When curiosity is sparked...

Contrary to popular belief, there are MANY times when direct instruction is an appropriate and very powerful responsive tool. From an inquiry perspective, I don't believe it should come first, but that does not mean it shouldn't come at all. Below is a hack I'm using to have some fun with the lecture process, with the goal of moving me from the front, to the back of the class. 

I was honored to sit down with Jay Silver. Among a myriad of other amazing things, Jay is the genius behind Makey Makey. I encourage you to connect with him, and explore  his resources. After about an hour or so of chatting about our kids and education, Jay began talking about the the production of his Makey Makey promo video: 

Beyond the obvious work that went into producing this video, I was struck with it's effectiveness in not only capturing the purpose of the Makey Makey product, but also leaving the viewer with a solid understanding. From a teacher's perspective, I was drawn to the way the video itself embodied an inquiry learning cycle. The "talking heads" bit as Jay referred to it, comes at the end of the video, which can be paralleled to the "information transfer" portion of a true inquiry cycle (Explore-Flip-Apply if you will) where the teacher is more active, delivering Lower Blooms type content after students have had a chance to explore. 

After watching the first minute of the video I found myself a) excited to try Makey Makey and b) curious about some of the specifics that I did not get from the introduction. This, I feel, is EXACTLY what we want out of our students: motivation and curiosity. This initial segment provides a nice window into some excellent, more specific information that Jay provides. This is the pedagogical "flip" that I alluded to here. The below snippet of my chat with Jay captures the pedagogy behind his Makey Makey promo video well: