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“History Is Boring!” …not so fast.
Educade
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June 6, 2013

“History Is Boring!” …not so fast.

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June 6, 2013 | By | No Comments"> No Comments

Originally posted by PlayMaker School at New Roads and the Center For Effective Learning

Throughout the year, we addressed engagement as we explored ancient civilizations through a series of authentic experiences where kids role-played, collaborated, negotiated, created rules, and navigated toward individualized and team goals.  Content became valuable as it was useful to students in completing tasks and achieving these goals.  Here is just a glimpse of their feedback about our last exploration in Mesoamerica:

“This was the best out of them all!!!.  I think that I put so much more work into MesoAmerica.  This really put a lot more into my head and I was really cooperating and really being there for my team.  For example, I had a vision of a great priest costume and had my grandma help me bring it to life.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done!”

“As a priest, I felt that I had a very important role in the game. I had to do a lot of research for my group such as translating English to Nahualt and finding facts about ancient rituals and sacrifices.”

“The whole process taught me a lot. You have to know what you’re doing, put effort into your work, and don’t procrastinate. If you do, your whole experience will be bad. Once you put effort into what you’re doing, it actually becomes really fun, because if you’re just slacking off, you’re not doing or learning anything.”

“First of all I, want to say that I LOVED this experience. It was my absolute favorite game ( out of Survive and Thrive, Greece and MesoAmerica ). I loved how, in the game, you got to “apply ” for the role/job that you wanted and make a speech about why you should get the job and what you would do in that role.  I also feel that when I got  the role that I wanted it was a better experience. Not just by having more fun but really digging into information when I was cooking. For example when I made the cacao tamales I learned that the Aztecs didn’t have sugar, so for a sweetener, I used agave nectar.”

“I thought that this way of learning about Mesoamerica is amazing.”

“The “Mesoamerican” experience was very interesting and I am so happy that I was able to enjoy it. Being here for of all of the games with Playmaker and everything that we did this year in sixth grade has been an awesome learning experience.”

“This Mesoamerican experience was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in school.  Not only because it was fun, but it combined learning, fun, and responsibility all into one game.  Through the ritual, trading session, flowery war and feast, I learned a lot.”

Geoscience: STEMulating the Classroom Through Play
Kristine Ugalde
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June 4, 2013

Geoscience: STEMulating the Classroom Through Play

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In a 6th grade science class, Lianne holds an iPad close to her face, her eyes focused on something moving across its screen. With a flick of her fingers, a loud sound erupts and a grin spreads across her face. Through a marriage of technology and learning, Lianne just experienced the Big Bang Theory in a way that no other student has before. She made it happen, watching her actions unfold through a game.

With education reform at the top of our government’s agenda there is a renewed emphasis on Science Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs in public schools. Yet, there is a disconnect between the subject matter and the student. The challenge is finding an avenue for students to connect, discover, and identify interest in STEM. This is where the intersection of technology and games in education prove to be beneficial.

GameDesk’s mission is to shift consumers away from passively absorbing information to actively participating with it. Games provide educators with more ways to personalize learning opportunities and adjust to different learning styles. Since STEM concepts are heavily integrated, exposure to powerful learning experiences at an early age lay the groundwork for understanding STEM subjects later on in a student’s academic and professional career.

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Solutions Not Answers
Tanner Higgin
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May 28, 2013

Solutions Not Answers

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May 28, 2013 | By | 2 Comments"> 2 Comments

“Instead of being trained to ask questions and to cultivate the means to find answers, we were just collecting information.”

Inevitably when you work in education you reflect on your own educational experiences. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a high school course I took called “Tech Lab.” Much like the missions of GameDesk and other ed-tech start-ups, this course was an attempt by the school district (and whoever created the curriculum) to excite kids about STEM subjects through experimentation with hands-on activities and technology. We completed computer-based exercises, manipulated digital interactives, played digital games, and performed experiments and recorded the results.

But above all we cheated. A lot.

We—and by “we” I am referring to a core group of about a dozen out of a class of twenty five—devised sophisticated, collaborative systems for recording and distributing answers, and fabricated ways to look like we had done the work in earnest. We completed assignments in record time and received good scores on quizzes and tests. This surreptitious and devious criminal network was our great innovation and it freed up time for us to do what we really enjoyed: goofing off.

We used the lab’s kits and tools for purposes definitely beyond their curricular intentions. And instead of playing the digital edu-games, we spontaneously designed our own in-class games—chair races and pranks targeted at the auto shop class next door.

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Play-Research-Present: GBL at PlayMaker School Using “Reach for the Sun”
Jennifer Jordan
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May 22, 2013

Play-Research-Present: GBL at PlayMaker School Using “Reach for the Sun”

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May 22, 2013 | By | One Comment"> One Comment


“Our ultimate goal with this Play-Research-Present process is to have kids be very focused and research-oriented in a playful way.”

