Ending My Digital Storytelling Experience
As I wrap up the close of my Digital Storytelling experience I reflect on how far I’ve come to becoming “knowlege-able”. Which refers to the understanding that being media literate has evolved into a new type of literacy that creates “nurturing, empathy, creativity, culture, and learning”. In this relatively new space we reali
ze that we no longer ask what to teach, instead we ask why we must teach, and question the very nature of our classrooms and the concept of education.
This progression was especially evident after watching the “Future Learning”, a mini documentary, discussing how we are just now being to question how we structure our classrooms, what topics are important now and what will be important in the future. One of my favorite and enlightening quotes from the film was by Sugata Mitra, who said:
“Who’s education?...the one of the military” “The teacher will say but how will they survive these are basic life skills?” and we will say “No ma’am the world has changed. These things are now sports.”
This quote is only a paraprash of his point. But his insight was provocative because it really made you question the relevancy of what we are learning in schools, and more importantly why. I especially like how Mitra listed three of the topic important skills that will be needed in our educational curriculum. He believes that first, the student must have exceptional reading comprehension skills. The student would need to know how to critically evaluate reading matter, analysis it, and synthesis into usable matter. I agree, as more and more content is going online, in our digital age, the mass population will be well-read, and only those with highly evolved reading skills will be able to decipher and understand, as well as communicate, effectively in the future. The second skill he said students will need is the ability, not to know useless and redundant facts, but how to search and retrieve this information instantly. He absolutely hit it on the nail, this is an important concept, rarely discussed. In the 21st century, the most effective leaders will know how to find the information that they need. Highly effective people will have an organizational system to hold all their data, and they will need to know specific skills related to searching such as: using keywords to search, advanced searches, reliable sources, and finding social learning networks that have become warehouses of living intellectual resources.
And why does all this information and data end up online. Because of the very nature of humans. Humans have an innate desire to be rewarded, praised, glorified, and accepted. All these primal instincts can be satisfied with a simple social media account and post. Information is being shared, sometimes for “self-centered” purposes.
Scholars have started to wonder if all this glory in it’s primal state is good for our generation, or are we becoming narcissistic jerks, unable to see past ourselves, all because we desire a “like” on Facebook, a heart on Instagram, a discussion on a topic that interest Us.
In fact, the discussion between John Foyle, Kyle Jordan, and Hunter Freiburg was the best discussion because it had the most insight on this issue. Hunter started the discussion by explaining his shock in discovering that “80% of all social media usage is self-centered in nature”. Kyle replied by saying “If I share an article on social media and share my views about it to spark discussion...is that self-centered?”. Surprisingly, Hunter responded by demonstrating his own research, he conducted on his own social media account, and stated that “ 3/4 of them were definitely about that person, or them reporting some source of pride (like a kid who just did something cool, or similar.) The other 25% was mostly stuff that that person felt was important (and is important to them) or something they thought was funny or interesting”. Which would mean that yes, posting an article that interesting you, the author, for the sole purpose of deciding to spur discussion, is in fact a self-centered act.
hunter_freiburg King Kong Apr 26 5 Ways 80% of social media usage is self-centered? Thats another shocking stat. I guess it makes sense if you think about it, but still, really narcissistic of us all. kyle.jordan King Kong Apr 28 I mean, I think that statistic is a bit inflated. If I share an article on social media and share my views about it to spark discussion, is that truly self-centered? I think not, because I want responses. But what would the researcher think?
John_Foyle King Kong Apr 29 I do not think that statistic is all that far off. I was looking at the posts from my friends on Facebook and 3/4 of them were definitely about that person, or them reporting some source of pride (like a kid who just did something cool, or similar.) The other 25% was mostly stuff that that person felt was important (and is important to them) or something they thought was funny or interesting. In a roundabout way, that is almost ALL of the posts being self centered. Granted, many of the posts were about the teachers day of action, and some were political statements for or against the White House, or guns... but even those are self centered because people are forwarding their own, personal agenda. I have to believe that some of these posts are really about making the world a better place, and not just serving personal interests, but sometimes it is hard to see it.
Scholars have started to wonder if all this glory in it’s primal state is good for our generation, or are we becoming narcissistic jerks, unable to see past ourselves, all because we desire a “like” on Facebook, a heart on Instagram, a discussion on a topic that interest Us.
As I progressed through my last experiences, becoming “knowledge-able”, I reflect on my own work, as either a narcissistic social media user or an educator wanting to spur discussion, creativity, enlightenment, or more.
I even took a quiz that would help me determine how narcissistic I am. I took the “How Narcissistic Are You?” Quiz, at https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/NPI/
The results were a 14 out of 40. From this experience I learned that I was a little more narcissistic than most of the classmates. The graph showed that I had the highest ratings in: superiority, vanity, exhibitionism, and entitlement. I will only admit to being a little vain but that's it. Overall the experience was Interesting.
I even had a discussion with my classmate, Robyn, on this very topic. Apparently, she was also one of the few classmates who took the same test and scored relatively high compared to our classmates. Which spurred a riveting conversation on the importance of having pride, being able to feel confident about yourself and your work. I said that what was interesting was that while we spend almost a lifetime in school learning to be humble about our abilities, once we get out into the real world, being a little narcissistic is expected of you, often in the form of a resume. We both agreed that students should be taught, or at least have some experiences, in which they confidently speak about themselves. And that such a skill was not a bad thing.
You can watch the full discussion at:
The course progressed with our class being asked to identify our favorite *autodidact* . An autodidact is a self-taught student, who is highly proficient in their subject matter.
I choose Frederick Douglass because I had just presented at the Bicentennial Frederick Douglass Interdisciplinary Conference in West Chester, PA. There I was reminded of the work of this great scholar, speaker, and autodidact. I read his book The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, which was about his life as a slave, and after, and his journey to becoming a prolific speaker and intellectual of abolitionist. He never really had formal education yet was able be a leader in the anti-slavery movement while many people still had no formal education or freedom.
It’s a humbling experience to be reminded of the outstanding individuals throughout history that have accomplished so much, with so little. But more importantly, it reminds us as educators to remember to look for this balance between focusing students to learn, often what we think is important to learn, and allowing students enough space to want to learn for themselves.
For the final round of the week, it ended with my group the King Kong planning our own module for the class. We used the tool, Padlet, which was my first time using this technology. It was a little difficult at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was nice sharing ideas, giving feedback, and trying to participate. But unfortunately by the time I uncovered what group I was in, most of the work was already decided, I did try to participate by inputting my vote on the available options. I learned as much the class in this final week of the module, as the concept of coding as literacy was quite progressive. I too played the coding game and was intrigued by the simplicity, the excellent use of gamification, and my own learning experience. You can find the Hour of Coding with Disney’s Moana, at
As I conclude this week, I learn that literacy is evolving, and that what we considered education 200 years ago, is inevitably going to have to change. Although it’s comforting to know that the school system will be slow to change, which is good not to keep up with all the latest fads of the time. But we do know that media and mediascapes are changing not only how people learn, but how knowledge is gained. Change is here. Even I, myself, have changed from my begin hero, to now the knowledge-able warrior.
