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a ready-to-run workshopStudents as Digital Creators
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Students as Digital Creators (Workshop)

Students can do far more with technology than consume it, they can create: videos, podcasts, designs, websites, data visualizations, and more. Having students create digital products to show and build learning develops skills they need and deepens understanding.

Key takeaway

Technology lets students create, not just consume, videos, podcasts, designs, and more; having students make digital products to demonstrate learning builds real skills and deepens understanding.

Format
PLC / team meeting
Length
45 minutes
Group size
Any (works 4-40)
Who can run it
Any teacher-leader
You will need
Slides (5)Printed handoutLearning to demonstrate in mindA timer
Aligned to
Learning Forward: Rigorous ContentInTASC 8: Instructional StrategiesISTE Standards for Students
Share / assign

Why it works

When students use technology to create, producing videos, podcasts, infographics, websites, or other digital products, they engage in higher-order thinking (synthesizing, designing, communicating) and build digital and creative skills increasingly needed beyond school. Research and frameworks like ISTE's student standards emphasize students as creators, not just consumers, of technology. The learning comes from the thinking the creation requires, so the task must demand real understanding, not just flashy output.

The research: ISTE Standards for Students; research on creation and higher-order thinking.

The run-of-show

Choose your slot. The agenda, timings, and length update to match.

    The core activity: design a creation task

    Teachers leave with a digital-creation task that requires real understanding.

    Creators, not just consumersStudents build the most when they create. Design a digital-creation task that requires real understanding, and judge the thinking, not just the polish.

    Facilitator notes

    Flashy output is not learningA polished product with no real understanding behind it teaches little. Design so the creation demands synthesis and understanding.

    Adapt it

    Participant handout

    One page for every teacher. Print it, or save it as a PDF.

    K12 Academics · Professional Learning

    Students as Digital Creators: make to learn

    <b>Create, not consume:</b> a digital product that requires real understanding, judged on the thinking not the polish.

    1. The learning students could demonstrate by creating:
    2. The format that fits:
    3. How the creation requires real understanding:
    4. How I assess the learning (product as evidence):
    5. How I keep the thinking central:

    Make it stick

    Create to learn:

    Common questions

    Isn't student tech use mostly consuming content?
    It often is, but creating, making videos, podcasts, designs, builds far more: higher-order thinking and real skills. Shift students from consuming to creating.
    Doesn't the tech become the point instead of the learning?
    Only if you let it. Design so the creation requires real understanding of the content, and judge the learning, not just the polish. The product is evidence of thinking.
    What can students create?
    Videos, podcasts, infographics, websites, digital stories, data visualizations, designs, pick a format that fits the content and makes students synthesize and communicate.

    Go deeper

    Build it into a bigger day

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