For this multimedia reflection I chose to watch the Henry Jenkins video and read the article by Dr. Michele Jacobsen. The overarching message that I got from these two sources was that participatory learning, or learning through online resources, is very important. Before viewing these sources, I was part of the group that Jenkins mentioned, where they believe that collaboration is cheating. I grew up in a way that unless it was group work, you did the assignment on your own, which included parents. I used to think students that had their parents help them with assignments (or in some cases, completely do the assignment), were cheating. However, now that I have viewed these two sources, I now realize that sometimes collaboration with others is not always cheating. I still believe that people need to do their own work, but reaching out to others for input can definitely be beneficial, and should actually be encouraged. I hope now that I know this, that I will be able to incorporate significant amounts of collaboration within my courses as a teacher.
So I decided to produce an infographic talking about this, as well as, the other messages that I felt the sources were trying to get across. To do this, I produced the “4 T’s” concept, which consists of technology, teachers, trying and retrying, and talking. These “4 T’s” to me are the overarching theme to the two sources, and are explained within my infographic. I also decided to include two quotes from the sources that really stood out to me. The first was from Jenkins about using YouTube. I thought this was important because as teachers, we need to be able to take the time and learn to use these online sources effectively, as opposed to wasting time trying to build something better. Likewise, I also chose a quote from Jacobsen which explained how important it is to include some of these online sources in our classrooms as teachers. Since we now know that students benefit from this online interaction, we as teachers, need to find ways to incorporate these methods into our teaching.
So to answer the question above, about if students are losing their creativity? No, I really do not think they are. I think students are very creative but we as teachers do not always allow for this creativity to flourish. Students are able to show their creativity through their social media daily, and we need to find ways to incorporate this creativity into our classrooms. As both sources indicated, we as teachers need to implement courses where collaboration is encouraged, as well as, using digital sources for our courses. These two things, along with continuously trying to reflect and better our teaching, will really impact our students in a positive way.