Technology hinders creativity. A statement that would surprise, anger, and bewilder most. One would believe it inconceivable that technology inside of the classroom actually hinders the creative learning of students of all levels and ages in our education system. Technology does not teach students how to create rather to apply technology to a program created by another individual, technology does not allow for students to take risks with their knowledge, students are afraid to fail and create technology that is imperfect compared to already existing programs. Lastly technology handcuffs students, not in a sense that they are handcuffed to their devices but in a sense that students are handcuffed to how they believe they should apply their devices to learning.
If shortcut/template websites and platforms are the “new worksheet” as Skallerup Bessette argues, then we might shift to a more critical digital pedagogy by leaving those shortcut/template websites and platforms behind. Templates to create visual presentations along with infographics actually hinder the creativity of students. Students do not create their own work, they take information that they retrieve from another source and plug it into their piece of media. As educators moving forward we should be pushing students to find new methods to create their media. It is important that we force them to be creators not only someone who can apply technology.
Technology limits the ability of a student to take a risk. Students in the modern age are nervous to create their own technology as they believe it to be “wrong”. Wrong in the sense that they see their creation as a failure compared to those of multi-million technology companies. Although their media may not look as appealing as a professionally built piece educators must celebrate the effort and risk that students take when they think outside the box in their creations of media.
Technology in education today places boundaries around students. Educators for many different reasons feel the need to restrict students to google docs and powerpoint. Why is that? If a student wishes to find a new creative method to submit a piece of work that he or she created themselves why should we as educators force them to use only one single program? Educators need to force students to create something that has never been seen before. That is how technology would be a support to learning inside the classroom.
For this assignement I decided to use Piktochart and creat a process like, step by step infograph.
Students are drawn to learn new things but learning something new means lots of questions. Ashley Hincks states in her article “Students I work with assume that digital media is: drag-and-drop, a series of well-laid out, linear, and standard steps; and a guaranteed working product at the end with little risk of failure” (Hincks). Her statement is exactly what students were taught to do. We had to follow the rubric and meet the criteria and expectations. Usually based on what the rubric states and what the teacher has asked the students to do, things should be clear. However, the small details are still the things that we concentrate the most on. We follow the checklist to make sure we have everything; it states in the article, students tend to ask, “What font do I use?” “Is that right?” “What’s my next step?” this type of learning has been embedded in our learning process since we were young.
Fast forward into the future, the way of learning is changing. Students are given more freedom on how they want to present their work. Many would think having more freedom and creativity would benefit the students on their learning process, but it only makes them think about it more because they do not believe it is correct. More and more technology is becoming our educational learning platform. By teaching student that there is not only one good answer, it sets them in a better direction for learning and applying their knowledge inside and outside the classroom. We know that technology is everything and that it is everywhere. When we were kids, some of us played with LEGOS. You had the children who followed the exact instructions and then you had the children who dumped the pieces and made something of their own. “Amy Collier points out, building LEGO without directions can invite openness, creativity, and agency”. There is no difference between LEGO’s and the new teaching method. This way of technology sets the tone to turn students into makers, creators and speakers (Hincks).
I hope that some day when I’m a teacher I’ll be able to incoorporate all the new technologies and tools into my classroom. Giving my students a sense of self and worth, giving them the chance to be able to express themselves in their own work.
