This Week in Education and Serious Games

Are you a teacher looking to use online games in the classroom? Interested in issues relating to education and technology?

Check out this week’s top links!


1)  Assessment is always a hot topic in education!

In “Looking Where the Light is Bad,” J.P. Gee and D.W. Shaffer argue that we need to revolutionize the way we assess students by making tests more like games. According to them, our current forms of assessment, such as standardized testing, are no longer a relevant or accurate depiction of progress.

Accessible and engaging!
 

2) If you’re an educator looking to use games in the classroom, you might be interested in Thorkild Hanghoj and Rikke Magnussen’s “The Role of the Teacher in Facilitating Educational Games: Outlining a Game Pedagogy.”

While most papers focus on students' interaction with games, this paper takes a different approach by looking  at how the teacher’s role changes with games in the classroom!

It’s a bit heavy going, but if you’re interested in a different perspective on gaming and teaching it makes a fascinating read.


3) For something lighter, check out Oliver J. Chiang’s article “Video Games that Can Change the World.” It's a great overview of some the advances being made in the world of serious gaming. (You might also be interested in Jane McGonigal's talk, "Gaming Can Make a Better World"!)


4) OK, it’s Friday afternoon – time to kick back and watch a video. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Sir Ken Robinson’s classic TED talk on schools and creativity:





And finally, if you're interested in all things related to gaming, education, and technology be sure to check out the 7th Annual Games for Change Festival!


Have a link you would like to share? Let us know!

Collette Jackson, Content and Marketing Specialist at BlackCherry Digital Media, is writing on behalf of On the Path of the Elders, a free online educational resource that explores Cree and Ojibway history and culture, and the signing of Treaty No. 9.

Check out On the Path of the Elders at pathoftheelders.com.

For more information, email us at info@pathoftheelders.com.

Created in partnership with BlackCherry Digital Media, Archives Deschâtelets, the Doug Ellis Collection at Carleton University, Our Incredible World (Pinegrove Productions), the Mushkegowuk Council, Neh Naak Ko, the Archives of St. Paul University, Carleton University, and Wendy Campbell, Educational Consultant (Learning Methods Group).

This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy. Created with additional financial assistance from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Inukshuk Fund.

Interested in Online Games and Education? Check Out These Links!

All worn out from moose hunting, trapping, and canoeing on PathoftheElders.com?

Check out this week’s interesting articles on education, technology, and games!


1) Nicola Whitton’s blog about game-based learning is always a pleasure to read (Play Think Learn). This week she draws attention to a school (Quest to Learn) that has based its entire curriculum around gaming principles!


2) In a theoretical frame of mind? Check out Alex Kendall and Julian McDougall’s latest article, “Just Gaming: On Being Differently Literate,”  in Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture. They examine how players understand their role in the game’s story. (It’s heavy going, but the snippets from players’ journals make it worth the read!)


3) Deidre Kelaher explores the link between games, learning, and motivation in her blog post “The Effectiveness of Educational Gaming and the New Possibilities of Engaged Learning.” This is a fairly quick read that will give you some basic information about the benefits of using games in the classroom, and point you towards other resources.


4) Looking for something classic? Take a look at Marc Prensky’s article “The Seven Games of Highly Effective People.” Here the renowned expert on education and technology looks at how gaming contributes to the development of Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”


Have you come across an interesting video or article about education and technology that you want to share? Let us know!

Collette Jackson, Content and Marketing Specialist at BlackCherry Digital Media, is writing on behalf of On the Path of the Elders, a free online educational resource that explores Cree and Ojibway history and culture, and the signing of Treaty No. 9.

Check out On the Path of the Elders at pathoftheelders.com.

For more information, email us at info@pathoftheelders.com.

Created in partnership with BlackCherry Digital Media, Archives Deschâtelets, the Doug Ellis Collection at Carleton University, Our Incredible World (Pinegrove Productions), the Mushkegowuk Council, Neh Naak Ko, the Archives of St. Paul University, Carleton University, and Wendy Campbell, Educational Consultant (Learning Methods Group).

This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy. Created with additional financial assistance from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Inukshuk Fund.

A Case for Irrationality

Looking for a little inspiration? Check out Adora Svitak’s recent TED Talk, “What Adults Can Learn from Kids”:




Just twelve years old, Adora has published two books, been interviewed on numerous radio and television stations, and has had speaking engagements throughout the country.

