From: Sharon Wie
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 11/01/96
Adult-Run:
Children-Run: Selected
Collaborative:
Unclear-Philosophy:
Bottom-up:
Top-down:
Unclear-Approach: Selected
Informal: Selected
Formal:
Unclear-Type:
LearningArea: ZPD
Date: 20 Nov 1996
Time: 14:20:57
Remote Name: ll-mac-04.ucsc.edu
Filogo–o age 10 and Iban age 8
Although I am a college student, I didn't feel any smarter than ten- year old, Filogo–o today. Filogo–o was early to Barrios Unidos and was able to pick out Lion King as his source of learning today. I had no idea what the game had in store and was pretty excited myself. Little did I know how complicated it could be. I consider this learning situation completely children run. I was not a guider but an equal learner today. Filogo–o started the game on his own. He turned to me for help when he got stuck, but discovered that I knew absolutely nothing to assist him. I have never played the game and was completely lost. We did just fine, though. We worked together to find the memory game Filogono was interested in. What we ended up doing, was pushing all the icons on the screen and coincidentally finding the right game. Whatever works right? When we got to the game, Filogono found it to be very easy. We gave up guessing and I asked Victor (a child who I have seen play the game before) for help. The game went good for a while, until Filogono realized that he was much better than I at the game. He enjoyed defeating me, but seemed to grow a little unchallenged. That was when Iban came to save and change the day. Iban is a two year younger cousin of Filogono. He is much better at speaking English and won most of the memory games against Filogono. Filogono enjoyed the challenge for quite some time, but grew discouraged. He began to show dismay by arguing with Iban and showing hostility. Iban left and I returned. Filogono resumed playing with me, settling with winning the games against me.
I believe that is was more helpful for Filogo–o to learn how to play the lion king game with me rather than with Iban because we were able to move at his pace and grasp the concepts. For understanding the concepts even deeper, however, it seemed that Iban was betting at providing that because he challenged Filogo–o to know what he was doing and to improve his memory skills.
In answer to Annie's concern regarding the conflict she noticed between the two boys that day also, I saw that the boys got along just fine at the start of their play. Filogo–o grew very frustrated and distressed the more and more he lost and grew angry towards Iban for what I take as jealousy.