This blog post from the Harvard Business Review isn’t new - it’s from 2014, and it isn’t even overtly related to mobile learning or video games, at first glance. However, I started synthesizing some ideas - or at least attempting to - partially because I’m struggling with our OLTD 508 inquiry (untethered, I float, like a becalmed ship, astride the tides of change and report cards and “it’s still snowing even though it’s April doldrums”), and partially because I’m avoiding feeling frustrated by my project and choosing to look forward to possible Masters work instead.
I’m repeatedly drawn to the revolutionary - the disruptive. Way back in 501 we talked about Stephen Downes and his theory of how MOOCs could revolutionize education by virtue of their size, their online location, and being free. It could disrupt and dismantle the post-secondary status quo and open up higher education to anyone with a computer and the will to participate. However, I have tried to take part in a MOOC before (on Truth and Reconciliation), and I couldn’t make it through, even though it was incredibly interesting, relevant, and being taught by an acquaintance of mine. It broke my belief in the MOOC as revolutionary because I just couldn’t believe that enough people would buy in for the format to reach critical mass and succeed. This blog post counters the MOOC with something else: Micro credentialing (or as I understood it - tiny modules of content with pointed learning outcomes directly related to the skill you want to gain in order to be successful in the workplace). “By breaking free of the constraints of the “course” as the educational unit, online competency-based providers can easily and cost-effectively stack together modules for various and emergent disciplines.” So here’s my connection - and I’ll pose it to you as a question rather than as an idea that I’ve fully developed (because I haven’t). Is the “chunking” of courses into more pointed tasks and credentials a feature of game-based learning? Is this just Gee’s principle of the Right Information at the Right Time? As I read this article, I kept drawing comparisons to games or quests. Bite sized jobs to be completed by the learner or player. Choosing our own adventure? And to extend this, is this what we’re seeing in the new BC Curriculum for high school English and Socials? In English 10, for example, students must choose any 2 of 5 ELA 2-credit modules. In Socials 9, there are about a zillion content areas that the students could choose to explore in order to meet the outcomes for bigger concepts and competencies. So is the gamification of learning inevitable? I can’t really conceive of a more straight-forward way to structure learning for a room of 32 grade 9 students who might choose 1 of 10 different historical revolutions to study, short of actually limiting them, which seems to violate the spirit of student choice. I wouldn’t like to be the teacher organizing 7 classes of 32 grade 9s who are all selecting content connections based on choice - not without the help of a computer and a framework at least. Scheduling English 10 in a medium-sized northern high school is a nightmare. Admin have chosen to group the modules into pairs (a reasonable solution), limiting students to which they can choose and then limiting them further if their particular choice is backed up against another course they want or need. I anticipate that my flex-ed program is going to overflow with grade 10s wanting to choose the 2 modules that they prefer in the block that suits their timetables. That said, if a bricks-and-mortar teacher had a template that he or she could use to organize the options and track points (this is my project for 508), it could allow students to follow their own quest chain within the confines of a mainstream class. At least, I hope this is the case - I’m still struggling to wrap my head around it (as I complained about earlier on). How do I minimize teacher burnout, maximize student choice, increase transparency, adhere to the spirit and word of the content document, and add in some spicy badges to boot? Gamification.
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Leslie McCurrachEnthusiastic Learner. Avid Gardener. DL Teacher. Archives
March 2018
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