simSchool © 2007 www.simSchool.org
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Until recently, simStudents had personality and cognitiveskills, but no visual, auditory or kinesethetic (VAK) charac-teristics. Debuting in January 2007, the simStudents willnow be able to “see, hear and feel” as they are learning(it’s a simulation of course). The new bank of character-istics makes it possible to model many aspects of the“learning styles” framework proposed by Howard Gardner (Gardner 1983). Here, in short, is how it works.A variable for each VAK characteristic is represented aspart of each task and each student on a scale of zeroto ten. If all three variables are zero in either the task or student, no learning can take place at all. If any one or two of the VAK variables in the student are zero, it meansa complete absence of the perceptual pathway, but learn-ing can still take place in the nonzero variable(s). In thetask, zeros in the VAK variables mean a complete lack of VAK information required by the task (e.g. those variableswould not be measurable by an assessment). For ex-ample, V=0 in the student means blindness and V=0 inthe task means a complete lack of visual information andcognitive demand on visual processing.A distance between the task and student is computedand can be positive or negative. The distance is posi-tive if the task characteristic is a higher number thanthe student’s. Tasks get harder to do the greater thepositive distance. When the distance is negative, itmeans that the task characteristic is not fully exposingthe student’s higher level of capability in the perceptualpathway. A task that requires no visual processing, low-ers the task’s potential to “exercise or teach” the stu-dent. In an assessment context, a prompt that doesn’task the student to display visual knowledge, skills or processing will not elicit student performance on thosecontents of knowledge.All the VAK computations take place prior to a task’s dy-namics playing out over time and determine the complex-ity or level of difficulty of a task. Then, the other aspects of personality or learning style take over – the interpersonal,psychological and cognitive characteristics of the learner – and influence the dynamic relationship of the student tothe task and larger environment of learning.We hope that you give the new capabilities a try soon!
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All the VAK computations take place prior to a task’s dynamics playing out over time and determine the com- plexity or level of difficulty of a task.Then, the other aspects of personalityor learning style take over – the inter- personal, psychological and cognitivecharacteristics of the learner – and influence the dynamic relationshipof the student to the task and larger environment of learning.
simSchool Personalities Grow
Seeing, Hearing and Feeling Added:
by David Gibson
References
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind : the theory of multiple intelligences. New York, Basic Books.
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