Week+Five

I liked the video Big Thinkers: Sasha Barab on New-Media Engagement, “Failure is motivating. It allows kids to tinker.”

I liked this quote and am reminded about our discussions on assessment. So often when we take “grades” a students failure is not motivating, it is de-motivating. Assessment should be more about what we need to do to “get” the material not just a reflection of what we got wrong. I think that Sasha is right about why these “new-media” environments are so attractive to kids of today. It is because they can fail forward and learn how to succeed instead of just knowing that they failed.

I also liked what Gardner had to say in Big Thinkers:Howard Gardner on Digital Youth about being ethical within the new digital media. It is about: 1. Identiy 2. Privacy 3. Ownership/authorship 4. Trustworkthiness/credibility 5. Participating in a community

New digital media teachers are coaches and mentors because the information is so prevalent, it doesn not need to be about the facts anymore. Educating will become more of a challenge.