Hi all!
I am at a dinner party to celebrate my uncle and an important change he has reached in his career. Luckily, there are lots of kids, adolescents, and teens here that I was able to have random conversations/ "interviews" with. So, I decided to pitch my research project methodology to them over a few soda pops and was able to get lots of honest feedback...
The Comments
-"I don't like reading, and I'm lazy..that sounds boring"
-"I think focusing on just my culture is not really who I am"
-"I don't know how to tell you who I am, I don't think anyone can tell you that."
-"Writing a script and editing my own film seems like too much work, I wouldn't want to do it in exchange for nothing.. what will you give your students for putting in the work?"
-"If I were still in high school, I'd have fun with it, but you would need to approach it right, I wouldn't want to do it alone."
Further into conversation..
I explained that all I want from this is for students to voice who they are, where they come from, what they are passionate about. I want students to know that they are appreciated and should feel that they are, contrary to the structure of many classrooms and schools who can easily make them feel like they are under the radar and irrelevant to the mainstream culture. I went on about how culture to me is not just your skin color or your family's motherland, but it encompasses your interests and what drives you...
Then, I went on about how they are the technology generation.. how kids now days can put an ipad into their hands and know exactly what to do with it...they agreed.
A new approach..
I thought about the new craze with editing style of the vine videos, brief biographies of athletes before competing in their sport on television, or the clips of hansel and zoolander during the award show in the movie... then i asked, "If I gave you 5-7 minutes, to make a biography clip to tell your classmates who you are, what you like to do, what drives you in life, would you be interested in that?"
Responses:
-"I think if you gave me questions to think about, I may be able to do it.."
-"I'm still really lazy.." *I knew this teen then I mentioned something about his break dancing and incorporating that, he was excited and said, "I'd be down for that, we filmed ourselves all the time."
What now..
I'd still ask students for a script, but my concerns are regarding 'how academic is this research project? Again, my intentions are to help students exercise their voices and be proud of their identities through digital media.. I'm starting to think I need to redo aspects of my IRB.. :(\
It was so great to talk to young adults and teens about my project. They're feedback means so much and is definitely influencing what direction I want to take. I'd really appreciate your feedback as well.. :)
Daisy
This is SO great Daisy! I want to make a video about who I am! When my sister was in high school the final for one of her fine art classes asked her to paint a silhouette of herself and then incorporate artifacts that describe who she is in a collage around the painting. She still has it. I'll take a picture and send it to you.
ReplyDeleteWow! You really were working when you went to that dinner party.
ReplyDeleteBut that makes a lot of sense! Of course you want to ask Youth what they would really do and find valuable. It is about digital media production after all with some good scaffolds from you. It was really telling when the person who identified as "lazy," actually was a producer of digital media themselves. It also seems that it is less about the reading-writing connections and more about the production. And looking at you tag, I think you nailed it that it's more about identity than culture (although of course there will be a strong connection!)
I'll look over your IRB and it seems that parts may need to be redone, but this focus is really awesome.
Daisy, this is awesome! I can almost see the paper already based on this post. How interesting would it be to include student viewpoints pre and post project? I mean, how much do we LOVE our video project from 108A? I wonder if you will get the same responses from your students?
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't envy you your IRB. Although, I have a feeling that you (all of us, actually) should not consider the IRB at all in planning research. Let the IRB conform to your research, not the other way around...make them say no before you bag an idea.