Do schools kill creativity?

A few weeks ago, I listened to the recording of a webinar presented by Ken Robinson PhD. He talked about his book The element-how finding your passion changes everything and how his ideas can be applied in schools as well as in society in general. The first point that he discussed was “Do schools kill creativity?” Mr. Robinson explained that education should set up conditions to help students to find their passions. In order to do so, teachers should focus on individual needs, care about students’ feelings, respect their talents, work on strategies development and get students to gain self-confidence. Ken Robinson also mentions the importance of drama and teamwork in the development of students’ creativity. The second point discussed was “Are people afraid of passions?” Ken Robinson says that people are afraid of passions because it requires engagement. He also adds that the problem in today’s society is that people are disconnected spiritually because they do not do what they want. Thus, they should explore their passions to feel spiritually energized.

I really enjoyed this webinar and I agree with Mr. Robinson when he mentions: “Technology and economy are changing so fast. The only place where we can invest is in ourselves.” As a future teacher, I have to help students to discover what their passions are as well as to make sure that students do no judge other’s passions. I realize that sometimes teachers focus too much on the theory they have to teach instead of focusing on students’ needs. It is important to make sure that the classroom environment provides place for diversity and that students respect each other. A good way to do so is to create a LES about passions or even to implement drama in the ESL classroom. 

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

This week, we watched a video about using social networking tools in the classroom. Vicki Davis uses all kind of digital media such as iPods and blogs to help her students to ''learn how to learn'' and to connect them to the world.

Vicki Davis believes that every student can learn and that it is the teacher’s responsibility to vary the activities as well as the tools used in the classroom in order to maintain students’ motivation and to meet their interests. She focuses on the fact that when the teacher focuses on teaching them how to learn, students become autonomous. For example, a teacher can use a new term and he/she does not have to define it because students know how and where to look it up using different tools. As she mentionned ''students should be thinkers''.

Vicki Davis also talks about empowerment. In other words, students become responsible of their own learning. She mentions that the teacher does not have to be in front all the time and neither to know everything. Students figure out notions by themselves and they can even teach the teacher. The goal is to empower students to share with one another.

Personally, I believe that it is important for kids to collaborate with other students across the world. I believe that it can be interesting for learners to share experiences with people who have different values and cultural backgrounds. Moreover, I see it as a good way to open students’ mind. They have to understand that being different is a good thing, especially in an educational context where we welcome students from all around the world. As an ESL teacher, I would use the International Tandem Network to connect my students to the world. I would choose this tool because it has the advantage of being easy to integrate to the classroom context and because it develops students’ reciprocity, autonomy and proficiency in the second language.

 

 

To watch the video, click on the link: http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-teachers-vicki-davis-video

New Media and Implications for Learning and Teaching

This week, we watched a video about the use of digital media in the classroom and its implications in learning and teaching. According to Henry Jenkins, schools are not evolving in the technology direction and teachers are not ready to use technology in the curriculum. Henry Jenkins focuses on the importance of building a collaborative environment, changing teaching techniques and on the need for teachers to be more creative. He also mentions that teachers should teach twelve social skills, such as collective intelligence, negotiations and judgment to make sure that students are able to work meaningfully with each other.

First of all, Henry Jenkins explains how schools are limiting kids’ access to digital tools. In fact, students cannot access information because some filters block websites such as Youtube even if it contains rich material. I disagree with Mr. Jenkins, because I believe that it is essential to have filters in our schools. Otherwise, students get easily distracted such as when they are logged on Facebook instead of focusing on the work they have to do. What is important is that teachers have access to websites such as Youtube and that they can show meaningful videos on the active board. However, I agree with Henry Jenkins when he mentions that some students who do not have access to technology at home can only have the chance to access it at school. As a matter of fact, if we do not give them the opportunity to access it at school then they will have no access to technology at all. I think that students should have the opportunity to work with ICTs when it is meaningful, because nowadays, technology is part of our everyday life and teachers have to prepare students to this reality.

