Re: Major Goals & Ken Robinson Response

In order for meaningfulness to be a term that students not only know but feel is important to them, we have to make sure to listen to students' requests and wishes, not simply thinking we know what is best for them.

So what do I mean by that? We at ITA talk to them about taking these classes so they can get great jobs in college, make films and music, or program; but primarily our speeches are presented in the future tense. We tell students that they should listen in class so that in college, but not know, their skills will be vital and marketable. We need to become more involved with the students NOW...learning what these students WANT to do, rather than what we feel they NEED to do.

Sure, ITA is a program that if completed leads to a student having this "free ride" to UW-Madison, which for many is more than enough motivation. But not everyone, myself included, has the ability to keep that future vision without thinking about some sort of immediate fulfillment.

A good example to prove this point is our we approach mobile phones and the acquisition of these phones. I think of my iPhone as having a limited shelf life, and once I get to the end of the two-year contract I'm ready to switch to the newest and fastest phone. I toss away my phone, and now I have another phone. But I don't think of where that phone goes, the resources involved in making that phone, and what the effect of that waste will be when I dispose of the phone.

May seem like an extreme example, but it shows that in many cases, and with mobile phones usually a constant case, we don't think about the long term implications but rather our immediate benefit. So let's take advantage of this...and get to know these students on a deeper level than remedial banter in the hallways, and find out what they care about and what's important to them NOW.

So as an ITA instructor, I need to start learning about what the students actually care about NOW, instead of speculating or in worse cases not being concerned with that facet of their life. The lab environment is sometimes far too pressed for time...and maybe as the lead instructor in some activities I'll have to take some time out of strict instruction and just talk to the students. I'm willing to do that.

As for the Ken Robinson talk, I'm do not disagree with any of what he is saying. I frequently caught myself nodding in agreement to what Ken was saying about schools being another example of a factory model. We tell students what "important knowledge" is, without accepting the fact that to the students this method and mode of knowledge is of absolutely no use to them.

How do we change that at ITA? I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Our classes have cooler names to them, and sure they don't exactly have "game design" as a part of their high school curriculum, but our method of teaching, and their method of learning, is almost IDENTICAL in many respects to what they get in a high school.

We need:

- to change the layout of ITA, the aesthetic, and the hierarchy of power at ITA
- to accept what is immediate knowledge for the students, and what is long-term and secondary to students' education every other Saturday
- to realize until we do this, we're not so much part of the solution as adding a bend to the problem

But things are changing at ITA. We have started to add CHOICE programs for students...worked through what Senior Capstone should really be to Seniors, and understood in some ways that typical teaching models should stay far away from this particular learning environment. Slow progress? Sure. But we're working at it, and I have yet to see anyone give up.