Summer Camp Questions

[Vincent]

Thanks, John.   I appreciate your feedback.   By the way: I'm also a
former musician.   Many people are happy about that! :-) - Vincent
Wright

John Steinmetz wrote:

> I like this a lot: "one of my favorite approaches to teaching young
> people and old is to havethem use the computer to learn something that
> interests THEM.  To me, it
> always goes back to asking the person about THEIR interests,
> interviewing
> them.  Then, where possible, customizing the instruction to meet
> theirneeds." I have noticed, as I'm sure you have, how often people in
> the position of teacher devote their energies to whatever interests or
> animates themselves instead of finding out what animates or inspires
> their customers, the learners. This is only natural--of course people
> tend to aim their energy in the direction of their enthusiasms--but I
> think learning happens much more quickly and easily when the learner
> has he/r own reasons for learning instead of somebody else's
> reasons. As far as I can tell, one of the most difficult tasks for
> human beings is to imagine that another person's mentality might be
> different from one's own. And even those who can imagine this have
> trouble remembering. This adds immeasurably to the already difficulty
> task of assisting learning. As a result of these and other
> complications, it is really hard to figure out why people don't
> partake of a given offering. If a certain group of people is not
> participating (i.e., girls at computer camp), consider inviting some
> members of the target group to help design something they would want
> to attend. If you watch and listen carefully, you will learn lots
> about what animates that group, and about what repels them. Of course
> the members of the group will have a variety of likes and
> dislikes--there won't be one right answer--but themes will begin to
> emerge. (As a musician, I have done a couple of projects like this,
> inviting non-musicians to design music events for people like
> themselves. Of course such events are usually designed by musicians,
> who can't remember what it is like to be a non-musician. Non-musicians
> gave these events many features that musicians never would have
> thought to include. One of many fabulous side-effects was that the
> target audience showed up in great numbers.) John
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