Author: maggielauzon

Beginning with the clip that we presented from 30 Rock, which I believe is a fairly accurate representation of the state of much of the communication online today, the central ideas that I struggle with every day are the idea of expertise and public information.

With classrooms moving more and more towards being communities of learners and knowledge being created rather than curated, it is clear (as we discussed in our presentation) that teachers are no longer the safeguards of knowledge. How then, do we justify our positions as authority figures in the classroom? With our many years of higher education, class upon class discussing this same central idea, we have come up with more questions than we have answers, but the consensus seems to be that we are no longer teaching content, but instead teaching skills – and not just academic skills, either.

The advent of social and emotional learning means that teachers have moved beyond trying to teach children about books and numbers and into an attempt to mould them into socially literate, emotionally competent global citizens. But how does this apply to social media? Going back to the idea that “everyone and no one is an expert”, I am of the opinion that it is now part of our job as teachers to educate these digital native children on the difference between opinion and fact; information and misinformation; and most importantly, the difference between public and private.

The mere format of current social media means that one’s online presence becomes a highly curated version of one’s self. Social media is a place where opinion, fact, information, misinformation, public and private become a blur of share-and-share-again narcissism saturated with selfies and pictures of food. Racism and ignorance are rampant, ideas transform into certainties, and the failures of global education are evident in the poor spelling and grammar that permeate the platforms. In addition, the relative anonymity of online communication has created a mob mentality which, unfortunately for all involved, has real world consequences.

We must teach our children that online communication is no longer anonymous, that how you present yourself in the virtual world has become just as important as dressing for a job interview or knowing how to converse with superiors. We must teach them how to find and use reliable sources, how to recognize bias or slant, and how to defer to expertise while still thinking critically. Today’s children (or “screenagers” as they’re being referred to in Maclean’s) need to be taught that the virtual world has become the real world, that if they wouldn’t scream something out loud in a crowded room that they shouldn’t say it online, and that they need to be careful about what they share to safeguard their own privacy. In short, we need to prepare Generation Z to overcome the narcissism and entitlement of the Millenials, and begin a whole new era of social media.

My presentation today was based on the theory that having kids adapt material is the best way to assess their knowledge and retention of classroom content. In terms of fidelity discourse and the Bortolotti-Hutcheon article, I share their opinion that a work can be ever-changing and evolving much like we are as people. In support of this theory, I quoted Stephen King.

In a recent letter on his website, where he addressed “concerns” from his fans that the television version of Under the Dome is not faithful to the original story, King quotes the late James M. Cain in an interview with a young reporter in which they had much the same conversation about his books The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity: “’The movies didn’t change them a bit, son,’ he said. ‘They’re all right up there. Every word is the same as when I wrote them.’” (King’s full letter can be found here, and is definitely worth a read.) In an interview with Buzzfeed appropriately titled Stephen King Isn’t Afraid Of The Big Bad Adaptation, King addresses the same topic, stating: “writing a book or writing a story is like being in a room that has a lot of doors. I chose one to go through, but you only get one choice when you’re writing a novel. So this is getting a chance to go back.”

The “5 Cs” as outlined in the presentation are:

1. Creativity. Manipulation of subject matter is an essential skill for students to acquire, and the creative adaptation is a simply effective way to teach it. When a student is given the opportunity to choose how they approach a subject (choosing a show to adapt, as in the Shakespearean Sitcom assignment, or choosing format, language and style as in the Romeo and Juliet scene studies), they are not only identifying with the material but they are learning what skills they possess and can use to their advantage (ie. performing on stage vs using video; using original language vs translating, etc.).
2. Control. Put plainly, a student can’t adapt material if they don’t understand it. Following Bloom’s Taxonomy, adaptation is one of the last steps towards mastery. Showing they can adapt subject matter shows students not only understand the material itself, but they also understand the elements of the style to which they are adapting.
3. Conciseness. The ability to take a multitude of information, pick out what’s important and turn what’s left into a coherent narrative is, again, an essential skill.
4. Compounding. According to my Microsoft Word dictionary, compounding is defined as “the act of combining things to form a new whole”. This, combined with classification, is the heart of the adaptation.
5. Classification. The ability to classify or organize information into a logical format is not only important in creative projects, but is essential to anything from expository essays to recipes, or even learning trade skills.