Below I am going to share my thoughts on this Ted talk.
First
the most powerful statistic to me was that of the 10,000 hours and
reference to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. I read Gladwell’s Outliers and
remember thinking to myself after reading that section what it would
have taken for me to be a virtuoso at multiple things. I thought if I
studied economics at an earlier age perhaps I could have solved tribal
divisions in Africa and their logistics problem. I thought if I devoted
my 10,000 hours to business I could have been a mogul. I thought more
about time wasted sleeping in, being lazy, and looking for shortcuts.
That brutal honesty is what haunted me when I started to think about
the 10,0000 hour theory. It was more haunting when McGonigal discussed
the parallel track for education. My initial thought was of the power
that could be harnessed by combining the 10,000 hours people are already
devoting to their “productive downtime” in gaming with education.
Publishers are the ones in my opinion squandering the opportunity to
engage their customers and players with educational opportunities within
their games. We need the infinity wards, Treyarchs,
Bungies,Activisions and other gaming publishers to produce something
that can be both money making, fun and educational. In my previous posts
the thought of tangential learning is at the forefront of this
possibility, but their lies even more opportunity than that. Something
that could be for the greater good on all levels. That parallel exists,
but right now it exists as a lost opportunity for publishers to give
back on a societal level. We should demand more from them, after all,
look at we are giving them. 5 years of eight hour days with weekends off
( for some). Those were some initial reactions to this inspiring call
to arms video. Below I will answer some specific questions we were
asked.
The
first question we were asked was can play and learning be combined. I
generally don’t like to answer anything with a definitive answer. One
thing economics has taught me was that a 360 degree approach to
everything is often the safest bet to see all sides of a statement or
issue. I’m going to break that rationale approach and say with 100
percent confidence play and learning can not only be combined, but
should be combined. The only reasoning I can offer is through the day to
day learning my three month year old daughter and I give each other.
Everything we do with Brielle is based on play which came as the
suggestion from our pediatric doctor. Play is really a key component in
her development. She is learning everything for now through play, so my
opinion is play and learning should be combined especially given its
importance in early childhood development. I guess a question that
remains is, what happens when we grow up that starts to deviate from
learning through play. I don’t think we stop learning through play,
maybe the lessons we learn are just different. I’m not sure if that
even makes sense except in my own mind. What I mean is, I understand
that collaboration., teamwork, and communication are all skills we learn
and develop through play, but as a child, play is used for essential
skills. What if we use play for essential career skills, or academic
skills? Play to create some sort of specific meaning that has powerful
real world achievements, not that teamwork, communication, and
collaboration aren’t powerful real world achievements, but how many
players take notice that these are skills being gained through play?
What role does acknowledging progress play in successful gaming and is their transfer to education?
Another
powerful statement in the video was the suggestion that many people
escape to virtual worlds because of the constant positive feedback.
Progress of play speaks to us directly and psychologically. In a
classroom that is perhaps not gamified one thing I fear is maybe a
traditionalist (not that its a bad thing, every teacher and style is
different) effect of teaching that may remain. The mighty red pen with
all the items circled that were wrong or worse yet, only providing a
number on an exam and nothing else(meaning no feedback, positive
remarks, or encouragement just the number grade). Classrooms that run in
this manner are only providing achievement and progress through a
standard assumption of grading. A is good, B is okay, C is average, D
not good, F failure. Suppose that was the ONLY feedback students were
getting. These classrooms are missing the opportunity to keep students
engaged and working towards a goal on a constant basis. Instead they
may have to wait until an exam for the feeling of achievement (or
sometimes the opposite effect if the student does poorly on the exam).
Below is my attempt to be creative with the point i’m trying to make.
