Task 10

Task 10 - User Inyerface Game

I like how Lesley called this "an enlightening series of frustrations". I couldn't think of a nice way to express my feelings about this 'game', so I'll borrow her description. I am glad it didn't need a real email to be verified, or I wouldn't have done it. I did not want to put in any real personal information. I did have to restart once, as I got stuck in the lock/unlock box.

It is a good reminder that while we often become attuned to navigating the web in a certain way, for students new to doing so, we might make assumptions that they are more competent than they actually are. I noticed this recently in a Google Form I used with my class. It was a checkbox grid in Forms. Forms make scroll bars invisible, so in small Chromebook screens, the whole box didn't show up, and the kids didn't know to scroll left or right to find the additional checkbox answers they needed, Not one student put up a hand and told me there seemed to be missing answers. They all just chose from the visible ones. They assumed, with no visible scroll bar, those were the only answers. I didn't know they couldn't see them, as on my teacher Mac screen, all answers were there. It was not until I looked at an analysis of the results and question break down, did I realize these certain questions, amongst a number of other 'normal' multiple choice ones that went fine, that there correct answer rate on the checkbox grid was 0%. In looking at just overall score, I wouldn't have known. It only docked a few points from the overall, so it was only in looking at individual question scores I saw it and realized what happened. But I don't always have or make time to do that. It was a reminder that something that seemed simple, can still go awry. And I need to make it a priority to check results on all questions. When I went back and showed the kids scrolling left and right, there was a chorus of "ahhhh". It was 10 seconds of instruction, but it wasn't something I had thought was needed, because I am so attuned to how I see things, but have to remember to think about how the kids see things - which isn't as "expert" as we might imagine.

Cheers!