EduBacon

A Student’s Cry: “When will I use this in REAL life?”

Steven Egan — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 07:26:00 +0000

INTRODUCTION:
As a student and game designer I am trying to understand and solve the problems I face in education, and my life long learning goals. While I have my opinions and ideas for possible solutions, they mean nothing if teachers, students, policy makers and the general public are unwilling to open their minds to challenge themselves, their systems and their futures. I am but one person, and such cannot implement true solutions alone.

Economy is about flow with effects, and the flow of knowledge can have many, many effects. The flow of information is based on communication. There are more than one form of communication, and each has many possible problems. Those problems need to be addressed for the sake of students and the future. That's what this is all about; the economy of information and dealing with the question voiced in so many variations, by so many students. However, more than that, I ask, when will you use THIS in real life? A solution never implemented is as helpful as advice never heard.

THE QUESTION:
For years students have asked when a particular piece of information, a particular skill or way of understanding would possibly be used in real life. This is a question of value. The question asks about the value of what's being taught. Is there any reason to go through the unpleasantness of learning what's being taught? It also says that the students don't see a reason, want to hear why you think it is worth knowing or want to compare their own views with what you say. It's not enough to just share the information. It never has been, and never will be. Humans aren't that simple.

Merely having a goal doesn't generate motivation. Knowing in one's head that something is good for one's self doesn't always motivate sufficiently. There has to be a desire, a personal goal. For me, learning something fascinating or useful can be enough, because I desire to learn such things. However, the limit to my motivation in those situations is the limit of my desire to attain those goals. For many people, the question mentioned is a search for motivation. They are assessing whether there is a good, motivating, reason to apply themselves. While abstractness can help make an idea more flexible, it also distances it from application. How the abstract can be applied is where the motivation is likely to be found, because that's how personal goals can be reached.

THE PROBLEM:
The problem is not that people have reason to ask the question in the first place, but that the lesson hasn't been learned by those being asked. After being asked many times how to eat a particular food, it makes sense to change things around to help those asking. Then they might understand how to eat the food before they attempt it. However, an explanation without application doesn't work well for many people. I know because I've tried to explain ideas in this fashion. It doesn't work. Explanation without application is as bad, or worse than, application without information.

Let's continue with the food example. After putting up posters that show people eating the food, the owners might receive fewer questions. The reason is that the customers receive the information in a situation where they are interested, have the ability to try it and can easily review the information while making attempts. This is one of the reasons that video games are considered a good vehicle for education, because the difficulty balancing and in-game help specifically address this aspect of teaching and learning. If a person can't understand the game well enough to have fun, they aren't likely to play.

The only real difference in such a situation is access to quality materials when the content is useful. Some might point out textbooks, to which most students and some teachers might laugh, raise an eyebrow or make rude comments. Simply put, textbooks are not very good for the most part. There are exceptions, but those exceptions aren't used enough. Textbooks seem to have the most usefulness as reference materials, not teaching aids. Web based materials can be a big help, when they can be used for more than small quotes, and are actually of good quality, easy to use, have the information you need and you're allowed to use them.

THE MOMENT:
Rather than talk about a particular solution to the "problem", it seems more important to define the moment in which students learn. Since each student is different, it can require different stimulus and situations to bring about that moment. As stated before, I'm writing this as a student.

First of all there is a desire, for whatever reason, to be able to do or learn something. This is the push to grow and change in a way that allows you to improve. It's not always pleasant or comfortable, but it's a part of the moment. Normally this is called motivation. Both of the following links cover motivation in more depth.

http://edubacon.com/2009/06/08/weekly-special-motivating-learners/

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Student_motivatation.html

There is also the situation, which consists of preparation and context. Preparation is the lead up in concepts, understanding and experiences that provide the learner with the mental constructs needed to "get" the new skill, concept or material. The context is made up of external things like surroundings, people and expectations that can help and/or hinder the process.

