Publishing Web for Students' Final Papers
Publishing Web for Students' Final Papers |
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From: Duane Cleghorn
Email: Cleghorn@cats.ucsc.edu
Course: Psych 101: Informal Learning and Technology
College: UCSC
Instructor: E. Matusov
ClassWeb: http://www.ematusov.com/psych101
ChildrenObservations: Yes
Date: 13 Dec 1996
Time: 14:32:10
Remote Name: ss1-pc05.ucsc.edu
Children seem to only pay attention to one thing at a time, losing interest quickly if that one thing doesn't excite them in the first few minutes. This study examines how undergraduates facilitate the focus of children's attention while playing computer games, as observed in the undergraduates' fieldnotes. Observations were conducted in an after-school project at a local youth center attended by mostly underpriviledged children of Mexican descent, from local elementary schools.
The aim of the project is to provide children educational opportunities through the use of computers. Computer games were chosen as a means of measuring attention on the basis that progress through the games requires the participant to focus his or her attention on more than one aspect of the game. The findings show that, with encouragement, suggestions, and reminders, children can learn to pay attention to more than one aspect of a game, which allows them to learn more about the game and continue playing longer.
This can lead to developing problem-solving strategies and, as an educational tool, the computer provides the children with an unlimited resource of information. As children focus their attention longer at the computer, they can learn from the activities on the computer. With computers becoming better equipped for handling resources, children educated with computers may learn more, faster, in an environment far less chaotic, since interactive programs are being created that keep children interested.
Introduction
Children in general seem to be like sponges for the absorption of knowledge, but are limited in the fact that they seem to be capable of only limited attention. They briefly focus on one subject that seems exciting, then switch if that subject doesn't capture their interest. If they do pay attention to one subject long enough, they still seem to be capable of only grasping a single aspect of that subject, such as the color or movement. A study by Elkind (1978) showed that children before 8 years of age are not able to consider two aspects of a single picture at once (cited in Cole and Cole, 1993).
In formal educational settings, this may be a deterrent for some children, given that they are taught subject by subject, until the majority are able to grasp the particular concepts. For the rest, they may be distracted by other things going on that may distract their attention, which may account for the success of some and the failure of others. The study presented here focuses on children's attention in an informal educational setting, where the children are able to decide on the activities they participate in, while being encouraged and assisted by undergraduate students from the University of California at Santa Cruz. The local youth center where the children were observed is structured as a collaborative learning environment, with children and undergraduates assuming responsibility for the activities. Children select games they want to play, based on their own desire and the suggestions made by the undergraduates. Based on Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (Moll, and Whitmore, 1993), the undergraduates provide mediated assistance and indirect help, which does not deter from the control and direction the children give to the activity. The goal of this assistance is to further the children's knowledge, and encourage them to incorporate new means for furthering their learning. Nicolopoulou and Cole (1993) provide an example of why a game was chosen as a means of measuring learning. They describe play as a "learning activity" because it requires the children to learn the rules of the game, to see that they form a system in the game situation. With this knowledge, children can begin to elaborate on the rules of the game and become more experienced using rules to their advantage. Also, a game is stable in the fact that it remains the same even though the participants may have different ways of interacting with it (e.g. some may be more experienced with it than others). Therefore, using a game as a means of measuring learning "allows one to focus directly on a dynamic context of situated cognition and cognitive growth" (Nicolopoulou, et al., 1993, 295). An article on short attention span from the internet (http://www.womensedge.com) describes some techniques suggested by experts for adults to help children with problems focusing their attention to focus their attention for longer periods of time. Heightening the fun level can be seen in the interactive games used and the informal setting of the facility. The undergraduates reward the children for their effort with praise and encouragement. There is friendly and comforting contact between the children and the undergraduates, which the experts cited in the article say leads to a friendlier atmosphere. The results suggest that the focus of attention of the children at the facility improved during the course of this study.
Method
Participants
Elementary grade-school children mostly of Latino descent, from local schools in Santa Cruz, California, participated in the study. The children are volunteers who were informed of the project and given the choice to participate. The children attended the facility twice a week, in two-hour sessions. They were assisted during their time by undergraduate students who were enrolled in a class titled "Informal Learning and Technology". The undergraduate students spent four hours per week at the community facility, in two-hour sessions, twice a week, from 3:15 to 5:30p.m.
Location
This study took place at an after-school youth center in downtown Santa Cruz. This project was created through a joint effort on the part of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the local community, in the hopes of enhancing underpriviledged children's educational opportunities. A computer lab was the setting in the youth center facility. Undergraduates arrived at the sheduled time and interacted with children on computer and board games. The structure of the facility was one of collaborative learning, in which the activities were selected by the children with encouragement from the undergraduates, and played by the children and undergraduates, who offered advice when necessary.
Procedure
The procedure used to analyze the question can we facilitate the attention of children was to choose examples of the undergraduates field notes in which techniques (as mentioned in http://www.womensedge.com) were observed. The field notes chosen were over a three-week period, from several different students. The examples chosen demonstate evidence of different children's attention being facilitated by undergraduates while interacting with the technology of the facility.
