Weirdstop and Coolstop

–A Review Published in Teacher April 2005

In 1870, John Ruskin wrote that‘industry’without art, was‘brutality”.

In the 21st century, we could replace‘industry with‘technology’and thank the acclaimed writer Libby Hathorn, for taking her art into cyberspace. Weirdstop and Coolstop are e-learning products that are not just‘electronic’- they are‘engaging’,‘entertaining’and‘effective’.

Aimed at 10-14 year olds, both Weirdstop and Coolstop have original stories, interactive games, student quizzes and downloadable themed activities, for parents and teachers. Both products can be used for ages above and below, this target audience and some stories (such Underwater Nightmare in Weirdstop, which is an excerpt from Hathorn’s novel Rift or Take on The World in Coolstop) make wonderful supplementary, or introductory pieces, to the 2004-06 NSW HSC English Area of Study, Journeys. The continuity of characters in Imagine Centre (Weirdstop) and Take On The World (Coolstop) - make the products very flexible to use with a number of Key Learning Areas, in both Primary and Secondary schools. Moreover, different text types are used, as are non linear stories. The story units are categorized according to difficulty, allowing for differentiation of the curriculum and personalized learning. Weirdstop has nine mystery stories and Coolstop has six stories based on different types of sport or travel. Coolstop has a voice-over option for students who are reluctant to read and both have printable texts and printable certificates at the completion of the literacy activities. The activities cover contextual, textual and grammatical tasks and all units have critical and creative thinking assignments. Pedagogically and technologically, Weirdstop and Coolstop are exemplary products and hence the 2004 AIMIA Award for Best Children’s website and CD Rom package.

Why else are these works so important?

These artifacts are important for two other reasons.
The first reason, has to do with a term coined by Seymour Papert–“kid power”.Papert believes it is‘kid power’that will really change the face of Education:

“this technology, the personal computer, is not a teacher’s technology, it’s a learner’s technology. And it’s a technology that can be appropriated, taken over by young people, who can use it to feel the power of their own individual intellectual personalities. And we’re beginning to see, coming into school, more and more kids who have had computers from the day of their birth, who’ve gotten used to using them, many of them not very well. But some of them have used them to have very, very rich learning experiences-we are-beginning to get a peppering of these kids in our classrooms. And that is a real army to bring about change. I call it"Kid Power."Kids coming into school and saying,"We want something better than this, and not only do we want it…"-- they are not only demanding, they’ve got a supply also, they’ve got a supply of the know how--"We’ll show you how to do it. We’ll help you."

Papert compares these children to the army, inside the Trojan Horse–the horse itself was useless, without the army within. In the case of technology–the computer itself, is not‘educational’, without effective e-learning products.
Weirdstop and Coolstop bring together the technological and the educational, with a‘kid power’interface.
Kids want to see a streaming video of surfing in a story about a boy learning to surf, they want to see text messages between two characters on travel quest and they want to hear a crowd cheering at a football match in information text, on football. They’re happy to play games that stretch their imagination and their literacy–but they also want games that make them roar with laughter, like the nappy game in Babyghost, Weirdstop and games that let them compete with other kids on-line, like the hand-eye soccer game in The Story of Rugby, Coolstop.
These products then, are important for their‘kid power’value.

They are also important for their narrative value. Many learning suites are being produced and marketed, under the flag of‘e-learning’or‘e-literacy’. While these play an important part in the development of particular skills and competencies–humans will always need narrative. And young people, need narratives about feeling lonely, about gender issues on the soccer team or the waves at Bondi, about diving into treacherous territory and about coping with demanding parents–or living without parents altogether. Students from Non English Speaking Backgrounds sitting for Australian examinations, such as the Basic Skills Tests in Year 3 and Year 5, the ELLA Tests in Year 7, and the various state examinations such as the NSW School Certificate and Higher School Certificate–desperately need to build their linguistic and cultural capital. They need to experience stories about the Aboriginal Dreamtime and the Australian outback and mysterious families in old gold towns and on dirt roads on the way to Cessnock.

In a multimedia world, where every sense is constantly stimulated–maybe kids need narrative even more?

In a recent Australian report on boys and literacy, three critical skill sets, were identified as important, in the development of individual literacy:

• A repertoire for (re)presenting the self
• A repertoire for relating
• A repertoire for engaging with and negotiating the culture

Hathorn has always addressed these issues of self, relationships and culture in her work and by using the new media, she is encouraging students to co-construct their own repertoires. Narrative invites us to generate our own imagination, intuition, analogies, revelations and insights. The Latinate origin of the word educate, is‘educare’meaning“to lead out’and Hathorn‘educates’her readers this way, by raising challenging issues without being didactic or moralistic (see in particular, Feral Kid and Way Home). There is no great mystery to teaching a child to be literate–the Artists and true Educationalists have always known it. Papert talks about‘falling in love’with knowledge (1999), Czikszentmihalyi talks about getting in the‘flow’to learn (1990) and Claxton talks about the letting the‘tortoise mind’dominate the‘hare brain’(1997). We just have give children enough opportunities, to fall in love with stories. Weirdstop and Coolstop and the soon to be released, Wonderstop, are e-learning products that are true learning products. By retaining the role of Director as well as Author, Hathorn has ensured that her narrative will stay as the central focus. While this is the case–the Nintendo generation (Prensky:2001) will have a genuine advocate in cyberspace.

References

Alloway, N. Freebody, P. Gilbert, P,&Muspratt,S (2002) : Boys, Literacy And Schooling: Expanding The Repertoires Of Practice.
DEST Clearinghouse
School of Cognition Language and Special Education
Griffith University
Mt Gravatt Campus
NATHAN Qld 4111
AUSTRALIA
URL:http://www.gu.edu.au/school/cls/clearinghouse/

Claxton, G (1997) Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind London: Fourth Estate

Czikszentmihalyi, M: (1990) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience New York: Harper and Row

Papert, S. (1990) A Critique of Technocentrism in Thinking About the School of the Future. M.I.T. Media Lab Epistemology and Learning Memo No. 2". Its content was based on a talk presented at Children in an Information Age: Opportunities for Creativity, Innovation, and New Activities (Sofia, Bulgaria, May 1987).
http://www.papert.org/articles/ACritiqueofTechnocentrism.html

Presnky, M. (2001) Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001)
Seymour Papert,S: (1990) Diversity in Learning: A Vision for the New Millennium, Parts 1 and 2
This speech was video taped in 1999 for the Diversity Task Force convened by Vice President Al Gore.
http://www.papert.org/articles/diversity/DiversityinLearningPart1.html

Ruskin, J. (1870): Lectures On Art, 3 The Relation of Art to Morals.
23rd Feb. 1870 cited in The Oxford Library Of Words and Phrases Vol 1 Quotations pg 198, 1981.