When the preparation, context and motivation all contribute to the process there is a good chance learning will occur. Yes, that is an oversimplification and no, I will not make any guarantees. This is a general description of the moment when learning happens. If the learner is not willing, it becomes highly unlikely they will learn. If they want to learn, there's a pretty good chance it can happen. To be able to build the new mental structure, behavior, they need conceptual building blocks. Without sufficient mental resources it becomes unlikely the student will learn. The surroundings, attitudes and approach can discourage and misdirect, or encourage and guide. That's about it, so far as I have found.

THE REALITY:
The goals of students and teachers don't match. It's much like the goals of game designers and game players not matching.

"#7 The Player Does What's Efficient, Not What's Fun"

That's the title of an article section that I will quote below. We could replace fun with educational, learn, or beneficial, for educational endeavors. Along the same lines, game could be replaced by class, curriculum, course or a handful of other terms. So, please keep that in mind.

"Your goal is to make a game that is fun. But somewhat contrary to intuition, having fun is NOT the goal of the player. The goal of the player is to conquer whatever the game throws at them. Fun is the expected byproduct of this endeavor. The player wants to have fun without having to seek it out.

The player will do what is most efficient and effective, short of doing what they perceive as cheating. Consider a side-scrolling brawler where the player has two attacks. The first attack causes the character to leap into the air, dive down onto an enemy, grab him, spin him around, then toss him into a group of other enemies, knocking them down. A developer could put quite a lot of time into tweaking this maneuver, and have lots of fun executing it during playtesting. The second attack is a simple punch.

But here's the problem – the simple punch deals five times the damage. Why would the player bother using the former attack when the punch is so effective? "Because it's so much fun!" the developer would interject. Then why are you not forcing the player to use it?

We've all played a game like this. We're having lots of fun using a bunch of really cool attacks, abilities, maneuvers, etc. Then we find the infinite ammo rocket launcher that kills everything onscreen instantly, and the game is suddenly less fun. But why? We could always choose to put the weapon away. The problem is that manually handicapping ourselves within the game's rule structure is not fun either.

When testing your game, play it to win. Don't play it to have fun. It's your job to make sure that the two overlap.

There are exceptions to this, of course, where players will just mess around with a game to have fun rather than to progress. But the players who reach this point of exception are the people who are already hooked into your game. It's the new players who need to be won over. Force them to have fun, whether they like it or not!"
- http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/GregMcClanahan/20090723/2561/Fatal_Flaws_in_Flash_Game_Design_and_Development.php

Basically, the goal(s) of the people who create the system is/are the means to the users achieving their own goal(s). As such, the stuff used to achieve educational goals should be created with the goals of students in mind. Most are aiming for the grade, to get a degree, to get a job, to live a financially stable life, among other goals. Sure they may be interested in learning and understanding the topic, but the larger system values the grade, as evidence of content mastery. Unfortunately, learning is NOT the primary goal of a student, it's getting good grades.

While some students really want to learn, they won't need special treatment near as much if the means of getting a good grade is actually showing content mastery. By forcing the average student to learn to succeed, the students who want to learn are likely in a better position to succeed.

If students need to do homework as practice, reward it accordingly. What's the point of practice? The point is to do the action repeatedly, because it makes it easier to remember and gives experience. Accuracy is nowhere in the value of practice. Instead, it's all about participation, so rewarding participation makes sense. A little participation grade and quality feedback is the format I have seen as the most effective model for practice homework.

"De-emphasizing Grades

Emphasize mastery and learning rather than grades. Ames and Ames (1990) report on two secondary school math teachers. One teacher graded every homework assignment and counted homework as 30 percent of a student's final grade. The second teacher told students to spend a fixed amount of time on their homework (thirty minutes a night) and to bring questions to class about problems they could not complete. This teacher graded homework as satisfactory or unsatisfactory, gave students the opportunity to redo their assignments, and counted homework as 10 percent of the final grade. Although homework was a smaller part of the course grade, this second teacher was more successful in motivating students to turn in their homework." ... "Mistakes were viewed as acceptable and something to learn from.

