Saturday my husband and I tooled over to Queens, near CitiField, and spent the day walking around Maker Faire 2012. We’ve known about Maker Faires, but this was our first time seeing one up close, and we had a blast! There were all sorts of home made inventions and contraptions, and almost everywhere you looked there were 3D printers or objects that had been made via a 3D printer. The Faire was family friendly, indeed it was designed to inspire kids to create.
We also attended two talks, one by Seth Godin and the other a conversation with Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine, and Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot.
Just a beautiful short film: Love Language
Dance for PD – where I was last weekend
This is where I was last weekend – attending the Dance for PD (Parkinson’s Disease) workshop in Waltham, Massachusetts. I had the wonderful opportunity to take this workshop with two of the founding teachers, David Leventhal and Misty Owens. 
Immersed in the workshop, I felt as much a student of dance as a student of learning how to teach dance to a specific population of people, those folks with Parkinson’s Disease.
Some 40 of us gathered Saturday and Sunday at the Jewish Family & Children’s Service center, an inviting two story complex that hosts a vibrant Family Support group coordinated by Nancy Mazonson for individuals with Parksinson’s, their families and caretakers. Of the many services provided, one is an ongoing series of dance classes that were begun in 2006.
The details of the workshop are on my yogajournal posterous blog. For now I want to focus on the benefits of dance for folks with Parkinson’s, and I would add that those same benefits accrue to just about anyone with limited mobility or dementia in its early stages.
Research into the impact of dance on people with Parkinson’s is ongoing, most recently noted in this November 11, 2011 article on Dr Sara Houston’s work examining “the benefits to quality of life for people with Parkinson’s taking part in dance classes run by English National Ballet.” The Dance for PD listserv provided a link to Study explores benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s, a summary of Dr Houston’s research.
My father had Alzheimer’s for many years. He also had a never-ending love of music and dance, with a heavy dose of Broadway musicals, music of the 40s and 50s, and folks like the Gershwins, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, as well as Big Band tunes and songs from both world wars. He attended ballet and Broadway shows for the better part of his life, and danced up a storm (often with me) at family gatherings. Turns out, my Dad also had Parkinson’s Disease, something we did not find out until he died and it showed up on his death certificate. To be sure, I had an inkling, for he had the tremors in his hands, the arms that eventually stopped swinging when he walked, and a walk that turned to a shuffle (also common with Alzheimer’s). But no matter his physical state, he LOVED the music, he loved singing along to songs, he loved dancing. When the words left him, he sang along with humming or the requisite “heh” in a well-known WWII ditty or Columbia College (his alma mater) song.
Among the many resources provided by Dance for PD is this list of ten points (noted below) extolling the benefits of dance for people with Parkinson’s. Reading them over, and having seen the impact of music and dance on my Dad, it’s difficult to say that only folks with Parkinson’s benefit from dancing! All of the Dance for PD classes have musical accompaniment, and the Brooklyn based home of Dance for PD has the benefit of live piano playing by William Wade.
- Dance develops flexibility and instills confidence.
- Dance is first and foremost a stimulating mental activity that connects mind to body.
- Dance breaks isolation.
- Dance invokes imagery in the service of graceful movement.
- Dance focuses attention on eyes, ears and touch as tools to assist in movement and balance.
- Dance increases awareness of where all parts of the body are in space.
- Dance tells stories.
- Dance sparks creativity.
- The basis of dance is rhythm.
- The essence of dance is joy.
A former student (who has written a book for other students that, like her, have a learning difference) tweeted a link to Cellist Memory Wiped Out From Virus, Doctors Stunned By Musical Memory. I read the article just after returning from the Dance for PD workshop. Towards the end of the article there are several references to “the link between memory and music”, specifically noting the impact of music on people with Alzheimer’s.
Music! Dance! What a combo this can be for anyone, and especially those whose bodies are no longer as resilient as they once were. For more about Dance for PD, read or listen to this 2008 NPR story, Parkinson’s Patients Find Grace In Dance.
Meshing
Entangled and entwined. The brain and the body. They need and feed upon each other. So it is with the meshing of my interests.
