Flow

Flow is your ability to get lost in something. To forget that you are working or doing something.  To forget that there is a world around you and only be focused/absorbed into the world directly in front of you.

Flow can be created and come from anything.  And it can also be created for the use of education with the right process of development.
Games.

Jim Gee and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi have great videos on the topic:

Principles of Gaming

Flow, the secret to happiness

We were asked to take a look at where Flow exists in our lives and how we could connect that to our teaching practices.  Here's my response to Flow:

I don’t do games.  Well I should say, I don’t game like Koreans do or the youth of today.  I cannot lose myself in a computer generated game be it on my phone, a gaming console or the computer.  I never have been able to and I don’t imagine I will ever be able to.

For a hot minute I did play a lot of Trivia Crack.  But even the got tiring to me and playing definitely did not create the flow the Mihaly talked about in his TEDTalk. I never felt “taken over” or that I was subconsciously choosing between concentrating and existing in the present world.  I was always doing both and usually more so bothered by the game and the fact that I felt “required to play” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2004).

Where I can and do lose myself is in reading and exercising.  And shopping.  Somehow hours and money just seem to disappear without me knowing it.

Back on point. 

I don’t have the occasion to read much (read – ever) anymore, but when I used to read I would tear through books and not notice how much time had passed or even if someone had spoken to me or that I missed my stop on the bus/subway.  Not all books could do this to me, some books are a chore to read, some are highly engaging but not capable of pushing me over into Flow and others I am lost in within minutes (shamefully and amazingly, I love a series of Vampire Romance trash novels that wipe the whole world away!  I read it for the character development, of course…).

Similarly, I also can get lost in Flow when exercising. Routine and type of workout depending, but usually I can get carried away with what I’m doing and getting the most out of it, that I don’t notice how much time has slipped by.

While Flow in reading doesn’t create immediate parallels to my PLN goals, Flow in exercise does.  The Flow I generate in exercising stems from a desire to achieve results and see progress.  This is what I want to develop in myself and pull forth from my students when I am teaching my own class.  Jim Gee points out that games, like exercise, need to be well ordered and build up our skill and increase in complexity.  This draws in users/learners/people and gets them to get lost in the routine and the design of what they are doing, without paying attention to the actual work that is needed or being put into the process (Gee, 2013).

Through this method – well order, building up our skill and increasing in complexity – Flow can be created for all manners of individuals in many areas of life.

References:

Gee, J. (2013, November 13). Jim Gee Principles on Gaming. Retrieved June 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQAgAjTozk

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004, February 1). Flow, the secret to happiness. Retrieved June 8, 2015, from http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow