My first movie...EVER lol
things Lynn for drawing this to my attention!
January 29, 2010
January 22, 2010
Experiences of a Twitter conference
We're going to ask a group of students to use twitter for their reflective practice. The nice thing (in a way), for me is that I am not a very confident twitter user. So rather than assuming this is an easy tool that everyone will pick up and use without any problems, I'm slightly nervous about using it myself!
I attended a twitter conference on Tuesday and Wednesday. (well, you could say it's still going somewhat). This was an enormously enlightening experience. I'm blogging it so that as i get up to speed with Twitter I don't forget my first impressions...
I have a twitter account. I was not sure if it was easy to set up (it was a long time ago), but A was also on it without any problems. Setting up the phone so it was possible to twitter by SMS - a bit of a to and fro but not too difficult.
Getting to grips with the idea of a twitter conference - much less of a comfortable experience. Where WAS it? If there had been a single place that it took place - I would have felt more comfortable but it seemed to be in several places - in Dim Dim to begin with, in Moodle (for the bulk of the pre-existing content and resources), AND in twitter. I was nervous before we started. Getting into Moodle not entirely straightforward.....Getting to Dim Dim was very easy...but if you were late and didn't attend that...it would have been very hard to get up to speed - because that's where things like hash tags were explained. No hashtag, no conference, pretty much.
The discussion - again we came in late and unlike a physical conference, where you sort of know where you are - slip in at the back.....look at people's faces (maybe look at the hand-out on your seat), prehaps look at the notes people are making - how many people are checking their email? OK, you're orientated.....or actually, the twitter conference does not have presentations - the focus is on the questions at the end. So potentially much more interactive which is fantastic.....but hard to just slip into halfway.....
So we enter twitter and what do we find? a huge list of tweets - short snippets - without context it's sometimes hard to decode them - it's not quite like the English I'm used to....and no real thread....answers all over the place.....hard to follow them, they coming thick and fast, by the time you've decoded the first 4 there are another 7 above them. Refresh (takes blimmin ages), and then there are even more that have yet to appear - another refresh. It's quite draining.
A great thing - I booked a couple of days before - i knew Tues and Wed were busy but i thought I could squeeze it in.....so I could still attend - that wouldn't have happened if i had to be "away" for 2 days. At the same time, I was NOT able to do 2 things at the same time as I had expected. I did not find it possible to attend a twitter conference imbetween my work. I was either engaged with the conference or I was working. the first morning I was "at the conference" the afternoon I got around to going through all my emails and discovered lots of urgent work. The next day I just worked. I didn't get a chance to visit the twitter conference once. I was only aware of it going on in the background because I kept receiving notifications in my email....I could not close off work. These are all acknowledged issues with any training or engagement that takes place at your everyday desk. Nothing new here, but it really brought it home.
what I was also aware of however was how utterly immediate it was. There was not a moment when I was not replying or reading a response or thinking of what to say next. I felt as if I was totally involved (when I WAS involved at all). The immediacy is impressive. Also it is so fast that I felt much freer to just say something - it was there and then it was gone. It didn't matter if it wasn't too deep.
and it's still going - plus I feel that there is now an accessible CoP, as opposed to a number of disparate attendees, a pile of business cards and lots of separate emails to send. Even if a conference sets up a social network like Bing, somehow that is still a closed off network....you can't then just dash something off to someone else. Twitter feels very interconnected in that sense - you get a sense of flow of ideas, from one to the other and back again....many different voices on many different subjects.....but you have to learn to go with the flow....and distraction is absolutely inevitable...almost part of the process...
OK, I'll write more as and when i remember it...
December 16, 2009
Situation versus Context
Well, I've been wondering about this recently....how situation and context relate...and this paper: Situatedness: The Interplay between Situation and Context, comes up with a possible answer. Here they argue that situation sits with context. Funnily enough when I thought about it I saw it as the other way around. Probably inspired by Dourish I had thought that since context was something that was agreed between the agents involved, and that the situation was something larger that involved all kinds of other things like the backgrounds of the agents, their experiences, their relationship to one another etc... Maybe the terms are interchangeable but do describe two different things? Or maybe I am thinking of "situated" and therefore the situatedness they mention in the title!
Here is their definition/explanation:
"A situation consists of the spatiotemporal ordering of objects and agents alongside physically given constraints or characteristics like gravitational force or light intensity. Of interest to an agent2 are the stimuli that it can perceive with its sensors. In our view, situatedness refers to specific situations in which actions take place. Actions are understood here not only as task oriented behaviour but in a broader sense (cf. Clancey, 2002). In contrast to situation, context is a general construct that depends on various factors and is definable on at least two different levels. On the one hand, there are socio-cultural (global) contexts such as language. On the other hand, smaller (local) contexts can also be found, e.g., the context of a seminar. The actions of an individual, from now on called an agent, are constrained by this context. A student at a seminar has to act according to her role as a student, i.e. she has to be attentive, ask smart questions, and discuss the topic of the seminar. Dancing, singing, or swearing is not expected from her as it is not licensed by the seminar context. In this sense, a context supplies certain patterns of behaviour and of analysis for situations an agent can be confronted with. A provision of this kind is exemplified in section 5. A situation is thus embedded in a certain context. This context influences or determines a situation and its analysis by the agent. In a
given situation, there is not a single context but a great number of different, possibly overlapping contexts. In order to analyze whether something is context sensitive or situated, it is necessary to look at the specific situation and figure out which contexts are present and which role the agent plays in each of them".
December 15, 2009
The Why - an easier question
Why am I doing what I am doing?
Because more and more I think we are expected to study informally, independently, life-long and at a distance.
Learning is thought to be something that is embodied, that allows learners to construct knowledge based on previous experience, is social and the best kinds of learning experiences are student-centric and student owned.
Whilst informal learning and independent learning can be very much owned by adults, and well supported by an existing community if it involves familiar and existing domains (e.g. developing in the workplace - supported perhaps through online means) , and can be very rewarding...nowadays we are expected to be more flexible, to keep up, to learn new things that may seem less natural, more alien to us. Challenge our existing beliefs. We lose our jobs and must start again. There is no decent framework of support for these experiences. We often find ourselves studying alone at our computers. I know I find myself frustrated by my lack of study skills. My inability to leave my computer, which becomes a sort of comfort blanket, and expand my horizons by doing something as simple as going for a walk. I get stuck in my study habits, although I know they are not always best for me.
What I want to create is a way to connect social and for students to have ownership - but to connect and have ownership not only at the level of the mind but also the body. And that is why I would like to create a haptic/kinesthetic interface that helps learners understand how to be successful learners both in mind and body, and which connects learners to a community of others in similar situations who can bring new perspectives and ongoing support.
I had a chat with a Writing Mentor today at London Met. Ah hugely helpful. She asked difficult questions. Really good thought-provoking questions. I made quite a bit of progress I think..or perhaps some of the clouds cleared at least.
the only continuing thorn in my side are theories of kinesthetic learning. i don't understand if it's really relevant to what I'm doing or not. Gardner argues that we learn best if we engage with our strongest intelligences - if I'm an artist I use drawing, if I am good with my body I should learn using my body. And yet I am arguing that since we are all embodied...and that in particular, physical orientation and movement in space have a huge impact on our use of language, metaphors and therefore embodied, multisensory experiences, more grounded experiences are important for all adults? Now I do recognise that this is not really the case for EVERYONE. My sister in law is highly cerebral. Her use of bodily knowledge is highly limited. But I feel that she is quite unusual. And even she likes getting out of the house, moving around, visiting other places, getting away from the computer.....
You know I really should buy a Gardner book too. Damn. Too many books!
...on third thoughts I see a few ways......the tool might support exploration of the world and how it can support your thinking by supporting your learning preferences - the world is multi-sensory - use it to support your learning preferences......
....equally - Gardner does move on to generalisation with his idea of "five minds" that we should all be cultivating in order to be successful and for the human race to continue to operate in the future.....for some reason alarm bells start to ring however...it feels a bit self-help - not that there's anything inherently wrong with that - but it seems a bit value ridden, a little bit directing...I prefer my other idea above still!
Another little niggle
.....I'm thinking of creating a project that explores the use of the body in thinking...perhaps through metaphor which it has been argued by Lakoff and Johnson, always has its roots in the body.
