Case Studies: Pinterest & Google Classroom

There are a plethora of digital platforms that are used throughout education to enhance student learning. Two that I use most often in my classroom are Pinterest and Google Classroom. Below are two case studies on the impact and use of these two platforms in education.

Pinterest

Overview: Pinterest is an American-made social media app that serves as a visual search engine and allows users to collect pins and create boards of various things that inspire or interest them. The program was founded in 2010 and has amassed a huge following of users who interact with the site, sharing content, pinning content, and creating aesthetically pleasing content. In education, Pinterest can be used as a visual search engine, an inspiration-gathering resource, a planning tool, and a sharing tool.

User Engagement: 

On Pinterest, users can engage with content by pinning posts that interest them to categorized boards on their home pages. The "pins" link to websites or original posts that allow users to connect with content that inspires them. Additionally, communities can be created by mutual sharing of boards where users can communicate and interact with one another and their shared content interests.

Influence on Communication: Users can communicate through comments, messages, and group interactive boards. Additionally, users can follow one another or businesses in order to engage with consistent aesthetics or catalogue-esque pages. Through the Pinterest format, users have a balance of verbal and nonverbal communication. As the platform is built around the concept of gathering information and shared interests, by rights, the platform is built around communication. Using group boards allows multiple users to collaborate and build on similar aesthetics through invitation.

Information Consumption:

Content on Pinterest is presented based on prior, adjacent, and new interests. Users can set preferences when making an account that can influence an initial round of offerings if wanted, or you can just begin searching. On each main page, users will find an actively updating page of pins inspired by their most recent pin activities. You can also manipulate this page to show you pins related to your already established boards. The search bar at the top of the page allows users to expand into new categories by keywords. You can also dive through sub-pins by clicking on one and then scrolling to the bottom to see related. The explore page introduces you to different themed aesthetics and board ideas that may be completely unrelated or tertiarily related to your interests.

                                                       Impact on Learning:

Pinterest can be a great tool for students to use for several reasons. 1) It allows students to use a visual search engine similar to Google, but it can be easier to find results and inspiration in a creative format. 2) Students can save their inspirational ideas and other related content to organized and themed boards. 3) Students can collaborate and share their ideas with others, and actively communicate and work together. The downsides to Pinterest in school are that it is still a social media website, and so students can get distracted. Students may also spend more time scrolling and searching than working towards a determined goal. 

Privacy & Safety: The biggest issue with Pinterest in a school setting is the fact that Pinterest requires you to make an account. Most of my students already have a Pinterest account, and so they use their personal account,  but to make a new account, students do have to put in basic information like their first and last name and email. However, Pinterest does have some great privacy features, including controlling profile visibility, social permissions, notifications, privacy and data, and security.

Required Literacies: Users need to have some experience with general searching knowledge and language. Pinterest does have a suggestive prompt similar to Google once you start typing; however, you do need to understand how to utilize language to search for specific content. To collaborate with others, users have to be able to communicate effectively through messaging and connect by sharing profiles to be able to collaborate in the group boards feature. For students and educators, it is important to know how to utilize Pinterest like a visual search engine geared at specific learning and planning goals, so students do not deep dive into unrelated topics. Using group boards as a form of digital collaboration can be monitored, but there also needs to be clear communication on how the board will be used, organized, and its purpose, to be an effective tool.

Implications on K-12 Education: Pinterest is a fantastic tool in the art room. Many of us already have a Pinterest account where we save recipes, home ideas, design ideas, fashion or outfit ideas, art inspiration, etc. In school, Pinterest can be used to the same effect, almost similar to a digital sketchbook or digital planning board. Pinterest can be a great place to find ideas for projects, themes, and lessons. I use Pinterest frequently in fashion for students to pull different outfit ideas, styles, aesthetic concepts, and more, then save their collections to different inspiration boards. Using this platform allows students to engage with a very popular social media tool for educational purposes, but it can also relate to outside-of-school interests. At the high school level, Pinterest can be a highly effective learning tool for students to share their ideas and engage with others more organically.

