XplanaZine

1984 was a significant year in many regards, and not just because of the title of George Orwell’s novel. Among other things, it was the first year of democracy in Argentina after eight years of oppressive military rule.

I was living in Argentina in 1984. I was a graduate student at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and I had the opportunity to witness first hand how students handled freedoms they had never had before. I watched and journaled as they participated in their first student elections, held massive protests, and seized every opportunity to challenge tradition and authority.

Some might describe that year as fairly chaotic, but it really wasn’t for those on the inside. One of the forces that prevented it from unraveling completely was the professors themselves. They were much older and had lived through a number of government changes in their lifetimes. They had been involved in their own protests as youth and had opposed the most recent military government in their own ways. They may have thought the new democracy was a tenuous and too-good-to-believe gift, but they did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the students who were experiencing it for the first time. In fact, they did just the opposite. They mentored the students, cooperated with them on choosing times and places for University protests, and worked closely with student organizations to integrate the politics into the learning.

The teachers all understood the relevance and importance of the moment for the students. And, while not all professors participated equally, none gave any opposition to this student experiment in democracy.

In the end, that was the difference between a mess and a meaningful moment.

I’ve always been mindful of that year as I’ve worked with students. I’ve tried to balance big events and sociopolitical happenings with the educational task at hand. Whether the issue was student support for striking workers in 1988 or war protests in 2006, I’ve made every effort to use real events and real feelings to help students develop important critical thinking skills.

Of course, I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t work actively with my students to find their own intelligent and personal voice. After all, one of the lessons I’ve taught in every class over the last twenty-five years is this — if you see someone doing something STUPID, you have a moral obligation to stop, point your finger in the appropriate direction, and say, “That’s STUPID!” Think of it as Responsible Citizenship 101.

Another thing I learned by living in and studying dictatorships transitioning to democracies, is that it’s often hard for people to admit that their own government can do really STUPID things — no matter how STUPID the actions may be. After all, this is the same government that provides for their needs and serves as the anchor for much of their identity. No one wants to believe that the same government is incompetent when it comes to large and important decisions or plans.

When it comes to education in the United States (my country), my personal feeling is that our government has made incompetent decisions and is doing some particularly STUPID things. Others may or may not agree with me, but whether they do or not makes no difference. My personal integrity requires that I point my finger and say, “NCLB (or another plan) is really STUPID!” To do so is my moral obligation.

As an educator, expressing my own personal and intelligent voice can help my students find theirs. It keeps me honest and helps me turn messes into meaningful moments.

I don’t know what the solution is to our problems. I like the ideas being shared about new stories and flat classrooms. But I liked Steve Forbes idea about flat taxes too and that never happened.

From a teaching and learning point of view, however, the actual solution is less important than our willingness to shout out loud that the current system is STUPID and that something must be done. Until we are willing to do that, and until we are willing to suffer the consequences for saying such out loud, we are will lack to common ground necessary for effecting real change.

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We track a number of trends related to gaming here at XplanaZine. The purpose for this research is to find patterns that help us anticipate the emergence of online gaming as a pervasive learning model in K-20 education. Currently, my prediction is that this phenomenon will begin manifesting itself overtly in late 2007, with a transformative explosion occurring in 2008-2009. By 2010, I expect gaming (or experiential learning through play and discovery) to be an accepted and primary paradigm for education in the K-20 markets.

Having said that, I am not unaware of the common struggles that many are facing with regards to the introduction of blogs, wikis and other new technologies into traditional education structures. Yes, there is resistance to change. Yes, given a choice, people would rather keep doing what they always have rather than introduce any kind of novelty into the equation. So, if there is resistance to new technology in education, and if people would rather not change in the first place, how is it that I am so bullish on such radical change involving new technologies?

The answer requires a multi-part discussion that deals with (at the very least least): historical trends and evolution, markets, platforms, pedagogy, and product design and definition. It is that answer that will serve as a general framework for a new series of articles here on XplanaZine. Each Saturday, for the next two months, I will address the topic of gaming in education. I’ll focus on the ideas and products that are shaping this emerging learning model and the developments that are informing my own predictions. It is my hope that these posts will stimulate a wide variety of comments and thinking on the subject. Today’s article provides some useful definitions and discusses the basic differences between simulations and games.

As a brief introduction to this series, I want to share some useful definitions and a general outline of my thinking. To begin with I would like to talk about how I define gaming and how it is different from what many refer to as simulations.

