Is More Always Better?

Elizabeth Gilbert said that the responsibility of being the fount of all creativity and wonderment was/is too much for the fragile human psyche in http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html and I tend to agree. However, there is another angle to this when listening to Barry Schwartz talk about the paradox of choice. Each choice is a responsibility. I would hazard a guess that the responsibility of making all the choices of what tools, methods and such we use is too much responsibility.

WARNING: There is a single cartoon slide shown about 12 minuets into the TED talk that shows cartoon breasts. This is a courtesy warning for those who wish to avoid such things. The cartoon shows a man in three situations thinking how one of the others would be better.

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

The reason is that we already have the responsibilities of normal life. All our actions, thoughts and the results are our responsibilities as individuals. Diversity of skills, experience and expertise is supposed to be beneficial because the responsibility of making choices can be greatly lessened by those with more skills, experience and expertise related to the choice.

While doing research on how to format a blog I found a tip to limit each list to seven items. The reason was to make it easily consumable. This might be a good limit to keep in mind when giving basic choices.

Guiding the Wanderer

To many options without information just makes the choices uninformed. That’s the reason that open engagement is so important. The experiences inform the individual about doing that job as themselves. I do creative writing, and look at creative writing jobs, because I know that I’m at least a proficient creative writer. How do I know this, because I’ve done many kinds of writing and had a couple teachers tell me that I could be a novelist if I continued working with certain stories. Knowing this cuts down the potential jobs for me to look through. Sure, I can look for compute science positions. Sure, I can look for game design positions. However, those two are just two more examples of having done the task and found out I’m good at those things.

Motivation comes in part from the experiences and exposure, which helps guide a person’s choices. I was recognized as being good in math and science as far back as second grade. With that in mind, it isn’t such a surprise that I am a computer science major. What could be a surprise is that I am a tutor and experience designer. I was motivated by my communication problems to improve. This kind of motivation fits study very well, because it is the obvious lack and method to fix it that helps generate motivation to study.

So, the idea of guiding the wanderer is to inform them, help them choose a direction and repeat. This is where I get to the heart of the multi-path learning. In math, there are generally three kinds of people; geometry, algebra and both. Technically, you could teach a lot of geometry before teaching any algebra, but it isn’t done. Algebra is very linear, cold, dry and reminds me of a textbook. Personally, this doesn’t bother me. Yet, there are a lot of creative people who would probably do better learning enough geometry to see the value in learning the algebra, motivating them to choose to learn algebra. Unfortunately that option is not supported and thus becomes extra hard. Supporting that one extra path could do wonders for math and science education.

Now, before anybody takes that out of context, let’s discuss the support I mentioned. It’s not just offering the class, or other path, because that’s just offering the choice, not supporting it. To support the choice means that there should be a way to help a person make a good choice for them, to share expertise with them. I could see covering the basics of both algebra and geometry in elementary school, as is generally done, and noting the preferences. However those preferences could change over time. So, experiences and preference recording should occur throughout the educational process, to inform the experts and give optional information to the students. That gets to one of the problems that generally occurs with humans; we like to label things and then deal with the label, not the thing.

Supply the Solutions

A great example is an article ( http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2009/ca2009072_489734.htm ) I just came across this morning through Stephen Downes OLDaily ( http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm ). It talks about how the old solutions in business that have been taught at Harvard Business School, along with just about all the others, are a part of the problem. There is a lot to take in, but the article is a great read. Simply put, the us-them mentality doesn’t build trust or wealth. We should be concerned with how to help others if we want to produce wealth. Finding a filling needs is the key to good business, education and design. We are each different, but that shouldn’t lead to the dehumanizing of those different from ourselves.

Some people need more teaching than others. I know this because I’m one who goes back and forth from amazing whiz kid to dunderhead the dunce. There are a few things to remember. First is replay opportunities. Second is other viewpoints. Third is other ways to share the same information and views. If you allow an interested person to keep trying different ways to understand several viewpoints and the information, what you’ll find this is a very effective way to learn. It’s not the fastest, but it helps those interesting in learning more than just getting something done.