Google Classroom

Overview: Google Classroom is one of the many education apps in the Google Suite toolbox. Classroom specifically is a platform that allows teachers to create a digital classroom space where potentially all classroom content, rules, assignments, and grades can be posted. Additionally, it allows students to interact with their school learning content and outcomes, turn in assignments, and interact with other students through the stream and messaging formats. Parents can also join the class to keep updated on assignments and classroom activities.

User Engagement: Teachers engage with this program by creating a digital classroom for their respective classes, then developing a myriad of assignments or materials for students to engage in their learning. Classroom also allows teachers to post reminders, set due dates, grade, and collect digital submissions. Students can participate in Classroom by turning in assignments, working directly through Classroom on individual assignments, utilizing the stream, answering questions, and engaging with their teacher and peers. Parents have the option to join Classrooms and can monitor students' content and due dates, as well as see grades. Communication can happen within comments, the stream through posts, and through email attached to Classroom. Additionally, clubs and extracurriculars can use Classroom as a way to structure meetings, events, and keep track of activities. 

Influence on Communication: Classroom allows students and teachers to communicate and participate with one another in a few ways. 1) Teachers create assignments and materials, or questions for students to respond to. 2) Students can ask for feedback directly through the platform, which teachers can actively respond to. 3) Students and their peers are in a controlled digital environment and can communicate with one another collaboratively or individually through Google Suite software. Communication styles are based on a message format or stream-post format, and communication can be addressed to the whole group or individually. I find that Google Classroom is much easier to use as a collection point and direct work and communication to other Google programs like Drive, Slides, or Padlet for more expansive collaborative features.

Information Consumption: Classroom is organized on a main page where all classes a person owns or is a member of are on one home menu. From here, students, parents, or educators can click into any active classroom they are a member of. On the specific classes page, the stream is right on the main menu where it has the most recent to least recent post train of assignments, reminders, deadlines, and comments. Students can click into assignments through the stream or use the upper Classwork Tab to see all posted content from the class. Information and content can be organized into subsections, which can streamline organization. Information can be tracked and turned into data for the educators, such as who has opened assignments or not, whether they have been edited or a new feature of analytics of the site including visits, interactions and data on assessment. 

                                                                                                       Impact on Learning: 

Postiive effects of Google Classroom on student learning and engagment is that all inforation is located in one contained area. It is much easier to track and see student progress if your content goes through this platform. Additionally, the ability to create individual copies of assignments for students create ease of use. Students can actively communicate with their teacher through a more private path than in class participation if needed. Both of these features allow students more avenues to successful learning. A downside to Google Classroom is that some students may not actively use it, they may also forget to turn in assignments or attach items to assignments. Classroom can also at times feel impresonal compared to a traditional classroom. but its perks outweigh its cons when it comes to a centralized and cohesive online space for content.

Privacy & Safety: Google Classroom runs through a schools purchase of Google Suites. This means that the program itself is quite safe as far as student data and security. The accounts are directly run through school emails and unless a specific code is provided, only those allowed may enter the class. 

Required Literacies: To successfully use Google Classroom, students need to be literate in the user face of the program which comes through repeititve use. Understanding where to find information within the space, and then submit information is incredibly necessary. Students have to be able to use basic computer functions like uploading and file organization as well. Depending on what features of Classroom are being used, students need to be able access different communication features to contact their teachers and peers including email, direct assignment comments, or general question or stream comments. These literacies and uses of this program will help students to engage professionally in a school based educational platform similar to a platform that could be used in a professional career.

Implications on K-12 Education: Google Classroom helps to make education easier in many ways. It creates a cohesive digital classroom that is accessible for all learners and helps teachers to organizen their content in a manageable way for students and parents. Using Google Classroom as a main information hub for assignments and materials content creates a place for students to actively find missing work, turn in assignments when they are finished and stay on top of schoolwork. Parents have the ability to keep updated on assignments and learning goals by joining their child's class and can support their children easily by being able to check grades, due dates and contact the students teacher. Google Classroom can also be used as a collection portfolio and can easily link to other Google sites like google drive for submission folders. It can also be used to create extensive learning modules with multiple attached resources for upper level classes.

