From: miguel berkstrom
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 10/16/96
Date: 22 Oct 1996
Time: 16:41:50
Remote Name: news-01.ucsc.edu
Miguel,20,male Juan,11,male
I began playing Oregon Trail with Juan when I arrived. He was continuing a previous game so he was quite far along. As we played he taught things about the game that I had no idea about. I was really enjoying myself with him and this game. As we played he continued to go to the hunting part of the game. It appeared to be his favorite. He would kill things for minutes at a time. He would end up with six or seven hundred pounds of game at a time when he could only carry about one hundred and fifty pounds. As I observed him it became apparent that he wasn't going for the killing or the meat for survival, he was enjoying the hand eye coordination it took to do this task. I allowed to do it if he wanted but I did encourage him to use other facets of the game and to read more of the info the game provided.
I noticed this because many kids really enjoy using their hand eye coordination whether it is a boy or a girl. I know as a kid myself I enjoyed playing such games. It felt really good that he could teach me and I could teach him. As well, I could reflect back to when I was in his shoes.
I noticed this most because I was interesred in testing whether he enjoyed the violence, or if he thought he may need that much meat, or if he just wanted to challenge his skills. I wonder if this desire for hand eye coordination tasks is universal for all kids( gender,age,race,class,etc.).