Exploring Without Boundaries

 learning, teaching
Nov 082012
 

The last transdisciplinary skill in the last is the most challenging, which is why I’ve left it to the end. Why is it the most challenging? Because it covers a lot of ground, and its usefulness is contested despite evidence that it is in fact one of the most productive activities children engage in, and one adults should indulge in more often.

For as long as humans have existed, they have engaged in play. Children play to learn about the world and to learn how to express themselves and connect with others. And play is usually thought of as the purview of children. The more imaginative and experimental the play, the younger we expect the participating child to be. No one has told them what can and cannot be, and so they imagine what they think could be. They aren’t shackled by rules, tropes, or understood formalities. They just see what’s in front of them and turn it into whatever fits what they’re doing. It sometimes leads to bizarre questions and side trips to very disturbing lands, but they’re simply exploring possibilities. That’s why play is so important- it’s that opportunity for children to exercise their imagination and develop curiosity and creativity on their own terms. It plants the seeds for future innovation and creativity.

“play is fundamental”, popular in Montessori curricula and children’s museums, summarizes the idea that through play children learn about the world around them, in the process developing their own personal meanings and understandings. When we play, whether in games or in leisure-time activities, we learn from those around us as well as from what we are doing. If we make a mistake in play, we take our lesson and move on. If another makes a mistake in play, we learn from their mistake and try not to make the same mistake. It’s a freeing experience where we can make our mistakes and interact with each other in a non-threatening environment.

But when we fill a child’s schedule with too many structured activities, we’re really robbing them of the time to be kids. They get no time to just play, and so they don’t learn the skills that come along with play- creative thinking, storytelling, social skills, problem solving, design. They don’t get to have the experiences and form the memories that will shape and inform their adulthood. I’d even argue that they lose the opportunity to develop empathy because they don’t experience what it means to simply be at a time in their life when they’re learning what life is.

Thinking Critically

 learning, teaching
Oct 262012
 

In our pursuit to produce children capable of filling in the right bubble 100% of the time, there has become some concern that we may be robbing them of their ability to think critically. Guess which one they’re going to need once they’ve passed that last standardized test in school?

Critical thinkers use a number of the transdisciplinary skills in tandem to really explore ideas, leading to a deeper understanding and even innovation. When we think critically, we asks questions and then analyze the responses for patterns, connections, and potentially more questions. We challenge long-held beliefs and assumptions to better get at the roots of a situation. Then we take the information we’ve unearthed and studied and apply it to solve problems and to make informed decisions.

By creating critical thinkers, we encourage these young people to be more open to their world. To be a critical thinker, they have to be willing to take risks, to support their ideas and opinions with logic and observations. They have to able to consider others’ perspectives with an open mind, and be willing to challenge their own worldview or let others challenge their own worldview.

When we train young people to think critically, we enable them to look at the world with an eye toward understanding, curiosity, and agency. We enable them to consider the rationale behind traditions, and to improve existing systems thoughtfully. We open the door to real, positive change.

Becoming a Producer

 creativity, learning
Oct 182012
 

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years in the odd behavior of kids. They whine and complain about how they hate school. They don’t want to learn. But then they get out of class and blow off their school homework to work on a story they’ve been writing or to get together with friends to make a video or to build a website for that cool new band they’ve discovered. (Let’s skip right past the part where this has actually been going on for years…)

These kids take it upon themselves to learn how to create, or produce, the kind of media they want to see. They look up the tutorials. They find the tools they need. They talk with other producers on fora related to their medium of choice. And they create, sometimes prolifically, occasionally well. They take it upon themselves to learn because they need that knowledge to do what they want to do.

And when they finish their current project or their interests change, then they find something else to create that will force them to learn more…willingly.

Many teachers recognize students’ desire to create, to express themselves through a medium of their choice, and attempts are being made to incorporate more production into assignments and projects, but it’s still being done so artificially in a number of cases that these students are just as tuned out.

The thing is, being able to produce, in different media, is a skill these students will need to survive in the world beyond school. They need to know how to select a topic and then how to focus in on just what they want to share or say. They need to be able to plan out how they’re going to do it, and then to do it. And we need to accept that they’re going to learn how to do it, whether from school or the streets (as it were). We really just need to enable them and give them relevant projects to work on.

Weaving Our Tales

 learning, teaching
Oct 112012
 

Stories are our primary means of communication.

No, really. Think about it. When someone asks you how your day went, you don’t (usually) offer a list of bullet points. You weave a brief tale. When someone asks you to explain something, you usually don’t offer a dry recipe. You state the steps in a connected way. We build trust and find friends through anecdotes. We sway each other’s opinions through testimonies.

