To
understand this I first asked some students what they value in my
classroom. After assuring them that I
was not trying to trick them and was genuinely interested in their opinions a
few students really started to open up.
In regards to the first question that I asked them, student R responded
that they liked how creative I allowed the students to be in regards to their
projects and that assignments were not always the same thing over and over
again. This allowed this student to
demonstrate their understanding in a way that was comfortable to them and not
just in a specific mold that was forced upon them by me, the teacher. While everyone had an opinion on this
particular topic, most students mirrored the response of student R. It was the next question that I asked that
got the students truly interested in sharing.
The
second question I asked was what they would change about their learning
environment when it comes to digital media and technology supporting
creativity. The most passionate response
was from student M who stated, “Creativity is important but there needs to be
structure in the project. Not just do
anything, but a little bit of guidance.”
This comes from a recent presentation that the students had just been
asked to complete. The guidelines were
simple, make a 5 minute presentation about a lesser known civil rights leader
that is creative and uses technology.
However, a PowerPoint presentation will not allow you to receive an A
because it is not creative. The freedom
that I provided the students was apparently too much as most of the struggled
to come up with ideas that were creative and also helped with the classes
understanding of their civil rights leader.
Another student stated, “Creativity needs to be included in the class,
but it must be structured in a way to provide some guidance.”
After
hearing these responses from my students I was struck by a saying from a
superhero movie that I had recently watched with my son, “With great power
comes great responsibility.” While
technology is ever present in these students’ lives and provides them the
opportunity to be creative and passionate about whatever they are interested
in, it is too much of a good thing.
Creativity needs to be encouraged in the classroom but it must be
structured and have guidelines around it.
Without these guidelines the students are left feeling overwhelmed with
possibilities and lost in the creativity potentials allowed to them. However, as a teacher I want them to feel a
bit of stress and see what they produce when they have all the possibilities of
their creative mind available to them.
Taking into consideration what my students said, I will definitely try
to provide more guidance as to what is expected of them during projects, but it
will definitely be a balancing act of providing guidelines for the students
while also allowing them the flexibility to be creative in their work.
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