Running head: PIDP 3420 1st reflective Corry Martin

1st Reflective Writing Entry: Teaching Naked, Chapters 1-3.

School of Instructor Education/ Vancouver Community College
Corry Martin - 000388651
August 13, 2016, 2016

PIDP 3420 1ST REFLECTIVE CORRY MARTIN

Introduction
For the purpose of this essay, Id like to use an insight into a learning experience of my
own. Recently I read the first three chapters of Teaching Naked (2012) and found that I had
experienced an accidental learning opportunity. My essay will provide the reader with insight
to a key point in the readings, namely how gaming can provide brilliant opportunities for
learning. Ill use the focused conversation model to share with readers my experience using a
game application and after reading the chapters in Teaching Naked (2012) why this was an
accidental learning opportunity. To quickly understand the game application, please review
this 39 second video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHnt7VjOYZI
To paraphrase Jose Antonio Bowen, in his third chapter of Teaching Naked (2012) he
states that the shift in our societies interaction with one another is happening simultaneously
and congruently with a shift from teaching to learning and that this shift from knowledge
given to knowledge created and that the success of creating knowledge comes from
understanding the model of this new interactive learning.

PIDP 3420 1ST REFLECTIVE CORRY MARTIN

Objective
The key point in the readings that I could identify with were that games indeed ARE great ways
to deliver learning opportunities, why did I identify with this? I believe that app games offered
me the ability to greatly improve at a game that I find very challenging, golf.
While I have been using the referenced golf application for over 2 years, I never realized that
its was helping me improve at playing the game. It, the app, has added a new higher level of
excitement, anticipation, challenges, statistics, and rewards while also appealing to my social
needs by providing peer interactions, competitiveness and the desire to socialize. With all of the
attractions of this game within a game, it made me want to play more. Did the game application
encourage me to learn to play better golf? Did the golf app prove to have instructional value
even though it did not instruct me on how to play golf?

Reflective
When reflecting on the way the game app has allowed me to interact and play golf with
friends virtually, my attention is drawn to Jose Antonio Bowens comments in chapter 2 of
Teaching Naked, (2012 p 27) Today, human beings are experimenting with new definitions of
social proximity. It is true, I can identify with this. Where I have been previously disenchanted
with social applications like Facebook and google+, where I did not find the content relevant or
interesting, Golf Gamebook has offered me a choice, which interested me. I found that further
reading in Teaching Naked (2012 p52) that choices lead to customization of our virtual
environment, and its this specific type of customization that will engage learners.

PIDP 3420 1ST REFLECTIVE CORRY MARTIN

For myself, its the desire to do well at the game of golf, using the application has
encouraged me, its statistical feedback, rewards systems and social interplay as well as being a
powerful tool, it has helped me improve. The app inspired my quest to playing better golf, along
the way I accidentally got better.

Interpretive
I can easily see a day where much more learning is delivered by some sort of gaming. In
my case, I was using an application in parallel with a physical sport. The application helped me
learn about myself and my abilities. It helps me make decisions while playing and supports my
ego whether I do poorly or well. I can see this usefulness of gaming as a way to inspire learners.
We all enjoy rewards, if we didnt, CandyCrush (App, Publishers: King, King Records ) would not
have points and levels and would not be such a success.
Furthermore, the app is actually creating my portfolio of golf, my resume of sorts. I have
a history of my assignments and they are graded by the scorecard! What a wonderful tool I
can review where I was and how I played, what my successes were and what I found
challenging! What a resource for the learner in search of mastery!

Decisional
As I finish this essay I am distracted by a chirp from my iPhone, my friends in Kamloops
just finished a game at Tobiano. I can identify with the benefit of this new technology and its
ability to inspire and be a useful tool to engage however; I also find that the game can be a
distraction from other more important matters.

PIDP 3420 1ST REFLECTIVE CORRY MARTIN

I believe the opportunity for creating new opportunities for learning is limited only by
our ability to imagine. Delivery and customization paired with inspiration and feedback all in a
social environment is becoming the new classroom. Students will cooperate and compete in a
virtual digital environment alongside the tangible world. It is an environment which will foster
learning because they are enjoying it. Students are choosing how content is delivered, what
they will study and when they will achieve their goals.
These games and challenges to inspire learners provide value. Digital learning
technologies can enable students to grasp concepts more quickly and fully, to connect theory
and application more adeptly, and to engage in learning more readily (Office of Digital
Learning, MIT https://odl.mit.edu/value-digital-learning) However, the value of these games as
learning opportunities must be evaluated by the learner. The adult learner being the subject in
this conversation, to them, what constitutes useful and practical learning? Is it important to
know how to find Pokmon? Are we learning anything from this? Is it just a distraction, or worse
is it an escape? What are we teaching with such games? I will use these questions of gaming to
seek value in the content of what I play at. I will learn how to weigh the value of this when
reflecting on future gameplay, whether for education or distraction.

Summary
Id like to close with an addendum to a quote from a review of, A New Culture of
Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change by Douglas Thomas and
John Seely Brown, 2011. Given that knowledge and information are dynamic and changing,
that current technologies are participatory and emergent, they (Thomas and Brown) argue that

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learning environments must be transformed into knowledge building collectives that constantly
create and respond to change. http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/playing-learn
I would add by quoting Kidder; Kidder states, The principle task of this (decade) is the creation
and nurturing of a values-based culture. Kidder (2001) Journal of Organizational Behavior. My
addendum would state; The adoption of these (game-based) learning environments require
careful consideration by the learner as to whether or not the lessons have value, and the best
games are those that have learning as a byproduct, accidental or not.

PIDP 3420 1ST REFLECTIVE CORRY MARTIN

References

Golf Gamebook.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHnt7VjOYZI

Jose Antonio Bowen, of Teaching Naked (2012) Jossey-Bass

CandyCrush (App, Publishers: King, King Records )

http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/playing-learn

Kidder (2001) Journal of Organizational Behavior

A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant
Change by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, 2011.