Playshop Presents: "The Magnificent Innovative T-Island"
Our final in-class lab for my Children and Technology course was to design our own Playshops. What is a Playshop you ask? According to Wohlwend & Peppler (2015), they are "a curricular model developed to encourage playful and collaborative learning" through the combination of several curriculum strands, such as math, literacy, science, and the arts. These curriculum strands are integrated with childhood strengths such as play, collaboration, new technologies and content areas to provide children with an enriching learning experience (Wohlwend & Peppler, 2015).
The Creation of the Magnificent Innovative T-Island
The playshop that my lab group, the #techies, created was a combination of a literacy and design playshop. Using our open-ended materials we made the "Magnificent Innovative T-Island". On this island, we each created characters for ourselves and participated in different activities such as fishing, dancing with friends, and engaging with animals such as bears, and birds. Throughout the creation of this playshop, my group and I worked collaboratively and communicated what steps we should take next. Similarly, when children create their own playshops they work together by sharing knowledge, ideas, and supporting another (Wohlwend & Peppler, 2015).
Our playshop combined arts, literacy, math, and science. When integrated with digital technology, it will give children the opportunity to photograph their characters and record pretend play between them and their classmates. This will allow children to reflect on their process, how they created their playshops, and why they chose to use certain materials to build with over others. When combining curriculum strands with strengths such as play, collaboration and new technologies, the interactions strengthen and deepen one another (Wohlwend & Peppler, 2015).
Playshops are a unique and interactive activity that allows the children to utilize their entire classroom, and create something new and learn from it alongside their peers. It also gives children the opportunity to document their own learning through the use of technology. Using playshops in the classroom incorporates the importance of learning through play, while also integrating the digital natives' interest in digital technology.
To see the entire process of how the "Magnificent Innovative T-Island" was created, watch the video below!
For more examples of Playshops, watch these videos as well:
Word Count: 390
References:
Wohlwend, K., & Peppler, K. (2015). All rigor and no play is no way to improve learning. Phi Delta Kappan,96(8), 22-26. doi:10.1177/0031721715583957