References:

Google. (n.d.). Classroom Management Tools & Resources. Google for Education. https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_ca/workspace-for-education/products/classroom/ 

Pinterest. (n.d.). https://www.pinterest.com/ 

Shen, F. (n.d.). Pinterest: Discover, share, and Pins. Digital Innovation and Transformation. https://d3.harvard.edu/platform-digit/submission/pinterest-discover-share-and-pins/ 

New Literacies & Art Literacy: Annotated Bibliographies

  In art, there are so many ways to apply different skills, ideas, techniques, and concepts creatively. The freedom to explore and make is seemingly endless, especially when there are opportunities to create artworks in various or multi-medias. I love the concept of digital art as it connects to traditional art. Teaching students how digital medias were developed to mimic traditional materials and methods is fascinating and helps students to make broader connections and understandings related to art making. Also, how artists' abilities extend far into visual literacies, apt handling of techniques, tools, and professional digital programs. However, one of the issues I face is connecting students to thinking about how art and digital art are more than just making something without intention or just making in an app; there is thought, concept, and process behind what artists do. Additionally, keeping students occupied and engaged while making digital artworks over a range of themes, visual outcomes, and designs. Many students may feel that digital art is constraining, or they have only experienced one format. I want to engage them in the ways that art, digital or not, can be used simultaneously and cohesively to create artistic solutions to any problem an artist may have. I would like to focus my research on methods of engagement and creative approaches to critical, visual, and digital literacies as they relate to learning about and creating art, including artistic process, presentation, and reflection/responses. 

The following annotated bibliographies offer a range of information regarding the topics of digital literacy, visual literacy, critical literacy, art making, design, fashion design, trend forecasting and Artificial Intelligence in art.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Albers, P., Vasques, V. M., Harste, C., & Janks. H. (2019). Art as a Critical Response to Social

    Issues. Journal of Literacy and Technology Special Edition, 20(1), 46-80. 

    This article details the pedagogical connections between art making and critical

    literacy through a range of linguistic, cultural, communication, and technological

    perspectives focused through the lens of the relationship between maker, materials

    and process. Maker experiences at a 2017 Summer Institute associate the relationship

    between redesign as a methodology for critical literacy that opens makers to

    expansive creative opportunities. Utilizing creative play and process-based

    workshops, educators explored visual and critical literacies to converse and convey

    social issues. Goals of the Summer Institute include expanding critical literacy

    through making to inspire abductive thinking, redesign, and empathy in literacy

    curriculum. This article relates critical literacy pedagogy to creative art making 

    processes as each focuses on dynamic engagement with materials and topics,

    asserting that final projects or ideas are formulated after rigorous and intentional

    engagement with the materials.

Ballmer, A., & Tobias, J. (2017). Trend forecasting: Collecting the history of the future. Art

    Libraries Journal, 42(1), 19–25. doi:10.1017/alj.2016.40

    This article synthesizes the field of trend forecasting, plainly stated as the

    'archaeology of the future', in the context of fashion design, art, and media. Historical

    backgrounds of trend forecasting outline the consumerist and globalist diffusion of 

    marketing, manufacturing, and communications design trends. Specialized print

    and digital libraries collect and organize forecasting data used by designers to

    analyze. This article describes the literacy of the future and how artists and designers

    use data-driven analysis to influence and control cultural trends, fashion, art, and 

    products. Understanding how to read, manipulate, influence, and control outputs

    in this field is a rare and expansive literacy for designers in both art fields and beyond.

    Designers, in essence, have their own language of the future.

