Connecting to the iTunes Store.... We are unable to find iTunes on your computer.This time we have reviews for the last four books from Dorling-Kindersley (DK) that LEGO sent us for Christmas. We’ll be talking about the LEGO Ideas Book, the LEGO Play Book, the Ninjago Visual Dictionary and the Batman Visual Dictionary. The LEGO Ideas Book is one of my favorites and I recommend it to all new builders regardless of their age. It is a large book of 199 pages and is currently available for $14.09, down from an original price of $24.99. It’s a steal at that price. It is very high quality and is packed with excellent pictures of many different models designed to inspire you to build. The main body of the book consists of six sections, each written by a prominent LEGO builder. Each chapter begins by showcasing a number of LEGO elements and talking about how they can be useful for that chapter’s theme, while encouraging you to look through your own collection and see how your own pieces can be used for the theme..
Chapters include “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” (Barney Main), “Town and Country” (Deborah Higdon), “Out of this World” (Tim Goddard), “In Days of Old” (Sebastiaan Arts), “A World of Adventure” (Duncan Titmarsh) and “Make and Keep” (Andrew Walker). This book is full of ideas and techniques that will inspire you to build your own creations. However, do not expect an instruction book. The premise behind this book is not to show you how to build the models shown but to teach you how to look at your pieces differently and see what you can create. This book can bring your building skills up a notch, but it won’t hold your hand. LEGO Play Book: Ideas to Bring Your Bricks to Life The LEGO Play Book is the sequel to LEGO Ideas. It is laid out much the same but with new chapters featuring a fresh selection of themes. The book is made up of 199 pages and is currently available for $14.87, down from $24.99. Again, I feel this book is a bargain at that price and would be a good reference for any LEGO builder to have in their collection.
Like its predecessor, this book is designed to inspire the reader to dig out parts and pieces from their own collection and see what they can create. It is not an instruction book. It is a book designed to inspire ideas for your to explore on your own. Again, each chapter was written by a skilled LEGO builder, some of whom wrote chapters for the first book. The chapters include “Once Upon a Time” (Barney Main), “A Small World” (Tim Goddard), “Go Wild” Pete Reid and Yvonne Doyle, “Things that go bump in the night” (Rod Gillies and “Wish You Were Here” (Tim Johnson). Each chapter also features interesting challenge ideas that you can work on by yourself or with friends. The challenges were built by Andrew Walker. LEGO NINJAGO: The Visual Dictionary (Masters of Spinjitzu) The Ninjago Visual Dictionary consists of 96 pages and is currently available for $15.17, down from $21.99. Like all the other LEGO Visual Dictionaries, this one comes with a figure (limited edition, in this case) and has a cardboard spacer for the figure that takes up more than half of the space between the covers.
The book is high quality and covers the entire Ninjago line through 2014. It also includes sections on all the main characters and foes, along with sections on the vehicles and locations. There are several comic-type sections and a chapter that talks about the TV series. The pages of available minifigs is very nice and makes a good reference for collectors. If you have Ninjago fans in your house (which I do) this book is a ‘must have’ and is great for younger fans. Other than the sections on the sets and minifigs, the adult fan won’t need to return to this book more than a couple of times. Fans of Ninjago will want it for the limited-edition ‘Zane Rebooted’ figure as well. LEGO Batman: Visual Dictionary (LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes) The LEGO Batman Visual Dictionary is very similar to its cousins. It is made up of 96 pages and is available for $16.48, down from $21.99. It comes with an exclusive ‘Electro Suit Batman’, based on a suit available in the LEGO Batman Video Game.
Like the other DK books that include an exclusive figure, there is a cardboard spacer. In this case, the spacer takes up nearly two-thirds of the book, making this one of the smaller Visual Dictionaries I’ve looked at. The book has sections on the main characters and villains, along with sections on the vehicles and the batcave. The is a small section on designing the Batman sets as well as a chapter on the video games. The book concludes with a nice multi-page layout of the minifigs available in the Batman sets. This book is designed for a younger audience and would be very popular with any young super hero fans in your life. My boys loved it. However the adult fan will find little of interest, except perhaps the set and minifig reference material. Published on Mar 25, 2015 LEGO Serious Play (LSP) is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem solving technique for use with individuals, teams and organisations. Source: LEGO Serious Play - Imaginopedia LEGO Serious Play: what is
LEGO Serious Play: how does it work? LEGO Serious Play: why does it work? WE DON’T STOP PLAYING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP PLAYINGLEGO Serious Play (LSP) is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem solving technique for use with individuals, teams and organisations. It draws on extensive research from the fields of business, organization development, psychology and learning, and is based on the concept of “hand knowledge”. LEGO Serious Play: hand knowledge? If someone asks you a question … … and you answer verbally, you activate your short & long term memory (= +- 13% of your brain) … and you start building with your hands, 80% of your brain is activated. LEGO Serious Play is a ideal way to help individuals, teams and organisations get a clear view of: 1/ their current situation, 2/ their aspirations and goals, 3/ the way to get there. LEGO Serious Play: constructionism LEGO Serious Play is based on the ideas of Seymour Papert, which built in turn on the Constructivist theories of his colleague Jean Piaget.