This is one of the reasons I’m excited about Push Button Labs. Besides it being a game company in my state I think will do well, it is based on providing solutions with a low barrier to entry. I intend to learn and use their Push Button Engine to make games, tools, toys and so on based on what I learn about learning science, game design, effective communication and more. Being easy to use, from what I hear, I should be able to generate a lot of prototypes of educational games, which I obviously think I’m good at designing. In truth, I might try doing the same as some guys who did/do the Experimental Gameplay Project ( http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml ) as they eventual form of the Weekly Specials, or at least for some of them. The point is to create, share and learn. Maybe it could become something like a Monthly special rather than weekly.

As always I’m looking for comments, feedback, contributions and intelligent discussion of the topic.

NOTE: I haven’t forgotten about the summary posts, but I’m not sure when I’ll be writing them. This whole thing is an experiment, and part of the beauty of doing these as blog posts is that all the content is in one place to start with. Thank you for your patience. If anybody would like to write a summary, you are welcome to have a go. Just let me know when you post it so I can link to it.

“What are open and engagement?”

Recently I came across a wonderful post on what openness really is, but can’t find it at the time of writing this. It’s not just about availability and sharing, though they are big parts. In fact the post I’m thinking about said that open resources should always be available and always be accessible, but that isn’t all there is to being open. It’s also about being willing to adapt and adjust as needed. Sharing is like talking. Being creative gives you more to say than just the things you’ve heard. Listening and considering what you hear gives you more to share, more ideas to be creative with and a better idea how to go about sharing to add value.

Engagement isn’t just physical, it’s mental, emotional, temporal and much more. There needs to be a sense of DOING in the activity for most people to be fully engaged. When listening, it’s being an active listener who critically thinks about what is said. If you’re not mentally there, you aren’t engaged. It’s fully being a part of the here and now, but to get somebody to do that usually requires some motivation.

“Is it good to add them to education?”

Yes, but my opinion isn’t the reason. Openness increases the reach of educational efforts while engagement increases the effectiveness to those reached. If you can’t access learning materials, you can’t use them to learn. Play and practice are both forms of engagement. Both are proven to help retention and creativity.

Some say that it will cause problems financially, and I don’t disagree. However, I think not being open with basic education needed by the masses could cause far more financial problems. Illiteracy has been noted as a rising problem, as are several others publicly noted. Math and science have been a big deal for a while. Now we also have digital skills to be added to the already large list of generally daily skills we need to function productively in society.

“How can we add them to education?”

Many counter ideas to add things to education with the notion that openness, engagement and other ideas are just good teacher. I agree, but as others have pointed out in discussions, it’s not the standard level of teaching. These thing need to be added back into education. Without them students and learners are basically told that learning, personal growth and work are all as boring as a textbook and listening to a boring lecture. So, let’s bring back quality teaching.

Games and technology are just tools to add openness and engagement. If used in the same old ways, they will be as transformative as e-learning has been on the whole. In other words, not much. The content isn’t the problem so much as the delivery and the expectations. The points brought up about motivation and assessment correlate to delivery and expectations. So, we need to figure out ways to integrate open engagement into the daily educational activities if we really want to see the benefits, rather than just using the tools and bairly getting ours collective toes wet with our efforts. Just look at the efforts and results of 826 Valencia ( http://www.826valencia.org/ ).

Bring on the Links

I know that there is a plethora of good posts and articles related to openness and engagement in education. If you know of some, please make a comment on this post sharing those links. I’m sure that some of the social bookmarking sites will have some good links as well, but I don’t have the time to go through them all. I’m mean that seriously, since I haven’t got around to the summary posts. This isn’t just about me, or you, but the entire populace who have some connection to education and learning, that is, every single person on this planet. Maybe we can’t positively effect everybody’s lives right away, but if we don’t start rolling snow balls down the hill we won’t be affecting very many lives later either.

NOTE: Since this last week saw little contribution from others, I will hold off on creating a summary post. Then those who come and participate later can add what they’ve found. Then there will be more reason to create the summary post.

There is a lot to talk about when it comes to assessment of learners. Lots of questions and more ways that they can be taken. Here are just a few and some possibilities for discussion and consideration.

What could/should be assessed?

