My First App

Back for another three weeks of 3D GameLab fun!  I'm following an app-building quest chain this time, and I created my first app tonight using MIT's App Inventor site.  The original instructions called for a picture of a cat and a "meow" sound, but I had to modify it slightly. Here it is:

 

GameLab Round UP

On the last day in each of my HUM 101: Introduction to Popular Culture classes, I asked the students to identify what worked with the 3D GameLab platform and what needed improvement.  I took notes on the board, and then took pictures of those notes so I'd remember what we discussed.

First, what worked:

Students loved the freedom to set their own schedules.  There was overwhelming agreement on this.  The convenience of working at their own pace gave the majority of my students a feeling of agency and responsibility for their own learning.  That didn't mean that everyone got their work done in a timely manner, but the majority of students did, much to the amazement of my colleagues.  

They also really appreciated the opportunity to try again rather than fail an assignment.  While there was some rueful comparisons between students about how many times a quest was returned, without exception my students preferred the "try and try again" model to the traditional pass/fail grading system.  I did have one student who, due to absolutely nonexistent tech skills, became so discouraged that he dropped the class, but overall, it seems that my students were motivated to keep working when faced with a revision rather than put off by the need to redo their work.

Choice!  Students appreciated being given multiple quests to choose from, so they could focus their effort on a topic or task that appealed to them.  I think this also ties into the comment that the quests were applicable to real life.  Students could select from aspects of popular culture that they were already interested in or at least familiar with (pop music, fashion, advertising, movies, Wikipedia, etc.) and then think critically about them.  The students also had choices as to how they expressed themselves and presented their conclusions and I think that element of creativity also heightened the sense of ownership that students felt for their work.

Game elements make it fun.  The XP bar was a big hit, as was the happy sound that celebrates another quest submitted.  I also gave the students a treasure map/syllabus at the beginning of the year to heighten the "quest" theme, and while many students were thoroughly confused by it at the beginning of the semester, by the end it was just another crazy part of the game.

So, what needs improvement?

The suggestions have to be divided between improvements to the system itself and improvements to the way that I ran my classes.

More ways to keep "on track."  Despite the appreciation of the flexible schedule, most students expressed a desire for a clearer view of what they needed to do and when.  I've decided to try breaking the class into three phases next semester by using the ability in 3D GameLab to make quests available or unavailable on a certain date.  I hope that this will keep the less organized and self-directed students on track by denying them the possibility of leaving all their work to the last weeks of the semester.  In addition, it will further scaffold the appearance of quests for all students, so they aren't faced with too many choices at one time and becoming overwhelmed.  In one class, students asked if there could be a way for them to set their own deadlines (with email reminders) to fight the tendency to put off work without deadlines in favor of other class work that DID have a due date. I can sympathize.  Last fall I took a class with no due dates and realized at the end of October I hadn't logged in for a whole month!  

This leads to another suggestion, of more opportunities for communication.  I know there are plans to add something akin to the guild site to 3D GameLab itself and that's something that both my students and I are looking forward to.  A place to post questions that everyone can see and respond to, an events calendar (perhaps with the capacity for deadline reminders?), a way to see who is working on what quest without having to survey every gamer card individually, anything that encourages and intensifies the class community will encourage engagement.  I haven't used the guild site program for my own classes, just to avoid one more system students would have to log into, but clearly students are feeling the lack of social media, so maybe I'll give it a try and see how it goes.

The suggestions of automatic badge awarding comes from the way I run my class.  Since I want students to earn six different badges that correspond to the six learning objectives of the course, AND I want them to have some choice in which quests they complete to earn each badge, I can't rely on the system to automatically recognize and award those badges.  There is no "either/or" option in setting prerequisites for a reward.  This causes delays in students being awarded badges and occasionally in their ability to access more advanced quests.  But I'm not willing to abandon that element of choice in the path to each badge, so until there is an upgrade in the system to accommodate this structure, I'm going to have to keep doing this manually and doing the best I can to keep on top of it.

Including a fourth tab for quests that "need attention is a larger system modification that some students requested, a way to more clearly see when a quest has been returned for revision.  I guess the problem is that unless you actually open up the "in progress" tab, you aren't made aware if there is work waiting for revision. 

