#UWinDig

The internet is full of websites and platforms that allow digital media making easier and that requires little technical knowledge. Canva provides templates for posters and social media posts. Google Slides offers pre-made themes for slideshows that doesn’t require any decisions on font, color, and placement. These platforms invite students to follow simple directions and receive admiration on the creativity of someone else. Although students are starting to create their own media now, the ghosts of the shortcut websites are still there. Students are identifying their hesitancy and trial-and-error as a failure, rather than an inevitable and important part of the digital making process. Troubleshooting has helped students see their projects as works in progress and has allowed them to see the expertise in themselves and their classmates. We have to help students see that they are capable of producing digital media and they don’t have to limit their creativity with the platforms that are out there.

Head to my twitter @mrpopel for the full thread! https://twitter.com/mrpopel/status/1045437774655102978

I hope you enjoy!
Michael Popel

HybridPod, Ep. 10 — Questioning Learning

I selected the Hybrid podcast “Questioning Learning” by Chris Friend and Amy Collier to analyze and reflect upon. I personally connected most to the podcast. For this assignment, I used a platform that was out of my element, something that I had to learn myself. I am trying to be open to all new forms of technology and different platforms that can be used in the classroom.

The Hybrid podcast “Questioning Learning” was an incredibly interesting story. This podcast touches a large base of facts about “not-yetness” and how it relates to critical digital pedagogy. Education should be valued at an in explainable level and some teachers are having difficulty encouraging the risk in learning and emphasizing the importance of questioning to their students. One of the main foci for this podcast discussed how critical pedagogy encourages students to ask questions first and to not always make assumptions. To   encourage our students to not take everything they see or hear at face value, but to truly question and analyze it. The podcast also addresses how a movement and shift from the instructivist model to a constructivist model. Amy Collier stresses the importance of being more learner centered and to be responsive to students learning. After listening to the full podcast, I believe that this is a reality for several teachers, even in today’s society. I fully agree with the concept that teachers need to encourage that the “not-yetness” is okay and that because one strategy may not work, and you fail, it is okay. Many students do not feel comfortable in taking risks and asking questions because they are afraid. Afraid of what their peers may think or even the teacher. We need to empower students to believe that there is no wrong question.

I strongly believe that as future teachers, we need to encourage students and make them all aware that it is acceptable to ask questions. It is okay to fail and to truly shift to a constructivist model of teaching. Future teachers should be more learner centered and focus on what the students learn. I believe that every student will succeed and establishing a classroom culture where students feel comfortable and willing to take risks and realize making mistakes is part of learning; student knowledge, understanding and skills will blossom in a classroom where students feel safe and confident.   For the beginning of the school year, I am in the learning process for this course. After listening to this podcast, I am intrigued to listen to more and learn more about how to become a teacher who is learner centered. Critical pedagogy is something newer for myself. I believe questioning learning is crucial to becoming an excellent teacher who instills the love of life long learning in every student. As future teachers, we need to learn together and become comfortable ourselves with asking questions and accepting that “not yetness” okay. In order for our future students to be comfortable with asking questions and not feeling like failures, we need to have a strong understanding of our learners.

The experience of creating my artifact connects to the podcast that I reflected on because I took risks myself using a new platform. I had never used Promo before nor had I created a video and put it on youtube. I reflected on the artifact in a way that allowed me to think deeper into how I want to instruct my future students. I do not want my students to feel nervous when using a new platform the way I did. I know my future students will have mostly grown up around technology and from day one in the class, I want to ensure that my students know “not yetness” is okay. I want them to know that it is okay to ask questions and that no question is a dumb question. I felt this way while creating my artifact. With helpful feedback from my instructor, I was able to complete the task and receive positive feedback to improve the piece. Creating my artifact completely related to the podcast in my own personal way. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to listen to such a powerful, current, podcast topic that I was able to clearly make connections to my own life and future teaching career.

