036 - Hard Fun with Josh Burker

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How can educators integrate geeky-ness with accessibility? How important is documenting our learning to the larger educational community? and What exactly is a Kreg jig?

Hey there, Innovation Nation! You are going to love today’s guest. He is a master of fun with technology. A good friend of mine, Tim, told me back in graduate school that we became physicists because physicists have the coolest toys! I could not agree more, and physicists have believed this for a very long time. In fact, Carl Gauss, a physics-famous pioneer from the early 1800’s said,

“It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment.” –Carl Friedrich Gauss

Learning is indeed a quest, and even though it may be hard at times, it is most definitely fun. Around here we call that “hard fun”, a term we lovingly adopted from the Pepperdine OMET/MALT program. Hard fun is a way of life. Life is indeed hard–sometimes very hard–but we are dedicated to having fun in the process! Learning without fun causes boredom and has killed many powerful learning opportunities. On the other hand, learning without hard work does not engender a strong feeling of accomplishment or excitement upon completion. By marrying the two, learning experiences become both profound and deeply satisfying–a recipe for educational ecstasy.

Perhaps that imagery is a little more powerful than you were ready to hear today, but I would like to challenge you to think bigger when it comes to the educational experiences you observe and create. We began asking ourselves what was possible to learn in a few short days, and out of that question grew one of the most fun and challenging experiences we have ever seen in the education of teenagers. We keep talking about the Inventor’s Bootcamp experience because we have seen teenagers face almost insurmountable technical challenges, time after time, and continue to find enjoyment in the over-the-top difficulty level of the experience. The students keep telling us, “It was hard, but really fun!”

You can find out more about Inventor’s Bootcamp by visiting http://www.InventingZone.com or by clicking on the Inventor’s Bootcamp button on the TTInvent.com website.

Today’s guest is no stranger to “hard fun”. Josh Burker is an educational technologist with extensive experience. He particularly enjoys making technology “invisible” as well as extremely accessible which is a skill many teachers would like to see in their tech department. Josh has honed his skills and become a recognized expert on “Hard Fun”, and his new book called “The Invent to Learn Guide to Fun” shares his extensive toolbox! Listen in for lively answers in today’s podcast!

Original Release Date: 5/21/15