(please understand i’m not calling all educators and classrooms this
traditionalist style, unfortunately my fear is some do still exist)
Achievement
is a benchmark like rungs of a ladder, the further you climb the closer
you get to your goal. When climbing a ladder that goal is the top. When
taking a class the top of the ladder is to achieve learning objectives
and standards. Now imagine a really really long ladder, one with 180
rungs. Your job is to climb the ladder to the 180th rung. Much like
students are to go to school for 180 days where I am from and at the end
of those 180 days the student passes to the next grade. Climbing this
ladder is challenging enough but now suppose you only received feedback
or the chance for positive remarks maybe every 30 rungs. At the 30th
rung you were tested and told whether or not you were on track to reach
the top of the ladder. Depending on the feedback maybe you’d be
motivated to keep going, maybe you wouldn’t. Maybe you’re losing focus,
or other things are starting to fight for your attention and climbing
the ladder is easily becoming a notion of secondary importance. Now
suppose at every rung of the ladder there was engagement that allowed
you to accomplish a challenge and reward you with points to level up.
Something that is positive that you felt you earned, better yet, you are
aware that the next rung is even better than the previous rung of the
ladder and all of a sudden getting to that next rung and eventually the
very top is an incredible challenge and task that you can’t wait to
accomplish. Instead of being motivated every 30 rungs, your motivated
every single one to get to the next. Rungs could be replaced by weeks or
days and the achievement motivation or positive progress can be used to
keep students engaged and progressing with interest daily.
Reflect
on Jane's 4 things that games do to make us "virtuosos": Urgent
Optimism, Social Fabric, Blissful Productivity, Epic Meaning.
The
first one is urgent optimism. I like to think of gamers as the “keep
calm press continue and game on” type personality. Dr. Angela Duckworth
labels this type of long term goal purusit as grit. “Grit: Perseverance
and Passion for Long-Term Goals” (Duckworth, Peterson, & Matthews,
2007)
I think the more we understand about GRIT and gamers the more we’ll see
optimism is truly a great bond many gamers have. For those who have
never had the help of a complete stranger while getting worked over by
the sith or watched people do good things for others in the virtual
world this may all not make any sense. Malcolm Gladwell once said“ to a
worm in horseradish the world is horseradish” To a non gamer this saying
will fit perfectly with those who think differently about the urgent
optimism characteristic. Blissful productivity is my second favorite
characteristic. To some lurkers that do not try to understand gaming
from a narrative or humanities standpoint, gaming is a time waste.
Those who game understand its like watching a 8 to 10 hour interactive
movie unfold. It’s more about solving puzzles and making tough
leadership decisions on the Normandy. It’s working with a friend in
Portal to find out the cake is a lie. To them It is not a mindless
relaxation. As matter of fact “Identifying a direct connection between
the stimulation of neural circuits and game play is a key step in
unlocking the potential for game-based tools to inspire positive
behavior and improve health,”said Brian Knutson, Ph.D., associate
professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University and
co-author of the article. Active involvement in video game play sparks
positive motivation in a way that watching and hearing information does
not,” said Steve Cole, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Development
at HopeLab, professor of medicine at the University of California, Los
Angeles http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9293984.htm
In
another study “After playing the shooter game, the changes in
electrical activity were consistent with brain processes that enhance
visual attention and suppress distracting information,” said Sijing Wu, a
Ph.D.
clearly
not mindless wasting. Not only is it blissful productivity to the
player who is engaged studies are showing it is also blissfully
productive on a neurological and motivational standpoint.
Overall
I think this video touches a large overarching call to arms . The small
nuances that can be used in everyday life through the power of gaming
came out of the larger picture as well. A society that games for a
better society seems like a noble cause to me. On par with that noble
cause is drawing attention to the camaraderie and human emotion virtual
worlds offer, which holds a question. Why are we the best version of
ourselves in video games and not in real life. Whether for education
purposes or societal purposes there is no doubt a lot can be learned
from studying online and gaming behavior.
References
Duckworth,
A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit:
Perseverance And Passion For Long-term Goals.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101.
Nauert, R. (n.d.). Active Video Gaming Changes Brain Waves | Psych Central News. Psych Central.com. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/04/27/active-video-gaming-changes-brain-waves/37927.html
Streeb, K. (n.d.). Video Games in the Brain: Study Shows How Gaming Impacts Brain Function to Inspire Healthy Behavior. PRWeb. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9293984.htm
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