From: May Sarmac
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 10/30/96
Adult-Run:
Children-Run:
Collaborative:
Unclear-Philosophy: Selected
Bottom-up:
Top-down: Selected
Unclear-Approach:
Informal: Selected
Formal:
Unclear-Type:
Date: 01 Nov 1996
Time: 18:06:29
Remote Name: mingong-mac-19.ucsc.edu
There wasn't a lot of kids that showed up on Wednesday, October 30. There were about four kids that showed up, but I did not help any of them. On Thursday, October 31, there were no kids at the site. I guess they all went trick or treating. Since there were no kids that I was helping on either of the days, I figured I should play some of the games that the kids play so I can help them better. Well, I figured out that some of those games are pretty hard. It took me a while to play the Jacks game right. I only got the hang of it by switching to an easier level of the game. Then I played some other games to figure out the goals were. I think I did what some of the kids don't do, I read the instructions for the games before I started playing. That seemed to really help me understand the point of the game better and it helped me learn how to play. When I played a CD Rom game, I was having a lot of trouble with the game Treasure Cove. I couldn't figure out how to get passed the first level. Actually, I knew what the objectives were, I just had trouble controlling the mouse and finding what I was supposed to find on the screen. I eventually gave up on the game and left. It's interesting that I reacted the same way to the games when I got frusrtated with them as the kids do when they stop liking the game.
I found myself empathizing with the kids this week. I understood their frustration when they can't get past a certain level or figure out how to play a game. At first I thought I'd do better than them with some games, but actually did worse especially with the CD Rom games. I think that those kids are really lucky to have a chance to learn how to use computers while they're young because we didn't have this kind of chance when we were their age. I think this kind of experience and computer literacy will help them as they get older.
I played the games on the computer so I can help the kids better when they had questions about playing the games. I wanted to actually give them some kind of answers when they had questions about the games rather than tell them that I don't know what to do, so they have to figure it out on their own or go to someone else.