Look beyond the scare stories: the kids are all right

October 25, 2011
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/look-beyond-the-scare-stories-the-kids-are-all-right-20111024-1mfq6.html

In this article Dan Haesler looks broadly at societal attitudes that have plagued our civilizations since the beginning of time and are possibly more prevalent today than in the past. Interestingly enough, in many instances it is not just parents but educators who continue to believe and in some cases perpetuate the misconception that teens today are rapidly headed down the path to ruin. But, is this just adults trying to control their own fears in a world that is changing so quickly they are becoming more and more disconnected with the reality of what teenagers are actually doing?

Haesler sites the example that despite the belief that today’s teens are drug fuelled members of fight clubs who spend their time engaging in cyber bullying, sexting and creating chaos on our roads, the truth is somewhat different. He suggests that according to the 2010 National Drug Strategy Household Survey the rate of cannabis use in teens aged 14-19 has halved in the last two years and that 97% of the same group had never taken cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamines or heroin. Similarly the rate of traffic accident deaths involving people under the age of 20 has decreased by 16% in the last two years.

Core to Haesler’s argument is the way in which our institutions engage in the banning of access to social media. For the purpose of this post I am including online gaming as an ever increasing form of social media. Haesler makes the comment that society used to believe that it took a village to raise a child, however by not encouraging teacher and parent access to forms of social media we are not creating opportunities for adults to mentor young people on what it means to be a positive member of digital communities. Livingston (2003) suggests that for adults the Internet is often just seen as the World Wide Web, however young people view it as an opportunity to engage in a broad range of social endeavours.

The village is still out there but it’s global. As parents and educators we need to take or create opportunities to engage in a broad range of online communities so as to ensure we give ourselves the capacity to share our own understandings, beliefs and experiences on what it means to be a good citizen no matter where your village exists.

Gregor MacKenzie

References

Haesler, D. (2011). Look beyond the scare stories: the kids are all right                                       Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/look-beyond-the-scare-stories-the-kids-are-all-right-20111024-1mfq6.html 26-10-2011

Livingstone, S. (2003) The Changing Nature and Uses of Media Literacy. Working paper             London: London School of Economics. Retrieved on 20-10-2011 http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/13476/1/The_changing_nature_and_uses_of_media_literacy.pdf

YouTube: A powerful tool for collaborative design but are our organisations ready?

http://www.tafeclips.com.au/

Whilst YouTube as an online resource may not specifically fall into the category of gaming the use of this tool in certain classroom contexts can share much in common with the process of gaming.

Royle (2009) suggests that gamers develop skills that go beyond the commonly stated attributes to include development of qualities such as spatial navigation; resource management; teamwork and communication; literacy development and a range of problem solving skills and metacognition through reflective practice.

I believe that utilising this resource in classroom contexts can have powerful outcomes for students as they not only develop skills that are required for participation in the 21^st Century but begin to see themselves not just as consumers of media but creators and distributors of their own work. However, the question remains are our institutions ready or even willing to support creative practice.

The purpose of this post is to highlight an instance where on one hand an institution wants their teachers to be innovators yet on the other hand sets barriers in place that fly in the face of innovation. This is a situation applies to a broad range of online resources including games, within the context of my organisation.

As is often the case with working within organisations the policies which control access and usage do not keep pace with the development and affordances offered by technologies. Therefore as educators and innovators we experience constant tension between the drive for creativity and the organisations need for control.

Recently my class of 20 students aged between 17 and 55 years of age were inspired to enter the TAFE video competition. The unit they were completing was Communication Visually Using Emerging Technologies and at the suggestion of the students the process of development and submission of a video was negotiated as a major assessment item.

The competition theme was “Imagine”. Students were required to create a 40 to 80 second video using original resources. The students derived enormous learning throughout this process developing expertise in a broad range of areas including sound mixing, audio recording, digital photography, manipulation of images, storyboard development, file conversion, collaboration and working with abstract concepts.

As outlined by Mizuko, (2010)

Worthy of note was the observation that even the in class interactions had an online quality about them. Participants worked collaboratively sharing expertise within the group to develop the skills and knowledge required to complete their product. Experimentation, exploration, investigation, peer assessment and research served to develop a higher level of digital skills. Primarily this process was student driven and not a teacher centred activity with the broad age difference between students seen as an advantage rather than a barrier. This type of engagement is supported by Mizuko, (2010) who suggests that one of the important outcomes of youth participation in online practices is that they have the chance to interact with adults who are outside their usual circle of contact.

