Mobile Social Media as a Catalyst For Creative Pedagogy Thomas Cochrane1, Laurent Antonczak2 1 Centre for Learning And Teaching, AUT University (NEW ZEALAND) School of Art & Design, Graphic Design, AUT University (NEW ZEALAND)
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Abstract. In this paper we explore how new technologies such as mobile social media can be used as catalysts for creative pedagogy rather than devolving creativity into simply a techno-centric exercise. To illustrate this we present a framework to support the introduction of creative pedagogies via mobile social media which we have used within the context of graphic design education. We briefly discuss examples of how the framework has informed curriculum redesign. Keywords. mlearning, pedagogy, mobile, social media, heutagogy
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Introduction
Design education seeks to generate graduates who can think creatively and become active participants of the community of practitioners associated with their chosen field of design. Supporting creativity involves a range of activities and pedagogical approaches (Danvers, 2003). In order to transform students into creative professionals, educators’ need to focus upon ontological pedagogies that deal with the process of becoming, rather than pedagogies that focus upon knowledge transfer. This approach could also be extended to other fields. In today’s world where the most ubiquitous technology is mobile (ITU, 2011) and mobile internet connectivity exceeds fixed connections, education must include a critical engagement with new technologies including mobile social media. Two concepts that are particularly useful as part of a framework to support the introduction of creative pedagogies via mobile social media are: the concept of the Pedaogogy-Andragogy-Heutagogy continuum (Luckin et al., 2010), and Puentedura’s (2006) SAMR model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) of educational technology transformation. Both of these pedagogical frameworks resonate with Sternberg, Kaufman and Pretz (2002) view of creativity involving incrementation (or modification of a current idea) followed by reinitiation (or redefinition).
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A Mobile Social Media Framework for Creative Pedagogies
Both learners and teachers invariably default to using new technologies within the scope of their prior experiences. This results in what Herrington and Herrington (2007) refer to as the phenomena of one step forward for technology, but two steps back for pedagogy. Thus we find that students and teachers generally adopt new technologies by firstly reproducing activities that they already achieve using technologies thay are comfortable with. For example Powerpoint presentations are imported to an iPad or iPhone. However, by creating a mobile social media framework for creative pedagogies we can design and integrate the types of activities and pedagogies that support creativity and move beyond substitution towards redefinition, and move from teacher-directed pedagogy towards student-directed heutagogy. We outline our framework in Table 1. Table 1. Creative pedagogies, technology and the PAH continuum (modified from Luckin et al., 2010)
Activity Types
Locus of control Cognition SAMR
Creativity
Pedagogy • Content delivery • Digital assessment • Teacher delivered content • Teacher defined projects
Teacher Cognitive Substitution & Augmentation • Portfolio to eportfolio • PowerPoint on iPad • Focus on productivity • Mobile device as personal digital assistant and consumption tool Reproduction
Andragogy • Teacher as guide • Digital identity • Studentgenerated content • Student negotiated teams Student
Heutagogy • Teacher colearner • Digital presence • Studentgenerated contexts • Student negotiated projects Student
Meta-cognitive Modification • Reflection as VODCast • Prezi on iPad • New forms of collaboration • Mobile device as content creation and curation tool
Epistemic Redefinition • In situ reflections • Presentations as dialogue with source material • Community building • Mobile device as collaborative tool
Incrementation
Reinitiation
Knowledge production Self perception
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Subject understanding
Process negotiation
Context shaping
Learning about
Learning to become
Active participation within the professional design community
Examples
