Quote: “In the twenty-first century, however, knowledge is becoming less a question of “what is the information?” and more of a “Where is the information?” (Thomas & Brown, 2011) I chose this quote because todays world is not simply about knowing information, its about the ability to find the information. When you don’t know something, do you have the ability to acquire it using technology? This is what students need to master, not simply regurgitating facts, more so the ability to navigate the abundance of resources to acquire the best and reliable answer.
Question: Is it the responsibility of a teacher to tell students what they learned (know) at the end of a making/playing session if they were not aware?
Connection: I’ve personally utilized the three dimensions of learning: knowing, making and playing. Sometimes I may play first and tinker on the Internet because there is a wealth of knowledge out there that will inspire and guide my actions. Once I put whatever I learned into practice and act on it, the action leads to knowing. Knowing can involve a new learning that you can either modify or sustain over time. This is something or a learning I want to implement in my 2nd grade classroom.
Epiphany/Aha: My “aha” moment is the understanding that play is not smooth and that it may be in a state of constant flux and that’s ok. “Play provides the opportunity to leap, experiment, fail and continue to play with different outcomes.” (Thomas & Brown, pg. 98) Not everything has to be systematic and under control all the time. Sometime as teachers we fear when our principal, board members, superintendents, etc. enter our classroom and we want to appear that everything is under control but this reading has expanded my mind that there is such thing as controlled chaos. There is purpose behind the chaos.
Chapter 8: Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out
Quote: “When messing around, young people begin to take an interest in and focus on the working and content of the technology and media themselves, tinkering, exploring, and extending their understanding. (Thomas & Brown, pg. 102) I get super excited when I see a student discover something through play, it’s a wonderful epiphany or “aha” moment they develop through their own interest. I see it everyday with iPads, we have several apps that students use and it’s amazing what they discover and create through their time of play/learning.
Question: How often should we implement this new learning philosophy in a second grade classroom?
Connection: As a second grade teacher, students will love the time to tinker and mess around, however it would be my job to facilitate this environment of tinkering and bring the awareness of knowing. That through the process of tinkering, you’re not simply playing, you are discovering or possibly discovering a talent/passion.
Epiphany/Aha: “How can I utilize the available resources, both social and technological, for deep exploration?” (Thomas & Brown, pg. 105) I love this question because the answer is exactly what we’re going through as a collective in our graduate program. We not only use the Internet and books as our resources but we also use each other. We have the ability to bounce off ideas from each other and obtain the perspectives from people with a wealth of knowledge and experiences.
Chapter 9: The New Culture of Learning For A World of Constant Change
Quote: “Imagine an environment where learning happens on a continuous basis because the participants are internally motivated to find, share, and filter new information on a near constant basis.” I chose this quote because it visually creates an environment where students are motivated. When you’re motivated to learn, it means you’re passionate about a certain subject and with that alone, students will play and tinker on their own. Through this process of exploration students will gradually get out of their comfort zone and collaborate with one another sharing their experiences. This creates a continuous learning environment.
Question: How can I implement this type of gaming, safely, in a second grade classroom?
Connection: I played a lot of sports growing up and the way the author explained the gaming environment, it brought back memories of when I played baseball. I was not gaming or networking with other teammates from all over the world as you can virtually but I was networking and sharing baseball knowledge with my teammates who all brought a variety of experiences and knowledge that helped me as a player. I see this in my classroom as well, my students are not gaming with players all over the world but they are gaming and creating code every once in a while through a project called “Hour of Code.” I was able to observe how students that mastered a certain part of the code and share that knowledge with other students and before you knew it, multiple kids were creating code. It wasn’t by my teaching; it was due to their tinkering and play.
Epiphany/Aha: This chapter gave me a deeper understanding of the importance of the collective and how to allow students to tinker. I can visualize my 2nd graders doing this on their own as I facilitate. I can also remember in the past when these moments occurred in the past year without even knowing or understanding what they were actually doing. Now I know.