Here’s Tricia Meier, teacher of a Year 5/6 class at Curtin Primary School, talking about her and her class’ experience of playing Sembl at the Museum.
Interlocutors are Angela Casey, Education Coordinator, and David Arnold, Education Manager, and the conversation is in four parts:
- the Sembl experience
- deep into the museum
- holistic learning
- teaching with technology
Go the full-screen mode! (And if you have the bandwidth, hit the HD button for high-definition viewing.)
Transcript
The Sembl experience
TM: It was such a positive experience for them, it really was. Because for me to sit down this afternoon and actually talk to them again… and they just said about how much fun they had, how they enjoyed it, how interesting it was. And this is – like you say – 10 days after.
I know how engaged they were because of them not engaging with me – they were engaging with their group.
The kids were really excited about making it difficult for the other teams. They really thought that it was important that they thought hard about how to make the connections, and make them as exciting as possible.
And I actually think that if I ask them again, ‘Would you like to go to the Museum?’, the first words out of their mouth would be ‘Can we play Sembl?’.
Deep into the Museum
TM: I said ‘Oh, so what did you think about being out in the Museum?’. They said ‘It was fantastic’. Because they not only got to see the things that they were talking about, but they stopped every now and again and looked at other things. I said ‘Do you think you actually looked at things you wouldn’t have normally?’ They said ‘Absolutely’.
They got caught up, so that link with their technology, and the museum artefacts, is just incredible. And I think it enhanced their experience.
And I also got a comment: ‘Sembl’s way better than Kspace’.
Holistic learning
TM: One of the beauties of this game is, it shows objects from different perspectives. In any object there’s the creative, the artistic side as well. So yes I understand where you’re coming from with the curriculum, but I think Sembl is way better than saying ‘This is just English, this is just History, this is Geography’, because for me it comes back to the big question, the big pictures, which is what, you know, knowledge is… that we look at it from different perspectives.
So it’s that multi-discipline, holistic approach that I think this provides – Sembl provides – because it’s not just Geography, it’s not just History, it’s not just English.
Teaching with technology
TM: And the other big change for me with teaching is obviously the technology. It means we have to be more skills-based, rather than information-based. I think education has really come alive.
So the beauty of linking the technology with the real place is obviously very exciting.
AC: Kind of that, authentic experience, with real objects.
TM: Exactly. So I think, this is really, really important.
DA: Where the technology is really aiding, you know, the real object investigation.
AC: They were either, you know, heads down reading the labels with the iPads away, or all the heads around the iPads talking.
TM: I know!
AC: I got really excited. You know, that’s exactly what we aimed for it to do. The concern I had – and it was over the size of the device, you know I just thought it’s too big, it’s going to be a block, but it’s not.
TM: It was incredible, because that’s what I said, I was almost redundant. But that’s actually my object as a teacher, is to almost be redundant, is that they’re actually the ones in charge, they’re actually the ones doing the learning, not–
DA: They’re directing their own learning.
TM: I don’t need to be the–
AC: The expert
TM: The provider, or the expert. So, that’s exactly right. And they were so engaged, so engaged, that if I said ‘Come back tomorrow’ they’d be here.
AC: Yep.
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