Skip to main content

Crowdsourcing Woes

 sos

I decided to post my example for my produsage assignment on Facebook. I made the post in my ELA Middle School Facebook Group. I posted it in several other spaces, but here it is in case you missed it. 


I wanted some feedback and to see if anyone had suggestions or thoughts. Now I know we know that crowdsourcing is hit or miss. There's always that person. But I was surprised by the really strong adverse reactions that a few people had it terms of this assignment. Their issue was that students would be teased or stereotyped based on their song choices. 


I have to be honest, I am a music chameleon. I like all kinds of music and I don't pay much attention to genre (my real spotify playlist is a hot mess of awesome.) Also, I am also a firm believer in providing a safe space in the classroom. We don't tease each other or make fun of one another for our choices. Now I wonder if I need to reevaluate. 

The suggestion was made to come up with an alternative assignment for those who did not feel comfortable with this one. Should I do that? My thinking is that every assignment has a student who would rather do something else. But, is this one that bad. Do I need an alternate?

I also had a few people ask about students who don't "listen" to music. Now I wouldn't consider myself an avid music listener. I hear songs in the car,  in the grocery store, and from the students who I work with. I don't actively seek out music, or attend concerts. Don't we all interact with music in some capacity? I thought maybe I could clarify by adding that the music could come from a variety of sources (video games, movies, television shows, relatives, etc.). Is this enough of a modification or should I add something more? So here I am crowdsourcing once more, but with a much more specific group of experts who I trust more than the blind Facebook masses. Please let me know your thoughts on these thoughts. 




 


 


Comments

  1. LeelocinJuly 20, 2022 at 8:30 AM

    Divine Ms. D, i absolutely ADORE this assignment.... but also, I was a person that had severe music anxiety in elementary school (I was so anxious I would burst into tears and I had a written excuse from my parents...) I think an alternative assignment is a great idea, but this is a good opportunity to educate students on values of non-judgement, open-mindedness, and music appreciation (mindful listening)!!!!

    Your project is such a great idea, I'm re-evaluating my project, I want an extra boost!! Maybe we could DM and might you bounce some of your tiredteacher ideas onto me?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rachel WellmanJuly 23, 2022 at 1:43 PM

    TT, I can't wait to see what direction you went with your project, and I really appreciate you sharing the feedback you received on it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think Big!!!

  Full transparency I thought this produsage assignment would be a piece of cake. After all this is what I do. I have written thousands of lesson plans over the past 27 years. What actually happened, I got a really good wake up call about how teaching and instructional design are not the same. Let me explain. Good teachers think small. They write lessons that are tailor made for the students who are sitting in front of them that year (or class period). The idea of knowing your kids and creating an assignment that is tailor made for them is the goal. The ideal.  When I started the produsage assignment I approached it from this direction. What will the sixth graders that I have in my class this year be able to do? What do I want to accomplish with them? What I have come to realize that instructional designers think BIG ! It's not about what you need for just a few kids who you see everyday. Instructional designers create lessons on a much larger scale. The lessons you create nee...
Post a Comment
Read more

Social Media In Class! How Does That Work?

The Networked Knowledge Activities Framework (NKA) will be useful to educators who are trying to find ways to incorporate social media sites into the formal classroom environment. The framework outlines six activities that users participate in while they are participating in online activities. Online users collect, curate, share, broker, negotiate, and construct knowledge using the information they find on the internet. Collection refers to the process of saving a link for an item so it can be found and used later. Users curate information by creating organized collections of online artifacts. Users share informations that has been collected or curated in an online forum. These activities and their descriptions provide educators with a starting point when they are attempting to embed social networking sites into classroom activities. Brokers act as agents between networks of people. Learners negotiate to come up with shared meaning and understanding. Finally some learners ...
4 comments
Read more

Trust Me I'm A Teacher

The use of web tools and social media in a k-12 classroom is going to require educational leaders to trust educators. As stated in the article by Goodyear cries for pedagogical change are often not accompanied by the necessary support. In short we want teachers to maintain the status quo but also to be innovative and use new tools. As an educator this is immensely confusing.  There are so many outdated ideas and practices that we just do, because we always have. Why do kids have spelling test? If I can't spell it I can look it up using some sort of technology, but all across the country students continue to have spelling lists. When is the last time you had to complete a long division problem on paper using the standard algorithm? Chances are it was somewhere around 5th or 6th grade.   Students need to be taught explicitly how to use whatever the tool is being used.  While most of our students are classified as digital natives, they don't always possess the...
2 comments
Read more