Week 2 - Response 2

ORIGINAL POST – TOM TURNER:

These legos to the right of here sum up what I conceptualize what our reading is about for this week. For many, myself included, this pile of legos present an enormous road block in the creative process. Ask someone like myself what they see in this picture and the response is easy, "A pile of legos". We'll get back to what the other creative minded people will respond with here in a little while.

This week's reading consisted of Chapters 1 - 4 of "The Art of Possibility". I'm a very avid reader, and will enjoy reading this summer once we are done with this EMDT program. I've so missed sitting out in the pool with a book. One tool that I like to use when I read is to imagine someone else's voice as I'm reading particular areas of text. For some reason when I was reading the other night the only voice I had going through my head was that of Dr. Siegel. One of the takeaways for the Gaming Strategies and Motivation (GSM) course 2 months ago was to always imagine the unimaginable and then to make it possible. This is mostly because gaming strategies for education is one of those taboos that mainstream educators and administrators don't want to talk about, think about or dream about. In my mind this is what Chapter 1 was all about. For example, the Zander and Zander shared on page 15 the following:

"What might I now invent, That I have not yet invented, That would give me other choices?"

In my head this SCREAMS Dr. Dan! The entire month of GSM revolved around finding limitless opportunities for our students to create and invent and explore worlds and realms that are not possible to visit in the traditional classrooms.

I was also very intrigued with the third chapter, "Giving an A". I very much enjoyed reading how the instructor of the music class attempted to get the best out of students. In the past I would start off the each marking period with the same statements. That right now EVERYONE has an A in my class. After reading this chapter I can see how I would amend that and utilize a similar method. Zander and Zander believed that giving an A to students would lead to students to take risks that they normally would not take. All with the hopes of after reflecting upon positives and negatives that the creative processes will be unimpeded thereby letting innovation take place (p. 34).

The great thing about this philosophy to learning is that it breaks down the barriers to learning between student and instructor. This frees up students to be as creative as they can be and for teachers to maintain a facilitative role (Zander & Zander, p, 36).

Now, back to that pile of legos above. If that pile was placed in front of student in an environment where they are not given the freedom to take chances would it be possible to end up putting together a design such as the Millenium Falcon? I am highly doubtful that students would be willing, or wanting, to put the effort needed to create something as elaborate as the falcon (or a building tower, car, etc) where they didn't feel their teacher was supportive to their learning and risk taking.

MY REPONSE:

Tom, your post definitely helped me gather more from the reading than I had previously. Your explanation of the quote you chose from p.15 of the text opened my eyes to more possibilities from that part of the reading.

I too am intrigued by the idea of “giving everyone an A” but I honestly wonder how it would work with at-risk low motivated freshman and sophomores. I wonder if they would choose to skip because the class “didn’t matter” or would choose to not do any homework for the same reason? I’ve thought a lot about this possibility and how it would work at a school I’ll be interviewing for on Monday and Tuesday (physics/physical science and engineering/physical science) positions. The school population has VERY diverse learners with diverse abilities. My entire educational philosophy is based on building relationships with students and I feel this is a must for students to buy-in to this idea but it’s definitely something I will think more about if I’m asked to work at this school.