Play to Learn is a computer lab at Masiphumelele Primary School in South Africa. It is part of an initiative by a company called Formula D to look at computer games and their potential for learning, and it allows children to create their own games. According to the principal, it is the first lab of its kind in that area. This initiative exemplifies many concepts of learner engagement. Examples of that include curiosity as motivation to learn, play as a means to learn, and that learning should be goal-oriented.
Curiosity As Motivation To Learn
Creative Director of Formula D, Michael Wolf says “The play to learn lab is really important because a lot of the kids have never put their hands onto a computer” (2014). One of the major concepts of motivation to learn is curiosity (Van Eck, Shute, and Rieber, 2018). Because everything about this lab is new to students, they enthusiastically attend and learn about various concepts introduced by the lab instructors. Not only do they learn basic computer information, they eventually learn how to create their own computer games. While the video does not give specifics about instructional methods, it safe to assume that the methods are engaging enough to prevent boredom and encourage ongoing participation. The program also allows students to decorate some of the computers, another preventative measure against boredom. Brenda Simani-Pike, Principal of the school says that the program is so successful that children who have graduated come back to the lab to learn more (2014).
Play As A Means To Learn
Simani-Pike says: “It is very essential for everybody to understand that when kids are very young the only thing that makes any fruitful meaning to them is play. So when you introduce any form of formal education through play you are attracting their attention” (2014). This is in alignment with the Van Eck et al. (2018) citation of psychologist Jean Piaget (1951) in their discussion about the importance of play for young children as they are learning. “Piaget felt that play and imitation were core and innate human strategies for cognitive development” (2018). Teaching children how to play using a computer assimilates them into a world where technology is king. Introducing computers and computer games at such a young age will open their minds to be able to process more complex computing problems and/or games in the future. This idea seems to correlate with the Van Eck et al. (2018) statement that “The true advantage of games as a medium is their potential to address higher levels of learning…”.
Goal-Oriented Learning
Van Eck et al. (2018) informs the reader that good games for learning should be goal oriented with goals valued by the player. Wolf reports the goals of the lab:
“The idea with gaming and gamifying everything they've been doing in that space is really getting kids to want to stimulate themselves. The kids are becoming passionate with themselves and becoming inquisitive about...the capacity of the computer and the capacity of themselves interacting with computers” (2014).
As stated above, another goal of the program is for the learner to create their own game. Van Eck et al. (2018) also state that “Like problems, games have a goal/unknown which require the learning to generate knew knowledge”. This program consistently generates new knowledge as it begins with playing games and eventually evolves into creating games.
References
Formula D Interactive. (2014, March 3). The Learning Innovation Design Lab - Play to Learn project. Retrieved May 21, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqr-gDnyKA
Keller, J.M. & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, volition, and performance. In R.A. Reiser, & J.V Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.) (pp. 78-86). New York, NY: Pearson
Van Eck, R. N., Shute, V. J., & Rieber, L. P. (2018). Leveling up: Game design research and practice for instructional designers. Trends and issues in instructional design and technology, 277-283.
Case Study – The learning innovation Design Lab – Play to learn project
Natural Curiosity
Children have a natural curiosity in their navigation of life. Part of that curiosity is love of playing.
Using technology with a pedagogy of open-ended play, modelled play, or purposefully-framed play (Edwards, S., 2017), gaming is a tool that is used for students to feed their curiosity. As in this example where technology is introduced to students that had never been exposed to it, their natural curiosity enabled them to adapt very quickly. So much so that they continue to come back to learn, even after completing school. When the applications is designed such to continue to challenge, curiosity is what keeps the students engaged…
Week 2 Blog Post Review: The Learning Innovation Design Lab - The Play to Learn Project
Reviewed by: Tyla Bowers
Motivational/Volitional Concept 1: Curiosity as motivation to learn
“Children are born with an inherent “natural sense of curiosity and thirst for knowledge” (D’Orio, 2002, p5). This is why small children are always putting things in their mouth - to discover and explore through their senses. There are educators who believe that if curiosity is not encouraged, promoted or “supported, (children) will lose it.” (D’Orio, 2002, p5). Many believe/ blame standardized testing, such as that which was rolled out for the No Child Left Behind program, has created a void where creativity and curiosity should be nurtured. Another educator, Leon Botstein…
The Learning Lab:
Curiosity
Keller and Deimann (2018) claim that one of the ways to increase student motivation is by piquing curiosity, which they explain as the urge to close a gap in one’s knowledge. The Play to Learn Lab at the Masiphumelele Primary School in Cape Town, South Africa uses computer games and play to pique the students’ curiosity (Formula D Interactive, 2014). When it comes to talking about using games in learning, “Gamification does not imply creating or playing a game. Instead, it is a way of making learning more fun and engaging, without undermining its credibility,” (Annansingh-Jamieson, 2017, para. 27). The games in the Play to Learn Lab pique students’ perceptual curiosity using auditory and visual stimuli,…
Mitchell Alcala
Week 1 – Case Study Response
Play Theory
Formula D’s and Masiphumelele Primary School’s Play to Learn initiative in South Africa puts computers and computer games in the hands of primary children (Youtube). Although this is a first of its kind initiative in South Africa, we have been using games to help us learn for centuries (Youtube, ; Dempsey & Reiser, 2018). Implementing a play-based curriculum is no easy feat, as we can tell with Masiphumelele, because it will have a higher initial cost and is vastly different then a teacher directed curriculum (Dempsey & Reiser, 2018; Van Oers & Duijkers, 2013). In a play-based curriculum, teachers have to learn to merge their goals with children’s interests, which…
1) Meaningfully Related to One's Goals
Goals are the foundational footstep for students to have as a meaningful way to remain motivated in the learning process. When students have concrete goals set forth for themselves, they have something to work towards to. Students have the goas in mind as a motivational piece to keep them encourage and engaged in the learning process of accomplishing their goal. In Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (4th ed.), by Reiser and Dempsey, the authors states “Goals can be of many types. They can be concrete and specific…creating feeling of relevance among students” (80, Keller and Deimann, 2018). In the referred video students, have the opportunity to develop their own game. Students…