#UWinDig

For my second multimedia reflection I made my infographic based on Henry Jenkins’ Video: The influence of participatory culture on education, as well as the “Teaching in a Participatory Digital World” article written by Dr. Michele Jacobsen.

I chose to do an infographic using Piktochart and Microsoft PowerPoint. For the last reflection I made a sketchnote, so I decided to branch out from “pen and paper” to a fully digital medium. I enjoyed creating an infographic as I found it to be a clear and organized way to get points across. I am excited to try a different style of medium for my next reflection, as the infographic was easy to use but it was also slightly creatively restrictive.  I used Piktochart to make my title banner, and then used PowerPoint to make the rest of my infographic. I chose to use both platforms as I find PowerPoint gives you more freedom, is more user-friendly and has less restrictions. I like the font selection on Piktochart, as well as the background options, which is why I used it to make the title banner.

When watching Jenkins’ video, I was struck by Jenkins’ saying “Don’t build something like YouTube. Use YouTube”, when referring to how a lot of educators are trying to remake things in technology that already exist. This really struck me as I think many people shy away from technology thinking that it is this dangerous thing that cannot possibly be used for educational purposes, when really, it can be an amazing and enriching tool. This also made me realize that “moving forward” onto bigger and better things is not always necessary, and instead there are benefits to working with what you already have.

Jacobsen’s article highlighted to me how it can be frightening for teachers to have to embrace so much new technology but also how rewarding it can be. I think many teachers are initially opposed to technology, because they simply don’t understand it. I remember in elementary school and high school, the majority of my teachers used an overhead projector, or simply just the chalkboard to teach our lessons. I even had one teacher who would use an actual old-school movie projector (I’m talking about the ones that use film), because they “couldn’t” find the movie in any other format…It was 2009. It’s not that the technology wasn’t out there and available in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, but instead it was new, and many educators were afraid to use it or were stuck in their ways. They were on their own when it came to technology, so my more tech-savvy teachers (often the younger ones), incorporated a little bit of technology into the classroom, but not nearly as much as is incorporated today. Jacobsen highlighted in her article, that top-down support is crucial for technology to be incorporated properly into classrooms. I think if more support and resources were provided to my teachers at that time, then they would have felt more comfortable with incorporating technology into the classroom.

Before reading this article, I never realized that the reason for lack of technology in my classrooms growing up, wasn’t necessarily because the teachers didn’t want to use it. Instead, it was because they didn’t have the necessary resources from administration to be confident in using it. Reading this article was very enlightening as it allowed me to think back on my past experiences with technology at school in a completely different manner. It made me critically think about how my school experience with technology could have been very different if my teachers were given the support mentioned in Jacobsen’s article.

The little use of technology from my school experiences is far from the participatory learning technologies that Jacobsen discusses in her article. Participatory learning is interactive, and it requires support from administration. Which is why I think it is so important that Jacobsen highlighted the need for top-down support. The ministry needs to provide professional development for principals so that they can better support their teachers and ensure that the students have the resources they need.

I plan on using the knowledge gained from Jacobsen’s article and Jenkins’ video in my own teaching practices, and hope to be able to incorporate technology in a meaningful manner. Jacobsen’s article reminded me of our lesson in Lecture #3 on the SAMR model (by Dr. R. R. Puentedura) about how technology should not be simply a substitution for something, but instead it should enhance and offer something more than what was possible before (redefinition). I am excited to further explore participatory learning, and use technology to redefine what was possible before. I am also excited to read and watch everyone else’s posts and opinions on the article and video.

Multimedia Reflection #2 – This link is to the .pdf version of my infographic, which has clearer images and working hyperlinks.

References: 

Henry Jenkins: the influence of participatory culture on education. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYbSD_GdkjU

Jacobsen, M. (2010). Teaching in a participatory digital world. https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teaching-in-a-participatory-digital-world

Image Sources:

https://annenberg.usc.edu/faculty/communication-journalism/henry-jenkins

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1061/1924/files/100_Emoji.png?9898922749706957214

For my multimedia reflection assessment I chose to create a sketchnote summarizing the key points from the HybridPod- Questioning Learning podcast by Chris Friend and Amy Collier. I decided to draw the background of my sketchnote by hand.  I also printed out some cartoon images (to make up for my lack of artistic skills), which I then glued onto my sketchnote and coloured in. I used my sketchnote to outline the key ideas that I will further describe below.