Skills, memory, creativity, resource management, time management, leadership, communication, organization, teamwork and the list goes on with specifics from each discipline and field, but that’s just a list of things about students that could be assessed. There are other things like teaching methods, resource styles, method & resource selection for students and software are just a small portion of what else there is that can be assessed. Not only do we need to assess the students, but also the education system and tools.

Who could/should be assessed?

Students make up a large number of people as there are several times of students, and then there are the teachers, policy makers and just about everybody else to be considered. Each person has a part to play in education, so we shouldn’t limit ways of assessing to just pupils or just to those enrolled in the institutions. Then there are groups rather than just individuals, though that starts to come under how to assess.

How could/should they be assessed?

Tests, quizzes, homework and projects are standard in schools and have come unders scrutiny as skill and drill. There are other options to be discussed in many formats. Games are a possibility for interactive assessment, especially for situations that require adapting. Then there is the possibility of using more than one way to assess the same thing, which is related to the many aspects of a person that can be assessed. Each way to assess has strengths and weaknesses.

When could/should they be assessed?

Pre-tests, midterms, weekly quizzes, unit tests and finals are all tests that differ by time as much as scope. Choosing the right time to assess something is just as important as the rest, because we change over time. Homework is like continuous assessment over different material and different aspects of the student’s grasp of the material.

Where could/should they be assessed?

Online, in person, in the classroom, on the computer or even at home are all technically possibilities. Depending on the assessment purpose, and other details, different locations can be better than others. The pros and cons of the location should be considered like when the assessment is given, to make the assessment most effective. Simply put, the classroom is not always the best place to be assessed.

Why could/should they be assessed?

The purpose of each assessment should be a part of choosing the details of the assessment. Finding out what the students already know and need help with can be done through a pre-test, while finding out the effectiveness of an activity could be done through a pre and post test/quiz. If you want to graph out something, it makes sense to assess whatever it is consistently in method, location and timing.

I have several posts related to this topic I will be linking to in the comments, and hope you will do the same. Last time I talked about the topic a lot, and received little input, so this time I’m covering the topic possibilities more than what I think. Posts, videos, presentations, articles and more are welcome, just leave a comment with a link. That’s all it takes to add to this discussion. If you have any feedback, please let me have it.

With motivation being a big part of the push for educational games, and that strategy not working as well as many would like, this is a bigger problem than my self-promotion attempts. Fact is that people are loosing the motivation to learn through school. Drop out rates and other such things show this.

So, with all the motivating things in life, I figure there have to be some answers, or at least a good direction out there somewhere. Games have motivating factors. Marketing is about motivating people to do something, usually buying something. So, how about discussing the motivational stuff to help motivate learners?

Marketing

Just watched a video ( http://masscontrolsite.com/sneakattack.p… )that covers some of this stuff. Another good one I watched is no longer available, but the general ideas I’ll share. Both basically say that you have to give to get. You want people to buy, you need to get them to think your product or service will do the job. Giving away information, trials and partial products is a big part I see in marketing help.

Content & Pitch:

95% Content
5% Pitch

Content is to be valuable content. Sure you can make people laugh, but make sure there’s value to the video. The sales stuff should be a side note to the content, not the main push.

Video & Blogs:

Put the video with that content to pitch ratio onto a blog. The reason I see, but isn’t what is said in the video, is that a blog is a place of interaction. Posts and comments and can have links to posts that mention the blog post. So long as there is the interaction element, I don’t think the blog is needed for educational and learning applications.

Sales & Motivation:

Adding value and not overusing these things will improve how people respond. The video states this very clearly at the end. Out of five videos meant on a blog, 2, maybe 3, videos should include a pitch. DO it too much and it looses effect.

PLF:

In the Product Launch Formula it’s more about building a relationship than selling. Tell some, but don’t overwhelm. Be informative, but give people the option to opt in and opt out. The people who deal with you overtime as you share useful information, content with value, will be more likely to believe what you say and buy your stuff.

Marketing Lesson:

So, while that may be for marketing, it boils down to dealing with people and effective communication. The rule of thumb I keep finding is that you have to add value and be available to get the results. Giving free stuff, even with fairly obvious monetary reasons, comes across a lot better than the pay to find out more approach.

Games

First, there is the play vs work perception. If people think it’s play, they will approach the activity differently than if it’s perceived as work. Keep that in mind.

