Worried About the Wrong Things

by Jacqueline Ryan Vickery

  Integrating Media in the Classroom

  As has been noted, many teachers’ (and the school’s) policies are ones of unacceptable use that do not provide students opportunities to use technology responsibility. There were exceptions though, particularly (and unsurprisingly) in the technology-focused courses. Through an analysis of Mr. Lopez’s acceptable use of technology approaches, I briefly consider what can be gained when media are incorporated as a connected aspect of the formal learning environment. Mr. Lopez aimed to integrate students’ personal media technologies into the classrooms in innovative ways, yet their efforts were inhibited via fears and policies of panic that tried to minimize risks without a respectful balance of opportunities.

  Beyond focusing on media as the driving force, Mr. Lopez’s pedagogical approaches were centered on project-based learning. Rather than merely teaching students how to do something, his courses challenged students to solve problems and to create something together. As has been noted, many students at Freeway High did not have access to high-quality or reliable Internet access outside of school, even those who did were unlikely to have access to expensive proprietary software or expensive camera equipment. So for some students this was the first time they had the freedom and opportunity to mess around with software and equipment. Through their experiences in the technology courses, some students discovered a previously unknown passion for digital media, film, photography, video games, graphic design, and digital music.

  Media Production as Risk Intervention

  Aware of the challenges his students faced at school and home, Mr. Lopez deliberately constructed his classes as a student-focused safe space that could serve as an opportunity for marginalized students to find a niche and support, particularly for those at risk of dropping or failing out of school. He did this by incorporating and validating students’ personal interests into their assignments, but also by helping them make connections between their other courses and their technology course. In other words, by helping them stay motivated in their technology classes, he was actually able to help them engage with their other courses as well, and thus hopefully do better in school all around. As a Mexican-American filmmaker and educator, Mr. Lopez personally identified with and related to many of the students in his classes: “I see myself in them. I know what they are going through. I’m here because I want them to know people like us, we can succeed.” Many of his students viewed him as a mentor and role model, which was iterated in practically every interview with his students. Devan (19 years old, black) was a recent graduate of Freeway High and explained the personal importance of Mr. Lopez’s class:

  In my freshman year I was bad. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. The cool thing about this is that I wanted to get to Tech Apps, so I could get it done so I could go to Video Tech next. It made me happier because I was doing the stuff that brought my mood up which made me work harder in the other classes. It’s a weird concept, but since this made me so much happier because I could use my imagination, rather than just have my head in a book all day, I could go to my math class and get it done so I could get to film. My grades drastically improved. Without this I’d have been in a different situation. I don’t think I’d be here [as a high school graduate or mentor] today, if it weren’t for Mr. Lopez and his courses.

  Devan’s story resonated with a lot of Mr. Lopez’s students who agreed that incorporating technology and media into the school day provided motivation to do well in other classes. Just as athletes are required to keep minimum grades in order to compete in athletic competitions at school, Mr. Lopez planned field trips and excursions around town for his students, and, just as with athletics, he required passing grades in order for students to participate in the excursions. Sports has been shown to provide intrinsic motivation (fear of failure) and extrinsic motivation (a dedicated commitment to the sport and the team) that can help motivate athletes to do well in school (Simons, Van Rheenen, and Covington 1999). In a similar way, the technology courses provided both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for marginalized students to do well in school, not just in the courses they were interested in, but other classes as well.

  As another example, Jasmine (16 years old, multiracial) was highly engaged in her media classes and was an active member of the after-school Cinematic Art Project. However, she was only moderately engaged in her more traditional courses. Her grandparents (with whom she occasionally lived during the study) insisted she keep her grades up, something that was a struggle for her, but they made it a requirement for her continued participation in the Cinematic Arts Project. She explained that project-based learning helped her apply what she was learning across different topics.

  Jasmine:

  To me, project-based learning is basically giving us a project that gives us the whole core of classes, like math, science, history and English. Because English you have to write the script. Math you have to know the time and break down how much batteries you need and how much time you want the camera and all that stuff. Geography—you have to go out location scouting. People think we don’t learn by that — “Oh, they’re just doing projects. You don’t learn anything.” You do learn a lot.

  Q:

  You feel like you learn a lot?

  Jasmine:

  Oh yeah. That’s probably the only reason I’m doing good in my math class—because we do so much in Video Tech. We do so much projects now, I’m, like, “Yeah. I get that.” Also, some people do help me with my math.

  Q:

  Do you feel like the stuff you learn in video tech or video apps applies to other classes or helps you learn in other classes?

  Jasmine:

  It kind of comes together. It helps you learn about life too—how to manage your time, how to solve problems, and when you can just say no to some things.

  Q:

  What do you mean by that?

  Jasmine:

  Like, you have a whole bunch of projects and somebody comes to you and says, “Can you do this for me?” It’s, like, “I can’t have all this.”

  Jasmine pointed out many important aspects of connected learning. First, is that project-based learning helped her to make connections between her other courses. As a low to moderately engaged student, finding ways to apply what she was learning in math to a project she cared about helped her to focus on the courses she did not enjoy much. Also, as her comment highlighted, project-based learning provided opportunities to develop life skills that were applicable beyond formal educational settings. At the end of her film project, I asked Jasmine what was the most important thing she had learned through the experience. I had expected her answer to reflect on the filmmaking process, but instead her answer surprised me: “Communication, learning how to communicate with people. It can be really frustrating, you have to tell people exactly what you want and be specific, people don’t listen or get it always.” Jasmine’s answer was similar to the answers of many other students in the clubs and classes who reflected on the ways the projects helped them learn to work together, manage their time, and follow through on long-term goals. Project-based learning, of course, does not have to be contained to technology-focused courses nor do the projects necessarily have to incorporate technology; yet the use of technology enabled students to seek out information, solve problems, and creatively contribute in ways that were more consistent with their informal and out-of-school modes of learning. There were, of course, risks associated with their practices, as have been discussed throughout the book, but students and teachers such as Mr. Lopez balanced these risks with opportunities in beneficial ways.

  Filling in Gaps: The Role of After-School Media Clubs and Interest-Driven Learning

  As part of a broader trend in the United States, Freeway High has two different tracks for students: college-prep and vocational. The vocational track has the well-intentioned goal of preparing students for non-college pathways after high school graduation, yet it has been heavily scrutinized and criticized because it often “replicate[s] inequality
along lines of race and social class and contribute[s] to the intergenerational transmission of social and economic capital” (Oakes 2005, p. xi). Tracking aims to ensure that students who are presumed to be college-bound (as determined by a combination of factors, including test scores, grade-point averages, parents’ educational backgrounds, economics, and student interests) are guided to enroll in more math and science courses, including Advanced Placement (AP) courses and college dual-credit courses.2 Students who are not presumed to be college-bound are advised to take skill-based courses, to take fewer math and science courses, and not to take AP courses. Vocational education focuses on intense specialization, “interpreted by the public schools to mean the provision of an education, that would best meet individuals’ future needs and thus train them to play their specialized roles in industrial America” (ibid., p. 33). My purpose here is not to conduct a larger examination or critique of tracking, although it merits further academic research,3 but rather to contextualize the after-school media clubs within the larger ecology of Freeway High.

  After-school activities were a large part of student life at Freeway High.4 The majority of participants in this study were involved in at least one after-school activity, although some students’ participation was more limited (less involved) because of part-time jobs, sibling care, restrictive transportation, or other home obligations. The school’s vocational tracks, such as automotive technology, metal tech (carpentry, plumbing, welding, etc.), fashion merchandising, construction, and culinary arts/hospitality were supported via coursework that aimed to help students develop specialized skill sets. They also were supported via after-school clubs that offered students opportunities to further pursue their interests and develop necessary skills. The college-bound tracks focused on Advanced Placement courses and advanced math and science courses, many of which were pre-requisites for more advanced courses they took in the final years of high school. They also were supported with clubs that focused on leadership opportunities, debate team, business club, service committees, and tutoring, which were aimed at bettering a students’ college resume and preparedness. Activities such as band, orchestra, theater, and athletics tended to attract a diverse population of students from both vocational and college tracks.

  The media technology courses and after-school media clubs occupied a more liminal space than the traditionally established college and vocational tracks. Per state regulations, students were required to take a minimum of one computer course in order to graduate. The technology courses tended to either be focused on computer science, which required advanced math pre-requisites that many students on career paths did not have (thus these courses were essentially limited to college-bound students). The other traditional technology option was a more basic audio/visual (A/V) course, which prepared students for entry-level technical (non-creative arts) careers. Yet the design-oriented creative digital media courses and video game courses attracted creative students who were not exclusively interested in technical careers and approached media and technology as an art, rather than a technical skill. These courses were not typically part of the broader college-bound track, but served as an elective for college-bound students who were not interested in computer science.5 In this way, the courses attracted students from both college and career tracks.

