The article ‘Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom’ emphasizes the importance of moving students from users of shortcut websites and platforms to more open-ended and experimental users of technologies. When most students initially take courses on digital media they come in with the expectation of learning how to photo shop pictures and make YouTube videos, these assumptions come from their understanding of how school is suppose to work. Students learn through following a series of linear, standard steps which in the end counts towards the right answer. This assumption of right and wrong is affecting the way students learn. Most platforms that students use on a daily basis are things like Snapchat, Instagram and PowerPoint, which limit their creativity by taking away the ability to tweak filters or choose things like font and colour. In order to move away from this form of thinking and learning we must help students see the limitations of shortcut websites and platforms, we need to give them permission to make mistakes and try and fail. Once they begin to see beyond the idea of “right answers” they can start to become full participants of their own creations.
As I read this article, I couldn’t help but realize I am also the kind of learner that is stuck in the same form of thinking as the students in this article. The only way I have ever used digital technology is through the template/shortcut platforms. You don’t really think of the way traditional school culture (worksheets, multiple choice) affect the way you learn, but after reading this article I realize how much these expectations affected the way I learn. I am hoping that by the end of this class, I can open my mind to a different process of creating and expand my technological knowledge.
