Thursday, March 3, 2011
Goal-Based Scenarios
When I first read the pdf of Kevin's camtasia presentation (the audio on my computer has been acting wonky - and yes that might be because it knows that I am longing to chuck it out and just simplify my life by getting the 2nd generation Ipad, which by the way has not just one but two Moodle Apps) I sort of thought it hearkened back to my middle school days when we got to do a lot of role playing in a somewhat misguided, swinging sixties/seventies (please remember this was towards the end of the Vietnam War) attempt at education. Not a lot of core learning was accomplished but we had a great time!
When I started reading the articles, I realized that it holds closer to what I did in my early days of corporate training. Back then I did a lot of exercises that really stressed the experiential aspect of learning. We would present a scenario to participants, in which there was a problem to solve. They in turn had to work together to solve the problem in a given time period and with a given set of resources. This would usually be done within a larger framework of a program in which larger concepts like change, leadership, communication, teams, etc were being addressed. These types of activities were designed for participants to apply the concepts of the classroom in a "real" situation to garner further learning and start to apply that learning forward to work. To me this type of learning is similar to the apprentice-based learning we discussed last week, where we put students in situations where they really have to incorporate what they have learned in a real situation - not just a case-study application which stays at a more theoretical level.
This is one area that I struggle to incorporate effectively when I have taught online. The trainings that I have been involved in have not been the most successful and really do not get at the same type of learning by doing. One project involved the use of Second Life. Participants created their own avatars and participated in role playing. The problem was that in this setting the ability of creating a realistic setting was limited at best. There was little to no buy-in from participants and what happened was that the scenario fell flat. But I have also worked with a lot of military groups over the years and the military has had great success with creating realistic virtual training scenarios that really do help provide a realistic platform to test competencies.
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6 comments:
I respect your point of view on this theory. It seems as if using this theory depends on who the activity is being created for. For the online environment, activities can be created that cater to students in all grades and content levels. Using theories that allow learners to collaborate and conduct research are very important in building learners collaborative skills. Goal-Based Scenarios allow main goals to be hidden by the interactive activities that learners will have.
Barb -- as usual, your thoughts are entertaining. The audio on mine was wonky too! (first time using the word wonky - thank you)
So I am guessing from your post you are a little older than I am. It sounds like I missed a good time in the 60s and 70s.
I agree, this is a lot like apprentice-based learning. I think we control the experiences more in this model, however; the students choose their path, but whichever that is, we've created it for them. So it is almost like we are Willie Wonka, taking them through our chocolate factory. No matter which route they take, we have their adventure or misfortune mapped out for them.
Thanks for sharing. Your blogs are fun to read!
Thanks for sharing about the SL example - it is something I have mixed thoughts about - there is a high learning curve and I can see it just being too much for some people who may be not that into virtual environments. But if you have an avatar already set up, this year's UNC TLT Conference is being held in SL and free.
And considering your military example as well as some of our other class mates' posts, it seems to me that GBS may be most useful (and perhaps justifiable for the amount of resource it requires to prepare) for training skills where failure constitutes a serious risk or consequence - therefore simulation is warranted. Otherwise I feel like it would often be easy to see the artificial construct of the learning environment and not be very appealing to learners.
Hey Barb,
What military groups did you work with?
I can see how you would liken this model to your Second Life experience and corporate training, but I think that there are some distinct differences though.
It didn't sound like there was much buy-in from the Second Life participants which led to quick disenchantment. Student interest is foundational to the GBS model. With that motivational piece, students will be more driven to engage and participate.
Like the corporate training, participants work through scenarios. It seems though that the simulation activities allow for engagement and failure in new ways. The provision of expectation failure being built into the model allows for "safe" experimentation and rich learning experiences. How often do we say that it's important to learn from our mistakes and yet we focus so much on getting the right answer the first time around? An educational framework that promotes pushing the limits, testing the boundaries, thinking outside the box, and the exploration of ideas/concepts seems pretty great to me.
(Julie Jones)
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