{"id":217,"date":"2019-09-28T18:36:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-29T01:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/?p=217"},"modified":"2019-09-28T18:36:59","modified_gmt":"2019-09-29T01:36:59","slug":"tai-chi-the-answer-to-every-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/tai-chi-the-answer-to-every-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Tai Chi – The answer to every challenge!"},"content":{"rendered":"

For our post this week Arv and I set out to become \u2018masters of Tai Chi\u2019 through the digital medium.\u00a0 Similar to the \u2018qi \u2019<\/em>– (the life energy) that flows in all of us our Google master produced close to 1.7 billion hits.\u00a0 Included in the miscellany were 174,000,000 million videos for us to consume without ever leaving the comfort of our couch.\u00a0 As Weller (2011) suggested, \u201cwhen the goods become digital and available online then scarcity disappears (p.224).<\/p>\n

Sophisticated algorithms provided me class locations and times to local chapters in Lindsay, Ontario and although Arv was travelling there was no shortage of possibilities in either Keflavik or Rotterdam.\u00a0 An additional click or two led to information related to various schools to attend, masters available to learn from, resources to become qualified through home study, instructor accreditation and teaching materials – so much material that we could start our very own studio.\u00a0 Worksheets, how to wikies and dummy guides urged us to take the first step.\u00a0 Retrospectively, with the amount of information available for consumption on Tai Chi it became apparent that [our] own time and attention were the key scarce resources (Weller, 2011, pg. 225).<\/p>\n

Tai Chi is also known as Chinese Boxing or Supreme Ultimate Boxing because of its gentle, easy movements.\u00a0 Although, historically it is a martial arts discipline, Tai Chi focuses on deep breathing, relaxation and the use of slow repetitive movements.\u00a0 Today, Tai Chi is used as a form of exercise or meditation.\u00a0 There are five types of Tai Chi that are practiced today:<\/p>\n

Yang Style<\/strong> \u2013 emphasizes slow, even gentle and large movements; Chen Style<\/strong> \u2013 it alternates between fast and slow movements and includes jumping and stomping; Wu\/Hao Style<\/strong> \u2013 it is a combination of the above two styles and the movements are done is with smaller slow movements and high posture; Wu Style<\/strong> \u2013 this style incorporates hand form, pushing hands and weapons training; and Sun Style<\/strong> \u2013 includes smooth flowing movements that eliminate the more rigorous physical movements; it is considered extra gentle and is used for therapy.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the style of Tai Chi, the fundamental principles of this exercise\/meditation include the mind and body integration, control of movements and generating mindfulness, serenity and internal energy.\u00a0 Through these strength building exercises the upper and lower body core are strengthened which improves the functioning of the heart, lungs and muscle groups.\u00a0 Tai Chi movements improve balance, agility as well as flexibility. \u00a0In addition, this form of exercise\/meditation is known to decrease stress, anxiety and depression, improve mood, joint pain and overall well-being in adults.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the activity was to see if we would be comfortable to teach Tai Chi after navigating through the resources on the net.\u00a0 With the abundance of information at the students and instructional designer\u2019s fingertips it becomes difficult to know what information is important or relevant and how accurate the information is. \u00a0The information around Tai Chi was endless.\u00a0 Our approaches to teaching and learning were developed many years ago; in a time when we were comfortable with moderate scarcity, [and now] we are challenged with excessive abundance (Weller, 2011, pg. 231).\u00a0 The instructional designer is now less focussed on the development of specific learning materials and more focussed on the selection, aggregation and interpretation of existing material (Weller, 2011, pg. 229).\u00a0 The interpretation of existing materials can be linked to connectivism theory developed by George Siemens.\u00a0 Connectivism supports learners discovering and building connections between the information and creating paths of knowledge rather than learning facts and concepts. \u00a0These paths of knowledge may be produced from databases, devices and the learner\u2019s community. (Anderson, 2016, pg. 63).\u00a0 Not only are we challenged with an abundance of information to research, we are further challenged with providing as many opportunities as possible for learners to create their own pathways to learning.<\/p>\n

So, in the end for us the material was there BUT we would have to connect with the material by engaging in Tai Chi and gaining the \u2018in situ\u2019 experience before undertaking instruction on Tai Chi.\u00a0 We certainly are entering a new age of discovery.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Anderson, T. (2016). Chapter 3: Theories for Learning with Emerging Technologies. In Veletsianos, G. (Ed). Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning: Foundations and Applications. Edmonton, AB: Athabasca University Press<\/p>\n

Weller, M. (2011).\u00a0A pedagogy of abundance.\u00a0Spanish Journal of Pedagogy<\/em>, 249, 223\u2013236.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/sports\/tai-chi-chuan<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.bookmartialarts.com\/news\/tai-chi<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/healthy-lifestyle\/stress-management\/in-depth\/tai-chi\/art-20045184\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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For our post this week Arv and I set out to become \u2018masters of Tai Chi\u2019 through the digital medium.\u00a0 Similar to the \u2018qi \u2019– (the life energy) that flows in all of us our Google master produced close to… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt523"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0101\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}