Students love to talk about the future: what they want to do, where they want to go, and who they want to be. Even just a few years ago when you would ask a student what they wanted to be when they grow up, there were always a plethora of answers from teacher to doctor to artist to bus driver. I have noticed more and more students these days say they want to be a Youtuber or an Influencer. Whatever it is that students right now want to do, the common theme is that they want to be content creators. They want to share their own personal thoughts and ideas with the world around them and make connections online.
In "Why School," Will Richardson introduces us to Jacob Arnott, "a 14-year old Australian who spent three weeks in London covering the 2012 summer Olympics for his two-year-old website, the Sporting Journal." (Loc 185) This is a prime example of a tech-savvy young person who took something they loved and successfully turned it into content for other people to consume. In my future role as a Teacher Librarian, I would love to inspire students to think outside the box and come up with their own ideas of what to create and how to share it, or, at bare minimum, at least provide a space where they feel safe to experiment with different ideas and platforms.
I love stupid jokes. I love puns and wordplay. I love comic strips. They are so short and succinct. The good ones (to me) always end up having some kind of silly punchline to make you groan, or laugh hysterically, or, if you're like me, both. I also love that online comics have begun to tackle social issues. Not only can this platform teach you about other people's struggles and experiences, it does so in a relatable way that hopefully fosters empathy and understanding toward people you might not have thought about otherwise. I love Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Hagar the Horrible, Sherman's Lagoon, and more. Now that I'm an adult, I have all new comics that I love and can relate to in different ways, including Sarah's Scribbles, Fowl Language, and more recently, Damian Alexander.
Not only do these artists share relatable snippets from their own personal lives, they all have their own artistic style that is "not perfect." I always wanted to be good at art, but never was (or never thought I was). I have also always enjoyed technology. I've been reading online comics for years and always wanted to know how they did it. What programs did they use? What is their process for their ideas? How many times do they animate before they have it just right? I know these answers will vary from artist to artist, but creating an online comic strip is something that I really want to explore further and something that I think students will enjoy as well. I have a few programs that I am excited to test out, but I will leave this blog post on a cliff-hanger and keep them hush hush for now.
Bibliography
Alexander, Damian. Damian Alexander: Cartoonist and Storyteller. Retrieved on November 9, 2019 from https://damianimated.com/comics/
Anderson, Sarah. Sarah's Scribbles. Retrieved on November 9, 2019 from https://www.facebook.com/DoodleTimeSarah/ and https://sarahcandersen.com/
Gordon, Brian. Fowl Language Comics. Retrieved on November 9, 2019 from https://www.fowllanguagecomics.com/
Influencer. In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 9, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influencer_marketing
The Sporting Journal. Blog. Retrieved November 9, 2019 from http://www.sportingjournal.com.au/
Richardson, Will. Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (Kindle Single). TED Conferences. Kindle Edition.
Youtuber. In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 9, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTuber
This was an interesting reflection on your thoughts and experiences from the course so far, but was very similar to last week's reflection post. I was hoping for a bit more detail and discussion about the potential vision artifact, what it could do, be, and look like. There was only a small taste of what you are thinking at the very end of the post.
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