The article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck discusses the common misconception that students have regarding what “digital skills” actually are, and how that misconception leads to “digital ghosts” being present in the classroom. Today’s students understand the importance and necessity of digital skills in the workplace and classroom; however, students believe that simple tasks (such as dragging and dropping something or following a linear set of steps with low risk of failure) constitute “skills”. This common misconception illustrates not only their understanding of digital media, but of school as well: They follow steps and come to a “correct” answer, which negatively impacts their learning experience if discovery is the goal. Students are very familiar with using common websites (sometimes referred to as “template platforms”) such as Canva or Facebook to create; what students don’t realize is that these platforms actually limit what students can create because they are so basic. Other more complicated platforms like Scratch or HTML give students much more freedom to create freely, but when they actually use them in class, the template platforms continue to impact the learning experience because students are so used to using them, following linear instructions, and coming to a correct answer. The lingering of template platforms in classrooms is what Hinck describes as “digital ghosts” in the classroom; the template platforms might not be physically there, but the thought process with which students associate them continues to linger in their heads. This ghost impacts students in a number of ways; students may lose confidence in their digital abilities more quickly, they may see the trial-and-error process as a “failure”, and they may be hesitant to see themselves as creators. Obviously, using more open-ended technologies are much more difficult and can get messy, but there are ways for educators to help banish these digital ghosts. Giving students permission to fail (and even encouraging students to fail), encouraging discussions of what it means to “make” something, and celebrating student successes on a difficult project are all critical pieces of what it takes to banish the digital ghosts and allow open-ended, authentic creation in the classroom. Educators absolutely must help their students see themselves as creators and the possibilities beyond the “right answers” to which students are so accustomed.
I decided to do a Twitter essay for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I use Twitter very frequently (in fact, it’s my favourite app to use), so I already feel relatively comfortable using it. Secondly, I see Twitter essays very frequently when I scroll through my news feed, and I always enjoy reading them, so I thought it would be fitting to create one myself. There is something about clicking on someone’s thread and reading all of their ideas in a series of tweets that appeals to me. I like the fact that someone can share important ideas on a fairly non-academic platform, but still have the ability to get their point across in a medium other than a scholarly journal, for instance. I think that the ability to share such ideas on a common social media platform is (and will be) very attractive to the next generation of students coming into classrooms in a digital age. When looking to incorporate technology into an assignment, all educators should strongly consider allowing their students to express themselves in creative manners, such as Twitter essays. Personally, I would love to provide this option to my students one day and see what masterpieces they create; doing so would give me a high level of satisfaction as an educator, knowing that my students can use digital technology to communicate their knowledge and ideas of a given topic. Students as well would also benefit, seeing themselves as true creators in an age where the use of digital technology is becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life. It’s a win-win situation!
Now, enjoy my Twitter masterpiece! If you want to read from a particular tweet, just click on the image and the thread will open for you in a new tab. To benefit fully from my Twitter essay, click on the images and read it on Twitter itself… that way, you can see the GIFs move!
(After you read my Twitter essay, be sure to continue reading, as I discuss some applications of Hinck’s article in my personal life and my ever-evolving teaching career!)
When I was a student using different digital technologies in high school, I felt very similar to the students that Hinck describes in her article: Looking to follow a clear, linear set of steps to achieve a correct answer and a good grade. Looking back, I realize that there weren’t as many opportunities in my own classes to use template platforms, let alone open-ended technologies, as there are in today’s classrooms. The vast majority of assignments that I did were either essays in Microsoft Word or presentations in PowerPoint, which did get quite boring after four years of mostly the same thing. There were a couple of exceptions, though. When I was in Grade 10, I took a class called Introduction to Business, and for our final course assignment, we had to make a video in groups about any course material of our choosing. My group made our video using Powtoon, and while it was a neat experience, I can admit that the only thing on our group’s mind was getting that good grade, so unfortunately we focused more on that and less on the actual process of discovery. In my Grade 11 Travel and Tourism class, we had to make an infographic using Piktochart for one of our assignments. This assignment was done individually, and again, I was only focused on getting a good grade as opposed to actually discovering my inner creator. Those assignments taught me that during my time as a student in university, I should start putting more of an emphasis on learning more about digital technologies within an assignment, and what I am capable of creatively. Furthermore, as an educator, it will be critical for me to stress the importance of trial-and-error and mistake-making as part of the learning process to my students. It seems normalized for students to believe that they need to get everything perfect, but in a world where digital technology becoming more and more relevant in everyday life, students need to understand that mistakes will occur, and that’s alright! When I am in a classroom teaching (any subject), I will do my best to encourage mistake-making and emphasize the fundamental importance that mistakes play in the learning process. If I can manage to master that, then I think my students will develop respect for me and thank me for opening up their minds to seeing how valuable mistakes really can be.
You have reached the end of my blog. Thank you for reading! I actually had a lot of fun making this, so I hope you enjoyed it!
I chose to do my multimedia assignment on Ashley Hinck‘s article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” . For my artifact, I chose to do a twitter essay because I’m familiar with using the app in my personal life, so I thought it would be interesting to use it for school. I’ve seen them before, but had never done one myself. One thing that I didn’t account for was how much organization went into doing this. I had to plan out each tweet with understandable sentences that fit with the character count. Another difficulty that I faced was that once I tweeted something in the thread, I didn’t have the liberty to edit it without having to start the thread from the beginning. For example, after I had finished tweeting everything, I noticed that I had a typo in the first Tweet of my thread, so I had to redo everything.
As for the article content, I never realized that I have been conditioned to using templates in the classroom where I only believed that there were either right answers, or wrong ones. While reading the article, it was very difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that some teachers allow students to make mistakes and revise them, and that these teachers don’t always follow a linear plan. As a teacher, I want to give students this opportunity to learn non-linearly and linearly. Although I’ve never done any non-linear learning as a student, I’d like to learn to teach this way so that I have a mix of teaching methods that allow all student to be as successful as possible.
1. Ashley Hinck makes some compelling points about digital pedagogy in her article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” (2018). Students want to learn useful digital skills, but do not have the basic foundation to build them. #UWinDig@hincklethttps://t.co/eLEccvGmpa
In my own personal experience, I wish that I had had the opportunity to learn digital skills. My brother took a class in high school where they learned basic coding, learned how to develop their own website, and learned how to use tools such as Photoshop. When I try to do stuff like this, I have to search tutorials online and try to self-teach everything and that ends up taking hours to make one small tweak.
I’m an avid user of platform based social media, but this assignment has made me rethink how I spend my free-time. That’s not saying everything is going to change, but I definitely want to make a conscious effort to think outside the ‘box’.
As a child I was very creative, and now, after reading this, I wonder if I lost that sense of creativity after being exposed to all of that template learning. I used to make crafts with anything I could find: sticks, beads, glue, anything. Now I need specific instructions to follow to make something crafty. It also makes me wonder how different my life would have been if I knew that it was okay to make mistakes. Would I have been more apt to participate in school? Would I have anxiety about sharing my opinion?
As a post-secondary student, the thought of failing stresses me out even more. During my undergraduate experiences, most of my classes were very template based with the exception of some essay writing. Although template learning in schools can create a negative learning experiences, they have prepared me for university. So if we’re going to try and avoid template teaching and learning, all institutions need to be involved or we’d be just setting students up for failure.
Now, as I start my journey of becoming an educator, I need to make sure that my experiences don’t restrict my teaching abilities. As a new teacher, I need to be open to teaching new things and I need to be open to progress my teaching methods to stay relevant and to allow students to be set up for success, something I wish that my educators would have been open to.
For this multimedia assignment, I decided to create a sketch note based on Chris Friend and Amy Collier’s podcast, Questioning Learning. This podcast explores topics such as learning outcomes, online learning, and student freedom. This sketch note took a lot of thought and editing in order for me to express what I found to be important, and how I would represent this.
sketch note
The first topic I included on my sketch note was learning outcomes. The header for this topic is the largest one on the page because I thought the points Collier brought up about them was important and vital for successful teaching.
Learning Outcomes
Throughout my time in school, I have always come across learning outcomes that provide students with a direct, structured, and restrictive list of what teachers expect. Collier mentions that these outcomes ¨de-risk¨ learning and can become formulated. ¨Students will…” and ¨students will understand¨ are popular terms used when writing learning outcomes, but what effect can this restrive format have on students? Collier and Friend talk about how this format puts students in a box with no way of getting out. Although, neither of them is ¨anti-outcomes” they do believe that inspiring learning outcomes allow students to grow and explore in their learning. Inspiring outcomes inspire students to think and relate to the lesson at hand. Understanding should not a term used in learning outcomes as understanding is not measurable as it is ongoing, evolving and emerging. Learning outcomes should explore the bigger questions that allow students to ¨wonder at their work” and teachers should write them thinking ¨what would cause me to admire my students¨.