Researchers recommend de-emphasizing grading by eliminating complex systems of credit points; they also advise against trying to use grades to control nonacademic behavior (for example, lowering grades for missed classes) (Forsyth and McMillan, 1991; Lowman 1990). Instead, assign ungraded written work, stress the personal satisfaction of doing assignments, and help students measure their progress."

Just as a note, ungraded assignments like this also give a great opportunity to understand the less standard students. If a note explaining why the assignment wasn't done is just as acceptable as the ungraded assignment, student - teacher communication becomes a bigger part of the class structure. Similar notes could also be made a part of all class work. To make this more effective, I'd suggest passing the notes back with a response.

"Design tests that encourage the kind of learning you want students to achieve. Many students will learn whatever is necessary to get the grades they desire. If you base your tests on memorizing details, students will focus on memorizing facts. If your tests stress the synthesis and evaluation of information, students will be motivated to practice those skills when they study. (Source: McKeachie, 1986)

Avoid using grades as threats. As McKeachie (1986) points out, the threat of low grades may prompt some students to work hard, but other students may resort to academic dishonesty, excuses for late work, and other counterproductive behavior.

Motivating Students by Responding to Their Work

Give students feedback as quickly as possible. Return tests and papers promptly, and reward success publicly and immediately. Give students some indication of how well they have done and how to improve. Rewards can be as simple as saying a student's response was good, with an indication of why it was good, or mentioning the names of contributors: "Cherry's point about pollution really synthesized the ideas we had been discussing." (Source: Cashin, 1979)

Reward success. Both positive and negative comments influence motivation, but research consistently indicates that students are more affected by positive feedback and success. "

...

"Be specific when giving negative feedback. Negative feedback is very powerful and can lead to a negative class atmosphere. Whenever you identify a student's weakness, make it clear that your comments relate to a particular task or performance, not to the student as a person. Try to cushion negative comments with a compliment about aspects of the task in which the student succeeded. (Source: Cashin, 1979)"

Another note, making it clear what is wrong and how to correct it is a big part of this. If you are willing to help fix the problem, it helps you, the teacher, come across as caring about the student's success. I've had teachers refuse to help, and it normally comes across as, "I don't care." If the student needs to figure it out for them self, tell them that and give what assistance you can without giving away the answer.

"Avoid demeaning comments. Many students in your class may be anxious about their performance and abilities. Be sensitive to how you phrase your comments and avoid offhand remarks that might prick their feelings of inadequacy.

Avoid giving in to students' pleas for "the answer" to homework problems. When you simply give struggling students the solution, you rob them of the chance to think for themselves. Use a more productive approach (adapted from Fiore, 1985):

* Ask the students for one possible approach to the problem.
* Gently brush aside students’ anxiety about not getting the answer by refocusing their attention on the problem at hand.
* Ask the students to build on what they do know about the problem.
* Resist answering the question "is this right?" Suggest to the students a way to check the answer for themselves.
* Praise the students for small, independent steps.

If you follow these steps, your students will learn that it is all right not to have an instant answer. They will also learn to develop greater patience and to work at their own pace. And by working through the problem, students will experience a sense of achievement and confidence that will increase their motivation to learn."
- http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/motiv.htm

THE SYSTEM:
As a game designer I occasionally look for good articles on game design. Recently I've bee looking more into tabletop role-playing games. Dungeons & Dragons is likely the most well known example, but it is only one type of such games. Depending on the people you talk with, the game could be described as the precursor to hack & slash video games to a wonderful collaborative storytelling game. However, there is something to note about any game, the system and rules matter. In one article I found ( http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/system_does_matter.html ) the author describes three types of goals for the experience and three types of mechanics to achieve those goals. With that in mind the author concludes that the worst thing you can do is try to be all things to all people, though I disagree on that point.

The reason I disagree is that a system could give the tools to adapt the system to different types of goals and mechanics. Such a system would be an adapting system that allows for customization as needed, without the experience and skill needed to do it your self. Sure, you still have to figure out and choose how to customize the system to the situation, but that's why there is a human in charge. In a tabletop game it's the Game Master, and in the classroom it's the teacher.

