Romancing the Process
Question: What do these things have in common?
Kathleen Turner’s character in “Romancing the Stone”
A baby elephant
A deep sea explorer
A player in the World Cup Finals
Alice in Wonderland
Answer: All of these things illustrate my states of mind and work process during the course of this final project.
In other words, my experience throughout this final project could be the mashup poster child for the creative process combined with the lows and highs of the inquiry process with dashes of productive procrastination and immersive flow thrown in, just to keep it interesting, albeit frustrating.
When I finally pinned down my topic — developing a collaborative planning model for three key instructional partners (teacher, instructional technology specialist, library media specialist) to develop a shared understanding of digital literacy in order to develop digital literacy more fluidly among students — I felt relieved, and jumped right into looking simultaneously at other models along with research regarding digital literacy. “A model!” I thought, would make the most sense. But as I dove deeper and deeper into the research, I realized that part of the problem with models is — there are a lot of them, and adding yet one more potential model would then mean that in order to realize the digital literacy-infused collaborative instruction I was envisioning, it would follow that any other models already embraced and in use by these three instructional partners (IP) would have to be sidelined. And maybe that’s not the best set play to make. So, I had to pivot, and thought about the layering approach. I’ve naturally gravitated toward the question-based format of Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe) and am a big fan and advocate of the Question Formulation Technique, so I shifted to a questioning routine rather than a model to layer over questions that guide these three IPs to add in a digital literacy dimension to any potential or existing collaborative instruction in the works.
And then there’s unpacking the big ideas in the ubiquitous yet misunderstood term “digital literacy.” How to further unpack that for myself and then turn around and unpack it well enough to fit it into a routine and a 6-minute PechaKucha overview tailored for that target audience as well as my course colleagues?? Well that’s where I followed in Alice’s footsteps, at times feeling like I opened a few more secret doors, stumbling upon undiscovered strange tea party scenes and nibbling on mushroom bits before snapping myself out of it and recalibrating a clearer vision as the clock seconds ticked down with no overtime gifted from my numerous seemingly dead-end-style time outs.
The resulting PechaKucha-style overview video and website hosting the IPC3 for Digital Literacy Integration Routine is currently designed as a work-in-progress — with plans to expand the toolkit and other resources including an audience-specific infomercial — at this upcoming Summer Institute in Digital Literacy and beyond.
Honestly, I am happiest when I am creating. The problem is that my process is not necessarily productive in relation to how most people think of productivity in relation to how time works. This is where the baby elephant enters the room. I am a very slow incubator when I am working alone. The input — readings, media, thoughts, images, etc. — have to marinate like a cask of sangria while echoing together subconsciously until they boomerang into each other and coalesce in order to produce any kind of mixed-metaphor output. This doesn’t always jive with deadlines, but as I have come to embrace my digital author self, I realize that although a core part of the creative experience is to be uncomfortable, you gotta push through it and produce, which is what drives the creativity to an iterative end. As Seth Godin says (and I love Seth Godin), “Ship the work,” no matter what. Then repeat.
One scene that has always stuck with me from the movie “Romancing the Stone” is the opening credits, the audience following Kathleen Turner’s character author Joan Wilder as she finally comes up for air after finishing her mammoth romantic page-turner, and emerges from her messy apartment into the real world to meet her editor. As I finish typing these last few words that bring my EDC 534 Seminar on Digital Authorship experience to a close, I totally identify with Joan. Now if this means that I’m about to head out on an unexpected adventure this summer in Chicago, I’m all for it. Just have to make sure I leave my heels at home.
This post and video project were created for EDC 534: Digital Authorship as part of the Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy at the University of Rhode Island.
References
Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/.
Coiro, J. and Hobbs, R. (2017, April 27). Digital literacy as collaborative, transdisciplinary, and applied. [Paper presentation]. AERA 2017: San Antonio, TX, United States. Available online: https://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/default/files/Hobbs%20and%20Coiro%20AERA%202017%20transdisciplinary%20and%20applied%20Corio%20Hobbs%20AERA%20%281%29.pdf
Godin, S. (2020). The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.
Hobbs, R. & Coiro, J. (2018). Design features of a professional development program in digital literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(3), 304–334. https://www.academia.edu/40061209/Hobbs_R_and_Coiro_J_2018_Design_features_of_a_professional_development_program_in_digital_literacy_Journal_of_Adolescent_and_Adult_Literacy_50_3_304_334
Hobbs, R. (2017). Create to Learn: Introduction to Digital Literacy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.
Rothstein, D., Santana, L., et al. (2011). Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