So then, I bought a de Bono Thinking Skills book as I'm not exactly an expert on thinking skills myself...seemed logical enough...except I don't like *reading* about thinking, I want to get to *do* thinking - so a bit frustrating. And also, I wonder if rather than helping me think it just helps me understand thinking...or is that almost the same thing...anyway.......
I've also been investigating Gardner a little more and am thinking that mainly the misunderstanding and misapplication of Kinesthetic Learning does not have anything to do with him. That he has probably been very clear about how it should be practiced but the whole idea of Mulitple Intelligence has become diluted Chinese Whisper style and so I need to go back to the original text. I need to read him first hand and hear what he really said. However I have started to read some of his answers to typical criticisms..
And something he makes clear and I can see where he's coming from, is that it's impossible to develop pure and simple "thinking skills". That thinking in one discipline is quite different to thinking in another...and so thinking "critically" in one discipline is quite different to that in another...
"I doubt, however, that there is a particular species of thinking called "critical thinking." As
I've suggested with reference to memory and other putative "cross-the-board" capacities,
closer analysis calls their existence into question. Particular domains seem to entail their own
idiosyncratic forms of thinking and critique. Musicians, historians, taxonomic biologists,
choreographers, computer programmers, and literary critics all value critical thinking. But the
kind of thinking required to analyze a fugue is simply of a different order from that involved
in observing and categorizing different species, or editing a poem, or debugging a program,
or creating and revising a new dance. There is little reason to think that training of critical
thinking in one of these domains is of the same order as training of critical thinking in
another domain; nor would I expect appreciable "savings" or "transfer" when one broaches a
new domain. That is because each of these domains exhibits its own particular objects,
moves, and logic of implications".
fantastic bit of writing! I like it a lot and my instinct is to agree but it makes for a difficult journey for me!
and then you have de Bono, who from a first read seems to be suggesting you can use more general techniques to improve your thinking. And so I am constantly getting buffeted by this situated, context-specific, versus general, universal abstract dichotomy.
and how am I going to find my way through that to my practical work? do I have to choose to support critical thinking in a specific discipline?
December 10, 2009
Critiscisms of kinesthetic/haptic learning approaches
OK, I need more criticisms....
there a book called "The controversy of Montessori"..now I want to hear some dissenting voices discussing the cons of kinesthetic learning and haptic learning. Surely it's not all bunnies and roses...I need some counter arguments!
creativity in critical and analytical thinking
I have always had a bit of a problem with critical thinking. It always seemed like the boring bit of thinking. And the creative bit the "fun" bit! The dreamy bit. But I just listened to an amazing programe on R4 about the role of dreaming and the imagination in Science...which of course requires creativity but tends to be viewed as far more critical and analytical (and dry), than the Arts....and so...
my question is - could I apply similiar ideas to approaches to critical and analytical thinking? Is there a way to remove the dry and for these kinds of thinking to be less removed from the creative thinking that tends to be driven by the imagination? Or are the two truly at the poles? In other words....
Does what is the role of the imagination, intution/feeling and inspiration in critical thinking? and really what are the differences between critical and creative thinking?
OK....go hunt!
Looking forward and backwards.....do we ever grow up...
OK, not quite 30 minutes of writing, more like 30 seconds...
Some thoughts from today.......
Looking at the past, I need to build on kinesthetic/haptic/playful learning theories of Montessori and Steiner, and those using objects for learning well before the digital objects began to emerge.
The present - where does Gardner fit in?
I also need to draw from the future - haptics/HCI/embodied cognition all suggest that humans continue to benefits from these modes of learning when they are adults, not just children..Papert touches on this idea...only a little though. Really, surely it works well for all of us, it's the most intuitive way to learning - this concrete mode of learning. Even if we are taught to continue as formal thinkers? I am curious.
Do theories of andragogy and pedagogy shape this discussion? I am curious to know more. they say often technologies designed for those with special needs are far more usuable for everyone else too - I have a sense that might also go for tools designed for children :)
Kinesthetic learning is an extremely poorly defined term around which there is much confusion. CRITISCISM NEED TO BE HERE! Embodied cognition has brought the idea back into the frame. Is Haptic learning better defined? Why am I talking about KL/Haptic learning rather than Embodied Cognition? Because it is an aspect! I am interested in that, not full-body. Plus Embodied Cogntion is also a very vague term, especially when discussed within the context of education and “embodied learning”.