Personally, I find the current mainstream education systems to be much like D&D. You pick a major (class), with the option of changing it, and then you follow the strict rules of encounters, be they classes or combat. With the large focus of D&D rules being on combat, the style of the system influences gameplay in that direction. In school, the grading and recognition systems influence the education experience in the same way. If most of your system focus is on taking the user through a particular set of actions, they will learn to depend on your leadership, or reject it. If the focus is collecting points, they will optimize how they collect points based on their goals.

One of the current big things in games is "sandbox" style gameplay. It has functional rules that define capabilities of objects in the game and the players ability to affect them. The name comes from the behavior of a sandbox that children play in. It becomes their space while they are in charge. If you want to learn more about this direction, I suggest reading this article http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4081/the_history_and_theory_of_sandbox_.php . Such a system is made to encourage creativity and exploration of possibilities.

One of the downfalls in plenty of games is the User Interface, the UI, the tenuous connection between the user and the experience. This is also a sore spot for students and teachers, from what I've observed, when it comes to education. In another article ( http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4110/upping_your_games_usability.php ) it had this at the beginning, "Games that are hard to control or that mystify users by not providing useful or sufficient feedback are pretty damn frustrating to play." The question about when the content of a class will be useful is a request for feedback to deal with being mystified, so it seems relevant, at least to me. On a similar note, there are a lot of design elements that can give clues to what a person should do including, but not limited to, the UI. More about these can be found in this article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4115/no_more_wrong_turns.php .

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan

What’s Real In Games and Education?

Steven Egan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:02:00 +0000

To sum up my answer, it's people, communication and reactions. The rest is a contrivance to facilitate communication with, and getting reactions from, other people. Assessment ( http://edubacon.com/2009/06/15/weekly-special-assesment/ ) is a way to communicate a reaction to another person. Games use communication with other people to generate certain reactions, as does a school environment. They can be used to motivate ( http://edubacon.com/2009/06/08/weekly-special-motivating-learners/ ) , engage people ( http://edubacon.com/2009/06/23/weekly-special-open-engagement/ ), keep people involved ( http://blog.igenoukan.com/2008/11/keeping-people-involved.html ) and many other things. The term Edubacon ( http://edubacon.com/ ) refers to the reality in the synthetic situation we call education.

I know I've been quiet for about a month on my two blogs, and this is a part of the reason why. I'm working on improving the way I run Edubacon and maybe get some more interaction. Based off of the materials I've posted, and posted by others, I'm making an article/post/e-mail to send out to many potentially interested people like teachers. This post is to let you all know I'm still working on this stuff and to give a pre-view of what I'm working on.

During the process of creating what I'll be mass e-mailing, I did some research on the internet. Yes, I know it's a big surprise for a college student and blogger to do internet research, but stay with me for a moment. I wanted to check out search results for the name I'm thinking of using. See, nothing too crazy. In doing so some interesting articles and blog posts came to my attention that I would like to share that go right in line with my efforts.

First is an article about being too focused on the results, and not enough on the process. In essence it say that students are people too, so teachers should treat them like people with real feelings and personalities. In effective communication it's important to remember to listen, actively listen, to the other person. Not paying attention to the feelings and personalities of his students, the professor found that he was driving his students to hard to make sure they got the point right then and there.

Article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569446

Second is another article that deals with professors and pushing their students too far, this time to the point of shedding tears. Its big point is to look at a student more like how a parent looks at their children. Rather than looking at all the faults and things that could use correction, that professor thinks teachers should remember the potential of each student. Just because the student has faults, isn't the best, needs a lot of work, is going to fail your class, doesn't mean they are less worthy of your time or less in need of your help.

This article has comments after it, and one of them jumped out at me. 'Although I agree that grades should be based on performance and we should lead them to good work habits, I don't see that I'd teach them anything by kicking them in the teeth while they're down and telling them "that's life, suck it up." How does it diminish us or coddle them to take a few minutes to listen to their stories, sympathize, and give a bit of advice, particularly if they are going to fail the course? Ask them a few questions nicely "Why do you think you are having trouble with the material?" and their answers might lead you to the advice they need (eg. "the counseling center has help for test anxiety" "You might consider switching to another major such as ____"). This is higher education not boot camp.'

