A portmanteau of the words tactile and activity . A TACTivity is a tactile learning activity. For the authors, this means not physical props, but pieces of paper—or electronic equivalents—that may be repositioned, linked, matched, sorted, and so on to answer questions and solve problems embodied within the activity itself.
Published in Chapter:
TACTivities: A Way to Promote Hands-On, Minds-On Learning in a Virtual Learning Environment
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 19
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7222-1.ch014
Abstract
The need to keep students engaged is particularly acute in virtual environments. In this chapter, the authors describe TACTivities (learning activities with tactile components), designed to help encourage student participation, collaboration, and communication. Originally developed for in-person instruction, TACTivities are readily adaptable to online learning environments. TACTivities are intended to foster a sense of play, creative problem-solving, and exploration among the students who undertake to complete these tasks, and also among the teachers who design them. Unlike other tactile learning ventures, which may involve various kinds of physical props, TACTivities entail only moveable pieces of paper, or electronic equivalents. This feature means that TACTivities are quite portable, and they are easily implemented, shared, and modified (particularly in remote settings). Further, TACTivities allow for inclusion of discipline-specific content, language, and formalism, while still cultivating physical engagement in problem-solving and critical thinking in any subject area.