Why is kinesthetic learning (as far as I can tell, only taken seriously (if it is), in pedagogy rather than andragogy? What is the relationship between experiential learning, Kolb and kinesthetic learning? Are Montessori and papert's theories only for children? And why? How are they related to Gardner? It would be great if someone had already written about all that! I feel as if I may be barking up the wrong tree. Much HCI, haptic educational interfaces don't seem to fully explore these ideas.....although I have to admit I haven't properly read any Papert yet...maybe some of the answers are there? He seems oft quoted in discussion of Haptic interfaces for education!
December 09, 2009
situatedness, haptics and kinesthetics
I'm reading the amazing article now from SMALLab - very helpful, but what concerns me is the lack of discussion regarding context/situation...what is the role of the location in students experiences. It is not even mentioned....the environment, whether or not it's important, or had an effect on the students who were studied....the relevance to kinesthetic and haptic learning interactions. And yet in the paper they emphasise the importance of recognising not only the social but also the physical context, referencing papert and Dourish...both of whom are all about not only social but also physical context . How might we begin to
December 07, 2009
Mscape 2010
ah, I would have loved to have gone to Mscape 2010, especially as it was in Holland...and there is a bit of a shift in the organisation, as well as a shift away from a focus solely on location, plus a great deal of future thinking going on...that's the bit I really enjoy!
Nevermind, I can live it second hand through the presentations and the overview, which has kindly been shared with all.
December 04, 2009
A missing link
There is a point that I have been grappling with but not quite expressing. Today I found a paper which I think provides the missing link - I've been recognising that there's an oddly fitting but very much real link between haptics from HCI, kinesthetic learning theories from education and Embodied Cognition (from all over the place!), but I haven't really been able to grasp the shape of it and it's been making my research difficult. Well today I found this paper:
which expresses what I have been failing to put into words.. that link.....as a result, the tentative dotted lines I put between haptics, embodied cognition and kinesthetic learning, in my cognate domains diagram feels far more justified. It felt important - as if without understand the relationship I couldn't move forward in my studies and I could not fully combine my role spanning Learning and Technology. Now it all seems to fit into place!
December 03, 2009
I am thinking about objects that help us think...
link: Field and Seas homemade storybeads
I have been thinking about this for a while.....what kind of objects support our thinking (of course the kinds of thinking we're talking about...still aren't clear to me exactly..). The idea has its roots in Montessori, papert, piaget, consructivism....and of course kinesthetic learning :). However few of these specificially designed objects whether analogue or digital, are mobile....thinking blocks, thinking cards etc...(except perhaps the mobile phone, if that really is also such a thinking object). The closest we get are objects such as prayer and storybeads for focus, meditation, memory aid. I remember I had a necklace that became quite a transitional object for me for a while, and a tiny little book with a metal cover that for a while acted as a transitional object when I was in hospital a lot - these were more confidence building I think though, than thought-enabling....I can see the link but am not entirely sure of the difference between a transitional object as comfort blanket and transitional object as link between concrete and abstract (as first described by papert)....but anyway my bro used to hold a bean-filled frog when he was a kid and was "thinking". In fact there's an interesting storybead project from MIT that's really got me thinking more about this. I like the mobile and modular aspects of it. I think what I'm trying to make is some kind of prayerbead, mandala, storybead, modular like object that learners can own and configure themselves to support their own thinking...that helps draw attention to their patterns of thinking, not only in their brain but also in their body and in space and place, and that helps them understand the positive and negative habits, and alternatives but not by telling but just by asking learners to explore their learning through this object. It creates a focus, a motivation. Something that's very aesthetically pleasing to hold, and focus on (just like mobile phones which are slightly fetishised...). I think iphone has real cashed in on the module aspect. And I think firefox does it really well too. And it strikes me, although I'm not so sure of this yet, that a lot of transitional objects seem to have a very clear, predetermined purpose, and tend to be designed and owned by teachers rather than learners.
November 24, 2009
Free Montessori Classics!
Just discovered (after spending much time humming and ha-ing over whether I should buy them, get them from the library), that two of Maria Montessori's books are availabel through Project Gutenberg!
