Learning as-you-do-it is more efficient and effective than classrooms or textbook reading.
Could academic subjects remodel themselves on meditation apps, asks?
notes.andymatuschak.org/Guided_meditat
Conversation
This is probably easier for heavily procedural subjects, like math and meditation. Note that math instruction is already a lot like this, and doing exercises feels like "sitting down to do math".
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Brainstorming a bit: maybe this is why a constructionist framing has potential - to learn *concepts* in a domain, maybe structure the activity s.t. salient intrinsic motivation is to learn the concept. e.g., learn concepts of evolutionary biology bc you *NEED* to for.. a game?
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I try to do this in my instruction by creating tensions for which a concept is one answer. Sometimes this looks like retracing the path of a discovery: what did the discoverers really want to know/do, and what concepts along the way weren't enough?
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*nods* Piagetian disequilibria etc
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Related thought on how puzzle games teach players mastery over the fundamental mechanics of the game:
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Thank you for sharing! Puzzle games are such a valuable reference here.
My notes on the same subject, if you’re interested: notes.andymatuschak.org/z2J6v5xtfJaeW5
(wow, that Roam link took more than a full minute to load! yikes!)
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Load time has been rough lately but still worth it 🤷♂️ I like the distinction that you draw in there about how skill building is in pursuit of an intrinsically meaningful purpose. I make related observations about user goal enablement here:
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Love this one. Puzzle games, through their constraints, focus your attention on what is necessary to accomplish a task. They'll even make it so an obvious solution doesn't work so the "catch" forces you to look for a better way of doing it.
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Have you thought at all about the authored experience in puzzle games vs. the more open-ended problem solving games like Opus Magnum or World of Goo? Cognitive scaffolding still occurs, but with less of a fine-grained task progression, and seem to teach a deeper understanding.
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Lots of parallels to guided vs. unguided instruction and the advantages/disadvantages/controversies around that dichotomy.