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  Jake Bowker

Seminar in Personalized Learning

QQCE Reflection #3 (chapters 7-9): A New Culture of Learning by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown

7/13/2015

4 Comments

 
Picture
Chapter 7:  Knowing, Making and Playing

Quote: “All systems of play are, at base, learning systems. They are ways of engaging in complicated negotiations of meaning, interaction, and competition, not only for entertainment, but also for creating meaning” (p. 97). I love watching my son play.  He sometimes falls and gets hurt, but ultimately learns a lesson from certain experiences. He also learns how to play with others, and that the world doesn’t revolve around just him. Sharing is key, and he’s learning to make meaning of certain norms within the context of play.  I’m learning the value of play by watching him go through it at such a young age.

Question(s):  How do we get our administration and other teachers to understand that playing games in class, if structured to a purpose, is NOT wasting time? I cringe when I hear administrators warn our staff of a scheduled walk-through and that we should avoid playing games or watching films, or even tests.  I understand the last two, but playing games aligned to an objective is active participation at its best! Other outcomes will come of it and students will love learning more.

Connection: I started reading Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess, and while of its content is outdated, in my opinion, the underlying idea of making teaching meaningful and fun is emphasized. Teachers and students should enjoy learning together, and so I think educational games and activities are very important in the classroom.  And why not use technology as a platform? There are countless online learning apps and sites available, and students will also learn to foster digital literacy while playing.

Epiphany: The whole notion of homo sapiens, homo faber, and homo ludens is something I never would have thought about.  The idea of knowing, making and playing as an overlapping group of skills that redesign educational institutions, and not just “patch” them up (p. 90).

Chapter 8: Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out

Quote: “The richness of experience and social agency produced by hanging out and the sense of embodiment and personal agency created by messing around, combined with the sense of making, produces what we think is the ultimate goal of indwelling: learning” (p. 104). What a sentence! This quote summarizes the chapter very well. Students and teachers establishing a social environment that emphasizes play, all while creating good work, leads to amazing tacit learning that is invaluable.

Question(s):  If teachers are not on board to forming online collectives, then how do they implement collaboration to its maximum potential? For teachers who are on board, what sorts of “hanging out” and “messing around” activities do they emphasize in their own teaching?

Connection: Because I’m advocating for a 1:1 Chromebook pilot program in my own classroom, I would love to use this chapter as a perfect justification for why online collaboration in safe collectives is extremely important for learning and fostering digital literacy. I’ll be sure to recall these concepts when creating my proposal project for EDL 600.

Epiphany: I didn’t realize, until reading this book, just how much I have been “geeking out” lately.  I have been utilizing many resources, “both social and technological, for deep exploration” (p. 105). I find myself talking with so many people about the things I’m learning, and then realizing that I’m constantly thinking of new ways to implement amazing technology to my every-day life.

Chapter 9: The New Culture of Learning for a World of Constant Change

Quote: “(1) Play is more than something we do, it is who we are, and (2) play precedes culture” (p. 116). This quote, referencing homo ludens in chapter 8, is something that stood out to me because of the connection to culture. It makes sense that forms of play can define a collective of people who enjoy that same type of playing, which could lead to a cultural being. This is true with sports teams of all kinds.

Question(s):  Since I’ve never really been a big gamer, would learning to play a game like World of Warcraft teach me to appreciate the teachings of this book even more? This chapter focuses a lot on MMO games, and I think that’s something that interest me to find out.   

Connection: I am passionate about learning the most efficient and effective ways to teach my students, and learning the technology from EDL 680 this summer has been inspiring me so much.  I have been tinkering with various apps, learning about collectives and creating things by playing with features and connecting with people all over the world. It feels like games sometimes, since playing with various programs has been fun, but it has also been teaching me more than I could ever learn in a lecture.

Epiphany: The final paragraph brings everything together in a very concise way: “That moment of fusion between unlimited resources and a bounded environment creates a space that does not simply allow for imagination, it requires it” (p. 118). From the beginning of the book, that’s been the biggest message, and it’s stuck with me.  We access to unlimited resources, yet a bounded environment with structure in order to focus students to create something innovative. This has been a great book that I will recommend to everyone on my staff.   


Reference:

Thomas, D & Brown, J.S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning:  Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change. Lexington:  CreateSpace.
4 Comments
Nona link
7/13/2015 11:51:46 pm

Hi Jake,
I enjoyed reading your responses. I am hesitant to stay this, but I think Jeff should also include another "project" in his class where we actually do play a multiplayer media game for a couple weeks and share our experiences. I probably wouldn't take that on myself right now given the other tasks on my to do list, but I think it would be a super helpful experience for all of us.
I also find games very important in helping children learn and stay engaged, but the games my math coach likes to see are those with measurable outcomes where students are held accountable for their learning. We don't have walk throughs at my current site. In fact, no administrator has observed me teach all year long. In previous sites, I had administrators in my classroom several times a week. The feedback I get regarding what happens in my classroom comes from parents who either are happy or are not happy and communicate to the principal accordingly and/or colleagues at my grade level who think I am trying to be "better" than them when I do something different. So, this summer I have worked hard to make recording sheets for students to show the thinking that they are using during math games. I have these saved on a shared drive with my colleagues and can give feedback on the response sheets to end home for parents to see evidence of learning.
What a fine dance teaching is!

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Andrea Rivera link
8/1/2015 11:48:20 am

Hi Jake,

I too cringe at the thought of having an administrator come in to see my class watching a movie. However, I have FINALLY gotten over the idea of having an administrator come in to see my students playing games when she asked a teacher to present how to use Kahoot it in a class.

After this teacher shared how she used Kahoot it in her class, I felt more comfortable in the fact that using games is not a bad thing in some administrator's eyes. I think as long as you are using technology in a logical and engaging way, there is nothing to worry about as far as our evaluations from an administrator go.

Respectfully,

Andrea

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Candace
8/2/2015 02:32:17 am

Jake I agree with you that games have a place in the classroom because they are helping the students learn the concept in a manner that is geared to get and hold their interest. You mentioned that you didn't realize how much you were "geeking out" lately, I agree that that through this class and how much we are learning we, want to keep learning more so it translate us into looking and searching for these new ideas.

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Lexie
8/4/2015 09:56:50 am

Jake,

I asked myself the same thing you did in chapter 9. The text had a huge focus on games like World of Warcraft and I'm not interested in that at all. I've never been into video games! During this chapter I wondered if I was never into them because I never really tried them, or simply because I didn't feel like it was a good use of my time. I'm a tech addict but not a gamer. Maybe if I do another 20 time project in my life I'll choose to learn about gaming and dabble a bit. I definitely have a different perspective of it than I used to. I also agreed with your connection from this chapter. I too have learned so much in the past few months through online learning communities. Specifically, I think I've learned from our cohort more than anything. Lots of take aways from this semester! :)

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    I'm a high school math teacher, but I like to  say that I teach students how to think. Math , like most subjects, can be learned; being able to critically analyze problems of all sorts  is much more important.

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  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me
  • New Discoveries
  • Educational Leadership
    • EDL 610--EDL in PreK-12 Educational Organizations >
      • Habits
      • Culture
      • Platform
    • EDL 630--School Improvement and Leadership
    • EDL 600--Organizational/Systems Leadership
    • EDL 655--Communication, Problem -Solving, and Decision-Making
    • EDL 680--Personalized Learning/Leading Through Tech >
      • 20Time Project
    • EDL 680--Enterprise Architecture >
      • My Enterprise Architecture Plan