Flow State in the Classroom

Csikszentmihalyi’s Theory of Flow defines flow as “a pleasurable state of high productivity which can occur either during work or play”. Ernest W. Adams applied this theory to playing games, but it is easily applied to any learning task.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is often during creative work that flow is achieved. An example of a creative project that can be used in many different subject areas are stop motion videos. Today we used JellyCam to create a stop motion video. Here is our result:

 

Perks of JellyCam include:

• It’s free!
• It is easy to use. It shows a ghost image (an overlay of the previous picture) which makes it easy to create micro-movements needed for stop motion animation.
• It works on PC and Mac.

Pitfalls of JellyCam include:

• It works best using laptops and webcams so student groups can each have their own creation space.
• It has to be installed, which requires administrator rights. You’ll have to get with your tech person ahead of time to install it on needed devices.

This summer I am devoting time to create meaningful projects to help my students achieve flow when interacting with the content of my curriculum.