Online gaming in education implies experiential, discovery-driven learning through play. Whether we are talking about game-based reading intervention programs or role-playing multi-player Business games, my definition of educational gaming insists that several components be present:

• play/fun
• a personal experiential framework
• an impetus for discovery
• a core learning purpose with some stated outcomes

Note that this definition is more abstract and philosophical. For further clarification, this definition assumes the requisite five essential elements of online games in general (not necessarily related to education):

• collections
• scores and ranking
• feedback
• social exchange and collaboration
• personalization

Simulations, one possible sub-component of gaming, are task-replication exercises. They may be pretty sophisticated task replication exercises — think of full-scale flight simulators and elaborate stock market simulations — but they are nonetheless limited in terms of gaming. That is because simulations are something a person does. The focus is on the specific skill or task and, often, simulations try to recreate the task environment as perfectly as possible (think of MS Office simulations). The last thing we want users to do in these simulations is to use their imagination or focus on something that would distract them form the task being simulated. The whole purpose of the simulation is to experience the surface of reality in such a way that if feels authentic. This authenticity is created by the detail of the simulation itself.

Games, on the other hand, are something a person becomes. They are experiential, and unlike simulations, insist that players bring their imagination to the experience and participate in the formation of the environment. Games may or may not create a “real” surface reality and are not inherently concerned that the game reality correspond directly to the players’ reality. Since games are about personal experience, they emphasize strong emotional identification and, therefore, employ devices such as role playing and story-driven structures.

This distinction is critical in education. In Higher Education in particular, most early work in “gaming” has stopped at the simulation level. We have created virtual environments that allow uses to hone their skills on specific applications or tasks. From a learning perspective, we have focused on exit exams (written) or practical demonstrations of skill acquisition.

There has been very little work, however, in developing more immersive learning environments that focus on story, role playing, and the seamless integration of learning objectives into the game framework. There are only a handful of products that are designed to get learners to learn in spite of themselves, to motivate them to study without even realizing they are participating in a learning activity. These learning games may feature embedded simulations but they are much larger in scope, imagination, and learning experience than any simulation can ever be. In teaching vernacular, a learning game is an entire course while a simulation is an activity or, at best, a course unit.

Such learning games are few for a number of reasons (which we will be discussing in the upcoming weeks). The biggest philosophical obstacle is that, in order to create them, you have to be willing to believe that the story element is more important than the information we are asking students to process. Game creators must be committed first and foremost to story and character, and they must understand intuitively that strong story and characters will produce in learners a more effective and permanent internalization of course information.

Next week, I’ll give a general overview of the gaming industry as well as provide an introduction to gaming in education.

Is it important for a kid’s Xanga to be private? Yes, by all means. While Xanga does act as a social network, many use it as an online journal or diary. No teenager ever wants their diary read, especially by their parents. That is usually one of the most unforgivable offenses a parent can make. When parents read Xanga’s they may not always like what they see, but usually all of the “bad stuff” is merely venting on the kid’s part. My friend’s mom read her Xanga all the time, so my friend just kept creating a new Xanga each time her mom found it. If parents insist on reading their children’s Xangas, the children will find ways to outsmart the parents. If a parent is really concerned or just curious, they should ask their kid if they can read the Xanga. The teenager will probably refuse because it is their personal journal, but occasionally, if a parent asks nicely, the kid will let them see it or at least explain how it works. I can only think of one or two extreme situations where it is okay for a parent to read their kid’s Xanga without their permission, and both of those involve police and jail time. As long as parents spend time with their kids and are involved in their lives, there is no reason for a parent to read a Xanga.

Don’t kids put a lot of inappropriate material on their Xangas? How can that be good?

Kids curse, scream, play disgusting music and post dirty jokes on their Xangas all the time. But if they do that on Xanga they probably do that in real life too when they’re with their friends. Since it is like a journal some kids let loose more than others and get a little out of control. But really it’s all just a special kind of venting which helps teenagers get through their whole rebellious phase that must quicker. What’s important to understand is that Xanga isn’t a place where kids act any differently than they usually do when they are not in the presence of their parents. If a kid is cussing all the time in his Xanga than he probably does the same all the time when his parents aren’t around. Xanga is merely a reflection of who a person is. It’s not always good but it is pretty accurate.

What do you say about all the concerns parents have regarding safety on the Internet? Is Xanga safe?

The concerns of parents about Internet safety are not unfounded. The anonymity of the Internet is a double-edged sword. A child may think they are talking to another kid their age in a different state or country, but it’s always possible that they are talking to a forty-year-old child molester. The only safety tips I can offer to parents are these:

1. Keep your children away from chat rooms
2. Discuss the importance of never giving away any personal information to anyone online.

Xanga is probably one of the most safe blogging sites I’ve come across. Its purpose is not to connect a kids with other kids from all over, only to their friends that they already know. Only a kid’s friends know their Xanga name and site because only a kid’s friends really care about what’s going on in their life. Having said that, I did take it upon myself to try to go out and find some “bad” stuff on Xanga. It took me about ten minutes — which is an extraordinarily long time to search a huge server like Xanga — before finding something bad. I mean I did find stuff, but the point is I had to hunt for it. And the reality is that if you look for bad stuff anywhere on the Web you’re eventually going to find it. The bottom line is that I’ve uised a bunch of blogging sites as a teenager and, in my opinion Xanga is one of the safest blogging sites currently in existence.