My video is discussing the article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom”, written by Ashley Hinck. The article describes how student expectations of technology classrooms often stems from their experiences both in school, and from the common websites or programs they might use in their daily lives. Websites like Canva provide templates for students, with simple to follow instructions to get a working product. These instructions provide little-to-no risk for failure, and students have the preconceived expectation that what they might do in a technology classroom would be akin to following instructions on a worksheet (with the assumption of there being a ‘right’ answer) or following a template saved in programs or websites. As students are given access to more open-ended programs like HTML, students still have the tendency to assume that there is a ‘right’ answer, instead of experimenting and exploring what they could create. Teachers who want to critical digital pedagogues should expose students to failure (by showing that even their teacher will make mistakes, and there is no shame in mistakes), and show that templates are limiting to their creativity and their expression of their individuality. I decided to make a video on the subject because it would be something atypical for me, and would allow me to be more expressive.

Thank you for watching~

Christopher Cuffaro

The Need for a Critical Digital Pedagogy- A Commentary on https://t.co/BuujrBlRtO #UWinDig

— CriticalDigitalPedagogy-AnEssay (@CriticalDigita2) September 29, 2018

For my digital artifact I created a twitter essay discussing the article Digital Ghost in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck.  Hinck felt that template based digital media platforms have shaped the minds of the youth who have grew up using them.  Similar to many aspects of the education system, these platforms are linear.  They follow steps, theres always a working product or a “right answer,”  and the simplicity has made students shy away from the trial and error process.  It is important for for educators to encourage students to use platforms such as HTML, where you don’t follow steps but instead create.  Students need to learn the value of failing in the learning process.  Students need to learn that trial and error are important aspects of growing.  Critical digital pedagogy will use platforms like HTML to help students grow into creators and develop a voice.  Many aspects of this will benefit students cross-curricular, as they are not just simply learning technology.  Creativity and being able to learn from failures our great qualities that will help students develop into well-rounded learners.

Here are some highlights from my twitter essay, please use the link at the top of the post to view the essay in its entirety.

Thanks,

Joseph Power

I had the opportunity to read the following compelling article that was written by Ashley Hinck, on how to avoid digital ghosts in the modern classroom.

Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom

Now after reading the article and if we’re being completely honest… When I first entered this class, I felt exactly the same way as many of students did entering Hinck’s class; hoping to learn about the basics of technology so I could implement it in the classroom one day. However, with further exploration of the article, I, along with the aforementioned students, came to understand that the way we have understood, explored technology and attempted to become the digital pedagogues that Hinck talks about, is obviously lacking. Hinck explains that the way students have become accustomed to technology relates to the banking model of education. Students are considered blank slates that the education system needs to fill with standardized tests and textbook reading, all while creating educational robots.

This expands upon the way that students use technology; they stick to what they know, limit themselves creatively with the shortcut/template options and hope and pray they followed the right steps to avoid failure. Yes, it is possible to have some imagination when it comes to these predetermined templates, but students still have to ensure that their creativity fits. It is unfortunate that these applications and technologies are programmed this way because it limits innovation, creativity and openness for students. Hinck concludes with ways in which we as educators can make the transition from the step-by-step linear instruction to a more open-ended, discovery-based way to implement technology in the classroom, and ultimately learning in general. If we give students the opportunity to try, fail, revise and succeed, students will be better equipped to become makers, creators and critical thinkers.

As you can tell from my infographic below, I have chosen to create a poster that highlights the different views that Hinck expressed in her article. Like I previously mentioned, the beginning of the article describes a more standardized form of education whereas the end it transitions towards authentic education and I found this infograph to be extremely helpful in getting my points across about these issues. I can conclude that I have definitely learned that the best way to shape critical thinkers, creators and makers, is to implement more discovery-based technology and let students try and succeed on their own.