Boyd, V. (2012). “Whatever it means, you should have it”: Exploring digital literacies in

    arts education. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, 11(2), 111–125.

    https://doi-org.sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/10.1386/adch.11.2.111_1

    This article focuses on a study coordinated by Vic Boyd at a specialized art institution

    in the United Kingdom. This study assesses the constructs of 'digital natives' versus

    'digital immigrants' and the more ubiquitous transient digital user. Boyd's study

    comprises data collected from web-based surveys and focus groups assessing

    students understanding and use of digital literacies in art. Outcomes both align with

    and divert from preconceived notions regarding young individuals and technology

    uses in creative fields, noting that young individuals are not unanimously digital

    connaisseurs.  This study articulates the navigation between digital literacies

    and how technology should be used alongside traditional methods for creative

    learning in non-linear ways.

Dixon, N. (2023). Teaching Digital Literacy in the Context of Ai Text-To-Art Generators.

    Computers in Libraries, 43(1), 19–22.

    This article presents a two-part lesson on AI text-to-art generators and the impact of

    this technology on art and artists. This lesson example details the impact of AI

    technologies and how artists are both affected by and can use AI in art making.

    Elements of the lesson focus on idea generation, ownership, and creative application

    of AI. Participants' responses from the discussion and applied research are

    summarized into communication data points within the categories of evaluating

    outputs, role in the digital world, and limitations and capabilities. The author

    acknowledges the homogeneous tendencies of students in small study pools, while

    cementing the impact of AI as a positive learning tool. This article provides interesting

    applications of AI in education and the art world, and provokes discussion of art

    theory and digital literacy crossovers.

Jung, D.; Suh, S. Enhancing Soft Skills through Generative AI in Sustainable Fashion

    Textile Design Education. Sustainability 2024, 16, 6973.

    https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166973

    This article compiles research and data from a South Korean university study

    analyzing the use of AI in fashion design as a methodology for developing soft skills.

    The study formulated experiences meant to assess how soft skills are developed, their

    utilization in the workplace, how AI can develop and hone soft skills, and how AI is

    used as a collaborative design tool in fashion design. Design Sprint processes are

    utilized with collaborative design teams with a variety of fashion, design, and/or AI

    experiences to determine enhancement of process, human equivalency, and 

    collaboration of soft skills practice through AI prompts. Findings offer insight into 

    career development, the necessity of baseline technology and direct content

    knowledge, as well as that AI cannot replace the human creativity of fashion design. 

    The article addresses unique opportunities and examples of how to address AI in 

    educational design environments and how to facilitate group design processes for 

    textile designs in a modern digital industry. 

Tools, Texts & Talk: Analog & Digital Co-Existence

                                           

Analog & Digital Beyond the Screen

    Antero Garcia in Nondigital Skills discusses the concept of analog versus digital experiences and the importance of teaching with an understanding that digital literacies should be aligned with analog experiences as they are both commonplace in people's lives (2017). Students need to be taught digital experiences and how to engage within digital spaces, but often, the core of meaningful learning is based on the connection to past or potentially more relatable analog experiences. While we approach reaching from the standpoint of blending digital and physical learning experiences, we also need to consider how we are asking students to delve deeper into the concepts of digital literacy. Viewing digital literacy as a "lens for understanding", we have to undertake shifting students' interactions with the screen as surface level or just a search engine or social media tool to understanding how technology can be used to read the human experience or engage in opportunities to contribute to the digital community experience (Aguilera, 2017). Creating a balance between these two approaches is where teaching will truly unleash the best of both modalities. Opportunities for students to expand their experiences with the digital world in a beyond-the-screen way, while connecting to traditional and physical spaces, with the opportunity to explore with comfort and push self-discovery of new content through inquiry. 

