#UWinDig 2020

 In the article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” (http://hybridpedagogy.org/digital-ghosts-modern-classroom/), Ashley Hinck argues that students  today have become complacent in their learning due to the shortcut or template format of learning. In both the classroom and online, students are used to searching for the single correct answer, or dragging and dropping things into place without being required to think critically on the subject matter. Students are not being asked to think further into a topic, instead they are able to commit the correct answer to memory, regurgitate it onto a test and pass the course, while loosing any pertinent information from their memory after the course is done. The template approach to teaching digital technology is no different. Students have much higher rates of digital literacy and use their digital skills on a daily basis, when using social media, or PowerPoint, of GIFY. These simple template programs enable students to complete relatively simple tasks, and when faced with a more difficult program like Photoshop or when using a computer language like Java or C++, students are faced with a daunting task because these digital skills require more in depth thinking and problem-solving skills, and there is no predetermined correct answer. In order to have success with programs like these students must become comfortable with troubleshooting, trial and error and revision. It is our job as educators to help students become comfortable with making mistakes, and working towards their own creative goals, instead of the classic single “correct answer”.

After reading this article, I found myself agreeing with many points brought up by Hinck. I believe that in order for a student to learn they have to find their own way to the answer, even if their learning style is outside of the predetermined template. By adding their own creative method to finding an answer or achieving and outcome, that experience will lead to greater retention of information for the student and gives them the ability to use that info on a test or in a similar scenario. This holds true for my own education, as I am a person who needs mental hooks in order to keep the important info in my brain, ready for use. I have a much easier time if I have to figure my way through a problem using trial and error, that way when I eventually reach the desired outcome I can remember the process and use it at a later time. The small successes that come with trial and error when working towards a goal serve as an anchor point for valuable information, or lessons I learned from my mistakes. Whereas with a template/shortcut method, I have no mental hook to help me recall information during a test for example, because I was mindlessly following along with the template.  The template method is good for formulaic, predetermined answers, in math or science, where the formula is needed to get the answer, however in more creative processes like art or English or Digital Tech, it is important that students are able to make mistakes in their work without feeling like it is the end of the world.

My Digital artifact is a sketchnote, I was very apprehensive to use this method, as my writing and drawing skills are not flattering at all (who let a chicken write all over my page?), but after watching a few tutorials I felt confident enough to try it. As I was reading the article, I noticed myself using strategies I was reading about without even knowing. I have 3 rough sketchnote drafts scattered around my work space, I was able to use a very open-ended tool to explore my creativity and convey my ideas, and I look forward to being able to open my students eyes to the value of their mistakes and different ways of learning through creativity and trial and error.

I read the hybrid pedagogy article titled Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck. Her article explores the use of template/shortcut platforms and how they place limitations on creativity and literacies in the classroom. To counter this, Hinck refers to a “Critical Digital Pedagogy” to positively impact the learning process for students. To summarize this article, I chose to make an infographic using Canva.

Almost immediately after delving into the article, I was able to make some quick connections. As a high-school student, I can remember taking a digital media course with the explicit purpose to learn how to create digital pieces using photoshop or HTML/CSS. I can remember the mixture of anxiety and eventual boredom I felt when I realized digital making involved more than following a set of instructions and conveniently plugging in my own ideas into a template. While this sounds obvious, this new approach in the classroom went against everything I had learned and continued to learn as a student. As such, the idea of template/shortcut platforms as ‘worksheets’ resonated with my own experiences as a student, as well as allowed me to reflect on my own pedagogical experiences. I find I am most comfortable learning and teaching in a lecture-based environment. My undergraduate program consisted of factual material that had one or few varying answers. I had not considered the implications of this, or how everyday use of media platforms can reinforce this traditional mindset of structured knowledge, rather than creativity. This ‘ghost of worksheet templates’ has real implications in our day to day learning, both as students and teachers.

In my practice, I would like to encourage learning as a process of trial and error, rather than what Hinck describes as linear steps that lead to success or failure. I think it’s really important for students to be confident in their work and achievements, as well as to be able to take constructive criticism and improve when necessary. Incorporating digital media may be one way to gain essential literacies to build on students knowledge and communicate through open and engaging methods. For example, students can recognize the limitations of template platforms and create new digital experiences that they can draw from. As well, it can provide an avenue for educators to gain new pedagogical knowledge and foster ‘good learning’ practices for which allow students to ‘try, fail and revise’. These can be applied even without digital context (i.e.: allowing a student to improve on a test they did poorly on).

In my experience with Canva, I wanted to try and create an infographic that didn’t rely heavily on using a template. However, I found myself repeatedly looking up Youtube videos on how to create a good infographic and which template styles would be the best to use. I decided on a template and tried to use this as an opportunity to see if the experience was limiting in any way. While I found it easy to navigate Canva and its ‘drag-and-drop‘ options, it was difficult to summarize the article using the available graphics. While I did change the font and choice of colours, there was not a heavy selection of images that were available to the free user. Furthermore, it was hard to deviate from the prescribed format. Alternatively, Canva allowed me to create a finished digital product that followed an easy set of steps.