Beyond the perception and approach issues, there is the motivation itself, that I don’t think comes from the games themselves. Generally I now think that motivation starts with being exposed to concepts. Those concepts are what become goals and dreams. When a person thinks it is possible to achieve their dreams and goals, they have hope. The more hope they have of achieving and/or maintaining their dreams and goals, the more motivated they are to put out effort. Just think of all the effort put into not working, because a person doesn’t want to work.

Play itself has this motivation “equation’ in it. When watching those at play the individual sees something that they want. It doesn’t seem like it’s hard to do, so there is hope that they can attain it. That hope pushes them through the difficulties of becoming a part of the activities.

For more of what I think about motivation and games, check out my post on the topic. ( http://blog.igenoukan.com/2009/06/myster… ) In that post I mention the following video, which I think we all should watch to get a better understanding of how games can be effective, which is part of motivating people.

Engagement

In both approaches there is a big focus on small pieces of information loosely connected and engagement. A couple months ago I read an article on professors trying out different ways to adapt their lectures, including one who broke up his lectures into 20 minuet parts with breaks. In the physics classes I’ve taken in college their were required labs, hands-on science, with lab reports. The lab results weren’t near as important than the report, but the report required the lab activity.

Marketing and entertainment are considered by some to be the major competitors to education when it comes to learner attention. Well, learning has a serious benefit to the person beyond the activity itself and the potential for personal growth. Most other things don’t. I think the big problem is that most forms of education do not properly leverage the advantage. Instead it’s usually, “We know it’s hard and unpleasant, but it’s good for you.” Just because that’s a benefit doesn’t mean the activity should be no fun.

James Gee, the guy from the above video, is a proponent of improving education by learning from how video games do what they do. The following video is about getting some education into video games.

Approach

Okay, so even with all the cool ideas of games and marketing this may not fully work. The reason is that the person/student/learner has a view of this thing that may, or may not, hinder the process. I love to learn, so when given a decent opportunity, I take it. However, lots of people look at learning as more of a chore or requirement. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard students say they are taking this or that class because, “it’s required”. That’s their motivation for taking the class, but that seems to be it. What can be done with such a person?

Truth is, it’s their choice to be interested or not, but you can remove obstacles and share why the content is interesting. Not all will jump up and down with excitement, but it should at least make the class more enjoyable.

Take the standard math class. You know, the one where half the class would ask, “When are we going to use this in real life?” Ya, that kind of class. It’s kinda hard to motivate a person to want to learn something that seems utterly pointless except to get the points needed for something else, normally. Games handle this in an interesting way. First, the tasks themselves are, hopefully, well designed for what’s going on. Second, the value of the activity and it’s relevance is obvious. The less of one you have, the more you need the other.

See, the person looks at the task and either says it’s worth doing in and of itself, or that it’s worth doing for this other cause. Both of these assume it’s perceived as worth doing, which is where good design comes into play. If the learner sees the task as worth doing, they will put out more effort. The less it’s perceived as worth doing, the less they are willing to go through to do it. “Required” classes count as barely worth doing most of the time. Why, because there wasn’t a time where the learner evaluated the class and decided it was worth doing. Instead, most of what they know about how worthwhile it is boils down to “it’s required”. That view cripples the personal motivation.

Recreational activities are picked as worth doing for reasons not always known to the person doing them. The fact that the person selected them means a lot, but so does the fact that they understand why they should do such a thing. (I know “should” isn’t always a good fit for that, but it’s there for a reason.) In fact I would hazard to say that the understanding is MORE important to the individuals motivation than having picked the activity. That’s because understanding why the activity was picked shows them the value of doing the activity.

Participate

Hopefully you see contributing to the conversations as worthwhile. I do, or I wouldn’t be putting myself through all this just to start them. Know some good blog posts or articles on this topic, please share. For most of the ones I know, check out my blog post called “The Mystery of Motivation in Games” ( http://blog.igenoukan.com/2009/06/myster… ). It’s good, really. (Yes, I know I’m biased about it, but it really is good.) Make a post in response, or just a comment, either way this conversation is better with you participating.

Plus, at the end of this week I’ll put together a post about the discussions. If you add something worth noting you’ll get mentioned.