I started to watch the TED talk Jane McGonigal: Gamin can make a better world with my friend around. He is naturally inquisitive (and a PhD in neuroscience, impressive) and watched with me, and started asking questions like "What do you know about Jane McGonical?" So I started clicking links to read her bio. There are links to the games she talked about it the TED talk if you are interested in spreading the work like she suggested. I was definitely inspired after watching the TED talk. The last two minutes of the video really pulled together what she was aiming for in solving the worlds issues with gaming.
While we were watching Jane McGonigal, my friend referenced another uTube video called Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. It is about an hour and fifteen minutes long, which I admit seemed like too much time for me to invest. My friend suggested that I just watch some of it because he knows how pressed for time I am with the million assignments we have due. I started watching this video, and found myself clicking back and forth from the video to this blog post to jot down ideas that I wanted to write on later. And of course, I watched it in its entirety.
Below are some thoughts and references that I came up with that highly related to our practice. Who knew as the video went on that I would be so inspired. Randy Pausch tells about the "elephant in the room" very early on in the video. He has cancer and has a small amount of time to live. This is literally his last lecture, with multiple purposes. Revealing how deep he is through the lecture, he depicts the development of himself throughout his life. I infer this is not just because he found out he is going to die, but that he actually developed into this person that was lecturing over time. He is a humble, down to Earth man giving the lecture, but inadvertently shows that he didn't start out that way as he explains his journey. It is encouraging to know that people can change for the better if they have good mentors and are guided properly. I'm sure some of this development occurred because he was open minded and willing to change, not just others guiding him. The combination of the two is priceless.
Randy had several comments about the proof of a positive community and the proof of a good project (these sound like they relate to benchmarks on community and taxonomy with producing a product. Is this thought process wrong?!?). He said it was easy to tell if the project the group was about to explain was good or not by the body language of the group community before displaying. He would also advise his students about the importance of community at the beginning of his classes, and that they wouldn't understand it until later, but that they would really appreciate it down the road. He is a computer science undergrad with an interest in programming games, and in particular virtual reality. Guided by a mentor to teach others, he teamed up with a drama major at Carnegie Mellon and created a program the directly connected the use of technology in the classroom. He did virtual reality projects that were dubbed edutainment. How perfect is that relating to this class!
One of the random pieces of information that I appreciated was a graph that he displayed. It was feedback for students in his class to see a visual reflection on how helpful they were compared to the rest of the class in working in their small groups. He took group reflection data continually to use it to create a competitive environment. He made this a visual bar chart that he would display in class to create social pressure that each student had to deal with. Some of them still managed to ignore this slap you in the face feedback, but it sure struck me when I saw it! What a great way to get students to be metacognitive and evaluate themselves and the actions that they are doing in class (oh Taxonomy...).
Randy had random quotes that fit into his lecture that struck me as intriguing enough to make note of. One of them was "You might as well be selling something worth while, education." Another was a statement about how to get students to program and love it. "Millions of kids having fun learning something hard." It was incredible for him to see that the students had a great byproduct of learning something difficult, programming, by playing or creating a game. Their willingness to attempt the programming when it was attached to something they found interesting was astounding. You should watch the video to stumble along some of the other awesome quotes. I found one particularly useful enough to note the time (58:50 - practicing with notes in observation!). Talk about it is more important with how you say something than what you say. He tells about a mentor trying to straighten out his ego with an incredibly positive spin. If there is ever a student that you are having a difficult time with, it would be a priceless line to use! Check it out.
Another statement that pulled on some heart strings was about the importance in helping others recognize their childhood dream. He talked about the important role of parents, mentors and students acting collaboratively. He displayed and honored people in his life that were mentors, supporters, students, parents etc. The impact people can have on your life is incredible.
Ultimately, what I think relates most in this video to our EDUC 504 class, is that Randy displayed how technology can be an extremely powerful platform for change. He was able to introduce virtual reality as a learning tool to pilot one class, that turned into a cross listed course with multiple disciplines, and created an entire degree out of it. It was an appropriate tangent to what our assigned reading focused on. He also took a shot at wikis by the way, which I found particularly amusing and ironic.
Perhaps I have convinced you to watch the clip. If not, I probably reflected so much on it that you feel like you watched it yourself. Win, win!
Of course you bring up Randy - tears everywhere. A friend of mine was a student of his and said he was just as awesome in person. Just as cool was the software he developed for kids. I sometimes wonder if I am doing the right think going into education when I already have the capabilities to be developing cool software for greater good. Anyways.
ReplyDeleteI love that he achieved so many of his dreams. I think sometimes we imagine too many 'Brick Walls' and are afraid to have those dreams in the first place. Or more important having big dreams and learning from NOT accomplishing them.
You should read Randy's book. I have yet to read it, but wife said it was one of the most moving books she has read. I completely agree that teaching students to build community should be a goal of community. Community building was one of the original goals of public education through the Common School movement (obligatory 649 reference).
ReplyDeleteFollowup - this should be mandatory viewing for everyone, but esp preservice teachers. But mostly everyone.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It's now on my list of things to watch - but I won't start watching it until after all of these assignments are due. Believe me though - come August I'm going to sit down and see what I think.
ReplyDeleteYou've experienced an amazing moment -- finding someone whose work absolutely fuels your own. Isn't that an incredible feeling? I just read an essay that did the same (in a different way). Goosebumps.
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