#koorevaar

The specific case of the teacher I talked to was a bit limited; he only had the same group of students for 2 hours every week. This is something to consider for every case: what are the limitations? Realize the boundaries of your specific context. In this case the teacher taught a group of 25 students two hours of physics on a weekly basis. Finally, of course, you have to work with the existing educational system. This is a rigid system which can’t be changed in a few weeks time. This means that the approach you have to take concerns adding a layer of engaging game elements over an existing structure. You can’t go and revisit the entire structure just like that. These constraints determine the base you have to work with.

I came up with the idea of building something around creating skill sets and appealing to the different interests and needs of the students. Most of us are familiar with the phenomenon of World of Warcraft. After all, it’s no stranger even to the US Senate. But besides hitting the news, WoW also offered a basis to structure educational skill sets on: the skill trees (or talent trees). And I have to say ‘offered’, because as of the latest game expansion, Mists of Pandaria, the skill tree system was overhauled in something more simplistic which denies some forms of diversity and progression, which is what we are actually interested in.

There are other games which use similar skill tree systems (try the one below here), but the public familiarity with WoW helps to visualize the general idea.

When you play WoW you gradually level up as you kill monsters, do quests and all that. From level 1 to level 10, 20 to 50 and so on. As you level up you gain skill points which you can spend in different skill trees. The more skill points you spend in a single tree, the more specialized you become in that specific tree. For example, a warrior can spend his points in a tree which revolves around two-handed weapons, or in a tree that focuses on dual wielding weapons, or sword and shield. What skill tree he specializes in defines his skill set. We can take this to the classroom – not the weapons, the skill trees!

Following the regular system of progression through course material you could structure this in the way of a tree. At the foot of the tree you have the base where the most basic, introductory material is placed and going up the tree you go through more advanced material until you reach the top, which indicates the final exam you have to pass. Different trees could focus on different aspects of the course material. For instance, one tree could focus on the base and another on more advanced material, both still leading towards the same final exam (creating different but equally difficult exams based on different skill trees might be too much to ask and is much harder to standardize). The challenge then is to offer different paths which are supplemental to a student’s interests and needs which lead to the final goal: passing the exam. But, you can also offer more than this single final goal.

In an attempt to appeal to the curiosity of the students you can also offer smaller side branches at different sections of the tree. These can indicate small nuggets of knowledge, interesting bits and facts, which the students (or at this point ‘players’) can unlock, earning them some form of reward or prestige and driving the innate completionist and explorative behavior. These are not relevant to the final goal, but help to share knowledge and avoid a linear path of progression.

Audiences were once thought of as were mere passive consumers who watched the latest Tell Sell commercials, while unwillingly being convinced to purchase that revolutionary juice mixer. It then became evident we had our own voice to speak up and express ourselves as active participants. One example of this is the massive influx of blogs over the past years.  

Today, we can recognize another shift in the ways we appropriate media. This is the movement towards playful interactivity. We can identify three developments indicating the growing significance of this shift in our daily life. First, there is a growth of social and casual games, like Angry Birds and FarmVille. Second, highly popular social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, facilitate playful behavior. Third, mobile technology, such as smartphones, and gadgets, as for example the Fuelband, allow interaction - a condition for play - at all times.

Gamification is a term that is often associated with this shift.

In order to be able to fully express ourselves in this changing environment, we need to develop along with it. To achieve this we should reconsider our own position towards media. We call ourselves users, but defining ourselves as such (or as audiences, consumers, producers, and so on) might mean we limit ourselves in our increasingly playful environment. With this shifting paradigm towards playful interactivity, we should actually define ourselves as players.

For instance, we don’t just watch video content and debate about it via discussion platforms; we "revision" it through our own experiences, resulting in content as the parodies on Bruno Ganz’s performance as Hitler in the movie Downfall. Jesse Zuurmond uses this case in his MA Thesis to exemplify how YouTube invites playability and provokes playfulness. On news channels, as well, we’re not just reading, but rather we are creating rankings of most popular news items based on how we share the content. Whether we like it or not, we have become players in the various networks of interactivity. Being stuck in a different mode of consumption or participation might limit our own potential.

Relying on scientific literature she explains how she came to the foundation of her game, or better said ‘tool’, SuperBetter. Enticingly, she promises that as we watch her talk we will actually extend our lives for about 7.5 seconds. Which is nothing to sneeze at, as it can add up to a total of 10 years additional life time. So, what does it take?

Raise your hands for 5 seconds, snap your fingers 50 times, Google image search for baby animals and shake someone’s hand for 6 seconds. These activities, and many other ones, build up your physical, mental, emotional and social resilience. Based on science, regular attention to build up these types of resilience could eventually add up to a bonus of 10 years.

IBM aims to provide consumers with a means to summon online information while they push their trolley through the aisles of the local supermarket. In an attempt to close the gap between online information and in-store shopping, this app enables consumers to take a picture of products with the camera on their mobile device. The app then recognizes the product and displays a digital overlay with information, such as highlighted ingredients, prices, reviews and the most recent discounts. Tired of having to manually look over ingredient lists to circumvent near death experiences due to allergies? This app could prove to be an easy fix as a ‘cheat sheet for shopping’.

Since then, game-based learning has improved a lot, with examples such as Dreambox and Spongelab paving the way. Pearson’s launch of Zeos at the ISTE 2012 in San Diego this week is to be seen in line with this development. This platform, designed to span from grade 3 to 10 (around ages 8 to 15) in the US schools, provides an immersive environment to young students. They can power up their knowledge in comprehensive reading, arts and mathematics and prepare themselves for state high-stakes tests.

Compared to my childhood memories of educational games, Zeos appears to be not just a game designed to tackle a single problem. Rather, it’s designed to offer a practice environment that spans over a longer course of a student's learning career, offering context, persistence and enticing mechanics. Zeos applies lessons learned in social networks and games to create something that could very well offer students a more engaging learning experience, compared to traditional methods. It will be interesting to see how this program will be integrated in the education of young students across the US.