A Note to Educators About Eduzzles Sandeep Krishnamurthy

Colleagues,

Eduzzles work by obscuring the navigational structure on the Web. By taking away elements that students take for granted online (e.g. site maps, drop-down menus), Eduzzles force the participant to carefully consider how content is inter-related online. Since clues for navigating up may be anywhere, participants are forced to read content carefully scouring for these clues. This is expected to lead to greater information assimilation. This is influenced by hypertext puzzles seen elsewhere.

I have used Eduzzles in my undergraduate and graduate classes. The learning objectives are to-

  • Break habits of linear thinking.
  • Force students to understand the connected nature of hypertext by trying to decipher new ways of reaching the next level.
  • Enhance information literacy by enabling searching on the Web and library sources as a habit to solve problems.
  • Create an interactive learning environment that encourages divergent and creative thinking.

    • I have always used this as an optional exercise. Be warned- some students get very frustrated with this style. This drives students who are used to receiving explicit directions for a task (i.e., low tolerance for ambiguity) crazy. Students who are adept at interactive games and puzzles love it. Eduzzles also brings out the competitive side of students- e.g. "let's see who gets to level 8 first".