Political Cartoons as an Introduction to the Broader Scope of Digital Literacies

    In my Cartooning & Illustration class, students explore a wide array of cartoon history from comic strips, cartoon animations, illustrated texts, and political cartoons, both digital and print. Reading through these various articles, I began to think of ways in which I could incorporate more experiential and beyond-the-screen concepts into my already established digital art curriculum. Inspired by the content of the "Fake It to Make It, fake news example (Aguilera, 2017) and the media literacy study (Jackobson, 2017), I considered how I could elaborate on my political cartoon project to create a more in-depth and new literacy-based take on the project. Currently, the project is based around researching different political cartoons, their humor, and their impact on social, political, economic, and pop-culture views. Students then pick a pop-culture topic they want to create a satirical "political" styled print-based cartoon. However, this could be expanded and modified to incorporate more new literacy elements.  At the basis of the restructuring, I could expand the research component to also consider how most people currently view media, such as online newspapers, magazines, zines, and social media, along with researching the content of the cartoons.  Providing this secondary research component would open a conversation about how those particular avenues prepare the information for the viewer. Additionally, how algorithms are used to sort and push out the cartoons using certain coding, tags, and hashtags for easy access on social media. Another component to this part of the project could be utilizing group research to generate multiple and changing perspectives. Coggins, Wohlwend, Bucholz, Powell, and Husbye (2014), in their play-based film-making project, attest to the organic generation and ability to freely create and expand on initial ideas as observed by the group of young girls creating their animation videos. After research, students would brainstorm visual representations of their pop-culture political cartoon and engage in idea critiques. Then create their cartoon either digitally or by hand, with the goal of the cartoon being uploaded to the computer. During this process, students would have in-progress critiques on their artworks and engage in collaborative spaces to refine their message and visual interpretation. Once the physical making is complete, students would connect back to the digital space by referencing their research to generate hashtags and key tags that would help curate their cartoon to sit within a particular genre and algorithm. As a culminating activity, students would interact within the digital sphere to push out their cartoon on social media or a UGC affinity space, connecting to concepts that they, as creators, can influence the media. They could then track their cartoon to see the levels of reach it has based on its artistic content and the influence of their algorithm choices. Sarah FitzHenry was quoted stating, “Our idea was to get students thinking critically about online news before they became independent online users in the snap-judgment world of social media link sharing.” (Jacobson, 2017, p.22) Exploring new media and literacies through this lens allows students to explore cartooning style as per the curriculum and consider their place as a digital creator and more aware user. 

Tensions & Equitable Solutions

    With considerations of this project's goals and inquiry activities, there are several tensions that could arise. Equally, due to student ease, comfort, and abilities of the school space. First is the tension of high school-aged students and collaborative group work. While many students are comfortable with collaboration, there are equal numbers who prefer to work alone or do not wish to share their creative ideas in discussions or critiques. To alleviate that issue and to provide an equitable solution, students could use a collaborative digital making space to collect, edit, and refine their research while completing the work on a more individual level. Additionally, keeping student interest within this project could be a struggle; however, relating the cartoon more to pop culture and their interests, more so than a traditional political cartoon will not only be more relevant, but also keep in line with the integrity of a political cartoon to poke and prod and controversial topics. Second, students may not want to spend all of their time researching on the computer, in which case, students could additionally bring in examples from newspapers and magazines to attach to their sketchbook or create a poster to coordinate with their digital research posters. Third, as Alecia Magnifico, Jayne Lammers, and Deborah Fields assert about sharing in affinity spaces, students may not be interested in sharing out their work for a variety of reasons including, not seeing relevance, fear of outside response or lack of response, thoughts surrounding abilities or sharing, but then not engaging within the shared space (2018). Additionally, to that point, depending on the outlet for sharing, there is a privacy concern with student information to consider. To address this, students' work could be shared anonymously through a social media platform or shared with a local newspaper or school paper to run the cartoons. They could also be posted into an online zine anonymously, then shared out by me as the "owner" who then tracks the collection as a group that the students could also access. The cartoons could also be shared through a site like Pinterest. Alternatively, the project could also work up through sources as students get more comfortable with sharing their work, starting by sharing their cartoons in class, then the school then a small digital space to a larger digital space. The ultimate goal to "ensure that the desired learning is theoretically possible and that learners can practically succeed" (Magnifico, Lammers, Fields, 2018, p.151) in our new digital learning spaces with application outside of school.

References:

Aguilera, E. (2017). More than Bits and Bytes: Digital Literacies on, behind and beyond the screen. Literacy Today, 12–13. 

Coggin, L. S., Wohlwend, K. E., Buchholz, B. A., Wessel-Powell, C., & Husbye, N.E. (2014).

