Gaming and the Classroom: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Here is a topic I can really sink my teeth into! Games have been a part of my life since 1985 when my dad brought home an original NES. I still remember back when we first tried to play a two player game of Super Mario Brothers, and we could not figure out who this Luigi character was and why he was not moving. Being the genius that I was at age 3, it took me a half an hour to figure out that you had to plug in the second controller...

While I have learned from my video game mishaps, video games were a major part of my life up until the last few years due to my doctoral program. I still try to play, but lately I have not been able to even spare 15 minutes of a weekend. Just in case my readers are curious, I thought I would include a list of my top 10 favorite games of all time just so you can see where I am coming from. I love all of the Super Mario Brothers games, so I will leave them off the list since there are so many. In no particular order...

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Super Metroid
Resident Evil 4
Bioshock
Mega Man 2
Fallout
Super Tecmo Bowl
Final Fantasy 3
Earth Bound
Chrono Trigger
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
TMNT 2
Duck Tales
Secret of Mana
Banjo-Kazooie
Pikmin 2

OK, top 16 games...

In reading the commentary by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi dealing with flow, a lightbulb clicked in my head as to why I like playing these games. As an experiment for my EIT class, I set aside an hour to play a game that I have never played before. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Bioshock game, and I had always wanted to play the second. Up to this point, I have not been disappointed. In fact, my hour turned into 6 in no time. The following is a look at most of the categories contained in the flow as related to Bioshock 2.


One of the major hooks that I enjoy about gaming is the story. I think about gaming as a more involved book. I am constantly wanting to know what will happen next. Bioshock 2 sucks you in from the start. As the player, you are basically alone in a vast city built underneath the ocean. There are other characters to interact with, but most of them are so far gone as far as sanity goes that not much talking is done. The city used to be a thriving community, but has sinse been left in ruin. The feeling of being on your own and exploring this unknown location is what does it for me. This is similar to how I felt about the first 3 seasons of Lost when the island and the places on the island were such a mystery. When looking at the parts of the flow, this takes care of the following categories:


Action and awareness are merged
Distractions are excluded from consciousness
Self-consciousness disappears
The sense of time becomes distorted
The activity becomes ‘autotelic’ – meaning it is an end in itself


Bioshock 2 is a combination of linear and open-ended exploration. I enjoy this about a game because while I feel like I can go almost anywhere and explore, I know what my main objective is keeping me on track. How I go about that objective is usually up to me.


There are clear goals every step of the way


Bioshock 2 has many ways of indicating your progress. For starters, you have a health meter letting you know your status. Windows also pop up indicating whether a goal was achieved or botched. This feedback is generally subtle, but enough to let you know how you are progressing.


There is immediate feedback to your actions


I will admit that the challenge versus frustration topic is one that I have mixed feelings about. Bioshock 2 is very forgiving, in the sense that your death does not set you back as much as you would think. If you run out of health, you are transported to the nearest chamber and are resuscitated with little penalty. While I do appreciate this, the difficulty can seem easy at times. On the contrary, any game in the original Mega Man serious would make most kids nowadays cry because of the sheer challenge. I have grown up in both eras and probably prefer the more difficult, but that may just come down to the type of person you are.


There is a balance between challenges and skills


As a teacher, I carry over my experience with games into the classroom. Students enjoy games being tied to their learning. I can say this confidently as a user of games for 7 years in the classroom. There are many challenging, problem-solving games that I like to use to get the students thinking. Some of these games include Liquid Measure 2, Bloxorz, and Cargo Bridge. These games are very challenging but fair, invoke large amounts of thinking to succeed, provide immediate feedback, are able to hold a student's attention. While I can tie each of these games into some sort of mathematical topic, they are not necessarily content specific.


This is one of my problems with gaming in education. When I want something specifically related to a mathematical topic, the games available are bland and boring. About the only one of the flow's bullet points hit in most of these educational games is the feedback. In looking at a previous post by Scott McLeod, I was embarrassed to see that the first picture of a game in this blog about "games sucking" is a game I use to try to hit computation standards. Good old Math Baseball! I don't know if there is anything terrible about Math Baseball, but it certainly does not invoke the flow out of my students. It is my hope that someone will create better educational games that students can get into and enjoy. 


As an avid, or formerly avid gamer, I fully believe in the power of games to provide a proper challenge, set clear goals, give instant feedback, and immerse students in a world outside of their own. I will continue to support gaming in hopes that others will catch on. What are your thoughts on gaming in the classroom? Do you see this as a viable learning tool for education? What are the views of individuals without a gaming background? I know a lot of my fellow teachers see games as educational fluff. 

3 Ways a Flat Classroom can Revolutionize Education

In order for education to change, innovations must be made that are initially slow to catch on, find their niche, and eventually turn the current system upside down. This idea was presented by Clayton Christensen in his book, Disrupting Class. The following are three ways that I see the the flat classroom, or global connectivity for all students, catching on through the context of education for my students.

1. Global Perspective

Living in a small town can be as pleasant as it is isolating. In a school that (most years) is 100% white, problems can occur with the unknown. Most of my students are not aware of what is possible outside of the walls of the classroom, and technology could open their eyes and put their thoughts to work. The ability to communicate and collaborate with a variety of people can expand their minds and broaden their viewpoints to see ideas in different ways.

2. Class Selection

I feel that our district does a great job with what is available to expand the offerings available to our students. We have a partnership with Hawkeye Community College as well as Project Lead the Way. One of our students has participated in various mathematics courses through Stanford University. However, so many opportunities still exist. This process of expanding education could occur with an obscure course that we do not offer, or an something totally independent from the district initiated by a parent or student. Educational opportunities have never been more readily available.

