Ali Carr-Chellman: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning

Many boys are having a hard time in school—they’re disproportionally suspended, marked as learning disabled, and diagnosed with ADHD. In this talk from TEDxPSU, Ali Carr-Chellman ponders whether this could be a simple culture clash. She shares a fascinating idea — that creating educational video games full of rich narratives could help boy culture connect with school culture.

As an avid video game player and believer that games can transform how our students view school, literature, the world and their lives, Ali-Carr Chellman makes a compelling argument for gaming to re-engage boys in learning.  Enjoy!

Making the Most of Parent/Teacher Conferences

These days are circled on our calendars!  We know that parent/teacher conferences are a busy time of the year for teachers and the amount of preparation that precedes the conversations between parents and teachers seems endless.  I have found ways to be more efficient in my preparation for conferences over the years, but I still understand that I will most likely lose my voice at the end of the night! 

My solution to a great night with parents: LET THE STUDENTS TO THE TALKING! 

Immediately after the end of the first quarter, I hand out a Standards Based Report Card (Think back to kindergarten when we all got these) to allow my students to think about and reflect on the skills they’ve mastered or still need to improve upon.  It’s a tough task for many, but these report cards set the stage for the conversations I have with most parents.  Instead of conversations about grades or missing homework, I let the students tell their parents about their level of mastery in my class.  For most parents, this is an eye-opening experience! 

While I use paper and pencil for this activity, many teachers in my school use an online resource called Blue Harvest.  Billed as “Assessment through Feedback”, Blue Harvest allows teachers and students to be in constant communication about their mastery of specific standards.  As an online tool that provides on-going assessment and feedback opportunities, there is nothing better. 

Consider some of these ideas as you begin your own parent/teacher conferences, and remember to let the students do the talking.

Call of Duty...Curse or Cure?

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Preparing for the biggest Call of Duty video game launch of all time, USA Today published an article on their website warning employers and teachers that workers and students might be “sick” on Tuesday.  As Call of Duty: Black Ops II hits shelves at midnight on Tuesday, the draw to play may be too great for some people and their work may suffer.  While I don’t see any of my students coughing or sneezing, I certainly am prepared for a few more absences than normal. 

From an administrative perspective, attendance is a major issue in schools and principals work tirelessly to improve attendance rates each day.  It might be our first reaction to fight against this type of event and force students to get away from the television and back in school.  However, I feel that teachers and administrators should take a hard look at why so many students will skip school to play a little video game.  And the answers, I assure you, go far beyond entertainment. 

·         Clear Objectives – We can post the standards on the board, hang the standards in our room, and they still just aren’t that clear.  And let’s be honest, many students fail to recognize how their mastery of standard will impact their future.  In a video game, the objectives are clear and concrete.  There is no gray area.  When you complete the objective you move to the next level.  If you don’t, then you start again until you have mastered the skills to move forward. 

·         Relevant and Rigorous Learning – After the clear objectives have been established, games require players to master skills that are relevant to their success in the given world.  While the time it takes for some players to master the skills necessary is far greater than other players, games have the ability to enhance rigor based on the player’s existing skill set.  From the easy level to the “hardcore” mode, players adapt to an increasingly difficult world each time they play.

·         Immediate Feedback and Adaptation – While schools do provide some incentive for getting to class every day, the benefits of coming to school every day aren’t necessarily visible until later in life.  With a video game, the benefits of showing up are immediate.  Students win, lose and adapt each minute in a video game and that immediate feedback is motivation to continue. 

Do these things exist in every school and classroom in this nation?  Absolutely!  So why don’t students wait in line for hours to get into our schools the same way they do in anticipation for a big game release? MOTIVATION!  Video games motivate people to risk failure but rewards them with upgrades and trophies for their successes.  Schools can do the same.  As teachers and administrators, we must consider why we are failing to motivate our students to be successful at school and why video games succeed in motivating our students to master complex sets of skills in the matter of hours.  Instead of spending our time cursing Call of Duty and similar games for ruining our perfect attendance, we might start looking to them as the cure for some of our most difficult problems. 

To see the entire USA Today article, go to http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2012/11/11/call-of-duty-sick-days/1694633/

Why We Play!

As I watched my daughter carve her first pumpkin over the weekend, I couldn't help but notice her intense focus and determination to make perfect cuts around the eyes and nose.  While her pumpkin ended up looking a little cross-eyed and lopsided, she was certainly happy with the outcome; she clapped and grinned sheepishly as we lit tea candles and turned out the lights.  However, as I watched her carve, I realized that she was simply playing.  She had never carved a pumpkin before; this was all trial and error for her.  But when she started playing, with no real consequences in mind, she created a product that she was proud of.

