How can digital media transform students into better team players?
A classroom experience
Abstract
The world is going through a continuous revolution promoted by digital platforms. What before was a privilege, such as a computer or a mobile phone with coloured screen, nowadays is getting democratized. As children are raised with gadgets as their constant companions, the power of digital as a tool for education is second to none.
Consequently, online communities are being formed, while we simultaneously observe a peak of egomania and conservatism around the globe. Scientists warns us that Global Warming is irreversible at this stage and that if the human race does not unite itself, we could be one step closer to extinction.
However, what if people did manage to work together? It might just prolong our species’ life expectancy. Since the beginning of time, survival has been promoted by life in communities. If “every country on Earth, at the moment, is reforming public education” (Robinson, 2010), skills such as teamwork must be included in the new curricula. It is indispensable for our future that children learn how to empathize with one another and be accepting of diversity, especially considering the process of globalization and digitalization.
This project will evidence the importance of teaching interpersonal skills inside classrooms, while embracing digital media to build a familiar and playful atmosphere for students. Research was conducted in both theoretical and practical spectrums: the first utilized accredited literature to support and validate assumptions, while the second was based on the observation of behaviours and capabilities of pupils enrolled in a public school in Manchester, UK. These physical spaces of education also served as testing ground for a variety of tools that managed to improve students’ teamwork abilities.
Introduction
Teamwork has always been an important part of my life, professionally and academically. As a Cinematography student, making movies in university was group effort in every occasion. The right crew could make the experience of being long hours confined to a single space enjoyable and light hearted, while the wrong one could turn the whole situation into something stressful and seemingly never-ending.
After graduating, as a freelancer and as a video journalist, I worked mostly alone for two years. This period taught me the true value of teamwork and how creating good quality content was a hard mission to accomplish on one’s own. The proverb “two heads are better than one” never seemed more true than at that moment. Since then, I have strived to work always in teams and to develop myself into a better team player.
Hyper Island was fundamental in that process, as it taught me the back end theory to teamwork, as well as tools to build better crews, how to reflect and give feedback. All valuable learnings that nobody else taught me, and probably the element that resonated the most in me after the course.
As I started the Industry Project Research process, education was already a certainty, as it is my true purpose and passion. However, as it is a sizeable field the need to focus arose. When studying about individualised education using technology, a theory developed by the behaviourist B.F. Skinner, I started to reflect about teamwork and my own experience in groups back in primary and secondary school.
Despite having been an essential element to the human race’s survival, no one taught students how to work in teams at school. Not only that, inside the school there was rarely a group of adults working together to be observed and copied by pupils, as in most cases there is only one teacher per class. Children were often grouped and left to administrate roles and responsibilities on their own. Teachers would merely supervise and interfere if there was conflict. This was at a constructivist school. I then started to think about friends that had studied in schools that stimulated massive competition between students, with classes that denoted how competent pupils were. One student’s success was another’s failure. (Skinner, 1968) If one had an A, he or she would be placed in the first class; if a F, the last. Students had to take tests every month to maintain their classification in classes. The amount of stress and the strain this must put in interpersonal relations motivated me to research about teamwork inside schools, and how digital media could be a good subject to help students learn and absorb interpersonal skills. Combining both elements, the final question that directed this study was:
“How can Digital Media transform students into better team players?”
Why education?
I’m Brazilian and public education in my country was only set as a priority about a decade and a half ago. After the creation of social programs that protected civilians’ rights in regards to health, security and education, Brazil rapidly rose as an economic potency in South America, with a decrease in poverty, illiteracy and hunger. In addition to that, in 2014 the government approved a ten year National Education Plan, which aimed to enrol 3.8 million children in public education, with an annual budget of R$ 37 million (approximately eleven million US dollars).
However, in a violation to International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified in 1992 (UN, 2016), in 2016, the current Brazilian government approved PEC 55, a constitutional amendment that will freeze public expenses with education and health for the next twenty years. This austerity measure, condemned by part of the Brazilian people, and unknown or ignored by another portion, was accepted by Senate and Congress, and will cut approximately R$ 47 billion (approximately fourteen billion US dollars) in government investments towards education for the next eight years. According to Phillip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, “One thing is certain. It is completely inappropriate to freeze only social expenditure and to tie the hands of all future governments for another two decades. If this amendment is adopted it will place Brazil in a socially retrogressive category all of its own.” (UN, 2016)
After years battling poverty and trying to enforce social rights and stability, Brazil takes a huge step back during its worst recession in twenty years. It is disappointing as a citizen to watch a country that could flourish and was making its way towards success fall to corruption and greed.
This will be a long journey for the country, with many battles to be won. The need is for people to come together and take a stand for children and their education. By strengthening interpersonal relations and teamwork, cultures can unite to build a better future.
Manchester Creative Studio
Despite this dissertation having a generic topic, it had a specific client to attend to. This project was conducted inside the facilities of the Manchester Creative Studio, a state of the art studio school based in Ancoats, Manchester. Founded in 2014 by a group of educators, social entrepreneurs and local employers, MCS was created in response to the growing digital sector in the city. It has the goal of educating students that will later be inserted in the Creative Media industry. With richly equipped classrooms, the school offers GCSE’s and A Levels, as well as a differentiated approach towards teaching, using project based learning and live briefs from industry.
According to Ravinderpal Gehlon, responsible for Employer Engagement and Partnerships, as well as a Pastoral lead for the students, the Creative Studio is a diverse school that was built to resemble a work space and to be part of the solution of the shortage of qualified creative professionals in Manchester. It has communication and empathy as strong core values, allowing pupils to express themselves and build their own identities, while being accepting of others. Students are stimulated to explore their creativities using MCS’s facilities and softwares, which were chosen based on what is utilized in the Creative Industry, which in turn makes students more confident as they leave school and get their first job.
This project was conducted at Manchester Creative Studio and their Creative Media students were the main reference for the research process. As the school values teamwork and has digital creative media in their curriculum, the scenario was ideal. The recommendations are tailor-made to answer to their needs, but any school could use this dissertation as basis for change in their environment if the desire for better teamwork dynamics between pupils arose. Finally, the final question of this project adapted to tend to the school’s expectations is
“How can Manchester Creative Studio use Digital Media to improve teamwork skills between their students?”
Terms of reference
What will be delivered
An academic project which will demonstrate the relevance of facilitating teamwork between students inside classrooms with the aid of Digital Media. This will be supported by evidence collected inside a Manchester based school, including — but not limited to — interviews with students, teachers, parents and members of staff; an account of my observations regarding the school’s team and social dynamics, physical facilities; and accredited literature. Based on testing and feedback, recommendations of how to promote healthy teamwork between students will be provided.
What will not be delivered
In the book “The New Circles of Learning” (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1994), the authors state that cooperative learning is generally composed by three levels:
- Classrooms — peer to peer collaboration
- Schools — teacher to teacher and staff collaboration
- School district — school to school collaboration
I do not intend to dwell on developing levels two and three, as the focus of this research will be team dynamics between students inside classrooms. Furthermore, relations between students and their families will not be contemplated, and neither will relations between pupils with other subjects, as both topics also extrapolate the scope of this study. This does not mean however that they are less important for children or their learning process regarding teamwork.