Article: http://chronicle.com/article/When-Students-Cry/47540/

Third is an article that covers how a school was handling the real life scheduling problems of their student athletes, and the reaction it received. Their solution was to give the 2% of the students who are student athletes a priority when registering for courses. The article doesn't take a side. but instead shows different sides of the situation. I really like the quote at the end of the article, as it acknowledges the reasoning while saying there may be a better way. It's a common problem with solutions. Just because there is a legitimate reason for the proposed solution doesn't make it automatically the best solution.

Article: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2008-11-10/student-outrcy-ignited-athlete-priority-registration

Fourth is a blog of a student teacher from a couple years back that I encourage you to read. While it only lasts a semester, it has many interesting insights into the world of a person teaching and learning at the same time. While not always comfortable, the reactions from the students was enough to encourage that teacher to discount the teachers and staff who seemed like discouragement.

One of the students, in an assigned letter to the teacher, said this at the end of the course. "Throughout the semester, it seemed like you didn't want a day to go to waste. You always had us writing, analyzing, or discussing. I really appreciated this because it made me feel as though I was going through the same emotions and experiences of the characters. All the analyzing made them come alive. Your standards took a while getting used to because many of the English teachers I've had in the past went easy on me. I also wasn't used to having so many essays, but your comments were so helpful that I think my writing has improved significantly. You pushed us hard, but I'll be mature enough to say that is was worth it . I really hope that you teach 11th grade English next year or even AP English." To be honest, I wish I could find a way to make contact with that teacher. She sounds like a very interesting and insightful person when it comes to teaching. I'm glad she blogged about her experiences. Now I share them with you.

Blog: http://teachingtochangetheworld.blogspot.com/

The fifth and last of the interesting things I've found in researching the title I'm considering deals with the big question I'll be tackling, "When will I use this in real life?" Its a Q&A site with a question specifically about when algebra is used in real life. While the other things I've mentioned deal with the people, communications and results in a more traditional way, I focus on this question of usefulness as a part of motivating student to care about learning the material. The fact the the question is well known to occur says a lot about how schools teach students in general. That's also why I intend to send the completed article/e-mail with a bunch of links for those interested in finding out more. There are some great answers found to the question that should be shared with teachers to share with their students.

Q&A: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52324.html
Q&A: http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.why.math.html

In general, I'm intending to pull from the materials I have easy access to and to find more to use in what I send off. By using a small article with several pointed, dedicated links I'm hoping to get some of the teachers to read more into this. Maybe some will share the links or forward the e-mail. Maybe some people will come and get involved in the discussions about improving education. If you want to share some information with me, I welcome the contribution. This is likely to include the summary posts I've had planned for Edubacon for months, so there will be credits for those people who have contributed to that effort.

Some people might wonder why I care so much and refuse to stop when my ideas don't work. To put it simply, I've dealt with bad teachers that meant well, bad situations beyond my control and still have retained my love of learning. Then there are the results of the current approach to education that is doing horrors to our future. One business teacher I had said that he saw the lack of focus on business ethics in business classes as part of the reason for the economic problems we're going through. Education matters, a lot.

Then there is the way people generally view school, learning and education. A necessary evil is not what should be thought of, though there will be some work involved. It's like sports and video games where there are more and less pleasant parts, but on the whole it should be considered a good thing, not a bad thing. One of the comments on the second article I mentioned that if you get to know your students you should be able to see the problems coming a mile away. While I'm not sure how feasible it is for teachers with a lot of students, or for game designers to implement through code, there is something to be considered in the concept. The more about the person you know, the more real and human they become to you. That information enables you to more easily treat the person like a person rather than a thing.

In line with the Weekly Specials posted on Edubacon, I'll give some more links I've found relating to this material. If you know of other good resources, please pass them on to me. While I may not be blogging much at the moment, I am working on a few projects, including this article/e-mail that I will post in parts and/or the whole.

