Intuitive Learning
October 16, 2006
Some friends came over for dinner at the weekend and, naturally, their two young boys came too. The kids are great; bursting with energy and itching to be doing anything other than sitting still.
The boys had brought an XBox game they’d bought earlier that day and were dying to play it on my Xbox 360 console, so after dinner they took off to the living room to play at being James Bond while us four adults stayed in the dining room, to chat and finish drinking some rather fine South African grape juice…
After an hour or so, the boys came back through, bored of Bond and wanting to play another game. I didn’t fancy letting them loose on GR:AW or Oblivion, so I popped Kameo in for them. I thought I’d sit with them for a bit, in case they got stuck.
They’d never played Kameo before and so didn’t know the controls or the objective, but they figured it out, almost instinctively. They didn’t need to look at the booklet that comes in the game pack - they barely looked down at the controls to see how the buttons were laid out! When the pre-rendered stuff that explains what the buttons are for; or how to attack a certain problem came one, they just scrolled right past it, wanting to get on with the game play!
It was amazing to watch as they played the game, without any preconceived notions or expectations. If they got stuck, they tried something different, talking quietly with each other until they solved that particular problem.
When do we lose that, as adults? When do give up that ability to absorb and adapt without prejudice or expectation. As adults we want everything explained before we interact with it; we expect to know what to expect. I wish we could keep hold of our inner-kid for longer…
Technorati Tags: kids, children, learning, development, games, xbox360, xbox 360
Posted in 
content rss
October 17th, 2006 at 11:09 am
We lose it when women suck the very life out of us. Our spirit, our inventiveness our very soul, with their creating importance in things like carpet colours (who cares as long as it is fluffy under our feet), vehicle MPG (over 0-60!), children (let someone else have them while we rip up mountains on boards and skis, scream like banshees doing 120mph in freefall or decend into that freindly glow that only male freinds with alcohol can create!
Granted women do have appeal that i would never give up but i think the above answers your question!