Knowing, Making, and Playing

• Knowing, making, and playing are things humans do. You know facts and have reasons. Facts lend themselves to multiple choice tests, while reasons require short answers or essays. Today, if you don’t know something it is easy to find. Now, knowing how to evaluate information is more important. Traditional learning features little hands-on learning (making) although it requires deep and practical knowledge. Making can alter your personal investment in learning and provide new insight. When we build we create context within a particular environment. Play is part of what is meaningful in human culture. Play also creates culture. It is who we are. Its connection to learning is secondary or incidental. Play systems are learning systems that engage us in experimentation as we negotiate meaning. We may not make sense of something as we play (aporia), but we might at the end (epiphany).

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