My apologies for missing this blog post as it is a subject near and dear to my heart. Having participated in theater in middle and high school as well as directing dozens of shows over my 23 year teaching career I have understood the importance of play and performance from the very start. I would not be the person I am having not had the experience and terror of stepping on stage, singing, acting, falling (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not :0 and in the end looking at my cast mates and appreciating the tremendous power of coming together to tell a story and entertain family friends and complete strangers. The wonderful thing about theater is as much as I enjoy technology and all it can do, you do not need it to tell your story. While lighting , sets, costumes, props, sound fx etc all help set the mood and enhance the production, it all comes down to the actors and actresses to be someone we care about. How you get to that point takes a lot of practice, trust, and the ability for the director to cast well and let go when the time comes. I have always contended that time in school should be memorable to be worthwhile, and can honestly say that time spent onstage is just that, something you remember forever, good or bad, and that is what makes it important. You give without expecting anything back, and you know during the curtain call is your story was told well and the experience was fun and ultimately a worthwhile use of precious time and talent. Years later students will come back and thank you for believing in them and encouraging them to do something they never believed they could, be they a doctor, lawyer, waitress, or teacher. Truly the rewards of teaching are not monetary but memories. The following quotes are to reinforce what I have known for a while, and I am happy to be in such good company.
"In the 20th century, literacy meant the ability to read, write and present cogent arguments on paper. In the 21st century, literacy is going to extend well beyond that and into what could be termed, a language of screens." (Barish, 2002)
In a collaborative or participatory culture, literacy means community involvement. Most all of the new literacy skills involve collaboration and communication. We don't have to contribute, but we must feel free to contribute and that our contributions will be valuable.
According the Henry Jerkins (2008) these skills are
Play
By playing, we problem solve though experimenting. Play is very similar to the scientific process where we make our own discoveries and then apply them. We try on new roles, find our self-image, and explore our environment. We are able to practice our new skills though trial and error by playing in this new environment and not effect the real world. Our attention is directed towards a task and play is fun. There is a goal or purpose to playing games.
Performance
We can discover our social roles though new media and ourselves. We learn to blend in with others who may be quite different and live in another part of the world. We can project our selves into an avatar and create our own environments. This makes us feel immersed into the game. We can play at being someone else. This helps us reflect on this new experience and see it though a different lens. This often leads us to discover more knowledge relating to this new experience. We often role-play in real life to evaluate a situation or even a design. By doing this we can examine a problem from different perspectives.
I dont know where this ended up, but here it is
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for missing this blog post as it is a subject near and dear to my heart. Having participated in theater in middle and high school as well as directing dozens of shows over my 23 year teaching career I have understood the importance of play and performance from the very start. I would not be the person I am having not had the experience and terror of stepping on stage, singing, acting, falling (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not :0 and in the end looking at my cast mates and appreciating the tremendous power of coming together to tell a story and entertain family friends and complete strangers. The wonderful thing about theater is as much as I enjoy technology and all it can do, you do not need it to tell your story. While lighting , sets, costumes, props, sound fx etc all help set the mood and enhance the production, it all comes down to the actors and actresses to be someone we care about. How you get to that point takes a lot of practice, trust, and the ability for the director to cast well and let go when the time comes. I have always contended that time in school should be memorable to be worthwhile, and can honestly say that time spent onstage is just that, something you remember forever, good or bad, and that is what makes it important. You give without expecting anything back, and you know during the curtain call is your story was told well and the experience was fun and ultimately a worthwhile use of precious time and talent. Years later students will come back and thank you for believing in them and encouraging them to do something they never believed they could, be they a doctor, lawyer, waitress, or teacher. Truly the rewards of teaching are not monetary but memories. The following quotes are to reinforce what I have known for a while, and I am happy to be in such good company."In the 20th century, literacy meant the ability to read, write and present cogent arguments on paper. In the 21st century, literacy is going to extend well beyond that and into what could be termed, a language of screens." (Barish, 2002) In a collaborative or participatory culture, literacy means community involvement. Most all of the new literacy skills involve collaboration and communication. We don't have to contribute, but we must feel free to contribute and that our contributions will be valuable.
According the Henry Jerkins (2008) these skills are
Play
By playing, we problem solve though experimenting. Play is very similar to the scientific process where we make our own discoveries and then apply them. We try on new roles, find our self-image, and explore our environment. We are able to practice our new skills though trial and error by playing in this new environment and not effect the real world. Our attention is directed towards a task and play is fun. There is a goal or purpose to playing games.
Performance
We can discover our social roles though new media and ourselves. We learn to blend in with others who may be quite different and live in another part of the world. We can project our selves into an avatar and create our own environments. This makes us feel immersed into the game. We can play at being someone else. This helps us reflect on this new experience and see it though a different lens. This often leads us to discover more knowledge relating to this new experience. We often role-play in real life to evaluate a situation or even a design. By doing this we can examine a problem from different perspectives.