All I Need to Know to Create a Mobile App I Learned in Kindergarden

Mitchel Resnick writes: "Underlying traditional kindergarten activities is a spiraling learning process in which children imagine what they want to do, create a project based on their ideas (using blocks, finger paint, or other materials), play with their creations, share their ideas and creations with others, and reflect on their experiences -- all of which leads them to imagine new ideas and new projects."

What's missing from education is play - and the creative and critical thinking that come out of it. Imagination is key, and those who dare to use theirs are the ones who've changed the way we communicate with each other across boundaries of time and place. And yet, we continue to favor an educational approach that keeps imagination and play on the sidelines while focusing on the right answer.

I consider myself one of the players. Most projects I delve into are head first, problem solve throughout type things. I grab the ball of play doh and start squishing, adjusting, and squishing until I like what I come up with. However, for class projects, I always find myself squelching this side of myself in favor of the finished product I think will be the right answer. I realized reading Resnick's article that this mindset is exactly what is holding me back from this mobile application/website.

I'm hesitant to play, because I'm uncertain about my abilities with the technology. I've done a lot of web searching and "reading up," but I haven't just jumped in. When I think about my most successful projects though, they are the ones where I taught myself what I needed to know along the way. Building this mobile site really shouldn't be much different than those - build, share, knock down, adjust, rebuild. Not something I haven't done before.