In his write up for Task 7: Mode Bending, Juliano touches on some very important points. First are the ideas of individualization and differentiation:
“The benefit of mode-changing is that it forces educators to revisit what we are teaching and adapt it to our audience so that it is relevant to them and engages them.”
This mirrors The New London Group’s idea of trying to ensure that individual differences are not barriers to educational success (The New London Group. (1996), p. 61). Teachers need to recognize what mode is best for individual students and then try their best to differentiate the curriculum to the advantage of the student’s learning style. I agree with Juliano that this is not always possible as our curriculum has not completely moved away from the “stand and deliver facts” model to the more inquiry-based “Big Ideas” model that we are implementing, but with collaboration between students and teachers we are moving in the right direction.
“A holistic approach that connects the concepts to our students’ lives is how we are going to engage them and keep their interest and create opportunities for deeper learning.”
I still remember sitting in Physics class and the teacher rolling out an old school movie projector to show the class movies on motion and gravity (yes, the gentleman in the movie had a white short sleeved shirt, black tie, black glasses, and a buzz cut). This would cause most students today to slip into some sort of catatonic state, where only the glitchy embrace of a Tik Tok video would bring them out. Videos are harder with students brought up on not watching television shows per se, but shorter more “exciting” videos found on their phones. And that is another benefit of mode bending; it allows the students to show us, the educators, what type of media is beneficial to their learning. That way, we become better teachers and students have taken a step to being more responsible for their education. A win-win scenario for sure!
Juliano’s Mode-Bending Assignment