Most of the time as teachers we know that our students have learned what we desire them to learn when we test them or set them a performance objective that they accomplish. However, with a game design project, where the objective may be a little more complex or less concrete, how do we know when they have been impacted in the way that we would hope?
I can only speak to my own game concept, which I've talked about before. I am interested in developing a role-playing game that follows along with the concepts we teach in a course here in BC called Planning 10. It's a career prep course combined with a bunch of other life skills, including financial planning, educational planning, family life -- it's basically a dumping ground for subjects the government thinks aren't being covered anywhere else.
Simply put, I believe that the majority of the curriculum of the course could be more effectively addressed with a role-playing game, where every student assumes a character and takes that character through the scenarios that mimic the decisions they will be faced with throughout the next few years of high school and post-secondary. An important factor to me is the ability for the students to reflect on what path their avatar's life has taken, the possibility for them to have a "do over" and choose different paths, explore the different results with less risk.
In a game such as this, reflective journalling would perhaps be the only real gauge of whether or not the participants have been impacted in the desired way; requiring students to keep a journal of their progress, choices they have made, the results of those choices, "do overs" that they have opted to explore and their end results, etc., would allow me as the instructor to track the students' development of mature decision-making skills, which are the ultimate objective of the process.
I could set an arbitrary goal of a certain income, but that negates life choices students might make that focus not on the accumulation of wealth, but on other issues that the students may deem more important. The same goes for academic accomplishment and post-secondary education, as these are choices not all students would make. The objective is rather to get them to focus on the importance of the decision-making process, allow them to explore the possibilities in front of them in a safe(r) environment, and possibly to take risks that they might otherwise not take.
Perhaps the best gauge of impact? My tendency would be to have the students write a brief summary of their life/career/education objectives at the beginning of the course; then at the end of the course, I would have them revisit the original objectives and assess if and how those objectives have changed as a result of their activities on the game. The comparison between the two pieces of writing should provide ample evidence of whether or not there has been an impact.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Week 7
I read the article "Uganda's Road to Peace May Run Through the River of Forgiveness". The premise for this game interests me, and I think that this type of game holds real promise for the field of education. Role-playing games with a purpose of teaching particular concepts intrigue me as regular role-playing games do not -- to be honest, I can't imagine spending time in Second Life voluntarily, nor can I see myself spending time as many of my male students do playing Call of Duty. But I could see myself playing a game that was a "playable fiction" with an objective of teaching life or value lessons.
I think what it all comes back to for me is the issue of how I value my time. I am not a gamer by nature because I have so many other demands on my time; I avoid the types of games that would engage me in a fiction because I know (being an avid reader that can get lost in a book) that I could easily get too engrossed and lose track of other aspects of my life. It is this same ability to engage and engross, however, that leads me to an interest in these games from an academic point of view; I see the potential of these games to engage my students in their learning in a way that in-class instruction cannot approach. I've already outlined my game concept in a previous blog, and my readings have only served to confirm that I am heading in the right direction with my concept.
I appreciate the point made by Aldrich in Learning by Doing, in discussing the resources required to develop full simulations, and the fact that the system is reluctant to shell out the resources necessary to develop this type of game. How are we going to balance the ongoing budget constraints with the need to develop technologies that enhance and revitalize our teaching? Is it even possible to do so? He contends that there is money in the education field -- witness the billions of dollars being spent on education -- but is it possible to free this money up without impacting other crucial programs? Is education unrealistic to expect to reap the benefits of technology without having to invest the resources, or can we continue to expect salvation from white knights with a charitable bent?
I think what it all comes back to for me is the issue of how I value my time. I am not a gamer by nature because I have so many other demands on my time; I avoid the types of games that would engage me in a fiction because I know (being an avid reader that can get lost in a book) that I could easily get too engrossed and lose track of other aspects of my life. It is this same ability to engage and engross, however, that leads me to an interest in these games from an academic point of view; I see the potential of these games to engage my students in their learning in a way that in-class instruction cannot approach. I've already outlined my game concept in a previous blog, and my readings have only served to confirm that I am heading in the right direction with my concept.
