Before this summer, my mom only used Skype and emails to contact and see me. What she did was recalling which “right” bottoms my brother told her to click. She did not click any other things on the screen, and shut down the computer when she was done. She explored limited functions and only tried to click the correct bottom to reach her goal. The main reason my mom did not want to try is the fear of making mistakes which may mess up the machine and cannot be fixed by herself. This makes me think how learning occurs and the role of mistakes. When we make mistakes, we reflect on what we did and learn what should be done or think how to solve problems in order to avoid mistakes again. When facing with unfamiliar situations or new stuffs, I tend to try and error, and I think by analyzing the failure and making changes push my learning. Mistakes or failure indeed plays a key role in learning, but the ability of analyze and solve problems is much more essential.
Recently my mom has played hard in surfing the Internet. She is happy that she found a different world which provides so much information and fun in that 22” LCD box. With her tinkerability, she figured out that the big blue “e” can make computer much interesting for her. In addition, she learned that when the arrow becomes a small hand, it means she can click and get information (it’s a nice try but almost kills the computer by clicking every link). My mom plays around with the links and makes guesses based on the experience she has. Contrasting with previous use of the computer, my mom becomes more creative and uses the tool more meaningful. The transmission with explanation and instruction from others indeed helps her, but this tinkerability helps construction of her knowledge and understanding, which stimulates learning.
Back to my own learning experience in Scratch, tinkerability and mistakes play essential role in learning to use Scratch. I think Scratch is interesting because it is new to me, and I can create anime I like. I am highly motivated, but I also get frustrated. Scratch and I seem to talk with different languages. It just does not follow what I expect. However, I play with it by using skills and understanding I learned from previous experience, try to solve problems with different solutions. For now, I still struggle giving command and setting some actions of my character (Why doesn't it listen to me?!). I will try to figure out by my tinkerability.
Yes, this is exactly the path my mom has taken into new technologies too. Online shopping was the thing that sealed the deal for her and now she's all kind of adventurous! I think the notion of tinkerability is really central to new media and learning -- when I work with kids that's exactly what they want to do first. When they hit a wall, that's when they want to consult with someone -- not a manual on the topic. How do you think that we could make the schooling curriculum more tinkerable to afford for this type of learning style? Do you consider second language learning curriculum to be tinkerable? If not, what suggestions do you have for change based on this observation? How do we encourage the kind of mistakes you mention here and the kind of perseverance that you need to learn something like a new language that takes time and dedication?
回覆刪除Oh gosh, you've described my mother too. She has yet to learn about the www, but she has learnt how to use Skype in order to communicate with me. One of the main issues about second language learning is that it fails to connect the learner's culture to English. Learners cannot be made to feel as if their way of knowing is inferior, because I believe this inherently makes them afraid of making mistakes. In this regard, the role of the teacher is paramount. I have no hard and fast answer to how we would encourage tinkerability, but I think creating stories using various modalities in both languages would be one way for students to express their ideas. Naturally, this would mean more time. Honestly though, we should stop worrying about time if we really want kids to learn. How we view time and schooling problematizes simple solutions.
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