Wild Moose (Martin, 2005), and Mitchville (Martin, 2006) were both AR games that used GPS equipment and a handheld computer to mimic a communication device, which relayed up-to-the-minute information to the trip to help them in their task (Martin, 2008). What happened was that the game narrative motivated campers to move beyond the ease and safety of trail hiking. The difficulty of actually hiking off-trail, coupled with the uncertainty of what one might find there, challenged the campers, and pushed them to move slightly beyond their comfort level.

Here’s a description of what was done in the past:

Towards the end of each summer, while the older boys were doing manly things on the Allagash or at Katahdin, we others took part in the wild pursuit of thieves, kidnappers, and other nefarious individuals.

That first summer of mine, quite unexpectedly, as we were about to set out on our regularly scheduled trips one Tuesday morning, we were all called together and the cold facts were put before us. Something terrible had happened; I am sure that I don’t remember what. Plans had to be changed at the last moment, and all our energies were to be devoted to helping the local authorities, whoever they were, hunt down the criminals and bring them to justice. At the same time we would uphold the honor of the camp, and in all probability bring fame and fortune to ourselves and our counselors.

Assignments were quickly made. For the sake of expediency, the original trip groupings would be maintained, but we would travel unexpected paths. All of this had been well arranged beforehand; and I can visualize the counselors now constructing the complicated plot in the evenings after we had gone to bed. Now they were ready to play it out.

I can’t remember much of that first Mystery Trip except that it rained. It rained all the time. The villains, whoever they were, had left clues and trails as they challenged us to track them down. Coded messages were found and deciphered. The net was slowly tightening. In tracking those undesirables, we learned more than we at the moment wanted to know about following trails in the woods. I clearly remember looking for stone cairns on the mountain side under what were certainly not the most favorable conditions (Price 1986).

Alan calls himself a Neanderthal academic (traditional, old school) who’s stepping out of his cave and observing what’s going on around him. Some great short stories to start out, then into these major points: (slide by slide)

SCHOOLS VS LEARNING
Uniform learning vs customization
Teacher control vs learner control
Teacher as expert vs diverse sources
Standardized assessment vs specialization
Knowledge in head vs reliance on resources
Coverage vs knowledge explosion
Learning by absorption vs learning by doing
Just-in-case learning vs just-in-time learning

RESULTS
Schools becoming less important
New system emerging
Industrial revolution to universal schooling
Digital learning = life long learning

SEEDS of a NEW SYSTEM
Home schooling
Workplace learning
distance education
Adult education
Learning centers
Educational tv and videos
Computer based learning environments
Web communities
Technical certifications
Internet cafes

(Parents are more likely to encourage kids to pursue their interests vs schools who encourage standards)

COMPARISON of the THREE ERAS
Responsibility: Parents to state to individual
Content: Practical skills / literacy >> basic skills\ disciplines >> learning to learn\ generic skills
Pedagogy: apprenticeship >> didacticism >> interaction
Assessment: observation >> testing>> embedded
Location: home >> school >> wherever you are
Culture: adult >> peer >> mixed
Relationships: personal bonds >> authority figures >> computer mediated interaction

WHAT IS LOST AND WHAT IS GAINED
Losses: equity, citizenship, social cohesion, diversity, commercialism, isolation, broader, horizons
Gains: more engagement, customization, more responsibility, less peer culture

( might have missed a slide or two…)

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
State of flux: time when visionaries can have impact
Imperatives of technology: customization, interaction, learner control, production
Specialized certificates
Rethinking high schools

RETHINKING LEARNING
Not just: how can we improve the schools?
New questions:
How can w develop games to teach mathematical reasoning?

RETHINKING MOTIVATION
Current system doesn’t foster intrinsic motivation
Fostering self-directed learning
Handhelds for every kid to teach reading and math
Tutoring programs on web for certifications (for all)
Computer based games that foster deep knowledge and entrepreneurial skills

RETHINKING WHATS IMPORTANT
Tech changes what’s needed
New literacies: web sites, multimedia, negotiation, cultural sensitivity
Mathematical reasoning vs computation
Less memorization, more finding needed information
New habits of mind: how reliable is this source? What is their viewpoint? Are there alternatives?

RETHINKING TRANSITIONS BETWEEN LEARNING AND WORK
Lifetime careers will be rare
People go back and forth between learning and work
Making career transitions is difficult
Need support for making choices in both directions
Counseling for people going from learning to work and work to learning

RETHINKING ED LEADERSHIP
Time for a new Horace or Letitia Mann
Need to integrate disparate elements to form a coherent system
Need to address inequities
….

ADVICE
More skeptical than Rich Halverson about life of schools, and their ability to adapt
Teaching as telling is too deeply embedded (David Cohen)
Gaming is unlikely to pervade schools
Control is a central issue
Gaming will flourish outside of schools
Likes Klopfer’s notion of filling the interstices of time with learning games

Sent from my iPad

• With 24/7 access to trusted sources of information in their pockets, students no longer need to have information imparted to them. Instead, they need teachers to help them 
  • filter out the good from the bad (determine quality)
  • see the relevance of the good to their lives (determine value)
  • learn how to apply the good, relevant information to solve problems
• This requires a significant shift (disruption) in the nature of instruction that will make the disruption of having people surf, Facebook, and Tweet in class seem like small potatoes.
• Of all the learning technologies that we can use, the ones students already value and are experts with (phones) seems like a no-brainer to embrace.

SITUATION: Given the increased saturation of smart phones on campus, and the popularity of location-aware and/or social interactive experiences like foursquare.com, Twitter, Google Local, Facebook, Yahoo Answers, Amazon review “helpful” votes, video games, etc. Additionally, our campus population and surrounding community are both embracing these tools — indeed, there are 5 billion mobile phones in use in the world now, and smart phones are on their way to becoming the standard.

PROPOSAL: Let’s create a campus/community experience that breaks down disciplines and allows interaction according to location. In it’s simplest form, I am proposing a location-based virtual suggestion box where folks can leave ideas wherever they are on campus, without finding the office/email/”right person” to leave them with.

SCENARIO: Here’s how it could work: Beth spends time in Grainger and Science Hall. She sees something happening in Grainger all the time that she thinks would be great in Science Hall. The building manager of Science Hall doesn’t go to Grainger (I’m making this up, please forgive assumptions), so has no idea of what Grainger is doing. Beth opens her location-aware smartphone web-app when she’s in Science Hall and writes the suggestion. It automatically appears to others who are in Science Hall (and running the app), and gets “pushed” to the building manager (or whoever is “managing” whatever part of campus is pinged). Other users can vote on the suggestion. Beth gets a point for every up vote, and the votes also suggest (to some extent) to the building manager how good of an idea others think it is. The points can be used like Green Stamps (remember those?) for UW gear and ice cream as a way to encourage participation in this campus-wide endeavor.

EXPANSION: If we want to go whole hog on this, we’d could expand beyond location to more of a social game and peer academic counseling game/experience where students advise each other and vote on the usefulness of their advice; they level up in different areas accordingly as they get more votes of confidence (essentially grading each other); they develop areas of expertise and differentiation; they might even be able able to earn points in different areas (service, academics, community, wellness, eco, etc.) and are motivated to participate not only with UW Green Stamps (or maybe that’s just for non-students), but also because these points/levels can be demonstrated at graduation in their portfolio and permanent record.

BENEFITS/RISKS: This is ultimately a proposal to significantly change the way school is done. We could take this as far as the Board of Regents allow us and be a model for a new type of school. It’s innovative, but mimics much of life online, so is intuitive/natural to many of our students. It respects and deeply integrates the Wisconsin Idea’s connection to community (especially if expanded beyond campus). It takes advantage of new learning opportunities through mobile devices, and is certain to attract national and international attention.

NEXT STEPS: We have the technology to do this right now. The ARIS mobile platform being developed in Academic Technology is a grand prototype. I’d love to discuss this, or other location-aware ideas for teaching, learning, and community-building on campus.

I was talking to a colleague about the addictive nature of Foursquare (although I’m lacking an overly addictive personality), and the lure of becoming “Mayor” of someplace, and how that’s good for the place, and adds a sense of belonging to the player (“you wanna go where everybody knows your name…”)

Then I saw this article about the Badgeification of the Internet, and thought it wouldn’t be too hard to do this even at the University level in an informal manner as well as a formal manner. The thing is that (generally speaking) we like to teach each other; we like to help others; we like to be looked at experts, and are all have islands of expertise (Crowley and Jacobs, 2002) in something. So, why not feed that desire to be part of a community, AND the desire to play, AND the desire to share (show and tell), by making a sharing game about campus and higher education?

What would happen if we focused more on those bits of the game structure? Lee Sheldon at Indiana University has tried something pretty novel along the lines of what Jesse Schell speaks about in the embedded video (to the right >>>>). He structures his course around basic game fundamentals.

Instead of receiving traditional grades, students earn “experience points” for completing assignments. Mr. Sheldon says that points system not only feels more like a video game, but also lets students feel like they’re earning points for getting things right instead of losing them for incorrect answers.

So, what would happen? Lee Sheldon reports in the Chronicle that they’re more engaged and performed a full grade higher than last year’s class (this is probably not a scientifically rigorous result).

What would happen if we took it a few steps further than we do (maybe not to the Schell’s “points for brushing teeth” though).  At the University level we certainly have game components. We have Newbies (Freshmen) and Experts (Seniors) who level up via experience points (credits), take on quests (assignments), and self-select into classes and majors. But we don’t consider these parts of a game, rather these are still couched in the paradigm of “school” and I think, therefore, aren’t as personally compulsive to most.

I think this is worth considering and discussing when we talk about the shift in education from teaching to learning.

1. Desired outcomes sometimes evolve from a practice that looks different from the desired outcomes:

In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the alphabet does not particularly help children learn to read. But having extended and complex conversations during toddlerhood does. Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.

2. Content must be personally meaningful to the learner (what some call Authentic Learning), and

3. Understanding can be enhanced by communicating (and designing learner-created content):

Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual meaning to them — stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons, letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.

In our theoretical classroom, children would also spend a short period of time each day practicing computation — adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Once children are proficient in those basics they would be free to turn to other activities that are equally essential for math and science: devising original experiments, observing the natural world and counting things, whether they be words, events or people. These are all activities children naturally love, if given a chance to do them in a genuine way.

What they shouldn’t do is spend tedious hours learning isolated mathematical formulas or memorizing sheets of science facts that are unlikely to matter much in the long run. Scientists know that children learn best by putting experiences together in new ways. They construct knowledge; they don’t swallow it.

4. Play is an important part of learning:

During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions.

GLS 6.0 conference: June 9, 10, 11, 2010

June 9-11, 2010 Madison, WI

CALL FOR PAPERS

The time has never been more right for the Games+Learning+Society Conference! The world is finally beginning to catch on: Great videogames can be great learning tools. This year’s conference will further the work we started six years ago, exploring the impact of games and game culture on learning and society.

Conference Themes:

1) Formal & informal science literacy

2) Media production & identity

3) Game design & learning

Conference highlights include: keynotes by leaders in both academics and industry; interactive workshops on game research and game design; both individual and symposia presentation sessions; “chat n’ frags” and hands-on gameplay in the arcade; an evening poster session over cocktails & hors d’oeuvres; an evening machinima festival in the playhouse theatre; fireside chats that enable thorough, cozy conversations among VIP speakers and attendees; and our signature Thursday night dinner and marquee presentation.

Confirmed Speakers include: Henry Jenkins, James Paul Gee, Drew Davidson, Alan Collins, David Wiley, Kurt Squire, Reed Stevens, and Rich Lemarchand.

We encourage the submission of traditional paper sessions as well as innovative talk formats which focus on game design, game culture, and games’ potential for learning and society more broadly.

We have pushed the deadline by two weeks, so submissions are now due online by February 15, 2010. Complete submission guidelines can be found on the submissions site at http://glsconference.org.

The Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research. For information on how to sponsor this event, contact the conference coordinator at gls(at)seanmichaeldargan(dot)com.

A pre-GLS, half-day gathering on the current and future state of mobile learning, hosted by GLS (UW Madison’s Academic Technology) .

In ever-broadening spheres, people are becoming aware of the game-changing possibilities of mobile learning. While this is not a surprise to those who have already been experimenting with mobile, we believe it’s time to connect our efforts and solidify our thinking as “smart” mobile devices are becoming the norm.

It is time to deepen our approach for building community around mobile learning.

Last year, recognizing the importance of mobile learning in the future of education,  the Macarthur foundation funded a group at UW-Madison, under Kurt Squire, to develop mobile learning applications, work toward an understanding of the affordances of mobile learning, and begin to build relationships among diverse practitioners. To extend these efforts, we wish to bring together people who are advancing theories and practices in mobile learning, regardless of context.

This summit provides us with a chance to share our ideas, tools and approaches in the area of mobile learning in order to build a platform for future collaboration.