I appreciate the point made by Aldrich in Learning by Doing, in discussing the resources required to develop full simulations, and the fact that the system is reluctant to shell out the resources necessary to develop this type of game. How are we going to balance the ongoing budget constraints with the need to develop technologies that enhance and revitalize our teaching? Is it even possible to do so? He contends that there is money in the education field -- witness the billions of dollars being spent on education -- but is it possible to free this money up without impacting other crucial programs? Is education unrealistic to expect to reap the benefits of technology without having to invest the resources, or can we continue to expect salvation from white knights with a charitable bent?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
What of Prensky's GBL model would you keep in mind if you were about to develop a new game or conduct research on one?
Let me preface this by saying I'm not quite sure why the readings and assignment were the same from Week 4 to Week 5; as well, I am finding this book incredibly difficult to read. I don't usually have difficulty reading textbooks, and am more than able to digest and understand complex information. However, this book escapes me. I suspect my primary issue is that it consists of a great deal of inflated rhetoric, whose main objective seems to be to impress the reader with the writer's erudition and vast array of knowledge. I have no doubt that the writer is brilliant and a leader in the field; I also have no doubt that this is written with a very specific audience of colleagues in mind. I find it almost unapproachable, and consequently am getting nothing out of the readings at this point.
Since it seems to me that the main objective of this exercise is to get us thinking about the parameters of our game project, I will start there. My intent is not to design a game -- or at least, not to flesh one out. I do not have those capabilities. However, I am considering a premise for an online educational game based on a course which we teach here in British Columbia. It is a valid and worthwhile course, but it incorporates a great deal of information that many teachers (me included) feel should and could be learned outside of the classroom without eating up resources that could be better used for other subjects. It is a dumping ground course that covers many aspects of living life during the later secondary and post-secondary years: bullying, sex ed, career planning, educational planning, workplace safety, relationship issues -- every time we turn around, the government has added more to the curriculum in an attempt to address what I would consider the shortfalls of many parents.
It seems to me that such a course would be ideally suited to full adaptation to a Second Life-style arena. Students would generate an avatar, and would be directed through a series of learning experiences designed to mimic life choices and life experiences. This would be an incredibly complex game program to design, because each life choice made would generate a new series of life choices and life consequences, to which the student would have to adapt.
I would build into the program a "do over" aspect as well, so that students who reached a certain level in their chosen path could opt to go back to a certain decisive point in their path and choose a different course. I think this would have validity in that it would enable students to explore the consequences of more than one choice or action, giving them a deeper learning experience by reinforcing the concepts of choices and consequences. As well, I think it would serve to emphasize an important aspect of lifelong learning -- that you can continue to make new choices and head in new directions, or go back to a certain point sometimes and start over -- the point is to continue to develop and learn.
That's my reflection, for what it's worth.
Since it seems to me that the main objective of this exercise is to get us thinking about the parameters of our game project, I will start there. My intent is not to design a game -- or at least, not to flesh one out. I do not have those capabilities. However, I am considering a premise for an online educational game based on a course which we teach here in British Columbia. It is a valid and worthwhile course, but it incorporates a great deal of information that many teachers (me included) feel should and could be learned outside of the classroom without eating up resources that could be better used for other subjects. It is a dumping ground course that covers many aspects of living life during the later secondary and post-secondary years: bullying, sex ed, career planning, educational planning, workplace safety, relationship issues -- every time we turn around, the government has added more to the curriculum in an attempt to address what I would consider the shortfalls of many parents.
It seems to me that such a course would be ideally suited to full adaptation to a Second Life-style arena. Students would generate an avatar, and would be directed through a series of learning experiences designed to mimic life choices and life experiences. This would be an incredibly complex game program to design, because each life choice made would generate a new series of life choices and life consequences, to which the student would have to adapt.
