CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- "Education Technology and Language Learning," a seminar hosted on November 19, 2018, by Doris Sommer, Professor of Literature at Harvard University, and Perry Gao, Co-founder of the Harvard XMedia Lab, invited the participation of world-renowned scholars and experienced industry professionals from Gogokid, a leading EdTech enterprise in China. The meeting featured an innovative pedagogy method developed by Prof. Sommer through the Cultural Agents Initiative. Prof. Sommer's passion for public education has brought elite instruction to the mainstream through Pre-Texts, a fascinating hybrid approach that turns classrooms into art-making studios.
Pre-Texts resolves a contemporary fundamental contradiction in an elegant way. Educators generally believe in the benefits of student-centered learning and 21st-century skills (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration), along with technological know-how. But they get discouraged because the learning objectives seem to be in conflict with the learning process. Technology increases the availability of resources, but it also decreases the social interactions that 21st-century skills require. Pre-Texts brings the goals together in off-line classrooms that can access online resources. It is a user-friendly protocol for advancing learning universal participation.
With Pre-Texts students engage with a complex text as raw material to make art through creative and collaborative project-based activities. Thus, 21st-century social skills are acquired from improvised lessons with a text that students may not necessarily choose, though they do choose activities. How else can learning be student-centered and personalized? Without actively creating projects, teachers will continue to cover obligatory curricula using predictable methods. Co-creating new approaches through dance, rap, song, drawing, calligraphy, video games, film, fashion, sculpture, photography, etc., engages and therefore develops a range of skills and abilities.
Perry Gao, one of the consultants of the Cultural Agents Initiative, believes that this new pedagogical tool can help students internationally, especially second-language learners, discover the joy of learning. Gao is dedicated to introducing this tool to more educators around the world, as well as working diligently to improve and adapt the tool to make it more useful in the international and cross-cultural contexts.
With a simple prompt, "use the text to make art," educators achieve educational acupuncture. The academic material ignites creativity, which drives students to read more, to innovate, and to collaborate in a holistic education. The next prompt, "go off on tangents" to find printed or online material related to the required text, adds technological skills, curiosity, and appreciation for classmates who find surprising connections--thus employing cognitive and emotional learning. The prompt to play with complex texts achieve critical thinking, technological expertise, and admiration for everyone.
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