There has been a great deal of buzz lately about “making” and production-centered learning.  As a professor of literature and writing, I have been enthusiastic about the role “making” might play in the classroom.  (Even those classrooms or courses that don’t inherently seem to lend themselves to making in the most obvious sense.)  But the truth is, this new found enthusiasm is sometimes an uphill march.  Should we relinquish our valuable classroom time to such endeavors that seem at best a crafty indulgence, or at worst, a waste of precious instructional time?  This summer I have continued to ruminate on these significant challenges, and certain moments have helped clarify my thoughts:

On July 9, the National Writing Project and the Educator Innovator network helped launch “Hack Your Notebook Day,” which featured a special writing-engineering-art “make” challenge developed by NEXMAP and its partner CV2. Working with circuit stickers developed by Jie Qi, a doctoral candidate at the MIT Media Lab, we were charged with lightening up our writing with copper wire, circuits, LEDs, and more.  We had many resources to guide us in this unique endeavor.  Through our Paper Circuitry workshops (in varying locations throughout the world), we lit up our collective inspiration and our voices, as we crafted through a hands-on STEAM learning lens.

Could this artful hands-on approach to writing serve pedagogic goals in any significant way?  In spite of nagging doubts, our paper circuitry “making” brought to our attention crucial aspects of learning.  The chance to engage in creative expression through the venue of writing, circuitry, drawing and light drew out many important reflections.  And while we all experienced this innovative approach to writing in our separate local venues, we also simultaneously connected through our social media platforms throughout the day.  Our learning was both localized and networked.  Here is a brief video which shares a glimpse of the Kean University Writing Project’s “Hack Your Notebook Day”:

What was intriguing during the “Hack Your Notebook Day” was the transformative power of this work.  I think that the the general consensus before the workshop was most likely that the time spent on this engagement would be a pleasant “time-out” craft session.  …A bit of time away from the “real work”.  But for all that, this “detour” workshop effectively opened up the heart of the teaching and learning enterprise.  Our KUWP teacher/writers were now assuming the position of the learners, embarking in unknown territory for reasons still somewhat vague to them.  In many ways, their positioning mirrored a similar resistance that kids today might feel when introduced to some “random” writing approach in their classroom.  By the close of our time together, we found we were transported to a fresh perspective.

What a revelation to consider the palpable frustration we experienced when we couldn’t make the circuits work (and the feeling of rising failure that might overcome us if we couldn’t make it work).  We also discussed the first time the LED lit up – the very real empowerment of that little light coming into view.  (There were several audible gasps and exaltations from our group when the circuits started to light up).  We considered why we chose certain aspects of our composition to illuminate, and what kind of thought went into selecting certain words and images to highlight with illumination.

The particular care and craft of writing was brought to the collective (and intuitive) foreground.  A poet considers the power of each word when composing.  With paper circuitry we all experienced the rich nexus of visual and textual representation (and the importance of the choices we made in order to produce certain meaning in this work).  We also considered the added layer of circuitry.  In this context, the additional engineering knowledge was harnessed to punctuate certain meaning in our compositions.  We agreed that this experience was indeed writing, par excellence.  KUWP teachers expressed a renewed empathetic understanding of their own students’ learning processes.  They considered anew how their own students might feel compelled to create and express ideas with this medium.  And we all thought further about how our students turn certain corners.  ….How they might discover new openings for communicating in meaningful ways.  As educators, we want our students to become engaged complex thinkers and expressive writers.  Perhaps “making” (as a methodology applied to writing) might help us get there.

Our work with Paper Circuitry was a perfect realization of the Connected Learning experience.  We gained a hands-on understanding of how making, creating and producing are powerful paths to deeper learning and understanding.  These important learning tenets emerged as we hacked our notebooks together:

#1. Peer Learning – We helped each other learn.  We leaned over each other’s shoulder to explain when we figured something out.  We extended ourselves by describing what we discovered and we brought others along with us.  What a powerful “natural” resource that exists in every learning environment.  Imagine if every teacher could effectively harness that kind of learning empowerment?

