Amy Collier discusses what is important in education today by discussing the concept of “NOT-YETNESS” with Chris Friend from HybridPod. This is my initial reaction to having to create a digital artifact. I wanted to jump off something! Luckily the highest thing around was this trusty 3 foot high desk. All kidding aside this assignment was a huge LEAP for me, into the unknown FUN yet CREATIVE world of educational artifacts!
In response to this podcast I tunneled my creativity into a digital sketchnote! The process of creating this digital artifact was surprisingly very fun however tedious primarily because of using the iPad pen. It would have been much easier to just use thicker pencils or markers of a different colours. With the iPad however each change of these elements was 4 maneuvers with the pen on the touch screen. Next time I will simply utilize a pen and paper, because it is the process of condensing and summarizing thoughts and adding creativity into the artifact that is the point, not the medium.
The creative visuals I brought into the sketch note-the stop sign, flower, globe, can, pendulum definitely helped me and would aid other students as well in remembering and mastering the content. I would have my students create a sketchnote from one of my lectures and share it with the class. It would also be a great way of displaying to students that perspective and internalization of the same information is different, therefore learning is a creative individualized process. RISK, CREATIVITY and DISCOMFORT would definitely come into play as they presented their works and defended their interpretations-having them live in this realm of uncertainty each day, as Amy suggested. Uncertain of others opinions and perhaps open rejections and responding to these situations would help greatly to prepare them for a world they will THRIVE in.
Amy defines “NOT-YETNESS” as when you are working on building your experiences and understanding but you are not quite there yet therefore you are embracing RISK and DISCOMFORT. Amy is talking about the critical time when new, ground breaking discoveries could be made….. the BRINK !!! She believes education is a series of risks and that we need to swing the learning PENDULUM outcomes to qualitative measures. I definitely believe this to be critically important for growth. We can do this by bringing our experience, background and our inspiration into the classroom and creating excitement about the topics we present!
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When I reflect on my own education, we focused on key concepts, formulas, memorizing, canned courses and rogue answers. I was on the road everyone else traveled (see me on the road above in my sketch note) and it was not personalized, did not involve risk and discomfort. I was not on the BRINK of discovery, yet could have been if my teachers tapped into my love for chemical reactions and science and let me explore this more through collaboration and development of further experimentation. I would love to share this passion with my students.
Learning outcomes were not individualized based on my interests, where creative freedom was embraced. When I think back I don’t even know if all of my teachers knew my interests, heck some did not know my name. I think it would be amazing to ask myself instead what I would ADMIRE as a learning goal for my students as Amy suggested. For me I would admire my students if they developed an ability to collaborate and foster respectful relationships while experiencing risk in areas that interest them. My teachers did not concentrate on what brought me JOY and what ignited a FIRE within me. It was A +B =C student who understands the concepts and who we can check the box for. Many on-line “canned” courses as Amy refers to them were exactly the same, creating clones of regurgitated information. Deposits in the heads of students like money in a piggy bank. To try to avoid this I would try to make online courses more personal and foster connections with students.
For students to THRIVE in this WORLD today they have to be exposed to unpredictability and uncertainty because the WORLD is exactly this!! I could not agree more!! Students spend SOOO much time in the classroom so let use this time wisely and prepare them for the REAL WORLD.
In order to do this we have to focus on creative educational experiences, so that our students can be the next generation of CREATORS. What would this look like to me in my classroom? I would give opportunity to build confidence with creative learning opportunities that are NOT EVALUATED.
An example in Science would be to have my students devise a new and creative way to deal with environmental sustainability. Even if their creation is not at all practical or sustainable that does not matter, what matters is their reflection of what they learned. Why they chose to make this creation, implications on society and understanding of sustainability in practice. The reflection demonstrates a whole other level of understanding and ties together their overall learning experience and does NOT KILL their CREATIVITY!!
You never know, maybe just maybe one of my future students will come up with a brilliant creative idea because I provided the scaffolding for such an opportunity. Or maybe a few students could collaborate on an risky idea and expand it into a groundbreaking innovation. After all CREATIVITY is a precursor for innovation!
Another way we could have students experience more risk is to get together with other classes and have OPINION BASED DEBATES on CREATIVE APPLICATIONS of the curriculum. This puts students into a RISKY environment where they have to know material well, be ready to defend their point of view, think on their feet, and apply their knowledge to creative opinion-based forum. Again NOT KILL CREATIVITY with right or wrong questions yet utilize their content knowledge and apply it to creative concepts.
Amys notion of critical pedagogy, encourages us all to NOT always have clear answers and best practices and to embrace this discomfort as a best practice. If teachers adopt this GROWTH mindset in class it will force students to do this as well and will better prepare them for the work force. I have worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years and embracing change and discomfort is critically important for developing new therapies and asking new questions as to what should be studied or investigated next. Risk and uncertainty has always been an integral part of the pharmacy industry and of my personal and professional growth.
IT IS THE SUPREME ART OF THE TEACHER TO AWAKEN JOY IN CREATION EXPRESSION AND KNOWLEDGE-Albert Einstein
After all Einstein had it right decades ago…..so why has it taken us so long to catch on, and make CREATIVITY a priority in TEACHING.
PASS IT ON!