Students were highly motivated, extremely excited and engaged with both the process and the product. They were looking forward to the culmination of activity which would see their work published on YouTube and would enable peer and supporters to view and vote for their entries.

Submission of the project was via TAFE’s YouTube channel. Students were required to open an account and upload their file to the competition section. It quickly became evident that this was not possible and both students and teacher tried in vain to upload files through various methods. This led to increasing frustration and disappointment among all class members.

After extensive investigation including emails to the Institute Director, Technology Learning Unit, and State competition organisers it was discovered that firewalls in some TAFE institutes would not allow uploading of files to YouTube. Further investigation found this was a critical issue not identified by the competition organisers.  

This type of situation highlights the direct tension between the organisations desire for their teachers to be innovative and the

policies, systems and procedures of the same body that do not support the educational opportunities afforded by technologies. 

Gregor MacKenzie

References

Mizuko, I (2010) Hang Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Royle, K. (2009) Crossing Borders, Blurring Boundaries and Taking Action

Modding in Online Gaming What’s it all About?

The article I have chosen for this blog post is titled Reciprocal Innovation in Modding Communities as a Means of Increasing Cultural Diversity and Historical Accuracy in Video Games. My choice of article was determined by two factors.

Firstly on a personal level I was interested to find out more about the phenomena of “Modding” that I was constantly hearing my 12 year old son discussing with his friends online. Secondly from an educational perspective modding had been mentioned as a higher order skill in terms of young people engaging in the process of online gaming not just as consumers but as creators and I wanted to further research an area that I believe will influence future approaches to education.

For the purpose of this post I believe it is important to first develop an understanding of what modding is. Finding adequate information to provide a defintion proved to be difficult, as the term mod or modding, in reference to gaming appears to be nonexistent in publications such as the Macquarie and Oxford online dictionaries. Wikipedia cites the term mod an abbreviation of modification which is generally applied to personal computer (PC games) and suggests that mods can be made by the general public or game developers.

Mods themselves are not stand alone software and generally require the user to have the original release in order to run. The modification might include small variables such as game items, weapons, characters etc. or can range through to larger scale variations such as the creation of new levels, unique storylines and game modes.

Moshirnia, & Walker, (2007) focus specifically on the player flags in the turn based strategy game Civilization IV and puts forward the argument that practically any game feature, even those that may be seen as unimportant, can be modded to increase the historical and cultural quality of the game. Further to this it argues that by understanding the complex processes of conception, design and implementation of modifications educators can more easily examine existing games for features which could be modified to increase their educational benefit.

Moshirnia, & Walker, (2007) note that in the unmodified version of Civilization IV a player’s units are marked by a flag which allows them to differentiate between their own units and those of an opponent. The flags in the unmodified version serve the purpose of identifying different units; however communicate very little in terms of historical or cultural origins of a unit. In 2007 Moshirnia, & Walker, noted that almost immediately after the games release, modders began creating flags that they saw as more historically accurate than those offered as defaults within Civilization IV.

The flags created by modders were many and varied and looked at a broad range of significant features of a civilization including national iconography of civilizations over variant time periods, religious beliefs, cultural diversity of tribes within whole civilisations and artistic symbolism. In one example a group of modders engaged in discussion over the development of a flag for a newly added civilization, the Iberians. The vibrant discourse that ensued highlighted the complex processes involved in the creation of an appropriate flag. The modders first considered historical records and found that there was no clear record of a flag or forerunner to a flag affiliated with that civilization. After determining that a flag had to be constructed, the modders investigated national symbols, however in doing so, had to reach a balance between historical accuracy and uniqueness so as to avoid any possible confusion with other civilizations. By eliminating symbols that too closely resembled other flags in use, the modders created a flag that served its purpose within the context of the game, while simultaneously communicating the national character of the new civilization.

Moshirnia, & Walker, (2007) suggest that there are many examples of reciprocal innovation in modding communities and note a distinct lack of the existence of any form of hierarchy. For instance a modder may create a graphic, with no specific purpose in mind, however will often share this graphic with other modders who will brainstorm all possible uses for the modification. The outcome of this collaborative and reciprocal process being that a single modification may well lead to multiple modifications for a broad range of purposes.