Finally, my favorite suggestion was to add a heroic soundtrack to the system, a la World of Warcraft!  I like this because it reemphasizes the playful nature of 3D GameLab, a sense of fun that I try to emphasize in my classes as well.  The suggestions and even complaints were offered in a spirit of inquiry, improvement and evaluation, not as criticism, and the elements of the system that students liked, they REALLY liked.  The system doesn't change what my students do in my class, but it sure does change the way they approach what they do, for the better.  There is more of a sense of independence, cooperation and communal exploration in the classes where I am implementing "quest-based learning," and 3D GameLab is by far the best tool I've found to foster that kind of learning environment.

But you don't have to take my word for it.  One of my students was unable to come to class the last week, so I asked him to write up his own observations on his blog.  He gave me permission to share that post with anyone interested in a "student's-eye view."  http://chrissobel.blogspot.com/2012/05/3d-gamelab-review.html  And I'll give him the last word!

The Gamification of Education

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

THATCamp Games: Afternoon Bootcamp

So the afternoon bootcamp sessions were all about alternative reality games for me.  I couldn't wait to get into sessions with folks who had actually created ARGs and hear what they had to say.  But it turned out that the sessions were about so much more than just listening to others.  More hands-on play!

I have to say that I really liked the way the "Narrative Puzzles," "Build Your Own Practomimetic (ARG/RPG) Course" and "What's Your Game Plan" sessions were structured.  There was a lot of attention to time and making sure that the presenters didn't take up all the time in talking.  That's SO easy to do, especially when you are excited about your topic, and I know everyone had a lot more to say.  But in the true THATCamp spirit, the emphasis was on interaction.  And to be honest, the experiences are starting to blend together in my memory.  This is by no means an indictment of the experience at all, rather it highlights that the same ideas and themes were woven through all the afternoon sessions that I chose.

The first main theme for me is the importance of group interaction and the fun of working together.  The folks from the Arcane Gallery of Gadgetry brought a language puzzle for us to tackle in small groups.  We really did build on each others ideas, and I know for sure that I never would have gotten as far toward the solution alone.  I am terribly impatient with puzzles and give up pretty quickly (or look for the walkthrough somewhere).  But the interaction of a group keeps me focused and willing to keep working.  In the "Build Your Own" and "What's your Game Plan" sessions, we also did small group activities, to come up with a history ARG focused on Ellis Island for the former and a crazy game combining elements of Scrabble, resource management and building to teach critical reading skills in the latter.  These exercises were more open-ended, of course, since we were asked to invent something new rather than discover the one right answer as we were in the AGOG puzzle, and thus the group interactions involved more negotiation and consensus-building.  Someone mentioned the improv game of "yes, and" as a technique for working in groups, and I love that idea.  If the idea is to use game mechanics to turn tasks into quests, what better game to play in meetings and group activities?

Another, more sobering topic that was raised again and again was the repeatability of educational ARGs.  Are they, as the big, commercial games are, one-time deals, like a rock concert or special event? Are they simply too time-consuming to maintain?  I can certainly see the problems with maintaining the websites, ensuring that the phone clues work, having material stashed at the right place at the right time, to make sure the narrative unfolds smoothly.  Another issue is keeping track of players.  People are unpredictable and may take unanticipated paths or actions, solving puzzles too quickly or not quickly enough, or veering out of the puppetmaster's control to end up who knows where.  I wonder if we are looking too much toward the classic commercially-produced games like I Love Bees and World Without Oil.  Perhaps instead our models should be the multitude of independent, amateur ARGs that proliferate on sites like the unfiction.com forums.  I don't really know who those amateur puppetmasters are or what drives them to create games that are flung out into cyberspace in the hopes that someone will follow the trail or tumble down the rabbit hole. But some of them manage to create compelling games and gather an enthusiastic crowd of players despite clearly not having the budget or staff of the commercially-produced games.  It's something to ponder, anyway.

Actually, these two points are two sides of the same coin, I think.  The attraction for me in alternate reality games is the reality.  Achieving the performance of belief that Evan  Jones talks about in his TED talk depends on the external clues and cues supporting and reinforcing that belief.  The reality needs to match, as much as possible, the narrative that the player is investing in.  That means the phone numbers actually connect, the websites exist, clues are found where they ought to be.  Creating a convincing alternate reality superimposed on the real world as well as managing the players zooming off in all directions, that's an enormous task.  Nearly impossible, in fact, especially without the budget and resources of a commercial enterprise.  But on the other hand, as all the bootcamp sessions at THATCamp Games proved to me, the real essential element is the group buy-in.  ARGs are, at their most fundamental level, simply games of let's pretend.  And sure, you can play by yourself.  But the the game, any game, becomes much more real, more urgent, when it is played out in a group.  Participants reinforce each other's commitment to the process.  If everyone plays along, they have as much to do with the creation and maintenance of the alternate reality as the puppetmasters do, if not more so.  So while it was endlessly fascinating  and enlightening to learn about the ins and outs of the various ARG projects in all of the afternoon sessions, in the end I was most struck by the process of collaboration and invention that we engaged in and the effects that process had on the groups.  Our invented-on-the-fly games, half-baked and beyond rough, were important to us because we were all invested in them, even though they were created for imaginary students in invented classes.  We were willing to play the game.

THATCamp Games: Inform 7

Image via WikipediaSo, my circadian rhythms are all out of whack now, making me wake up at 6 am east coast time, 4 am in AZ. But that gives me time to write up first impressions on the bootcamp sessions at THATCamp Games. The unconference has been a blast so far. It's great being in a crowd of people who all like to play games and aren't apologetic or timid about it! The most fun I had yesterday was when we broke up into groups to try to solve a puzzle from the Arcane Gallery of Gadgetry project.  No one was shy or reluctant.  We just dove in and started working.  Got pretty far, too.  We would have solved it if we'd had more time!

I think that it is the hands-on  opportunities that are key here.  It's enlightening to hear about what other people are doing or of promising technology, but if you are interested in games in education, I think you're a hands-on kind of learner/teacher.  So actually DOING projects is the way to go.  And every bootcamp session, to some extent, allowed that to happen.

My first session was on Inform 7. and I could have spent all day  on it.  This is a program I ran across last semester and bookmarked as something I MUST try when I have more time.  After the 3D GameLab Narrative Games quest chain from last summer reminded me of how much I loved those old interactive fiction games, I was thrilled to find a program that would help me create my own.  And the lecture by Andy Brooks on using Inform 7 in an Icelandic history/archaeology course was very useful in demonstrating one way this program could be used.  So I was determined to hit the Inform 7 bootcamp meeting.  Everyone had their laptops and tablets out, tapping away to create as we listened and watched Bridget Blodgett demonstrate her own projects and those of her students.  And I think the demo and even more importantly, the links to those games to play later were the most valuable elements of this first bootcamp experience.  The nuts and bolts of creating a game in Inform 7 may be simplified for non-programmers, but they are still far too complicated to really learn in an hour and a half session.  And I'm quite sure that the rules that were covered in the power point I will have to look up again (and again and again) later anyway when I do start to play with this program.  But only at this meeting could I have gotten links to games created by students, to see and experience not only the program itself but the end product of that program generated in a class setting.  I haven't had a chance to try the games out yet, but I've got the links and files.  And now Inform 7 has moved several notches up my "must do" list.  I'm even more excited to try it out.

In fact, during the session my mind flashed back to my long-delayed and discussed critical thinking/haunted house game idea.  I first developed this idea while playing in Second Life and visiting virtual haunted houses there.  What if students could enter a haunted house, say the Amityville Horror house, and by making a series of well-considered choices that demonstrate critical thinking skills, demystify that haunted house?  Literally demystify it, as the spooky sounds and images fade a bit more as the student progresses.  After taking the first class in YC's video game design program last fall, my attention has moved to using Unity for this idea, much better suited to that game structure.  But I'm still nowhere near ready to take on such a complicated project in Unity.  And while I don't think Inform 7 would have the visceral impact of a graphics game (especially for students who don't have the reading skills to really get scared from mere description), I do think it would be IMMENSELY valuable for me to work out the game play via Inform 7, maybe get other instructors to play it through, to work on storycraft and the pacing of the game.  Stripping away the visual design challenges would force me to work on  the narrative.  And that, to me, is the heart of any game anyway.  So now I'm inspired AND I have a concrete plan to work on.  A productive morning!

And I have to add a shout-out to THATCamp central, which awarded me a THATCamp fellowship to make my attendance at this session possible. Thanks so much!  It was awesome!