Author Archives: holla112

Feb 21 2019
3 Comments
332wednesday12

If it aint broke, don’t integrate it.

I know I know. I’ve been talking all year about doing a stop-motion multi-media response at some point. Well, the end of the semester came at me like a freight train with a rocket tied to the back. So sadly, I had to opt for the classic twitter essay. I did one of these essay’s before and I really enjoyed the dichotomy of memes and scholarly prose. This time around, I took a look at a article which focuses primarily on how we can utilize different digital tools within our classroom to achieve different results with our students. As teaching is a self-reflective profession I thought it wise to broaden my horizons with regards to technological integration in the classroom.

The article focused primarily on classroom integration from a student standpoint, that is, integrating technology that is accessible to all types of students from different walks of life. I am very technologically savvy so when I interact with new types of tech I rarely have issues. My problem is that I think my own proficiency extends to other users, so while I may think something is easy to use, others may struggle with it. For example, I have simply been integrating technology simply for the sake of integrating technology, but the article urges us to integrate technology ONLY to fix a solution within the classroom. While I think this severely narrows down your ability to integrate, it makes sense on a grander scheme of things.   The website provides me with a very clear ‘step by step’ procedure for integrating technology into the classroom and a pace more friendly to less tech savvy users and avoid overwhelming them.  You can check out my twitter below for my thoughts about each ‘phase’ for the Design thinking approach and how each of them contributes to a effective classroom experience.

Please check out my twitter essay below!

Oct 29 2018
2 Comments
332wednesday12, Uncategorized

You must be at least this tall, wearing a lavender sweater, and have yellow eyes to read this post about Digital Redlining

Well now, after doing our little twitter discussion last week I just could keep myself away from the little cyan birdie, so I’ve decided to compose a twitter essay to express my thoughts on Digital Redlining. The article in question, Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy, is  written by  Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik and discusses a concept called Digital Redlining, which essentially blocks users from accessing certain information based on predetermined rules and regulation. If a student were to research a certain topic that these rules and regulations deem ‘inappropriate’ the user will not be given access to the site, or in the instance of scholarly Journal databases, will not be shown all the results. Herein lies the issue, if a student is paying a institution for access to all of these sites they are doing so with the impression that they will have infinite access to whatever they need. To them, a lack of results means the information they are looking for does not exist. The authors mention three instances in which students attempt to research topics they find interesting, only to find virtually no information on the topic, dissuading them from pursuing said topic any further. The information was there, they just didn’t have access to it. In post secondary education, self-discovery, self- inquiry and self driven education is extremely important in helping someone learn and taking away or denying that innate curiosity that we all have is very dangerous indeed.

As I said earlier, the little cyan birdie and I became close friends over the course of the past week and I saw it fitting to express my thoughts through a twitter essay. The original plan was to make a stop motion film to honor my all time favorite movie Nightmare Before Christmas (tis the season afterall), but gravity decided to break my camera instead, so the stop motion will have to wait. One thing that inspired me to tackle this article in particular was something that occurred last week during our twitter conversation. I made a tweet which mentioned the video game ‘Runescape’ and found myself assaulted with ads for the game. Whether it was twitter accounts associated with the game or ads for the game on the side, they were there and they were in full force. It was convenient then that the article in question discussed not only what we have access too, but what our information is used for. It was…difficult to keep my thoughts limited to 280-characters per tweet, and even at 17 tweets in total I still found myself limited by the medium. The learning curve here was trying to figure out how to really condense my thoughts  without losing the meaning of the article. That said, I found incorporating images and gifs to be a fun little side activity which in my opinion really elevated the twitter essay as a whole, as they add a sense of emotion and feeling to each individual tweet, something which you cannot emulate in any academic paper. Take a look at my twitter essay below and tell me what you think!

The Article: https://www.commonsense.org/education/privacy/blog/digital-redlining-access-privacy

 

Oct 02 2018
5 Comments
332wednesday12

Who ya gonna call? A Powtoon on Digital Ghosts

Ashley Hincks article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom talks about how some digital media sites utilize and ‘drag and drop’ formulas in order for users to create a digital project. I have done my fair share of digital work, ranging from photoshops to vector images to even a few Adobe Flash cartoons back in high school. I completely skipped over the ‘drag and drop’ formula sites and jumped right into what Hincks considers to be more open and free software. As such, I initially had a hard time grasping parts of her argument because I simply could not relate to them. I realized however that my other hobby, miniature painting, follows a similar formula to these ‘drag and drop’ websites. You buy a miniature, build it, and then there are instructions in the box or on websites which shows you step by step how to do it. Now of course, the instructions are done by a professional painter, so even if you follow the steps perfectly, your product won’t look nearly as good as the professional one, which is similar to what Hincks discusses. The ‘ghosts’ that she mentions are created from formulas like the ones mentioned previously, and teach students that in order to succeed or produce a ‘good’ product, they must follow the steps exactly as they are outlined. The problem is, this teaches students that they are either wrong or they are right, when in reality they should be taught that being wrong is a necessary step in learning how to do something. As I said in my Powtoon video, trial and error learning should be given priority over the current ‘step by step’ model we employ now, because don’t learn how to creators or thinkers for themselves, rather they create or think in whatever way people of authority tell them too. If every great artist in the world followed the steps taken by some of the first artists in history, the cavemen, the Sistine Chapel would be covered in cave drawings. To create things of beauty, one must be willing experiment and break the rules and go beyond what is expected of them by others and make things that they can be proud of.  

 

As someone who jumped right into open concept programs, I found that these digital media creation sites which present you with a predetermined template were extremely constrictive to what I wanted to accomplish. I found myself chuckling at certain points because of the irony of the situation I found myself in. I was to make a digital media presentation about how template websites limit creativity, and I found myself in that very same situation! While the creation process of my actual Powtoon was quick and painless, I found that I didn’t learn anything from my time in the program. Specifically, I felt very restricted because I only had access to the basic website. As such, I could only use a few characters and my video have to be under 3 minutes long which made me feel even more trapped. Furthermore, I kept comparing my work to other ‘whiteboard explain’ videos on youtube and felt that mine didn’t seem all that impressive due to my limitations.  While I had a great time using Powtoon, I think in future reflections I’ll be utilizing a different medium that doesn’t hide all its content behind a paywall.  Initially I had wanted to make a stop-motion video about this topic but not having a stable camera stand made such ventures impossible. I think I’ll definitely be doing a stop-motion video later in the school year as that artistic style is just so amazing. I really enjoyed the opportunity to express my thoughts in such a artful way, having come from two writing disciplines, it was nice to not have to write an essay with references for once.

 

Take a look at my Powtoon below!