Making learning more delightful
A brief rationale for making delight a key factor in learning, which Ultralab aims to do in its research and development activities.
The computer frequently pleases, aesthetically and affectively, in a way that delights the learner. This positive mood is clearly valuable to creativity, as a means of sustaining motivation at the very least.
This is often dismissed as fun, and computer games as frivolous or the design of computer screens and hardware as being surface gloss.
Ultralab would argue that high quality design of learning processes, as well as of visual and interactive material, is essential and worthwhile.
We believe that delight matters - 'affective is effective', but also from a moral standpoint: that learners are entitled to fulfilment and enjoyment in learning.