I began this blog as “the graduate course I’d love to take if it existed as a program and was local to where I live.” My plan was to learn as much as possible about the brain, beginning with its physiology, as compiled in Brain 101.
The more I learned about the brain, the more I began to associate ideas and information with the practice of learning and teaching. After all, I had been teaching children and adults for many years (this is the start of my 30th year!) and it seemed about time that I consciously considered the underpinnings of those processes.
From there my interests morphed into professional development and, specifically, adult learning and keeping the aging brain healthy, creative and stimulated. I thoroughly and emphatically enjoy planning and providing learning opportunities for adults. This is quite selfish, actually. I feel good when I can help empower others. I feel good when I have a creative challenge (to plan and provide the PD). I feel good when I can help adults enhance their brain health.
However, the brain does not live in a vacuum, so it was simply a matter of time before my interest in the human body – the receptacle housing the brain and very much involved in a co-dependent relationship – manifested itself. Seven years of practicing yoga (for stress relief, for comfort, for physical and mental well-being) collided gently and smoothly with my interest in the brain and human anatomy. More selfishness. I feel good when I can help kids and adults understand their brains and their bodies, and improve their overall health.
Meshed. Meshing.
And wouldn’t you know it…this is my 400th Neurons Firing post. Gotta’ love those round numbers!
Play & Connections
Ideas favor the playful mind.
Tim Brown‘s talk at the 2008 Serious Play conference (and shared as a TED Talk) about creativity and play has influenced me on many levels. His talk provided me with activities I used in two presentations. His talk reminded me of the importance of play in everyone’s life, not just in the lives of children. And his talk further reminded me that at many of our schools, as kids get older, we corral them into seats, tell them to sit still, and expect them to learn. (This year’s Serious Play Conference will take place August 23-25 in Redmond, Washington.)
As summer arrives, and with it vacation from school, here is Tim Brown’s talk to spur some summer play.
Play can be a hearty path into ideas. Being absorbed in play can leave the brain open to percolating ideas in the background. And it is this percolating of ideas that Steven Johnson believes is part of where good ideas come from. In his book Where Good Ideas Come From – The Natural History of Innovation, Johnson talks about “the slow hunch“, which he describes as ideas that “fade into view” after having time for “cognitive incubation“.
Ideas need time to jell. Many of my blog posts reflect on ideas, and it has always been one of my hopes that writing here at Neurons Firing would help my ideas to more fully form for eventual reflecting back out in some fashion.
Drawing on the “adjacent possible“, a term suggested by Stuart Kauffman, Johnson had me thinking about the value of social networks, both face-to-face and digital. The more we are are in places where ideas are bandied about, whether or not they are ideas directly related to our interests, the more our own ideas have the opportunity to jell and perhaps get influenced by any of those bandied ideas. I think of this hanging out with my networks as having my mind poised at its zone of proximal development, unknowingly ready for some relevant or irrelevant nugget to feed any one of the percolating ideas.
As Johnson puts it:
This is how innovation happens.
Chance favors the connected mind.
Quest for a Community of Practice
Jane McGonigal, in Reality is Broken, notes that among well-designed games there is always some sort of quest.
A quest is a journey to accomplish a task. Completing the quest often provides the participant, in this case the gamer, with a sense of satisfaction. And the more epic the quest, the more satisfying the accomplishment. The game design typically impacts the motivation of the person playing, and most of the better designed games inspire intrinsic motivation on the part of the gamer.
The other day, @alexragone tweeted:
@brainbits @fredbartels Just got to the player investment design lead in #realityisbroken How can we design OPuS courses with this in mind?
OPuS is the Online Progressive unSchool being developed by Fred, and he describes it as:
an education environment in which learners work together to discover and develop what Ken Robinson calls their element, or what many of us call, their passion.
OPuS supports communities of practice in which teachers and students with shared interests collaborate to develop mastery of their chosen element, and as part of that process, work to make the world a better place.
Additional information about OPuS is available in this Prezi. (By the way, Fred replied to Alex that OPuS is Communities of Practice, not courses.)
