EDU 653 Week #2 Instagram, Vine & Not Teaching

Great Teachers Don't Teach (?)
In Response to Article by Principal Ben Johnson at Edutopia "Great Teachers Don't Teach"

Mr. Johnson's article title is misleading.  He does not mean "teach" in the truest sense of the word, but rather he means the type of teaching commonly referred to as the "stand and deliver approach" or the "sage on the stage."  Mr. Johnson believes that true student learning takes place in an environment where "learning experiences are engineered" and "students are put into the driver's seat".  This is, as Mr. Johnson states, called constructivism, a teaching and learning theory developed by John Dewey whereby the teacher creates an environment where students must learn in order to to "show" what they have learned, otherwise known as project-based learning.

I couldn't agree with Ben Johnson more.  I am entering my ninth year as an educator (8 years as a teacher, 9 years as a coach) and I must profess that project-based learning is tougher and more involved on the front-end for teachers but much more rewarding and meaningful for students (and teachers) on the back end.  What I mean is that, "engineering" an experience (that usually unfolds over many class periods) takes much more creativity, brain-power, organization and elbow grease than does the traditional PowerPoint notes slideshow.  Constructivisn or project-based learning  - or whatever you want to call it - is inspiring.  Students begin to believe that what they are learning is important, that what they are creating is important and that they themselves are steering their own learning.  When someone believes they are in charge, that they are making the decisions about how and why to do something, they tend to buy-in more and invest themselves in the process.

Once I bought into project-based learning I found myself really thrilled for each class period.  I always enjoyed class and delivering a lesson, but now I was delivering a task or a mission and then helping along the way.  I must admit that I have crashed-and-burned on a few projects: The Trial of Marie Antoinette, the Crusades Debate and the week-long game of 'Age of Discovery' Risk will be relinquished to my back-log of failed lessons.  However, I have also crafted lessons (often using technology) that have kids coming in during their lunch periods to talk about the content, skip class to see their fellow students present a project, students visiting my classroom during the passing period to see how other projects in other hours fared and I have had students literally running to class.  When's the last time you heard about a student skipping lunch with his football buddies to talk about the merits of Pax Romana and Caesar Augustus' reign as emperor?  Or, had a students approach you after school because they want to make sure they can dress-up as Genghis Khan the next day?  Or, how about the class clown that tracks you down to have you double-check their upcoming speech to the class about Macedonian Hoplite battle strategy?

I have developed a simple philosophy that I think could also be a metric for Mr. Ben Johnson when talking about a meaningful classroom experience (which is what an aspiring great teacher should do):

I ask my students a simple set of questions after a project based lesson: How many of you talked about this assignment during lunch?  How many of you talked about this assignment in another class?  How many of you talked about this in some form on social media?  How many of you talked about this assignment at the dinner table or with your parents? 

Most often all students raise their hands for every question.  That is where the proverbial "lightbulb goes off" and the students realize they have actually learned something.

So I guess in the end, Mr. Johnson isn't far off the mark.

LINK to Ben Johnson Article

Instagram v. Vine
Response to Article by Adrianna Lee at ReadWrite Web "Instagram May Be Strangling Twitter Now, But This Fight is Far From Over"

I learned about Vine, the Twitter-owned social media video site, about a month before school ended.  One of my students, an athlete, was being "ran through the wringer" for potentially violating the athletic code.  The administrative team had found out about said athletic code violation via a six-second online expose - a Vine video clip.  Interested, I inquired with my students.  It turns out that the video social media site is wildly popular with teens.  They use the medium to post funny moments, statements, pranks, messages, and every day activities.  It is the video version of Twitter, instead of 140 characters you get six seconds of video.

However, as popular as Vine & Twitter are with teenagers, Instagram is even more popular.  According to an article on my Feedly by Adrianna Lee at ReadWrite Web, now that Instagram is offering a similar service, Vine use has plummeted.  The edge that Instagram has over Vine is that Instagram shares both pictures and video.  As of today, according to Lee, there were twice as many Instagram posts yesterday as there were Vine posts.

What is evident to me is the phenomenon-turned-norm which is the fact that people like to and regularly document their own life for all to see.  In an age where people are furious about our government using social media and the like to gather data, those same people are more than willing to post unseemly or incriminating or otherwise goofy videos that may or may not be flattering in the near future.  Whether it be Instagram or Vine, one thing is clear: teens will find the easiest, fastest, and most convenient way to share their own lives with the world at large - until the next big things rolls onto our phones and tablets.