November 23, 2009
Sandpit: Theme = language
Sandpit
So glad the sandpit has returned to the south bank. I was really starting to miss it! And the people who participate - always lovely, friendly, and of course playful people!
..I played......a game in which we were asked to translate Tristram shandy into..english, in a number of different styles - this game was designed as part of the futureofthebook project...hilarous results. Incidentally, since I've mentioned TS, why not digress..on their website they introduce an interesting book: "Reading in the Brain". Reading has become my downfall - it is my addiction..it's really becoming a problem...and access to all those academic databases has made it worse! When action is required I can't seem to take the first step without first reading a book...they're like a comfort blanket and finally, they become a reason to avoid doing anything at all...I haven't read enough about something to do anything.........motherhood was the moment when my dependence on books was finally broken...briefly - nowadays I can't even pretend that reading a book will help with childcare...although I still prefer reading to doing when it comes to all other activites!
anyhow, back to SP...
Also "conversation", which is an experience in which you are partially blindfolded (by a hat), and are then guided around the south bank, listening to a conversation that fades in and out...very relaxing experience -challenged my notion of "conversation". i found it relaxing enough...like an experience in a hairdresser, that I would have preferred to somehow have been wheeled around..not having to walk...the effort? I wanted to put all my concentration into listening to the music of the sounds around me......but would that have been as "embodied"?
There was a good turn-out. Hatchet - players are given cards with single words on them, and must use them to piece together beatle lyrics, seemed very popular, had a big turn-out.
The game in which a team have to try to understand the needs of a chinese woman who can't speak english, in 2 minute bouts was fascinating!
I love the evening, but am now reporting the evening after whilst tired and generally less hyped so I'm not really successfully managing to convey how great an evening it was!
November 12, 2009
The situated nature of language
You have a new picture message!
November 09, 2009
A very inspiring project - a walk from Belfast to Bandung
More brilliant, playful games. I love it. Most of them involve food and booze too.
http://www.spartaction.com/wintergames/day01.html
http://www.spartaction.com/bandung.html
"What artists do possess is a practical working knowledge of the relationship between the physical materiality of the world, emotion and thought."
'Drinking Blindfolded in' is the collective name for a series of interactions made in various European cities over a period of five yearts. This is one of the earliest SPART works. It was 1st conceived of as a means of getting beyond what I then saw as 'the problem of the visual’.
Put simply, my background is visual art and my main reason for being interested in visual art was because of its potential to communicate complex ideas in a simple quick and effective way. After much work with visual mediums, I wanted to get rid of the mediation of the artwork, which inevitably led me to work with performance art. But for me performance art was still problematic because people were coming to watch a visual phenomena. With my work I wanted to obliterate the divide between myself and those who had come to take part in the work. I also wanted to obliterate the divide between art and daily life. I wanted there to be no divide, so the 1st thing I felt I had to do was tone down the visual aspect of my work and concentrate more on the 'aesthetic’.
I really like what Justin says. I think this is how I feel. I see play as art, and play as the best way to allow people to be artists...I think...
09112009343.jpg
A possible thought exploration game idea..
Thanks to bluebison.net for this wonderful image
. The sketch above is my own rendition of my Dr Seussian game-space idea
Thinking about how to get people to playfully explore their thoughts together across many different locations...
one idea might be for participants to start by marking out a territory over a period of time - connecting certain ideas with certain places -ideally places they come across regularly, perhaps on their way to work.etc..(they can always change), but places to which they attach certain questions or ideas regarding their work - things that they find themselves mulling over frequently. These places are somehow associated with the chosen places of other students...perhaps these places are slightly determined - e.g. there might be a brainstorming place (I mean I think that's too general but that kind of idea), a critical space, a questioning space, a standing back at a distance space, a focussing space etc....or maybe more particular, a space that asks "what colour is the question you're thinking about", "what does your question look like from above".....
This scenario so far can be played out by an individual but then the game would somehow match spaces across distances so that on your journey, you might find yourself "bumping into" someone in the same space as yourself, in which case you have the opportunity to explore your ideas as a two person, rather than one person dialogue......it's possible that these interactions are asnchronous - because time will be difficult to tie together, in which case perhaps other students leave audio-recorded questions for you based on the notes and questions you've already left in a place or space....
the image that comes to my mind is slightly Dr Seussian...
