#UWinDig 2020

You may think that using coding to create artwork is boring, a waste of time, and too difficult. You may think kids in classrooms shouldn’t waste their time creating original pieces when they can just use easier platforms such as Canva and Wix. But what if I told you that the benefits of coding far outweigh the negatives? What if I told you that by teaching kids to code, you might actually end up saving their lives?

Think this is a far stretch? I am here to tell you, it’s NOT. Many studies have proven that developing resilience in kids has been proven to reduce suicide rates. And what do the hours of learning to code, trying to code, and failing to code over and over again teach kids, if not resilience?

Ashley Hinck’s article talks about why she began implementing a coding program into her classroom, and the difficulties along the way. Here is a quick twitter essay summary-

In my own teaching experience, I have come across students who are afraid to be wrong, students who give up when they encounter the slightest difficulty, and students who believe that there is either wrong, or right, and no in between. Hinck provides a valuable tool to teach students the one skill that can help them with their everyday lives; resilience. Whether it is trying to ask out a girl and getting rejected, applying to get into university and getting denied, or whether it is trying to make a sports team and failing – the students will know that this is okay, it is not the end of the world, keep trying, and never expect anything on the first try.

Hinck’s article discussed the apprehension of her students who must take her coding program at the school. She mentions how kids will come up to her frustrated about how their supposed simple coding procedure is not working out for them, annoyed that an easy colour change is taking them so long and nothing they are doing can fix it.

Hinck doesn’t believe in giving up. Instead of telling her students how to change the colour, she will encourage them to continue trying. When they finally work out the smallest of bugs, she will overtly and enthusiastically congratulate them. The student looks confused – isn’t this just a simple colour change that should have taken them less than half the time it took?

But no, Hinck celebrates every victory in her class, acknowledges each failure, and teaches her students that yes – failure is a step everyone must take to succeed. And she encourages them to share their failures with their peers, to effectively normalize the trial and error process that so many kids nowadays have trouble grasping.

So I am here to tell you, giving kids difficult tasks that may seem boring and time-consuming may actually help them develop their own creative agency, resilience, and maybe save their lives one day.

I engaged with Ashley Hincks article: “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom.” I decided to create a Powtoon to demonstrate the main ideas portrayed in Ashley Hincks article.

Essentially, Hincks article aims to criticize the current digital pedagogy represented in school. She states that most students are only aware of the template/shortcut platforms, which consists of basic step-by-step, drag and drop methods in order to receive that guaranteed working final product at the end. However, these platforms remove the need for creativity for students to truly express themselves. Hincks also relates this method of digital technology to the way the students are taught in school; that students learn through following the steps. Essentially, the students create the product the teacher wanted and that in turn counts as the right answer. The students never really have the opportunity to express their creativity and they become accustomed to the “one correct answer” type of mindset.  

I would have to agree with Hincks statements, as throughout my educational experience teachers would also prompt us to use the basic programs for assignments. For instance, I believe that 90% of my projects that needed to be handed in were either, pencil and paper, or typed on the computer using a Microsoft word document or PowerPoint for a presentation. We rarely had the opportunity to create and design our own projects to demonstrate our knowledge on a topic or issue. Personally, I didn’t mind the basic platforms and templates because I was accustomed to using them and I knew how to work them well but I also agree that this did not require much creativity on my part.

To be truthful, I understand that it is important for students to be able to have the opportunity to be creative and to express themselves in different ways but I believe that that would have put extra stress on me as an adolescent. Even today, I am not very technologically savvy and I feel that if the teacher instructed us to use a multimedia platform that we weren’t used to in order to create something with very little instruction that I would have been lost and stressed as a result. Now, if I were introduced at a young age to discover and create things on my own without much instruction I believe that I would have adapted to this. Even today, with this project, I felt lost at first because I wasn’t even sure where to begin. Although, I am not disagreeing that moving away from the template and shortcut methods is a bad thing, in fact I agree whole heartedly that creativity should be pushed throughout school to give students the opportunity to think and create on their own but I do believe this should be introduced at a young age.

