Blog 7: Students as Designers & The Creative Spirit of Design
Blog 7: Students as
Designers & The Creative Spirit of Design
Good learning designs
engage students in using content to construct meaningful outcomes by
comprehensively scaffolding students’ ability to design.
There are so many important thoughts included in this! Good learning designs engage students. Isn’t that
what we’re trying to do all the time?
When we teach a lesson and are frustrated because it seems that nobody
was listening. Good learning designs engage students. What a great goal. To design lessons where students are
engaged. It doesn’t take pleading or cajoling. The students are engaged. The students are using content. They aren’t
just spitting back something they’ve memorized.
For the content to have been learned and internalized to the point that
students are using it. Fabulous.
Students are constructing meaningful outcomes. The outcome is meaningful to them. We are plagued with the question, “When are
we ever going to use this?” The outcome
is meaningful. The students constructed the outcome and it became meaningful to them.
Comprehensively scaffolding. That’s
where we, as teacher designers, need to think about what the students will need
across the whole project, to be prepared.
To be successful. If we scaffold,
the students can feel safe in their constructions. They can feel good about their outcomes. There is so much in this principal to think about. I think this principle really speaks to all that we’ve been talking about. What a great goal. Starting the process of being a teacher
designer opens up some exciting ideas.
I really liked reading “The Creative Spirit of Design”. It summed everything up so clearly. The creative spirit of design: imagination, creation-oriented, and
inter-disciplinary. As I said in another
blog, that sounds so much more fun than sticking to a pre-created pacing guide,
using materials that encourage repetition of skills. Certainly, repetition has its place in
learning, but to use imagination and creativity; to be involved in an inter-disciplinary
project. Thinking about the world as it
could be. Imagining “that-which=does-not-yet-exist”. These thoughts open up so many possibilities!
Engaged and meaningful, boy those are novel concepts aren't they. Why do I get the feeling mine aren't and I need to go back to the proverbial drawing board?! The next thought I have is how in the world am I going to do that. As I've reflected over the short time we've been in the program, I'm doing this all wrong but how can I walk a mile in their shoes so to speak. How can I get them engaged (not just participating) and make it meaningful and relevant to them now, not in the future. Their world changes so fast and needs to immediate that telling them they will need it in the future seems futile. I can wait to see what does not yet exist :)
ReplyDeleteThe idea of “that which does not yet exist” appeals to me as well. This opens up the possibility for our students to become critical thinkers about our society as it currently exists. Thus, they consider not only what our society currently needs but also what limitations do we have in terms of technology. This idea does indeed goes beyond pacing guides and has the potential to invite students to participate in progressing society forward. It is quite exciting and motivating for both teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteEngaged students with meaning comprehensively scaffolded through authentic activities that are designed to meet their needs... it sounds so wonderful and maybe a little utopian, but I really believe we can do it! I do think a key is to have collaboration across the disciplines. That, and time, and resources... but we are learning how to get around the constraints!
ReplyDeleteImagination, creation-oriented, interdisciplinary: these are the traits of the Creative Spirit of Design that we need to inspire in our students. I must confess that I have trouble seeing “that which does not yet exist”, as I am not that creative a person myself. Steering my practice more toward the “creation-oriented” is easier to see. I can picture my students more engaged when they are producing (or creating) something. I guess we tend to see our disciplines as closed, compartmentalized subjects, while real life is multifaceted and interconnected. Maybe by cultivating more the interdisciplinary I can start thinking out of the box of modern languages and embrace my practice more creatively and imaginatively.
ReplyDeleteIt is mind-boggling to think that of which does not exist. I think back through the last couple of decades. We have gone from Tamagatchi, and Nokia phones that you could only play snake on, to having a phone that does everything for you, self-driving cars, and the limits seem endless as new technologies are constantly created.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher it is challenging to think about how to prepare students for this constantly changing world. I suppose with these creative activities we can teach students how to think and make them 21st century learners.