"Educators are always striving to find ways to make curriculum relevant in students’ everyday lives. More and more teachers are using social media around lessons, allowing students to use their cell phones to do research and participate in class, and developing their curriculum around projects to ground learning around an activity. These strategies are all part of a larger goal to help students connect to social and cultural spaces."
Via Beth Dichter, Jim Lerman
A look at Henry Jenkins work on participatory learning and PLAY (Participatory Learning and You). So what is PLAY? "...'a mode of experimentation, of testing materials, trying out new solutions, exploring new horizons,' Jenkins said. It’s how kids interact with games – throwing themselves in without reading the rules, testing the limits and feeling free to try and fail."
This post provides a number of examples, discusses assesement and play, and provides links to additional articles on the subject.