Troy Hicks, whose books about digital writing and connected reading are must-reads for any teacher, has written a great post for Digital Writing Month about the role that Infographics are now playing in our reading and writing lives — and how the visual shaping of data has the potential to surface stories. I was thinking of Troy’s post when I came across the results of an extensive survey of pre-teens (tweens) and teenagers by CommonSense Media about the role of technology and digital media in their lives.
You can access the entire report and key findings at the CommonSense Media site. It makes for a fascinating read. The infographic at the side here breaks down the findings into more visual understandings.
What jumped out at me in the findings?
How about the balance between the ways in which students “consume media” versus the time they spend “creating media”?
Only three percent of their time is doing, making, creating? Let me write/say/shout that out again: ONLY THREE PERCENT OF TEENS REPORT CREATING THINGS WITH THEIR TECHNOLOGY. (Sorry. Didn’t mean to shout. But it is important.)
We need to change that. We all need to do a better job of putting tools of making and creating into the hands of students. We need to empower agency. We need to show students that being passive recipients of information (including targeted advertising based on technology habits) is not enough.
When I am asked why I spend so much time with Making Learning Connected MOOC or Digital Writing Month, or any of the other online ventures that I find myself intrigued by, my answer to the question of why is direct:
I want to discover more ways to engage my students — those 11 year olds growing up in a world in the midst of significant change — as active creators.
So, we design video games. We produce sound stories. We make comics. We collaborate.
Much of this I learned from doing myself with other teachers, trying out new things and tinkering with technology. We need spaces for us to create and compose, too. I wonder what the results of this survey question would be if we asked teachers the same question?
Do you consume? Or do you create?
Speaking of creating, the activity with Troy’s post asks us to make an infographic. I did this one, about a typical writing morning (like right now, in fact)
Peace (in the think),
Kevin
We need a baseline for making sense of this statistic.Does this 3% actually represent major improvement, stasis, or regression? And what do we mean by creative? Is reading creative? Can be. Is learning the lyrics to a song creative? Yeah, especially if you learn them while listening.
The pie chart filled me with the same glee that I feel when I see an unguarded pile of leaves. Unadulterated squeeeeeeee.
Good question: ask teachers. Or ask CLMOOC or Digiwrimo teachers.
Reminded of the infographics Steven Johnson used in describing cognitive sinks in Everything Bad Is Good for You
antispamosity: woad snag In the great karsty woods of central Kentucky near Mammoth Cave live the woads. And the woads often congregate around the snags of timber that have been left behind a logged out acreage. The woads gather like Irishmen at a wake. They sing, they drink, they blather, and then as night approaches they light their lanterns and head out in search of the bastards who killed their tree friends. Do not approach this mob. Any who have never lived to tell the tale of the dancing lights of a woad snag lynch mob.
I recognize that Canva template. I like it too,especially that shade of green.
Not creative … Creating … I think there I a difference in this kind of survey … Kids are not making enough, not making their mark on the world … Right?
OK, is reading creating. If you are imagining a play’s movements in your head, damned straight skippy. If you are watching a YouTube vid on how to winterize your pressure washer because that is a task you need to do, then I think you are creating an action plan in your head. Yes? We relegate creating to making and that is a very big mistake.
antispamcreationism: ha hardup “Ha,” he said, “I have never seen a student so hard up for an excuse. Your brother’s sister’s cousin’s aunt needed a drive to the marijuana dispesary for her prescription? OK, I can buy that.”