Sharing the Learning Electroncially
Sharing Documentation Electronically: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
In this journey of documenting and sharing learning in the makerspace, I have come to the conclusion that there are some things I'm getting better at, some things I have to develop and some things I have to simply start over.
For starters, I am very good sharing some of what is happening in our makerspace with my colleagues and professional learning communities on Twitter. I try for the most part to protect student privacy by only showing shots of the backs of their heads. (Even if their faces are shown, I ensure their parents have given informed consent) I endeavour to represent all of our students equally - especially after the gaffe in interpretation I realized in my last posting (documenting the learning of boys vs. girls).
However, as Stacey (2015) warns, there are pitfalls to sharing documentation electronically - that it is TOO expedient and we miss out on the value of the learning. In the process of sharing student learning, I am often omitting the all important step of reflection, posting just WHAT the students have done, not HOW they are learning or feeling. I must remember why I am producing this documentation in the first place to maintain the quality of the work.
Stacey (2015) presents questions we should ask ourselves before producing on-the-spot documentation:
- Have we included traces of the students' ideas, thoughts and questions?
- Have we taken the time to think through what this event means? Have we captured an aha moment, or the long period of trial and error, or the joy of discovery? Have we expressed this in an articulate way for the reader or viewer?
I reviewed some of my tweets in order to find out:
Not a great tweet - the caption reads "Designing planets is out of this world!" No trace of student ideas, thoughts or questions. I'm just reporting on what is happening, not HOW it is happening. I can do better than this.
This tweet is better. The caption reads "I didn't think I was smart enough to do this...and I did it!" Best day ever. This was a huge moment in the student's day - she was dancing around the library learning commons and was so proud of her accomplishment. She kept saying this quote over and over again.
I'm a little undecided with this tweet. The caption reads "Visualizing where Dash needs to go next". Have I captured some of his thinking? I guess you could say so - you can see that he is indicating where the robot should go next. (He actually was acting it out). Would a video have been better to showcase this learning? In this case, I think it may have been.
As I become more aware of my practices I know I will make the learning of my students become more visible. I will get better at this....eventually. :)
