"I've got a blank space baby"...and I'll write an original as possible, but also adhered to the example and rubric of the assignment, piece of work

 

This week's reading started with a simple observation from Dr. Dennen that made me laugh because it was painfully accurate..."No one likes a blank page." She's right. Give me a blank Google Doc, an empty Canva project, or a discussion board with zero posts, and I'll suddenly forget every interesting thought I've ever had. Somehow, the infinite possibilities of a blank page don't feel exciting...they feel overwhelming. What's interesting, though, is that the more I thought about it, the less I realized this was just about education.

Almost every platform I use has quietly removed the blank page from my experience. When I open Canva, I don't see an empty canvas. I see hundreds of templates. When I open Pinterest, I'm immediately greeted with pins the algorithm thinks I'll like. Reddit suggests communities and new DIY projects before I know what I'm looking for. I open Instagram to reels that my wife sent me of what I should cook this week. I open TikTok to see folks' daily routines that suggest I throw in some extra reading or meditation to benefit my well-being, too. Spotify creates playlists for me. Netflix recommends what to watch next. They're ledges, just as Dr. Dennen describes a ledge as something that helps learners get started without leaving them staring at an empty space. In a classroom, that might be a discussion prompt or an example artifact. Online, however, I think ledges have become the default design philosophy. Every app seems determined to eliminate the discomfort of beginning. Even in the context of academia, templates and project examples somewhat put parameter 'bookends' around how much students can push the envelope. That's maybe the only concern I have, but in general, I appreciate these nudges.

I don't think I'd have learned nearly as much over the past few years without those gentle nudges. Reddit introduced me to communities I never would have searched for. Pinterest has become a place where I collect ideas for teaching, gardening, recipes, and more hobbies than I realistically have time for. Canva templates have saved me hours designing classroom materials from scratch. Although there's also something slightly unsettling about realizing how rarely I actually begin with a blank page anymore; I feel like it quietly influences where I end up instead of 'from scratch'.

If everyone begins with the same Canva template, how different are our finished designs? If everyone clicks the first recommended YouTube video or joins the same suggested subreddit, are we discovering ideas or following pathways that have already been chosen for us? If everyone adheres to the same NYT Cooking recipe on cookie week in December, how different will the cookies turn out? What does that say about the learners' ability?

There's probably a sweet spot we haven't found for these ledges that works for specific contexts. Dr. Dennen mentions that there have been a lot of pros and cons to the different ledges in the Canvas discussion, and I can see how too much autonomy and freedom to initiate are intimidating for some and might lead to off-topicness, but the other end of the spectrum doesn't necessarily win either.