#2.  Interest-driven learning:  We chose to write about things that mattered directly to us.  We were able to express the personal in our individual projects.  We found creative inspiration in our immediate lives, and those motivations were valid and counted as real learning.  (i.e. -an upcoming wedding, -an upcoming birth, -the reflection on one year in a life, -the habits of a writer, etc).

#3.  Networked Learning – We were part of a conversation that linked our local network with a broader learning community.  We tweeted with National Writing Project colleagues, we posted our work on the #CLMOOC google+ board.  We extended our learning beyond the bounds of our classroom’s four walls and we realized we were apart of a community of practicioners.

#4.  Academic learning – Our work went well beyond whimsy crafting as a time out.  We discussed the implications of composition enriched with such complex entry points for writing and meaning production.  We discussed how a “maker” approach to writing practice might be an opening or gateway for reluctant writers.

#5.  Shared purpose – The work helped us empathize with the younger learners we are employed to engage.  We experienced the possibility of cross-generational learning and connection as we ventured into new territory.  We remembered that learning never ends, no matter your age or position within a learning context.

The Summer 2014 “Hack Your Notebook Day” clarified for me that a when a learner is positioned as a “maker”, they are given fresh license to imagine, to design, to assert a new vision.  They are given the space to fail, and the chance to recuperate with a bit of persistence and help from peers.  Writers-as-makers are called to imagine new possibilities.

…And this is where true innovation is born.  This is where our collective future seems brightest.

“Morning Gleam” by Mia Zamora

We have been excited about the “Connected Learning” movement for some time at the Kean University Writing Project, and our team has been thinking about how to incorporate connected learning principles into our overall Invitational Summer Institute experience for our new Teacher Consultants. I thought I would share a bit on my own entry point into this work as a way to illustrate why I think “Connected Learning” is so important for today’s educators and their students. As a literature professor, I have a passionate new research focus on Electronic Literature.

ELit (otherwise known as Digital Literature) is a literary genre born entirely in a digital environment. ELit requires digital computation in order to be read. These literary works might include links, generative aspects, multimedia content, animation or reader interaction in addition to the actual text, the actual words. As I have been engaging this exciting new field in literary studies it has become apparent to me that in order to really read these texts (in the sense of practitioner close reading), one would also need to develop the skills that would allow one to understand the “back end” or code involved in producing these texts. So, as I have been facing this scholarly challenge, I have also been wearing my other professional hat as a National Writing Project Director. In this context, I have been thinking so much about 21^st century literacy skills, and what it means to be digitally literate in this day in age.

It is often said that our students are digital natives and that they are born into a tech-steeped world. (Perhaps you have seen that YouTube video of a baby that tries to swipe a magazine page because she assumes the analog text will work like a tablet).   To be nimble with technology is perhaps second nature to our students. But I think we need to look more closely at this assumption. I think our students most definitely have a level of comfort with technology due to its ubiquity in their everyday lives. But that doesn’t mean that they are digitally literate, which is the source of our profound challenge as educators. Students play games and are quick to use apps, but the do not know how to write that new media world that they exist in. In short, they are more likely to be consumers, but not producers of new media. Said another way, perhaps they can “read” an electronic environment, but they cannot necessarily write it.   This crucial distinction is why it became so apparent to me that the “Connected Learning” movement is a vital engine for preparing our students to read and write and to think critically in a digital age.

“Connected Learning” is about reimaging the experience of education in the information age. It draws on the power of today’s technologies and embraces hands on production and open networks. Many teachers feel overwhelmed by the prospect of using technology and digital tools in their classrooms. But the embrace of digital tools to enhance learning potential can be such a transformative part of teacher professional development.   At the Kean University Writing Project, we use to have a choice of “tracks” that a new Teacher Consultant could choose from at the on-set of their own Summer Institute experience. One of those tracks was the “Tech” track. In other words, gaining more facility with technology and digital tools was an option. Gaining more digital confidence was essentially an elective.