I found in school these formulated outcomes do not allow students to explore their own thoughts and interpretations. Obviously, it is important that students work relates to the topics at hand, but this podcast made me question why assignments and takeaways from a lesson have to be so strict. Not all students learn and think the same, so I believe using aspirational outcomes, such as what Collier and Friend spoke about, allow students to grow as learners and enjoy what they are doing.
Learnification
Learnification was another term that Collier and Friend spoke about during this podcast. I had never heard this term before, and it definitely is important to know when you are questioning learning. Learnification focuses on learning rather than teaching. This term is not necessarily a negative one, but it must be questioned and used properly. This style of learning personalizes teaching and can be quite damaging as it forces students to be seen as products rather than a vital relationship between students and teachers.
This term goes hand in hand with online learning. Canned courses is a popular formula used when creating online classes, but these classes hinder students learning.
Canned Courses
Canned courses take away the instructors/teachers ability to customize or create the online courses they are teaching. These teachers have no say in how the class is designed, how students engage with one another, or how tests and assignments are formulated. These classes are impersonal, structured and restrictive and improperly use learnification so that students are used as products rather than a relationship. These classes are designed to formulate and produce answers from students so marking can be done quickly.
Much like restrictive learning outcomes, learnification and canned courses place students in a box that impacts their learning. These types of learning are not acceptable, and should not be used while teaching. Collier mentions that canned courses seem to flourish online, but could never exist in person without being shut down. Online learning should be structured in a way that is interactive and allows learning to flourish. I have taken online classes during my time in university, and I can concur that some of these classes are dull, restrictive, and make us students feel like products just trying to pass in order to receive credits.
Opportunity
After I took a look at all these different learning styles and expectations, I questioned what should I take away from all of this?
I believe that when students are given the opportunity to explore their own learning, they will flourish. Risk-taking compels students learning and leads students to wonder and awe at what they are being taught. When students are given the freedom to express what they have learned, the outcome can be unpredictable, and this unpredictability is incredible. Seeing what students take out of a lesson rather than forcing work out of them will allow you to see what your class is capable of, what needs to be improved, and the different formats students use to express themselves. Using a critical pedagogy allows you to ask questions and question your own teaching without fear or shame. When we become comfortable questioning ourselves and our students, our ability to teach and our students learning will flourish.
I will keep all of this in mind when creating lessons plans and teaching on my own. What I learned from this podcast is what can restrict learning and I cannot wait to explore how to apply this in my own teaching and classroom in the future.
For this assignment, I decided to explore Hincks article called ‘‘Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom’’. Hinck, (2018) explored a topic regarding the preparedness and skillfulness of digital media leaners. The statements and observations cited by the author are of good quality. One thing remains true is that in the practical sense and in a work environment, the kind of training offered will not help, as the client product requirement is hardly linear and straightforward with standard steps to achieve the desired output. Neither is there a guarantee of a working product as increasingly there is the risk of failure due to the dynamics of the industry. The tools that learners are using hardly prepare them for these realities. Reflecting on the topic, I have completed an Infographic using “Piktochart”. “Piktochart” is web based software offering straightforward themed templates that are useful in the creation of standard infographics and other visuals. One of the remarkable features of the application is that as a creator, one is able to come up with web-publisher ready, and individual multimedia content. Overall, the application is simple to use. I prepared the infographic embedded in this document within a reasonable period. Hinck (2018) also notes that by following the simple to understand instructions that the application requires I was able to come up with the infographic attached. Some of the features and resources offered by “Piktochart” were rather intriguing to use.
For instance, the templates available are modifiable, easy to manipulate text aspects such as font, size, and most importantly, I could use my own images together with those offered by the software. Additionally, the software allows the users to easily organize their information by use of drag and drop. Remarkably, the drag and drop feature is amazingly flexible and straightforward to make modifications and additions of text. The HTML publisher is also straightforward to manipulate for users who intend to have their visuals available online or embedded on websites. The information presentation tools are also practical ranging from animated icons, charts, videos, and map visualizations further making the software’s output product more appealing and adaptable to multiple scenarios. I cannot help but disagree with Hinck (2018) since despite not having technical knowledge on the development of such features using HTML or other suitable coding languages, an individual is able to come up with incredible creations within a short time. I would like to think of it as the difference between accountants who keep their books manually using traditional ledger books and files whereas there are available accounting software such as SAP and others by Microsoft, Oracle or Sage. In addition, despite having a ready to use software, Hinck (2018) fails to acknowledge the fact that the most critical skill of a creative presentation is the ability to visualize the desired outcome in one’s mind. The availability of applications that make it more accurate and faster to deliver is reasonable and having learners use them is in fact useful and prepares the digital media learner for the real world. Supporting the accounting profession analogy, an accountant who understands how a transaction should be recorded does not depend on the tools available to them. Reflecting on the experience of developing the above infographic, I support the use of such platforms. Rather than focus on the mundane tasks of keeping the images, charts, and text in the right organization, digital media presenters can now focus on what actually matters; the ideas, message, and the means of appealing to the target audience. In comparison, the essence of digital media is primarily to appeal to a specific audience and as such, creativity and a human feel of the multimedia messages cannot be overlooked. There is a possibility that the final products will be similar on multiple instances due to the over reliance on software templates, a scenario that is unlikely when each creative and digital media professional is able to develop their content from the beginning. For example, “Piktochart” has only six hundred templates in its database. Considering the billions of multimedia content generated annually, six hundred templates will probably lead to uniform structures and feel of such creations. Therefore, there is a place for the software applications available on the internet but still a lot of work is required to be done in order to inspire uniqueness and creativity in the digital space.
As a student teacher, I am just starting to create my teaching philosophy. As I read about multiple approaches to teaching and learning, I have conflicting feelings about what I want my teaching philosophy to be. Do I let my students decide what interests them and facilitate their learning or should I make sure that we cover everything in the curriculum with diligence? I went to high school when handouts and templates ruled all classrooms. So, I feel comfortable learning with templates, but I am not sure how valuable they are in the long run. Did they really help me retain much information? I would have to say, no. In the long run, classrooms where we explored topics through class discussion or hands on exploratory learning are the classes that I remember most from school.
Know Your Classroom Ghosts. Canva. 2019.
Who are our classroom ghosts ?
In the article “Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom” by Ashley Hinck the author talks about “The ghosts of worksheets, templates, and shortcut websites” and how their presence in the classroom defines our students’ learning, and our teaching philosophy. The author goes on to say that the drag and drop websites and platforms, such as Canva, WiX or GIPHY, are the new template and worksheets of digital media and are ultimately damaging students’ creativity. Her classroom experience reveals that students’ expectations are so tightly linked to these template platforms that they find learning a computer language completely unsatisfying. She explores the idea that learning through trial and error is not encouraged by these platforms as well as in our kindergarten to grade 12 education system. The author believes that students should be encouraged to explore more open-ended programming languages (CSS, HTML) or programs like photoshop so that they can see themselves as the creative authority of their own work. She suggests that students’ work must not always hit all the marks and a greater value should be placed in the idea of exploring, and the trial and error model of leaning. Having had some experience in the working world and particularly in product development, I agree with the author that learning through the trial and error process is important for surviving the real world. Coming out of school that was a hard concept for me to grasp and it was an idea that I had to accept and adopt, as formal schooling certainly did not introduce me to the trial and error model of learning.
However, I also believe that not everyone needs to reinvent the wheel. If students in the digital media classrooms enjoy, have an interest in, learning more about these platforms, I think time should be made to explore them. Templates created by designers on platforms such as Canva are useful, beautiful tools that can be used, explored and enjoyed by students.
