Educators and families, let's use the tools available to us to burst out of our self-selected bubbles and to play with, listen to, and learn from those we don't yet know.
I recently read The Classroom and the Cloud: A Bright Forecast for 2020. The article was written in 2014 and predicted what education might look like in 2020. Author, Tacy Trowbridge, predicted that widespread access to technology would result in active global connections and classrooms, and more creative, collaborative education for young people. Well, it's 2020, and our communities haven't quite met that goal...YET. Internet algorithms, powerful corporate advertising budgets and crisis thinking have meant that tools meant to widen our worlds have contracted them. Our circles have gotten smaller and viewpoints have narrowed. But PopUpPlay believes that the internet is for more than advertising.
In just seven months, PopUpPlay has hosted programming for families in more than 20 US states and on four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and North America). As a result of these playful sessions, we are more convinced than ever that the way forward is to build authentic connections, shared experience and conversation between strangers.
PopUpPlay is focused on creating opportunity for moments of powerful global play. In the next few weeks PopUpPlay will be convening a group of advisors with roots in or who live on every continent (except Antarctica). First we listen... and then we'll begin to build. In these polarizing times, we know global play can lead to braver more open and compassionate world.
Let's play!
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