In his ethnographic study of fan cultures, Textual Poachers (1992) Henry Jenkins introduces the concept of participatory culture and suggests that fan cultures draw their resources from commercial media while also reworking them to serve alternate purposes. This is certainly indicative of the cultural phenomena of modding and highlights the affordances current technology in terms of blurring the lines between designers and users.

So what does this mean for educators? In her seminal work, Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out (2010), Ito Mizuko highlights that this type of social participation shifts the focus away from the individual towards a much broader network of social relationships. This type of situated learning theory suggests that the relationships that are developed within these environments, show that participants are learning within all contexts of the activity, not just as individuals internalising their sole experiences but as part of a shared cultural system in which at any given time they might fulfil the role of pupil, teacher, mentor or creator.

There is no doubt that the phenomena of computer based games and modding offer windows into a vibrant culture of participatory learning. To ignore this in terms of future education would be nothing short of negligent. As educators we need to encourage our educational institutions to develop the flexibility to offer more than just cursory attempts at using games in the classroom and look more deeply at absorbing the broad spectrum of opportunities such cultures might afford.

As teachers we must make the effort to engage with these cultures not necessarily to become experts but to become participants and experience firsthand the participatory nature of these environments.

 Informed game scholarship must involve play, just like scholars of film and literature experience the works first hand, as well as through secondary sources. (Aarseth 2003)

 Gregor MacKenzie

References

Aarseth, E. (2003), Playing Research: Methodological approaches to game analysis, DAC2003, Melbourne, retrieved from http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/Aarseth.pdf  20-10-2011

Jenkins, H. (1992) Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. Routledge, New York and London

Mizuko, I (2010) Hang Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Moshirnia, A. & Walker, A. (2007) Reciprocal Innovation in Modding Communities as a Means of Increasing Cultural Diversity and Historical Accuracy in Video Games. Digital Games Research Association. Retrieved from http://digra.org:8080/Plone/dl/db/07311.28264.pdf  22-09-2011

Sotamaa, O. (2004) Unpublished seminar paper: Computer Game Modding, Intermediality and Participatory Culture

Study's the name of the game

http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/studys-the-name-of-the-game-20111016-1lrfy.html

Today’s students or ‘digital natives’ as described by Prensky (2001) are in desperate need of education that caters for their 21^st century learning needs, not those of students ten or even fifteen years ago. According to the article’s author, Johnston (2011) advocates of gamification say that it could “radically transform education” for the 21^st century digital native (n.p).

According to the article, gamification turns the classroom from the conventional into something resembling a game of Warcraft. Students work through the various game levels of increasing difficulty until they reach their goal. Extrinsic motivation helps keep students engaged and motivated to complete levels.

It is hard to ague or find faults with the positive learning effects of gamification in classrooms and thus, it certainly appeals to the educator in me. However, I must hold scepticism against gamification as Johnston (2011) states that there have been only a few studies to investigate if the practice actually improves students’ learning outcomes. Although Johnston (2011) writes that gamification meets the learning needs of digital natives, without conclusive evidence showing positive student outcome, it will be hard to gain the support of many school educators and I feel very few will be inclined to include gamification in their classrooms without knowing if it will be beneficial to students’ learning outcomes.

Through gamification could we eventually see teachers moving away from education to become technical support aids? Gamification cannot completely replace classroom teachers, unless a virtual teacher is created, as students cannot learn all they need through computer and video games. Although there is the assumption that gaming will automatically make students learn, many games lack relevant educational content (Johnston, 2011). I believe that teachers will continue to be an important part of students’ education despite the growing sophistic nature of computer and video games as nothing is more sophisticated than a teacher.

(Jacqui Long)

References:

Johnston, M. (2011). Study’s the name of the game. Retrieved October 26, 2011 from http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/studys-the-name-of-the-game-20111016-1lrfy.html

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon (9)5, 1-6.

Response to “Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games”

I agree with James that  the learning and assessing systems in developing countries are too standardised  to develop students’ creativity. Chinese education system is a typical example for assessing students mainly by their scores. This way of assessment negatively affects almost all the aspects of education including textbooks, lesson, and so on. In achieving the goal of getting higher and higher scores, teachers teach “a bunch of facts” and create exams by using these facts. Students have to repeat and memorize these facts instead of understanding these facts as rules to solve problems. Majority of activities are also created for the goal of achieving higher scores. Although many students and teachers are aware of this issue, still it can not be changed due to complex reasons such as the huge population, developing economy, and immature management. In a long term, it can strongly affect the creativity and ability of innovation of both teachers and students.