I would build into the program a "do over" aspect as well, so that students who reached a certain level in their chosen path could opt to go back to a certain decisive point in their path and choose a different course. I think this would have validity in that it would enable students to explore the consequences of more than one choice or action, giving them a deeper learning experience by reinforcing the concepts of choices and consequences. As well, I think it would serve to emphasize an important aspect of lifelong learning -- that you can continue to make new choices and head in new directions, or go back to a certain point sometimes and start over -- the point is to continue to develop and learn.
That's my reflection, for what it's worth.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
What are your initial thoughts and concerns about game-based learning?
First off, let me say that I can't complete the reading because -- living in Canada -- I am still waiting for my textbooks to clear Customs and wend their way to my house. Unfortunately this has happened before, and the arrival is unpredictable at best. Doesn't matter how much in advance I order . . . it never seems to happen the same way twice. I've had at least two shipments never arrive, and never knew why.
So -- my initial thoughts and concerns about game-based learning. Thoughts first -- I can really see the applicability in my content area. In fact, this would have been really useful for Shakespeare last term, when we were doing Macbeth. I could see setting up a VR based in Scotland during the time of Macbeth, so that the students could take roles and see how the characters' lives were impacted by the political, social, and economic environments. I can also see its applicability and huge value in social studies -- for the same reasons. Much easier to "live" the life than to just read about it. Learning sticks with you when you can experience it. I need to learn more about how it all runs, though, before I could even begin to approach being able to design and implement my own "world".
My main concern with game-based learning, however, comes from my recent experiences in dealing with my current district's tech department, and the complications the lack of technology caused for my students. Our district does not support wi-fi, and the computers they have in the schools are for the most part slow and tired. Streaming video and gaming bogs down the system to the point of being cumbersome; in fact, bandwidth can be such an issue that even if you aren't gaming, sometimes all the students can't access a particular website if you have more than a set number of students in your class. I started a wiki for my students last term. Initially they had difficulty with it, because the browser in place at the school was outdated, and wouldn't allow all the functions of the chosen wiki site. I couldn't download and install the newer version of the browser myself (which would have taken a little time, but not much!) because all the computers are in "deep freeze" -- no one is allowed to download and store. I understand the reasoning behind this, but when your tech department takes months to respond to requests for technology, it can be a bit much. However, they did install the much-needed browser update during Christmas break, which did help. So my first concern in game-based learning is the technology, hardware, and software available in our school.
Secondly, certain sites are blocked at the district level, so I would have to gain clearance for use of game-based sites if they had been deemed unsuitable by the district tech department for whatever reason. Individual schools as well block certain sites -- Facebook, for example -- so there is a second level of clearance that needs to be addressed before I could institute game-based learning.
My final concern would be access to the technology outside of class time. If I were to require game-based learning and assign homework based participation in the game, it would create serious issues for some of our students. Not all of our students have home computer access; some that do still only have dial-up service, which is unable to cope with the demands of online gaming access. I ran into this problem with my wiki as well, as some of my students could only work on their wiki pages at school, due to home computer issues. And though I would love to be able to accomplish all of the computer-based learning during class time, the problem arises of limited computer access at the schools. Most of our high schools have at best one or two computer labs, and a handful of computers in the library; during certain terms and certain times of the year, the labs are virtually inaccessible, as there is competition among the teachers for lab time. Certain courses -- particularly those which are computer-based such as Info Tech -- take precedence over academic courses which don't necessarily "need" the computer.
So although I am intrigued by the concept of game-based learning, I am hesitant to commit to incorporating it in my instruction, because of the concerns I have over its viability in my current system.
So -- my initial thoughts and concerns about game-based learning. Thoughts first -- I can really see the applicability in my content area. In fact, this would have been really useful for Shakespeare last term, when we were doing Macbeth. I could see setting up a VR based in Scotland during the time of Macbeth, so that the students could take roles and see how the characters' lives were impacted by the political, social, and economic environments. I can also see its applicability and huge value in social studies -- for the same reasons. Much easier to "live" the life than to just read about it. Learning sticks with you when you can experience it. I need to learn more about how it all runs, though, before I could even begin to approach being able to design and implement my own "world".
