Should learning be fun ?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 25, 2008
- In: games-based learning | Gaming | GLOW | ICT | Research | teaching and learning
- Comment!
Talking with my students over the past couple of weeks, the subject of what makes good lessons kept returning to the ‘f’ word… fun. We’ve been doing interviews discussing our experiences using GLOW and ICT this year and what the young people particularly like about their time in these classes is this element of fun that seems to be a characteristic of GLOW lessons. They like activity, using messaging whilst working on tasks, and the use of video and podcasts. We’ve been using science-based games for the last couple of months or so, loaded onto their GLOW group pages and they love these as well- We had at least five ‘plant millionaires’ during our lesson today ( a biology knowledge game based on the tv show) and they were getting quite competitive.
I guess what this is leading to is this – pupils think learning should be fun. Mine tell me that when learning is fun, they are thinking about what they are doing. When a lesson isn’t fun, they are thinking about when it’s going to end. Certainly today, the bell crept up on us unnoticed, whereas quite often in classes the lack of concentration and fidgeting kicks in at least 10-15 minutes before the end !
But do teachers think lessons should be fun? I still hear a lot of the ‘you’re here to learn’ and ‘school’s hard work – it’s not meant to be fun’ type comments. Brian Boyd certainly thinks learning should be fun. Of course he wanted it to a part of ACfE…but was apparently told that to have done this would have been ‘sending out the wrong message’ so there’s not the 5th capacity that he perhaps had in mind. Maybe using games is a way forward here. Kids prefer learning tasks which are fast, active, enquiry-based and which use multiple sources of information in parallel on which they can concentrate for short intensive bursts. Now, traditional school lessons may not meet these demands from today’s digital learners and surely we have to adapt teaching to suit the learners? young people today are not the same as they were ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. It never ceases to amaze me how adaptable kids are, so should us teachers not also try to be adaptable and flexible in our approach to lesson planning?
Research shows that learning and recall improve when the learner is performing motor activities, when developing skills is set in familiar contexts and when it engages, motivates and inspires pupils. I have certainly found this to be the case when working with my classes on GLOW and we are developing the use of games to reinforce existing learning as well as to introduce new concepts, and they love working this way. It’s a natural extension of our use of GLOW this year.
Derek Robertson at LTS is doing some really exciting and groundbreaking work in the area of gaming for education.. look out for him if you are going to the SFL in September.
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/ictineducation/gamesbasedlearning/aboutgbl/index.asp
So….should learning be fun ? my pupils certainly think so – and the customer is usually right !!
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3 Responses to "Should learning be fun ?"
[...] on the tasks they are working on. Jaye Richards has an interesting post on her blog called Should learning be fun? which echoes our experience and then extrapolates from that to consider how this might apply to the [...]
June 25, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Having the opportunity to be in your class yesterday when LTS were making a DVD on your use of Glow was really interesting. When your pupils were asked in individual interviews what they liked about Glow they all said it was fun. You are delivering what you preach. However what was also great was to see your pupils work right up to the bell on their work on the last week of term!! Fun it may be but if it is motivating pupils then it is much more than fun. Your use of Glow is certainly achieving the first pointer of the Successful Learners capacity – enthusiasm and motivation for learning.
June 25, 2008 at 7:23 am
The Customer is usually right? I am not sure about that one.
Maybe, The customer has some idea’s but needs lots of guidence and support.
Surely the biggest question is ‘What is Fun?’ If ‘fun’ is light and frivilous and makes no demands then learning shouldn’t be fun. If ‘fun’ is setting a challenge and then achieving it, then yes it should be fun.
What I like about the consolarium’s work is that it manges both.
Another problem is that some people find Maths fun, others its Art, others still sport. Does that mean because thats what they find fun then thats all they should do? Of course not.
Sometimes we have to ‘encourage’ all our learners (and really mean teachers here)to do things which are outside their comfort zone. They definately don’t think its fun but they do get a great sense of satisfaction. Is that the same as fun?