Henry Jenkins also mentions a participation gap between the school and the community. He says that the use of technology has to be the same inside than outside school. This way, it becomes useful for the learners. I agree with Mr. Jenkins because I see a participation gap between my school and my community. For example, at the university level, we sometimes have to use softwares such as PowerPoint and some students do not know how to use them, while it seems to be the easiest thing to do on earth for others. A solution is to create shared learning opportunities across generations, as most of the time, the gap depends on the fact that people who are older are not used to work with ICTs. Teamwork becomes useful because students can help each others to become more efficient with ICTs. 

Another problem that is mentioned by Henry Jenkins is that schools are not ready to give up control to kids, families and communities of learning. According to him, the reasons are that many teachers are afraid that students will know more than they do about technology and that they are afraid to lose control. I agree with Mr. Jenkins and I believe that if a teacher creates a classroom environment that promotes collaboration, it will only become normal that the students can also help the teacher. This way, people will learn from each other.

The last aspect that is discussed by Henry Jenkins is authorship. I agree with him that students have to learn what is legal and what is not about copyrights. As teachers, it is part of our job to teach students about authorship as I mentioned in my previous post about the GoodPlay Project. 


To watch Henry Jenkins' interview, click on this link: http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-henry-jenkins-media-video

Beyond Textbooks

In today’s class, we watched a video about a project called Beyond Textbooks. Teachers from the Vail School District in southern Arizona found a way to share material with other teachers from outside the district and the state. They created a collaborative wiki for teachers to share lesson plans and resources online. The advantages of using this digital tool are that it is helpful for class prep, it helps teachers to discover different ways to teach different concepts and students have a sense of connectedness because other students are working on the same projects.

I think that this project is really great. Using a wiki to share resources is much more efficient than burning CDs or making tons of photocopies. The other advantage is that when teachers do not know how to introduce a topic, they can rely on their colleagues’ ideas and use their activities. The only negative aspect that I can think of is that people can use other teachers’ projects and decide not to post anything. 

In the article Evaluation of activities with a wiki system in teaching English as a second language, Andreja Kovacic, Goran Bubas and Miran Zlatovic mention that wikis can facilitate students' critical thinking. (Kovacic, Bubas & Zlatovic, 2007) I think that this is also true for teachers. It is not because another teacher posted an activity on the wiki that it is perfect. Moreover, if this teacher comes from another country, chances are that his activity will not develop the three competencies. It means that teachers have to use their critical thinking skills and adapt the material found online to their specific needs. Finally, I was looking for a way to share LESs with my classmates and I will definitely create a wiki to do so.

To watch the video, click on this link: http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-budget-resource-collaboration-video

The GoodPlay Project

Nowadays, the use of technologies has become more than popular with kids, especially with teenagers. Most of them spend a great amount of time online, especially on social networking sites. Obviously, the most popular websites are Facebook and Twitter. The problem is that youths are not always aware of certain important ethical issues. If we take Facebook as an example, some teenagers do not even know that they have to set their privacy seetings  in a way that people who they are not friends with cannot access their account. The other problem is that some teenagers post photos or videos of their friends that are quite incriminating. This can become quite embarrassing... The other issue is that some of them do it on purpose and it can even lead to cyber bullying.

In order to use these websites adequately, I think that the GoodPlay project is really interesting! Howard Gardner’s project encourages adults to help youths to learn and reflect on the ethical implications in the digital media. It explores five different themes, which are identity, privacy, ownership, credibility and participation. As I mentioned before, some teenagers think that only people they know have access to the information they post online and this can become a nightmare. Thus, a project like this one is essential in order to make sure that youths can protect themselves and respect others. This way, they will become aware of the potential risks of sharing information online.


To watch Howard Gardner's interview, click on this link: http://youtu.be/izRRmW5KKLY


Finally, a picture is worth a thousand words.......