Developing the lesson plans for my Learning in Digital Visual Cultures class became a profound experience. I thought about my experience in high school, and the big technological trends that existed at the time.
Most students had just begun to ditch their cool custom pagers for big bulky cell phones, and their cool Sony Walkman's for Sony Diskman's.
The iMac was making waves in the late 90's. The photo editor of choice was MSPAINT, and many people learned of the new and compressed JPEG file format over Bitmap or BMP.
Back then, this was the future... everything looked cool, and the world was jumping on a technological highway. We all know what we have today, but the contrast between these two era's are tremendous. In my lesson plans I thought to introduce high school students to the world of scratch, an online programing tool that utilize strings of code built into digital lego blocks. This allows learners of any level to code various interactive games and narratives as they build an understanding for the inner-workings of programs. Another lesson plan was to introduce students to the idea of building awareness through image remixing, utilizing Photoshop. I also thought to create a plan that introduces students to the world of 3D printing, by having them think of useful ways designs can help improve/enhance daily functions. They would also troubleshoot the possible issues they'd run into during the designing and printing process. Technology has come a very long way, but the minds of our learners have to go the distance as well.
We as teachers have the power to stimulate the minds of the youth in order for them to absorb an interest they find worthy of pursuit. It is this pursuit that will put them on a highway to an innovative world.
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