So recently I've taken to clicking a bit more freely on my idle internet time and came across PATv. It's a series of channels and shows associated with the well known web comic, Penny Arcade. It's always been a favorite comic of mine and I'm pleased to discover these shows, one in particular. Extra Credits, is a long running program of short podcasts discussing ideas and issues in video games and video game development. Which one might think would only apply to gaming enthusists, yet the folks working Extra Credits do an excellent job discussing very cerebral topics such as story creation, marketing, political issues, and gaming mechanics, all while keeping their shows short and lighthearted. Among the topics I've especially enjoyed is an episode called Tangential Learning, from Season 2, Episode 9. I'll provide a link below if you're interested in seeing it after reading this.
In this episode, the folks at Extra Credits remark on the divide between mainstream video game and educational game industries. Though the focus of Extra Credits is on video game development and industry, I found the discussion to open up my mind to a great deal of questions about the use of games in education.
As a foreign teacher in South Korea, there is a great deal of emphasis on using games in the classroom to educate and motivate students. In some cases foreign teachers are instructed to simply "play games with the kids" which seems well and good, but has some issues that Extra Credits has helped me consider.
In their presentation on Tangential Learning, they note how many educational games have the promise of fun but very quickly devolve into dry lessons where players get assulted by knowledge. This is an experience I have a tremendous amount of empathy for because as a kid I experienced this frustration. I can still recall the deep anger and frustration I felt for having been forced to play Math Blaster, as opposed to playing fun games like Super Mario World. Granted I know my parents were only trying to better my grades and get me to learn my multiplication tables, but man it sucked!
As a teacher using games in my classroom, I have to wonder if my students face a similar experience. Many of us foreign teachers use games in our classrooms, especially Powerpoint games. Many of these Powerpoints have great animations and themes that are from popular culture, but they're all basically the same. Powerpoint games are almost all quiz games of some form or another, choose a box, answer a question. Sure we may use a different theme, package, or soundpack, but for many of these Powerpoints it's SSDD (Same Sh*t Different Design).
Not that I'm criticizing these games for being quiz games, it's what they're meant to be. I realize many teachers have devoted their time to developing incredibly elaborate and impressive Powerpoint games, games that kids enjoy. I'm incredibly grateful for their efforts and skills in preparing these tools, and I will continue to use them in my class when I need an activity to spice of my lesson (and keep kids in their seats).
However, when a student finishes a bomb game(or any quiz game for that matter) do they really take anything away from the experience? Sure we got to do something flashy and entertaining that provides and exciting break from the average class, but did they really get to exercise their English (or their minds for that matter)?
This is what I find most compelling about Extra Credit's episode on Tangential Learning: the idea that games can plant seeds of intrigue and information into their content that will inspire learning outside of the gaming experience.
As an English teacher in Korea, I can't go more than a week without hearing, reading, or noticing some discussion or article commenting on the struggles of the ESL program here. They cover a wide variety of issues from training, to program goals, institutional structures, and cultural complications. It's an enormously complex issue which I don't want to get into here. However, if I can think of one thing that I feel my students desperately need to improve their English, it's the interest and opportunity to explore English outside of school. I have met few students who have even the slightest idea of how vast and exciting exploring a language can be. It's the unfortunate truth that school is hard work for Korean students, and mandatory English education is one of the most difficult parts of the experience. I don't know anyone who likes be forced into learning something. Hell I still resent learning about math and American history because it was required. Not that I didn't benefit from those classes, but I loathed it.
I suppose what I'm trying to get at is a discussion of how we as teachers can develop our games to last longer than the time students are in class. To create educational experiences that leave intrigue in our students' minds. Now that certainly is no easy task. Tangential learning in mainstream videogames is often accomplished through allusions or historical framing, games that refer to real world ideas and persons or are based on history. Incorportating these little Easter Egg style tangents into a classroom experience is very difficult as allusions are based upon references that are often culturally specific. If I were to refer to Ariadne's golden thread as a metaphor for education, none of my students would know that allusion is to the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. (Or maybe they would, I've no idea how much Greek mythology Korean kids get exposed to these days)
Many teachers use cultural icons as a way of inspiring class participation. Putting up picture of K-pop idols and cartoon characters to illustrate dialogs and grammar, and these techniques can be effective. Yet, do these nuggets of entertainment carry the lesson beyond the classroom experience, encouraging kids to think and explore language on thier own?
Another option came to mind as I was pondering this idea the other day. I recently discovered a free online language education website called Duolingo. It's a free website that offers courses in French, German, Spanish, etc. structuring lessons and topics into short chunks. It builds like a game, with various skills and lessons broken into short lessons where a learner listens, writes, and reads new words. However, if the student gets questions wrong, they lose lives. Lose three lives and you have to restart the lesson. However, following the game structure, Duolingo also has a points system that can be redeemed for health potions to recharge hearts in a lesson, or ways of winning more points off of lessons completed. When I first began exploring this I thought to myself, "man this would be great for Korean students!" It's simple, free, and can be used on a PC as well as a moblie phone. It'd be awesome to develop some simple lessons for kids to use outside of class, their progress can be objectively charted and schools can opt to reward students who accomplish their tasks. Granted no such course currently exists, but it's an idea for encouraging students to utilize their skills outside of class and on their own terms. Which is what my student certainly need, to incorportate their language skills in a sphere larger than their classroom life.
Tangential learning is a fascinating idea and has been forcing me to look at my lessons with greater clarity. Asking myself, "what do kids benefit from these acitivites? What can they take away at the end of the day?" I'm willing to admit that many of my lessons at current don't have a great deal of well defined take aways, but now that I'm more aware I can change that. It's a lot to think about and it has even greater potential for educators to anaylze their pedagogy as well as imagine more entertaining ways to teach.
For those of you gaming enthusists or who just want to see what kicked off this train of thought for me, check out the link below! It's an interesting series of videos, I highly recommend them to anyone interested in games or media.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/tangential-learning
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