Playing with Canva
Creating the infographic for this article, and using Canva for the first time, I enjoyed working with the platform. Canva provides beautiful templates, but that doesn’t mean that one has to use them as they are. I think Canva templates could also be used as a creative starting point for students. They were definitely that for me. I enjoyed playing with the different features of this platform and creating the ghost characters in the infographic by layering different shapes. I also enjoyed that you could try the platform for free for the first month, so that someone just starting on the platform can explore all features for free.
Approach Ghosts with Caution!
Learning how to code and creating a website from scratch is a valuable skill. In addition, learning the coding language will serve students in the years to come but I think that template platforms are also valuable and can be used to benefit us as teachers to present information in a creative way. Students can use these platforms creatively present their ideas. However, students should be aware that their knowledge about these platforms can be obsolete in a few years because they are always changing. Furthermore, students’ ability to present information creatively will always depend on such platforms if they don’t put an effort to learn the basics of more open-ended tools such as photoshop or coding languages.
For this assignment, I decided to explore Hincks article called ‘‘Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom’’ to delineate the critical digital pedagogy. Hinks focuses on the linear way of learning that our school systems have ultimately developed. It was a very interesting topic to read because Hincks also incorporated and analyzed the different roles, effects, and applications that the media has on K-12 students. Throughout the article, there are diverse questions that got brought up discussing whether or not these shortcut/template websites are killing student’s creativity. I agree with the statement that school systems are killing student’s creativity due to the fact that teachers are promoting websites that are very user-friendly and offer pre-made templates with copy and paste features. In the past, I found these programs to be exceptional and convenient; however, I have concluded that students lack opportunities to express their creativity and imagination. Consequently, we are encouraging students to use shortcut/template-based applications in which their learning diminishes, and they do not gain any valuable skills. Are we praising students for following rigid instructions to achieve an overall expectation? Yes, yes we are.
https://www.daglega.com/ This image is a human’s brain that is exploding with creativity. It is illustrated through the use of vibrant colours and sketches.
Personally, my classroom experiences have also included these shortcut template features. Every student was at a different level, and I found that by using these pre-designed templates, it justified that every student was forced to start with an identical base. Based on my teaching and learning comprehension thus far, my future students should be compelled to contribute their thoughts, and not be frightened to take risks while exploring a variety of softwares. I will allow my future students to have freedom in order to explore self-expression, creativity, and analytical thinking. I included keywords that circled the main image of the brain featured in my Glogster because I found these qualities to be very important when I was a student. Based on my experiences, not only will my students learn from me, but I will learn from them. The year I obtain my Bachelor of Education is not the year that I stop learning. With that being said, I will continuously strive to attend conferences, additional courses/qualifications and discuss with my colleagues.
Additionally, this technological barrier that co-exists amongst generations may be concerning the teacher’s inability to fully understand the technology and their willingness to experiment with the digital technological education process. Even if educators leave the templates and long-established worksheets behind, and apply technologies that encourage risk-taking, exploration and intuition, the expectations still linger in the classroom affecting student’s willingness to experiment with different learning approaches. Nonetheless, a good number of teachers are adapted to traditional school cultures designing one correct method to attain the ‘right answer’. With that being said, it generates students to feel frightened to take risks because they are afraid of the trial-and-error process. The trial-and-error processes are very important for students to gain valuable knowledge and application-based skills in the field because they will ultimately learn from their mistakes. I believe students do not experiment with different software’s because they are comfortable, and they expect instant gratification with an immediate payout; however, if we slowly begin to implement changes, we can convince students that results will be more rewarding and successful at the end. In educational settings, it is crucial to learn and get accustomed to using more complex and challenging softwares in order to fully achieve expectations.
https://thriveology.com/the-trial-and-error-life/ This image says “Trial & Error” and contains a pencil with an eraser that is frequently being used. This is to encourage students to make mistakes and try again. Nobody is perfect!