Links and Descriptions:

http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm
- It's a wonderful page of links that I intend to explore. It's huge. The few pages I've looked at so far have all had really good content.

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Student_motivatation.html
- This is a breakdown of motivation beyond what I've done. Very interesting and informative. It should be very useful to most people who have reasons to motivate others.

http://www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
- This is an official booklet on motivating students. While haven't read it yet, the promise of "a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue" is enough reason for me to be interested.

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan

Weekly Special: Multi-Modal and Multi-Path Learning

edubacon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:52:10 +0000

Multi-modal learning is generally well covered, but muli-path learning doesn’t seem as well covered to me. The difference is simple. Multi-modal is like forms of transportation while multi-path is like the many combinations of roads you can use to get to your destination.

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.

Weekly Special: Open Engagement

edubacon — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:04:05 +0000

Open has become a buzz word, and engaging is something many seek in new education ideas. First question is “What are they?” Second question is, “Is it good to add them to education?” Third question is “How can we add them to education?” To be honest, attempts have been made to add them to education, but most of the time the tools and semblance of them are added, not them.

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.

Weekly Special: Assesment

edubacon — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:56:39 +0000

Assessment is a big part of the education system and required for quality feedback during the learning process. The skill and drill, standardized testing and several other assessment issues have been a big deal in education discussions. It was mentioned in the James Gee video I linked to last week that how assessment is handled in games is part of why games are good for learning. In the Mozilla Open Education Course there were several people interested in assessment.

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.

Weekly Special: Motivating Learners

edubacon — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:10:02 +0000

I’d like to start the Edubacon Weekly Specials off with a bang. Motivating learners has been a problem for education systems for a while, and so it seems like a great topic. Okay, truth is I think I wrote a great blog post on motivation last week right after the Serious Games Jam, and I’m stuck on the topic right now.

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.

Creatively Getting Things Done

Steven Egan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:35:00 +0000

Regardless of the field, creative designing, and getting those paying jobs, requires a few things.

1) Keep coming up with ideas.
2) Record those ideas.
3) Find one you can do quickly an easily.
4) Do that one, just that one.
5) Have a real life.

While this isn't an exact set of rules, they are pretty good. This is because over time you will get some ideas that are possible with potential. If you can get a few made, you have work samples. That's what the fourth step is all about. Pick one, do it and do it well.

Number 1: Keep coming up with ideas.

If you are trying to be known for creativity, don't just be creative on command. Be creative all the time. Having a bunch of half formed ideas can be a life saver, inspiration or an extra bit of content for the on-command idea.

Yet, the big reason is that even for those who can be creative on command, being creative all the time helps. For those fortunate people, the quality of ideas will be better if you are already warmed up and well experienced. For the rest of us it is easier to just be creative most of the time than to be creative on command. Then you are just doing your normal level of creativity.

It also prevents the dreaded scenario of loosing your creativity due to being boring. Sometimes it is harder to be creative after a while having not been creative. If you are always being creative, you're not likely to go for a while without being creative. Yes, it's obvious, but some things just need to be reiterated.

Number 2: Record those ideas.

While it may be a pain to keep track of all those ideas, and worse yet to keep them organized on all those different kinds of paper, it's better than loosing them. That and when you need and idea, you have a bunch to go reading through. It helps.

Number 3: Find one you can do quickly an easily.

With all those ideas flowing and being recorded, you should look for an easy to do idea. Just keep going till you find one. It's important.

Number 4: Do that one, just that one.

See, that one idea is important, because you need something you can actually DO! With such ideas done one at a time, you can build a history, a portfolio, a resume etc... As you go through the ideas you've recorded you can find more. Plus, over time more will become possible and easy. More ideas and increased abilities means you will have more possible ideas you can do.

Number 5: Have a real life.

Look, you can't just be a creative [fill in the blank]. It doesn't work. It's like pouring water out of a jug, not a faucet. There's a limit to what you can do without input. During the time where you're looking for anything you can actually do, you were doing other things. They gave you input.