And as if these accomplishments weren’t enough, last February Adora gave an impassioned and provocative speech at the TED 2010 conference, a prestigious event reserved for the world’s foremost thinkers and doers.

Standing alone in front of an audience filled with eminent scientists, artists, politicians, and intellectuals (the majority of them more than twice her age) she is calm, poised, and articulate -- a task most of us would find daunting.

In fact, the thought of giving a speech in front of a uniformly brilliant international audience at an event renowned for its intelligence and creativity is enough to make most of us want to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over our heads.

It is this fear, these self-imposed restrictions, that Adora’s speech addresses. She argues that adults need to learn from kids because kids haven’t yet learned to be rational. 

She asks, “who’s to say that certain types of irrational thinking aren’t exactly what the world needs? Maybe you’ve had grand plans before, but stopped yourself, thinking: That’s impossible, or that costs too much or that won’t benefit me. For better or worse, we kids aren’t hampered as must when it comes to thinking about reasons why not to do things.”

Kids are risk takers. They want to explore and learn. They haven’t learned to be afraid of failure. They haven’t learned to be afraid of taking the stage and voicing their ideas – until we teach them.

Adora draws a provocative comparison between top-down school systems and oppressive regimes:

“Now, adults seem to have a prevalently restrictive attitude towards kids from every ‘don’t do that,’ ‘don’t do this’ in the school handbook, to restrictions on school internet use. As history points out, regimes become oppressive when they’re fearful about keeping control. And, although adults may not be quite at the level of totalitarian regimes, kids have no, or very little, say in making the rules, when really the attitude should be reciprocal, meaning that the adult population should learn and take into account the wishes of the younger population.”

Of course, experience is vital. We need to grow up. A society of utterly naive and overly idealistic adults is as disturbing and dangerous as one full of hyper-rational and restrictive adults. However, Adora’s argument that adults and kids have things to learn from each other is important. We need to help kids gain the experience they need to be responsible and contributing adults, and we need to learn from kids how to dream.

It’s up to us to develop an education system that encourages kids to gain experience without losing their drive to achieve the impossible. After all, that’s who many of the speakers at TED are: adults who have refused to give up the capacity to imagine.

All too often we shape our dreams to fit reality, when what we really need to do is shape reality to fit our dreams. 

Education is constantly in flux. How should technology be integrated into the classroom, what is the best way to assess a child’s learning, is social media a help or hindrance to participatory learning – these are just some of the questions that struggling with. During the creation of On the Path of Elders, we were constantly trying to find ways to empower students and to encourage exploration, rather than risk aversion. 

But sometimes it’s refreshing to have a reminder of what we’re struggling for: while not every child may be a published author, mathematical genius, or musical prodigy, Adora Svitak represents future generations of citizens who are confident, hard-working, thoughtful, sincere, and passionate. If we dare to dream it.

Collette Jackson, Content and Marketing Specialist at BlackCherry Digital Media, is writing on behalf of On the Path of the Elders, a free online educational resource that explores Cree and Ojibway history and culture, and the signing of Treaty No. 9.

Check out On the Path of the Elders at pathoftheelders.com.

For more information, email us at info@pathoftheelders.com.

Created in partnership with BlackCherry Digital Media, Archives Deschâtelets, the Doug Ellis Collection at Carleton University, Our Incredible World (Pinegrove Productions), the Mushkegowuk Council, Neh Naak Ko, the Archives of St. Paul University, Carleton University, and Wendy Campbell, Educational Consultant (Learning Methods Group).

This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Canadian Culture Online Strategy. Created with additional financial assistance from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Inukshuk Fund.

“We have to start making the real world more like a game”

This is the revolutionary but easily overlooked statement Jane McGonigal makes during her Ted talk on how gaming can make a better world.

“We have to start making the real world more like a game”

Notice that she doesn’t say, “We have to start using gamers’ skills in the real world,” or “we need to figure out how gaming relates to real world activities”.

No. She says we need to start adapting our society to compliment the values and beliefs of gamers.

It’s not about bringing gamers into the real world; it’s about bringing the real world in line with gaming. 

Game-Based Learning: Revolutionary or Reactionary?

Do you “walk and use your feet” to get to work? Do you “work and write a report”?

Of course not. The “and” is self-evident.

So why do we use phrases like “education and technology” or “education and gaming”, as though gaming, technology, and education were entirely separate?

Why does education carry around this “and” like its very own force field?