It’s the Friday afternoon before Spring Break.  In the classroom this usually makes for mayhem with students bouncing and chattering excitedly about everything but school.  However, at our PlayMaker School in New Roads, students are actively engaged in learning about photosynthesis, plant pollination and reproduction. They shout out words like stamen and pollen saturation as they huddle excitedly around a beautiful sunflower that they are actively trying to grow. Already this flower has died multiple times. But each time students are eager to plant a new seed and continue to grow their understanding about how sun, nutrients and water work together to create life. How can 38 sixth graders observe and begin to comprehend these complicated systems so quickly over the course of only an hour?

They are playing Reach for the Sun, a game developed by Filament Games released early this year. It is the engaging result of game-based learning meets artistry, producing a game that is not only functional, but also extremely beautiful. Clouds cascade across the sky, the sun gently rises and sets, and butterflies flutter by. The simulation of plant growth builds a final masterpiece of color and life.

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Jennifer Jordan
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May 6, 2013

GameDesk Celebrates First Year at PlayMaker School, Introduces Transformed Classrooms

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May 6, 2013 | By | One Comment"> One Comment

 

Los Angeles, CA – April 29, 2013 – GameDesk, the gaming education non-profit that rethinks learning through playing, making, and discovery, today announced the launch of new spaces at its PlayMaker School, a life-reflective revolution in education designed to prepare students for 21st century success. The school is realized with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and launched in partnership with New Roads. The new school space was conceived by Lucien Vattel, the GameDesk design team, Gensler, The Third Teacher+ group led by Trung Le, and construction led by Steve Lappin of Pacific Cove Development.

Student showcases, tours of the space, learning activities, and ribbon cutting ceremony will take place from 11am-4pm on Saturday, May 11, at PlayMaker School at New Roads located at 3131 Olympic Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90404.  For more information email: contactus@gamedesk.org

“The spaces we inhabit have a profound effect on how we inhabit them. We have a responsibility to students to create a vibrant exploratory space for young people to discover, play, build, and learn,” said Lucien Vattel, Executive Director at GameDesk, Founder and Co-Director of PlayMaker School. “This is the future of learning and it’s now a working model for everyone to come see and participate in. I am incredibly proud of the work we have accomplished this year. You’re not going to believe what you’re going to see.”

PlayMaker School launched in the fall of 2012 and incorporates four years of GameDesk research and development in play and tech infused curriculum. “Forty years in the wilderness of education and I finally see the promised land,” said Joe Wise, Co-Founder of PlayMaker School and Assistant Head of New Roads School for Curriculum and Assessment. “PlayMaker School at New Roads promises effective reform through assessed play and student guided learning.”

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“I’m not a gamer.”
Tanner Higgin
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April 30, 2013

“I’m not a gamer.”

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April 30, 2013 | By | 2 Comments"> 2 Comments

Help all students recognize and value how they play and integrate those interests and habits into instruction.

One of the issues with integrating game-based learning into the classroom is that some students are resistant. They’ll tell you, as they’ve told us at the PlayMaker School, that they’re not “gamers.” I hear this from adults all of the time too. When someone I’m talking to finds out I work at GameDesk, they often confess that they’re “not that much of a gamer.”

But they’re wrong.

Everyone plays games; everyone likes games. Think about it: could there be anything more natural to a child than play and games? Have you known any children for whom play is not an essential part of their daily lives not to mention how they learn? And among adults, do you know any that do not occasionally fiddle around with a crossword or Sudoku puzzle, or who don’t dabble in Farmville, chess, or Scrabble? Probably not. So it’s not that people don’t play games; rather, the problem is most games apparently don’t qualify someone as a “gamer.”

So what qualifies as “gamer” culture then? The term itself is mostly a marketing construction from the 80s and 90s; it’s an ever-shrinking, mythical demographic composed of hyper-competitive White twelve to thirty-five year old males who play games regularly on a cutting edge videogame console or PC. Most recently, it’s been used most in combination with the term “hardcore” to describe this same subset of videogame player in conflict with an encroaching group of so-called “casual” players and games (often stereotypically assumed to be female).

But this “gamer” is not representative of actual players: 47% of videogame players are women; African American and Latino@ teens play more games than their White counterparts; and the average player age is hovering around thirty. And that’s just videogame players. What if those statistics tracked people who play board games, poker, or twenty questions?

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All Games Are Learning Games
Tanner Higgin
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April 16, 2013

All Games Are Learning Games

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April 16, 2013 | By | 3 Comments"> 3 Comments

“Expert players are expert systems thinkers who have, over hours and hours (and sometimes their entire lives), learned how to learn, and become masters of a variety of different incredibly complex systems.”

