Ashley Hick’s article on digital Ghosts in the modern Classroom is a perfect study of what has become of today’s learners. Children love creativity no doubt and has become so used to the traditional platforms that are readily available and easy to use;the drag and drop,well laid out linear and standard steps and several working products that are easily used.The students create the products that the teacher wanted using templates as worksheet and other forms that accommodate multiple choice projects.Ashley was right when she asserted that most of these short cut templates hardly leaves the students even when they try their hands on open end working soft wares and platforms.
When you give a project to students especially in the intermediate grade their first search is to hook up with all these short cuts platforms and when they are absent it affects learning and they become restless from my own class observation.Ashley was of the view, we should help the students move from from users of shortcut/template platforms to makers,creators with very in-depth understanding of a complex system with open ends.
She was also right about her submission that When we look at the shortcut/template websites and platforms that makes digital image production very easy,it has removed the need for any technical know how because it is copy and paste in most cases.Ashley position is that students has become a garbage container from teachers who take in all that is released because they operate with a rigid platform /application with very little open space for students work and a narrowed predetermine correct answer.
Finding a solution ,we can help our students create their own application signature as makers rather than continue to depend on platforms and templates with close ends that does not encourage creativity.I really love it when Ashley wrote “We might help our students redefine good learning apart from the the dustbin dump concept by giving them explicit permission to try and fail and start again”Thinker trial and error approach methodology in classroom”.
As a teacher for several years in a different environment,i observed that students capacity and attitude to learning is always different.As illustrated in my blog,life is like a ladder,some people use the quick way and get to the top,others take the rough and lengthy route to achieve a desire .In our society ,majority always want to conform with established standard,they lack the fire power to seek and acquire more knowledge,to discover new platforms and hold patent .The comfort zone is always peak on their life radder and surprisingly most of them end up being very successful.
Ashley Hick’s article is good enough knowing that ultimate desires of students and why the interest in digital class was mainly to learn how to make GIFs,YouTube videos, and HTML/CSS websites.They want to make funny photo shopped pictures of their friends and several other social purposes which the world has conformed to.
Ashley also agree that the internet has created several platforms for make and remove,drag and drop and has made things so easy for any student to think of going the path of troubleshooting and creating platforms with open end.What they have is good and convenient for their primary purpose.
We also see why the ghosts worksheet,templates and shortcuts will for ever remain in classroom and i absolutely agree.I love to work with open end platforms as suggested by Ashley like; Raspberry Pi,Scratch,and HTML and CSS ,as Skallerup Bessette calls us to do,but why do i need to go to such level of uncertainty and possible failure when am comfortable with already established platforms that can meet my demand ?These are the questions “Ghost” that will be going on in the mind of these students for a while. Agreed open end platform is good when you know it gives advantage because the programs and computer language give the user much more control over the final product than the template/shortcut websites and platforms, but where there is no will there will be no power.In any situation the ghost of worksheet is always there.