The Learning Tangram. A new way to visualize the learning experience.
What kind of shape is learning?
How can learning be shaped?
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Fausto Saltetti from Torino, Italy lists his skills on LInkedIn as “Architect and Human Centered Design”. Seeing that he lists architect first, I am delighted to see that this assessment tool he created as a game: “The Learning Tangram” (now being offered through an Indiegogo campaign), is both visual and physical, where the game involves moving objects to create the finished visual. Based on an ancient Chinese game (see below) , he has modified the traditional game by having each of the 7 pieces identified as representing a different aspect of learning: 7 shapes = 7 Learning Themes.
Here is how Fausto explains the Learning Tangram project he has just put online looking for funding:
The Learning Tangram by Fausto Saltetti (SOURCE: INDIEGOGO, The Learning Tangram)
“While I was studying Architecture at Politecnico di Milano I found myself in a really creative space. When designing the Learning Tangram I wanted to visualize my learning experience during this time.
So, I took the Learning Tangram and I started to play.
First I paired each learning aspect with a shape in the tangram, then I ordered the shapes according to which aspects most reflected how I like to learn.When I had finished I had the discovered the seven shapes that best represented the way I liked to learn. I then began arranging the shapes I had selected into a design that I could allow me to visualize how I liked to learn. I moved the seven elements around the table in several different combinations. Finally the seven elements came together into the shape of a home, this reminded me of my studies in architecture and I felt I had discovered the perfect visual representation of how I like to learn.”
He doesn’t use the term “Learning Styles”, which puts “Multiple Intelligences” pundit Howard Gardner on edge (see Gardner’s Washington Post op-ed where he discusses how Multiple Intelligences are not Learning Styles).
The Tangram serves as a discovery tool to explore the individual’s preferences, breaking down the influences as pedagogy approach, learning patterns, techniques, patterns for both the trainer and the learner, and spatial patterns, which deserve special attention.
As much attention has been growing about the influence of the physical workspace to work culture, interaction and success (think of the fame of the GooglePlex and the rise of co-working spaces), within this toolkit one of the shapes represents “space” as the third participant in training.
His chart describing the pieces says quite simply that “Learning does not occur just inside the boundaries of the classroom, but we should move towards new different spaces [sic]”. Maria Montessori created environments for early learning that broke from standardized Western educational structures over a century ago, and Sir Ken Robinson has been advocating for massive disruption in education across the board to be able to keep up with the disruptions in society through technology. This set put space squarely into the equation of what makes a complete learning experience, which could be a help or a hindrance.
Though designed as a tool for his own reflection on his learning experience, this could be an interesting tool not only for adults but for people with learning disabilities or dyslexia, where verbal, visual and kinesthetic can replace a written report or summary.
[hero heading=”THE ORIGINS OF THE TANGRAM” tagline=”A Chinese puzzle that promotes visual thinking”]
Cove of The 8th Book of Tan, which created the popularity of TANGRAM’s outside of China. (Source: Wikipedia)
The exact origin of the tangram isn’t known, but it did originate in China, and was brought to the United Sates through two books given to a ship’s captain upon his docking in Canton, which he brought back to Philadelphia in 1816. The Tangram was then popularized in the West first an American book, The Eighth Book of Tan
, published with a fictitious history of Tangram, (which claimed that the game was invented 4,000 years prior by a god named Tanpuzzle) which included 700 shapes. The book has gone through repeated reprints, and can still be found online. There are also videos on creating your own set, and both iOS and Android Tangram apps.
Tangrams are still popular as both recreational toys and educational tools, usually thought of primarily for small children as it doesn’t require fine motor skills to handle the shapes. However, as a visual problem-solving skill building tool it can be useful for any age, and the set created by Fausto Saltetti has an additional goal of creating a visual that reflects and represents an experience, enriching the game to become an assessment or diagnostic tool.[/hero]
