Summer 2004

Talking Maths

Razzle Dazzle and the Shock of the Lame

MARTIN STONE reflects on the development of learning objects, the role of electronic games in the classroom and complexity and purpose.

A meeting room early in a learning objects development cycle:

‘It looks a bit like The Sims—or is that Sim City?’ he said, ‘But a lot simpler’. (As an aside, ‘My eightyear-old daughter plays it quite a lot’.)

‘Yep, but it’s not’, I replied. ‘It could be but our—your—budget doesn’t run to a few million dollars.’ ‘You’re right’, I continued, ‘It looks like and feels like Sim City—we’re relying on it.’

Designing computer interactive learning objects (LO) is now a fundamental part of curriculum materials development. It won’t surprise you that the budget per LO falls well short of the money spent on computer games. But following the aphorism ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’, building on the familiarity of the function and complexity of computer games fulfils a number of highly desirable outcomes.

It is likely students will have played the game before so they’ll just leap in and use the LO. Those who haven’t will probably still just leap in anyway—generally kids are explorative learners and know (or aren’t unduly concerned) that the object can’t be broken. We usually find that the instructions are primarily for the adults—teachers, parents and client—and for kids only as a last resort.

Connecting the context

So should our LO be The Sims? Of course not, or at least not until massive multiplayer gaming environments have an established role in the classroom, and that, I think, is some way off. Our LO isn’t a full-on game, nor is it trying to be ‘really cool’ and here’s why. I believe that ‘razzle dazzle’ is lost on kids in school. The minute they go home or get a bit of R&R software from the timeout shelf, they enter the full-on games market with its dollars behind it. We can’t compete. Nor should we.

The Sims and its sibling Sim City are the most popular and successful games in history—no small boast where new games either fail dismally or make millions; there’s very little middle ground. Why is The Sims so successful? It isn’t cute and it isn’t cool in the sense of being hip (pardon my age). The space ships are not what kids would likely draw. It isn’t riddled with adrenalin-inducing action (unless you make it yourself by burning down your city once or twice). But it is great fun. Why?

The key lesson to be learnt is that the game is fun because it has a purpose. Kids must learn the rules, test them, do it wrong (mostly intentionally to see the consequences), do it again, try and get a better result (or score).

Considering the purpose

The fundamental issue to be considered here is purpose. A good LO has to be designed specifically to achieve a set of learning outcomes. It and the other LOs that form a suite may work as stand-alone interactive learning tools and experiences, or together spiral towards a more comprehensive understanding, each building on the experiences gained through using the previous one (previous as in time, not necessarily sequence). In the parlance of today, the larger suite may also be considered a learning object—a bit ‘Alice in Wonderland’ I know!

Respect for the learner

Ask a student whether they’d rather be at school or at home/with friends and, well … you all know the answer. Ask them what they’d rather be doing if they have to be at school, in a classroom and in most cases they’ll say, ‘doing something interesting’ (simply translated as ‘so long as it doesn’t waste our time’).

If we put kids in front of software that purports to be educational then it had better be educational, substantial and involving. The worst critique from our budding George Bernard Shaws is, ‘This is lame!’

If the LO talks down, offers flimsy coolness or gratuitous cuteness, and makes it difficult to get to an outcome or an understanding of the intended outcome it immediately puts itself in competition with the computer games that occupy so many kids’ time. And it will fail.

So what is a learning object?

Together with wonderful developers we’ve built objects that are self-contained and purposeful. The challenge is set at the start of the object—calculate how much greenhouse gas your family produces or how much water it consumes; plan a successful city; explore a sewage plant; build a mouse trap that works (this one is yet to be commissioned).

We’ve built many content-rich LOs that are interesting for kids to explore. But the real value and purpose of LOs is realised when teachers, equipped with a good teacher’s guide, lesson plan and activities, lay the ground beforehand and present the task for their students who go on to use the software tools to achieve an end.

A learning object can be many things: a virtual excursion where teachers provide the pre-visit context and post-visit explorations; or a tool to explore, experiment and use to gain an understanding of the world around us. Its name defines it well—it’s about learning, and learning, as we all know, should be satisfying in itself.

Some of the processes

We conceive user-case scenarios that take into account how the student comes to the LO. Does the teacher have a lesson plan and accompanying activities that place it in context? Is it a stand-alone extension activity? Is it part of a continuum of learning experiences? LOs are trialled, evaluated and either modified or supported with other materials that support their aims and concepts in the virtual or real world.

We are not above making it fun by using our creation software to its full potential. It should look good. We use animated transitions to provide a small ‘wow’ factor to make things open and close, to put things away and take them out again. But the key learning is achieved when the task is interesting (not just fun), when the purpose is clear and the outcomes achievable in time and space, and certainly not by being an adult’s idea of cool.

All children like to know how things work—they like interesting facts and complexity and detail (look at the computer games they play). In short, they like knowing ‘stuff ’. They share their knowledge naturally with each other and when they have knowledge they will use/flaunt it immediately.

Understanding intrinsic value

Does it all have to be worthy and dull? Absolutely not. Children are as appreciative as adults of a good classy interface. Explanatory animations can be fun as well as informative. The occasional ‘Easter Egg’ can be hidden in the application to be discovered by one child, then shared enthusiastically with others (it’s called ‘viral marketing’ or ‘positive word of mouth’).

There is a lot of really good software developed by Australian companies with idiosyncratically Australian humour and aesthetics out there. There’s also a wealth of other material on the World Wide Web.

The challenge is for teachers to be familiar—and I mean really familiar—with these LOs, to use them purposefully in the classroom. Imagine walking around the classroom holding the LO in your hand or pointing to it on a table, and expounding its purpose, the challenge and the outcome. It could be as interesting as the skull of a Velociraptor if you can tell the story or provide enough interest in it for the students to explore it.

LOs may be used by individual students, groups or as a whole classroom activity. They could form a virtual excursion, set the scene for an investigation, introduce or clarify a topic, or be one of the important media types used during the course of teaching.

Teachers need to know these assets as well as they know the text books or the photocopies that accumulate and reside on shelves, in folders and filing cabinets. In doing this we’ll know the purpose and communicate this to our students. They don’t expect ‘razzle dazzle’, but they don’t want busy work or their time wasted either. When it comes down to it, none of us does.

None of us wants our time spent on the lame.

Martin Stone is executive producer multimedia senior projects manager at Curriculum Corporation.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au