To conclude, I do not suppose these changes will happen overnight. However, with time, knowledge, and experience, educators will properly begin to implement new technology into their classrooms. As we learned in our Digital Tech classroom, chairs are a technology that conceptualizes behaviour, and students are always the ones sitting in the chairs while the teacher is standing, so all the attention is directed towards him/her. However, teaching is not all about the classroom setup, relationships with students or lesson plans, it is about adding concrete technologies that are missing in classrooms. In the near future, I look forward to guiding my students in becoming exceptional creators and individual thinkers. This article has provided me a whole new perspective on digital media and inclusivity in classrooms, and I firmly believe we should distance ourselves from the shortcut/template and copy and paste features. By doing so, educational institutions will lean towards creative applications that will explore self-expression and invoke risk-taking skills.
Leave the shortcut/template websites behind!
The future generations are full of capable creators!
For this assignment, I decided to use Glogster! It was my first time experiencing with this website, as I wanted to challenge myself by using the free trial that was offered. It was fairly easy to use; however, when it came to converting the glog, it was not user-friendly in relation to files and formatting. With that being said, I could not demonstrate my Glogster’s interactive features on UWinDig. Nonetheless, this is a fantastic multimedia application to apply in my future classrooms, as it is beneficial for all types of learners. I could certainly use Glogster as a source in some of my lesson plans to enhance a certain topic with visual representations and engaging educational concepts! I think my students would enjoy experimenting with Glogster because it is very interactive, and contains diverse pertinent images/videos.
After reading Ashley Hinck’s Digital Ghosts in the Classroom, I decided to try my hands at a sketchnote. Since this is my first time attempting something like this, I thought I would start with a medium I was most comfortable using: traditional pencil and paper!
One obstacle with drawing traditionally is once the mark is down on the page, it can be very difficult or nearly impossible to remove it, especially when using permanent inks and pencils. This means that a fair amount of time should be set aside to sketch out a rough copy to plan out how the space on the page can be used effectively. In my case, I made three rough copies before committing to a final version which was a bit time-consuming. Another drawback for me was creating the digital copy of my drawing. I used a large piece of paper for my final piece; a piece of paper that did not fit in my scanner! Unfortunately, all the lights in my house have a warm, yellow tinge to them which muddies the colours of the drawing when taking its photo. I tried to use some colour correction after taking the photo, but computers are just tools, not miracle workers.
Enough with my struggles, let’s talk about the process of making this sketchnote. It was my hope that the article’s title would be the focal point of the drawing. By selecting a very vibrant green for the lettering similar to what people may see on their own digital clock at home and using red (green’s complementary colour) for nearly everything else in the drawing, the intent was to have the words “Digital Ghosts” really pop out. I would like to note that I wanted the product and corporate logos to remain as close to their official colours as possible so they were spared the red touch! Finally, it is probably obvious that my sketchnote relies heavily on drawings more than words to get the points across. I wanted to focus more on the sketch part of the sketch note!
Hinck discusses a shortcoming that has appeared in her classrooms recently: a lack of enthusiasm in her students when building digital artifacts of their own. She brings up the banking model of education that she fears is still being instilled into students today; the idea that students are simply containers to be filled with answers. It was this statement that gave me the idea to draw her thoughts and ideas as little cartoons. In this illustration, someone is filling the student piggy bank with an answer key.
Hinck mentions several platforms that she believes contribute to students’ reluctance to learn digital skills from scratch. Platforms such as Instagram, Canva and Wix are some of the drag-and-drop websites that add to many students’ preconceptions of how to make anything digital. By providing pre-made templates, these websites hinder creativity since filling out a template can be much easier than designing your own format. The final piece may not come out looking exactly as planned and can lack originality due to the limitations imposed on users. I chose to focus on three of these platforms (though I drew rough sketches of a few others that did not make the cut to the final sketch including Facebook, Snapchat and GIPHY.)