Alex’s tweet got me thinking about Fred’s description, and how it meshes with much of what Jane McGonigal describes as being the important factors in game design. The “player investment design lead” refers to a job description at the game designer Bungie, of Halo fame. The person in this position
directs a group of designers responsible for founding a robust and rewarding investment path, supported by consistent, rich and secure incentives that drive player behavior toward having fun and investing in their characters and then validates those systems through intense simulation, testing and iteration. (page 244)
McGonigal concludes that, based upon the job description above, the goal is to design a game in such a way that “participants should be able to explore and impact a ‘world’, or shared social space that features both content and interactive opportunities.” She then notes the additional characteristics of such a game:
- participants will be able to create and develop a unique identity
- participants will see the bigger picture
- the only reward is participation in good faith
- the emphasis is on making the content and experience intrinsically rewarding
Hmm, a well designed community of practice has a guide to steer the process. The members of the community are self-selecting participants because they share an interest in a particular passion and know that by participating they will enhance both their own and everyone else’s understanding of the topic. The participation happens individually and collaboratively, in physical spaces and interactive virtual social spaces. And the quest to learn is its own reward.
In another tweet, @alexragone wrote:
More on definition of student engagement: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Student_engagement#Indicators#isedchat
Sounds to me like a well-designed game and a community of practice share many of the traits that encourage student engagement.
The Games of Life
I just finished reading Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal. There is a reason her book resonated with me, but that reason will have to wait till another post. Meantime, below is the list of games that Jane describes throughout her book. Do any resonate with you? Which ones? Why? (At the end of this post is Jane’s TED Talk, where she describes why game playing makes sense to her.)
[UPDATE June 26, 2011 – McGonigal's newest game, Find the Future, receives a positive review in the NYT article Putting the Library on Your Smartphone.]
Bounce is designed to help jump start conversations between people of different generations, specifically, between you and people old enough to be your grandparents. You have likely heard of doing random acts of kindness. Cruel 2 B Kind takes that idea one step further and turns those random acts into game play. And maybe you just want to make someone feel good? PlusOneMe(+1 me) “helps you acknowledge people’s strengths.” Or maybe you know someone who is not feeling very well, and needs help with recuperating and recovery? Try the game SuperBetter. Here is Jane McGonigal’s six minute Ignite talk describing SuperBetter.
Chore Wars is the perfect way to get anyone, from a kid to an adult, to do those niggly yet necessary house chores.
Anyone out there who loves to fly? Congratulations if you answered “yes”. Most people I know are reluctant airplane passengers, and if you fall into that category (or even if you love to fly 
, The Day in the Cloud Challenge, created by Google and Virgin America to make your in-flight time more enjoyable, is an “online scavenger hunt played simultaneously in the air”. Another game for flyers is jetset, designed to be played on your mobile phone while in the airport.
Looking for game simulations that will help you make a difference in the future of our world? Try Evoke, “a crash course in changing the world.” Another game along these lines is Lost Joules, a way to get you thinking about your use of electric power. Superstruct was a future-forecasting game designed to get people thinking about problems humanity will face in the future, and brainstorm ways to cope with, solve or maybe even prevent those problems from manifesting. This game was created by the Institute for the Future. One more game is World Without Oil, “a massively collaborative imagining of the first 32 weeks of a global oil crisis.” What better way to figure out potential solutions to future problems than to harness people power!
Simply want to volunteer but are dulled by the “same old” types of ideas? Check out sparked, “the microvolunteering network.” You can read more about this idea on the sparked blog.
Back in the days when he lived at home, my older son loaned some of his home computer processing power to SETI@home. Several science departments at the University of Washington have a similar plan for solving science puzzles requiring lots of computing power, in particular the folding of proteins.
Want be less of a home-body? foursquare is designed to get you up and out and socializing. Similarly, if you like to dance or would like to like to dance (!), Top Secret Dance-Off is designed to help you get over your shyness hump when it comes to dancing.
Increase your vocabulary and help donate rice to hungry folks through the World Food Programme with Free Rice.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum commissioned a clever alternate reality (ARG) game, Ghosts of a Chance, to help museum goers have an immersive experience with the museum.
For the 2008 Summer Olympics, McDonald’s, AKQA, the International Olympic Committee and Jane McGonigal teamed up to create The Lost Ring as a way to give non-Olympians a way to participate more fully in the feel of the games. There is a video and case study of this project available here.