Similar situations NEED to be presented in our classrooms!  In his article "Why We Play: How Our Desire for Games Shapes our World", Ben Reeves discusses why people of all ages are attracted to playing video games and how that attraction affects the real world.  He goes on to mention three "invisible needs" that people have that explains their desire for play: the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. 

While I do provide my students with opportunities to play video games in my classroom, all teachers can find a way to "gamify" their classrooms to reach the needs of their students. And, moreover, these are the needs that drive much of the real world. 

In the end, Reeves says, "When used correctly, video games hold the potential to show us the world through a different set of lenses - to craft experiences that engage both cognitively and socially and ultimately make us feel like an active participant in shaping our destiny".  This sounds exactly like what I want my students to do everyday...to feel like they are a participant in shaping their destiny. 

To read Reeves' full article "Why We Play: How Our Desire for Games Shapes our World" go to www.gameinformer.com. 

Teaching with Games: The New Literature

"To be Mario or not to be Mario.  That is the question!"

Reflecting on the Great Literature Great Games summer course I taught this year, I have come to some very interesting conclusions about my own teaching and education in general. 

• Video Games are the new literature! - While the majority of my students took my summer class because they liked to play video games, I found that they enjoyed spending time reading games as text.  In most cases, the students were more critical of character and story development in the games we played in class than they were of the literature we read in the class. 
• Flipped Classrooms Work! - Meeting with my students face-to-face only twice a week, with all other work being done online in forums, I felt that the discussions and analysis we had in class was much richer.  Students came to class to apply what they had learned from the previous day's online assignments. 
• Video Games are a Part of the Culture of this Generation! - Whether we like it or not, this generation reaches out to video games more than any generation before them.  With social gaming, online gaming, and console gaming all competing for the attention of kids, it's no wonder that they would rather talk about games than literature.  And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing! 

In the end, this was an amazing course and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to teach it.  My students this summer were wonderful and the overall objectives of the class were met beyond my expectations. 

Stay tuned for more about teaching with games. 

Genre vs. Game Type - Week 4

Week four in Great Literature Great Games is more of a synthesis week than anything.  While our notes centered around the different types of video games (FPS, Action, Platformer, etc.) and genre, our discussion moved towards the conventions that specify literature and games into specific genres. 

We focused on Post-Apocalyptic and Western genre this week.  Playing the games Fallout 3, Metro 2033 and Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon, students were able to identify the conventions that qualify these games in the post-apocalyptic genre.  With mentions of desolation, destruction, isolation, survival and despair, the students were able to see and interact with this world. 

Playing the games Red Dead Redemption, Call of Juarez, and Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, students were able to identify the conventions that qualify these games in the western genre.  With discussion of stock characters and long, sweeping landscapes, students were able to interact with the world of the western genre. 

Classroom Practice: Read the short stories "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" and give students time to identify what conventions make these stories uniquely post-apocalyptic and uniquely western.  After a short discussion and analysis of the stories, allow the students time to play the games mentioned above.  Are the same conventions present in the games that were present in the stories?  How are they used differently/similarly? 

Stay tuned for my Week 4 reflection!  And feel free to comment below.

The Hero's Journey - Week 3

The Hero's Journey

Week 3 in Great Literature Great Games is focused on an intense study of Narrative Paradigm and Archetypes.  While planning for this class, a college professor friend and I had many discussions about games and their ability to tell stories.  Through our conversations, we found ourselves referencing Walter Fisher's work with narrative paradigm; we ultimately decided that games, just like literature, are mediums through which people tell their stories.  The problem, from a teacher's perspective at least, is does the game story have as much "merit" as traditional literature and, furthermore, who determines its merit? 

By examining Joseph Cambell's Hero Journey archetype, students were able to put a framework on the games that they were playing in class.  While it was easy to assume that game designers, because of their excellent creativity, develop stories out of thin air, it was even easier for my students to see how game designers start with archetypes such as the Hero's Journey and populate their games with archetypal characters.  Going even deeper, my students discussed how games, because of their interactivity, have the ability to go beyond the archetype's structure and add layers that traditional literature just cannot. 

Classroom Practice: Consider the PSN downloadable game Journey or the PS3 game Resistance 3 as prime examples of games that follow the archetypal situation of the long journey home.  With this game in mind, students could examine how closely the game follows that structure and how the characters reflect the story.  (Resistance 3 is an "M" rated game.)

Stay tuned for more literature and game discussion!