Journal Entry 8

Unfortunately, due to the Haunted Hotel, I was not able to go Christopher Stapleton’s talk. The things I found on the internet, however, were very interesting, and I wish that I could have heard him speak. The diversity in his experience alone would make for a great talk that you could learn a lot from. What most drew me to him, however, was not his stage or theme park work, but his interest in trying to find new ways of learning. Now, I love learning, but I don’t like the lecture format that most schools (elementary through college) use to teach because I’m not good at processing that kind of information, and it doesn’t hold my attention. I’d much rather just read a book and then ask a teacher questions if I don’t understand something. The best way for me to learn is doing, which is why Christopher Stapleton’s projects seem very intriguing. While I’m still a little wary of virtual reality technology, I think it’s a great idea to have kids use more hands-on approaches to learning. His simiosys website has pictures of what these environments look like, but I couldn’t find anything that definitively explains what they all do. I read an article that talked a bit about his work, but that was more related to physical therapy and games in general. If anyone who went to the talk remembers anything, could you tell me a bit more about his educational systems? Thanks.