Although we all had the same task, each of the videos represented a unique perspective on the topic. To me, this exemplifies what Piaget envisioned in his concept of constructivism. Ackermann (2004) notes that according to Piaget’s theory, learners “interpret or translate what they hear in the light of their knowledge and experience; willingly or unwillingly, that is, they transform the input to fit their level of understanding” (p. 4) . This can be seen in the individual interpretations of this task. For example, one student interpreted the ‘best place’ as the actual container in which to drink the hot beverage, whereas some chose a geographical location (home, a particular city, their car etc.) and other students interpreted the concept of ‘where’ as the social context in which the beverage is consumed.
Papert’s concept of ‘constructionism‘ adds another layer of insight into our project. His notion of constructionism speaks to “how people’s ideas get formed and transformed when expressed through different media when actualized in particular contexts, when worked out by individual minds” (Ackermann, 2004, p. 5). In our video project, each of us employed multiple technological tools to achieve our goal and to translate our ideas to video; the results were as rich and varied as our personal experiences.
A third element of this learning task is seen in Vygotsky’s notion of socio-constructivism. Ackermann (2004) reminds us that “at the heart of socio-constructivism lays a simple idea; from the day they are born, peole learn, thrive, and grow in relation with others” (p. 7). The ‘warm drink’ video assignment represented a different technological learning curve for each of us in the class. It was evident, however, that the beautiful projects that we saw today would not have come together as successfully if students had not shared with each other various tricks and tips for manipulating the tools to create our videos. It was inspiring to watch our class sit with one another and help each other to solve problems with computers, to discover new tools that might help to make the task easier and to encourage each other along the way.The process and product of this learning task exemplify the relevance of constructivism, constructionism and socio-constructivism. From a teacher’s perspective, this is the kind of rich, multi-faceted learning experience that we strive to provide for the learners in our classrooms. Jacobsens (2010) notes that technology “is not just a tool- it’s way more than that; it’s a cultural force: it’s disrupting the way we relate to each other and it’s disrupting the way we connect to each other and those disruptions can be used in a positive way in schools”. If we look at this task from a researcher’s perspective, we can see how digital technology can be manipulated to tell a story from an individual perspective. Each tool that we use- the special effects, the images we choose (still or moving), the colour schemes, the narration, and the sountracks all work together to weave a particular representation of the idea the storyteller wishes to convey. In our class, no two stories were exactly the same because everyone is coming into the project with different experiences, values, worldviews and ideas and everyone used different tools at their disposal to achieve their purpose. As a consequence, everyone learned something new and valuable from each other in the process.
References:
Ackermann, E. (2004). Constructing knowledge and transforming the world. Retrieved from http://learning.media.mit.edu/publications/Constructing_Knowledge_Ackermann2004.pdf
Jacobsens, M. (2010). Hands on vs. hands up classroom. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/20923203
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