How Do I Love Thee: Play
Part 1
Where Play Emerged in My Topic
Where Play Emerged in My Topic
During the course of this semester play has emerged in my topic in almost every module assignment. Below are the areas where I believe play emerged.
Module 2-Perceiving:
While hunting for new ways to perceive my topic in Module 2, there are a couple of ways I believe play emerged. The first is through viewing videos. I watched many videos of students performing the play “The Crucible” and I spent a lot of time looking at images for my assignment (many I looked at just out of curiosity). I included video clips in my assignment, but the most playful one came from Sparknotes. The students were encouraged to watch the videos to gain a better understanding of the structure of theatre and the play. I think play emerged most in my topic of Perceiving with the use of Glogster. Glogster is an amazing site that allows students to view interactive glogs and they can make their own glogs for free. Glogs require a lot of research, time, and creativity to make. Students and teachers could spend hours making glogs for any content area and will most likely forget they are working or studying. They are just plain fun!
Played emerged in my topic in Module 3 through creating new patterns. I created a Wordle, word scramble worksheet, and new plot diagrams. All were creative and fun! My favorite area of play in Module 3 was making the cartoons. I can see my students spending hours creating new scenarios and dialogue to see the topic in a new way and make it more interesting and fun.
Module 4 - Abstracting
In Module 4, played emerged through the abstraction of my plot in new ways. For example, my first abstraction was through photos, the second was through poetry, and the third was through using the periodic table and some chosen elements. This form of play enabled me to see my topic in a new way in an attempt to understand it and see if more creatively.
Module 5- Embodied Thinking
I really had fun playing with my topic for the Module 5 assignment. Play emerged in my topic as I looked for ways to represent it through movement and empathy. To represent my topic through movement, I chose dance and mime. For empathy I created a fun game that requires my students to discuss and learn about empathy in a group setting.
Module 6- Modeling
Module 6 was another fun assignment where play emerged in my topic. For the assignment I asked my students to create a virtual environment of the play, “The Crucible” using the popular Sims game. They were to focus on character development and setting. This assignment enabled my students to play and use dimensional thinking at the same time, which I believe gives them the opportunity to be active learners and critical thinkers as well as the ability to really think about and explore the topic freely and creatively.
Playful Introduction to My Topic
The playful introduction I chose for my topic is to first introduce it using a Voki and then to give the first steps of the instructions using an interactive glog I made with Glogster.
Voki Link: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=7034106&height=267&width=200
Module 2-Perceiving:
While hunting for new ways to perceive my topic in Module 2, there are a couple of ways I believe play emerged. The first is through viewing videos. I watched many videos of students performing the play “The Crucible” and I spent a lot of time looking at images for my assignment (many I looked at just out of curiosity). I included video clips in my assignment, but the most playful one came from Sparknotes. The students were encouraged to watch the videos to gain a better understanding of the structure of theatre and the play. I think play emerged most in my topic of Perceiving with the use of Glogster. Glogster is an amazing site that allows students to view interactive glogs and they can make their own glogs for free. Glogs require a lot of research, time, and creativity to make. Students and teachers could spend hours making glogs for any content area and will most likely forget they are working or studying. They are just plain fun!
Played emerged in my topic in Module 3 through creating new patterns. I created a Wordle, word scramble worksheet, and new plot diagrams. All were creative and fun! My favorite area of play in Module 3 was making the cartoons. I can see my students spending hours creating new scenarios and dialogue to see the topic in a new way and make it more interesting and fun.
Module 4 - Abstracting
In Module 4, played emerged through the abstraction of my plot in new ways. For example, my first abstraction was through photos, the second was through poetry, and the third was through using the periodic table and some chosen elements. This form of play enabled me to see my topic in a new way in an attempt to understand it and see if more creatively.
Module 5- Embodied Thinking
I really had fun playing with my topic for the Module 5 assignment. Play emerged in my topic as I looked for ways to represent it through movement and empathy. To represent my topic through movement, I chose dance and mime. For empathy I created a fun game that requires my students to discuss and learn about empathy in a group setting.
Module 6- Modeling
Module 6 was another fun assignment where play emerged in my topic. For the assignment I asked my students to create a virtual environment of the play, “The Crucible” using the popular Sims game. They were to focus on character development and setting. This assignment enabled my students to play and use dimensional thinking at the same time, which I believe gives them the opportunity to be active learners and critical thinkers as well as the ability to really think about and explore the topic freely and creatively.
Playful Introduction to My Topic
The playful introduction I chose for my topic is to first introduce it using a Voki and then to give the first steps of the instructions using an interactive glog I made with Glogster.
