useful effect”. I love the idea of tinkering with different things – exploring them in a casual manner and seeing what happens. Unfortunately, this opportunity has not presented itself to me in my educational experience. We should promote to students that trial and error should be encouraged rather than being perceived as failure. In the real world, trial and error is important and unavoidable in order to learn, therefore it should be valued just as much in the digital making process. Providing students with opportunities to make discoveries on their own without always having explicit instructions allows for a more rich learning experience. We can put students out of their comfort zones by not giving them linear instructions. Although there will be failures during the process, it makes celebrating successes so much more rewarding. It is a much more gratifying experience to accomplish something you didn’t know you were capable of, rather than just accomplishing a redundant task. I liked how Hinck modelled her own failures and troubleshooting to her students, because it’s important to see that they have value. We should have our students reflect on their experience with failures by discussing them in class, or by having them submit a written component about the challenges they faced and what they have learned from mistakes that were made in the process.

Let’s encourage students to take control over the programs they use and the final products they produce. Let’s take away the power from templates and platforms and develop students who are makers and creators.

I created an infographic because I do not have a lot of experience creating digital multimedia and I wanted to start the first assignment with something relatively simple, while still challenging myself. I chose a template, but I made a conscious effort to change the layout, images and colours that were preset. The template help me to start my assignment, but I still took control over the final product so that it didn’t look like anyone else’s artifact. The most challenging part for me was synthesizing my ideas, rather than developing them like in a writing assignment.

The podcast: HybridPod, Ep. 10

To encourage learning in the classroom, teachers must realize that there is seldom a clear answer for how a lesson should be taught. Each student that enters the classroom has a different way of learning. During my years as a student in elementary and secondary school, I found that I learned best when shown visuals and given handouts; I was fortunate enough to have most of my classes providing me with this method of visual incentive. Unfortunately, some of the other students in my class indicated that they learned better by being taught one-on-one. The teachers were grateful that I stepped up to assist these students with this learning aspect as I had a good grasp of the concepts being taught. But, not every teacher will have this kind of help available in their classroom; as such, other methods to teach will have to be experimented in order to try to allow every student to learn. The notion that every student that happened to be born the same year must take the same path to achieve a good grade is unrealistic. There are students that cannot learn at the same pace and need more time to absorb new knowledge. This problem is complex and doesn’t necessarily have a single solution; but, it does follow a pattern which is what the teacher should be following. When the teacher works with students they should look for a pattern with their learning to work through the problems – this will help the students to individually learn in the classroom. The education boards must see the importance of allowing teachers to take risks and not allow technology to replace teachers. The concept of risk is important in the classroom because the students will enter a world outside of school that isn’t a safe haven of learning. In order to learn in society, one needs to take risks and make mistakes which takes the individual to that next step in their knowledge. The idea of complex problem comes into this as well as the teacher is taking risks to find the solution – this is an emergent practice. When a teacher is willing to take risks for their students and allow them to participate in it; this allows them to already have a risk-taking experience. The integration of technology is useful in the classroom; but, it cannot replace the teacher. In one of my placements, my associate teacher explained to me how she encouraged her French class to speak to a former exchange student that came from France to learn a new perspective. The students were prepared to ask questions in French and were able to learn about French in a new aspect and from a different voice. There are advantages of having technology, but the teacher figure should always remain to always have a connection to the knowledge and encourage discussion. The students are able to learn from the teacher and the teacher, in turn, learns from the students. As a teacher candidate I use augmentation from the SAMR model, I add audio and videos to my presentations to teach my students as I find it is a good way to allow the students to absorb the knowledge being taught. Integrating technology, taking risks and learning from each other are a few of the important aspects to consider in the classroom to ensure an effective learning environment.

The Friend/Collier podcast is a discussion about the education system between two people, Chris Friend and Amy Collier. The interviewer is challenging the thoughts of the guest to get their true thoughts about the topic. The guest begins to rant about their opinion, which shows their true passion for the topic. I chose to do a rant due to their passion of the topic and my passion on the topic. I find that a rant allows a person to get their point across with emotion and it can be done visually, which is why I selected to do it as a video. The guest explains how the system needs to evolve in order for students to learn from the teacher; move away from standardized education to an individualized education (to an extent). I believe that students should be given different paths due to their differences in learning and this is strongly believed from the guest as well. The rant represents how individuals feel about a topic, emotionally and visually, you can see it in the face and the sound of their voice; and explains their opinion clearly for the audience to understand. This is why I chose to represent my opinion and connect to the podcast through a rant video.

The platform I used for the video is MovieMaker; it is provided with the Acer computer. I found this platform restricting to use in the way of editing; adding effects, colour changing, etc. The difficulties I also had was finding a reliable site to use to edit my video. The sites required money or too much restrictions that it made it difficult to edit. I tried a program called VideoPad, but it was too difficult to use, I did not understand the different buttons and tools. So in the end I used the platform MovieMaker to polish off my rant.

I chose to read “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck and decided to use Twitter for my reflection. I thought Twitter would offer a nice template (character limit) while allowing for some freedom of creativity (the tweets themselves, GIFS, images, etc).

While going through the article it allowed me to reflect on many past projects between the faculty of education, faculty of human kinetics, high school and elementary school which were very template oriented focused mainly on the drag and drop aspect as mentioned in the article.

There are so many useful tools and resources on the world wide web. And there are many platforms which allow for open-ended learning and exploration, but the expectations and assumptions of templates linger in the classroom. These template platforms set the tone for another way that students “try to get the right answers”. But the question is, are the students learning anything from these platforms? The notion that students find trial and error as a failure is baffling to me, I think that students have such a fear of failure that they look for the simple, straight shot answer. Using shortcut template platforms resonate with today’s society of getting to the destination as quick and as easy as possible – students often use these platforms as a scapegoat to try and please their teachers by doing what they think their teacher is expecting and wants.

Below are some screenshots from my Twitter thread, and the link to my thread is right here –> https://twitter.com/guchimane1/status/1046273261972201472