Chapter 7:
Quote: “[W]e propose three different, yet overlapping, frames for redesigning [education]. They are homo sapiens, homo faber, and homo ludens—or humans who know, humans who make (things), and humans who play.” (90) This quote sums up my understanding about Chapter 7. In Chapter 7, the authors argue that we should restructure education by focusing on: 1) knowing where to find information, not knowing the information itself; 2) learning by doing; and 3) playing as a tool for learning.
Question: How to I translate the abstract ideas in these two complex sentences into something I can apply in a classroom setting?
“Through the process of making, we are also learning how to craft context so that it carries more of the message, which helps solve many of the issues of information overload. Thus, as context begins to play an increasingly important role, it becomes easier to talk about things like visual arguments; expanding the notion of literacy to include images, color, and sound; and how information is transmitted through new phenomena, such as viral distribution.” (94-95)
Connection: Tony Wagner, in The Global Achievement Gap, called the ability to access information one of the seven “survival skills” for the 21st century. Like the authors of A New Culture of Learning, Wagner recognizes the great importance of being able to sort through the glut of information available on the Web and evaluate it.
Epiphany: The authors seem to feel that the kind of play and riddle-solving offered by gaming is the highest form of learning. I decided to test out the idea. I bought some well-regarded some strategy board games, and I’m going to let students play them in class on certain days to see if students are engaged and learning.
Chapter 8:
Quote: “Ito and her team constructed a typology of practices to describe the way young people participate with new media: hanging out, messing around, and geeking out. We believe these three practices could frame a progression of learning that is endemic to digital networks.” (100)
Question: “Hanging around”, “messing around,” and “geeking out,” as defined by the authors (101-104), are what students are already doing in digital environments in their free time, to pursue topics of personal interest. Is it realistic to think that students will want to geek out on topics that are not personally interesting to them—say, the French Revolution, photosynthesis, or the use of simile and metaphor—with the same level of engagement and drive?
Connection: In this class, our Google+ and Twitter pages have certainly allowed me to hang out with my classmates, and have provided an “enhanced environment for sharing information and engaging in meaningful social interaction.” (101) I have had the chance to get to know colleagues in different disciplines much better than I would have otherwise.
Epiphany: I definitely see the value of a digital social network in helping create a sense of community, or “indwelling.” I plan to establish a Google+ or other community for my future classes.
Chapter 9:
Quote: “Massively multiplayer online games…are large-scale social communities that provide a case study in how players absorb tacit knowledge, process it into a series of increasingly sophisticated questions, and engage collectives to make the experience more personally meaningful. What they teach us about learning is not specific to any game per se but is embedded in the collectives that are constructed in, around, and through the game.” (107)
Question: Why do the authors trivialize concerns about antisocial and violent behavior in games? Numerous serious research studies have documented the fact that sexism is extremely prevalent in online gaming. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3849516/ The touted benefits of “near-absolute agency, enjoying virtually unlimited experimentation and exploration” (107) have led to many instances of cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and even physical threats of women who spoke out against rape jokes on gaming sites. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3849516/
Connection: Tony Wagner, in The Global Achievement Gap, lists “curiosity and imagination” as his survival skill #7. Curiosity and imagination seem to embody the “questing disposition” that Thomas and Seely Brown equate with play.
Epiphany: I need to think about how to make classroom lessons more like a puzzle or game, insofar as “we engage in acts of productive inquiry, where the answers we find become part of our stockpile of information, which can then be used to find better and more interesting questions as well as to solve future problems.” (117)
Quote: “[W]e propose three different, yet overlapping, frames for redesigning [education]. They are homo sapiens, homo faber, and homo ludens—or humans who know, humans who make (things), and humans who play.” (90) This quote sums up my understanding about Chapter 7. In Chapter 7, the authors argue that we should restructure education by focusing on: 1) knowing where to find information, not knowing the information itself; 2) learning by doing; and 3) playing as a tool for learning.
Question: How to I translate the abstract ideas in these two complex sentences into something I can apply in a classroom setting?
“Through the process of making, we are also learning how to craft context so that it carries more of the message, which helps solve many of the issues of information overload. Thus, as context begins to play an increasingly important role, it becomes easier to talk about things like visual arguments; expanding the notion of literacy to include images, color, and sound; and how information is transmitted through new phenomena, such as viral distribution.” (94-95)
Connection: Tony Wagner, in The Global Achievement Gap, called the ability to access information one of the seven “survival skills” for the 21st century. Like the authors of A New Culture of Learning, Wagner recognizes the great importance of being able to sort through the glut of information available on the Web and evaluate it.
Epiphany: The authors seem to feel that the kind of play and riddle-solving offered by gaming is the highest form of learning. I decided to test out the idea. I bought some well-regarded some strategy board games, and I’m going to let students play them in class on certain days to see if students are engaged and learning.
Chapter 8:
Quote: “Ito and her team constructed a typology of practices to describe the way young people participate with new media: hanging out, messing around, and geeking out. We believe these three practices could frame a progression of learning that is endemic to digital networks.” (100)
Question: “Hanging around”, “messing around,” and “geeking out,” as defined by the authors (101-104), are what students are already doing in digital environments in their free time, to pursue topics of personal interest. Is it realistic to think that students will want to geek out on topics that are not personally interesting to them—say, the French Revolution, photosynthesis, or the use of simile and metaphor—with the same level of engagement and drive?
Connection: In this class, our Google+ and Twitter pages have certainly allowed me to hang out with my classmates, and have provided an “enhanced environment for sharing information and engaging in meaningful social interaction.” (101) I have had the chance to get to know colleagues in different disciplines much better than I would have otherwise.
Epiphany: I definitely see the value of a digital social network in helping create a sense of community, or “indwelling.” I plan to establish a Google+ or other community for my future classes.
Chapter 9:
Quote: “Massively multiplayer online games…are large-scale social communities that provide a case study in how players absorb tacit knowledge, process it into a series of increasingly sophisticated questions, and engage collectives to make the experience more personally meaningful. What they teach us about learning is not specific to any game per se but is embedded in the collectives that are constructed in, around, and through the game.” (107)
Question: Why do the authors trivialize concerns about antisocial and violent behavior in games? Numerous serious research studies have documented the fact that sexism is extremely prevalent in online gaming. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3849516/ The touted benefits of “near-absolute agency, enjoying virtually unlimited experimentation and exploration” (107) have led to many instances of cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and even physical threats of women who spoke out against rape jokes on gaming sites. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3849516/
Connection: Tony Wagner, in The Global Achievement Gap, lists “curiosity and imagination” as his survival skill #7. Curiosity and imagination seem to embody the “questing disposition” that Thomas and Seely Brown equate with play.
Epiphany: I need to think about how to make classroom lessons more like a puzzle or game, insofar as “we engage in acts of productive inquiry, where the answers we find become part of our stockpile of information, which can then be used to find better and more interesting questions as well as to solve future problems.” (117)