But for the first time this year, we are taking a new approach.  And I know this is an important paradigm shift for us at the KUWP: Tech is no longer a track to be selected, but instead, “Connected Learning” principles will be inherently woven throughout our entire Summer Institute experience.  We are all participating in the MakeLearningConnected MOOC (better known as #clmooc). Everyone will be gaining further facility with digital tools and open networks throughout the course of the Institute.   And with this embrace of digital tools and making, therein lies an essential identity shift for teachers. Teachers also become designers. The emphasis on the idea of making – an embrace of a more production-oriented approach to learning, will offer all of us some inspiring examples of peer-supported learning and interest–driven learning.  By embracing “Connected Learning” not only will teachers build a new professional learning community for themselves, but they will practice the kind of creativity that will eventually catch a spark in their own students.

The weekly #clmooc “make cycles” will give all of us at the Kean University Writing Project a chance to tinker and make.  In addition we will have face-to-face lunch workshops during the Summer Institute which will give us the chance to share our “makes” and chat about new digital skills that we have acquired. This is always fun and informal, but it tends to be the glue that seals a teacher’s new digital confidence.  In particular, I look forward to the very special “Paper Circuitry” workshop we have planned.   The KUWP Makerspace will lead a “Hack Your Notebook” project that combines the traditional paper notebook with LED lighting circuitry. I know we will have fun lighting up our writing, our artwork, our ideas! We will also be hosting innovative educator, author, and maker Meeno Rami on Thursday, July 10, 2014, for a day of conversations and workshops focusing on the art of “hacking your writing”. We will be sure to share this work through live webinar, sent out to everyone in our global network.

Finally, our culminating collaborative “make” will be the KUWP E-BOOK.  We are planning on pulling together some evidence of the “learning pathways” experienced by different members of the KUWP community over the course of the 5 weeks of #clmooc.  I cannot attest for what will emerge yet, but that is the beauty of it!  We will try to include both our “lightbulb moments”, and our “fails” as well.  I hope the compilation will be at heart a reflective e-book on “Connected Learning” in an open network.

In a couple of days it will be June.  Let’s face it, summer is indeed here.  ….That wonderful time of year when the world is in full bloom and ideas percolate.  As the summer suddenly arrives on the doorstep, I have this personal ritual of creating my annual “Summer Manifesto”.  It is a wish list.  I jot down all the various things I want to be able to do over the summer.  The list is usually packed with some pretty ambitious work-related goals (i.e. write that book chapter, grant proposal, etc).  I have some wonderful professional experiences planned (including participation in the Digital Humanities Summer Institute in Victoria BC, as well as a special week at UC-Irvine with my Digital Media and Learning Research Hub colleagues as we explore the potential of #connectedlearning in Higher Education).  But my list also includes things much more immediate and personal -(i.e. sit and watch my boys play on the beach as the sun sets, eat a lot of lobster, swim more, etc.)  Each year this list takes on a new hue, and each year my Summer Manifesto tradition always seems to spurn a vitality which then leads to new found creativity.

And in the spirit of creativity, I want to extend a special invitation to everyone:

Please consider joining me in the Making Learning Connected MOOC (a Massive Open On-line Collaboration).  Amaze yourself and inspire others! Be part of the second summer learning party.  Sign ups are now open for “Making Learning Connected” #CLMOOC 2014. @CLMOOC is a collaborative, knowledge-building and sharing experience through Educator Innovator and the National Writing Project.  It is open to anyone interested in making, playing, and learning together.  This year the Kean University Writing Project will facilitate one “Make Cycle” during the #CLMOOC.  We will be encouraging everybody to “Hack Your Writing”.

Take the plunge! 

From June 13th to August 1, 2014 we will play with new tools and processes for making projects, share our results and our learning, and explore the the educational framework known as Connected Learning.  This MOOC is really about you and your interests.  You decide the pace of your activities, the depth of your participation, the scope of your making and learning.  As such, there are no defined time limits to any of the “Make Cycles”. If you are looking for a great way to expand your horizons, reignite your own creativity, and build professional connections, then this is certainly the ticket!

Video created by National Writing Project colleague Kevin Hodgson