Besides, video games in China are still generally considered to be related to violence, a waste of time, and a main reason for having low scores. Most Chinese parents, teachers and students still believe playing video games is a negative activity which should be strictly banned.  I hope they would have the opportunity to learn from this video. They may start to think that video games would be an effective way of teaching and grading. However, as James mentioned in the interview, learning is not just about facts but the skills of solving problems. From my personal experience, I learn many things by doing it and when I  meet difficulties I search for people and information that can help me. This is a practical way of learning. The characteristics of video games such as problem-solving, collaboration, and continuously quick feedback are very valuable for teaching and grading. 

(Nan LI)

Thinking of English Teaching with Video Games in China

(Innovative pedagogy)

Recently, there are many research studies about the benefits of using video games as tools for teaching, and many scholars agree that games especially serious games have great potential for teaching and learning. However, fewer studies can demonstrate how video games can be successfully integrated into the current curriculum. Therefore, how we can use video games to teach now is still a challenge. As an English teacher from China, I think there are still some methods I could use to improve English competency of my students by using video games.

Teaching Context

It is necessary to introduce my teaching context in china first and then present my pedagogy about using video games to teach English. There are about 60 students in my class in china, and their average age is 16. I teach them 2 English classes everyday from Monday to Friday. Due to the pressure of the college-entrance exam, my teaching purpose has to be set to achieve higher score in the exam. There are two labs in our school facilitated by 70 computers in each lab, but the computers are mainly for students to learn skills of typing and word processing. Moreover, these computers may not be access to the internet all the time, and the students are not allowed to play video games in the lab, when they are having their computer classes.  Therefore, the time for students to have computer class is very limited. Clearly, students have very limited condition and time to be access to computers in their school. The positive thing is they all have minimum one PC at home which can be connected to the internet for 24 hours every day. In addition, the students have a month long winter holiday and a two month long summer holiday every year.

When and Where to Play

Based on the above context, I think it is more possible for my Chinese students to use video games to learn English after class outside their school because of the reality of the developing Chinese education system and the limited facilities in most Chinese high schools. By playing games at home and during the winter or summer holidays, my students and I can relax our tired body after the stressful curriculum. Students’ parents and school masters may support more if students playing games in order to learn English in the holidays at home. Playing games and is time consuming and we can have more time spending on game-related learning during the school holidays. 

What and How to Play

Most of my students started to learn English when they were in grade 3 in primary school. However, seldom they have the chance to talk to English native speakers. They learn English mainly by reading their textbooks and listening to the explanations from their Chinese teachers. In other words, the lack of authentic learning input is a critical issue for them. Furthermore, when students are aiming for passing various types of exams, the social aspects of English language are always neglected by students due to their limited opportunity to be exposed to English culture (Atkinson, 2002).

The massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft might be a solution to this problem which I want to attempt because of its following characters.     

1. Motivation. It is by far the most popular MMORPG, and most young people will enjoy the way of learning English through playing. In addition, it is much easier for player to communicate in different media forms such as blog, forum, and so on. 
2. "Real life" situation—solutions. MMORPG offers sufficient contexts and authentic virtual environment for students to learn and practice the target language in a “real life” situation (Gee, 2001).  
3. Tasks based and problem-solving oriented. Students will benefit from a framework that offers a wide variety of solutions to thousands of tasks that require different amounts of time as well as language skills in the target language (Yee, 2006). 
4. Collaboration and communication.  By making communication among the players a central aspect to the game, it provides a unique opportunity for teachers to make use of an already-existing virtual environment that requires students to use the target language to communicate with native speakers in order to achieve a goal.  
5. Guide. In order to give enough support, I will join this game with my students as a role of guide and supervisor. For example, providing corrections or help when necessary. This experience can be very precious for my future teaching by using video games.

Although this game has many advantages, some considerations cannot be disregarded.

1. Not all the students can be fit in this pedagogy. Some of the students may not be interested in learning English through playing games. Therefore this study is only an optional holiday study program rather than a compulsory one.  
2. There is a cost involved. Each student would require a subscription of $15 per month.

In conclusion, I have discussed my teaching context in china, and my thinking about how to combine video games with English teaching and learning in my class. I believe this method may help my students to improve their English competence and my understanding about gaming and English learning in some way.