3. Making Learning More Meaningful

Within the walls of a traditional classroom, you can only make experiences so real. You can create fictitious projects that mimic real-life, but following through with all the objectives and details can be almost impossible. I want what is best for my students, and the idea of a flat classroom can make education meaningful. I have a project where we discuss the relationship between surface area and volume, and put it in the context of a food company. What size box should they make to hold the product necessary, but save money on production costs? Wouldn't it be great to actually work with a company to see what they are looking for? A flat classroom provides this experience.

These three ideas only touch the surface of the flat classroom. What are your ideas for implementation?

Credit given to ToGa Wandering through flickr.com/creativecommons

Maybe the World Really is Flat?

Do you remember learning about people from past time periods who thought the world was flat? The idea was that if you sailed too far, the ship would fall off the edge of the earth. This sounds silly knowing what we do in today's society, but as interesting as it sounds, the world being flat does not sound so far fetched. The concept of the world being flat was the overarching idea from Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat.

In a general sense, technology leveling the playing field across the globe is an interesting idea. People from underdeveloped nations can experience the world around them through communication with technology. Previously, technology was reserved for those thriving countries, giving an obvious advantage. With technology being more affordable and readily available, more nations are joining the party. When thinking about this from the perspective of a developed country, positives and negatives stick out. One of Friedman's thoughts was that with the advancement of technology in under-developed countries, economies could pick up to the point where there are more suitors to buy American goods. On the flip side, more jobs can be performed in other countries for less money than in America. This would clearly drive up unemployment, hurting our economy. Like in many situations, you must accept the good with the bad. 

Education also feels the effects of a flat world. My students live such a sheltered life growing up in small town Iowa. Sure, there are advantages, but from a cultural standpoint, being naive is an understatement. I have been teaching long enough to know a few classes of students who have graduated, and I frequently hear comments dealing with the adjustments to places that are more diverse than small town Iowa, but not really that diverse in the grand scheme of things. Take places like Cedar Falls, Iowa City, and Ames. Many of our students go to these universities, and believe it or not, there is a culture shock upon arrival. The college transition is difficult, but I am referring more to the variety of individuals. I would like to find a way to broaden my students' horizons before they graduate, and what better way than with the flat world concept.

Another way the flat world can aid my students is through the enhanced of understanding what is actually available to them after high school. Living in a small community does not do much for the students when thinking about future careers. They have very few ideas as because they do not know what is possible. I had one student who was interested in applying for an Ivy League School. To be honest, I did not even know what it would take to get accepted, but I was sure he would need to get started as early as middle school. This idea can now become a reality. We can collaborate with different schools online, and iTunes has different classes available through the iTunes U program helping with the experience. Even if a student did not want to go to a school like this, the idea of free learning is amazing (hopefully my educational job does not get outsourced...but that is a possibility just like the rest of the job  world).

From a smaller perspective, I often pull back and think of our community as a mini world itself. Even in this context, the flat world idea has made education and learning equal to all. I talked about this briefly in a previous posting, but the gap between the haves and the have nots has shrunk in the past few years through technology. People tend to think that in a small community, most of the students and families are of the same socioeconomically. I would disagree. We have quite a range in family income, which can limit opportunities for many students. With the rollout of our laptops and Internet available at our school at any hour, the opportunity to learn has increased. Students still have to take the initiative, but the fairness has increased.

Now that the world is flat again, we as educators have to take this to our advantage, and make sure our students do not fall off the edge. We need to show our students the possibilities of a flat world and let them explore. Teachers and other educators are the captains of the educational ship. Hopefully, we can steer away from what has been done and sail off into the unknown, improving education and the student experience along the way.

Credit given to Maciej clubfoto.lu's through flickr.com/creativecommons

Changing the World: Three Other Examples of Disruption

I enjoyed the Disrupting Class book for many reasons, but I specifically liked the examples of disruption happening around us. The thought of a new idea not competing, but finding a place in society only to take over for an old idea is intriguing (p 44). The example from the text that stood out to me was the shift from the Digital Equipment Corporation's super computer to the original Apple (p. 50). I cringe to think what technology in education may look like today had Apple not lead the way. As I thought about this process, I came up with a few more examples of disruption.

1. Downloading/Steaming Music, Movies, and Video Games

Disks and cartridges were the norm for these types of technologies. While they still exist, I could potentially see a strictly digital format for all three. I download all of my music and stream most of my movies in various capacities. I have yet to move to only downloading video games, as that disruption seems to be a little further behind. Most of the top sellers come on disks for the PS3, XBOX 360, and Wii, but each has an online network where they could stream everything in the future. World of Warcraft and Minecraft are two games that are largely popular and available without the need of a disk.

2. Television

I do not know how far off this disruption is from taking full force, but in the Dangerously Irrelevant blog, the Shift Happens video says that people under 25 watch almost 30% of their television online. I am too busy to actually ever sit down and watch television, but I still watch many of my favorites online. I can even watch all my Buccaneers games online as well. The physical television may not go away soon, but stranger things have happened.

3. Cell Phone

Back in the day when only Zack Morris had access to a cell phone, the uses were few and far between. I had an old bag phone in high school and the niche was that I only used it in an emergency. These days, cell phones have numerous uses and I would be lost without mine for sure. The specific disruption in question here is the home phone line. I do not see the original purpose of a cell phone to ever take over for the home phone, but it effectively has. As of a year ago, about 25% of homes in the United States used a cell phone exclusively. This is trending upward, and I could see a time not too far down the line that the cell phone could take over completely for the home phone.

Disruption has worked well in society producing cutting edge technology and fascinating ideas for the future. Hopefully education can follow suit. What are your examples of disruption?

Credit given to hannah_wilson through flickr.com/creativecommons