Dear Organlearners,
Doc Holloway <learnshops@thresholds.com> writes:
> It also reminded me
> that games reflect life--not the other way around. Now this is not a
> sophisticated tool such as the one you've described--but it's
> sophistication might be found in the metaphors used to develop it.
Greetings Doc,
Thanks for catching this subject of "game-playing" in the
introduction of Sian Thomas (LO19061).
Has "game-playing" any role to play in Learning Individuals and
Learning Orgganisations?
Well. has "dialogue" any role to play in LIs and LOs? I think that
there is too much evidence not to doubt that dialogue plays a very
important role in LOs. But what about "dialogue" in a LIs? Some of
you may have seen an absent minded professor speaking to himself.
Is this a valid example?
My granddaughter Jessica ( who became 6 three months ago) often
plays alone with anything she can put her hands on while speaking
loudly. She usually composes a dialogue between herself and somebody
close to her, using the objects as signs. I observe her carefully,
but unobtrusively, so that she think it is a normal thing of a
grandfather to do. She uses this dialogue to solve problems in her
interpersonal relationships. It has greatly increased her ability to
communicate with people of all ages.
I also talk a lot to myself when I am alone. I usually set up a
dialogue between various faculties or categories. For example, I will
set up a dialogue between my heart and mind. It will go like this.
"OK, my mind says ABC, but what does my heart say"? "My heart speaks
not ABC, but CDE". "OK, not why does my heart bring DE in, ignoring
AB, using C as interpreter"?..... Another example of dialogue which I
often set up, is between the two main categories of my faith: trust
and reason.
I recognise dialogue as one of five elementary sustainers of human
creativity. There may be more, but they have to be identified. This
is not an easy task. I make sure that a sustainer is common to the
life of children, adults and even old people. I also make sure that
it is common to different cultures. A person need not to know
anything about creativity, and yet they sustain and even may promote
creativity. Game-playing is another sustainer of creativity.
In the following I will use "Learning Organisation" or "LO" in quotes
because many people might object to extending the concept LO a-la
Senge to "game-playing" rather than "dialogue" as a sustainer of
creativity and hence learning as its emergent. Can we have "LO"s
emerging using "game-playing" as the sustainer. Well, I think it
possible.
In the last Soccer World Cup I studied almost every match from the LO
point of view, using the 5 disciplines. I was surprised at how easy
it was to predict the outcome of most games by deciding which team
was the best LO during the first 20 minutes. (In a "soccer team"
there are various LO teams like the team between the goalkeeper and
backs.)
Later on I did the same for the South African cricket team touring in
England. Well, it worked just as good. Unfortunately, it worked so
good that when in a particular match the South African team was
clearly the lesser LO of the two, I became so "disgusted" with the SA
team that I wanted to get away from the TV. It is not nice when using
the LO disciplines to realise that one's team is on the loosing path
for a particular match. The greatests stumbling block seems to be a
player who appears have a fixed mind set in a particular match. It
often causes chain reactions in both batting and fielding. The
greatest motivator appears to be a player who make a break through in
either batting or fielding. It charges his team mates with tenacity
and confidence.
What about the card game Bridge. Have you ever been involved in a
"LO" based on bridge? I have been and it is one of the memeories
which I will always cherish.
Doc commented on games in Cyberspace and specifically on games
involving cards. Is it possible to have card games which sustain and
promote "Individual Learning" rather than "Orgamisational Learning"?
Again I think so. I want to mention one particular game called Free
Cell. It has some of the elements of Solitair in it. But unlike
Solitair every game of Free Cell plays out! I have been playing it
for four years now, restricting myself to three sessions per
weekend, each session lasting up to two hour (or less when I have
completed 20). I began at #0001 and am now at #8520 (another 25 000
to go!).
I like the tough ones because each one showed a weak point in my
creative thinking. Sometimes it took me four hours to play a tough
one out. (It was often the case with the first 1 000.) Most
interesting is when my wife and I compare our styles. (She is
already past the #12 000 mark.) We follow completely different
styles. Sometimes, when the one is buzy with a tough game, the other
one would try it out. Often what is tough to the one is not tough
to the other. I try to observe what each game, especially the tough
ones, can tell me about the seven essentialities. I seldom get a
tough game now whereas my wife more often encounters them.
But she usually finishes 20 games much faster than me. I now try to
make the games more difficult by keeping as much aces in the field of
8 rows untill the very end.
My granddaughter Jessica (6) is also playing Free Cell now. She still
does not realise that one has to work out a strategy for each game to
ensure that it plays out. She is quite happy to start all over again
when a game gets into a dead end. Eventhough very elementary, she is
already able to think strategically in other walks of life. However,
in Free Cell she is not able to figure strategies or simply just do
not care for them.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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