#UWinDig 2020

I listened to Questioning Learning by Chris Friend and Amy Collier.

Collier utilizes critical pedagogy, pointing out several aspects of the education system that educators have an opportunity to improve. I created the infographic below, which compares teaching practices that Collier condemns, and tenets she recommends in their place.

I used Canva to create my offering. Canva is a template-based graphics website which allows users to customize a variety of documents. My experience with Canva was positive – I was able to pick a visually appealing template and extensively customize my offering by choosing fonts, icons, colours, and rearranging the template itself. Tools are what you make of them, and Canva is definitely a tool with room for creativity, although I can see why some users may fail to customize pre-existing templates, resorting to a “Drag and drop” experience.

RISK IT ALL

What really spoke to me about the podcast was Collier’s idea of risk. In terms of the student-teacher relationship, both should be “all-in” in terms of risk. In other words – go big or go home! De-risking learning would be like de-risking snowboarding – there may be no risk of failure, but the chances of achieving something incredible are now slim.

What’s more, without risk, there is no excitement, passion, or joy. The idea of beacons, rather than learning goals, also encompasses this tenet of risk. Ask yourself – what would I be blown away by if my students were to achieve it by the end of the term? This is where the bar should be set for student learning.

The process of creation for this assignment incorporated a great deal of risk. Students in our classroom were experimenting with a variety of new technologies and demonstrating a unique way of expressing thoughts. We had a general idea of what to do, but a great deal of wiggle room in how we ultimately tackled the assignment. It was daunting. It was difficult. But this risk is what will create exciting, creative, unique learning opportunities.

OPPORTUNITY VS BROKENNESS

Friend and Collier also focused in on a language of opportunity within education rather than a language of brokenness. With critical pedagogy becoming more popular, we need to be careful that we are criticizing educational practices in a constructive way. A language of brokenness when speaking of the education system does not acknowledge all those who are doing great things already.

Diane Ravitch, the former US Assistant Secretary of Education and a powerful advocate for Educational Reform, echoes similar thoughts as Collier. A language of opportunity provides room to grow, while also acknowledging that the system already contains effective practices and exceptional educators.

Questioning Learning ultimately influenced me to think critically about best practices that are continually reinforced within my pre-service education, such as student learning outcomes. I hope to develop my own educational philosophy which will be centred around critical pedagogy and risk-taking.

Thanks for reading,

Megan Elliott

The article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck provokes many thoughts about some of the issues in our education systems. One of the main problems brought up in the article is that schools are killing our creativity by encouraging the use of “drag and drop” rather than making unique decisions. We need to encourage making mistakes rather than everything needing to be done without errors because learning from our flaws is the best way to learn.

The article critiques teacher’s use of template sites in web designing and other digital technologies as opposed to coding your own site. I agree with everything that Hinck discussed because individuality and creativity is something that is very underappreciated, and we should be able to choose what we want to make and not what someone has already made for us. Taking the easy way out is not the best solution to most problems in life.

I decided to create a sketchnote because I’ve never done one before and I like the idea of being able to write down simplified thoughts and leaving it completely open to my interpretation of the content in the article. When making my sketchnote, I decided that the main message I wanted to get across was that it’s okay to make mistakes. Making mistakes and learning from them is something that should be encouraged and not shut down.

Other pieces of the article that I thought should be emphasized were the concepts of imagination and creativity. I also put the quote “try and fail but don’t fail to try” on the page because it is an important concept to understand that you cannot fail unless you don’t try. More students and teachers need to have that mentality instead of automatically assuming someone isn’t intelligent just because they get a test question wrong.

Our education system supports the idea of right and wrong, but I personally believe in a less explicit approach. As well as the mandatory cut and dry assessments that will be required of me as a teacher, I plan on having more unique evaluation opportunities to give all types of students a chance to succeed in my class. Everyone learns in a different way so I will be sure to get to know all my students and their learning styles so I can be the best teacher possible. I’ve had some amazing teachers growing up that always encouraged me to make my own decisions and I’ve had some awful teachers that make you feel stupid for not being perfect. I hope to be the type of teacher that will be remembered in a positive way and really help students reach their full potential.

