Students
as Designers & the Creative Spirit of Design
I really
didn’t want to be on camera. There’s something about seeing and hearing
yourself on film that can leave you with a little butterfly of uneasiness that
I’d rather avoid. So I managed to be the cameraman with one small part for our
Students as Designers film project. My wife was a little surprised I didn’t
want to be in a starring role, “You’ve been on stage before” she advocated.
Film is different I thought and retorted. But the more I thought about it, the
more I questioned why is it
different? I surmised it’s because when you see yourself on film you are your
own harshest critic. At least I am - My
voice sounds like that? Ugh, I messed up that line. What is going on with my
hair? What is that on my face, it looks like I didn’t even shower today! - You
get the picture. It’s that inner voice that turns every little bump into a
mountain of criticism.
In
the end I thought our video came out great, better than that inner voice was
telling me it would be. We had a week to brain-storm and come up with an idea
and script to create a promotional video for the program we are in. Once in class
we hashed out our story-board, tweaked the script and set off to film. In less
than three hours it was done and submitted. We chose to focus on good teaching
design versus bad teaching design, and I thought we presented it in a very
creative way with a subtle positive result for our ending. The whole project was
for a way for us as students to practice our sixth design principle, students
as designers.
For
me to have ownership in my own learning had a tremendous impact on me. It
showed me that by turning on my creativity, creating whatever we could think of, carried the knowledge
of what I’ve learned in the class into a deeper more secure part of my brain.
As if that spark of creativity lit-up the dark regions of my brain and the
light pushed that knowledge down into the folds and crevasses. I don’t know
what turned-on for the others in my group, but for me it was the opportunity to
be creative, to help write a script, story-board, and film that got me going. It
was something powerful and something that powerful shouldn’t be missing from
the schools we send our children to.
This
week we not only learned about ‘Students as Designers’ we were also presented
with principles to help us as ‘Teachers as Designers’ not to fall into the trap
of limited views and formulaic routines in our design practice. In reading the ‘The
Creative Spirit of Design’ article by Jason K. McDonald we get three
characteristics that instructional designers (in our case, teachers) can use that
will help us to stay out of the unproductive ditch of procedure or formula. The
characteristics are imagination, being
creation-oriented, and inter-disciplinary action. Using our
imagination to imagine that which yet does not exist, and to consider the world
as it could be. Being creation-oriented means to be in a continual cycle of
creating by spending time in creation activities like prototyping concepts or
scenarios. Inter-disciplinary action is collaborating with other people in separate
fields or specialties, therefore gaining a different perception than your own.
These three principles help designers create effective and innovative
instruction by helping those designers by being flexible, able to adapt easily,
and by being perceptive, able to carefully examine situational nuances. These
are what keep good designers out of the ditch and on the road to effective,
innovative instruction.
I
think all three of these principles McDonald points out are great, but I am
pulled more to the inter-disciplinary one. For the mere fact that I like to be
around people who are different or in a different field than I am in. In
high-school I was chosen ‘friendliest’ as my senior superlative – I think in
part because I had friends in all the different ‘cliques.’ I could hang out
with the jocks one day and the thespians the next day. I enjoyed being situated
in either of their cultures. I believe there is real value in having an
appreciation for how others view the world. Now if I could just work on that
inner voice who views how I appear on camera…
Haha all of those thoughts were mine while watching our film. My voice really sounds like that, and my nose looks super weird from a profile view, and just ew! But it was a fun project, and it definitely helped solidify my understanding of the principles.
ReplyDeleteYour paragraph that starts with "For me to have ownership in my own learning had a tremendous impact on me" was my favorite ever. I think our students get really excited when they complete a project that they alone did the work for (as opposed to just completing something the teacher created), but they don't quite have your words to express it. It's so comforting to see the lightbulb go off and to hear them yell, "oh my gosh I just played the whole song!" like they just finished a marathon. I always remind them - they did all that work, I didn't have any part in the actual performance of a song, so they should be super proud of themselves.
This is great Jim. I have also been on stage and yet cringed a bit when I saw myself on camera. Mostly, I thought I should've chosen a better outfit and done my hair. I also thought the project turned on lightbulbs for me. I found it very inspiring to think of ways to incorporate more and more creative outlets from my students.
ReplyDeleteDon’t worry, Jim! I know how you feel. I’ve spent literally decades studying and working in production, and I, too, have always felt safer behind the camera. I worked on my high school’s stage crew, and when I got to film school I always opted to work the camera, so I could be behind it. There’s just something about being on video. I think we all feel a bit of that “I look and sound like that?” The way we appear on video is, for whatever reason, never consistent with our images of ourselves. You guys did a great job, though! Putting together a coherent video, as you now know, takes a lot of work and group effort. I think that given the time and resources we had, your shoot turned out more than fine. I think now you have a tool you can add to your toolbox as an educator. You can use video in the classroom if you dare to take it on!
ReplyDeleteI think I get why you gravitated toward the “interdisciplinary” characteristic from McDonald. Maybe it’s because the nature of your work is interdisciplinary. Don’t you mostly deal with other people's’ classes rotating through? From what you’ve said in class about your job, it seems like you do a lot of collaborating with other teachers. I think you’re setting a good example for your kids. Sure, there will be high school students who already know what they’d like to specialize in, but I think for the most part, we do our kids the best service when we help them to become well-rounded, to try out everything and everything there is out there. Keep up the good work!
Jim, I too tend to be my own worst critic and did not want to be on video either, but I enjoyed the entire process. It was fun and it didn't feel like learning was taking place because it was playful. Each week, my understanding deepens as our wonderful professors allow us to be students engaged in authentic problems, constructing activities that involve collaboration and sharing activities.
ReplyDeleteI crave being able to have a schedule that would allow a nice uninterrupted block of time to be able to do this with students. A flexible schedule would allow a class or group of students to visit on consecutive days to work through such a creatively designed activity of making a video in cooperation with grade level teachers.
Sigh...