According to A New Culture of Learning , "In a world of near-constant flux, play becomes a strategy for embracing change, rather than a way for growing out of it." (Thomas, Seely Brown, 2011). We usually attribute the actions of "play" to young children, and also tend to assume that the need for constant play declines as we grow older. My hunch is, it doesn't actually decline, but the demands on our time for other more pressing things simply crowd out the time we used to spend in play.
The key element of play - especially the unstructured play of children - is that they make up the parameters and rules as they go along. They begin their play with some basic ideas in place, and as their imagination takes them along they adjust, adapt, and expand their play to accommodate their new ideas. Interestingly enough, this is exactly the process that adults who we consider to be innovators use.
I think it's timely, and appropriate that organizations like the Lego Foundation are actively trying to help revamp education systems by incorporating play. Randa Grob-Zakhary, CEO of the Lego Foundation says, “A lot of work [in education] is focused on how can we better teach and more quickly teach reading and math--literacy and numeracy,” she says, speaking with Co.Exist at the United Nations' Global Compact summit in New York City last month. “There’s still a very big gap in defining how can we better equip our children with creative and critical thinking skills to equip them to face tomorrow’s challenges.”
And now, a little mentoring story...
Today was my day to spend 30 minutes with my mentee in her 3rd grade classroom. I was modeling a lesson in using a new gaming software with her kids. I explained to her first about the software. It's called Phantomation, and it's a new project from the labs at MIT. The object of the game is for the player to create animations using the built in animation software PlaySketch, which will scare the living beings through the mansion so that they are not captured by the lurking phantoms. PlaySketch is an actual professional animation software, which uses key framing and real time animation to possess objects. MIT labs has worked it into the game. The game is being used as research by MIT to determine if these new animation techniques make animation programming easier to learn.
There are only some very basic instructions included in the game - one or two sentences on an intro page. I sat the students at the computers and reviewed the term animation - most knew what it meant or was related to, and could give examples. I then very briefly explained the object of the game, and that they would be making objects animate to help them. I told them to play with it to figure it out, and that they could help each other, but gave no specific directions. For the first five minutes there was a lot of protesting and whining. It was not immediately obvious what to do, so they wanted help right away. I just encouraged them to keep playing around with it. The heavy protests continued (my mentee was getting nervous!), but then around the 8 minute mark, one of the kids shouted, "I figured out how to make it move!". Over the next few minutes there followed a series of similar discoveries. By 15 minutes in there were small groups huddling up, moving to another screen, re-arranging into different groups, and a general flurry of activity. Other than offering the occasional, "ask each other questions," or, "Why don't you ask *student* about that," I said nothing about the game, and gave no instructions. I stayed out of their flow of group conferencing. At the end of the 30 minutes, all students had a basic command of the game, and more than half had moved up several levels.
The reason I chose this particular activity for my mentee to see, was because I wanted to show her the opportunities for constructivist, collaborative learning that technology offers. I wanted her to see how students become so quickly engaged in the problem solving, and how they collaborate without a thought when it comes to solving problems, and how in these situations, the group so naturally values the critical thinkers. The parameters of the game changed frequently, and in learning new ways to beat the game, they also quickly adapted to the changes in the game. Additionaly, I wanted her to see that her role in these things was best if it was minimal. Kids learn too early to use their teacher as a crutch, and we happily oblige. If she remains a bystander, the learning is about them, and not about her. I also wanted her to see that some of the best options for this often look like play, and feel like play to kids. I think the message came through!
Funny story in contrasts - at the end of the 30 minute session the students had recess. The same students, who only 5 minutes prior had been eagerly discussing solving problems with key frames and timers, quickly dissolved into an intense argument about who was the caboose in the line!
It was funny, but led me to question, which of the two situations I witnessed in that 5 minute time frame more accurately reflects what we think of when we hear the saying "kids will be kids"? Which one should? In both scenarios, they were simply reacting as kids do within the expectations of the environment they were placed in. What kind of expectations and environments do we put them in for most of the day?
This gets to the heart of how change impacts me as a professional. I want my students to be able to think in ways that help them adapt to and thrive with change. If I want that, I have to be willing to be that way myself, and I have to be willing to let them experience those kinds of learning situations in the classroom.
Resources:
Thomas, D., & SeelyBrown, J. (2011). A new culture of learning: cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Lexington, Ky.: CreateSpace?.
Leber, J. (2013, October 2). Can Playing With Lego Make You More Creative? | Co.Exist | ideas + impact. Co.Exist | ideas + impact. Retrieved October 11, 2013, from http://www.fastcoexist.com/3018877/can-playing-with-legos-make-you-more-creative?partner=newsletter&utm_content=buffer0c641
GAMBIT: Load Game: Phantomation. (summer 2012). Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab. Retrieved October 10, 2013, from http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/phantomation
Tracie, thanks for posting about your mentoring experience today. I think this is the perfect example of thoughtfully including play in the classroom. You gave all the students a foreign game. Because it was a game they didn't know about, it gave them the freedom to take risks and the freedom to choose different roles in the game. What was perfectly illustrated by the caboose argument was that in a game that the roles are already defined, kids will follow those roles. It's fantastic to put them in situations that are undefined so that they experience all the benefits of play!
ReplyDeleteI liked your story about your mentoring experience. It made me a little sad though that they protested so much. It just goes to show, and I think this is the case for most students, that they are not given the chance to just play around without explicit instructions often enough. Too often, there is a right way or a wrong way, and students get caught up in doing things right all the time. They aren't quite sure what to do when given the chance to just play around and explore. The interesting thing would be to give the class another assignmetn with a different piece of technology, or even something else and give them similar instructions to pllay and figure something out. Would they protest quite as much?
ReplyDeleteI wish I taught at a higher level when I read a blog like this. I teach 3rd graders. Most are at least a year behind. That means that when They should be able to add and subtract appropriately they are not able to apply the right operation to the right situation. I know there was a 9 year old that was also involved in these types of online programs. Do students need to be competent in these basic skills before applying them or do they become competent because they have to apply them?
ReplyDeleteI think your second answer is closer!
Deleteum.... will you come be my mentor in my kindergarten class of 30???? They also fight over who is the caboose! Are there programs that I can use that are geared toward Kindergarten? This is something I must look into. Thanks for your thoughts. For your thoughts started my thoughts. :-)
ReplyDelete