The article mentions that some students feel very discouraged when they are confronted with difficulties and errors when learning how to format their own digital works without the aid of the template platforms. To drive home the idea that a mistake need not be a reason to quit, I thought of two images: a person despairing with the old fashioned head-in-the-hands pose we’ve all probably felt at some point in our lives (or possibly at some point while completing this assignment!) and a person continuing to work through their difficulties.
I made this set of images to show the limitations the template platforms place on creativity. The student in the top image is pleased that the stencil (or template) they are using will produce a butterfly (or a program/website) on the canvas, though it will be fairly basic-looking. The bottom two images has the student experiment with different hardware (Raspberry Pi), software (GIMP) and languages (HTML5) to create a much more customized and original work.
The last piece of my sketchnote I want to invesitgate in this reflection is the image of a student handing in a finished work to their teacher. Even though there is a pile of previous attempts and mistakes cluttering their desk, there is also a big smile on their face. The message I took away from Hinck’s article is that students have become afraid or ashamed to make mistakes, especially when making digital works. This may be largely due to template platforms offering easy-to-create cookie cutter works with little chance for experimentation and failure. The satisfaction of hunkering down, correcting errors and completing your work exactly how you envisioned it is lost on many students.
Perhaps if teachers focused more on the process of creating the digital work (or the process of completing schoolwork in general) rather than only acknowledging the finished work, students would be more enthusiastic and willing to try new things, experiment with new software and languages, and will be less likely to hide their progress and mistakes. This could also be accomplished if teachers showed students their own struggles with learning these new techniques.
On a side note, I took the article’s message to heart when preparing this blog post! I wanted the page to look a certain way, but the standard controls in WordPress did not include the formatting options I wanted. Luckily, this site also supports html code so I was able to move beyond the default setup of the website and customize it to look exactly how I wanted!
I choose to work with Ashley Hincks article “Digital Ghosts in the Classroom”. I choose to use Movavi Video Editor to create a video containing key concepts from the article.
To begin, Hincks’ article was an awesome read, I really enjoyed some of the concepts she chooses to isolate. In the article, she spoke a lot of creativity and how to incorporate that for all student. She used her digital pedagogy while portraying the concepts of templates and shortcuts which proves that students are used and familiar with step by step methods of direction. As this is being covered she hints that creativity is not being used and expressed by students as they simply follow templates and do not use other resources. Students follow templates to reassure success and that criteria are covered by what the teacher desires.
In Hincks article, she agrees that creativity is declined in schools and I can support that statement. having a teacher who was limited to digital technology for many reasons was a hindrance to my education. Not only did I not get the chance to create anything myself, but I never even got to see anybody work with technologies and spread creativity with youth in the purpose of education. Although throughout my education I have enjoyed simplistic work and getting familiar with important programs that are used in the field of work, I still would have liked to expand my creative instincts with technologies as I believe it can change someone’s decision on career choice. Personally, I am not great with technology but maybe I would have been with more exposure. Regardless, I feel for students who are technologically inclined and can excel as there are many careers in the field of technologies that do not apply to everyone and need specializations which would be achievable for them. As for a teaching standpoint, I will definitely encourage creative pathways and give opportunities for projects to be done online through digital technology applications.
Additionally, working with Movavi was a lesson in all, I challenged myself creatively and made myself a better computer person doing this. I learned key skills and expanded my technological knowledge. Movavi was limited however was easy to use and simplified a lot. The application was able to provide me with default setting and example to guide me through starting a video and from their creativity took the rest away. I enjoyed the fact that you could use many different technologies such as video and audio at the same time and in sync. This will help me bring creativity to every activity I do and allow me to effectively teach students.
Lastly, I will begin to incorporate technological ideas and creativity into the classroom. I believe it is crucial for students to have options and gain technological skills as the world is turning that way. I also realize that working hard on technological productions can be personally humbling, and can raise a major sense of pride amongst individuals. If a project can be rewarding to a student, I would rather they do it in that manner to inspire them to continue their life long education. I know that somehow my teaching will have the creativity and I will find many ways to incorporate it throughout many different pathways.
