ISTE Inspiration: Don't be a zombie!

Jennifer LaGarde gave an impassioned and inspiring keynote at the ISTE Librarians Network Annual Breakfast. Jennifer visited numerous schools across North Carolina as a "librarian on loan" for the last two years, and she was really struck when someone shared the following idea:

"There are only two kinds of librarians: Zombies and Zombie Fighters."

Jennifer recognized the truth in this statement. There are school librarians who fit the stereotypes of the mean old lady librarian who hoards books and shushes kids. These zombie librarians value the books, the Dewey decimal system, and rules more than students and their interests and learning. They are comfortable with the past and afraid of the future.

Gwyneth Jones'
Library Girl

On the other hand, zombie-fighting librarians defy expectations, embrace change, collect data, and learn continually. They value children, their interests, needs, and identity as creators. They work to create meaningful, authentic learning opportunities based on real-world problems.

As I listened to Jennifer's talk, I was inspired and energized, but also a little overwhelmed. I could see myself in some of the zombie-fighting activities that Jennifer described, but I have plenty of room to grow. Which reminds me of Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis speaking at an NCTIES conference a few years ago about eating the watermelon one bite at a time. In need to be strategic in choosing specific areas where I need to focus first.

How will I decide what my priorities are? The new NC School Library Media Coordinator evaluation instrument is one place where I can look for areas of improvement. And of course, I'm going to continue to pursue my interests in gaming, quest-based learning, and coding. But I think I need to check in with other stakeholders in our school's media program: our students, teachers, and administrators. I need to get more feedback from them about what they like about our media program and what more they would like to see.

Reflections on Summer Part II GamesMOOC

Jumping into GamesMOOC gear for the second half of the Summer session, I found a smorgasbord of ideas, examples, games, and worlds. We discussed the use of avatars, explored other game-related MOOCs, visited the GamesMOOC Minecraft server, and shared games that might be useful in education.

Our Wednesday evening tweetchats focused on the experience of using avatars. Rosie O’Brien Vojtek, one editor of the Virtual Education Journal, asked us to think about the Avatar Generation: folks who are very comfortable operating in a virtual world using a personalized avatar. These folks have a facility for negotiating virtual worlds and building and communicating in these worlds.

Avatars have some connection to the identities that we claim in “real life.” Introverts may feel more comfortable speaking up via their avatars. The “disinhibition effect” seems to free us up to behave in ways we wouldn’t in face-to-face encounters. Avatars may represent our sense of our true selves to greater or lesser degrees, depending on whether the player is trying to explore a different identity in a safe space or trying to represent themselves faithfully.

We ventured into a couple of other MOOCs, one of which was the rgMOOC (Rhetoric and Composition: The Persuasive Power of Video Games as Paratexts), a course taught in part by Sherry Jones. This course invited participants to engage with texts and videos that offered background content, explore a variety of games, and enter into discussions of what they found each week. The course had a clear structure within which participants had many choices.

The rgMOOC asked participants to explore the messages and assumptions of the games that we play in our society. In the GamesMOOC, we discussed other uses of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) games in educational settings. Because I work with students who are under 13 who have access to a school-issued laptop throughout the school year, I have opportunities and limits in what we can use. The easiest games for me to incorporate are free web-based games that don’t require installation. Lure of the Labyrinth and Coaster Crafter are a couple games that I have discovered in the past. I would like to look more closely at several suggested games: Poptropica, the Mesoamerican Ballgame, Wallace and Gromit Sprocket Rocket, and School of Dragons.



Our tours of the GamesMOOC (et. al.) Minecraft server reminded me once again that I shouldn’t give up on trying to find a way to get teachers and administration to accept this game in school. Having a server that educators can explore seems like a good way to introduce the game to those who haven’t seen it. And the work that MouseyMoose and Giraffe619 did to create the Inevitable Betrayal village and castle reminded me of the many skills that children use in this world. Badges may be a good way to define and communicate to outsiders what children are accomplishing in game worlds like Minecraft. Massively @ Jokaydia seems to have a strong start on this with their Awards.

Now that the Summer Part II GamesMOOC has wrapped up, and my school year is about to begin, I need to think about how to bring these ideas and games to life at my school. I love the sharing and camaraderie of the GamesMOOC, but I need to find a way to bring it home. My first thought was to choose a couple of games to explore further and then share those with my local colleagues. But perhaps I need to take it further and get them involved in exploring those games. Perhaps I need to create a Mini Open Online Course for the teachers at my school that would expose them to some of the basics of how games connect with learning and example of games they could use.

The Avatar Generation

I participated in a tweetchat last week as part of the Games Based Learning MOOC, Summer session, Part II. Here's a summary with reflections that I created in Storify.

Why Educators Should Read Reality is Broken

One of the most thought-provoking and inspiring activities of my summer has been participating in the Level Up Book Club organized online by librarians Jennifer LaGarde and Matthew Winner. Our first book of the summer is Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal.  Within the first few chapters I felt very strongly that this is a book all my teaching colleagues should read. Why?

To understand our students better

We can’t teach our students if we don’t know them, right? And a big part of our students’ lives are the games they play. As McGonigal explains, we have a societal bias against games, thinking that they are a trivial waste of time. She argues strongly that we need to overcome this bias because games are extremely effective at helping us meet our most basic human needs and provide a guide for how other aspects of our lives could be more meaningful. We need to recognize that there is a reason our students love the games they play and to respect this important part of their lives outside of school. McGonigal shares several examples of popular games and helps us understand what our students are getting out of these games.

To start thinking about how game design could enrich learning

Games are incredibly engaging. Contrast the addictiveness of Minecraft amongst our students with the boredom even our best students feel in school at times. According to McGonigal, games provide challenge, meaningful work, a sense of accomplishment, and social connections. They motivate us by providing a real sense of optimism about our ability to succeed. And when we fail at a game, it just inspires us to try again and try harder this time. These are all things that we want to increase at school. Learning more about how games give us motivation, challenge, satisfaction, confidence, and perseverance will help us design better learning opportunities for our students.

To help us do new things in new ways

Technology is increasingly available in the educational realm, but just turning a worksheet into a pdf or a lecture into a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation does not improve learning. We need to break out of our old habits to take full advantage of how technology can enrich student learning. Good game design offers clear goals, immediate feedback, and choice. Those design elements could guide us in how to use technology to create new, more powerful learning activities.

A guild is stronger than an individual

Our book club’s discussions have generated a lot of exciting ideas that I want to implement at my school. I keep thinking how powerful this book could be if my local colleagues read it, too. Incorporating game design into education is a new way of thinking for many of us. Such a challenge is best met by a party of willing adventurers.

For more information about Reality is Broken, visit Jane McGonigal’s web site which includes related videos, reviews, and ordering information.

Game on!

Next week, I am starting an online class on game-based learning through 3D GameLab. I am really excited about finding ways to harness the motivation that is inherent in good game experiences and use it in learning experiences for my students. Check back if you are interested in seeing what I discover along the way.

The following infographic from Knewton gives a good overview of why I am interested in this topic.


Created by Knewton and Column Five Media