Some new to the educational games sector might assume, based on the controversies /debates (particularly violence) surrounding games, that there would be resistance to games in the classroom. Yet  educators generally support game-based learning, and parents’ support depends primarily on a perceived lack of educational rigor in games. Consequently, educational game developers perceive the challenge as creating experiences that pass the muster of parents and educators.  But what parents/educators want kids to play and what kids will actually play is very different. How do educational game developers compete with the kinds of irresistible experiences the broader game industry provides and that kids love to play?

Perhaps the best answer lies in not just creating bigger and better educational games, but in re-framing what we consider “educational.”

From a certain perspective, every game has learning content because every game is a system that can be understood. This is a hard thing to “get” if you’re peering over a child’s shoulder while she’s playing. From this perspective games can look non-nonsensical, and maybe even offensive or trivial (and clearly some games are either or both). The reason? If you’re not playing the game, what you’re looking at is the narrative, characters, dialogue, etc. These qualities, historically, are the least interesting or well drawn aspects of games.

Focusing on these elements is like playing football and focusing on the uniforms or the rivalry of the teams. They’re important elements, but far from totalizing. What’s happening at each moment on the field — the cognitive and physical struggle between two teams within the context of the game and its rules — is totally lost. With gaming, like anything else, you just had to be there.

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“I Am Hungry For Triangles”: Digital Games In Early Education
Jennifer Jordan
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April 12, 2013

“I Am Hungry For Triangles”: Digital Games In Early Education

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“Children in early grades K-1 learn many things by experience. Their ability to interact with the environment while making sense of physical objects can be greatly enhanced by digital games.”

- Joseph Makokha

This week we are featuring team Crazy Croc from our March Stanford Game Jam.  The moment this team formed they began wildly discussing ideas and hunting down concepts within the domain analysis.  All teams exuded excitement as they began the process.  However, team Crazy Croc had a particular kind of energy brewing.  They covered their whiteboard with words and drawings.  They littered their table with post-its and charts.  They rearranged their furniture configuration –twice.  This team was ready to create, and the air around them hummed with vitality!

They began breaking down grade levels and created a domain analysis organization chart to help navigate the multiple factors they would need to account for within their game.  Eventually this process shook out an idea geared towards younger grades to help early learners distinguish the difference between multiple objects and schemas.  Team member Joseph Makakha says, “This is made possible given that today’s children are learning to interact with digital media at a very early stage. Our team set out to find a way of leveraging mobile technology in helping these early learners to recognize images, shapes and other age-appropriate mathematical representations of the natural environment.”

You’re probably wondering about this team’s name by now.  If not, you should be.  Why Crazy Croc?

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Space for the Speculative: The Importance of the Arts
Via Youth Arts Collective
Tanner Higgin
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April 9, 2013

Space for the Speculative: The Importance of the Arts

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“Art is our greatest form of speculation; it’s our access point to the future and our archive of the past.”

Industrial Schooling and the Advantages of Art

Budget cuts have disproportionately affected arts education. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) gutted its arts budget, dropping funding by 76% from $78.6 million in 2007-2008 to $18.6 million. While these cuts often go unnoticed, fortunately LAUSD’s drastic decline in funding stirred controversy and forced the school board to declare art a core subject and pledge to return funding levels to the 2007-2008 high.

When we ask people if they value the arts, they almost always say yes. Art, conceptually, is very popular. And generally people understand and recognize, at least when polled, its importance. The problem is, however, that when push comes to shove it’s the first thing to go. Why?

Our current model of education continues to be framed as a means of economic sustainability. Schools are structured to produce able-bodied and capable workers. Hence our schools resemble factories, teaching kids to be on time, complete rote tasks, and follow managerial instruction. Even innovative “twenty-first century” approaches that look to destabilize this model still promote themselves as creating innovative students. The implication here is that these students will continue to contribute to a productive workforce just in more agile ways. Read More

Spring Break Reflection: One PlayMaker Parent’s Experience
Educade
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April 3, 2013

Spring Break Reflection: One PlayMaker Parent’s Experience

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April 3, 2013 | By | No Comments"> No Comments

PlayMaker students are currently off enjoying their Spring Break.  This pause in the classroom allows a moment to ponder and reflect on how this first year of our pilot program is going.  With many views a part of this conversation, we thought we’d highlight one parent’s email as a response to her child’s learning experience in the PlayMaker classroom.  We know there are many aspects to still learn from and evolve into, but this parent’s reflection is the kind of experience that fuels our joy and mission to rethink education.  Enjoy.

We are really enjoying watching her blossom and her transformation from a passive learner to an active learner.  We were just commenting that while she was on the computer the other evening she was getting on the forums and watching YouTube videos on equivalent fractions without any prompting or help from us.  We certainly appreciate all of your hard work.  We also see dramatic changes in student expectations and behavior. The language used by students in conversation has shifted to terms reflecting creating meaning and intrinsic motivation.  One situation yesterday involved a girl who had just gotten an envelope for the ARG. She came to AJ and asked, “What should I do with this?” AJ grinned back and the girl said, “I know, be creative.”