My main concern with game-based learning, however, comes from my recent experiences in dealing with my current district's tech department, and the complications the lack of technology caused for my students. Our district does not support wi-fi, and the computers they have in the schools are for the most part slow and tired. Streaming video and gaming bogs down the system to the point of being cumbersome; in fact, bandwidth can be such an issue that even if you aren't gaming, sometimes all the students can't access a particular website if you have more than a set number of students in your class. I started a wiki for my students last term. Initially they had difficulty with it, because the browser in place at the school was outdated, and wouldn't allow all the functions of the chosen wiki site. I couldn't download and install the newer version of the browser myself (which would have taken a little time, but not much!) because all the computers are in "deep freeze" -- no one is allowed to download and store. I understand the reasoning behind this, but when your tech department takes months to respond to requests for technology, it can be a bit much. However, they did install the much-needed browser update during Christmas break, which did help. So my first concern in game-based learning is the technology, hardware, and software available in our school.
Secondly, certain sites are blocked at the district level, so I would have to gain clearance for use of game-based sites if they had been deemed unsuitable by the district tech department for whatever reason. Individual schools as well block certain sites -- Facebook, for example -- so there is a second level of clearance that needs to be addressed before I could institute game-based learning.
My final concern would be access to the technology outside of class time. If I were to require game-based learning and assign homework based participation in the game, it would create serious issues for some of our students. Not all of our students have home computer access; some that do still only have dial-up service, which is unable to cope with the demands of online gaming access. I ran into this problem with my wiki as well, as some of my students could only work on their wiki pages at school, due to home computer issues. And though I would love to be able to accomplish all of the computer-based learning during class time, the problem arises of limited computer access at the schools. Most of our high schools have at best one or two computer labs, and a handful of computers in the library; during certain terms and certain times of the year, the labs are virtually inaccessible, as there is competition among the teachers for lab time. Certain courses -- particularly those which are computer-based such as Info Tech -- take precedence over academic courses which don't necessarily "need" the computer.
So although I am intrigued by the concept of game-based learning, I am hesitant to commit to incorporating it in my instruction, because of the concerns I have over its viability in my current system.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
About Me
Hi, I'm Lisa McElroy Hunter, although at some point in this term I'll be dropping the Hunter (when I finally get all the massive amounts of paperwork completed!) I have essentially completed all of my coursework for my master of science in education technology, but there were still a couple of courses that I wanted to take while I work on completing my thesis.
I am a single mother with three sons, ages 14, 12, and 10. These are my boys in the photo, taken at Mt. St. Helens in the summer of 2008. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, and graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor of arts in English. I went on to obtain my teaching certificate from Western Washington, married and moved to Canada with my Canadian husband. We have since divorced, and I find myself wanting to move back home to Seattle . . . so if anyone hears of a good position, please let me know!
I am an avid soccer player. That is probably an understatement. Throughout the year, I average about three or four games a week. In the winter, I play indoor soccer. I coach soccer for at least one of my sons every spring -- sometimes two teams -- and have coached high school girls' soccer during the same season as well for the past three years. So spring can be kind of hectic, between coaching and playing (I think I'm in three divisions this year!) I have played in two World Masters Games, most recently in Sydney in October 2009, where I played for the Kiwi Miskicks, a team out of New Zealand. I also play in alternate years in Australia at the Pan Pacific Masters Games for the Perth Strikers out of Perth, Western Australia. I have already been invited to the next World Masters Games in Turin, Italy, in 2013 by two teams -- so this time I'll have to choose. I love to travel, so I never turn down an opportunity to combine the two! In the picture, I'm the one in blue -- my NZ team kit.
Currently, I am between teaching contracts. I completed a contract last week in upper-level English and art. I still have some wrapping up to do -- finishing my marks, getting all the assignments flogged out of my students, and so forth -- so I'll be in and out of the school for a few more days yet. If I don't end up getting a contract, it simply means back onto the sub list here, which isn't a bad thing -- subs here actually get paid quite well, at times better than on contract (but without the benefits).
That about sums it up. I'm looking forward to a new term and new ideas!
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