This is a bit of a race for the finish line blog post – my brain is about sixty places in the days since we had our last class!

The mentorship experiences I undertook in this class was extremely beneficial to me, as both teacher and student.  It really helped me to challenge myself to become familiar and investigate many new web 2.0  tools we discussed in class. 

Mentorship with Ms. Nestico

I dove headfirst into my partnership with Susie Nestico’s Grade 12 class and their Problems of Democracy wiki immediately!  Time was extremely short, the students were wrapping up their class assignments by the third week of May, and I was very apprehensive about diving in so fast since we were just beginning to cover the many tools and technologies available for educators!.  My learning curve with this class was extremely fast!  In the span of about 48 hours, I had invited myself to the 2nd period class’ interest group wikis, studied the rubrics for the course and assignment, took a quick tutorial of Glogster to understand how it works, read and examined seven wiki spaces, and worked until the wee hours of the morning gathering links to websites I could paste into my comments that may expand the students learning, or show them a differning perspective. 

I blogged in more detail about this experience previously, click the link if you’d like to read my musings and the quandary I experienced while working with this class.

Time was very short  – and I really wished I could have done more in terms of interacting with students and getting some of their opinions on the projects they created.

Ms. Nestico was also involved in a really amazing online project called The Flat Classroom Project – this was an online classroom project that linked several (I think maybe 12 or 13) classrooms across the globe in a Ning space, with a focus on educating themselves and others on responsible digital citizenship.  This was a really amazing project, and again I wish I’d had more time to follow along and comment on the work students were doing here.  Ms. Nestico’s class was just wrapping production on a video they had made about Cyberbullying, and sadly I only got the chance to watch the video they had made, which brought to light some of the differences between the bullying of the past, and the damages of cyberbullying.  I merely scratched the surface of this project, and I am curious to know a lot more about how The Flat Classroom Project came about, and whether or not this is an ongoing project that teachers can join from year to year.  What a beneficial experience for students!  They were interacting and trading information with classrooms in so many different countries!

My head was spinning by the time I finished looking at all of the amazing ways Susie was using technology in her classroom!  It was very early on in the course, and I was still very intimidated by all of the things I had yet to learn.  Yet in retrospect, I think this was a great staring point for me – as 80% observer, and 20% contributor. 

Mentoship with Eldon German

My experience with Eldon and his class was very brief experience for me.  This is not at all the fault of Eldon – I dropped the ball in the milieu of trying to keep up with class work, my day job, rehearsing for a jazz gig, and my mistress on 8 wheels, Derby.  One of Eldon’s classes has been working on blogging about a variety of web 2.0 tools.  Many students had researched their web tool, and provided links to tutorials, or had included short tutorials on their blogs about Google Docs, Google Maps, YouTube, and others.  I spent a little time reading one student’s blog about YouTube.  Sadly, this is where my interaction with the class stopped.

I did get a lot out of reading the classes different blog posts – I shared the link to the Multiple Intelligences Test that the class had done, and I learned a lot about YouTube from just one student’s blog post about it. 

Mentorship with Jared Nichol

I won’t lie – I got HUGE benefits from this mentoring partnership with Jared and his ELA 9 class.  I am a Literature minor, and I really got excited about the ideas Jared had about putting such a fresh spin on the marriage of technology literature! 

I was much less apprehensive about working with new web tools when I started to work with Jared’s class.  They had a class wiki, a class blog, they used Glogster, Voicethread, and worked in partnership with Bert and I on the creation of our final project using Google Forms and YouTube. 

I had my successes and my failures while working with all of these web tools.  Glogster was a big challenge for me (I’m not very visual, and I was trying to create Glog pages that could contribute my own tastes and influences in poetry to share with the students), and I spent some time putting it together only to abandon it out of frustration and lack of time!  Voicethread was by far the easiest tool to use – though I found my frustration level with new web tools decreased as the class moved on, and as I spent more time working with them.

I really loved the interaction I had with this class!  Jared was really open to ideas and collaboration, and I loved reading the students blog responses to the poems and ideas we all shared together.  I put a lot of my time and effort into this class because of the subject matter, and because I knew it would be very, very valuable to me.

The Final Word – I Promise!

