QD
Questioning Dispositions, Qualifying Inquiries, & Quantifying Decisions
Simply Put – Where To Go From Here…
In Big Thinkers, John Seely Brown points out the seemingly obvious, that change is an everyday word now. Students growing up and preparing to enter the workforce will need to have a learner’s mentality which means staying engaged with the new and expecting change rather than being hesitant or surprised when it happens. He suggests that the questioning disposition exists in the video gaming world, so how do we bring that to education. Game players embrace change, they expect it, I think they would be surprised, or bored, if they didn’t see it. Maybe it is this mentality that keeps me so intrigued by the potential behind a gaming scenario to support and further learning through engagement, practice and repetition.
As we look to the second half of the semester in INTE ,Digital Storytelling I’d honestly like to design a game. I have no idea what I am getting into here, that’s scary, but I think taking a shot at it would be a lot of fun. Ultimately a video game but that’s a stretch at this point since I’m not a programmer, but something that could be incorporated into learning. I keep coming back to either music or a game that really drives home the potential impact of gaming in education. If not music then something grad students could engage in to immerse themselves with something they know little about, to give them a chance to experience what their students would through use of a gamified lesson or classroom, something to serve as an encouragement to jump in and follow suit.
Wow, that being said I’m ready to retract it all since it seems like a huge undertaking, but to push the boundaries one would have to start somewhere and in discussions, and even the unconference, I feel like I’m hearing that’s the scariest part for most educators and likely why they don’t jump in. To me it’s a challenge calling but to be realistic, maybe just the design? How would I build it out if I could? I’m not sure though, I feel like maybe I would be in way over my head here but it’s such an intriguing concept.
Non- the-less for me choosing between more reading and theory I would have to go with more doing! I think we can read and analyze all day but it’s where you have to put your mind where your creation is that the real learning occurs. With permission to fail I think that having to jump in and have a go at it really gives you another perspective. Hopefully it’s a surprised, I really can do this, paradigm shifting mentality at the end. Either way I think it puts you in a different headspace and in the process I’d be shocked if one didn’t have to do more research while figuring it all out on your own as well! Wow, did I just say that?