Once upon a time (see what I did there?), stories were not just the vehicle by which we shared our daily experiences. They were how we shared lessons. Fables and fairy tales were as much to keep each other entertained as they were to share harsh life lessons and histories in a less experiential environment. Anecdotes, both real and imagined, became metaphors for the real-life situations all around us, warnings and road maps.

And they still exist, and they still serve the same function.

Understanding How Systems Work

 learning
Oct 052012
 

Last year, one of my students brought in an assignment from her science class where she had to talk about a closed situation with a lot of parts that worked together. Being a sports nut, she naturally chose to look at soccer. She listed out all of the parts of a soccer game, including players and the field, and then had to think about how and why everything worked together the way it did. It was a great way to get her thinking about systems.

The world is a layer of systems, all working together and around each other daily to create the fabric of reality we live in. But because the actual teaching of systems thinking has so long resided with science and social studies, it’s been pushed aside as schools have tried to focus more on language arts and math in preparation for the yearly exams. These days, it’s the younger students who are much more likely to get a  good dose of systems thinking taught to them while they study the basics of the local community and simple science concepts like plants and the solar system.

It’s a shame, too, because as we look at the cause and effect of science and social studies lessons taught in later classes, it just seems natural that we would look at them within the context of the systems in which they occur.

I don’t know what the right answer to this one is, but I do know that having a strong grasp on the nature and function of systems can help young people be better informed and prepared to make even small decisions.

Creating With Intention

 learning
Sep 272012
 

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as to best accomplish a purpose.” – Charles Eames

One of the problems we have currently in school is the way projects are handled. Students are handed a sheet of instructions and a rubric and told to go create the assignment. They dutifully make sure their project meets the criteria for the score they want, and they don’t give it a second thought. (Truthfully, they don’t give it much of a first thought, either.) If you ask the average student why they decided to do something in a certain way on that project, they shrug and mumble, “I don’t know. ‘Cause the directions/rubric said to?”

And we wonder why they struggle to organize a project, in school or out.

As the quote above says, design is creating with purpose. It’s making decisions about your work, and understanding why you made that decision. What question or problem are you really addressing? What options did you consider? What causes and effects did you think about? What outside forces affected your decision? What skills and materials are best suited to this project, and what do you hope to learn or come away with from this project?

It takes a lot of thinking and even more decision making to put together a well-designed project, but students are capable of it when coached on how to get thinking this way.

Not Necessarily Distracted

 learning
Sep 202012
 

We as a society have been accused of poor attention management, which is pretty funny when you think about it. How can we have poor attention management when nearly 100% of our attention is focused on our gadgets? Seriously, some people pursue perfection a little too aggressively.

I joke, but in this age where multitasking is both a way of life and an “enemy”, these are the “funny because it’s true” jokes available.

We think of multitasking as randomly jumping between a number of projects with very little thought, simply because we can’t keep our focus on one project. Studies have been conducted to show how harmful multitasking is to our productivity. Books have been written about this menace.

But multitasking isn’t necessarily a lack of focus, and it isn’t necessarily a menace. In some cases, multitasking is an ongoing review and shuffling of priorities to better make sure everything is done well and on time. In some cases, multitasking can help make processing a to-do list more efficient. In some cases, … hang on, I’m about to get three stars on this Angry Bird level. Aha! Got it!

Again, I joke. We all know my game of choice is The Sims Social. I like to feel some sense of accomplishment in my gaming. (Actually, I do, but that’s a conversation for another post.)

My point is, multitasking can actually be a force for good instead of a scattering of focus. My friends will tell you I keep an insanely long to-do list, and on most days I get through that entire list. I don’t necessarily get each task done in one sitting, but I get it done. Where multitasking’s strengths lie are in its ability to allow you to look at upcoming tasks and projects and figure out the best order to get that work completed in the least amount of time and effort and its variety, offering options for productive breaks from larger tasks.

Sometimes, tasks from different projects can be completed at the same time because they require the same resources. I see that as streamlining; others scream that I’m multitasking because I’m bouncing between projects. Sometimes, I’ll hit a wall on a project, and at that point I shift to a different project and do a task off that project’s list, and it clears my mind enough to help me get past the block on the first project, allowing me to complete it. I do freelance work – there are times when I’ll be working on a project, and a job will come in that needs a fairly quickly turnaround. So, I shift from the project I was working on to get that done and back, and then return to my original project. Again, some say, “Multitasking”; I say just getting through a day with my sanity intact.

