Case Study X
Appendix A
Observation and interview of first group of students using
the simulation ‘Fletcher’s Castle’ on Nimbus
computers
Information gathered: 2/7/98
Students had used this program recently in a lesson, and had now volunteered to answer questions on it in their lunch hour, while using the program again.
There were seven students from one year 7 History class during this observation, of very mixed ability and two worked as a pair while the rest had a computer to themselves. They were asked the questions individually, or in a pair, as they worked with the program.
Questions |
Answers |
| What did you learn from this computer program? | Student 1 - ? Student 2 - It is hard to build a castle Pair 3 - It is hard to do, if you don’t get enough soldiers on, you lose lots of workers. Student 4 - ? Student 5 - ? Student 6 - ? |
| What did you learn about building a Motte and Bailey castle from using this program? | Student 1 - It takes 10
days. It is quick Student 2 - You need the right number of men for each job. Pair 3 - It’s quick but you need people. It takes a long time if you have no people. Student 4 - Need lots of men and soldiers. Student 5 - It’s hard. Student 6 - It’s a bit hard. |
| Name two things that you think are important to know if you want to build a Motte and Bailey castle. | Student 1 - You have to set
guards, keep collecting food. Student 2 - You need food and need to organize your people to the right jobs. Pair 3 - Get lots of people and lots of wood and food. Student 4 - Lots of guards and lots of people need to go for food. Student 5 - First get the food then build the tower and fence. Student 6 - You need bricks to build. Need money. |
| Was the program difficult to use? | Student 1 - Easy Student 2 - Easy Pair 3 - Easy to use but hard to figure out exactly how it goes and how many people you need on each job. Student 4 - Hard to separate out men to do each job. Student 5 - Hard to use because you don’t have enough people. Student 6 - Easy |
| Do you think the program is boring / interesting / easy / fun? | Student 1 - Fun Student 2 - Fun and interesting Pair 3 - Interesting Student 4 - Interesting Student 5 - Interesting Student 6 - Interesting |
Observations
Some students has a few problems remembering how to use the
program. They asked each other.
"What did you press? .. Oh yeah"
I was asked no questions on how to use the program. I was asked two questions: One to do with a broken screen ( the student switched to another computer) and one needed prompting on the commands and how to proceed ( I interceded in this case).
During this lunchtime, there was complete silence for a lot of the time, as student simply worked on the program. There was the occasional competitive question about how the others were doing, or to draw attention to their screen to show others their progress.
The pair discussed things quite a bit. They talked about which decisions would be better and were very co-operative.
After 45 mins on the program, about half had finished the program, though no one managed to build a castle completely.
Student 6 - There was one less able student, who is usually
completely silent in lessons and will come up to my desk, with
her exercise book in hand. She will not ask what she is meant to
do, but will simply stand there until I give her the instructions
again. During this lunchtime, she got right to it, with very
little prompting and worked silently to begin with. She then
began to ask questions of the others about how they were doing
with their castles. I have never seen her do this in lessons. She
also made comments to others about how she was doing.
"Oh, oh. I ain’t got no workers left."
"That’s all I’ve got" to another student
about the progress of her castle.
However, she was making very little progress and was not
answering the questions properly, and did not proceed to the next
question until I prompted her.