Why Should We Learn By Doing? - Schools competing for students imaginations

http://www.engines4ed.org/hyperbook/nodes/NODE-224-pg.html

My Observations:

The Kids got a Wii this Christmas - so we un-boxed and set it up.
The graphics are not what PS3 and XBox has to offer - but the interface is amazingly intuitive.

The kinetic/movement method to complete game tasks is amazingly
powerful I have observed - Watching kids learn is an amazing experience ... and devices like this have this sort of kinetic value that is hard to explain. The Natural input to explore and modify virtual objects seems so powerful as I watch the kids move in natural ways to accomplish virtual tasks. It seems Obvious physically touching the surface to move & interact with he objects are the next evolutionary steps - and perhaps a glove type of device to provide texture to those touched objects.

As I watch it occurs to me that schools are in the business of
competing for kids imaginations - and with devices like these game consoles in the home, that will be hard. If the prevailing view of education is the lighting of a fire and not the filling of a bucket there needs to be engaging methods used to capture the students imagination.

Many schools have engaging interactive surfaces to capture students
imaginations with - however it will require an understanding of todays student to use these surfaces correctly. And today, in a flattening world - the classroom surface does not have to be flat - it can be dimensional and engaging - and interactive.

Your thoughts and observations? Please share them here !

http://edusim3d.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

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Comment by Simon Brown on December 26, 2007 at 7:20pm: I had only just updated my Facebook profile with "...Eventus stultorum magister - Events teach stupid persons. Stupid people learn by experience, bright people calculate what to do." exploring how I can better present learning experiences for my trade skills students. This statement is to be used in a workplace health and safety context, in which case it is better to learn from other people's bad experiences and work out how to avoid the same bad consequences!

Regarding "interactive surfaces"... just purchased The RFID Learning Table from http://www.rfidlearningtable.com.au/ to further explore interactivity in the classroom/workshop. Rather than have me controlling the lesson order, students use an RFID (radio frequency identification) reader to trigger learning objects (image, audio, PowerPoint, videoclip) stored in a database. I plan to use this next year, placing RFID tags on machinery and equipment so that students can discover learning at their own pace.