Cole, Engstrom and Wertsch
(Activity Theory)Steve & BarryWhen looking into these three people the thing I found was that as they are fairly new learning theories, information on them is thin on the ground, they all looked at activist/constructive theories as the basis of their work.
A lot of information were in other peoples research into how e-games worked in learning, this happens to be an area in which I am interested.So here goes Cole argues in 1981 "that technologies is organised and re-organised in different ways in different cultures" and in doing this learning by congnative growth is different.
Well there is not much that I can argue with on this point as different areas of economic and IT usage will define how technology is used in educating the masses.
Following alongside Cole, Wertsch (1991) and Engestrom(1992) took on this idea of technology in learning would be to "view cognitive growth as the acquisition of situated structured knowledge of skills. In this view, cognitive structures and skills reflect the accumulation of learned performance, each specific to a particular activity."
So having looked into what the three theorists were talking about I looked at what I have used that may fit in with their theories, well one item I have been particular involved with recently is using "Hangaroo e-game". http://games.ncbuy.com/hangaroo/
You can reprogramme this hangman type game by using simple xml code. ( I have written a short course for this) and this has had some great results from people such as Alison Mills (Dyslexia - student support), and the building and plastering students.
Quiet simply you reprogramme the game for keywords and phrases for your subject. The students learn as they play.
Other places in which I have used e-games to help was "Simms" a project that Gillian Fielding looked after - Simms was used in a programme where the students had difficulty in relating and communicating to other people around them. Simms was used to show role play between people to these students and how this related to their own personal experiences and behaviour. This had a mixed effect.
Web sites and reprots used in this write up are
Hangaroo web site http://games.ncbuy.com/hangaroo/
Jisc learing styles
Barbara O'Keefe, Sean Zehender "Understanding media development A framework case study" Northwestern University USA
Peter John and Rosamund Sutherland "Affordance, opportunity and the pedagogical implications of ICT" University of Plymouth UK.
Steve Wileman
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3 comments:
Nice work Steve, really incitive and well linked to your own work, how easy is it to write the code in to reprogram the game. Wouldn't mind trying that out myself for some of the things we do on level 2 course.
Paul
Paul
I have this done on a cd. Give Lola a bell or I will sort out access for you onto the VLE course.
Steve
Hi Steve
Your hangman type game sounds a useful tool as one way to encourage my literacy boys to spell well. When you're passing next I'd like to discuss it in more detail - application of 'Community of Practice' - Wenger.
Experience of learndirect has taught me that blended learning is the way forward - technology often leads to 'click-happy-learners' whose achievements are minimal. Organisation of technologies to suit different cultures appears to be reverting to type and against the spirit of globalisation. Adapting and addressing issues related to different learning styles, abilities, difficulties and technologies would enhance cognitive growth don't you think.
Please feel free to blog me back - I've sent your invite to google mail.
KarenD
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