Gaming. The Battle for our future. (Cue dramatice thunder)

I'm torn.  I've watched Jane McGonagal's lecture on how Gaming can save our future, on how it can make us better people, and I've seen Seth Priebatsch's lecture on the way we'll be creating a level of gaming directly on top of our culture over the next few years.  I really love this idea, because, you know, reality is kind of boring as hell.  Gaming has the potential to create an augmented reality, a hypereality lumped on top of our own that can, and indeed is, exciting and may make us better human beings.

Pictured:  Reality.

The problem I have is this, and it shows in Priebatsch's lecture a little, but it is completely ignored in McGonagal's: that games are a great way to make money.  Off of you.  While you're playing.  It costs 15 bucks a month to keep a WoW account, and in 2008 they had 10 Million subscribers.   10 million people they have to keep playing.  10 Million people they need to keep playing in order to continue to sleep on pillows made of money.  Money they can use to buy cocaine, and possibly hookers.  So in to fund their hypothetical cocaine addictions, they turn to sneaky, underhanded ways to keep you playing.

All businesses, once they get to be too big and profitable, will eventually start using less than reputable techniques to control your money, but if this business is going to be built on top of the very fabric of reality, then they will, in effect, control your entire life.

As Spike Lee once said, "if you can control the media, you control the country" (or something very much to that effect--google it), so if this new media will be our entire reality, what kind of ethics can we expect from the companies controlling our interactive media?

Creativity and School

I recently watched Tim Brown's Lecture on creativity in children at play, as well as Sir Ken Robinson's Lecture on the idea of schools killing creativity.  Both of these short presentations left me with a slight sinking feeling in my gut, which I quickly dismissed as general crippling fear of the future (Due to my unwarranted and unearned crotchetiness), but it led me down a a very honest sort of thought process.

Me, circa 1995.  Was anyone ever so young and naive?   (Photo by M@rg.  I was surprised to see me on Wikimedia Commons, too.)

 A lot of the criticism in this area (and I hear a whole lot of it, being an education student), comes from bashing the very idea of curriculum.  And also teachers.  Theorists really hate teachers.

And so, presumably, do cartoonists.

Now I understand why people hate both of these ideas.  My parish priest once told me that when he was in college, those who couldn't hack it in the major programs would default into an education program.  I've had some apathetic teachers, sure, but for every terrible teacher, I had at least one (maybe one point five) teachers who were caring, and even encouraging.  Maybe I was lucky, but I'm not ready to write off America's Teachers just yet.
So is it Curriculum that's to blame?  I'm not ready to say that yet either.  Our standards are their to prepare students.  These are good standards, they make good, or at least proficient humans.  So if we have good teachers and good curriculum, what's the problem?

I think it's fear of failure.

And I think that because we want our students to be creative, but when they try something original, and it doesn't conform to the rubric or grading scale or whatever schools use, then those students get Bs.  If they do it well.  Or they fail.  We don't grade on creativity.  We're involuntarily discouraging it.

Taking Classes for Grades.

I just read this essay from the Chronicle by "The Shadow Scholar." (Dramatic, I know.) I'm thinking a lot about it.

1)  I know these people, who just want grades, not to learn anything.
2)  I know these people, who would do this.
3)  Dammit.  I know these people.

3a)  I bet the "Shadow Scholar" totally looks like this.

Besides my obvious, and familiar (Grr, I know these guys!) outrage,  there is kind of an underlying thought.

We, students, are not doing enough.  Its really that simple.  I remember in my freshman (sophomore?) year of college I was supposed to write an assignment for my American Lit class that would essentially be a proposal for a chapter to be included for an anthology.  I remember that I thought I should do it on humor (Ammurican humor), but do I remember what my argument was?  Do I remember what my proposal's main points were?  Do I even remember what short stories or essays I picked?

Nope, I sure don't.

Because I was doing it for a grade.  Sure I learned a lot in that class, and it was one of my favorite lit classes, but that assignment didn't mean crap to me.  It was a grade.

There's also a corollary to student's efforts, and that's this: Teachers Don't Let Students Do Enough.  Our Shadowy friend mentions that when he tried to get his independent study, an attempt  to get his novel published, approved, his faculty just sort of ignored it and made him return to his traditional classes.  Does publishing a novel have literary merit as part of an English program?  Undoubtedly, but when his interests were declined, he stopped going to class, and started writing papers for others' assignments.  He lost faith in the system.

In most of my education classes, I've been taught to use multiple learning strategies to encourage your student's personal involvement, but I've heard it in a lecture in every one of them.  The only class that's required me to actually do it was my class for special education students. 

Student engagement has been a tag for just about all of my posts on this blog.  Because it is that important.  Its the difference between enjoying something and learning it, or just doing it for a grade.  Flexibility is key in Learning.  and Technology is key in Flexibility.  Use any and all tools available to encourage your students to create something their proud of, not just chase a grade.

Photo exists in the Public Domain, taken from TheChive.com.

Here We Go.

My name is Alex, and I'm currently a Junior at the University of Northern Iowa, studying English, History, and Education. This blog is my way of tracking and publishing my progress, as well as share links and articles that I come across that relate to my personal and professional development. Be sure to check back every once and a while to see what I'm up to. I promise to make it as interesting as possible, and we might just learn something one of these days. No promises on that, though.

Edit: Found a Link this Weekend. Its was written by an English Teacher on Edutopia, Andrew Marcinek, and its about engaging your students. As an Aspiring English Teacher, This has always been a kind of fear of mine. How do I get kids to care about Dickens? or even Bradbury? Well, Marcinek has several steps here on how to rethink class projects and papers, including not accepting papers until they're "done," i, e, perfect, and treating the mistakes as learning opportunities to help kids learn to write better.

Also, not so helpful: "No. 9: make a Sandwich." C'mon, Man . . .

Find his List here.


Photo by  Alexandre Dulaunoy, used under a creative commons license.