  For some students, the course merely fulfilled an elective requirement. However, for many of the students in the courses, it became a passion, something they were interested in and wanted to further pursue. This is how the after-school Digital Media Club was developed—students in Mr. Lopez’s courses wanted to continue to pursue creative media design and production projects outside of the formal classroom. Students in the Digital Media Club were interested in the creative aspects of media production, but their interest did not fall along the computer science or A/V technical dichotomy of other courses and clubs. Recognizing an opportunity to fill in a gap in the options of after-school clubs, as well as an opportunity to serve and mentor marginalized young people, Mr. Lopez worked with the students to get the Digital Media Club approved as an officially supported and recognized club at Freeway High. He explained:

  I want to give them a place to come and actually apply their skills. Most of them are going to be looking for jobs and they already are looking for jobs or some are looking to go to college. I want to be able to, from a personal standpoint, give them all the skills they need to go and be successful. There are so many challenges out there and I feel that school hasn’t prepared them with everything they need to know to succeed. I want to prepare them for the real world. … I think the after-school club fills in some of those gaps that the school doesn’t prepare them for, because getting out into the real world is tough. … But also the club is fun, I want them to learn in a fun way and projects are a great way to do that.

  Although open to any student, the Digital Media Club attracted students caught between the institutional structures of the school: students who were on a vocational track because they did not believe college was an option for them (due to immigration status, economic constraints, or familial obligations), but who were not interested in the other vocational tracks available at Freeway. These students found the club to be a creative outlet that fit their personalities, interests, and goals. There were some college-bound students in the club, however, a large number of the students were classified by the school as “at risk.” Many of the club’s participants were academically disengaged for a variety of reasons (e.g., language barriers, unstable home lives, academically behind due to relocations or family obligations, economic struggles). For some the consequences of behavioral issues had caused them to fall behind in school, which contributed to further disengagement. Thus, as Mr. Lopez’s quotation iterates, the club filled in a gap and served students who did not neatly fit into the college-bound and vocational tracks offered at school. And, as Mr. Lopez noted, he strived to teach students the real life skills necessary for succeeding after high school; skills that middle-class students tend to learn at home and via peer networks (Lareau 2003), but that marginalized students may not have access to in the same ways.

  Students joined the club for a variety of reasons, but the overall motivation could be classified as what Ito et al. (2010) refer to as “interest-driven participation.”6 The students had a desire or curiosity to further explore an interest related to digital media and production. Some students joined via the encouragement of peers or teachers, while others joined to gain access to equipment such as cameras, microphones and other recording gear they did not have access to at home. Still, others joined in order to gain access to the computers themselves and the array of software, which was otherwise unavailable to many of the students outside of the school’s computer labs. The students in the Digital Media Club had mixed aspirations: a select few expected to go to a four-year university, others were interested in a two-year degree from a community college, and many expected to enter the work force full-time after graduation. As will be discussed through the four case studies in this chapter, their post-graduation expectations were often unclear, and at times unrealistic.

  The Digital Media Club and the Cinematic Arts Project differed from the formal learning environment in several ways that influenced what was learned, how, and by whom. Mr. Lopez strived to incorporate peer learning and personal interests into the formal classroom, but the after-school clubs were better equipped to facilitate this mode of learning to a greater degree. Learning with and via digital media enables a shift from the teacher as primary means of instruction, and allows students to learn in other ways, which was evidenced in the clubs. Mr. Lopez was present, but was not often the primary means of instruction in the classroom; instead students often preferred to rely on computer tutorials, peer-to-peer learning, and autonomous messing around with software and the technologies.7 Through weekly observations and interviews, it became clear that students enjoyed figuring out how to do things on their own.8 With the time and flexibility afforded in the after-school clubs, students c
ould mess around with technology until they figured out how to do what they were attempting to learn.

  The Cinematic Arts Project was started by a group of Digital Media Club participants who were primarily interested in working on collaborative film projects; it met at the same time and in the same lab as the Digital Media Club, but functioned as a satellite organization specializing in film production. It was in its second year at the time of this study. In the first year, only Freeway High students and teachers were involved, but in the second year it expanded to include two other high schools from the school district. The students wrote, shot, produced, edited, and directed a short narrative film, which they submitted to an international film festival. In 2010 the film was selected for inclusion in the festival, but in 2011 their film was not accepted. Additionally, members of the Cinematic Arts Project (including Javier, discussed later in this chapter) also submitted personal films they had produced separately from the official club project. These students capitalized upon the expertise of the teachers and mentors in the club, as well as the school’s equipment and other resources to create personal projects; two of the personal film projects that were produced in the clubs were accepted and screened at an international film festival the year of this study.