Papert argued that learning happens exceptionally well when people are engaged in constructing a product, something external to themselves such as a sand castle, a machine, a computer program or a book. LEGO Serious Play Play is unique because it produces benefits that span multiple functional domains including: physical, emotional, mental, and social. Play is defined as a limited, structured and voluntary activity that involves the imaginary. It’s an activity limited in time & space, often structured by rules, conventions or agreements among the players, uncoerced by authority figures, and drawing on elements of fantasy & creative imagination. LEGO Serious Play: imagination Throughout history, the term "imagination" has been given many different cultural and linguistic connotations. While all share the basic idea that humans have a unique ability to "form images" or to "imagine" something, the variety of uses of the term "imagination" implies not one, but at least three meanings: 1/ to describe something, 2/ to create something, 3/ to challenge something.
LEGO Serious Play: imagination From the point of view of LEGO Serious Play, it is the interplay between these three kinds of imagination that make up strategic imagination – the source of original strategies in companies. LEGO Serious Play: strategic imagination What Napoleon did with tin soldiers, we do with LEGO bricks. CREATIVITY IS INTELLIGENCE HAVING FUN. LEGO Serious Play: how does LEGO Serious Play: visual storytelling Storytelling is an age-old tool because it is a memorable method of communicating what has happened or what is currently happening. Storytelling with LEGO models makes a situation come alive before it occurs in real life and allows you to test what might happen if you make certain decisions. It is the next best thing to actually “doing” in the real world - but without the threat of those annoying real life consequences. LEGO Serious Play: The 4 core steps Step 1: Facilitator poses the question Participants are asked to build and create stories in response to a question.
The question should be clear, yet very open- ended. core steps Step 2: Individuals build a model Each participant builds his or her own 3-D model in response to the question that has been posed. Participants work with the special set of LEGO bricks designed to inspire the use of metaphors and story making. core steps Step 3: Individuals tell their story Each participant shares his or her model’s meaning and story with the rest of the team. It is absolutely critical that every person shares their story. This enables 100% participation during the session which builds commitment to shared action. core steps Step 4: Questions and reflections The facilitator and participants crystallize key insights, and ask clarification questions of the models. The facilitator sums up surprises and connections. LEGO Serious Play: use of metaphors Metaphors can serve as powerful tools leading us to think about our realities in new or different ways. By unleashing our imaginations to describe the world as we see it, metaphors help us form entirely new descriptions that might challenge assumptions and beliefs, revealing new possibilities.
By drawing on more of our senses, metaphors also help us convey complex ideas that may be difficult to communicate with words. LEGO Serious Play: why does LEGO Serious Play: flow When you go through the LEGO Serious Play workshops, you will experience what some call a “roller coaster ride”. You will feel varying comfort levels as you move through the process and the challenges. The processes are designed deliberately this way so as to greatly increase the chances that real changes and long term learning will take place, along with a deep feeling of accomplishment. LEGO Serious Play: flow This roller coaster is best described by the “Flow Model”, modified from work done by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi in 1991. A PICTURE IS WORTH A LEGO Serious Play: 100% participationA manager has a meeting with his team of 10 people. He has a problem and asks the team for possible solutions. The first person ("Mr Loud") brings up an idea. The second person ("Mrs MBA") adds or adjusts that idea.
The third person ("Mr Popular") fills in the last details of the idea. "Do we all agree?" asks the manager. The tenth person ("Mr I need some time to think things through") also has a great idea, possibly the perfect solution for the problem, but by now, he doesn't dare to say it anymore, because it's completely different from the idea, everybody just agreed on. With LEGO Serious Play the manager will get access to all ideas in the group. Because everyone has to build a model and share the story. LEGO Serious Play: 100% openness Even though your idea didn’t make it. You have said it. You saw the strenghts and flaws of your idea. You get that you might be wrong. LEGO Serious Play: 100% respect Rule 1: You can not alter the model of someone else Rule 2: You communicate through the model, not to the person who build the model Rule 3: You listen to every story LEGO Serious Play: QUESTIONS? PEOPLE DO BUSINESS WITH OTHER PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY CHOOSE TO, NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO.