When I worked at the University of Missouri-Columbia, I co-created a pilot program called "Expressive Media." The program involved pairing a technology workshop with a discipline-specific course such as English, journalism, or anthropology. Instead of writing traditional academic papers, students in the course created web sites, interactive CD-ROMs, or other forms of technology-based projects. The idea was to expand the notion of writing to include other forms of media and to move beyond print/text as the sole means of writing, thinking, and communicating.
When teaching the technology workshop, I emphasized two basic principles: (1) teach yourself what you need to know about the technology tool to be able to accomplish the goals of your project and (2) play with the tool -- as much as possible. Trying to learn something as complicated as Photoshop is extraordinarily daunting. But learning how to create web-based graphics in Photoshop for a piece on journalistic ethics was more focused and, therefore, more doable. The students ate it up.
As far as play is concerned, here's my favorite anecdote from that class.
When learning how to use a sound editing tool called SoundEdit, one of my students recorded himself saying the word "cheesewhiz." He then took the recording and then played it backwards over and over again. He wanted to learn how to say the word "cheesewhiz" backwards. Once he learned how to say "cheesewhiz" backwards, he recorded himself saying it. And then, magically, when he played himself saying "cheesewhiz" backwards backwards, there it was: "cheesewhiz." Everyone in the room laughed for a good 5 minutes. It was an unforgettable moment.
There was nothing I could have done to promote this kind of adventurous learning other than to let it happen.
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