Nirvan Mullick – The Power and Importance of Play

How is the potential for learning affected when we find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in kids?

Key Questions and Comments:

• (14:00) Over the past year, you’ve spent a lot of time with Caine [Monroy]. What are some of the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ skills that you’ve seen Caine develop over the course of the past year?
• (17:45) You have the Global Cardboard Challenge coming up on October 6: you have all these people from all over the world answering the challenge and building cool stuff. Then what happens?
• (19:55) So, Isaiah, you have a [Maker Scouts] platform and you guys kicked that off earlier this year. Tell us a little bit about that and how it might relate back to recognizing kids and the awesome projects that they work on.
• (25:40) Children can be, in some cases, the best models for other children because [seeing peers accomplishing things] is really inspirational.
• (34:50) There should be this seamless gradient from a child’s naive play towards what people will recognize as work.
• (38:20) In school today, the education system has a lot of rigid assessments and tests; you’re in there and you’re losing your sense of “play.” What can we do as educators, and parents, and mentors to encourage that sense of play, whether you’re in the classroom or outside of it?
• (45:16) Can you speak to the challenges of translating the real value of ‘making’ to schools or educators, since it doesn’t fit perfectly within current subject-based standards?
• (58:31) You don’t need to give kids permission to play; they’re going to play on their own. It’s just a matter of–as parents and educators–giving them some unstructured time. Giving kids that space to, perhaps, fail or to succeed will lead to some surprising and wonderful results.

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

• Nirvan Mullick (Guest Speaker): Nirvan Mullick is an L.A.-based filmmaker, digital strategist, and creative consultant. In 2001, Nirvan began an ongoing collaborative experiment called The 1 Second Film, which is among the first crowdsourced films (beginning crowdfunding in 2001 by selling $1 producer credits) to explore online collaboration. In 2011, Nirvan co-founded Interconnected, an LA based creative agency, through which he directed Caine’s Arcade, an 11-minute short film that has been viewed over 6 million times, raising over $200,000 for a scholarship fund for a creative young boy, and launching a non-profit called the Imagination Foundation to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in kids. You can Follow him on Twitter at @nirvan.
• Tara Brown (Moderator)
• Isaiah Saxon
• Laurel Felt
• Monika Hardy

Resources for this webinar:

• Caine’s Arcade 2: Global Cardboard Challenge (Oct 6, 2012) & Imagination Foundation
• The Imagination Foundation
• The Global Cardboard Challenge
• DIY.org: Become a Maker
• IndieCade: International Festival of Independent Games
• Colin Ward: The Child In The City
• Lifelong Kindergarten: Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society
• Cathy Davidson: Standardizing Human Ability
• Los Feliz Charter School: a connected learning case study
• Video: Katie Salen talking about the importance of play
• GameDesk’s PlayMaker School