For more information, leave a comment, or join the Facebook GLS-Mobile Group!

GENERATION M2 Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds A Kaiser Family Foundation Study JANUARY 2010

GENERATION M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds

A Kaiser Family Foundation Study. JANUARY 2010

My post headline is purposefully… what’s the word? Inflammatory? Because this report is significant and important, and heralds in a much larger message beyond the report’s main point that “Kids are consuming more media.”

It’s this important:

• When the printing press was invented, there was a huge increase in the access to printed knowledge (and the participation in its sharing by those with a printing press)
• The internet further enabled a huge increase in the sharing (and production) of knowledge, by those with networked computers
• Internet-connected mobile devices are ushering in another massive increase in the personal production, sharing, and consumption of knowledge (in more and easier forms of media than were ever available to the individual thanks to built-in cameras, video and audio recorders, GPS, etc.).

This revolutionary device that lets you consume or produce knowledge is in your pocket all the time, not at the city printing press, not even in the computer lab at school, but at arm’s length, and accessible whenever the urge or need to produce (or consume) hits!

This is amazing!

The Report

Just out this week, from kff.org, the reports dings Mobile devices as the new up-and-comer on the block that is increasing the recreational consumption of media in our kids (8 to 18 year olds). They spend more time than ever consuming media (the report does not go into how much media *production* has increased, but keep in mind that much of the media they are consuming includes time spent *creating* media that others are consuming — e.g. most of the Facebook media they’re consuming is produced by their friends).

Since we’re talking about 8-18 year olds, we’re talking about the current practices of the next ten years’ worth of college and university students. As a Learning Technology Consultant, my questions are:

1. Are we, as educational institutions, evolving and adapting to this fast enough? (Answer: No.)
2. How is this affecting the structure of our (human) thinking — and thus learning and teaching? (Answer: In significant ways, and the nature and business of the university will have to change if it is to remain relevant).

Main Headings

• Over the past five years, there has been a huge increase in media use among young people.
• Youth who spend more time with media report lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment.
• Children whose parents make an effort to limit media use—through the media environment they create in the home and the rules they set—spend less time with media than their peers.
• Two groups of young people stand out for their high levels of media consumption: those in the tween and early teen years (11- to 14-year-olds), and Blacks and Hispanics.

Of Import to Educators

• There’s more access to, and ownership of, media in the car, the home (extending into the bedroom), and pockets (mobile media) of kids. They see the world, learn about it, and increasingly depend on media to understand the world (p. 9-10)
  Between the lines: If you try to ignore new media, you will be deemed irrelevant by them.
• “On a typical day, 8- to 18-year-olds in this country spend more than 7½ hours (7:38) using media—almost the equivalent of a full work day, except that they are using media seven days a week instead of five” (p. 11).
  Between the lines: How does school compare against this media? Could it seem boring in comparison?
  
• Physical activity has increased in the past 5 years (p.12). 
  Between the lines: Is this because media is no longer tethered by cords, thanks to mobile.
  
• Today, two-thirds (66%) of all 8- to 18-year-olds own their own cell phone, up from 39% five years ago (p. 18).
  Between the lines: most or all college freshmen for the next ten years probably will (at least) have smart phones and access much of their media content on the go. They will be used to getting information from their pocket. They will demand that their educators provide it.

• Kids spend most of their recreational computer time on Social Networking, Video Games, and video sites like YouTube (p. 21).
  Between the lines: As we develop curriculum we need to consider What is it that they like to do? How can we engage them? What is important enough to them that they’ll spend a lot of time and energy to do it?
  
• The “digital divide” is narrowing, although now it’s more about the quality/speed of access (p. 23).
  Between the lines: While we can’t ignore that disparities still exist, we can no longer use disparity as an excuse to wait until all kids have equal access before we start engaging.
  
• Time spent playing video games has increase almost threefold between 1999-2009 (p. 26). 
  Between the lines: Games have always been great at conveying culture, beliefs, and other forms of knowledge. Instead of disparaging them as “not valid” forms of learning, we should further embrace them.
  
• Listening to music is still very popular (p. 28)
  Between the lines: More money towards the arts.

There’s more, on Print Media (kids are reading less); Multitasking (they’re overlapping use of different forms of media): Media Rules (family rules affect all this); Race,Class, Gender, and “Parent’s Education” (I wonder if the latter is their way of addressing class differences).

I’ll let you download and read the report yourself, and tell me what your thoughts are.