#UWinDig

For my second multimedia reflection I read “Teaching in a Participatory Digital World” by Dr. Michele Jacobsen and watched the supplementary video by Henry Jenkins entitled: “The Influence of Participatory Culture on Education”.

I decided to try my hand at a twitter essay this time as I had become more familiar with the platform after the #unboundeq open hashtag chat. Before then I was never really a fan and had not been exposed to it much, but I really came to appreciate Twitter’s ability to allow constructive conversations. One thing I thought I would struggle with was the character limit but,  I found breaking up my thoughts into smaller chunks really helped with my understanding of these two pieces. As if navigating this new (to me) website wasn’t enough I also decided that I wanted to design and draw some image to go with said tweets. I am in no way a visual artist, in fact I actually really struggle to translate my ideas into something visual. However, I was up for that challenge and a challenge it was! I used an app on my iPad called Procreate which is essentially Photoshop, another program I have never used, and had no idea where to start. There are so many brush options, textures and hues to choose from I felt like a deer in headlights. After watching a couple YouTube videos I figured out which brush I wanted and how to change its size and colour, a great starting point. Unfortunately, the YouTube videos do not teach you how to take your thoughts and design them. After many trial and error attempts I found my groove and was able to produce some images I was really happy with. I think this is a skill I am going to continue to develop after this class as I would love to be able to make better images someday. Please click the tweet below to access my essay:

1. Social platforms and apps, especially in this era of personal mobile devices, have become an opponent of some educators. Viewed as a thick wall of thorny vines that needs to be cut down while in the classroom as it only distracts and hinders the students learning. #uwindig pic.twitter.com/Lm8QgpSf91

— Miss Paty (@mspaty1) October 31, 2018

Now on to the actual article and video themselves. Overall, I agreed completely with what both authors were saying.  There are a lot of educators that still teach for the 20^th Century, a time where memorizing and standardize testing was the basis of a “good education”. But times they are a changing.  With the introduction of personal mobiles devices our students are being exposed to world of new literacies and social complexities that encourage them to collaborate online through conversations with peers and even strangers. These students are digital natives and were born with these accesses at their fingertips. Instead of fearing and fighting this shift we, as educator, should be embracing it with open arms. We live in a Web 2.0 world filled with sites like: Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Google, YouTube and many more. However, I am aware that this sounds like a daunting task to some if their knowledge of these sources are cloudy but as both Jacobsen and Jenkins make very clear, that is why we have colleagues and collaboration. It is not the duty of one teacher to know everything, but it is the duty of that teacher to know where to access the knowledge from, be open minded and willing to learn.

This new participatory digital world is “…blurring the line between producers and consumers of content and shifting attention from access to information to access to other people, and online experiences and virtual communities”. When used effectively in the classroom this can allow for active and self-directed learning. Barbara Means’ research showed that students perform better with digital collaboration then in face-to-face interaction. I found the results of her study to be fascinating and counter-intuitive to me, I would have assumed that face-to-face was more effective inside of the classroom.  But with some reflection, considering how active most students are within these digital communities, it would make sense that they would lie in a comfortable space within digital collaboration as even with their friends they mostly communicate through their phones. Moreover,  I agree with Jacobsen that this access lends itself beautifully to a constructivist teaching philosophy. However, some schools have firewalls up to “protect” students from certain sites and places online. Like Jacobson, I too do not think that this is effective in any way. Our students need to learn the competencies that come with 21^st century technology, we need to teach them how to “ethically and critically” locate networks that will benefit them in their learning and avoid the ones which are less than favourable. Firewalls take this learning away from the student and therefore they leave school unprepared, they are lacking a skill that is necessary in today’s society.

Lastly, Jacobsen harps on one thing that stuck with me the most, that an engaged teacher; one who is keen, curious and always learning,  goes hand in hand with an engaged student. This made me think back to all of my favourite teachers throughout my education and honestly they were all actively engaged in the learning. They were trying new things, inviting ideas and opinions into their class from students all while reflecting and tweaking with each lesson. I believe this approach is summed up by Jenkins’ when he said “Don’t build YouTube, just use YouTube”.

In conclusion, I have very little negative to say about either of the pieces. This is the first time I have encountered the term participatory culture, but am glad that I now have the words to express the concept. The ideas really resonated with me and they are all things I am going to think about, consider and use in my own teaching.

– Olivia Paty

For my second multimedia reflection I chose to reflect on “Teaching in a Participatory World” by Michele Jacobsen and the video “Henry Jenkins: The influence of participatory culture on education” with  Henry Jenkins sharing his ideas.  I did this in the form of a Twitter essay. Please visit my multimedia reflection Twitter essay on my public account @KaleighJoy3.  I hope you like it, and maybe you can follow me since I have no followers. LOL

Tweets by KaleighJoy3

The essay starts with the frantic kitty and is easier to read when viewed on Twitter and by selecting “Show this thread” under any of the Tweets.

After reading the Jacobsen article and watching the Jenkins video, I absolutely agree that teachers in this day and age should be integrating social media and technology into their classrooms and embrace the meaningful contributions that these new age platforms make for learning opportunities.  As Jenkins mentioned, teachers these days tend to shy away from social media,  because they are afraid of the potential misuses students might engage in or inappropriate content they may view online when using their devices.  However, I absolutely agree with Jenkins’ point that, because these students will be using social media on their own anyways, it is quite foolish that teachers would let them learn about the proper applications on their own.  Because, if students are obsessed with their own social media accounts, as many teachers and I have observed, what makes people think that they will ever know how to properly use social media and technology in a positive, meaningful way, if they are never shown how by someone who is experienced in the field of educational social media applications?  For example, if teachers notice that their students are obsessed with Snapchat, and in response, they ban using Snapchat from the classroom, this pushes students further away from what they will encounter in the future.  By banning Snapchat or any social media site, the teacher is missing a great learning opportunity for where they could explain that although Snapchat and other sites are great, there is a time and a place.  So, depending on the students’ response, the teacher could potentially allow them to use Snapchat while they are working if the students feel the great desire to do that.  And yes, many students could be distracted by their apps and sites, but I think that is another opportunity for the teacher to demonstrate that at a high school level, maybe just grades elevens and twelves, if the students want to be distracted by their phones, that that is their choice and their grades will be reflected accordingly.  If all they do is play on their devices, while given time to work and ask questions, then they are missing out significantly.  It also serves to remind students that in post-secondary education or during their careers (depending on the career), they can spend tons of time updating their statuses and scrolling through pictures, but when their grades start dropping, or their boss is asking where their work is when its the deadline, it was their conscious decision to choose social media over their commitments and priorities.

In addition to knowing the right time and place, teachers could choose to use the same or similar social media applications to the ones their students like to use, and in a controlled learning environment, that can be a way of having students contribute their ideas and opinions in a platform that they enjoy using in their everyday life.  To stick with the Snapchat example and a science class as the content area , perhaps the teacher could have each student pose a question on their story (these accounts would be school, classroom accounts only and not the students’ personal accounts), and then each student has to answer ten different classmates’ questions.  In order to ensure that students are responding the teacher could ask students to keep a log of who they answered and what their answer was, and then if the teacher is really Snapchat savvy, they could go on each of the students’ account and ensure that their snap scores are increasing accordingly.  This idea would have the potential to be misused by the students, so the teacher would have to determine if their class would benefit from this type of activity.  If they believe their class is responsible enough to participate in this, then I believe it would be a great way for students to use something they use everyday for fun in a meaningful, learning context.  There are so many platforms that could work and better engage students in digital participatory learning, and some will suit certain classes over others.

I found this to be a very enjoyable creation process, even being somebody who never uses Twitter.  It made me feel quite creative the way I took my points and had to strategically arrange them so that they were short enough to not exceed the character count- short and tweet (see what I did there, ahhh lol).  I also had a lot of fun selecting the GIFs, as I just find them very funny.  Overall, I would recommend writing a Twitter essay to anybody who wants to try something new, and essentially write an essay in a very popular social media platform.

The idea of participatory learning was quite new to me before these past two weeks and I don’t have any true participatory experience that I can think of before taking this course. I have had to complete the odd discussion here and there in some of the online classes I have taken before.  But, all of those discussions pretty much involved someone posting their opinion, and then somebody would comment that they agree, just to say that they did it and get the marks for it. Just last week, however, while tweeting in Twitter chat #unboundeq, I found that to be a collaborative educational experience, where me and a few other students in this class built on ideas from what each other was saying.  I found that people’s additions to my ideas were very useful and allowed me to consider others’ perspectives.  The #unboundeq made me very interested in participatory learning, and that is why I ultimately chose to watch the Jenkins video and read the Jacobsen article.

Be sure to read the article and watch the video if you haven’t had the chance, as both Jacobsen and Jenkins bring up great points with respect to what participatory culture is, and why teachers should integrate it into their classroom.

https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teaching-in-a-participatory-digital-world/

#UWINDIG

Hi Everyone! For this multimedia reflection, I have decided to base it on the article “Teaching in a Participatory Digital World” by Michele Jacobsen. The article discusses educators having the duty to incorporate technology within their classrooms, which I think is a big change from traditional education. Teachers are so used to the “pen and paper” teaching method that some are afraid of branching out and learning more about the technological world.  Jacobsen’s article mentions that teachers are often hesitant to branch out and learn technology as it can seem intimidating as there is so much out there to learn, though because of the variety, the possibilities are endless. Once educators are comfortable with navigating through the digital world, they will be able to see the benefits that simply the pen and paper method cannot provide. It is important that teachers gain the knowledge and confidence to incorporate technology into the classroom so that students are able to build upon this. Though technology is definitely an asset to teaching and learning, it must be done effectively to become useful.

Students generally learn their knowledge from their teachers, so the more professional learning and engagement that teachers make to enhance their skills in the digital world, the more the students will benefit. When discovering new methods and tools to make learning of technology less confusing and stressful, teachers should always remember that their job is to guide the students to utilize technology in a beneficial way, rather then for the sake of including it. Both the educator and teacher should be responsible for helping each other out in gathering new knowledge and applying it to real-world applications. This process takes time, but the results are defining.

When reading Jacobsen’s article, I strongly agreed when the point regarding how participatory learning is interactive and requires the support from administration. I do think that this is a valid point as the use of technology only goes as far as the help and resources are available. Personally, I found that in my grade school, technology was almost non-existent. My school was equipped with the technology, but as most of my teachers were afraid to try out something new, or that it would “ruin” a way of teaching they were so used to for years, this lead to the students not being able to have the experiences handing technology in the classroom. Many teachers also found that they did not want to ask for help because it made them feel embarrassed that they were nowhere near experts at handling technology. When Jacobsen mentions administration support, I do think that this is where the participatory learning stems from. The more tools and resources that teachers are provided with, the smaller the learning curve is for them. The support for teachers to be encouraged to educate themselves and use technology in the classroom will only help students greatly in the future.

I found that as I got into high school, the reverse effect occurred. There was a lot of teachers who were digital literate and seemed to be very confident in learning more about how to integrate technology into the classroom, and they were able to openly help other teachers who were still experiencing a learning curve. This reminds me of the article stating that there needs to be a push in school administration to encourage the teachers to access resources and tools, though looking back at my high school experiences, it was the teachers themselves who used the resources and tools to enhance their skills for the classroom and they were very aware that there was a gap between teachers that were digital literate and those who were still learning. I think this aspect really allowed the teachers to benefit from feeding ideas and skills off of each other, therefore creating an environment where the majority of the school was on the same page in terms of technology integration.

Before engaging in the article, I did not ever think to look back about what my experiences were like in grade school or high school in regards to the integration of technology in the classroom. now that I have been able to reflect upon this, I think I have a better understanding of how important it is to have a strong foundation from the school administration and the availability of resources and tools for teachers to use. My high school environment I would say is an ideal environment to describe how technology should be integrated. The teachers are very motivated and willing to learn, and as the article mentions that this aspect does not occur overnight, the results are overall positive in the end. On the other hand, I can understand why some of the teachers in my past have chosen not to integrate technology, either because they were not used to it, were afraid of learning it, etc. but it does not have to be this way. Now that we are aware of the technologies available, we as educators can help each other out.

After reading the article, I feel that I now have a better understanding of how much it means for a school’s feedback and encouragement makes for teachers in general. The more emphasis that the school and administrators give on technology integrating is what allows teachers to become more educated about what they are getting themselves into, and being able to play around and see what they like most and what aspects they still would like help in. I think that teachers would value more days where they are introduced with all the available technology and have opportunities to explore them with their colleagues. It would be a nice idea to allow teachers to try things out and hear feedback from each other on ways they can see themselves integrating something into their classroom.

For this multimedia reflection, I have decided to use Piktochart to create my infographic. I found that it was easier for me to use a blank sheet rather than choosing an existing template as those did not offer much leeway in terms of altering the layout. I had in mind a school style setting to display my thoughts. Using the chalkboards, I decided to put the key points of the article which I found were most important inside these chalkboards. As the article discusses digital technology in the 21st century, I found that including a question in the “search bar” would represent how teachers are curious of the ways in which they can learn about technology and integrate it into their classroom. Often times, teachers may turn to the Internet as resources if the school’s administration lacks this component. Due to this, I decided to create a chain link to display how the school’s jurisdiction is related to the students. If one of the key components (either school jurisdiction, principals, or teachers) are lacking, this will break the chain and students will not have the full potential of technology learning in the classroom. I also think that it is important for teachers themselves to have some guidance in learning how to integrate technology, starting off slow by getting used to having technology in the classroom is an easy start, but having ample resources and tools readily available all around will make this transition easier. The bus and globe represent a change in the education. As the content of education may not be changing, the ways in which they are presented will. As educators, we must not “fall behind” on the bus because others around us will be getting ahead with integration of technology which is changing as we speak. In terms of the digital world’s needs today, I made an acronym to easily remember the key aspects that are involved: SALT (school, assessment, learning, teaching).

Overall, I enjoyed creating the Piktochart and thought that it gave me some hands on experience with using a different technological medium that I have never been exposed to before. From this, I think I am now more comfortable and open to trying other mediums in the future. The only thing that I found hard to use about this program was resizing. I found that the program is not very user-friendly when trying to resize a text box or graphic as it would change to the desired size, and then revert to the original.