November 06, 2009
Fantastic contraptions, great egg-race
Just thinking of how we construct an essay - wonder whether the game where you build a machine that "does" something - it's a bit like mousetrap...hmm, what on earth is the name, might be a good metaphor to use?
Bit like this
http://www.funny-games.biz/fantastic-contraption.html
and this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine
A collaborative game at a distance
Not sure how it would support learning, don't know where artefacts might come into it, but certainly would encourage collaboration over distance!
Two players in different parts of the world, are connected by a mobile device. They must both reach a certain goal, set prior to starting, in their own locale - a coffee shop, park, etc...
The players must walk together....When one players turns, the other must turn too, or some equivalent....for example, both must reach the furthest left side of their previously chosen space at the same time in order to "unlock" doors and continue in another direction. So a route must be found, or movements must be made that work with the environments of both players. Much easier in a wide open space...much more difficult in an urban setting......
Inspiration: Dyadin
Place-based or space based?
Nicholas Nova - who I have huge respect for....seems to capture what I have been trying to articulate for ever..
he sees the situated nature of games on a spectrum, with worst case scenario...
people required to be in the same place and the same time to play (in other words just like traditional streetgames! - he mentions lazerquest style games that require not only a place, time but also special equipment that costs money....and even blasttheory...)
through to playing anytime anywhere all together (he suggests this is utopian....tech is simply not that seamless...at least not yet or for a long time yet...)
THE MIDDLE - to describe it he makes a nice analogy with skate parks
"A mid-point on this spectrum would be to have an approach to combine the two. And I quite like the skateboard metaphor for that matter. You can do skateboard freely in lots of places (streets, parking, etc.) and also go to skateparks. In the former, the infrastructure of the everyday environment constrain the skateboarding tricks whereas in the latter the skatepark design is meant to allow certain tricks. What is interesting as well is that in street skating, there is a pleasure associated in finding nice and relevant spots, whereas in skateparks, things are more under controlled."
for Nicholas a possible solution then might be to design design "for both targets in minds: both the daily and everyday environment (with its constraints, problems, issues) and for the “laser-park” equivalent in which the control of certain parameters would allow to go beyond the daily environment"
For me, this is not really practical, until we have distance learner hubs, how he also asks "And what would be a good candidate (as a device) for that? What corresponds to the skateboard?" - I think the object, as a kind of transitional, bridging object, might be partly the answer (like the geocaching box). A think that helps to translate the environment somehow, creates a perspective.....). This is where I think the answer might lie.
http://liftlab.com/think/nova/2007/10/01/pervasive-gaming-laser-games-and-the-skatepark-model/
GridLock
I like this kind of game because although it's essentially just capture the flag....the idea of a thought gridlock...and how one might get out of it seems fruitful, useful......and could map directly to a physical game maybe..
The kind of kinesthetic experience I'm looking to create: in particular the constraints
Thanks Clareyfairy
it will involve
+physical movement
+not speed
+learners in different locations
+connected/social - might be large groups but could just work in pairs
+Not sure if it needs to synchronous or could be asynchronous - think it probably could be (and might get around a lot of issues re location)
+will need to involve some kind of bridging, scaffolding, some way of ensuring that the physical gets translated into thoughts, words, writing(?)
+not sure how important artefacts are, whether provided or given..not sure what the relationship is between objects and the environments. Is it objects that turn space into place? I know the three interact but am not sure of the relevance yet to a gaming experience
oh yeah, one thing I forgot to add...CAKES....
how might we incorporate magical objects, things of mystery into the game - surprises, easter eggs, magical things that make the real world all or a sudden into something slightly more amazing? I'd like it to involve cakes. I'm totally going off on one here but I'd love the idea of a cake with an rfid in it and when you eat the cake, the rfid sits in your tummy and somehow slowly dissolves over time but whilst it's there...well..who knows...haha yep really who knows...I don't but it's such a nice idea..maybe like alice in wonderland - you become really big or really small and then it effects how you live, it changes your perception somehow so you live as someone who's totally creative, who can't stop creating ideas, or you have to spend a day as someone who's constantly critical, who can't stop critising, or someone who loves order, or someone who loves researching and can't stop....and you get to try different thinking states - it allows you to be a different person - that sort of reminds me again of the 6 hats now! And that could happen all over the world, but players could share experiences or even be having a dialogue - one person coming up with loads of ideas, another critiquing, analysing etc etc....and then you all swap! Ah I love that idea :) It needs a picture.
THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT EXISTING PRACTICE
+The majority of physical and location-independent games are single player
+the majority of multi-player games are co-located
Examples of games that meet the criteria of connected, physical but not sharing the same locality (translocal):
+Can You See Me Now - a chase game (so involves speed). However limited in its translocality in the sense that a number of players are in the same location, all the rest are in different locations but only online, no physically embodied...might work for a game in pairs, where learners take turns in being physically embodied
+Songs of North - essentially not a social game
+Triangulation Game and Mogi mogi - capture the flat, treasure hunts in which
+ARGS can be distributed and located - they try to design many different locations into an experience in order to involve people in as many locations as possible which actually FOSTERS collaborative experiences. I don't want to create an ARG, as these tend to involve Puzzles (I don't like them on their own very much) and also usually quite a bit of online interaction...although that said...I might involve online and offline in our own play experience..just not the puzzling..if I can help it! What I would say about Alt Reality Games is I don't like the "bittiness" of them.....I prefer a, not necessarily seamless, but more blended experience, in which virtual and real are constantly present. Not present at different times of the game, requiring a switching of modes.
Ways to think about movement
I have Anne Green Gilbert, Director of Creative Dance Center Seattle, Washington to thank for these..
DANCE CONCEPTS
Space
1. Place self space (personal space), general space (room space)
2. Size big (far reach), medium (mid-reach), small (near reach)
3. Level high, middle, low
4. Direction forward, backward, right, left, up, down
5. Pathway curved, straight, zigzag
6. Focus single focus, multi-focus
Time
7. Speed fast, medium, slow
8. Rhythm pulse, pattern, grouping, breath
Force
9. Energy sharp (sudden), smooth (sustained)
10. Weight strong, light
11. Flow free (continuous, off-balance), bound (controlled, on-balance)
Body
12. Parts head, neck, shoulders, arm, wrists, elbows, hands, fingers, hips,
pelvis, trunk, spine, stomach, sternum, legs, knees, feet, toes, heels, etc.
13. Relationships over, under, around, through, above, below, beside, between, near, far,
in, out, on, off, together, apart, alone, connected, mirror, shadow
14. Shapes curved, straight, angular, twisted, symmetrical, asymmetrical
15. Balance off balance, on balance
MOVEMENT SKILLS
Locomotor crawl, creep, roll, walk, run, leap, jump, hop, gallop, slide, skip,
prance, fly, slither, tip-toe, dash, waltz run, step-hop, schottische,
two-step, grapevine, polka, etc.
Nonlocomotor bend, twist, stretch, swing, push, pull, fall, melt, sway, turn,
spin, dodge, kick, poke, throw, lift, carve, curl, lunge, wiggle,
slash, punch, flick, dab, float, glide, press, wring, etc.
Anne's book, Teaching the Three R's Through Movement, focusses on dance, and in particular using movement to express a feeling about a word or concept (akin to role-play?), ownership (getting IN to the idea, living the idea), and reinforcement..(spelling words with your body, hopping or doing other repetitive movement whilst calling out words that rhyme etc..). I think this must be a very accessible approach to learning - I have seen these activities done in school more than others.
I like the role-playing aspect as well to LIVE an idea...the reinforcement aspect is less interesting to me (I think) - although translating movement from one the body INTO another medium and back is probably very important and is something I need to explore further...
Movement for learning as...
place independant
metaphor (also thinking of film as metaphor for writing). e.g. Backwards and forwards as emphasis, round in circles as stuck or as iterative, low, on the floor as grounded......
to connect, draw closer to others (not so sure about this one, perhaps what I mean is movement as INTENTION?)
to translate from one medium to another (e.g. spelling letters with your body, jumping as you count). Also as reinforcement here......perhaps this is also like movement as bridge between one medium and another? This is used a lot in schools I think as "kinesthetic learning"
engagement. We are humans, we enjoy movement. Game studies supports this as do many outdoor learning papers
to draw attention to the body...might be mediation, alexander technique, Feldenkrais technique, a sense of presence I think most frequently described as "somatic". Drawing attention without trying to find meaning...
