Movement 5: Expectations and the Black Box
Movement 5: Expectations and the Black Box
This is about realizing there is no black box. Every tool you use , from search engines to editing software to AI models , is made of choices you can learn to see, question, and work with.
Understanding how tools operate is not a detour from creativity. It is part of the creative process itself , opening new ways to shape, adapt, and refine your work with greater intention and agency.
Core Question:
- What do I expect the tools to do?
- How can learning the workings of tools deepen and expand my creative agency?
Pedagogical Purpose:
This movement encourages metacognition about technology and production tools.
It helps learners articulate their assumptions, anxieties, and fantasies about tools,
demystifying the production process and framing tools as adaptable instruments for inquiry-driven storytelling.
Student Outcomes:
Students will be able to:
- Articulate what they expect tools and systems to enable,
- Tocritically analyze their assumptions about tools, understand basic infrastructures shaping their work, and reflect on how tool literacy can enhance agency rather than diminish creativity.
- Name uncertainties and acknowledge where the production process feels unclear,
- Identify strategies and techniques they want to incorporate (based on prior analysis),
- Consider the balance between desired control and system affordances,
- Begin to see how imagining and planning the production process influences inquiry and story development.
Interaction Design: Reflection Prompts
(Choose 2–3 prompts to reflect on.)
- What do you hope the tools will make easier?
- What specific production tasks (e.g., editing audio, adding music, mixing) are you most and least looking forward to, and why?
- If technology could automate one part of your research-to-story-to-production process, what would it be — and why?
- Where do you see the line between the tool enhancing your work and the tool dictating it?
- What are your expectations for feedback on the technical aspects of your production? Who will you ask for help or perspective?
- What feels mysterious or confusing about the steps ahead?
- Before you begin production, what do you expect the software or equipment will allow you to do?
- What do you think will be difficult — and why?
- Now that you've critically analyzed podcasts and considered how language frames your story, what specific production features do you anticipate needing to bring your audio vision to life?
- Where does the process still feel like a “black box”?
- Which tools feel “smart” to you — and why?
Reflection Journal Companion
Follow the standard Reflection Journal structure:
- What I Am Noticing,
- What Feels Hard or Unsettled,
- What I Want to Carry Forward.
(See Movement 1 for a full detailed example.)
Black Box Micro-Engagement
At the end of this Movement, you will complete a Black Box Micro-Engagement:
- Action Step: A production-related activity focused on surfacing, mapping, or reflecting on expectations and anxieties about specific production tools. (Specific task TBD.)
- Personal Reflection: Reflect on the tools used, surprises, frustrations, and solutions.
- Relational Reflection: Reflect on any outside help you sought (e.g., tutorial, video, peer, etc.).
- Source Acknowledgment: Briefly cite any external resources or troubleshooting guides consulted.
- Organization Reflection: Describe how you saved or tracked production questions, hurdles, or solutions as part of your process.
(See Movement 1 for detailed reflection structure.)
AI Role
-
Current AI Role:
Reflection companion helping students name assumptions, hopes, fears, and agency around production technologies. -
Explore Further AI Role (Friction Forecaster):
Predicts likely tech hurdles based on student concerns,
suggests 90-second fixes or resources —
scaffolding self-regulated troubleshooting and reducing production anxiety.
🤔💭 More Reflection Prompts
- How might some friction actually generate new creative ideas?
- What would it mean to approach technical difficulty as part of your story-building, not a detour from it?
- What myths or fantasies about technology are you carrying into production?
- How might learning the tools imperfectly still empower your final work?
- What kinds of labor go into making a tool “usable” and who performs that labor?
- Are there people or communities whose voices are excluded by certain systems?
- What do tools make visible and what do they hide?
- How might you “read” a tool the same way you’d analyze a text?
- If you could redesign one tool you’ve used, what would you change?