(Nan LI)

Reference:

Atkinson, D. (2002). Toward a Sociocognitive Approach to Second Language Acquisition. The Modern Language Journal. 86 (4). p. 536.

Gee J. P. (2001). Reading as situated language: A sociocognitive perspective, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44 (8). p. 714-715.

Yee, N. (2006). The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games: Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage. In R. Schroder & A. Axelson (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments. London: Springer Verlag. pp. 9-25.

Transformation/innovative Pedagogies

Students of today are living their lives in a vastly different world to the world many educational programs have been designed for. I believe that traditional education must evolve to more closely match current and future society’s needs if students are to be adequately prepared for their future roles in society. Having been an advocate for the inclusion of relevant, authentic learning opportunities that utilise cutting-edge ICT in schools I was quite excited to engage with the course material in this unit. As a result of my engagement I have further developed not only my pedagogical beliefs but also my knowledge of available technologies and resources. I feel this development will assist me to fulfil my future role as a teacher-librarian to the best of my ability. I am also excited by what is still to come and am committed to continuing my professional development in this area.

The Jenkins’ report on participatory culture provided my first concrete experience with this concept and refined my knowledge by providing me with appropriate terminology to discuss the phenomenon of participatory culture that is so prevalent among young people in society. A participatory culture is one in which participants not only consume or use technology but also create and shape it using it for a multitude of personal applications including socialising (Jenkins, p.3). By incorporating characteristics of participatory culture in the classroom students are able to develop literacy skills appropriate to their lives. Jenkins reveals that the ‘new literacies almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking’ (Date p.4). Although certain ‘new literacies’ have developed I do not see them as replacing traditional literacies but rather expanding them, and when I came across the following model I felt it expressed exactly how I view literacy in the 21^st century.  Information literacy is not separate from traditional conceptions of literacy but rather refers to new aspects of literacy which has been expanded by the rapid evolution of technology.

 

http://www.techtalk.ddsbschools.ca/doorway-to-information/skills-continuum.html

The introduction of Web 2.0 has really facilitated participatory culture and I believe it holds great potential for education. Social networking sites, blogs, tagging tools, special interest forums and personal library tools such as Diigo and Del.icio.us can enrich teaching and learning opportunities by engaging students in learning and allowing them to take control and ownership over their learning. This encourages students to become life-long learners as they no longer need to be lead by a teacher, they are able to direct their own learning. However, despite the great benefits that can come from Web 2.0 there are negative aspects that educators must consider. These negative aspects should not mean that we ignore Web 2.0 in schools but rather embrace the responsibilities and manage the risks in order to benefit from these tools. Students need careful guidance in using Web 2.0 tools in order to protect their personal rights and safety as well as respect the rights and safety of others.

ICT has a number of implications for my future role as a teacher-librarian. A key aspect of this role is providing resources to teachers to enrich teaching and learning programs. It is essential to evaluate any potential resource before it is included in educational programs. ICT and Web 2.0 are no different and thus require careful evaluation in order to determine the strengths and weakness of the resource as well as the appropriate audience, prior knowledge and skills required and relevance to the curriculum. Scanlon, Buckingham, & Burn, (2005) encouraged me to remember that video games are not exempt from this thorough evaluation as many seemingly educational games actually provide no more educational benefit than a traditional textbook. All resources regardless of format must be carefully evaluated and as a professional educator it is essential for me to possess highly developed skills in evaluation. I also believe that an effective teacher-librarian should strive to become a leader for staff in regards to ICT. In order to fulfil this role I plan to continually develop my knowledge of and skills in using ICT. In addition I will seek quality, relevant resources to provide teaching staff with resources to enrich their teaching and learning programs, fulfil curriculum requirements and assist students to develop skills and knowledge relevant to their current and future lives. I also plan on providing support to teachers as they implement new technologies into their classrooms. I believe this will encourage teachers to be more willing to adopt new technologies.

I believe that teachers, schools, teacher-librarians and libraries need to cater for 21^st century learners by providing high quality, relevant and engaging learning opportunities that allow them to develop skills and knowledge needed in their lives. In my future role as a teacher-librarian I will endeavour to draw on relevant technologies including video games and Web 2.0 in order to assist students meet learning goals and achieve their personal and academic potential.

By Kathleen Magann

Scanlon, M., Buckingham, D., & Burn, A. (2005). Motivating Maths? Digital Games and Mathematical Learning. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 14(1), 127-139. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.