-Leslie Webber

Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom

Throughout Ashley Hinck’s brilliantly written piece, Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom, readers are transfixed by her ability to depict one of the most profound fights within the field of education, standardisation versus authenticity. This, as depicted in Hinck’s article, has remarkable implications both for students and educators. For the former, the battle of standardisation versus authenticity shapes their entire outlook with regards to learning. If standardisation remains, the belief of a binary right or wrong will be ever present within both their educational and personal lives, thus, robbing students of their creativity and their ability to learn from trial and error. For the latter party in this titanic struggle, this educational matchup means that teaching styles and years of practice may have to be altered or abandoned altogether. Thus, it is easily discernible that the main theme of Hinck’s Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom has both important short and long-term consequences.

If teaching professionals wish to stand by the established orthodoxy of Standardised Education, students’ outlook on education, and indeed life, could be characterised by, as Hinck stated in her piece, “disconnect between their expectations…and what they actually encounter.”

However, if Standardised Education is archived into the annals of educational history, teachers can usher in a new age; this brave new world of education would see students free to experiment, use trial and error methodology, and make mistakes.

From the reading of Hinck’s article, it is overtly clear that she, along with a myriad of other educators, wish to see education traverse the path offered by Authentic Education. 

Please enjoy the video below.

Cheers,

Thomas Merritt

https://ctl2.uwindsor.ca/uview/show/38561603E104E33C/

Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom written by Ashley Hinck, explores the influences left behind by shortcut/template websites and platforms on students while in the classroom and in their everyday lives. Students often times don’t realize they have such limited choices because it’s what they’ve grown accustomed to when constructing social media posts or taking a SnapChat and adding a filter. Similarly, students don’t have as much freedom when creating in the classroom either. The shortcut/template platforms used by teachers allow the students to incorporate some of their own work as long as it fits in the predetermined spaces within the selected template. These learning apps and platforms invite students to follow the directions, get the right answer, turn it in, and get praise. Although many teachers will claim to be moving towards a more authentic way of educating children, either purposely or without knowing these websites and platforms used by teachers reflect the old way of teaching and learning, which views students as containers to be filled with the right answers by teachers. Unfortunately even when these platforms and websites are absent from classrooms they are still affecting student learning, instead we as educators need to help our students move away from users of shortcut/template platforms to makers, creators and critical thinkers.

I chose to use a Sketchnote to respond and reflect to this article. Sketchnotes are essentially purposeful doodling and are much a method of notetaking as they are a form of creative expression. I chose this medium for my response because after exploring a few of the other options I was a little intimidated by needing to create something digitally. Additionally, after reading the article which spoke about online platforms limiting creative freedom I felt as though this medium just made sense because it would allow me to get my genuine untouched thoughts across. If I were to use this medium again for a similar purpose I would spend more time brainstorming and planning my Sketchnote before getting started.

A few thoughts came to mind while reading and reflecting on this article. First, the education system is a taking a big step with trying to incorporate STEAM into the classroom but these digital ghosts seem to directly contradict the STEAM approach. STEAM is about incorporating the arts into math, science and technology but by using these shortcut/template websites and platforms we are limiting the range of creative freedom for students trying to create when using technology. Secondly, I think that we need to give students the tools to critically reflect on these platforms on their own. By teaching our students to think critically and analytically they can start finding these digital ghosts themselves and find alternative ways to create digitally that allow them to use all of their own authentic ideas.

Digital Ghosts Sketchnote – Please open this link to view my artifact, you’ll also need to flip the image to view it I couldn’t figure out how to make it stay that way after I saved it.

Christine Belcher

Although teachers have been increasingly incorporating more and more tech into their classrooms, does this really mean that we are in an age of digital literacy and authentic education? According to Ashley Hinck in the article ‘Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom’, we have yet to take the leap away from standardized education. Efforts to create digital literacy within the classroom environment often involves template-based web applications. These applications are useful for getting students antiquated with tech, however, they do not allow for much exploration or creativity.

I believe that in order to have students become truly digitally literate, we need to provide them with the opportunity to explore and create. The elimination of these templates will surely result in some failure, but it is important for students to understand that failure is an essential part in the process of learning. This shift from template-based learning to active exploration will help us to achieve the shift from standardized to authentic education.