I found this to be an interesting phenomenon that I personally have experienced as a student and as a teacher candidate. Through the digital platform, it is easier to find and share information and the fact that emailing is not just a way to catch up with old friends, but is essentially the backbone for how most schools and businesses operate. Being able to find and locate information is one of the most important and transferable skills that students today need to be able to do. Additionally, manipulating the information until they can transform it into what they need will make our student successful in this new culture of learning.
One Question: What’s the purpose of taking something such as “a chase scene from Jurassic Park” and changing it into another genre?
Connection: As Thomas and Brown state, “...building a catapult, which may be a fun experiment for a group of high school students, entails putting together the principle of engineering and physics into practice” (2011, p. 94). My younger brother who is majoring in mechanical engineering now had a project in his physics class to create a small boat/raft that would fit himself and two other classmates and row it across a pool with the goal to be not to sink the boat. He had an immense amount of fun creating the project and, even though it did not work, he loved the “how should we fix it to make it work” aspect of it.
Epiphany/Aha: Something I found interesting was how students can take something and turn it into a parody or satire to show understanding of it. This was something I had never considered before, but I bet my students would really get a kick out of it and actually learn something not only about what they are manipulating but get a better understanding of parody or satire!
The idea of “‘learning to be’” actively involved in the digital world means being a part of the world rather than isolated in from it. Students today have a lot of things on their minds, but being a part of the always changing world is crucial to success not only in college but in everyday interactions between people. Yet, I would caution that students also need to be able to look up from their technology once in awhile and make sure they are having a physical presence in the real world and interacting with others face-to-face.
One Question: How can we help students balance social media and their academic priorities?
Connection: When Thomas and Brown state that people who are involved in the digital world often “t[ake] a personal interest in a topic and pursue[] it in a self-directed way.” I find that this is also true with myself. When I went to the Del Mar Races with friends, I decided to enter the hat contest just because it would be fun. However, I did not have a hat and I had no clue how to make one. So, I did some online research and looked at videos of how to design hats, paint hats, what glue to use, etc.). I found a cheap hat from Tilly’s and then went to Michael’s arts and crafts store to find something to help me design it. I’m proud to say that I figured out how to do it all by myself and it’s still one of the things I am most proud of creating (and I made it so that I could take it apart and design new hats in the future).
Epiphany/Aha: Something that students need to be aware of is falling down too far in the technology/social media hole and becoming addicted. I think that when this happens, students become less social, not more. With the increasing isolation, they lose valuable social skills and, as a result, will likely lose out on many life opportunities. One of my goals for this year is to make my students more aware and have them interact more with each other to develop these skills.
Imagination fosters questions and allows creativity to bloom. There’s a famous cartoon with different animals--an elephant, a monkey, a fish, and a variety of others--all lined up in a row and a man asking all of them, as a test, to climb a tree. Obviously the fish will have the hardest time with this--the fish will not succeed. However, if all of the animals were told to swim, the fish would be successful. Similarly, students have different abilities and strengths and it is through their own internal creativity can they be successful in this new culture of learning. As Einstein said, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” However, if this creativity and imagination is stunted, students will have a difficult time bringing out their inner genius.
One Question: Thomas and Brown suggest, “In theory crafting, players post programs, calculators, and spreadsheets to allow others to test and evaluate various combinations of gear and spells and report back their levels of success” (2011, p. 108). Couldn’t all of this time, energy, and man-power be used to solve real-world problems like world hunger or homelessness?
Connection: Do video games really produce anything productive (yes they can learn in the game but how does that help us in real life)?
Epiphany/Aha: As Thomas and Brown state, “When people stop learning in a game, they lose interest and quit” (2011, p. 111). I think this same principle applies to students and teachers alike since both of them hate being bored. One of the reasons I love being a teacher is that every day is full of new challenges and surprises. I could never sit at a cubicle and look at paperwork all day or have a job where I am not challenged. Similarly, I think that as a teacher I need to engage students so that they will continue to learn, not lose interest, and not quit.