Abstract
Previous generations of innumerable people created millions of small innovations to this language and this technology/media that I am using now. Centuries of innovations permit me to convey to you that, “we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and communities.” More importantly, none of these predecessors worked alone, they all used what others before them had created and built upon it, continually collaborating with real and imagined communities. Furthermore, I contend that there is little difference between learning and creating: learning something new is creating new things and possibilities in your minds, in your worlds. That is why real learning is so exciting! (Not studying and memorizing things for tests that someone else is choosing for us.) It is creating new possibilities within your worlds. When teachers stimulate creating in students, they are stimulating learning and agency as well. In this Plenary-Workshop I will describe some interesting ways of helping students “own their learning” so they want to “create more of it” and how we all get addicted to “Wow!” and enjoy “expansive learning” in multiple environments in and out of school, using experiential learning. I will finally meld together the Social Neuroscience of Education (Cozolino, 2013), Love 2.0 (Fredrickson, 2013), and Brave (Sarah Bareilles, 2013), to help us create more Wow!s in our classrooms. I will demonstrate much of this by inviting you to sing and move with me as we create. Finally, I will demonstrate as well how improvisation can help students relax, enjoy themselves, and create and learn.
Abstract
Previous generations of innumerable people created millions of small innovations to this language and this technology/media that I am using now. Centuries of innovations permit me to convey to you that, “we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and communities.” More importantly, none of these predecessors worked alone, they all used what others before them had created and built upon it, continually collaborating with real and imagined communities. Furthermore, I contend that there is little difference between learning and creating: learning something new is creating new things and possibilities in your minds, in your worlds. That is why real learning is so exciting! (Not studying and memorizing things for tests that someone else is choosing for us.) It is creating new possibilities within your worlds. When teachers stimulate creating in students, they are stimulating learning and agency as well. In this Plenary-Workshop I will describe some interesting ways of helping students “own their learning” so they want to “create more of it” and how we all get addicted to “Wow!” and enjoy “expansive learning” in multiple environments in and out of school, using experiential learning. I will finally meld together the Social Neuroscience of Education (Cozolino, 2013), Love 2.0 (Fredrickson, 2013), and Brave (Sarah Bareilles, 2013), to help us create more Wow!s in our classrooms. I will demonstrate much of this by inviting you to sing and move with me as we create. Finally, I will demonstrate as well how improvisation can help students relax, enjoy themselves, and create and learn.