After reading the article Ghosts in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck, I decided to create an infographic summarizing the article. This article discusses students creating digital media.

Students have the assumption that creating content has a set of linear steps to follow with right or wrong answers. I chose to discuss the article Ghosts in the Modern Classroom because the title caught my attention, then while reading I realized how relatable it is to my own digital experience as a student and a supply teacher. I decided to do an infographic for this project because they are visual and include simple text making them easy to follow, read and understand as a consumer. 

In her article, Hinck suggests that students take digital media classes with the assumption that creating content is a linear cut and paste process. Templates and short cut platforms makes creating digital media easy and requires minimal prior technological knowledge. Programs such as Canva, GIPHY, WIX and Google Slides are drag-and-drop apps used for digital learning that give students a small range of predetermined answers with limited open spaces for creativity, exploration and unexpected failures. This means students are always guaranteed a working end product and the process has already been completed in the templates.

I appreciated Hinck’s points about the effects of the ghosts on students, where she explains how there is a disconnect about what digital media making in schools should be. Actually creating new digital media requires rigorous process of trial and error along with their own creativity. Without students understanding this process, it can be frustrating when there is no linear format to follow, leaving students disconnected. In the centre of my infographic I decided to add the definition of disconnected (as well as an icon) to further illustrate this point.  

When thinking about the process of creating digital media, I reflect on my own experience as a student. When given an open-ended creative assignment, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and not know what to do next without a layout to follow. I believe it is important for students to attempt these tasks on their own with limited direction to continue to further their own creativity. The creative process requires practice and the ability to learn from failure. As a teacher I will provide creative opportunities for students and encourage them to discover their own version of a correct answer.

I read the article Digital Ghosts in the Modern Classroom by Ashley Hinck. First and foremost, I disagree with Hinck’s claim that template platforms “reflect traditional school culture”. There is a benefit to efficiency in technology, as it appeals to those who don’t wish to pursue mastery of complex digital techniques (such as myself). A template website like Canva saves time for the user. Rather than offering sites like these as the only option for students, it should be offered as one of many. Students like myself desire a more systematic approach to feel comfortable. The reason I chose Canva for my infographic (below) was because I found my other options too open-ended and immediately jumped to a medium that I am familiar with.

Open-endedness in of itself can intimidate those who don’t know what to do with vague expectations and all of this power to themselves. The question arises as to whether students explore best with a blank canvas or a guided hand. It would disservice those who crafted these sites to call it an intentional choice to parallel the ghosts of worksheets, as they are meant to help the less technologically-inclined. It is innovative rather than restrictive. 

It should not be assumed that everyone wants or needs complex creation methods such as  HTML to make something that the user is satisfied with or proud of. The majority of students coming out of high school do not desire to learn programming languages, and those that do often find ways to teach themselves and work on their own personal projects without instruction from a teacher. Opportunity does not necessarily equate to an increased demand for complexity, even if it promises a more modifiable outcome.

I do agree that schools promote a linear method of thinking that often gravitates students toward a single correct answer. I myself often stress over assignments that have an unclear final solution due to this thinking ingrained in me from high school. It makes assignments in English especially difficult to be happy with due to the open-endedness and wild variation between each student’s final product. I do not, however, believe that we should veer students away from programs that only intend to help find a solution and keep them content in the creative process. There should be a choice for the less creatively-inclined.

While I have done my best to get out of the linear thinking of aiming for one answer, I think that utilizing a resource to narrow down one’s options is helpful to students like me that draw complete blanks if instructions are too generalized. It is my theory that if one wishes to pursue a more creative outcome, they will make the effort to seek out a more advanced method of doing so. Those who do not share this desire may not know what to do with a more complicated approach.

I read the article “Digital Ghosts in the Classroom” by Ashley Hinck, and composed a twitter essay in response to it. She says with how fast technological education moves, tools that were used not long ago already seem like ghost-like relics.

