One of the topics of my workshop in San Diego was podcasting. It was a real bear, as my Audacity refused to operate predictably — (Tech is wonderful until you use technology to demonstrate technology). That problem, however, has been solved by reinstalling Audacity.
Since we did not have access to microphones for the audience, I recorded a podcast with the group, by asking them some questions about what they’d learned so far and the impact that they saw with student performance and their own performance as teachers. One of the members of the group of 30 mentioned something that I’d heard before. But the way that he said it sent me in a new direction. He said something about how blogs, wikis, and podcasting allow our students’ learning experiences to be more personalized.
At this, it occurred to me that as our youngsters are engaged in their social networks at home, it appears that they do not endeavor to create MySpace pages that are just like those of their friends. Instead, it seems that one of the goals is to establish and illustrate their uniqueness. They use their online information experience to project their individuality — their person. Of course, their expressions isn’t always authentic, that they will often project a person they are not, as experiment or as fun. But it is uniqueness none the less.
So what is it in the learning experiences that we maintain for our students in our classrooms that calls on their uniqueness, that asks them to personalize? If, rather than expecting them to turn in work that is the same as everyone else, we expected them to express what they are learning in a way that is unlike anyone else, might this be one way of starting to integrate, among other things, the Creativity and Innovation that the new ISTE NETS are calling for?
I don’t know. What do you think? What might this look like?
Mr. Warlick,
Great post. I just tried to show off Audacity and ran into similar problems. There will stil be some of those students (like me as a kid) who may try to hide and want to spit back whatever is required just to get it done. But, now this is part of the shift with encouraging kids to use more technology and developing their own voice, I think they will look to stand out more. It will be interestign to see what other people say here, I’m sure others are recognizing it every day with students.
Very interesting, prompting two responses.
Encouraging students to express their learning in a personalized manner ought to be one of the key criteria in assessing student learning. I wonder about the role of rubrics in this – a lot of rubrics that I see focus on technical elements that funnel students into common forms and expressions.
Second, the flipside is to wonder to what extent increased emphasis on personalized learning (and its expressions) diminishes an emphasis on community, one of the original goals of “school” as a community organization. There is a fear that the more personalized things become, the more indivudalized they become, and the more we risk turning into a “community” of “lonely atoms”.
I’ve just acquired a Nintendo Wii for my classroom. My students will create their own characters (miis) this week to personalize their game playing. Small step, but a fun step.
Isn’t most MySpace personalization just a digital form of Colorforms at best and bad design at worst?
Does that REALLY rise to any level of creativity or innovation that reasonable adults, artists, designers or even kids themselves would admire?
Also, merely talking into a computer, or the generations of recording devices before podcasting, does not automatically ensure that someone finds their own voice, any more than someone agreeing with a blog has found their voice.
Talking and voice aren’t the same. Clip-art and creativity are not the same.
I don’t know that the point of podcasting with students is to ensure that someone finds their own voice. I think it could be a step in the right direction and that it could change the landscape a bit. Finding ones voice is a process; podcasting and blogging could be part of that process, not the end all, but possibly a good starting point.
The MySpace pages of our students may appear unique but I cannot help but feel that there is a sameness about them as well. Maybe the perspective is poor. Perhaps my 49 year old eyes are to blame for that perception. Only occasionally does a MySpace or Bebo page stand out from the rest, for me.
As a 16 year old my father was not impressed with some of the album sleeves that featured an androgynous looking David Bowie. Was my father looking at them through old eyes as well? They looked quite okay to me.
Agree with Gary about the bad design of MySpace. Bebo as well. Ugly. Was rather pleasantly burnt at the stake for that utterance in the past.
Allowing for uniqueness in the classroom is possible. Submit the activity as a painting, poem or prose. Present as an individual or group. Now, how about developing uniqueness within a technological medium?
At this stage, probably due to a lack of breakfast, the only thoughts that enter my head regarding developing uniqueness within a technological medium is via simple education. All I can focus on just now is the visual. Share examples with students and whenever possible share with them some of the principles of good and original design. [That may not be easy, particularly if you do not come from a background with design experience.]
Perhaps just share with them a variety of examples of digital expressions that are unique, look good in your opinion and ask the students to do the same, with a simple explanation as to why. At least generate some thought on uniqueness.
I share books by Kathleen Ziegler, Nick Greco, Peter Wildbur, John Maeda, Alistair Dabbs and others on digital design/look and feel. Open up the eyes of the students to what is out there. That is purely visual of course. Writing and speaking, well, I need to work on that. Find some examples.
In the past, I have observed that various student competitions and also the writing of letters to newspaper editors have generated quite unique, and also worthy, forms of expression. What makes these two situations different to others? The students know that the general public, and not just their immediate peers, will actually view and possibly comment on their work.
John, you really got me thinking about the recognition of creativity in expression and age. I’m almost ten years older, so what came to mind for me was a conversation with my Dad (almost 40 years ago), when I asked him to listen to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, and he said it just sounded like chanting to him.
From where I am now, I’d have to agree with you and with Gary Stager, that the personalization that I see does not necessarily or even frequently result in creativity or effective design.
I love what Gary says, that…
This is so true. It’s one of my major harps, that the point is not to teach blogging or podcasting, but that we teach effective communication — compelling expression.
However, I do not think that you can gain voice, without the opportunity to talk — and you can’t develop visual creativity without the empowerment to select colors (even pink and violet) and even use clipart, though there is a point where you have to take the clip art away and give them Photoshop (or the like).
In my post, I didn’t mean to imply that students are learning creativity and innovation by designing unique MySpace or Bebo pages, but that we might use their tendency to strive for uniqueness as a way of helping them become more creative and innovative.
You asked what would happen if we asked kids to “express what they are learning in a way that is unlike anyone”. I have given kids a ton of options for expressing their work. I have even given them the use of my Wiki as well as their own blogs. And still, they turn in the typical “paper” or at best a powerpoint presentation.
My questions are thus:
1. How do we get them to use technology without assigning/forcing them to use it
2. Isn’t forcing them to use tech for certain things falling under the category of using technology for the safe of using technology?
When we teach anyone and ask them to complete a specific project, we have to provide exemplars of what the final product is. We also have to stress that the process is most important and the final product needs to reflect that.
These days we all know about differentiated instruction, well we must do this in technology expectations also. Use of technology will be appropriate to the learners needs and their comfort level. Once they experience success they can build on that.
When you are designing an assignment, you have to ask what are you assessing the technology or the content. If it works well with a paper or ppt then perhaps that is the comfort level for that learner.
David, your point about the need to recognize students’ (and everyone’s!) natural urge to personalize is such an important one. Pointing out how technology inherently offers a range of tools and environments to assert our unique voices/perspectives and how schools typically do not seems so obvious and yet so profound.
Doug, your reply is one I can relate to as someone also in k-12 education. I hear your frustration and can’t help but wonder if part of the problem, though, is that kids figure out how to “do school” early on. And once they figure it out, they go on auto pilot. Haven’t they learned that most of the time, they just need to produce what the teacher wants? That the teacher has the answer in mind and the kids’ challenge is to make the match? At least to some extent, I think part of the challenge is de-programming (or re-programming???) kids about what learning at school is all about. A basic tenet of brain research is that the brain seeks to make meaning…its own meaning.