Voki Link: http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=7034106&height=267&width=200
Part 2
My Understanding of the Cognitive Tool of Play and Explanation of My Topic
My Understanding of the Cognitive Tool of Play and Explanation of My Topic
My understanding of the cognitive tool of play is that playing is very important in helping people to be or to become more creative and to help keep the imagination alive. By being open to the childlike sense of play we all once had, people will be able to discover new ideas or see old things in a new way. I also understand that the cognitive tool of play allows adults to play much differently than children. Our play needs to be fun, but also have a sense of direction that hopefully guides us to be productive and will lead us to new discoveries (and help us recognize them) that may help the world and mankind.
I chose to use both Voki and Glogster for the introductory activities of my topic.
For the first part of my introduction I chose to use a Voki. A Voki is a speaking avatar (animated character) that teachers and students can create. It can be an image that resembles oneself or it can be a character or other being. For my topic, I am using a Voki that represents me to introduce my lesson to my students. My choice is meaningful because I teach in an online classroom and my students are use to lessons within their courses that are animated, but most of the instructions online teachers give involve written announcements or boring PowerPoint presentations. This means that students do not always read the instructions that online teachers write for their lessons. There is not a lot of room available for online teachers to add their own sense of creativity or style to a lesson. By using a Voki, right from the start I am making the lesson more fun, playful and interesting. It grabs the students’ attention and they are more likely to listen to it more than once. Also, by including at the end of my introduction that the students will be required to make their own voki, I am making the lesson even more fun. Once students create an account and login to Voki they will have hours of enjoyment playing on the site. I believe they will start thinking about the lesson in new imaginative ways that they may have not thought of before. Also, teachers and students can use Voki for all subject areas and to communicate with one another, all in a playful way. I believe if I continue to use Voki to introduce my lessons, students will look forward to viewing them, perhaps just to see what character I created.
For the second part of my introduction I chose to create an interactive worksheet to introduce the beginning steps of my lesson. I made my interactive poster (my worksheet) from a site called Glogster. Before I begin, let me state that my lesson is in two parts because a Voki message can only be 60 seconds long (one negative to using Voki), so to keep the interest I hope I stirred by using a Voki, I decided to use a glog. Teachers can use Glogster to create posters or glogs to use in their classrooms. These glogs are entertaining,colorful, and they are interactive. Teachers and students can add videos, audio clips, images, text, and a lot of amusing animated images provided by the site. Glogster is meaningful and easy to use because just like Voki the level of interest it creates it amazing. It can also be used for any content area. Additionally, it is an incredibly fun site for students and teachers. The glog I made for this assignment is relatively simple with just one animation added, a video clip. I wanted my introduction to be playful and inviting, but I did not want to overwhelm my students by using too much technology. I believe my Voki and Glog provide a good balance of introducing my lesson playfully and meaningfully.
I chose to use both Voki and Glogster for the introductory activities of my topic.
For the first part of my introduction I chose to use a Voki. A Voki is a speaking avatar (animated character) that teachers and students can create. It can be an image that resembles oneself or it can be a character or other being. For my topic, I am using a Voki that represents me to introduce my lesson to my students. My choice is meaningful because I teach in an online classroom and my students are use to lessons within their courses that are animated, but most of the instructions online teachers give involve written announcements or boring PowerPoint presentations. This means that students do not always read the instructions that online teachers write for their lessons. There is not a lot of room available for online teachers to add their own sense of creativity or style to a lesson. By using a Voki, right from the start I am making the lesson more fun, playful and interesting. It grabs the students’ attention and they are more likely to listen to it more than once. Also, by including at the end of my introduction that the students will be required to make their own voki, I am making the lesson even more fun. Once students create an account and login to Voki they will have hours of enjoyment playing on the site. I believe they will start thinking about the lesson in new imaginative ways that they may have not thought of before. Also, teachers and students can use Voki for all subject areas and to communicate with one another, all in a playful way. I believe if I continue to use Voki to introduce my lessons, students will look forward to viewing them, perhaps just to see what character I created.
For the second part of my introduction I chose to create an interactive worksheet to introduce the beginning steps of my lesson. I made my interactive poster (my worksheet) from a site called Glogster. Before I begin, let me state that my lesson is in two parts because a Voki message can only be 60 seconds long (one negative to using Voki), so to keep the interest I hope I stirred by using a Voki, I decided to use a glog. Teachers can use Glogster to create posters or glogs to use in their classrooms. These glogs are entertaining,colorful, and they are interactive. Teachers and students can add videos, audio clips, images, text, and a lot of amusing animated images provided by the site. Glogster is meaningful and easy to use because just like Voki the level of interest it creates it amazing. It can also be used for any content area. Additionally, it is an incredibly fun site for students and teachers. The glog I made for this assignment is relatively simple with just one animation added, a video clip. I wanted my introduction to be playful and inviting, but I did not want to overwhelm my students by using too much technology. I believe my Voki and Glog provide a good balance of introducing my lesson playfully and meaningfully.