2007-01-29

  • Good Learning
    • active learning
      • self directed
      • controlled
      • metacognitive
      • want to invite people with the understanding that it's worth their attention
      • constructed on pre-existing knowledge
      • define the relevancy to yourself
      • related to play
        • self-directed
        • voluntary
    • Deep Learning
      • conceptual frameworks for how the facts realte to each other
      • understood within the framework
      • towards expertise
        • knows what they know
        • and what they don't
        • have a conceptual framework of their own knowledge
          • right back to metacog
          • you have control over the info you know
        • expertise is a gradient
          • you can be a little bit of an expert
        • domain-specific
          • and you can decide what that domain is
      • related to play
        • make believe
        • pleasure
          • controversial
    • motivation
      • intrinsic
      • extrinsic
  • The Flow State
    • Mihayi Csicksenmihayi
      • watched their work/play
      • 30 yrs of research
      • posited the flow state
    • Skill x Challenge
      • too much skill x not enough challenge = boredom
      • not enough skill x too much challenge = anxiety
      • right balance = flow state
    • The pleasure portion connect to the flow state
      • pleasurable to meet challenges
  • Play
    • self-directed
    • voluntary
    • constructed
    • engagement
    • Play article
      • working backwards from playing games
      • at a point, there may be a breakthrough --> flow
      • you can invite someone into a process in which they may achieve flow
      • Good learning and play are equal?
        • sort of depends on def of play
        • play as outside of everyday life?
          • used to be the definition, up to 10 yrs ago
          • a ritual undertaking for entertainment purposes
        • more like play, as in freedom of movement or exploration
          • exploring potentiality
          • play like "play on a steering wheel"
          • the play within a system, be it mechanical or social
          • seeing where the boundaries are
          • hence the pleasure portion of where the skill and challenge balance
    • Do animals play?
      • Seem to
      • They learn about their environment and their species
      • Play at hunting behaviors, dominance, etc.
    • Pleasure
      • produced by self-driven exploration
      • found inside of games
    • Setting up boundary exploration situations for themselves
      • Even as adults
        • We are constantly pushing boundaries in a world of blurred domain edges
    • Examples of playful learning
    • Biochemical evidence?
      • the loss of self-consciousness measured in MRIs during flow state
      • Mind No Mind
        • Mindfulness
        • Zen
      • Chomsky
        • Can we even get at the deep structure of play in the same way as language?
        • Or are both just beyond our reach of understanding
    • Virtuoso Devices
      • Stick the processor into something that does one thing well?
      • and yet, they were using playful, multifunction devices that allowed them to do stuff
  • There's a sweet spot in all three of these
  • Flow v. Play
    • A fireman might be in a state of flow
      • but not necessarily in a state of play
      • because of consequences
    • How much does the outcome matter?
    • Context and expertise
    • play allows experiencing safely
    • role-playing experience without consequences
    • People want to feel that what they're doing relates to life in some way
    • Visions of themselves as experts
  • Literacy
    • Literacy is the ability to decode language in a domain and encode new statements within it
    • Any domain may have its own:
      • facts
      • symbols
      • recurring ideas
    • And you'd need to construct new ideas using these
    • Still there are gradations here
    • May not be a complete expert, but there is a threshold
    • Well-formed and valid?
    • TEaching a literacy
      • One at which you are already adept
    • James Gee
  • Games
    • Highly-defined artifacts that invite play
    • Losing of self
      • therefore difficult to watch yourself at play
      • tough to make yourself the first model
    • Prompts, etc.
      • Civilopedia
        • Going back and forth within play states
      • Don't need to play all the time
      • Okay to prompt, scaffold, help, etc.
      • Doesn't need to be play from start to finish
  • Transfer and Learning
    • Chap. 3
    • Helping people see the potential transfer implications of what they are learning
    • Finding test subjects
    • measuring effective learning
    • Expertise within domain
    • At the beginning of experience
      • you may have existing cultural knowledge
      • upon which learning is constructed
      • transfer of existing knowledge into new learning
    • Language learning
      • knowing one language helps learning another
      • Finding the analogues
      • Learning grammar
        • insulting in English, because you speak it
        • But required in French
          • in which case you might learn English grammar
          • taking control of your learning process
          • and making it clear why you may need to know
    • Assessment
      • Boundaries of transfer are porous
      • the way in which something is useful is not what you may assume and know
      • therefore assessment is tricky
      • Looking at how quickly new learning is accomplished
      • Need the cooperation of the learner
        • as an informant
        • finding eval and assess at smaller intervals and lower levels
      • Feedback loops the help evaluate the degree to which transfer is occuring
        • transfering one learned skill in the game to another case in the game
  • Motivation
    • How do you get someone to do something?
    • Or get them to WANT to do something?
    • Goals
      • Intrinsic
        • envisioning yourself as an expert
        • are there not many opportunities to feel like an expert
        • having the experts title
        • how they view themselves may affect motivation
          • role-playing
          • reduced consequences
        • framework of doing for real
        • self-esteem
          • satisfaction of being expert
          • video game master is the first feeling of expertise
            • not only am I great at this
            • but my parents and teacher suck at it
      • Extrinsic
  • Attention
    • How do you get someone who is doing seomthing to KEEP doing it?
  • Design
    • Cycles
    • Metacognitive process
    • Start thinking about how we teach and get taught with Design
  • Founding A School
    • One home-schooled student at a time
    • Depth vs. Breadth
    • At this school, they work on one particular subject over a year
    • Educational groupware project
      • Your portfolio is accessible to other students
    • Buying the Bettman archive!
    • Better to focus on a few photographs that people could contrast with each other
      • And then they could teach each other
      • had potential for originality
      • working within contraints
        • makes the system knowable
        • and studiable
        • and can form boundaries that are interesting to explore
      • students informing each others work
        • in a limited system, more able to critique each other
      • Very game-like here
      • Pleasure in constraint
        • can be known
        • and beaten
        • know where challenge is coming from
        • infinite potentialities make the game unplayable
        • so why is this
          • educational?
          • satisfying?
        • knowing how things can be
          • constrained
          • systematized
  • Homework
    • Norman
      • Design as conversation/communication
    • Chap 9 Bransford
    • Examples of Playful Learning
    • Look at the design cycle page