It was impossible  to take nothing away from each of these experiences, and when I think back on it, each teacher who opened up their classroom to myself and others contributed heaps and heaps to my learning in this class.  It is one thing to try out new tools just for fun – it’s a whole other experience to observe and use web tools in partnership with curriuculum.  Seeing these tools in action in the classroom provided me with endless ideas and inspirations for how I could potentially use them in my future classroom, and I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED how the class blogs, glogs, voicethreads and wikis provided students with a place to make their mark, voice their opinions and concerns, and discuss their learning. 

I learned so much about how technology in the classroom helps students and teachers to share information! 

Thank you to my partnering teachers!  You deserve a hand!

It was extremely generous and brave of all of our partner teachers to open up their classrooms to us!

The continuing saga of my final project… afterthoughts, musings, feedback.

I feel very fortunate that the endeavors of this project were seen through to such a successful fruition. I have not fulfilled all of my plans… it occurred to me at about 3:30 AM of the morning that I was waiting for our final videos to upload to YouTube that perhaps I had bitten off more than I could chew. I have suffered a small failure or setback in terms of the goals I set out for myself in this project. I had intended to crete a Glogster page alongside the class – to share my own personal tastes in poetry, and to show these students what else is out there that they may not know about, or that they may find interesting about poetry. I had nothing but the best intentions….but I had so little time to make it all happen. So… my Glogster page remains limp, lifeless, and incomplete.

If you haven’t had the chance to experiment with Glogster – I highly reccommend it. It is an excellent creative space that to me functions like an online journal. I’m sad that I did not have the chance to get this going. But it warrants further investigation and experimentation, and it is a tool I would definitely use in my own classroom for a project just like this.

I checked my mentor teacher’s class blog today to take a peek at what some of the students had to say about the experience of creating questions for these two poets and what that meant to their understanding and appreciation of poetry. A small selection of the responses are below.

“I think it was really interesting to interact with the poets and actually get to know how a professional poet feels and stuff. I learnt that they actually don’t think they are that good at poetry and aren’t all stuck up . Which makes me appreciate them more. I must say thank you to the four of you for allowing and making this happen. I believe the way it turned out and how we went through with it was really easy to follow and a good learning experience.”

“I learned alot of interesting stuff that i never thought the poets would say they actually have to deal with.. I learned that there are many different ways to interact poetry in with our lives. I appreciate the people who write it more because they are trying to express themselves. I believe this turned out great and was way more interesting then sitting and listening to boring old stuff.”

“After watching the poets and hearing their stories and what they think about poetry, I think that it is realy cool that we got to interact with them. I learnt that they didn’t really like poetry that much throught school but they are now that they are poets its pretty much changed who they are and their lives pretty much. Thank-You so much for answereing our question and this whole thing turned out pretty swell. It was a great experience for us!”

“After watching these i think that poetry is kind of give or take and you only do the type of poetry you want i just need to find what i like. i now appreciate poetry a lot more and i think it is relay personal.”

None of this would have been possible without the aid and willingness of my amazing mentor teacher, Jared Nichol.  Jared more or less opened up his entire classroom to any suggestions, resources, or ideas that I had about ways to make studying poetry a meaningful experience for students.  I took full advantage of his offers, and I have learned so much about my own capabilities for using technology in the classroom beacuse of this. 

Sometimes things just work out so well you’ve got to marvel at them.  I am in a great state of marvel right now. 

Man with wooden leg escapes prison.  He’s caught.

They take his wooden leg away from him.  Each day

he must cross a large hill and swim a wide river

to get to the field where he must work all day

on one leg.  This goes on for a year.  At the Christmas

Party they gave him back his leg.  Now he doesn’t

want it.  His escape is all planned.  It requires

only one leg.

~James Tate

My final project was shaped around a classroom mentorship working with Jared Nichol and his grade 9 ELA class in Cold Lake, AB. Jared’s class was about to begin a unit on poetry that would carry them to the end of the year.   Now, I can’t speak for anyone else out there, but for me learning about poetry in high school was like taking a sleeping pill and not waking up for about six weeks.  It was the driest, most flavorless experience for me – I was subjected to hours upon hours of structure and language analysis; forced to sit, alone, and pontificate about the meaning and intent of a stream of male poets who had been dead so long even the best CSI’s couldn’t extract a DNA strain from the dust of their bones.  Ugh!