In the end, I found myself worrying a lot if I was making an infographic correctly and experienced a bit of stress. Linking back to the article, I feel like even when given the opportunity to be creative, I worried that I was not following the correct format. I think this impacted my infographic, as well as my engagement with the tool as I was more worried about the finished product, rather than the process.

With a “Critical Digital Pedagogy” I am confident students will be better able to interact and engage with content, as well as recognizing the influence that platforms have on their learning and creative output.

For this assignment I worked with Ashley Hinck’s article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom”. I chose to make an infographic using Canva. 

The main message the author portrayed from the article was that students only know the bare minimum when using these shortcut/ template platforms which can inhibit their creativity. When there is a lack of creativity this can lead to students taking less risks and just doing the bare minimum to follow with what the teachers’ expectations are. A lot of students want to step-by-step directions on how to succeed. These shortcut templates help with that because they are drag and drop methods and are easy to use. If students just complete what is asked of them, they’re less likely to “think out the box” to help enhance or open up their creativity side.

This led me to question teachers.  The author stated how teachers need to show students their own failures through trial and error.  Teachers are role models for students, they need to explore new technologies to present to their students to help enhance their learning. Of course, it’s easier to stay in your comfort zone and use the templates/platforms were all used to and trust, but where’s the creativity in that? Times are changing, there is frustration when using these new platforms and they may be more time consuming especially when learning how to use them, but I believe that more positives can come out of it. Students are so scared of being wrong because the education system have told us time and time again that wrong answer are not accepted. That alone tells students to play it on the safe side.  In the digital world there should be no wrong answers, students should see that failure can be a good thing and it leads to growth.

This was my first time using Canva. In my past experiences my teachers have used the more traditional platforms like PowerPoint, and that’s all I’ve ever used in my projects. I rarely had the option to show my creative side with a lot of assignments, especially when a lot of them are essays. Before I started using Canva I YouTube a tutorial, so I had an idea of what I was using.  It has multiple platforms you can use like presentations, social media (Instagram), poster, flyers, cards etc. I think it was easy to navigate and use, and everything is well organized and easily laid out. The big learning curve I had was although tutorials are great to get you started when learning new platforms, it’s really not the same until you start using the platform yourself. This platform was a little limiting when I was using it.  Since I was using the free version you’re limited to certain photos, templates, stickers etc. I found this limited your creativity a bit. It also gives you the option to start from a blank sheet or use a template.  Templates can be nice to start you off, but it’s frustrating when you’re stuck to a certain layout and can’t design anything the way you want it.

Overall, I fell in love with Canva. I’m slowly realizing that times are changing, students have a lot of behavioural issues. They need to be taught in a way that is engaging/ interesting so that you can help enhance their learning.  Since I’m going into the teaching profession these new digital platforms are something I will start adding to my practice.

While I was listening to Chris Friends interview with Amy Collier, Questioning Learning, I noticed some major themes that developed while they spoke. Right away Collier began talking about this idea of Learnification. This got me thinking about how education really does have a divide. There are those that believe we need to focus solely on the student and their learning style, and those that consider it best if each student learns the same thing. Now I had to look up what learnification meant, and it is essentially where Gert Biesta believed that if we start to change education so that we are focusing more on the student, then the teacher will soon become obsolete. Teachers become useless in a new technological age where any question we could possibly ask has a readily available answer. Amy Collier, in her interview with Chris Friend, mentions,

“What we miss is that learnification actually comes from the paradigm of kind of really individualizing education, putting it at the responsibility of the individual rather than kind of a community activity, taking away the relational context of faculty to student, that when you think about teaching has always kind of been there.”

On the other hand, you have educators that believe seeing the student and adapting the curriculum to suit them is what we really need to focus on. I think that it should not be more of one than the other. We need an equal balance of both types of logic. Within my own teaching I know that I often forget to follow the curriculum and instead focus more on what would be relevant and fun to learn. Sometimes I find myself “seeing the student” too much and not enough on what they are told to be learning. Being in Drama and English I often have more free rein on what I can teach my students, and I think that is what helps me to achieve the balance.

Education isn’t just about what the student should learn, but it’s also exactly about that.

Another major topic that they approached was the use of language in education. With a specific focus on the word “risk.” How “education is a series of risks” and we have to “embrace risk”. This was one concept that really resonated with me. Again, the balance between staying within the guidelines of what we have been afforded, while also taking risks. This is something that I find some teachers really struggle with achieving because they’re too afraid of getting it wrong, or not being liked by their students. Personally, I have been hearing the word “risk” a lot in education. I know that working with students who are “in-risk” often scares many teachers, but these are the students that I enjoy educating with the most. I enjoy working one on one with them because they are often the students that we can learn the most from. They are also the most rewarding. Working with these students in my undergrad has really made me realize that this is the type of student that I want to continue to learn from.

While I was making my artifact I tried to really capture the sides of education that Friends and Collier were discussing. I was originally going to make a video, but I was struggling with how to capture what I was thinking onto the video. I then looked at other mediums to use and landed on the infographic. This was the perfect way that I could capture what I visually imagined while listening, and how I gathered the information. I decided that the infographic would capture the essence of the podcast more, so this is the final product.

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.

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