Practice 1: Activity 3 - wider professional context

Activity 3: Contemporary issue or trend in New Zealand or internationally

The 2016 K-12 NMC Horizon Report identifies 'students as creators' as a key trend driving technology adoption over the next two years. The report points to the "growing accessibility of mobile technologies" such as Snapchat and Instagram as one of the drivers of this trend. My recent adventures in MIndlabbing and my own changes in practice with regards to the use of digital technologies made this trend of immediate interest. I have added the use of those very apps to my learning units in the hopes of shifting my students to be creators and not just passive consumers of content knowledge. It has been a challenge, for, despite their frequent use of these apps for personal communication, my students have been reluctant to use them to show their understanding of classroom learning.

That reluctance is one of the reasons that I am so keen to continue to push the use of digital technologies to drive this trend in my classroom. Somehow, it seems to me, that we have bred a generation of students who only want to regurgitate learned content and do not want, or do not know how, to do anything with that learned content. I don't think they necessarily enter high school that way; generally Year 9s are still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, eager to learn, eager to make stuff, and eager to please. Somewhere between Year 9 and Year 12, though, they lose that enthusiasm for learning and creating. Perhaps it is our tendency to over-assess at high school; perhaps, as Ken Robinson discusses, entering high school is like entering a factory, where we expect the students to churn out the one right answer to each problem, so that they lose that creative spark they arrived with?

Reigniting, or maintaining that spark by shifting students to be creators rather than just consumers could be very empowering, particularly for those who don't do well on written, standardised tests. Giving students the opportunity to create something new out of what they have learned, in a form of their choosing, allows them to take control of their learning and to be more deeply engaged in it. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills would also be enhanced as students figure out ways to set and meet goals and ways to create something that shows their understanding. 

To achieve this increased creativity and critical thinking, teachers will have to think carefully about the design of learning units. The NMC Report discusses the examples of schools that encourage student-led curriculum design and lesson-planning and have found these tools to be useful in promoting creativity in the classroom, greater engagement, and deeper understanding of complex topics. Kay Oddone (Scootle Lounge) also suggests that an inquiry learning approach or a design thinking approach to curricula planning would achieve the same effect because they both put the learner at the centre, making them active participants in the learning process. Design thinking in particular "emphasises the role of the student as an active problem finder: investigating, trialling, and creating possible solutions." (Oddone).

The NMC Report also points out the changes that this trend would lead to in terms of assessment. Mastery of an area of learning would be shown more through a creative process than through a simple test that makes students restate recalled facts. The reports notes that with the increasing use of technology in schools, and with teachers becoming more comfortable and more adept at using that technology, we are moving towards more learning and assessment through creative means. 

Shifting students to become creators doesn't only involve digital technology though. And, certainly it is still the case at many schools that not all students have equal access to digital tools. But teachers could set up makerspaces to allow students to let their imaginations run free, using trial and error to investigate and redesign and think up new ways to approach all sorts of topics.

The ability to think creatively, to be adaptable, to come up with new ways of doing things is becoming increasingly important in our constantly-evolving world. Young people today will have to be flexible and fluid in their thinking and actions to keep up with changes in technology and society. It is our responsibility as teachers to ensure that we nurture our children's innate creativity and divergent thinking (Ken Robinson) rather than stifling it through standardised testing and a factory-like approach to schooling. Employers look for problem-solvers, critical thinkers and evaluators, not conveyor-belt jockeys.

Another important issue that the report points out too, is the need to understand copyright and fair use. With students creating their own products and probably sharing it with the world in general, they and schools will need to have greater awareness of the issues around ownership and use of their own and others' products.

References
Adams Becker, S., Freeman, A., Giesinger Hall, C., Cummins, M.,and Yuhnke, B. (2016). NMC/CoSN Horizon Report: 2016 K-12Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved from http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2016-nmc-cosn-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf

Oddone, Kay. Making the Leap: Students as Creators, Not Consumers. Scootle Lounge. Resources for Australian Educators. Retrieved from  http://blog.scootle.edu.au/2016/11/02/making-the-leap-students-as-creators-not-consumers/.