"Too much
scaffolding can easily feel “school-like” and procedural, taking away from
players’ initiative to tinker around to discover things on their own. Too
little scaffolding may leave players lost and disengaged.”
The above quote was the one that
stood out to me because in the opening sentence, I thought it was significant
that something feeling “school-like” was a negative to learners. I think that
is a concept lost on many veteran instructors. The fail to recognize that any
task, even video gaming, can be disengaging if it starts to feel “like-school”.
In addressing the questions to
ponder, I absolutely think that both student-to-student and
instructor-to-student communication is important. I think it was good that it
did not call it face to face communication, since it can occur in many ways. I
have had success with using Discussions for some items, but it is also engaging
to use some video conferencing to simulate face to face as well. Then you have
the in class contact as well. So I think it is a blend (pun intended ) in
Blended Learning.
