What is Web 2.0 and what does it mean for us, not only in education but in society? Anthropologist Michael Wesch tells us. This is an hour-long documentary, but it's fascinating.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Flow
I was just talking with a colleague about long, boring classes. What's the answer to three-hour class periods? Are they just too long, or is there an effective way to handle them?
My experience taught me some interesting things - I was a fine arts major (graphic design) during my undergrad, and I noticed a difference between my studio classes, which were sometimes 4 hours long, and my art history classes, which were hour-and-a-half lecture classes. I loved art history as a subject, but the classes just dragged along and I rarely made it through one conscious. Studio classes, on the other hand, were a very different experience. I would often get to the end of a class period and feel like I was waking up. I almost didn't want to stop tweaking my project. One of my professors made us stand up and do Tai Chi breaks throughout the period so we didn't neglect our bodies and go totally catatonic on him.
What if we could have that experience, a studio work experience, in a subject like art history or educational psychology or even economics? What would that be like?
Well, it turns out that of course I'm not the first one to notice this. Flow is a very real phenomenon, first documented by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It's a state where time is distorted, focus is intent, and, to be frank, you're just working and learning because you want to. And it's not just art. But here's the question for us as teachers and instructional designers - how do we achieve flow in disciplines that are not traditionally associated with that type of learning? As I was talking with my colleague, I mentioned that I wanted to do some research at schools where they use the Montessori Method - specifically a Montessori highschool if possible. And as I read a little more into the Wikipedia article linked above, I realized that Csíkszentmihályi himself studied the concept of flow in Montessori.
This is a really fascinating opportunity, I think, for some future research ideas that I'm now kicking around. Perhaps in language learning - how do we kick into flow in that specific discipline. Anyone had any experiences where they felt like they were in "flow?"
My experience taught me some interesting things - I was a fine arts major (graphic design) during my undergrad, and I noticed a difference between my studio classes, which were sometimes 4 hours long, and my art history classes, which were hour-and-a-half lecture classes. I loved art history as a subject, but the classes just dragged along and I rarely made it through one conscious. Studio classes, on the other hand, were a very different experience. I would often get to the end of a class period and feel like I was waking up. I almost didn't want to stop tweaking my project. One of my professors made us stand up and do Tai Chi breaks throughout the period so we didn't neglect our bodies and go totally catatonic on him.
What if we could have that experience, a studio work experience, in a subject like art history or educational psychology or even economics? What would that be like?
Well, it turns out that of course I'm not the first one to notice this. Flow is a very real phenomenon, first documented by Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. It's a state where time is distorted, focus is intent, and, to be frank, you're just working and learning because you want to. And it's not just art. But here's the question for us as teachers and instructional designers - how do we achieve flow in disciplines that are not traditionally associated with that type of learning? As I was talking with my colleague, I mentioned that I wanted to do some research at schools where they use the Montessori Method - specifically a Montessori highschool if possible. And as I read a little more into the Wikipedia article linked above, I realized that Csíkszentmihályi himself studied the concept of flow in Montessori.
This is a really fascinating opportunity, I think, for some future research ideas that I'm now kicking around. Perhaps in language learning - how do we kick into flow in that specific discipline. Anyone had any experiences where they felt like they were in "flow?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
