My E- Learning Blog

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I have just read an interesting artcicle by Shiang-Kwei Wang and Seungyeon Han called The Six C’s of Motivation. In this article the authors refere to Turner and Paris (1995)  Six C’s of Motivation: choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences and apply it to their own instructional design.

The Six C’s of Motivations is a teaching strategy that I will definitely try to use towards by last practicum. I will keep you up to date with the outcomes of the lessons.
 

This article looks at Constructionism, a theory pioneered by Seymour Papert. The theory of constructionism emplies that “children learn best when they are in the active roles of designer and constructor”.

The author Idit Harel, offers readers to experience a virtual beach called Shell Park. Her rational for this website is that children and parents can explore the beach and construct their own meaning.

This is the basis of Constructionism theory, if we give our children and students experiences in the classroom or in the home environment of active roles as a designer and constructor we are giving our students the best possible focus of learning and sharing in an age of technology where we can share our thoughts, meaning, our work to the world.

Found  a great blog caled the Learning circuit blog where the author has put together a selection of questions that teachers from around the world have asked. Some questions that were address were;

1. “Are computer games inherently counter-cultural?”

Blogger: “To the digital generation, computer games are very much a component of the culture. (Except that ‘computer games’ are so last week… the console is where gaming, and a lot of social networking, is really hapening, because it is cheaper and a lot more powerful)”.

2. “Are some computer games bad for children?”

Blogger: “Yes. So are some TV shows. And some diet sodas. And some fast food. And some urban air. And some popular music. And some education policies”.

3. “Do computer games herald a revolution in education?”

“Maybe, but not necessarily in the direct sense of teaching-through-gaming. I think we can learn a lot from games about the motivation to learn, about structuring tests & rewards, and about using interactive media seductively”.

Perhaps it would be suitable for all teachers to list some questions that are tugging away at them, to get down to the core issues why or what is stopping them from using gamming and asimilations in their classrooms.

Some clear fears that teachers may have; are games and assimilations valid for classroom instruction? How do we assess these ICT activities? How much extra IT training will i need to teach/ help the class? How do I know which games to use in the classroom….

If every teacher would be able to clearly list their core issues, they in retrospect would become proactive in changing their minds on how they view ICT in the classroom.