"felt sense".
to visualise a system (e.g. act our BEING the heart - individual, or Coella's participatory simulations which are much more about complex systems).
re-enactment, as reliving (how is this related to role-play - this seems closer to replaying, mimicking which I think is diff - certainly diff to participatory simulations - not trying to recreate there - much more improvisory). Might be place dependent if you are trying to tune in and take advantage of the "aura of place"
a connection to the basics of life, to ground u s? to connect us with others? A shared, universal experience (if that's possible?).
revealing thoughts were were not able to express verbally or may not even have been aware of....(Steiner - eurhythmy, body language). Might be able to have an experience in which you MOVE towards an idea physically as well as mentally? there's a practice where you ask a question and then press on someone's hand as they answer to work out whether they're really being honest with themselves...this might come close to lie detection I suppose!!
a way to improve health and therefore mental health
a way to communicate directly, an alternative means of expression, e.g. dance, art, hand gestures, sign language, making things (Gardner)
as a way to remind ourselves that we are already wise in body, that we have already had many experiences, that we can draw on these - basic confidence building. (related to just being aware of our body? and also the universal aspect of the body?)
a way to reveal misunderstandings. sometimtes how we connect with ideas and have experienced them can reveal misconceptions
as imagined/simulated digitally (there is a difference - Klopfer explores it a little)
change, getting away from sitting, move to somewhere different. As passage from one place to another, as enabling change through time in transitional spaces/places. Matthew - athletics allowed him to endure disembodied sitting, Ellsworth....
as a way to alter thought-processes, or break repetitive thinking, open mind, e.g. swinging arms in the article on problem-solving. Perhaps also raises awareness of real-world physics?
rhythmn for measure thought, flow, immersion, and possibly also to create patterns in thought? (there is quite a close link here to the exercise for problem-solving I imagine).
place specific
revealing the way in which human behaviour is shaped by our physical environment, it can reveal and heighten our awareness of this. I'm thinking of enviro detectives (klopfer), Lexington game (schrier), the branding game (slightly diff - more about using movement to reveal aspects of our environment that are NOT physical?).
associating places with ideas. Making connections between spaces/places to support memory (Greek's approach to memory, Lexington, dockers' dilemma!, many other memory games)
a way to encourage new perspectives - close, far, above, below, see new relationships. (Sandra suggests sticking post-its of ideas all around a room in order to draw connections, also other approaches to spatial notes - laying paper on the ground, merleau-ponty also mentions similar technique? Sandra also talks about a script writer for Heroes who places all the timelines into the future and the past as long strings all around his room to visualise them). The word circle that I found on the writing-pad.ac.uk website uses space in this way too to draw connections. What is the difference between doing something like this on PAPER as opposed to doing it more physically with your whole body?
November 05, 2009
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The dangers of reading academic papers...
I'm actually finding this paper very helpful but the sentences are crazy. You couldn't make this up..."The combinations tower enabled triangulation of intuitive and analytic processes, because its vertical trajectories served as semiotic means of objectification of the presymbolic sense of distribution"
Nietszche's take on outdoor thinking
We do not belong to those who have ideas only among books, when stimulated by books. It is our habit to think outdoors—walking, lleaping, climbing, dancing, preferably on lonely mountains or near the sea where even the trails become thoughtful.[ . . . ] We read rarely, but not worse on that account. How quickly we guess how someone has come by his ideas; whether it was while sitting in front of his inkwell, with a pinched belly, his head bowed low over the paper—in which case we are quickly ¤nished with his book, too! Cramped intestines betray themselves—you can bet on that—no less than closet air, closet ceilings, closet narrowness.—
(GS 366)
October 29, 2009
Something to improve on...
I am finding that I have lots of interesting off the wall ideas...and I think I understand the current state of practice on the ground...but what I'm struggling to do is find ways to find ways to marry my crazy ideas with current practice in a practical way. It either just seems crazy, or too much the same as what we already have, troubled by all the issues that we already have...and no better than what we already have...how can I get around this? Turning blue skies into kinda....well, blue treetops as it where?!!!!
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October 27, 2009
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