OH NOOOOOO!!! I have been slowly accumulating ideas to transform my course, researching before making major changes, knowing my course was not the best design but would work in the mean time and would so be worth the wait. Until this week, when a student made this statement explaining how she is overcoming her confusion...'I keep telling myself to not ask questions just follow the given steps'. AHHHHHH! I have managed to unintentionally squash the creativity and curiosity out of student with respect to math. This is like a kiss of death. Needless to say I have been motivated to put my transformation into action tout suite. When I started teaching online three years ago, the technology I used seemed cutting edge but THAT WAS THREE YEARS AGO! I know how quickly technology is changing, so I am using the equivalent of perhaps a colored TV to teach. Not only am I using outdated tools, I am also using the outdated formats that are killing creativity. Yikes. What a wake up call!
I see now the importance of having an active technology plan, you can't just sit back and ride on what you currently have. Constant or ongoing evaluation of the plan seems necessary. On the other hand, evaluations of the students is a different thing. Robinson says "instead of examinations and tests being an indicator of how they are progressing, they are like continually pulling up a plant to see how well it is growing". A statement I plan to use to guide me as I transform my course to one with creativity, collaboration, and understanding. Evaluation of technology used? Yes. Of students learning? Not as much.
Is it reasonable to build creativity into our Technology Plans? Maybe. It definitely seems that certain technologies lend themselves to creativity more than others. But can creativity be measured and evaluated as part of a plan? And ideally, does it need to be? Robinson states about Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler "they did not solve an old problem: they asked a new question and in doing so they changed the whole basis on which the old questions had been framed." So perhaps we need to look at our technology plans not as a way to supplement current education but use it as a way to ask a new question about what education should be. The Burlington Public Schools District Technology Plan states in their benchmark "Technology is no longer an extra or supplemental material found in some classrooms".
On the flip side, I found an article on this business Creative Technology in China that plans to be less 'creative'. Granted it's a technology business and not a school but think the warning is real of the other extreme. "The company's "curse" was that it had been too "creative" and this led to too many ideas and launching too many products". So I suppose there can be a down side to too much creativity.
I just had a conversation with a parent whose daughter is a senior with top grades and a talented dancer. When discussing her options for next year, she was looking for colleges. Then upon seeing a Quixotic performance and taking some classes with them announced 'maybe I will just join the circus instead'. To which her father replied, 'Great! Go, be true to yourself and do what makes your heart flutter.' I found this very refreshing and
inspiring. I wonder if he is in the minority of parents with these thoughts or if people in general are seeing the lack of demand for higher education as Robinson pointed out?
Franklin, Benjamin. Retrieved from http://doe.virginia.gov/support/technology/edtech_plan/plan.pdf
Phneah, Ellyne. (June 5, 2012). Creative Plans to be less 'Creative'. ZDNet. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/creative-plans-to-be-less-creative-2062305023/
Robinson, Ken. (2011). Out of Our Minds
Your anecdote about your student's response was eye opening! We try to be so clear in our communications, which is part of our duty-- but for a student to reside themselves to not asking questions! Eep! Good for you for recognizing that.
ReplyDeleteI found what you had to say about the Chinese company cracking down on its "creativity." Sounds like they had more of a problem with evaluating what was launch worthy at the appropriate time. What a gift, to have TOO MANY brilliant ideas! It is wise to have standards and to seek quality.
Yeah, it's kind of a silly predicament, however brings to light the idea that perhaps moderation is key rather than going full tilt in one direction.
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