You Don’t Have to Figure It Out, They Will

Originally published at tcapsloop.tcaps.net by David Noller on April 4, 2016.

You don’t have to know what you are doing. I promise. Someone in your class knows how to do the online thing you’re trying to do. 
 
 In Tonya Donahue’s 7th Grade International Baccalaureate Language Arts classroom, students supported each as they created Weebly sites for their National History Day project. 
 
Donahue said that her IB teaching team “did not spend any time” teaching students how to use Weebly. 
 
 “Most students already knew the basics from prior experiences,” Donahue said, or “were able to figure out the program on their own, or students helped one another discover answers to questions.”
 
 When students ran up against problems they couldn’t resolve TCAPS Technology Department staff stepped in to resolve issues, offer solutions, and help students figure out solutions on their own. Sometimes, students would be provided a new tool, such as TubeChop, and the students themselves proceeded to apply the fix themselves. 
 
 The project is an interdisciplinary one, combining especially Language Arts and Social Studies. It also became interpersonal.
 
 “Peers and teachers were supportive of one another,” Donahue said. “Everyone sought answers to questions about using Weebly, relying on each other, Titan Tech and [technology staff].”
 
 Student successes are especially impressive given how the students describe Weebly. They don’t love the tool. It’s hard to use, can be not exactly intuitive, and is difficult to customize. It is the required website builder of the NHD project, however, and our students’ continued success demonstrates their “stick-to-it-iveness” and their adaptability.

“were able to figure out the program on their own, or students helped one another discover answers to questions.”

The online tools students prefer are often tools you’ve never heard of. Every time we old people get a handle on an engaging online tool, kids find something else that’s cooler, more advanced, less ubiquitous in the adult world, and begin figuring out ways to make it their own. 
 
 When I started assigning Glogsters, I quickly discovered that students had already been using them to create fan pages for their favorite musicians, movies, actors, and athletes. 
 
 Back in my day, however, the tools were controlled by the teachers.
 
 In 1985, I met the big box. It looked like something you’d see in a Wild West apothecary, a giant box with rows upon rows of small drawers, inside of which were innumerable small cards with source information that corresponded to articles in print magazines stored in the back, or to microfiche records accessible through a kind of sideways filmstrip projector on steroids.
 
 It was all very awkward and entirely unfriendly — and very adult. 
 
 Today, students seem to pass on knowledge of online tools mostly to each other. I don’t generally have to teach a tool. I might give a demonstration, but invariably, a student in class has something to offer, to add, or even a strategy to improve on what I’ve shown. I have come to rely on students as the teachers of technology. 
 
 Claudia Riedy’s students are offered the opportunity to create websites as an alternative to other project types. While some students did express frustration over the roadblocks they faced when required to create a website, students also worked through these roadblocks either by figuring it out for themselves, or getting help from Riedy or other students.
 
 “Many students who already knew how to create a website were self-taught. I would say that they learned to create a website by experimenting and trying it on their own for fun,” Riedy said.

Riedy also noticed a difference in quality of work. “In many cases, students who created websites had a higher quality of work than students who created projects like powerpoints,” she said. “I think it may be because a website is more time-intensive and students took pride in the fact that their project was a large investment in their time and effort.”

“Many students who already knew how to create a website were self-taught. I would say that they learned to create a website by experimenting and trying it on their own for fun,”

I watched my own daughter spend hours demonstrating her knowledge of scale by creating the Mackinaw Bridge in Minecraft. She could have spent 5 minutes creating a to-scale drawing of her bedroom. Instead, she spent hours calculating and creating using a tool she already loved to use and had used successfully in the past for her own needs.
Give students the opportunity to be creative and demonstrate their knowledge and they will often rise to the challenge and go beyond even your expectations. Give students the freedom to express their learning, and as long as you provide the standards for them to meet and they meet those standards, you don’t have to know how they did it!
 
 It’s like going to a musical… even if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, you can appreciate the performance, tap your foot to the songs, and understand the whole story. If someone asks for voice lessons, point to the ones who can sing. They can help.

A Finely Tuned Submission by: David Noller