Chapter 7: Knowing, Making, and Playing
Quotation: "Play provides the opportunity to leap, experiment, fail, and continue to play with different outcomes- in other words, to riddle one's way through a mystery" (Thomas & Brown 96). Naturally, not all life is play but the elements of leaping, experimenting, etc. are important parts of real life. Question: How do I transform my classroom into a place where students feel free to play? Connection: I think that the Classcraft app that I recently demo'd on this blog speaks to this idea of play. Epiphany: I've been realizing since I took the personality test in Anne-Rene's class months ago that I was misdiagnosed. I'm definitely an orange. | Connection: Classcraft - Gaming the System Gamification in Education aims to use the risk/reward systems in video games to enroll students more fully in learning. |
Chapter 8: Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out
| Quotation: "How can I utilize the available resources, both social and technological, for deep exploration?" (Thomas & Brown 105) This is the goal that this chapter funnels us towards. Finding out what we have and what we know to discover how we can know, and do, more. Question: As with SAMR, is "Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out" a progression like a ladder that you work yourself up one rung at a time or is it more like a pool where you spend time at the different areas depending on your mood and activity? Connection: Hey! The name of this chapter is awfully reminiscent of the Class Badges we are earning! Epiphany: I've really moved through this progression myself with respect to Google Sheets. At the beginning of last year I used it occasionally for a few classes (Hanging Out), near the beginning of the semester I was building my budget and planning some lessons using it (Messing Around) and now I show off programs that I've built to others whether they are interested or not (Geeking Out). |
Chapter 9: The New Culture of Learning for a World of Constant Change
Question: How will I stay a part of this new culture once I move out of school and into the "real world"?
Connection: My brother has been an avid player of World of Warcraft for years, sometimes spending 40+ hours a week playing. Its a game and that is unlikely to change but at the same time I have heard him talk about the effort that he puts into selecting the right load out of items to carry, the right combination and order to cast his spells, etc. I really believe that the skills that he has put into playing this game at this very high level (he has topped national and world wide leaderboards in a few areas) has corollary skills outside of the game.
Epiphany: I think that one "aha!" I experienced while reading this chapter was that games should not be pigeonholed into the dead end time wasting exercise where society currently seems to place them. Just as fiction, newspapers, magazines and the internet have all been derided and then eventually accepted as valuable tools to train our minds games my be redefined as well.