Final Projects – Every DS106 Student Has a Story…Just Tell It.

I’ve been watching some classic Wile E Coyote shows recently and have been thinking about why the coyote’s efforts to catch the roadrunner makes for a good student learning model. Why would a coyote that regularly blows himself up and/or falls off of cliffs make for a good role model for ds106 students?

The coyote is always creating something new, something unusual that he believes will be the thing that helps him finally catch the roadrunner. Whether is building a robot coyote he can control, role playing as a spy to improve his sneak attack, or any of the innumerable variations of the “drop an anvil on the road runner’s head” contraptions. There is so much effort and thought put into every single one of these attempts. That’s genius.

He’s an endless tinkerer working in the open, trying to figure it out, and not worrying he’s going to succeed or fail. That’s what I mostly want for ds106 students, is that they’ll do these three things, because that’s how we learn. And you learn things that you don’t necessarily expect by trying so hard at something you’re not as good at as you’d like.

I like to picture that after his Looney Tunes gig ended, Wile E Coyote went on to be a successful inventor, blogger, comedian, designer, etc. He learned from all that “failure” and continued to create unique things into his elder days. Meanwhile, the Road Runner aged and slowed down, and was finally caught and eaten.

So for your final project, I’d like you to do a video, audio, and/or written description of your experience with ds106 this semester. Tell us about what you expected to happen, and then what really happened. Talk about things you learned that you didn’t want to, but are happy you did. Describe projects you loved and ones you really struggled with. Give us a sense of what it was like to do all this knowing there was going to be an audience. Did that create pressure, stress, excitement?

You can simply turn on the webcam or pick up a microphone and talk, but also please feel free to mashup your own and others work to illustrate your point! Put as much as you’d like into telling us your ds106 story.

Then for the final exam day (Monday, Dec. 19th), we’re going to broadcast your final thoughts on ds106radio and likely cross cast with an open Google Hangout so others can share their thoughts and work. If you write, I’ll likely ask you to read or summarize your thoughts on the mic while we share your post.

And it’s been an unique semester for me as well, so I look forward to giving my perspective on “Every educator has a story…just tell it.” Thanks.