Findings
Findings show that with encouragement, suggestions, and reminders, children can learn to pay attention to two things at a time. The following fieldnote exerpts provide examples of facilitating attention and learning. In this example, if the young girl makes three lines of a square, the computer will complete it and score. The undergraduate points this out and encourages her to try again, and the girl eventually understands enough to win:
"So, I explained how the game worked. When she lost the first time I encouraged her to try again 'now that you understand the game'. She lost again but by less. I continued to remind her that making three lines of a square would mean the computer would get the square. She began to catch on slowly, and eventually beat the computer" (M. M., 11/21/96).
In these next two examples, the undergraduates figure out the need of the children and provide them with the necessary information to continue:
"After a while, she wanted to print a picture from the Lion King so she could color it. I helped her with the set-up,... There was no stopping her. She went through the part in the Lion King that had pictures she could color and printed out multiple copies of each picture she liked... The printer kept running out of paper so I had to keep reloading the sheet feeder. They caught on to how I was reloading the feeder, so when it ran out of paper, they added more to it" (M. S., 11/14/96).
"She had no idea what to do and was just clicking on random numbers. Once I realized what she was not doing, I pointed at the first letter of the word and pronounced s in Spanish. Then she clicked on it. After the s I did the same thing for two more letters until she got the hang of it. Then she played that for a while" (V. B., 11/13/96).
These are more indirect ways, allowing the undergraduates to provide assistance and promote learning without the children having to ask for help.
These next two examples provide more direct ways of assisting. To focus the attention of the child in the first, contact is made and continued through the game:
"At first he was just guessing and not thinking and just would blow up. Then I gently put my hand on his and the mouse and told him to look at me as we go through this together. I held the mouse and would point to a box and ask him if he thought there was a mine. If he said yes or no I would ask him why. If he was wrong, I would ask him a question that would indicate so such as 'Well, if we knew that this is a bomb and this box marks one, then is the other one a bomb' he would get it and answer correctly" (A. G., 11/08/96).
In the second, the child's interest causes him to focus, and the undergraduate's knowledge about the game allows the child to remain focused, and do the necessary thinking to win:
"He seemed interested in what I was doing, and he came over to see what game I was playing. He said that he knew how to play Minesweeper, but I could see that he only had a cursory understanding. He knew what the numbers meant, but he could not see the implications for beating the game... I played for a little while with him looking on, and showed him how I knew where some bombs were, and why I did not yet know what some of the squares were. Then I offered him a try. He and I worked together, with me directly guiding him, and finally, after about twenty minutes, him playing without much help from me at all" (J. T., 11/11/96).
As can be seen from these fieldnotes, interactions between the undergraduates and the children enable the children to not only figure out what they should do in the game, but also why they should do it. This enables the children to focus on the activity and remain with it. From the use of these strategies, children can expand their knowledge and remain focused on one activity longer. Discussion The implications of this study are important. Computers can attract children's attention, but if the children don't have the necessary information to do what they want, they are soon distracted. With a little effort from an adult, using the techniques described (http://www.womensedge.com), the child interacting with the computer can learn the basic knowledge to allow the child to explore. Through that exploration, the child can learn more and do more. The possibilities of being educated by computers are limitless, but the child needs a place to start and the knowledge to continue that they couldn't possibly get on their own. Using the games as a means of identifying how to focus children's attention is not necessarily the way Nicolopoulou and Cole (1993) used the game in their study, and this use wouldn't generalize to the standard school system as shown in this study, yet as a means of getting children interested in an activity, the games were the only continuous activity the majority of the children were interested in. Other activities at the facility included: coloring, drawing, board games, card games, writing letters, art programs, and interactive computer features.
As computers become more and more advanced, they are being equipped with unlimited resources. With these resources at their disposal, it is possible for children to learn about anything. The results of this study show that their attention can be focused quite easily, and because they usually show a thirst for learning, a computer could be a valuable tool for anyone trying to teach children.
References
Cole, M and Cole, S. (1993) The Development of Children. Scientific American Books New York
B., V., G., A., M., M., S., M., T., J. (1996) The Class WEB Discussion at http://www.ematusov.com/psych101, Psych101: Informal Learning and Technology, Fall 1996 UCSC
Moll, L., and Whitmore, K., (1993) Vygotsky in Classroom Practice: Moving from Individual Transmission to Social Transaction In E. Forman, N. Minick, and C.A. Stone (Eds.), Contexts For Learning: Sociocultural Dynamics in Children's Development. London: Oxford University Press
Nicolopoulou, A. and Cole, M. (1993) Generation and Transmission or Shared Knowledge in the Culture of Collaborative Learning: The Fifth Dimension, Its' Play World, and Its' Institutional Contexts In E. Forman, N. Minick, and C.A. Stone (Eds.), Contexts for Learning: Sociocultural Dynamics in Children's Development. New York: Oxford University Press
http://www.womensedge.com (1996) Keywords: Children, Attention