Based on our 2012 findings we instigated further a number of mobile social media projects within a third year graphic design elective class in semester one 2013 involving eighteen students. The projects were not part of the course’s specified learning outcomes, but were designed to extend students’ experience and expertise beyond the formal requirements of the course to give them a real world collaborative experience. In the context of graphic design we extended the definition of mobile/video to design/animation as a bridge into the course context. Thus the goals of the introduction of mobile social media projects included: developing critical thinking, gaining a better understanding of the relevance of mobile social media, being able to use their graphics skills in an authentic context, exposure to moving image in general, discovering editing/story telling, refining composition/layout skills, and gaining intellectual independence (from a directed to a self-initiated brief). The mobile social media projects included: the use of mobile devices to blog and record student progress reports via the Behance.com social network, the use of mobile devices to present in class reports via screen-mirroring technologies (via Airplay to an AppleTV) while the other students recorded their peer presentations live using mobile video streaming via Bambuser.com, and finally participation within a global mobile film making project (ELVSS13) involving five classes in four different countries (New Zealand, UK, France, Columbia). The final collaborative mobile movie project was the most ambitious and technically challenging mobile social media project that involved students creating production teams across three different geographic and time zone barriers. In the context of the ELVSS13 project the use of both asynchronous and synchronous team collaboration tools provided an authentic context for the use of mobile social media. The ELVSS13 collaborative project involved two sub projects: the twenty four frames in twenty four hours (24f24h) project, and the State of Being project – where student teams collaboratively filmed and edited a mobile film to accompany a prerecorded opera made up of eight scenes (or tracks) that was subsequently performed live in the UK. The State of Being (SoB) project was quite complex, involving a range of mobile social media collaboration tools including: Dropbox for sharing mobile video clips, Soundcloud for sharing the eight audio scenes, Google Docs, Twitter and Facebook for asynchronous collaboration, and Google Hangouts for synchronous team brainstorms, Wordpess for student reflective journals, and YouTube for lecturer video feedback on the projects. The resultant collaborative video scenes were somewhat underwhelming as the teams struggled to effectively connect on a professional level
that we as lecturers had hoped for. However, student feedback highlighted the transformative nature of pushing students beyond their comfort zones to a space where they had to be creative. With the State of Being assignment, it was not a complete success but I think this assignment was the most unique out of all. It was not successful due to the lack of communication with the students from overseas. But it definitely needs to be taken more seriously when it comes to the real world of working. This assignment has definitely demonstrated its significant use of social media, such as Facebook and Google +. The hangouts on Google+ are ideal for group video chats and Facebook was helpful for quick contact and all the conversations can be seen from the beginning to the end. Working with other people is important to develop yourself as a designer as we help each other getting to know the other side of the world and share ideas. (Student blog post, 2013) The types of mobile social media activities that we introduced to the course were designed to move both pedagogy and student creativity along a continuum as illustrated in Table 1.
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Conclusions
In this brief overview we have outlined how mobile social media can be used as a catalyst for creative pedagogies when informed by the concepts of the pedagogyandragogy-heutagogy continuum, and Puentedura’s substitution-augmentationmodification-redefinition framework. Drawing on our experiences we have developed a mobile social media framework that can potentially be used or transferable in a range of educational contexts and fields to encourage creative pedagogies.
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References
1. Danvers, J.: Towards a radical pedagogy: Provisional notes on learning and teaching in art & design. International Journal of Art & Design Education 22, 47-57 (2003) 2. ITU, http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/at_glance/KeyTelecom.html 3. Luckin, R., Clark, W., Garnett, F., Whitworth, A., Akass, J., Cook, J., Day, P., Ecclesfield, N., Hamilton, T., Robertson, J.: Learner-Generated Contexts: A Framework to Support the Effective Use of Technology for Learning. In: Lee, M., McLoughlin, C. (eds.) Web 2.0Based E-Learning: Applying Social Informatics for Tertiary Teaching, pp. 70-84. IGI Global, Hershey, PA (2010) 4. Hippasus, http://hippasus.com/resources/tte/puentedura_tte.pdf 5. Sternberg, R.J., Kaufman, J.C., Pretz, J.E.: The creativity conundrum: A propulsion model of kinds of creative contributions. Psychology Press, Philadelphia (2002) 6. Herrington, A., Herrington, J.: Authentic mobile learning in higher education. In: Jeffery, P.L. (ed.) AARE 2007 International Educational Research Conference. AARE, Fremantle, Australia (2007)