Read, play, socialize and live life, or you will run out of material.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Related Links:
http://www.chrisg.com/just-like-breathing/
http://www.dperry.com/archives/news/dp_blog/the_pirate_bay/
http://www.terrystarbucker.com/2009/05/11/it%E2%80%99s-like-breathing/
http://www.gameproducer.net/2009/05/12/game-production-lessons-from-a-half-marathon-trip/
http://www.gameproducer.net/2009/05/09/the-easiest-kind-of-way-to-prioritize-big-things/
http://www.gameproducer.net/2009/05/06/some-things-dead-wake-development-has-taught-me/
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan

Efficient and Effective Everyday

Steven Egan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:20:00 +0000

In my post Keeping People Involved I made a point about sweating the small things, because that's what people do day-to-day. "When figuring out things to do for a community, think about the daily activities and supplying things to do to keep people involved and having fun." That also goes for teams, groups and individuals. Make the day-to-day a priority in designing how you work, it'll pay off in the long run.

Could I go on for a while about this? Yes, but I won't. The whole idea of the "Getting Things Done" theme is that you learn about ways to make yourself and your group more likely to get things done. It's not about me telling you how to do it. Take a look at these different ways and think about how they could be applied to how you work.

Virtuous Circle:
http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2009/05/29/5697/

Open Space:
http://www.openspaceworld.com/brief_history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coworking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_desking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Programming

Sorry about the delay, but the next couple post are already partially done. So, here they come.

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan

Edubacon, Getting Things Done

edubacon — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:04:05 +0000

EduBacon is a place I have envisioned for open friendly discussion towards improving education and learning situations. As a game designer and college student, not to mention brilliant and over all creative … eh, er, hmmm… , well I think I’ve got a pretty good perspective on the issues. While paying attention to the different discussions and efforts, I agreed with the idea that we need to innovate how we discuss these ideas with our ideas, because these discussions are learning opportunities. That’s what this idea has come out of, and my inability to attend the events and conventions where a bunch of cool things happen.

To open the doors right, I’m running a blogging event. At my blog Learning Science Meets Game Design I have been blogging about things like the topics for the event and the Edubacon Blogging event itself. Before starting the blogging event I’m going to make several posts about getting things done, because innovative and transformative efforts are generally hard to get going and keep going. While I’m making those, it’s time to spread the word, start the discussions and make suggestions. In other words, the interaction starts now.

This will go on for two weeks, because I don’t want to compete with the Serious Games Jam happening next week. Plus I’m going to be trying to win the Nintendo DS that goes to the person who garners the most reputation points, “Karma”. Last time was very interesting to see happen. With only a single day to participate I was still quoted twice in the summary that is available to all who sign up to participate in the Serious Games Jam. What do you think you’ll be able to contribute?

After that, this event will get going full steam. With the posts, comments and links we will be able to create a good resource for those interested in learning more about possible directions and issues education has. It should be useful to those interesting in getting into these discussions and long time participants alike. For this reason I intend to create a summary post for each topic covered during this event. As the weeks go by more posts, comments and discussions will happen and we will collectively build a resource for any who are interested. It will also be in a format that shows how the different views and ideas came to be, rather than just saying what they are. In essence, it’s putting the concepts that many agree should be used in education into use to teach and guide people on these topics. I’m all for bringing in new voices as some have wondered where the student voices are.

It takes more than just talking about the ideas to get things done, but without talk that shares the ideas it will take so much longer to get anywhere. So, let’s talk, share and put our ideas into action. Then we can get things happening and have results to itterate our ideas. Till then, take a look at some posts on getting things done that I’ve already made to get a taste of what’s to come in the next couple weeks.

* Rules of Productivity
http://lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html

There are plenty more links and resources on getting things done to come, so stay tuned.

Hello world!

edubacon — Sun, 17 May 2009 04:26:27 +0000

Credits
Demotivator: http://diy.despair.com/motivator.php
Bacon Picture: http://blogchef.net/how-to-cook-crispy-b…
Spiffy Text: http://www.spiffytext.com/