           Expanding early childhood literacy curriculum through play-based film-making

           and popular media. In C. Felderman (Ed.), Perspectives and provocations on early

           childhood education, Early Childhood Education Assembly of National Council of

           Teachers of English Yearbook (Vol. 3).

Garcia, A. (2017). Nondigital Skills: Losing sight (and sound) of our analog world. Literacy Today, 24–25. 

Jacobson, L. (2017). Assessing News Literacy in the 21st Century. Literacy Today, 19–22. 

Magnifico, A. M., Lammers, J. C., & Fields, D. A. (2018a). Affinity spaces, literacies and classrooms: tensions and opportunities. Literacy UKLA, 52(3), 145–152. 

Integrating New Literacies in the Digital Art Classroom

Complicated Interworkings 

    As a digital art teacher, new literacies is a concept that I have to navigate daily, with technology being both an art-making tool and an assessment tool for students' understanding of functional digital skills. For the majority of students in my district, their lives revolve around devices: phones for games and social media, Chromebooks for classwork (when it charged), and, if you're a student of mine, a Mac desktop for art making. Considering what I teach, half of my students may have experience creating digital art before on either Procreate, IBIS paint, Scratch, or other animation apps, and cartooning apps, but many do not actually understand the interworking of those apps or the artistic processes behind their creations. They understand what's on the screen, but not what's behind the screen or beyond (Aguilera, 2017). They stop at the short, immediate success instead of digging deeper into the how or even further into the why. Additionally, many students have a learning curve with using a Mac computer as the shortcuts are different; they are learning a new interface, there is now a necessity to save files and they need to bridge their abilities to create in an app where the back-work is done for you to creating from nothing in professional Adobe programs. Many students struggle at first to make the leap, until it is broken down into bite-sized steps with relatable and relevant to their experiences. Thomas Phillip and Antero Garcia (2013) discuss how, despite claims, not all students are tech savvy or interested in new technologies, and that it can disadvantage learners if we focus on only "cutting edge technologies" as it forces all students to keep up.

Broadening the Scope of Digital Art

    In my classes, I look for a balance of digital "new literacies" and connection to traditional learning. I find that learning through this multimodal lens has two main purposes: expanded opportunities for student success and relatability to prior experiences. As Phillip and Garcia (2013) state, "Effective teachers are essential in differentiating, orchestrating, and negotiating students' individual and collective interests and capacities, whether technological or not, to support their academic and holistic growth over time" (p. 308). Students have so much access to the online world that they often think they can jump ahead with confidence before realizing that they are not as knowledgeable as they perceived and may struggle with asking for help afterwards. My main goals in my classroom are that students have the most accessible tools for success, and those tools apply to outside the art room experiences and skills. Many of the readings offered unique and creative new takes on what digital literacies can be and look like. I was particularly interested in the International Literacy Association's Literacy Today articles, More Than Bits and Bytes, Nondigital Skills, Plagiarism in the Digital Age, Reframing the Medium, and Rethinking Language Learning (2017; 2017; 2017; 2017; 2017). Though the majority of the articles are based on core subjects, their content can be easily modified for creative application in art. Reframing the Medium (2017) considers how film could be used as a methodology for literacy and an opportunity to expand students' abilities to understand contexts. In my animation class, I will often show films that relate to the type of animation that students are looking to replicate, and also as an expansion exercise for their comprehension of a topic. Students need to understand frame rate to create an animation, and many of my students are interested in the field of animation, but they may struggle to understand the scope of the animation field. To help students understand the behind-the-scenes, after students finished their stop motion project, we watched Chicken Run, as it is the highest-grossing stop motion film of all time and comprises over 110,000 images. Much of the students' feedback at the end of the unit was that their understanding of frame rates and smooth animation processes was stronger, as was their appreciation for the field of animation. Similarly, in Digital Art, a large focus is on creating digital artworks that explore how students can create intriguing digital artworks that engage with both students' interests and interact with others' interpretations and social contexts. Students make digital collages of social messages on magazine covers, icon packs that could be easily adapted to personal emojis, in addition to purely artistic works that utilize new technologies.  In this class, more than others, we consider what original ideas are in a digital world. "The internet is a public common, where other people’s words, thoughts, and ideas are available, often unattributed, and up for grabs" (Moorman, Pennell, 2017, p.14).  Projects and sources especially for photo manipulation need to be licensable and heavily altered so as not to invoke copyright or art appropriation. However, for as much as I love and appreciate the digital field, I also resonated with Garcia's ideas on finding a balance between analog and digital practices. "As educators, we should be more apt to challenge the kinds of digital literacy practices expected in our classrooms and to consider how these practices can better mirror the world around us, engage our senses, and facilitate authentic learning." (Garcia, 2017, p.24) Examining how certain digital processes replicate human processes or considering where and how information was gathered or made can create a deeper understanding for students. As well as allowing students the freedom to explore both analog and digital making spaces, where they can comfortably expand their horizons at their own pace. 