We may think of multitasking as being “all over the place”, but really it can be employed to help move through a number of tasks and projects quickly, efficiently, and in a timely manner.

Such a Show-Off

 learning
Sep 142012
 

When we hear “presentation”, our minds fill with images of awkward reports given in front of countless classes, or with reminders of the stress of developing a PowerPoint slide deck that meets whatever the current definition of “good” is. And we panic. What’s funny is that “presentation” can actually mean a variety of media; we just get locked in by the expectations given to us first at school and then at work.

The most important reason for creating a presentation is what motivated us to present – We present to share an idea, what we know or have learned. The results of practice or experimentation. We present to add to the body of knowledge on our topic, to give people with similar ideas and interests a reason to connect with us, to help future collaborators understand why they should want to work with us. We present to show what we know and what we can do.

When we present, we’re merely sharing on a public stage. That stage can take on many different shapes, and it can reach out to many types of audience. It may very well mean standing in front of people to share a lecture, a slideshow of information or images, or even the newest play. It can also mean publishing a book, writing a blog, or posting to one of tens of social media sites. We might even show off movies and webseries, if that’s the best form for our material. Because presentation is dependent on the material and the topic being presented, there is no one right way to present, and people are coming up with new methods and media regularly.

As we become more involved in creating our own online presence, we experiment with various ways to express ourselves, to show that we belong in the conversations we contribute to. Schools are starting to notice that, and some of the more forward-thinking ones are even trying to figure out how to prepare students to share their own knowledge and skills on this virtual stage. The ability to craft a good presentation, regardless of topic or medium, is going to become a more important factor in determining the paths our lives take.

Exposing Yourself

 learning
Sep 062012
 

For the record, you’re all a naughty bunch. So am I. *laugh*

It’s so easy, both in real life and online, to get locked down to a specific group of people, locations, and experiences. I don’t know if it’s still true, but at one point time (not all that long ago) something like 80-90% of people never lived more than 50 miles away from the town they were born in. (I have an unfair advantage. My first home town was nearly fifty miles from the city I was born in.) When you spend the majority of your time in the same place, you become a reflection of that place. If you’ve ever lived in a small town, you know what I’m talking about.

Sure, you may travel and see new things periodically, but you’re perfectly content to go home to your routine, your familiar. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that it can stunt your own development, and it can stunt innovation.

I’m not suggesting that you should do something completely outside your comfort zone everyday. I am suggesting taking a good look at the diversity your city has to offer, and then periodically (more frequently than you take vacations) go indulge in that diversity. Maybe you’ll have lunch at an ethnic restaurant whose cuisine you’ve never tried before. Or you might check out a festival open to the public. Even in small towns, there are a number of great possibilities. When you’re feeling braver, start looking immediately beyond your city and see what you find.

As you allow yourself to see more than just what’s familiar to you, you learn to appreciate those different groups. You may even find something beautiful in them. And if you’re paying close enough attention with an open mind, you might even find yourself inspired or you might find an answer to a problem you’ve been working on. That’s the beauty of a diverse society. Being able to share and experience different points of view makes us stronger critical thinkers because it broadens our working knowledge.

Rip, Mix, Burn

 creativity, learning
Aug 242012
 

I’m so embarrassed. In all of my digital moving in the last year or two, I’ve lost past posts and notes on this particular phenomenon. So, if you’ve heard me talk about this in the past, any resemblance of this post to those past posts is amazing and means it’s stuck really far in my head.

Because of the popularity of anime music videos, mash-ups, and internet memes, we’ve all become pretty familiar with appropriation and the complications that come with it. For me, appropriations like this fall into one of two groups: fan reaction (with all the informal skill building that goes along with it) or commentary (no matter how uneducated it sometimes comes across as).

Appropriation is an important way to immerse yourself in learning because it forces you to take multiple looks at whatever it is you’re working with and to analyze it. What is going on? What personal reaction does this provoke? What does this remind me of, and how can I tie them together? It’s understanding, analysis, and creation, wrapped around a single project. And then others look at your creation and they think about their own understanding and reaction, and they either engage in conversation, share it with others, or create their own response.

Where appropriation gets tricky is when copyright lines are either approached or flat out crossed, and it’s a great argument for why we need to educated about copyright both as creators and consumers, about what constitutes plagiarism as opposed to commentary or satire. We can also talk about more flexible options like Creative Commons that help keep us reacting and responding without stepping on other people’s toes.

I thought I’d wrap this up by sharing a few favorite videos on remixing.

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