I recently read an article called The Power of Play in Learning Aran Levasseur. This article claims that the new way to go about about learning to use digital tools can be likened to playing a video game. "When a gamer plays a video game, the gamer: starts by exploring the world with curiosity and begins to develop a hypothesis of what he/she is supposed to do. Through trial, error, pattern recognition, logic, and chance the gamer continually reformulates his/her trajectory."
Levasseur then goes on to give an example of how he used his theory for an approach in the classroom where the students learned to use different apps on an Ipad. In this classroom instead of walking the students through how to use the apps, he allowed them to freely explore and "play" with the apps acting more as a coach there to help if asked. He noticed "the students learned to how to orient and guide themselves."
I find this interesting and agree with this theory. Differing from our parents, many young people of this generation definitely use this "play" method to learn. It reminds me of a time my dad had bought an Ipod and sat down with the Ipod instruction booklet as he ask me how to do something on it. I replied, "I don't know just push the button and see what happens." (Play with it) He thought this was silly and scoffed as he read through the booklet. I thought it made perfect sense. Although sometimes it is less work to read the instruction booklet instead of going through something with trial and error, I do think that the trial and error method has it's benefits. When I figure something out on my own(playing), not only do I have a great sense of accomplishment and stress relief, but I also have often learned to do a few other things by default. Also personally, the thing I learned also sticks in my memory a lot better.
Scott, I really enjoyed this post (mostly because I agreed with it). I suppose that play creates constant stimulus and causes us to form new neural pathways and this is key to a healthy human experience. And this might seem odd, but I've noticed the same patterns in my dog, after raising it from 6 weeks to now, 8 months. As a teacher, I feel like I became hyper-aware of how he picked up on things, to the point when I almost could detect the audible 'click' of the new thing being learned. I suppose this is true with many animals, I just find it fun to make that connection and I think you make a great point here!
ReplyDeleteI can think back too, and I'm sure most people our age can. My parents would get something new at Christmas time and sit there for hours reading instructions. My brother and I would get a new video game for our Nintendo and be well on our way to saving the princess. We would rather play to learn. I used to rent tons of video games when I was a kid and would never read the book. I was very stubborn about it. I'd try to discover as much as I could on my own.
ReplyDeleteI think this falls into the trial and error method. It's nice to have things laid out for us in instruction manuals, but in most cases we learn more by doing things on our own and overcoming obstacles. If nothing else, it teaches independent thought.
I'm going to try this method soon and see what happens. I like it.
Trial and error is a great way to learn and I encourage my students to do it all the time in the classroom. I often introduce a speaking activity to my students by explaining it and giving them an example, then I ask a random student to be my partner and we model it for the class. My partner usually has a pretty wide eyed look, but hesitantly agrees to participate. We go through the activity and when my students make mistakes I use that as a learning opportunity for the class. I try to keep it simple and joke around with my students and encourage them to have fun. It seems to work because they quickly turn into chatter boxes while I observe and interact with the class.
ReplyDeleteI had a quick look at this article as well. I agree with the 'play' theory especially today when video games and gadgets are so intuitive and handheld. It seems every other month things just learn to do more of you want them to. It is definitely a sign of the times. It just wouldn't have made as much sense or had been so easy to implement in class twenty or thirty years ago, had the teacher been handing out VCR's with thick manuals. I never bothered to learn all the features like the timer etc...I just through the tape in and pushed play.
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