Hard Fun in a Virtual World

“These rapidly changing times challenge educators to find areas of work that are hard in the right way” Seymour Papert

Mrs Booth introduce virtual world technology through Sim-on-a-Stick to two new classes yesterday a 3/4 composite and a class in the special education unit. She is also working with two grade 5 classes over Term 4. As the students engaged with the program she noticed how intuitive it seemed to be but also how these students immediately started sharing their knowledge with their computer neighbours and others. She suddenly became the observer as the students adopted the teacher role without hesitation. Research tells us how 3D worlds are highly immersive, creative and engaging but it also informs us that this technology is problematic therefore pushing the student to engage the much higher order thinking gears necessary to navigate, create and achieve success in complex situations. No wonder virtual world technology is used across the world for GATS (gifted and talented student) programmes.
Mrs Booth regularly attends professional development through the PLANE organisation and recently was introduced to the work of Seymour Papert (a great mathematician and pioneer of computers in education) and his concept of hard fun. This resonated strongly with her as he writes that work needs to be matched to the individual and relevant to the culture of their time. As educators we need to create learning projects that will connect strongly with students pushing them to use knowledge to drive through problems rather than giving up, and ultimately develop powerful skills for their future life. Virtual worlds nail this in buckets. By creating a challenging learning quest/project within the virtual environment the student is already highly engaged and motivated and can now engage deeply with the task in order to master it. As Papert writes this is work that is “hard in the right way” because the student develops self-regulation, with sim-on-a-stick almost immediately, and is self-driven to complete the work.
This is backed up by the line-up of students outside the library at lunchtime waiting to come in to use the computers to continue working on the virtual projects and quests. You cannot ask for more than that!

Mrs Booth