3 C’s
“…we should be teaching skills laid on the foundations of creativity, collaboration, & critical thinking”
I ran across this line in Durff’s blog last week and I’ve been pondering about it all week and it made me think to myself, what if school was based on the 3 C’s (I’m not throwing out the 3 R’s). What would school 2.0 look like in my classroom if that were true?
Creativity: Students would be given opportunities to express themselves in ways that are creative and true to themselves. Even though I might demonstrate a technique I would NEVER expect a student to feel like they need to complete the task “my way”. I encourage individuality and applaud risk-takers and those who are willing the share their ideas and work. Students could work in a variety of medium (print, audio, visual, etc..) and also be encouraged to stretch themselves and try something new.
Collaboration: My students walk into my computer lab and are very territorial about where they sit. It’s like “this is my computer and this is my space – stay out!” First of all I want to get them out of their seats and walking over to teammates workspaces. Next, I want them to share and comment on each other’s work. This year my advanced graphic design and video students will each have individual blogs to share the process of how they created each project and show samples. Students will be broken into small groups and will be required to dialogue and comment on (at least) group member’s postings. We will also continue to use Moodle, wikis, google docs and shared bookmarks for collaboration.
Criticial thinking: This one is the most important! Computer classes are not just about “learning and doing”. AND it’s not just about the end product – it’s about the process and all the small and major decisions that were made during the project. I want to make sure that I give many opportunities for students to evaluate, research, synthesize, write, revise, create and produce meaningful work that is authentic and has value.
Teaching at a private high school I feel like I always have to battle the 3 G’s (grades, grades, grades!). Giving students opportunities to express themselves in ways that are creative and authentic and asking them to work together with classmates on challenging and interesting assignments will keep the focus on LEARNING and expressing their views in a way that is valuable and real.