This is not how I relate to poetry.  THIS is how I relate to poetry:

It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties and going to open mic nights that I really realized what poetry could do for me, or what it meant to me, or how I needed it in my life. 

You all know I am a big word nerd, a drama queen, a voice to be reckoned with (at least that’s what my mama told me), and an aggressive mother hen.  I believe poetry, like music, like theatre, like all revolutionary art forms has the power to change lives and help us to understand humanity and our relationship and purpose in the world.  I believe poetry has no meaning until it means something to you.  Not everyone’s gonna love the vivid and timeless imagery of Robert Frost.  Finding a personal relationship to poetry is like looking for a new car, or buying the perfect-fitting pair of jeans: you gotta shop around a while before you can zero in on what you really want from written and spoken word. 

I got really excited about working with Jared and his class on this unit.  I thought – how can I make this experience different from the ones I had in school?  Lucky for me I have some creative and well connected friends in the Arts Ed. faculty.  The Lioness Leigh was the one who first introduced me to the HBO special – Brave New Voices, a documentary that follows several teams of youth slam poets in several states in the U.S.  as they compete in the Brave New Voices slam poetry competition.  I was blown away by the power, truth,  vulnerability and raw emotion that these kids poured out on stages across the U.S.   This was my jumping off point.

I started building my arsenal – arming myself with all of the good poems I had read or seen or felt or heard that touched some part of me.  I launched myself into a voicethread project, reading a poem called Holy by a New York poet named Nicole Blackman.  I started building a Glogster page that would bleed my love of poetry all over the computer screen.  I started talking to Bert…

Bert has these friends…these two good ‘ol pals he knows from Moose Jaw, two dudes who just happen to write and perform two vastly different forms of poetry.  These two dudes just happen to be in town at the same time.   I couldn’t believe the timing and the luck!  Patrick Swan is a slam poet, and Daniel S. Tysdal is a published poet, author and lecturer at the University of Toronto.  Let’s get these two guys together and get some Grade 9 students to ask them questions about their work as poets!  Better yet!  Let’s film it and post it on YouTube! 

This was no easy feat my friends!  I do not own a camera, and I have no editing software on my second hand, last legs laptop.  The project was built with borrowed technology.  The camera was borrowed from my sister, and the editing was done in imovie on her mac.  I love macs.  I have been converted.  It was almost too bloody easy to get the video uploaded, cut up into segents, insert some title cards, music, and quick dissolve transitions, and upload it to YouTube.  It  took me about six hours for the whole process from start (teaching myself how to navigate it), to the final process of uploading the vids to YouTube. 

I loved every moment of this project and I will continue to use movie making and YouTube in my classroom as an educational tool, and as a means to share with anyone else out there who wants to see it.

Here and now, right before your very eyes, are the fruits of mine and Bert’s labor:

There are so many classmates that I give nods to for just doin’ what they do and helping me hold on to my sanity in this lightining fast, rollercoaster of a class we’ve all experienced together.  Maybe it’s cuz I’m in a good mood and everything’s all happy and amazing, but it’s hard for me to narrow it down to just five people who have helped me in my journey.  I read a lot of blogs – and though I didn’t always have an awesome or mind-blowing reply, I took away something valuable from each one.

Larissa ‘s  blog bowled me over each time I scrolled my reader over her blog posts!  I’ve known Larissa for less than a year, and in that time I have come to know her as an incredibly informed and compassionate human being.  Larissa tends to be quite timid about speaking her mind in class, but her blog posts showed me the fire and passion inside this insightful woman!  Thank you Larissa for your passion, your voice, and for embracing the opportunity to really speak your mind!  I commented on Larissa’s blog post about bad press and the need to hear more about the good that is happening in our own communities and across the world.

Bert and I have a nearly year-long record of pompous dialectic debates between the two of us, and I love the banter we send back and forth about our ideas and thoughts on the arts, being rebellious, and how that travels with us into our teaching practices.  I have enjoyed Bert’s passionate replies to my own blog posts, and his steadfast stubbornness to keep the arguement going to new levels of thought.  Despite our differences of opinion, Bert and I work very well together, as evidenced in our final project, (see Bert’s post for reference, mine is still in the works).