She also talks largely about how templates and shortcuts take away agency from students, by limiting their creative options. I understand her point, but feel templates are not entirely at fault, as they can either be inspiration for something else or be deleted from the get go. Rather, I think it is up to the teachers to make every creative option available to the students, and to treat them with the respect that transforms their class time from boring to productive and fulfilling.

The twitter essay was a totally new experience for me, as my tweeting history was very minimal. I had to learn to segment my thoughts into smaller bits. The biggest challenge was editing my tweets to fit the 280-character limit. I learnt my language had to be very concise, with every word choice being very precise; essentially, I had to learn how to get my thoughts across in as few points as possible. 

After completing my twitter essay, I see the appeal of the medium in how it gets points across with directness and clarity. It adds an attractive flair to both teaching and presentation spaces, and the limitations teach students how to be succinct editors. Using a medium many students use also helped me relate to their world, which reinforces Hinck’s notions of listening to the students. In education, technology should not be a barrier between individuals; rather, it should be what connects and inspires new generations, and students should have their agency to apply all their creative and individualistic energy to their projects.  

I would like to inform you that I did study the article “Digital Ghosts in the class room” by Ashley Hinck. I made a sketch note with key points.

This article describes on the lack of creativity coming from students when it comes to Digital Pedagogy due to how they are taught in the school system. It talks about the fact that students are so afraid of failure, that they will not try something new or more challenging. For this assignment, I planned to carry out a sketch note. I would like to challenge myself. I usually stay away from anything pertaining to art, but I wanted to try something new. I carried out this assignment on banking concept for financial information, knowledge of technology as a platform to update for internet and relative websites information. Creative school and traditional cultures had significant impact on digital ghost ideas.

The first topic I would like to add was the activities of GIF, HTMW and the process of using CSS websites, videos etc. The Article explains how students always think to do the assignment that will be less creative, but will give the teacher what they want. Students are taught throughout their education that doing simple drag and drop tasks will get you the top marks. I updated the logos of YouTube and Canva. Ashley Hinck goes into detail about how Canva, YouTube and Facebook work together to bring the users a easy drag and drop experience. This helps people put aside their creative side and take part in a simple user experience that these platforms use.

The next topics I visited were the degree of digital media applications, the idea of books and electronics as Hinck calls it, and the importance of trial and error. The concepts that people have so much potential when they use more complex applications, instead of drag and drop apps that they usually use. “The New Worksheet” idea looks at how the basic digital projects that students know well, is like giving out an old fashion worksheet. Like a worksheet, there is no creativity in a linear digital project. I put trial and error because the article expresses the important process of trying, failing and getting it just right. We can not trial and error as world having a lot of different applications.

The professional ideas and banking model topics I tackled on my sketch note were the examples of the lego, the linear and ethical thinking of digital projects in education, and the idea that we are all makers, creators, and speakers. The article uses the example of a lego to explain what kind of digital projects we should be doing in the classroom. Building legos with no instructions allows us to be open, creative and have agency. The article says these things should be in all digital projects throughout our schooling. The author feels that digital projects in traditional school culture only provide a linear approach to thinking, instead of being open, creative, and having agency. The article also tells that teachers should be giving students the tools to be makers, creators, technologist and speakers. Instead of linear projects, there should be more complex projects that allow students to reach their potential.

Thinking a sketch note helped me to put the information from this article into action. I carried out of my comfort zone and tried something I was not comfortable with. It allowed me to try some trial and error creating this artifact. It did not turn out exactly how I wanted it, but I will keep trying to perfect it throughout time. This article provided me with a lot of information that I will take with me into my classroom. I will add some creative digital projects that will allow my students to use their creativity. I will try to give my students the tools they need to become makers, creators, and speakers. I will also help to increase my Digital Pedagogy. Multi-media had a series of product based influences for personal risk and that market was natural. YouTube, Videos, GIF, HTMW, CSS were the updated applications to get information as social media. Finally, professional knowledge could incorporate all of those ideas in practical aspects of school creativity.