Next, although it was challenging at first, I really enjoyed working with Powtoon. I am proud with the way my video turned out although the only downside was that I had to make my video less than three minutes long, which meant I had to cut some information from my reflection out. I also noticed one thing that I did not like about the platform. I do not like the fact that when you were writing text you were not able to change the size, font or color of one word in the text. Therefore, you had to create a whole separate text box to do so and then you would have the trouble of trying to time it to show up right after the previous text. Besides this one thing, I believe that the program was easy enough to use. The platform did involve a lot of “drag and drops” but I found that it did allow you to be creative in the sense that you got to decide how the material would be viewed in video format and you were able to change just about anything in the video.

Lastly, I believe that when I begin to teach that I will be incorporating this creative platform into my lessons. I thoroughly enjoyed creating the video and felt a sense of pride when it was completed, even if it wasn’t exactly how I’d picture it to be. I want my students to feel the same sense of accomplishment and pride when doing assignments in my classroom. I even noticed that I’ve been introducing creativity into my lesson plans for other classes without really realizing it until I looked it over. Looking back I realized that that is exactly how I want my teaching career to be; to add an element of creativity into every assignment the students are required to do.

I hope you enjoy my video!

Jessica Landgraff

For this assignment, I decided to work with Ashley Hinck’s article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom”. In the article, Hinck criticizes our school system by stating that our education system has developed a linear way of learning. This belief stems from the idea that all students are expected to get the same thing out of lessons, and only create products that they believe the teacher will want to see. We are so comfortable with these methods that we expect this sort of linear, step-by-step method in other aspects of our life, such as in digital media making. These forms of learning can be harmful, as they discourage creativity and difference. We are teaching students to follow a specific set of instructions in order to achieve their goals. 

An important aspect of every app/website that promotes digital media making is user friendliness, and therefore most of the widely known platforms are very easy to use and understand. This removes the need for technological knowledge and limits the amount of choices creators have to make their creations unique and different. These websites provide things like drag-and-drop processes, a series of well laid out steps and a guaranteed working product at the end with little risk of failure. 

How might we discourage this static view of digital media making? Leave the shortcut/template websites behind! There are many websites that allow users to take a more hands-on approach and that allow the user to develop their computer knowledge, take a shot at coding and truly express their creativity. These websites, while more complicated, show students that there is no linear path to success. It will show students to appreciate tiny victories and will teach them essential skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking.

Students have expectations on what digital media making entails, and when they begin the process of using websites that requires the user to do more complicated things such as coding, they begin to feel discouraged. The linear path to success that they are familiar with is no longer relevant and students start to feel frustrated. They truly believe that because they are experiencing difficulties and must engage in trial and error, that they are failing. This is far from the truth, as hesitancy and trial and error are essential aspects of digital media making. 

In order to change the ways students see digital media making, there are a few ways we can help as educators! Firstly, it is important to encourage students to try, fail, and try again! Students believe that failing is something they should always avoid, however this is not the case in digital media making! Failing allows the student to learn from their mistakes and develop necessary knowledge on how they can improve. It is also essential that we teach students the proper tools and language of digital media making. In doing this, we are giving them the necessary vocabulary and resources to troubleshoot any issues they might have, so that they are able to become true digital media makers outside of the classroom. Thirdly, associating their digital media making with other examples of making, troubleshooting and fixing will allow students to recognize that they are capable creators! 

For this assignment, I decided to use Canva as I had no previous experience with the website and I thought it would be fun to challenge myself (in the context of this assignment) to create an infographic without using any of the provided templates, in order to insert a bit more creativity. I found it easy to use, and I can recognize how websites such as Canva make it very easy to produce a good looking product with minimal creativity and work. This article has definitely opened up my eyes and will definitely influence the types of digital media making projects I give as an educator.

Here is the full Infographic that is not split up if you would like to see it in your entirety!

This site is a workspace and connection platform for University of Windsor Faculty of Ed learners in Dr. Bonnie Stewart’s 2019-2020 Ed 5332 courses: Digital Technologies and Social Media Applications.

Participants in the courses will share reflections on digital educational issues and applications through a variety of digital media, trying out the tools and practices we explore intellectually. We will be sharing our work in class with small groups, but will also be building conversations here via comments and replies, across courses.

The hashtag #uwindig (short for University of Windsor Digital) will allow us to extend these reflections and conversations on social media, building familiarity with both the platforms and the educational Communities of Practice present there. Our URL for this site matches our hashtag. 

Looking forward to the conversation!

~ Bonnie