Amy Collier starts the podcast off talking about the idea of “not-yetness”, an idea that I found very interesting. She talks about how its ok to not know all the answers, and how we should embrace not-knowing and not let it stop us from moving forward. She also talks about how “not-yetness” allows for a space of emergence to be created; where there is understanding and new ideas. Chris and Amy then discuss critical pedagogy and the importance of asking questions, which is the stage that I think I am currently in. In these first few weeks of class we have had a plethora of knowledge thrown at us. This surplus of knowledge has led me to asking a lot of questions on what is important, and what will help me develop my teaching philosophy.

Amy then talks about the idea of learnification, and how technology has really propelled it. I found it interesting that when there is too much learnification, there is actually less learning. Amy gave the example of online classrooms that focus too much on the content and completely forget about the teacher-student relationship. This is an issue that I have had with many online courses throughout my undergrad. There was such a large disconnect between the students and professor, that it took value away from the course. Along with learnification, Chris and Amy discuss the importance of embracing risk and uncertainty. They talk about how learning outcomes can be too restrictive and not allow for enough flexibility; without this flexibility, there is no room for risk and uncertainty. I think risk allows for change, so having that risk and uncertainty is very important for learning to adapt and improve.

Finally, Amy talks about the rhetoric of opportunity, an idea from Mike Caulfield. She mentions how Mike believes that the rhetoric of opportunity is better than the rhetoric of crisis, and how a rhetoric of opportunity allows improvements to move forward and keeps dis-improvements behind. I found this idea interesting, and especially liked Chris’ points about viewing students as people with potential instead of waiting for a student to misbehave. I think that this idea is a really important one, and that the rhetoric of opportunity is an incredibly valuable viewpoint for educators.

[This paragraph has been added after having someone asked me to further explain my design, I also posted this response in one of the comments below:

Finally to talk more about my design, I thought it would be fun to draw out a literal road to critical pedagogy that addressed the key points of the podcast. I started with that first square of not-yetness and the rocks that led to the lake of emergence. I wanted to show how not-yetness created the room for the emergence of new ideas and knowledge. The asking questions square is fairly self-explanatory, but I thought I would draw Amy asking some critical questions). I thought it would be fun to show embracing risk and uncertainty with Amy and Chris literally hugging the risk and uncertain-tree. Along with that, having those risk leafs fall and showing Mr. Learning-Outcome with his leaf-blower blowing away the risk. I used that image to show how rigid learning outcomes remove risk, and are not necessarily good. I drew the diverging path of learnification, to illustrate how in same cases technology can lead to negative learnification, steering us off of the path of critical pedagogy. Finally I ended with the square of the rhetoric of opportunity, with the Improvements Turtle, flying to the “finish line” and the Dis-improvement Rabbit, far behind. I wanted to show how in the road of critical pedagogy the rhetoric of opportunity allows the improvements to surpass the dis-improvements. I put the rainbow at the end, because the end of a rainbow is somewhat mythical, and I think that is the same for the road of critical pedagogy. I don’t think there is a concrete end to the road of critical pedagogy, we can always improve and grow, so the road keeps going. ]
References:

Questioning Learning

Not-yetness

Image Sources:

http://worldartsme.com/images/rainbow-outline-free-clipart-1.jpg

https://img.clipartxtras.com/1825f6b2f97475593f9ffd302d68fca1_lake-clipart-black-and-white-clipartxtras-lake-clipart-black-and-white_1024-768.jpeg

https://st3.depositphotos.com/11514374/18632/v/1600/depositphotos_186329928-stock-illustration-cartoon-of-businesswoman-or-woman.jpg

https://previews.123rf.com/images/alexeyzet/alexeyzet1701/alexeyzet170100007/70672983-lieu-de-bande-dessin%C3%A9e-avec-gar%C3%A7on-et-une-fille-a-touch%C3%A9-l-arbre-sur-le-fond-blanc.jpg

https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/funny-cartoon-man-leaf-blower-illustration-68308205.jpg

https://img01.thedrum.com/s3fspublic/drum_kb_article/158038/main_images/TortoiseAndHare_0.jpg