How can we make learning in and out of school, with or without using games, more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning principles young people see in good games every day when and if they are playing these games reflectively and strategically? (Gee, p. 11)Now the rubber hits the road for me. The idea of engaging students in collaborative, strategic, self-motivated, creative learning is foundational to my idea of what a chemistry classroom should look like, sound like and feel like. Of course, these characteristics of what it means to be a learner span across disciplines and maybe that should be enough for me to bring video games out of my "don't know, don't care" bin and explore their usability for supplementing my teaching of how to be a critical thinker and a producer (Gee, p. 5-6) as a learner. These games may actually provide students with a more concrete understanding of what these words mean and a low-stakes venue for practicing them.
One game that I explored is called Urgent Evoke, an online comic-style game, that builds upon itself weekly with new "episodes" that can be investigated by the player before the player takes on a mission to save the world from crises, such as famines.
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| Urgent Evoke, Episode One: A Crash Course in Saving the World |
Much like our MAC professors, Urgent Evoke emphasizes the 21st century skills and habits that the game makers hope to develop in their players. In the How To section of the game, the gamer is told that "Evoke powers are the skills and abilities you need to change the world:
Collaboration Courage Creativity Entrepreneurship Local Insight Knowledge Networking Resourcefulness Spark Sustainability Vision
There is little that I would add to this list other than perseverance. If we are trying to plant a seed of interdisciplinary-mindedness in our students in order to lay a foundation for them to be adept at transferring skills and habits across disciplines within and out of the classroom, then games like Urgent Evoke may have some merit to today's teachers.
I look forward to considering more deeply with the class and with anyone who would like to share their thoughts here about the explicit use of video games in the learning process. My verdict is still out on this, but maybe that's not the suggestion. Rather I as teachers am being invited to consider the range of possibilities for helping our students extend their ideas out of my chemistry classroom and into the math, English and economics classrooms as well (and into the larger community). I look forward to exploring the possibly lower-budget uses of technology in the classroom, such as free online video games, podcasts and Diigo. James Paul Gee has opened up my thinking to the idea that video games have more merit for learning than I supposed!
Laura, I'm happy to read that Gee's ideas intrigued you, and I appreciate the connection you made between his essay and Jane McGonigal's "Urgent Evoke," both in terms of the intellectual/affective challenges that her game foregrounds (as one example) and also because her game is a truly intriguing attempt to put the energy and ingenuity of young people in the service of pro-social purposes. You might enjoy her TED Talk on this topic. She engages in some of the work that you engage in and report on here, where the experience of playing a good game is pulled into its component parts and named. In a very real sense, this is what we as teachers do when we assess, and I think that there's a powerful case to be made for the value of engaging students in looking at their own experiences through the lens of questions like: "what did I learn?" "what was the nature of that experience?' and "what did I do/make use of/invoke?"
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you talk about working past your preconceived notions of video games. I also like the connection you made to teaching chemistry and how the ideas expressed by Gee can be incorporated into your practice. I've never heard of Urgent Evoke but it sounds like a great way to develop critical thinking and decision making skills! Perhaps there's an episode you can find that relates to something to do with chemistry. I was thinking about the famine episode you mentioned and how I could potentially incorporate that into environmental science. What factors go into loss of land for growing food and how does that affect our environment? Thanks for the ideas!
Laura,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, on a kind of completely not video games & learning note, I'd like to say that your blog posts are always so fun to read! I like the connections you made to the Gee text. I think that was the most interesting quote from the Gee text as well. Before reading his paper I had never thought about video games as devices to practice the same skills or abilities we use in learning. The Urgent Evoke game sounds like it is a good game to help facilitate those 21st century skills and its great to see all these connections from class coming together in your posts. Actually I also see some parallels between the game and education for sustainability: needing to work interdisciplinary to solve a problem! Thanks for sharing some awesome connections!
It's really amazing the power video games hold in regards to attracting student interest and engagement. I agree with you that there is some difficulty in determining how to explicitly use video games in our practice. One thing I am certain of is how developing a knowledge of video games can help us as educators to gain insight on the interests of our students. A specific example was illustrated during the summer program. One of the students began this program as a very shy individual and I could hardly get the student to talk very much. However, when this student found out about my interest in video games, we ended up talking (well mostly the student) for a good half an hour about one specific video game. I feel that even if we don't end up applying aspects of video games to our practice, having some knowledge of it could be useful in connecting with the interests of our students. Thanks for your post Laura!
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