Serious Design for Serious Play

Lloyd P. Rieber Michael J. Matzko


In this article the authors present their approach to designing a physical science lesson according to specifications that were outlined to them in a special issue. They also would go onto discuss their learning and design philosophy and how they work and make their decisions.
This article asks the age-old question, how to make the material fun/exciting to keep the students focused? Many teacher’s manuals come with somewhat of a time line of how the class should be moving, but I don’t agree, each student is their own person and learn at their own pace, therefore you cannot rush them through or take it to slow. Each teacher must figure out there own way, there own niche in the classroom. I did like the fact that the authors tried to allow for some tweaking of the lesson plan and some alterations while in class. I thought it was great that the authors used the phrase “thinking outside the box,” if more teachers think this way then our students would stay motivated and be excited in the classroom.
The authors use the term “serious play” as to what I perceive to be a learning style. The authors say that, “serious play is purposeful, or goal oriented, with the person able to modify goals as desired or needed. Most important, the individual views the experience of serious play as satisfying and rewarding in and of itself and considers the play experience as important as any outcomes that are produced as a result of it.” I like this and totally agree with this, students should be goal oriented but should not be scared of altering or changing those goals. I agreed with this article, the authors worked on figuring out how to make students learning better, while challenging the students to think outside the box, at the same time while having the teachers think outside the box. I think that the authors are trying to do away with conformity and let people know that doing things your own way can work, you must be fired up as a teacher in order to get your students fired up to be in your classroom.

Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles By Emily Giles, Sarah Pitre, & Sara Womack

This article was very interesting, it suggests that there are many different types of intellegence/ways of learning out there and that people must be open minded to them. I agree totally with this, I do believe, and history will prove that there are people in the world that learn and excell in many different ways. This article list the 8 different intellegences and what makes them up, and also listed some historical/famous people over the history of the U.S. that could be put under each intellegence. 1) Verbal/Linguistic means that you have the ability to understand and manipulate words.(T.S. Elliot, Maya Angelou, and Martin Luther King Jr) 2)Logical/Mathematical refers to someones ability to do things with data.(Albert Einstein, Niehls Bohr, and John Dewey) 3)Visual/Spatial refers to your ability to form and manipulate and mental maodel of something.(Pablo Picasso, Bobby Fischer, and Georgia O'Keefe)
4)Bodily/Kinesthetic are people who process info through the sensations they feel in their bodies.(Michael Jordan, Martina Navratilova, and Jim Carrey) 5)Naturalistic is someone who finds it easy to recognize and classify plants, animals, and minerals.(Charles Darwin and John Muir) 6)Musical Intellegence is someone who has the ability to understand, create, and interpet musical pitches.(Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Louis Armstrong) 7)Interpersonal refers to the ability to respond to moods, emothions, and motivation.(Gandhi, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton) 8)Intrapersonal refers the ability to know one's self.(Jean Paul Satre and Frederick Douglas)
I agree with all the authors had to say, for one I personally do believe that everyone has their own nitch in life and do things the way they do things for reasons that are way beyond us. I also think that their points are validated by the examples of different people they listed for each intellegence.
In conclusion as someone who is looking tobecome a teacher I think it is important that we all realize that everyone has their own talent/intellegence and it is up to parents, teachers, friends and family to work with the intellegence of each person.

Behaviorism (Melissa Standridge)

I believe that Mrs. Standridge did a good job preparing this article, she explained in detail all the things that someone would need to know, if the knew nothing at all about behaviorism. She was very detailed in explaining the positive and negative reinforcements, also how the educational system can use behaviorism to manipulate your children. I agree with the majority of the things in this article but I have a hard time with people comparing children to rats, you should not have to manipulate children into acting the right way. As an educator if you do your job correctly with some enthusiasm and excitement, then kids will pay attention and not act out, but if you the same old mono-tone math teacher that sounds like Ben Stein then kids will get board and find something to get into. An electric atmosphere in the classroom should be all the positive reinforcement are children need. They alzso talk about Modeling, this would fall into the same category as what I explained earlier, children aquire traits from observing the people around them the most at a early age, with more excited teachers and exicting classrooms then children to will become more excited to be in the classroom. As for shaping and cueing all educators are taught to do these things and as long as you put forth energy in your lessons then children will respond the way you want them to. You are in control of the classroom, if you act like a sheep hearder then your students will act like sheep and aggervate you all day, but if you act like a rock star then they will treat you like one and hang on your every word.

Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants

After reading the three articles,(Digital Natives,Digital Immigrants, Do They Really Think Differently?, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Some Thoughts from the Generation Gap.) I would have to say that I agree with some of the things said in these articles but for the most part I didn't care for them. I thought that the third article/review had some good points. First, I agree that teachers do need to become more technologically educated, but it is my thought that the teacher should be the one who chooses when to use the technology and when not to use it. A teacher must know who their students are, if none of your students can go home and use a computer then there is not much sense in spending a lot of time on one. I thought that the Web Quest idea was good, but can your students do them outside of class. The statement I agreed with the most was, "it is the teacher's responsibility to structure and support the students' learning experience." In contrast with the other articles, it is the duty of a teacher to become an effective teacher and find ways to enlighten their students, it is not the job of a computer or a machine to teach the young people today. The statement that, "Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." is an absolute asinine statement. Anyone who has been in a public school lately would know that if you are not in a rich/upper class community, then technology is not the problem with the education system. Everything starts at home, when parents start making their children show respect to authority figures/educators, then teachers can do more teaching and less baby sitting. In a time where every other kid gets to use the excuse of being ADD/ADHD, I do think teachers need to evolve with the times and continue there own growth as an educator, so they can teach students' that life is real, not a video game.

To all the "True Bucs Fans"

To all the true Tampa Bay Buccaneer fans out I want to hear your thoughts about the Bucs, Gruden, Cadillac, Alstott, or whoever in the organization you would like to talk about. I love the Bucs and have since Ray Perkins was the coach, with Vinny throwing picks, so I can't wait to hear from you.