Many of you have probably heard of the marriage of Nike running shoes and an iPod or iPhone to not only provide music while you exercise, but also track your performance. Surely you realized it’s a game!
My younger son would be tickled to know that a game he plays, spore, was included in Jane McGonigal’s list. And why not? It’s all about creating a universe populated by creatures of your own crafting.
If you like playing games, or are just plain curious, the Come Out & Play festival “is an annual festival of street games that turns New York City [or perhaps other cities, as well] into a giant playground.” I haven’t attended this festival, but at a quick glance it reminds me of flash mob games such as The Sound of Music at the Central Station in Antwerp, Belgium or those organized by Improv Everywhere. A company that organizes games in this genre is slingshot, a British-based company that creates “games for people and cities.” Another company that crafts games of this type is Citizen Logistics, makers of Groundcrew. And yet another, this one based in the United Kingdom, is Hide & Seek.
Speaking of the UK, one of the more intriguing games is Investigate your MP’s expenses, a game designed by the Guardian [a newspaper] to garner citizen assistance in wading through thousands of pages of scanned documents released by Parliament. Apparently, a number of British MPs had rather high expenses that were not exactly legal… This is an example of how crowdsourcing can be used to enhance citizen participation.
Believe it or not, there is at least one school, Quest to Learn, that translates “the underlying forms of games into a powerful pedagogical model for its 6-12th graders.” You can read more about Q2L in their Overview. If anyone knows of other schools like this, please add them in a comment below. Thanks!
Here is McGonigal’s 2010 TED Talk: Gaming can make a better world.
Thank you, Julia
Thanks to a comment by Julia on my post earlier this month, I purchased the DVD “I Remember Better When I Paint” and watched it this past weekend with my soon-to-be 20-year old son. The documentary is a little over an hour and a half, yet the time flew by as we watched interviews with health care professionals and viewed footage of art therapy in action. The film highlights some specific programs and contains seven additional shorts that complement the documentary: Recreating Social Bonds, The Importance of Physical Exercise, The Hearthstone Way, Art and Care in the Later Stages, Organizing an Outing, The Memory Garden, and Organizing a Creative Workshop.
I cannot stress enough the importance of sharing this information with anyone you know who is associated in any way with someone who has Alzheimer’s. As John Zeisel’s book title so aptly states, I’m Still Here – and that is why it is of paramount importance to inform families and caretakers about the various approaches and art therapies that can help people with Alzheimer’s let their loved ones know they are, indeed, still here.
Zeisel is responsible for ARTZ is Artists for Alzheimer’s, a wonderful program that opens the world of artistic expression to people with Alzheimer’s. I first learned of ARTZ (and blogged about it) in June, 2009, while attending a Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity conference. A few days later I finished reading Zeisel’s book and wrote another blog post.
One of the video shorts of particular interest is The Memory Garden (Les Jardins de la Memoire), which describes a residence in a suburb of Brussels, Belgium, for people who have Alzheimer’s. If you do not read French, thanks to Google Translate you can read an English description about Les Jardins de la Memoire. The DVD introduces The Memory Garden with extensive footage, and interviews with two therapists, as well as with Christian Englebert, the founder.
“I Remember Better When I Paint”
The creative arts bypass the limitations and they simply go to the strengths. People still have imaginations intact all the way to the very end of their progressive disease.
Thanks to Julia, who left a comment on my previous post, I found out about the documentary I Remember Better When I Paint. (The quote above comes from the trailer.) Rather than translate to my words, here is the description of the film from the About section of the film’s site:
“I Remember Better When I Paint”, narrated by Olivia de Havilland, is the first international documentary about the positive impact of art and other creative therapies on people with Alzheimer’s and how these approaches can change the way we look at the disease. A film by Eric Ellena and Berna Huebner, presented by French Connection Films and the Hilgos Foundation. Among those who are featured are noted doctors and Yasmin Aga Khan, president of ALzheimer’s Disease International and daughter of Rita Hayworth, who had Alzheimer’s.
