Response to "Our Virtual Worlds"

Entering the virtual world of a well-designed game is a motivator to learn the intricacies of that world. Video games are designed to teach you mastery while you play.  The disappointments are not so degrading as to make the player give up, and the rewards feel real.

I had one experience with a video game fifteen years ago (SuperMarioLand) on my then young elder son's GameBoy.  I fell into the chasm of obsession, and played the game every night until well past midnight--until I could beat the "Big Boss" and save Daisy.  I then put the game down and vowed to never play another video game again, as I had an actual life to live.  But it gave me a window both into the addictive nature of games, as well as into the constructs of the game that modeled and encouraged systematic learning. Each time I played the game and "died," I learned a little more about the virtual world I inhabited.  Situations that were previously unpredictable death-traps became filled with enemies I could jump over, duck under or destroy.  I was adapting within MarioLand and becoming a master of all I surveyed.  How clever were the designers of the game to give me enough success each time to make me want to "live" again, in order to get a little closer to saving Daisy! The learning curve was steady and inexorable--until I mastered the game, beat the big boss and saved Daisy.

Isn't this what we as educators want to accomplish for our students? We want them to be excited to come to school to master skills that will allow them to feel mastery in their world.  Can well-designed educational video games accomplish this goal? Undoubtedly. I personally observed my younger son, at the age of eleven master the game Runescape.  He said it taught him the essentials of economics and commerce.   Is this the only way to achieve this goal?  Absolutely not.  There needs to be a balance between virtual worlds and actual worlds--as we are flesh and blood humans living in a world of animals, vegetables, and minerals.  We need to test our mettle by handling and pressing against more than just zeros and ones.  Video games can facilitate our grasp of worldly principles in an engaging and pleasurable way, but so can sculpting, playing music, dance, drawing and just playing real-life games.

Response to "Students as Designers and Creators of Educational Computer Games: Who Else?" by Marc Presky

After reading the article,  Students as Designers and Creators of Educational Computer Games:Who Else?, I have pulled out the features of "The Rules of Engagement" as described by Marc Prensky.  The article is wide in its scope, so I chose to focus and reflect on those features he has deemed most vital to successfully engaging computer games.  Those components are listed below.  Following each component, (in red) I reflect and connect:

*Goals

Goals need to be internalized by students as their own, and not just any goals will do. Engaging goals are not the 'learn the material' variety found in our schools, but rather the 'be a hero' type of goals found in complex games.

I find this concept of "be a hero" startling in its obviousness.  Virtually every piece of fiction written by elementary school boys involves vanquishing some kind of enemy, preferably in the most violent manner possible. I would add to this, an appealing option for many girls: "Be a star."  For both boys and girls, being a hero means being a star--but most girls are not driven by a need for domination through physical annihilation.  But they like being the best at something. Of course, splattering brains is OK, but I venture to guess that driving a schoolmate to suicide through ostracism would not be an acceptable form of vanquishing one's enemy.

*Decisions & Discussion

Decisions are engaging. For maximum engagement, decisions must be required, frequent and important to reaching the goals. Decisions are at the heart of the so-called 'learning loop' of decision-action-feedback-reflection, which is so crucial to both learning and engagement. Discussion, both during and after the experience is also important to engagement.

This reminds me of one  of "The Twilight Zone" episodes of my youth where a gambling man dies and goes to heaven, only to find that every game is rigged in his favor.  When he becomes agonizingly bored and begs to go to "The Other Place,"  the overseer laughs and says, "You are in the other place!" The need for autonomy and decision making are hard-wired into human beings.  This is why you have women self-immolating in Afghanistan.

 

*Emotional Connection

It is widely accepted that an emotional connection makes for stronger learning. The two biggest sources of engagement through emotional connection are Story and 'SiSoMo' (advertiser shorthand for sight, sound and motion).

The ability to empathize with characters and invest in outcome are embedded in our collective consciousness. The ability to comprehend story grammar is part of the human experience.  The sensory input of sight, sound and motion makes it all the more real and fosters empathy.

*Cooperation & Competition

Engagement comes from the careful balancing of these two seemingly opposite, yet related forces.

We all need an enemy to hate together.

*Personalization

Research and theory tells us that personalization, ie. creating teaching that meets the students precisely where they are, works best for engagement and learning. Students have learned outside of school to expect things to be offered to them at precisely their own level. 

I have personally experienced the brilliance with which video games are constructed to balance the right amount of difficulty to keep the game interesting with the right amount of mastery to make the player feel so competent as not to quit. 

*Review & Iteration

Engagement requires that students know whether what they did was wrong or right, and be able to try again. This involves both immediate feedback and what the military calls an 'after action review' (others call this 'debriefing' and still others 'reflection'.) Engagement also requires iteration; that is periodic revision based on the players' experiences and feedback.

Only in video games do you get to "die," or "fail" and come back for a chance at redemption and ultimate victory.

 
* Fun

Although notoriously hard to define fun is absolutely crucial for engaging the generation raised on Sesame Street. Game designer Rafe Koster defines fun in games as 'solving a problem mentally.' Whether or not they can define it, it is very clear (at least to students) when fun is missing.

(Ah, yes, the glint, as opposed to the glaze in the eye!)

Danny MacAskill - "Way Back Home" - NEW street trials riding short film

Smartboard Lesson on Geography

I downloaded a lesson in Geography and Map Skills from the Smart Exchange.  It was made by Dana Carlson from Cherry Creek (Long Island?) I adapted it a bit for my own needs by eliminating the Cherry Creek template in which the creators of the lesson have to plug the lesson into the NET standards, and I added a page of my own, which I will explain forthwith.

The lesson correlates nicely with the current PNW BOCES-based lessons on geography and map skills that the third-grade teachers in my district are expected to teach. It shows the northern and southern hemispheres of the globe, delineated by the equator, and the eastern and western hemispheres, divided by the Prime Meridian. It has several interactive activities where children can mark the lines of latitude and longitude with a yellow highlighter, place the names of the continents onto a map of the world, and place the names of the fifty states onto a map of the USA.  I added another page that has the fifty states correctly labeled, so the children can refer to it for verification.

This is a nice, serviceable lesson, or series of lessons on basic geography and map skills--suitable for elementary-aged children. I will use it in our upcoming study of the USA.