Cori has been my blog hero!  She has so deftly tracked and blogged all about her experiences, thoughts, ideas and passions  – and has done such a great job of sharing this all with everyone.  Passion is what makes all of the difference in life, and Cori has enough passion for ten teachers!  I had commented on Cori’s blog post analyzing and comparing two propaganda-type videos, one produced by Dove for their campaign for real beauty, the other created by Greenpeace, slandering Dove for exploiting the environment to obtain palm oil as the key ingredients to their products. 

Karie is another blog champ that has given me some great tips and ideas for blog fodder, web tools, and how it all works.  Both Karie and Cori have such awesome blogs – I hope very much that they keep blogging and sharing, as I have learned tons from both.  Karie was the blogger who showed me how to embed a youtube video into my blog. 

My last nod goes out to Amber for being so fearless about working with 2.0 tools.  Amber is very modest about her advanced relationship to technology, but I’ve seen what she can do with a computer and I’m happy and proud that she is an Arts Ed. student.  I think Amber will have some very refreshing and innovative tools to use in her classrooms.  I have learned a lot just from talking with Amber.  Her final project looks amazing!

This by no means the extent of my list.  We have all taken the reigns and made discoveries that have helped each other along the way.  I hope to stay connected to all of my classmates, and to continue to share ideas, thoughts, tools and dialogue about our journeys as teachers as we break out into classrooms across the province! 

Thank you everyone for sharing!  Thank you Dean for knowing how to make it as painless as possible!

borrowed from woodleywonderworks via flickr

 Last week’s class was about seeing and believing that technology in the classroom can work for any grade and any student.  I haven’t been shy about admitting my techno blunders and how far down into the rabbit hole I’ve had to stick my head to comprehend the benefits of teaching with technology; but peering into the digital classrooms of Kathy Cassidy, Clarence Fisher, and Darren Kuropatwa both intimidated me, and helped me to see the light at the end of the fibre optic tunnel.

There are two things that have struck me again and again while investigting  and analyzing all of these new tools and resources for the classroom:

1.  The levels of student engagement and ownership of their own learning while using technology in the classroom is limitless.  So much so that my own hesitation to incorporating more technology in the classroom can’t even factor into whether or not I use it.  I must.  The potential for students to really take possession and adhere to what they learn, to contribute, and lend a voice to many audiences supersedes my own timid and foolish apprehensions.  How can I deny students the opportunity to experience learning that is valid and engaging because I refuse to learn something new?

2.  The journey is taken by all – including the teacher.  I’m in love with the idea that every new exploration into teaching and learning is just that – an exploration.  I am relieved to hear that teachers have tried many different tools, and have had failures right along side their successes while experimenting with new web tools, new ideas, and new projects.  The idea of not knowing how far a project can and will go scares the hell out of me – but sometimes there’s nothing sweeter than the exciting taste of risk.  I have to be willing to step into this new era with a degree of uncertainty…which is not something a lot of teachers are comfortable with. 

After seeing these classrooms in action, I had to take a breath and remind myself that not all of it was done in a day.  I have to remind myself that it is okay to start with a few simple tools, get comfortable using them, and then add more when you can.  I have to remember the value of sharing ideas, tools, tips, and my successes and failures with other teachers.  I have to remember that inviting the technological revolution into my classroom is an evolving process, one that requires me to keep learning too. 

Darren Kuropatwa mentioned that he’s got students doing a lot of the digital class work for him through the use of scribes.  This is exciting to me – and not just because I want to do less work, but because I want students to take responsibility for their learning and let it lead them in directions that they feel passionate to pursue and share with each other.  I certainly don’t believe in the teacher as the fountain from which all true knowledge spills  (though some of my past teachers tried to tell me otherwise.)  Isn’t it much more exciting to serve as a guide?  To ask questions that get students giving opinions, or searching for the answers outside of the classroom? 

What will this technological revolution look like in my classroom?

I’m a slow burner, so in the beginning it may not be anything more than a class wiki, or a class blog forum where students are writing, posting and sharing.  It may be using web 2.0 tools like Vuvox collage to have students create a response to something they have read, or written, or to express their learning about a unit of study.  It may mean using Glogster to create  and embed an interactive wiki page about a subject, or author, or to showcase their own creative work in a space that can be designed and shared with anyone, and not just their own class.  This may mean a Ning partnership shared with 2 or 3 other classrooms across the globe where students post their work, and share information about global issues that concern them. 

I could spend all day thinking of the applications these new web tools could have in my drama classes!  I have a great class project brewing that involves creative writing, improvisation, working with movie making and movie editing software, and interactive web voting via google forms.  I wrote an Arts Ed 10, 20 , 30 music unit plan last semester on media literacy and the music of popular culture  that used a ton of Youtube clips – I could definitely use Diigo to bookmark all of the clips, or additional information for students. 

The most important tool for me will be networking with other teachers on what they are doing, how they are using these tools, and what I might be able to learn from them, or vice versa. For me, this has been the most valuable experience of ECMP 355 – connecting with educators who are willing to share their ideas and tools. 

‘Cuz, let’s face it – I need a lot of help.  (snicker, snicker)

photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jontintinjordan/3451816631/

Now, don’t panic but…I think we’re being watched.

I’m not talking about hidden video cameras in your homes (although that may be a definite possibility for me – my landlord is excessively nosy), but every time you log on to the internet, do a google search, browse for a book on Amazon, or post a picture of your BFF’s buck wild stagette – you are giving people access to your private information – allegedly (I love this word!  The media uses it so freely to absolve themselves from accountability to the facts, I can’t help but jump on the bandwagon), allegedly our every move is clocked, analyzed, fed through a thousand cross-referencing databases, and sent directly to Big Brother, who already has a pretty good idea of what we’ve been up to – what with all of those closed-circuit camera feeds from the neighborhood convenient store ATM’s, the mall security cameras, the traffic cameras – oh, and don’t forget about that cab you took last weekend.  That cabbie was recording it all – all your hush-hush cabbie confessionals about how much time you waste on Facebook while being ‘on the clock’ at work, or maybe about how you are feeling a tad homicidal towards your roommate’s cat.  That’s  high priority, man.  That’s going directly to the VIP of the CEO of the El Presidente of the DEPARTMENT OF ARBITRARY FEARS.

photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knmurphy/2506896257

OMG!  SOUND THE ALARM! Close ranks!  Guard your identity! And for decency’s sake avert our children’s eyes from cyberstalkers and *gasp* SEXUAL PREDATORS (dun-dun-dun), and assume that everyone  - including members in our own household, are doing scads of inappropriate things in the dark. Alone.  Alone while interfacing with other co-conspirators and perverts who’s life’s mission is to pervert you, pervert your child, steal your money AND then frame you for those 3 songs you allegedlydownloaded from limewire last week.  

This is what I simluateneously love and loathe about fear-mongering – it is the easiest virus to spread.

This all ties in so very nicely with two items I have read/screened in the last month.  Both are addressing the issues of copyright, online identity, rights of privacy, fear culture and North America’s obsession with suing people over creative and intellectual privacy rights.  Here come a whole bunch of links:

The first is a documentary that addresses the issue of sampling or ripping small segments of other published and popular artists work to make new music and remixes.  It’s called RIP: A Remix ManifestoThis is an OUTSTANDING documentary  directed by Brett Gaylor and produced in part by the National Film Board of Canada (whaaaaaat?) that puts copyright laws under the microscope.  Essentially the film explores the concept that all creative art forms and artists are influenced by art that has preceded them.  This film explores the idea that new art is created by essentially re-mixing or re-interpreting past works.  Published recording artists (usually ones with huge record labels and a litany of lawyers to hide behind), are serving up lawsuits left and right to people who remix or sample audible portions of their music to create new music, citing copyright infringement.  What’s that really about?  Dolla, dolla bills y’all!The argument being that copyright laws were created to protect the monetary interests of  those who hold the copyright.  Those who want to use copywritten material in their work  PAY OUT THE ASS FOR IT!  There’s a lot more to it than just the crimes of teenage D.J.’s working their magic on garageband.  This really is a must-see doc.  The best part about the film is that it is creative commons licensed AND if you really feel passionate about the film, the filmmakers have invited you to remix the doc and submit it to them.  You can watch it online in chapters at Open Source Cinema.  You can also remix your own version on the open source website.

I think that’s pretty awesome.

Montreal Gazette review of NFB’s Rip: A Remix Manifesto

The second item on my must list is to read a YA fiction novel by Canadian author and posterboy for the hacker uprising – Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.  In my opinion, Cory has an eerie but accurate vision of a not too distant Orwellian future where everything we do and say can and will be used against us, or at least be questioned.  He has a blog.  He skypes to classrooms, he will e-mail you if you e-mail him and ask him questions.  Cory knows far more about technology than I do.  Cory is far more vocal and critical of what, where, why and how all of this data about us is going and who is using it.  Cory’s just an all ’round smarty pants.  And, as an added bonus, Little Brother is some excellent reading material for you, your students, and is pretty much guaranteed to stimulate some awesome class discussions.  Especially if you’re American.   The book is available to download for free from Cory’s website, and is published under creative commons license.  All of Cory’s books are available to download for free.  Paying is an option as well.

AM I CLICKABLE?  I have Googled myself before – and I’ll do it again!  There isn’t anything there that I would kick up a fuss about.  In fact – the likeliest thing to get me passed over for any potential new employment…is the thoughts and opinions in this blog!  I worked in the acting and film industries where being clickable is a necessity to attract the attention of agents, casting directors, directors and producers.  It is very much a business of shameless self promotion, so I am not surprised to see YouTube clips of my sketch comedy group with me in them, and various clips and short films from my time at VFS.  These are things that represent me as an actor.  I keep my private stuff private.  My facebook account is locked up tight with restricted profile settings.  I never put my phone number or address in any profile I fill out, just my e-mail. 

If my future employers are looking to discredit me by snooping for titillating photos of me cutting loose at the bar, they won’t find any.  But that kind of thing shouldn’t determine your employability. 

So yes, I consider myself ‘clickable.’

Am I comfortable with the idea that governments and corporations are tracking my patterns and habits?  NO!  It’s one thing to consent to living your life in the open, it is entirely another thing to be profiled like a potential criminal.  Alas, that is the modern world we live in.  A world where everyone is a potential criminal, or pervert, or a cyberbully, or just generally fraudulent.  *sigh*

The first is the brainchild of some friends of mine who have various connections to serial improvisers all over the nation.  It’s called the IMPROV MONOLOGUE PROJECT.  The idea is very raw – one camera, one performer, one location, one prop, and zero time to rehearse.  This often results in some terrible improv, but some of them are quite chuckalicious (yes, I stole that from Stephen King).

The other podcast I got turned on to by a friend of mine is the creation of screenwriter/director Kevin Smith and his pal Scott Mosier, which they call SMODCAST.  The link is to Kevin’s website, and the 87th podcast they recently did.

Both are very different approaches to comedy – Kevin Smith’s brand of funny is crass sex jokes about mammaries and farts and whatnot, but there’s other gems there too.  He takes some hilarious stabs at the Hollywood machina, and frequently riffs on how much he loves Canadians.

I’m still fishing for good podcasts to subscribe to on a regular basis… comedy is an easy go-to for me, since thry tend to be  short and the intention is clear.  I listen to a lot of CBC Radio 2, and I’m actually looking at subscribing to their Canada Live series right now!

I won’t bore you with the minute details – here’s the lowdown..
1. Quad Rollerskates = Instantly Cool
2. Fishnets and short skirts.
3. Hard hits.
4. Aliases.

For fun and sport, three times a week I strap on roller skates and pound the crap out of other girls. Believe me when I say I’m NOT and athlete. I never played hockey. I didn’t go out for softball or basketball or any other sports in high school…I was 100% pure drama geek. But derby is different from your run o’ the mill sports team. You can be any shape or size to play, all you really need is the willingness to get bruised and kick some ass!

My league’s official website - The Pile O’ Bones Derby Club.  

My alias – Tenacious DD

We are always recruiting. Check out our website if you’re interested!

Below is a short derby video featuring Edmonton’s Oil City Derby Girls and Saskatoon’s Roller Derby League.  This is what we do, and it is awesome!

My family runs a communications business, and one of the things I have always admired about how they keep a creative edge on what they do & how they work is by playing with each other on a daily basis, and opening up their daily practices to creative and playful activities. Advertising agencies do this for their writers all the time – they organize meetings where creative brainstorming comes out of improvisation and playing.

In all of the years that I have been teaching drama/theatre – play has been at the core of everything I do with my students. It engages the body and the mind simultaneously, it breaks down stereotypes, encourages collaboration, and accesses creativity in people who didn’t think or believe that they were creative people. This talk helps to put substantial scientific weight behind what is commonly dismissed as a state of being or doing that has no merit or practical application to real life.

Suck it naysayers! Play is vital!