We are the Research and Exploration of Context-Aware Self-Teaching (RECAST) group, a research team gathered and led by Dr. Bret Staudt Willet. We are based in the Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies (ISLT) program at Florida State University, but our contributors and collaborators are global in scope.
While RECAST is an acronym, we also appreciate the play-on-words. In tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, the D20 (i.e., 20-sided die) is rolled (i.e., cast) to determine the success of an action. In some cases, there may be an opportunity to retry the roll — that is, to recast the die.
Similarly, self-directed learning is marked by iteration through trial-and-error, design-and-test — figuring things out by trying and trying again. In this way, the D20 and the ability to recast are fitting symbols of self-directed learning.