I am eager to see this film, and suspect it will add to the eye- and mind-opening ideas that I’ve been exposed to in the past few years regarding care of those with Alzheimer’s. Indeed, if you live in the New York metropolitan area, there is a screening of the film planned for March 10, 2011, on Melville, Long Island. You can read more about the film, and see a trailer at the film’s site, which is a wordpress blog (just like Neurons Firing
If any of you knows anyone with Alzheimer’s or dementia who is participating in an arts program, and if you feel comfortable sharing the experiences, I would greatly appreciate your adding a comment to this post. Thanks!
The Energy Audit #NEIT2010
The last morning of the NEIT Conference found me cozily ensconced in a chair overlooking the front grounds of Mohonk Mountain House. Sun streamed in, the sky was clear, and with a cup of tea and my laptop for company, I had time to reflect on the sessions.
Now I am at home, more than a week later, and the session that continues to percolate in my thoughts is the one facilitated by arvind: The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. The title of this session comes from the book of the same name by Tony Schwartz. The gist of Tony’s book and arvind’s presentation (which sadly he removed from the wiki, apparently by request of The Energy Project folks) is that if we take better care of ourselves, we can be more productive and lead more fruitful lives.
I know, you’re possibly thinking this is just another “self help” book. Well, perhaps it is. However, what Schwartz has to say makes perfect sense. And if you are in a field that changes rapidly or a life style that is fast paced or a job that is not giving you satisfaction or you happen to be contemplating what you want the next 25 years of your life to look like, you might just find the information useful.
You might not fall into any of those categories, but since it will only take a few minutes of your time, try this experiment – take The Energy Audit. The results of this audit, providing you are honest with yourself when responding to the statements, will give you a sense of your energy – not just the physical energy you have, but also your emotional, spiritual and mental energy.
Reluctant to take the audit? Okay, how about answering this one question: Do you work at something non-stop beyond 90 minutes? Hmm, okay, do you give yourself breaks between activities demanding high focus? During your breaks, are you doing something quite different from your focus time? And one last question: Do you feel you are performing as well as you would like in each of the energy realms mentioned before – physical, emotional, spiritual and mental?
On the EdTechTalk channel you can listen to podcast #141: Creating Energy, Space & Time, an 18 minute conversation about the book and The Energy Audit.
Oh yes, here is the feedback I received from my Energy Audit.
Dear laurie,
Thank you for taking our Energy Audit.
Your score was 5 out of 20, which means you are experiencing a moderate energy deficit according to the key below:
17-20 Full out energy crisis
13-16 Imminent energy crisis
9-12 Significant energy deficit
5-8 Moderate energy deficit
Below 5 Fully energizedIf your score was 4 or less, congratulations – though there may be a few areas in which you can improve your energy, you are effectively firing on all cylinders. If your score as higher than you would have liked, however, you’re scarcely alone. The average overall score among all our clients is a 10. In short, more than 50% of us are operating at a level that is significantly suboptimal.
YOUR SCORE BY CATERGORY
There are four types of energy that correspond to our four human needs. They are physical (sustainability), emotional (security), mental (self-expression) and spiritual (significance). Your specific category scores indicate the areas in which you might begin to improve your energy. They appear below (0 is best, 5 is worst):
Mental: 1 – Fully energized
Physical: 1– Fully energized
Emotional: 0 – Fully energized
Spiritual: 3 – Significant energy deficitWHAT YOU CAN DO
It’s possible to systematically build back your capacity in each of these areas, and thousands of our clients have done so with considerable success. Set aside some time to think about which one or two behaviors are most adversely influencing your energy levels. It may be best to start at the easiest to make concrete changes. Setting even a single goal for yourself, defined by a specific behavior you do at a precise time on designated days can put you on the right path towards a fully energized, fully engaged life. For your reference, we’ve included those questions to which you answered true below:
- I often eat lunch at my desk, if I eat lunch at all.
- I don’t take enough time for reflection, strategizing and thinking creatively.
- I spend too little time at work doing what I do best and enjoy most.
- There are significant gaps between what I say is important in my life and how I actually live.
- I don’t invest enough time and energy in making a positive difference to others and/or in the world.[In addition to thanking me for taking the audit and providing an email if I wanted to get in touch, a link was provided for the Harvard Business Review's article: The Productivity Paradox: How Sony Pictures Gets More Out of People by Demanding Less.]
