#UWinDig 2020

It is fair to say that digital technology is the new tool used most in today’s average classroom, from the use of SMART boards, taking attendance on Edsby, and if you’re lucky, even a whole class set of iPads or laptops. This brings on a new opportunity of teaching and integrating technology into the classroom is a developing technique of teaching that many educators want to welcome. Though many educators have access to so many various technological tools, it does not mean the digital literacy comes with it. That brings us to the very handy tool that is the Technologist Module, which is an online educational tool to help introduce the various topics of starting into the world of incorporating technology into lessons.

While the module explores and discusses multiple cases of technological points, one aspect of the appeal is that of “design thinking”. A 5-step process that allows creators and educators to approach a system of how to develop a plan to resolve challenges and issues. The Technologist Module links to a great educational video from Daylight that breaks down the idea of design thinking. The video uses an example of their own to help illustrate the process and benefits of this methodology. The company was on a mission to help kids in America to move more and prevent childhood obesity and found it a difficult issue to challenge and present an effective solution. That is when they breakdown the 5 steps: 

In other words, the process comes down to empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Let’s take a deeper look into each category and understand the importance of each step.

Before we can jump into solving any sort of problem, we have to gain a good, deep, and empathetic understanding of the issues and challenges surrounding the targeted audience. The best way to do so is to connect, observe, engage, and learn from the people with experience and analyze the different issues brought up. Once a substantial amount of research has been developed to get the feel of desired needs from users and the flow of possible solutions initially start to be discussed, we can approach the next step: find and define patterns and problems.

During this stage, creators and educators can break down the information gathered and analyze observations to start creating correspondence of what sort of features, needs, and concerns need to be addressed in the solution. Once a good understanding of the resolution approach is developed, we can start to progress to the third stage and start asking “how might we…” questions to encourage the brainstorming process ahead of us.

Starting to generate ideas, having solid background information collected, the brainstorming process is in effect. There are many variations to ideation techniques to aid in identifying new solutions to the problem statement. It is best to generate as many ideas at the beginning of this phase as possible to ensure many options to develop further in stage 4.

To make the developed ideas tangible, creators and educators will develop and test small scale prototypes of each possible solution to experiment on and identify the best possible solution to cater to the challenges identified in the first few steps. After testing each, investigating the pros and cons and attempting to improve the prototypes, one by one will be decided to either be approved or rejected to narrow down the final options.

Finally, the decided solution has to be iterated relentlessly and revised constantly to keep it running smoothly and fix any smaller issues within itself for its users. Constant alterations and refinements are made in this stage to continually develop and improve to keep users engaged and the outcome fully functioning.

It is important to state that though the process of design thinking is ordered by steps, it can essentially be executed in a non-linear and flexible manner. Going back and forth through each step in different orders to continuously improve and investigate until the finished product is confidently providing its purpose. Design thinking can be adapted in many ways for many reasons to produce answers and resolutions for varying factors and challenges, whether in the classroom or an entrepreneurial environment. Its use has no limit and is a repeated cycle for a fool proof module.

I chose to read Ashley Hinck’s Article Digital Ghosts In The Modern Classroom, which discusses the barriers in today’s teaching system throughout digital making. Students enter digital courses expecting to create great artifacts through the use of technological tools though, what most students are used to are shortcut templates that are preset by most technological programs. These linear focuses are nothing new to the classroom as the same protocol exists with the standardized worksheet and multiple choice testings, the same creativity limiting aspect passed down year after year. Hinck goes on to point out that the use of these tools (e.g. Fix, Google Slides, Canva, etc.) affects students learning as it suppresses the students ability to MAKE and reinforces the assumptions of restricted learning outcomes, causing a fear in students to step out of those guidelines to create something new. Digital culture has experienced a withdrawal of trial and error for the reassuring device of a guaranteed working product with little to no risk of failure. Students have this routine approach embedded in their minds since Pre-K, the constant step by step rubrics, and the instinct to create a product the teacher wants and deemed as the right answer.

I used the tool of a sketch note to visual map out the key ideas and themes found throughout Hinck’s article. By doing so, I am able to control the approach of my learning completely, choosing the symbols, words, colours, fonts, etc. Broken down to 3 portions, I first represent the “drag and drop” excerpt and relate the use of the shortcut templates that eliminate the need for technological knowledge to the tired notion of worksheets and multiple choice technologies (which, let’s be real, none of us learned from and just memorized the information needed for the time being and forgot all about it the next day). Throughout most of my educational pathway, I relied on these preset applications to create what I believed to be an artistically organized guaranty for a good grade, and the best part? I had to do the bare minimum work because hey, it was all already set up for me and I just needed to input the information, how amazing! Though, seeing it as an amazing concept then, I can surely agree that my desire of creativity has shot down to an all time low since, as I am not used to creating ideas from scratch and putting in the creative effort. The lack of that experimentation has made me feel fearful in assignments such as this one since my mind is so used to having strict steps to follow and ensure the teacher’s expectations. Continuing to push out of that mindset will set a great record of creative flow.

Next, we have what Hinck encourages educators to do with their students. Supporting students to become makers, creators, and speakers, instead of shortcut platform users. Creating the urge to experiment and build original ideas from scratch is what we want students to be comfortable and confident with (just look how happy little stick figure man is now!). Promoting trial and error, mistakes are OKAY and needed!

Open tools allow creative choices and build a stronger learning environment for students, it’s time to help our students claim themselves as creatives and have the ability to practice doing so in a safe space. Integrating such open tools into the classroom will create a future of confident creatives and the sooner we let go of the digital ghosts, the sooner we build a new system of success.