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

Why.

I want to change formal education from an institution primarily built around the administration and tracking of students, to one built around the personal and unique interests of each student. One that allows for the creation of natural communities of practice/affinity rather than of “classes” based on what instructors and institutions feel can/should be taught next in a designed sequence.

[Disclaimer/Explanation: While designed sequences of courses can be very educational, developmentally appropriate, and bureaucratically efficient, they often suffer from a "one size fits all" design and pace that doesn't match the needs of individual students as well as is now possible. While I am ultimately advocating  for a major overhaul, I recognize that the reality of change usually occurs in minor, iterative steps until new paradigms are introduced, accepted, and embraced. So be it. Let's start iterating.]

How.

First off, this is nothing new. This is merely an expansion of what John Dewey was advocating when he wrote of occupations and vocational education (Democracy and Education, 1916, p. 359 — see attached image). What makes it more compelling and relevant now is that technology and the abundance of information and connection of experts via the internets make this more possible than ever.

With current computer authentication technology, the administration and tracking of student progress can be much easier than it was when everything had to be entered in by hand. With access to online affinity communities, and game-like simulations, assessment can be peer-generated and based on real world success in authentic problems rather than based on standardized tests that require that every student be forced to learn the same thing in sometimes ridiculous and irrational formats (because those are the formats that are easiest to grade)

Because so much content is now accessible online, teachers no longer needs to be experts in every subject offered *and* in teaching. They can instead focus on guiding their students along personalized learning trajectories, and let students gather content from online sources. They can teach how to filter good information from bad information. They can teach the *application* of content, and critical thinking skills.

A specific example: Caro likes robots. By making her interest in “robots” the main focus of her education, we can help her learn many overlapping subjects. In learning all about robots, she will:

• learn the history of inventions, inventors and robots;
• read literary cultural works involving technology and robots;
• wrestle with what it means to be human, to have original thoughts and creative impulses;
• learn to draw/design in order to design robots
• learn mechanical engineering in order to build them;
• learn math, computational thinking, syntax, and programming languages in order to program them;
• consume and produce online content with others around the world who are interested in robots;
• learn social skills and etiquette from these intereactions;
• learn to iterate on prototypes and designs;
• learn to fail and learn from her failures;
• become a local expert in robots among her peers;
• etc.

A general example: Juan likes to help. By making his interest in helping the main focus of his education, we can help him learn many overlapping subjects. He will:

• read about social engineering
• wrestle with philosophical dilemmas and conflicting ideals of morality
• learn Aristotelian logic and computational arguments
• learn debate and rhetoric
• learn people skills and the dynamics of managing diverse personalities
• eventually find a specific interest (veterinarian, specializing in, um, kittens) to further his focus
• etc.

What.

We need to begin by supporting and developing Personalized Learning Environments and Tools that can also support community-building and peer support. As these become mainstream, we need to alter assessment strategies to include rewards for social support (i.e. you get points towards graduation for being a helpful member of your communities).

1. Mobile, 24/7 access
2. Customizable portals
3. Community-rewarded support systems

It turns out that we have many separate attempts and projects aimed at providing resources to many of the parties, but many of these “clearinghouses” of support options are local, populated by interested parties, but both terribly limited (because we don’t really know what everyone else is doing across the campus and state) and redundant (because what we do know is typically populated to multiple databases). So the specialized information that we might want or need is often not in the places or databases where we look.

A better idea might be to put the power of the users to use (crowd-sourcing), and let them fill in any gaps that we might inadvertently have left.

Here are a few things that that Amazon.com uses that we might also want to incorporate in our university learning support systems (technology/social/academic/financial, etc.). Amazon is just one example of how the university will need to change to better cater to the needs/demands of its users. I’d really like to further explore how to make higher education a much more integrated community where the informal support systems are formalized and participation is rewarded. I begin to play with this idea in this post: New Model for Schooling.

Learning Support from Amazon

Reviews: Amazon provides the “official information” from the company, but also includes reviews of the actual product from users. Imagine this a in a university IT document — there’s the FAQ, maybe a few knowledge base articles on different features, but then there’s also feedback from the users, ranging from the not so helpful “This product sucks; don’t waste your time!” to the very helpful “This product is especially useful for users who need to [x or y] but less so for those who need to [z]. I used it to [case study], and it worked very well. But don’t follow their recommendation to [something]; instead try [something else]. Highly recommend.”

Average Customer Review: (17 customer reviews). In addition to offering additional information to supplement the official line, reviews indicate that the reader is not alone in their need. Every review reinforces that there’s a living community of users of the service, and the date of each review highlights the life of the service, and how long certain issues have been issues, and how robust a service still is (or isn’t). This is good feedback for all levels of service providers as well, in that it helps to identify what areas need more work.

Was this review helpful to you?: (20 of 24 people found the following review helpful) Amazon also has a rating system where readers can offer feedback on how helpful the review someone wrote was to them, so the two reviews above could be given some context. These reviews can be sorted by, so the “Newest” or “Most helpful” can be at the top. There are huge advantages to this: less helpful reviews can be at the bottom, so as a user I don’t have to wade through it unless I’m not satisfied with the reviews that others found as helpful. The rating of the review system also addresses the need many feel to try and be helpful. Sometimes we just want to rate (with unhelpful rants reviews), but often we want our own painful journey of resolution to have some benefit, so we try to share what we learned to minimize the pain that others may be going through. So if we get rewarded, even with a “Thanks! This was helpful!” it goes a long way toward building a community of sharing/practice. People who liked my review on service A may want to read my other reviews of Services B, L, and N because they noticed in my review of A that I used it in many of the ways that they want to, so maybe they can learn more from me. A community is born.

Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed: The point was brought up at the meeting, that in some search attempts, if I don’t know how to spell the name, or get the phrasing even a little bit off, I might not be able to find anything, or I might be close but-not-quite-there, and unable to figure out how to proceed if this service doesn’t quite do it for me. A “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed” option would point me further along a path of discovery instead of dead-ending me at that page.

Did You Mean: search item? (Instead of serch item): Sometimes we make simple typing mistakes. Can’t technology correct this for us? Having suggestions of what we might have meant to type can help with this as well as help people who aren’t sure what they’re looking for.

Showing 1 – 16 of 4,785 Results: (with excerpts) A better example of this is Google, but Amazon has an excerpt from the cover or first page as well. The point is that in my search results I get more than the title of the page; I get a short excerpt that I can quickly read in order to do some of my own filtering of whether it’s what I want, or not.

Customer Discussions — This Product’s Forum: Some services will need complete forums around them; others won’t. It’s a nice feature for those that do.

Look for Similar Items by Category/Subject: These are two distinct sections, but potentially pretty useful, right?

Continue Shopping: Customers Who Bought Items in Your Recent History Also Bought: This lets me know again, that I”m not a lone soul lost in the machine, but that others have been down this path (maybe), and identifies other steps that they may have taken, pointing me to future steps on my path and potential best practices that arise out of our collective experiences.

Diana Rhoten, of Startl, speaks of the need to cater to the learning demands of the current generation of learners who, she argues, are following “Interest-driven Learning” — achievable now, and driven by the creation of an unprecedented technical infrastructure. Kids now prefer to follow a learning path of consumption, production, and participation. It starts by finding their interest and coaching them through their development of it. Although Rhoten focuses on younger kids than we find in higher education, much of what she says applies to the demographics that we serve. Indeed, higher education (and programs such as UW-Madison’s Digital Media Assignments) may be a grand testing ground for this, due to our demographic of already “plugged-in” students — an exceptionally large population of tech owners/users compared to the under-12 set that Rhoten works with.

It’s a beautiful video. Watch it and let me know if you think it makes sense.

There’s so much really cool stuff happening at AERA this year (as always), but I miss so much of it because the tools to organize my experience here are, um, challenged. I’d really want to challenge the planning committee to address some of these tools. Here are a few suggestions:

• Better online search: Let me search by keywords. Give me recommendations and suggestions based on what I search for. Why not fill out a whole suggested schedule for me based on distance and time and my interests, and what others who viewed what I viewed also viewed (ala Amazon.com)? Let me adjust my calendar more easily (UI). Give me an easy way to export it or email it to myself in multiple usable formats (iCal, .PDF, text, etc.) with links that I can click for more information, in case I forget why I chose it and can’t tell by the title. Let me adjust what information I want to show up in my personalized format.
• Google Calendars: let me subscribe to a google calendar for all the SIGs and Divisions, etc. Let me turn them on and off as I wish. Use the location feature, so I can see where they are, and copy individual sessions from a bunch of different SIGs to my own personalized AERA google calendar. Google Calendar is already pretty well optimized for slow internet access and mobile phones, so it would be easy and quick for me to use my mobile device to find out where I need to go next. It would be incredibly more efficient than the printed program, which is awful (really) and heavy and PLEASE don’t make me need it anymore!!
• Map the Rooms: let me make intelligent decisions about the sequence of sessions by warning me that the session I just scheduled is 12 blocks from the previous session that scheduled. Offer me suggestions of Nearby Sessions that I might be interested in (based on my choices so far). Or again, suggest a whole day for me based on my interests. Since technology now makes this all fairly simple, link this info all together.
• Diversify Me: I don’t always know whose sessions to go to, so I sometimes just take the easy route and see the folks I already know, and end up not really moving beyond the research group I already know. You, dear magical program of my dreams, can save me from nepotism! Or make a good effort toward that end.

So do it. Make my AERA 2011 that much better. Please.

• 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.