Ubiquitous Learning and Instructional Technologies MOOC’s Updates

Designing Interaction Experiences

I have no doubt that self-directed learning is the future of education! I believe that the impermanence of the world in which we live, along with the globalized access provided by technological advances, will demand an increasingly dynamic, personalized and adaptable learners.

I believe all learning emerges from interaction! We interact, even if imaginatively, when we read a book, we interact with people different from ourselves in our relationships, we interact with other species and with the elements of nature, and through this interaction we have the opportunity to learn. Also other species and even nature learn through interaction!! So, why don´t we design more learning experince that invite people to interact and learn?

We've heard a lot about lifelong learning and lifewide learning, about flow experiences and immersions aimed to engagement, but we're still keeping our children and teenagers inside closed rooms, sitting still, looking forward to a result that symbolizes their level of short-term memorization. This educational model is becoming more and more obsolete!

The learning experiences offered in games and museums, as presented by Professor Dr. H. Chad Lane, they're a great way to start this new way of creating interaction intentionally! I really think that´s a great start! And maybe we´re not going to find so many nice museums in our home cities, or even technologies that offers this virtual interaction, but I believe that there are so many possibilities to create better learning environment through interaction... 

There is a famous science museum in Brazil* that welcomes thousands of children every year in search of interaction and learning. This museum has inspired so many others to create interactive spaces that facilitate understanding of what is being exhibed. I have seen interactive exhibitions grow every year and this is very encouraging for parents and educators who are looking for alternatives for their hyperconnected and usually uninterested children. So, how can we expand this idea, as educators and designers, to create experiences that invite students to interact and learn?

The interest generated by interactions - human and non-human - are the fundamental resource for the absorption of new knowledge, for the development of a more critical and plural thinking, as well as for development of skills that allow this gratifying feeling for learning to remain. 

*https://museucatavento.org.br/