I am also very intrigued in the relationship between play and learning and the interactions between the two. I think once you have a child and observe how they learn, explore and interact it becomes clear there is a close relationship between play & learning (especially in the early years…before we start drumming it out of them with formal schooling….).

I agree with the notion that student created goals and assessments/assignments can be more effective – certainly to help students take ownership and accountability for their learning (as anyone who has engaged with a cMOOC experience – yes, I just also read your cMooc / connectivism post! – might attest). The reason it doesn’t happen more often is probably because it’s not as ‘convenient’ – not as easy to assess/compare/measure/rank a cohort of students against a bell curve (which is what it – at least in formal settings – seems to be all about, right?!!). It may be as well, that – like what you’ve said about cMoocs perhaps not being a form of learning that everyone is comfortable with – is that perhaps students do need to be at a certain level of skill/ knowledge / maturity in the domain to set appropriate goals…?
Not sure what you think about that, but just a thought. It may just be that not all students are comfortable with it because it goes against their expectations and ‘upbringing’ in formal schooling – throughout our lives we’ve just had learning goals and assignments set FOR us – that’s just how formal teaching works right? It totally throws people off sometimes to turn that on its head. We need to “unlearn” / or “learn” how to set our own learning goals.

Process vs product? they’re not mutually exclusive though are they? It’s possible to incorporate both as part of the learning – e.g. have students create a ‘product’ but also narrate their process.