“For this kind of assignment, fewer guidelines helped the students find their own voice and style.”
Barth’s philosophy for Instagram assignments seems so simple yet so profound. Giving students the option to make whatever they see fit to demonstrate their understanding of the content seems like a critical error, but in reality serves as an opportunity for them to use the material in any way they wish, with the type of work they turn in only being bound by their own imagination. While some students may crave exact direction, many others can greatly benefit from loose restrictions on what can be turned in as “work.” It reminds me of an agreement my 12th grade English teacher had with us, one where she allowed us to forgo a typical paper and turn in any style project of our choosing. But this project could not just be anything, as we also had to prove to her just how it related to the material and demonstrated our own knowledge and analysis of it. The ironic thing? Nearly every time someone opted to turn in a creative project over that of a paper, they ended up doing more work than it would’ve taken to just write a paper. Yet the end product always ended up being a more perfect and clear representation of that students thoughts and feelings about the topic, more than a mediocre highschool paper ever could.
“Some students made memes, which takes a deep understanding of the material, and I love the remixing of old and new media forms.”
It seems preposterous that memes could serve as a litmus test of student comprehension, but just as Blarth states, it really does take a deep understanding of the given material. In order to make something funny, you must first understand the context of the topic, as without the context of the material being covered: the joke just won’t land.
“I found it to be an equitable way to share content and have students engage in the course and contribute their own thoughts using only their phones.”
Mentioning the idea that sharing content through Instagram is “equitable” is, for me, the core of the entire article. Blarth specifically points out that by sharing classroom material and assignments through Instagram, students were free to both absorb the content whenever they saw fit and create class assignments using their own personal style and artistic voice. It levels the playing field. By presenting the content through a digital platform rather than delivering the content at specific times in a lecture space, students are given the opportunity to acquire crucial information at any time they see fit.
I am currently workshopping a professional development for the Appalachian Educators Club on A.I. writing programs like ChatGPT and QuillBot, and a big part of my philosophy regarding the technology is the importance of its ability to provide all students basic writing skills, which has the potential to create a more equitable writing environment. It is important that the programs be treated like tools, as they give students opportunities to improve their own writing and more importantly, the ability to implement their own personal voice using it. The same way a calculator provides all students the ability to be a mathematician if they know what buttons to press to get a solution, A.I. provides students the ability to become incredible writers if they understand how to use it like a tool. This creates an opportunity for equity in writing courses that has (before A.I.) yet to ever be reached.
