Quote: “ Learning now, therefore goes far beyond a simple transfer of information and becomes inextricably bound with the context that is being created.” (pg.94)
Question: On pg. 93 the author states that we can only fully understand a piece of information if we know where it came from. Is this really always true? Can we truly not understand a piece of information if we don’t know the source and context?
Connection: I really connected to the idea of “play” in this chapter. Play appears to be the “opposite of work” and is “fun” rather than “serious”. That is true. But play can absolutely be connected to incredible learning. It is interesting in class when we do a science lab, an ipad project, or practice math facts with card/dice games and the students think all of a sudden that because the lesson is “fun” the learning is not hard… it’s play time. I don’t know if they even think of this time as serious learning, they think of it as almost a break (because that’s what they’ve been trained to think).. yet some of the best learning happens during these times. It is like they can’t connect the idea of fun with learning.
Epiphany: Play is so valuable in our ever-changing world. As teachers we need to push ourselves to continue connecting play with learning in our classrooms everyday.
Chapter 8
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. Geeking out provides an experiential, embodied sense of learning within a rich social context of peer interaction, feedback, and knowledge construction enabled by a technological infrastructure that promotes “intense, autonomous, interest driven” learning.” (pg.104)
Question: “Hanging out” and even “messing around” seem natural for most people that use social media platforms, but how do we foster this”interest driven learning”? How do we encourage students to become invested in their interests and passions and become autonomous in their learning?
Connection: In the “Hanging Out” portion of the chapter, the author talks about how social norms have changed due to advancement in technology such as text messaging and facebook. I completely connected to this. I have seen a huge shift in “social norms” in the past 10 years in connection to the way people communicate with one another. I remember before cell phones were common I had all of my friends’ phone numbers memorized, now nobody knows each others’ numbers. Friends would call each others’ “landlines” when we wanted to communicate with one another and chat. Now I feel like the dating game has been changed forever. No one calls anymore, everything is through text messages. Also, your online presence on social media platforms can be a key component in the dating world.
Epiphany: I could summarize my aha moment in a quote from the chapter “...personal investment in technology and digital media changes the focus from social agency to personal agency. When that happens, technology and digital media begin to be viewed as an extension of oneself”. (pg.103) SO true.
Chapter 8:
Quote: “As we have seen, the thing that are learned through MMOS are fed back into the collective through a variety of sources and gradually become adopted throughout their standard practices. What begins as experimentation is replicated, tested, and incorporated into the stockpile of information that constitutes the knowledge economy surrounding the game.” (pg.114)
Question: The text has connected many of their examples of “collectives” to online/computerized games of some sort. I am trying to connect this idea to the people (my students) who are not interested in those types of activities. Many of my 4th grade girls, for example, find interest in art, in crafting their own projects, dancing, acting, etc. I also know many people who would much rather be doing activities outside than spending hours on a computer. The idea of being in online communities would be far less appealing to them - and we all know that participation is where we see the most growth. My question is how can we take these concepts and apply them to all different types of people?
Connection: On page 115 the author explains how environments like World or Warcraft make it easy to see just how fun learning can be. There is an emphasis on knowing, making, and playing. I really connected to this idea that learning really can be fun if we allow room for creativity, imagination, and play rather than just the consumption of knowledge.
Epiphany: Where imaginations play, learning happens. We learn from our experiences. We need to broaden our experiences and connect them to others’. We need to allow lots of room for play in school.