From: Jess Thyne
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 11/18/96
Adult-Run:
Children-Run: Selected
Collaborative:
Unclear-Philosophy:
Bottom-up:
Top-down:
Unclear-Approach:
Informal: Selected
Formal:
Unclear-Type:
LearningArea:
Date: 09 Dec 1996
Time: 18:22:33
Remote Name: octal-lab-mac01.ucsc.edu
Norma, 5th grade Maria, 5th grade
Today the kids did not seem to need my help much. I tried to help some kids set up the Cds, but they all already knew how to do it by themselves! So I just floated around the room for a while, played some Minesweeper, and waited for someone to need me.
Norma Called me from her computer. She was playing one of the Reader Rabit games. She seemed bored of it (she looked very uninterested, and she seemed to be getting physically tired because of the game's repitition), and I watched her play for a while and she was very good at it. She could not figure out where the menu was to stop playing was (she looked extremely frustrated, and she kept looking at me to help her get out of the game), so I guessed correctly that you need to click on the mouse character, and she brings up the menu. I suggessted that she try a harder level of the same game. She tried, but the highest level was still too easy for her. She tried some other games on the Cd, but they were all too easy for her.
I got out all the remaning cds (we have a lot I noticed), and asked her to pick one she had not played before. The one she picked was too easy also. Maria came over, and sugested some game that I don't remember the name of. They did not seem need my help any more at this point, so I left.
It was nice to see a game be too easy for a change. Maria seemed to understand what Norma was going through, and was very helpful with her suggesstion of game for Norma's level. They are both smart and very nice girls. I did not seem to be needed except that I was there to get up and get the cds for Norma.
I wonder what the girls learned from me today? Was I at all helpful other than the guy who got the Cd's for the girls? Perhaps I could have thought of something more chalenging for them to play, and I could have sugested that they try something chalenging.
What happens when most of the kids figure out these games? They are not that difficult. Do we keep on buying more new CDs? We need to have enough hard games to match these kid's progression through their ZPDs, or they will advance to the level of the hardest games, but not have anywhere to go from there.