#UWinDig 2020

For my blog post, I decided to create an infographic using Canva to support and summarize the ideas presented in Steven Johnson’s video “Where Good Ideas Come From”. The first main idea in his video that caught my attention was when he said that there are patterns that can be observed when creating environments that support innovation. I thought this was interesting and I wanted to keep listening to the video and learn about these patterns and how I could possibly implement similar strategies into my classroom that would support the same kind of innovation and creativity. In the video, Steven describes the concept of a “slow hunch” which he says is a process that ideas go through over a long period of time in order for those ideas to develop into something great. Great ideas need time to “incubate” and develop. He also talks about how sometimes one “hunch” or idea needs another “hunch” to come together and create something better. The collision of these hunches creates collaboration among individuals who all have great ideas who come together to share ideas and have breakthroughs. 

Modern technology has allowed us to connect and collaborate with other people that we would have previously not had the chance to communicate with which has the potential to create such breakthroughs. Without the technology we have to share our ideas with others, it would not be possible to have some of the amazing ideas, innovations, and access to information which exist today. 

This type of collaboration is essential to our education system. I want my students to feel supported in taking time to develop their great ideas and going through multiple steps in the process to develop meaningful ideas that they can go on and share with others and connect or collaborate with others to further develop those ideas. Collaboration amongst peers in the classroom is beneficial, but collaborating with others from all around the world over the Internet allows students to gain insights and perspectives that they would have never had the chance to consider without the use of technology. This video was a great example of how collaboration can lead to the development of great ideas and is a great video for educators to consider in relation to technology integration in the classroom for the benefit of the student.  

For this assignment, I chose to take a look at the article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck. I was intrigued by the ideas in her article and could also relate to many of those ideas. I think that she is absolutely right about the culture in schools surrounding digital technology being that it is there to make our lives easier by staying limited to sites that have templates that create one end product. I can understand why teachers may enjoy those kind of sites; it could make it easier to grade projects if they all look the same, there would be clear elements to compare and contrast. This type of template software removes the creativity and exploration out of the classroom.

We need to start educating “makers” and “creators”, instead of teaching in a way that emphasizes uniformity within the students. Trial and error is a huge part of the learning process, and I believe that should apply while learning with digital technologies as well. When students learn to be comfortable troubleshooting ideas and making mistakes, it will lead to learning and most importantly, creativity and individuality. Our school culture is one of following instructions and producing an end product that meets all of the teacher’s criteria, so removing those guidelines and allowing students to create in their own way can be a tricky process. 

Hinck made a very interesting point in her article when she said “Are we really teaching them [students] to make, or are we just teaching them to drag and drop or to effectively follow a set of rigid instructions in order to achieve a static goal?” At stake is whether students create something someone else envisioned or whether they get to learn to create, compose, and make.” (Hinck 2018). I can relate to this statement because from my own experience going through the school system that I did, most of our projects that were produced using some type of digital technology, had a strict set of guidelines and set software and websites that we were allowed to use. Our main goal was then to meet the criteria given and surely not make any mistakes in the fear that our final product would be so different than what everyone else had done. 

In my future classroom, I intend on using more open-ended sites to enable and privilege openness and experimentation for my students, as Hinck had mentioned in her article. For example, using Canva for this project was a challenge for me because I was so used to having a set template to fill in, but having that openness for me to create what I felt was important and represented my own ideas, was a great learning experience. I also think that it would be a great idea to go off of what Hinck described to “emphasize this movement toward trial-and-error and tinkering” and show students some of our own struggles and failures using digital technologies to make them feel more comfortable using technology and getting them to see their projects as a work-in-progress as opposed to a failure.