Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Rousing Cheer: Blocks in Place - Oh Yeah!

Got it!

I've placed several blocks by accident thorough experimental use of key sequences,  but this is the capture of the first time I understood and deliberately placed blocks.  In hindsight I have no idea why this seemed so difficult, because it is really quite easy.  I suspect my students have found me somewhat peculiar as I asked for yet another demonstration of how to place blocks. Once I understood the logic and was able to complete the task,  I let out a rather loud cheer.  This was way more satisfying than any external prize could be.

Implications for teaching:  learners must be allowed enough opportunities to repeat a learning experience until the knowledge and skills have been internalized.  There really is no point moving forward to a next step when the previous step has not been solidified. Perhaps learning of skills needs to broken down into much tinier steps.  This is where I see a true usefulness for blended on-line learning. In-class time could be devoted to rich, highly engaging higher level thinking activities;  on-line time could be used for the individualized practice of  skills and concepts.  Just a thought.

2 comments:

  1. Heidi, you should have a listen to this talk by Kathy Sierra, who has been a game developer, instructional designer and educator. I think it'll really help you understand the principles of what's going on.

    Creating Passionate Users:
    http://www.oopsla.org/oopsla2007/podcasts/invited-talks/keynote0102-kathy-sierra.mp3

    A similar Youtube talk by Kathy Sierra here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSlRd6MnDv8

    She explains in detail how to scaffold cognitive engagement for learning.

    Hope this helps,

    - Ian

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  2. You are the master of archiving! Thanks again Ian.

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