#UWinDig

I chose to read Ashley Hinck’s article ‘Digital Ghost in the Modern Classroom‘. This article talks about how teachers have been incorporating more and more technology into their classroom. According to Hinck, classrooms have yet to leap from the standardized education. Teachers are simply replacing the paper and pencils with a digital templates. The article explores how shortcuts and template websites and platforms influence students while in the classroom and in their everyday lives. When the students are given a platform with shortcuts and templates allows students to complete their work as long as it’s in the predetermined spaces within their selected template.

I chose to summarize this article using a canva template. I chose this because I wanted to attempt to stay within the the predetermined template. Through this process, I realized that it was difficult to formulate what I wanted to say about the article. I believe that to truly integrate digital technologies into the classroom where they can truly benefit students, we (as teachers) need to provide them with the opportunity to explore and create. When gearing away from template based platforms will most likely result in failure but it is important to understand that failure is necessary in the process of learning. Shifting from template based learning to active exploration will help shift from standardized to authentic education.

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.

http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/

Drop the drag’n’drop

The idea of the drag-and-drop type of assessments (full poster linked above) is still very prevalent in the classroom.  This is where students determine what the teacher wants, uses already existing technology platforms to “select from a list” of options for their design, and generally answers the teachers question in a right answer/wrong answer scenario.  The article contends that this type of assessment, although using new age technology, is still a form of non-authentic, standardized education.

As I completed this very assignment, I found myself doing the exact thing that this article describes.  Using pre-existing design technology to create something that isn’t creative at its heart.  However, in the early stages of this class, using the platform that I did (Canva), it was still a learning experience for me (not having a web page design  background)… Therefore, although the method I used wasn’t at the peak of creative allowances, I still feel as though I was able to “dabble” with something new that allowed me to (restrictively) create something that has a visual message.

Looking at “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom“, the author dives into the effects that using template and drag-and-drop style of instruction with many technological platforms can often limit our students creativity and it teaches them the uniform, standardized approach to education we have used in our classrooms for ages.

This can become a bit of a bore in the classroom…

The template/shortcut options can relay back to having a narrow or a singular right answer after following rigid, structured guidelines. Thus, “ghosting” progression in the students ability to show a sense of discovery or exploration when approaching activities or assignments.

Moving forward, we must adopt a more authentic experience for students in the classroom… Get students out of their comfort zones and give it a try!

We, as educators must move towards a less standardized approach when it comes to giving out activity guidelines or restrictions. I believe introducing students to software programs and computer languages in order to avoid restricting their choices, creating a much more diverse finished product among all students, and letting their creativity and problem solving skills reflect through their learning.

In my own personal experience, I had the chance to work with students using the Piktochart and Mindmap platforms to develop their own inforgraphics regarding health-related topics. This was an excellent opportunity for me to see which students would take the opportunity to show me their creativity and really make the assignment their own. The end result? many students opted to choose comfortable layouts and familiar icons or styles based on the templates the programs provided. When I urged several students to think outside of the box and try different features that were available to them, many struggled with the lack of strict, easy to follow guidelines and it was evident many of them were lacking the problem-solving skills required to do what I was asking. By taking away the template, drag-and-drop approach at an earlier age, and showing students more advanced computational mathematics coding platforms, I believe we will afford students with the opportunities to develop their creative sides rendering them much more proficient in technology and digital media in the future. Working with the younger students who had already been practicing with different open-ended coding platforms, you could already see an increase in the comfort level of working on something with little restriction or guidelines, this is what we need for our students!

For this first Multimedia Assignment, I chose to represent the key ideas from the article, “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck: http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/, using a Sketchnote.  This was my first time developing a Sketchnote and I tried my best to use different sizes and colours to represent the main points, in addition to the doodles.  This article brought up the problem of students following the worksheet and template models in the classroom and in digital media.  Students have fallen into a comfort zone of producing work that their teachers want to see and this limits their creativity.  I think we should be pushing our students outside the box and having them create and make things across the subject disciplines and shaking the idea that there is a single right answer or way of doing things. The idea that failure is bad and means that you are no good at something is the mindset students adopt, when really failure should push you to try again and discover success.  The school system has been built on linear steps of learning and we should be challenging this idea by having students do more creating and discovery, through inquiry-based learning.  Worksheets and template can help students learn and achieve knowledge but they should not be the only things students do and learn from. Adding variety to teaching and learning will reduce these expectations students are developing and increase new expectations surrounding creativity, failure and successes.

As a learner, the shortcut/template model was the only model.  I learned how to do basic things on the computer and Internet.  I learned how to use Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Publisher- following the template and examples as I went.  Art assignments, projects and worksheets were completed similarly to exemplars that were shown to us.  Creativity was limited and I think that has developed me into a leaner that requires and strives off of the linear steps given to complete anything.  I think that this assignment challenged me to create something given limited steps to follow, pushing me to think creatively, while providing meaning in the Sketchnote.  As a teacher, I want to push my students to think in many different ways, including creatively.  We, as teachers, should be breaking this cycle of the template model and developing negative expectations when it comes to digital media and schooling.  Students should be doing more than just worksheets and using templates.  Instead, they should have the opportunities to create, make and speak without being provided concrete instructions.  We should push comfort zones when working on digital media too.  They should be given experiences prior to post-secondary schooling to interact with and use technologies that force students to make decisions, engage and create media and experience failures that when worked on can become success.  Based on the article and my own experiences as a learner in our K-12 system, I believe that we as teachers should be working on getting our students to the top of Bloom’s taxonomy and changing the mindsets and expectations that students have developed.

The article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck was not only a good representation of our modern day classroom in terms of technology or lack there of, but also represented how technology affected us in our everyday life. I particularly enjoyed the idea of the “drag and drop” model. I believe that many students, myself included, use this idea in many aspects of our lives. We tend to take shortcuts in our lives whether it be online shopping or online classes.

In today’s world we simply skip steps but still manage to get to the finish line. Since we are used to convenience and getting everything instantly, this can translate over to our academics. Unfortunately, this is hindering the creativity of many students. This is particularly alarming in today’s world because technology is advancing rapidly and technology is a skill that is required in almost every job now. This drag and drop mentality ensures that students do not use their creativity and instead look for the easy way out.

As I was reading this article, I found myself relating to many things the author was saying. Even though I grew up in the technology generation, I fear technology to a certain extent. I am very nervous of walking into a classroom where the students are more tech savvy than me. I am also nervous about using technology and failing. The author mentioned that learning how to use technology is not a linear process. This is an extremely powerful sentence because we have been engrained to believe that everything we learn in school is linear and that there is a right and wrong answer. This however is not the case for technology. These drag and drop templates fool us into believing that we are being creative when in reality, they are limiting our creativity. I decided to make a canva and use a grid as a background because it reminded me of the rigid, standardized way we are thought to think in school. I also added some quotes to emphasize how we are receiving conflicting advice from our teachers when it comes to technology. I purposely made this look like a drag and drop piece of work to emphasize how these platforms almost encourage our students not to use their creativity. I even left the words “item 1, 2, 3,4,5” on my chart to showcase how little imagination we have to use nowadays and how oftentimes we, students and teachers alike, struggle to make the connection between school and technology.

 http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/