Ideas about Affinity Spaces

    Certain sections of these articles offered new lenses for sharing content and engaging more with a wider array of online spaces. I am intrigued by the concept of using a blog or similar digital sharing space for tracking projects, classwork and reflections of process and connecting with other students, rather than using a worksheet or a Google Doc (Hsu, Wang, 2017). I would still look to keep a creative and tracking sketchbook, as a sketchbook practice is an inherent art skill; however, sharing artwork with a broader audience can help students to build confidence and engage with a wider array of digital literacies. Alecia Magnifico, Jayne Lammers, and Deborah Fields (2018) article on affinity spaces was incredibly enlightening and reinforced observations I have made in my classroom. Students within the Scratch study enjoyed their time creating and learned valuable skills in a social digital setting, while accumulating new digital skills. Students were able to engage in new spaces with an open-source style sharing atmosphere and interact with other makers and maker-spaces. However, one of the key tensions "is that students who do not seek out their own experiences in online spaces do not comprehend the broader patterns or contexts of participation, and as a result, they may not experience UGC affinity spaces in consistent ways." (Magnifico, Lammers, Fields, 2018, p. 148) Despite their readiness to share a meme, post, or funny video on social media, I find that many students are not interested in readily sharing their work, either because they are self-conscious, unhappy with the work, or they do not see a value as they are not a professional. I am extremely intrigued by the possibility of branching out to a more open space to receive external peer feedback and interactions of student work, however, I also know that I would have many students uninterested in participating or participating in a minimal capacity, and so not reaping the benefits of more open source collaboration.

Where to go from here...

    From the many ideas that these articles generated, and that I will be doing curriculum edits over the summer, I am looking to incorporate more opportunities for students to engage with UGC affinity spaces and looking to incorporate more intrinsic opportunities for students to engage with digital media outside of their Chromebook Google Suites and Adobe programs. Even if we do not move directly into a UGC style affinity space in an immediate broad scope, as Magnifico, Lammers, and Fields discuss. I would look to create a smaller affinity space where students can comfortably share with an expanded field of their peers and community to create a more relaxed and approachable space. If that goes well, then I can begin to incorporate more expanded sharing opportunities. I would also like to look into creating a blog or similar style writing and sharing space for students to engage in. Even creating a Pinterest board with original pins and posts about their work would allow for students to create, post, share, and potentially receive comments in a supportive and artist and creativity-based platform. Previously, I utilized Pinterest as a type of Google with the ability to make inspiration boards, but it could be utilized for more. Reflection on these articles makes clear that the goal is to create more unique and engaging user experiences with expanding literacy and continuing the teaching of content.

References:

Aguilera, E. (2017). More than Bits and Bytes: Digital Literacies on, behind and beyond the screen. Literacy Today, 12–13. 

Garcia, A. (2017). Nondigital Skills: Losing sight (and sound) of our analog world. Literacy Today, 24–25. 

Hernandez, M. (2017). Reframing the Medium: Embracing film theory in the ELA curriculum. Literacy Today, 16–17.

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