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Mar
5
Create365: City Planning
Filed Under content development, education, writing | View Comments
I have this dream of someday pulling together my love of certain media and my passion for teaching to create multimedia math and science lessons. Occasionally, I’ll get an idea for a teaching moment and jot it down.
This one features an NPC who is the assistant to the player/learner’s city planner. She’s trying to help the student plan out space allotment through a percent lesson. It’s not good. It really is just a sketch. But it’s something to launch from.
ASSISTANT
25% of the population will want to live in this area of town. Hmm… How can we figure out how many people that is?Well, “percent” means “for every 100″. So 25 out of every 100 people will want to live there, or 25/100 people. 25/100 is the same as .25. So .25 of [town population] wants to live there.
.25 x [town population] means [answer] people will want to live there.
What about this 12% who will want to live in this other area?
The player/learner then has to figure it out and type in an answer, which will trigger an appropriate response from the assistant.
I wrote it in script form because I haven’t decided yet whether I would present this as text or as narration.
Mar
5
Teaching is a Superpower
Filed Under education | View Comments
The Challenge: Do something to make the world a better place.
I’m cheating on this one, because I spend four or five days a week doing something to make the world a better place. And I’m aided by some of the coolest people I know. What is this amazing thing I do? I think it’s best shared in this “button” a friend gave me a while back…
With all of the problems we’re facing in education today, it’s hard to remember that teachers are the people who have to not only prepare young people for their future, but they have to do it with resources that are growing more and more limited and demands placed on them that are growing crazier and crazier.
Or perhaps it’s better said as…
Feb
12
A core apprenticeship
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So, we give everyone a basic common knowledge, laced with critical reasoning skills, and then we dump them into another kind of learning. In ye olden dayes, this would have come in the form of apprenticeship. In these more progressive times, it comes in the form of college or vocational school.
Why put school-weary kids through yet another level of schooling? Because not only do we need a basic common knowledge with each other, we also need a basic common knowledge with those in our field. We need a groundwork to build from, to discuss, to argue over, to challenge. We need to understand where the industry came from, what it’s gone through.
When we understand where we’ve been, then history informs our decisions to create something reliable and to create something innovative. When we share a basic knowledge with others in our field, we can propose, clarify, and defend those decisions in a manner that will allow others to understand what we’re doing.
Education is about transferring knowledge and skills at its very basic core. But it’s really about enabling communication – common knowledge can encourage and support discussion and discovery among those who share the knowledge, be it among the general populace or those within a field.
Feb
9
A Core Education
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For reasons unknown, a student’s “I don’t understand. Could you help me?” seems to always come out as, “This is stupid. Why am I even learning this? I’ll never use it again.” I can sympathize with that. It’s hard, especially in this day and age, to push yourself through something challenging. It’s even harder when you can’t see what’s on the other side.
The problem is, studying the core subjects at school isn’t just about learning the facts and processes. It isn’t just about learning how to analyze. It isn’t even just about torturing students (although that part can be fun sometimes).
The real point of expecting everyone to have the same basic education, in my own opinion, is firstly giving everyone a base set of knowledge to work from. It’s arming young people with the background knowledge necessary to understand and recognize patterns and references as they get older. We’re all quite familiar with this because we grew up with Bugs Bunny as entertainment, and then took another look at it after a year of American History and found a whole new appreciation for those cartoons.
When done correctly, it’s also about arming young people with the ability to think critically, to reason logically. Education is just as much about the transference of knowledge as it is about developing the higher-level skills that will guide and benefit these students as adults.
Why are you learning this? When are you ever going to use this again? Every day. In your media. In your conversations. In your work. You will rely on your background knowledge to help shape and inform your work. You will rely on your reasoning skills to help shape and inform your work.
And you hopefully won’t ever have to ask a colleague the question, “Didn’t you learn that in school?”, disgust rife in your voice.
Nov
9
Questioning strategies as game deisgn?
Filed Under content development, education, gaming | View Comments
One of the issues I’ve been struggling with as I try to imagine how I would develop game-inspired educational material is how to incorporate my teaching style into my work. The problem is: I’m a Constructivist with Socratic tendencies.
That first isn’t too big a problem. Sequential story-lessons are easily planned out and created, and mythocentric game design makes a compelling argument for letting story-lessons that don’t rely on each other serve as a “level” that the learner can explore at will before being allowed to move on to the next “level” and building on what they’ve learned in lower “levels”.
The second, however, is a bit more challenging. I tend to direct my students through questions, helping them to make their own connections and to see why they’re doing what they’re doing. When the teacher isn’t present, though, it’s hard to know what sequence of questions to set up to help facilitate that type of learning.
After reading Emily Short’s series on modeling conversation in interactive fiction, I thought I had it somewhat figured out: create a Guide NPC to ask more common or basic questions to guide learner between encounters and to help the learner think through the problem when they’ve made a mistake. The Guide NPC could even go so far as to offer a review if the learner is completely off-topic.
The more I thought about that, the more I felt myself getting turned around because I felt I was making too big an assumption with the basic or common questions. Then, a former student and I gather around a virtual whiteboard to see what was going wrong on a homework assignment, and I found a preliminary answer. As we talked, I found the probing and directing questions I nearly always ask, mainly because she was asking herself those questions with a preface of, “I know you’d ask me…”
The next problem to either resolve or let go is wait time. I use that to help feel out where a student is in understanding what they’re working on, but I can’t exactly give a fictional character that same instinct.
Nov
6
Is fan fiction worthwhile?
Filed Under art class, education, writing | View Comments
Creating fan art is such a hot button topic with people. Are the original creator’s rights being diligently looked after? Are the young people who create fan art being appropriately trained in what’s plagiarism and what’s deviation or inspiration? They’re appropriate concerns, ones I try to cover with any student who shows me something they’re working on.
I was approached over the summer by someone launching his own fan-fiction appreciation site, and part of his message asking me to evaluate his site struck me as odd:
“I also wonder if you take fan-fiction seriously, or if you don’t really care that much for it.”
He found me via FanFiction.net, so I really wasn’t sure why he was questioning my opinion of fan art. It turned out that he really wasn’t sure, either, so I gave him the following answer:
As an artist and fan, I think fan fiction, fan art, AMVs, and video parodies are valid ways of expressing your support for a favorite property. As a teacher, I find creating fan works can often be a useful way to learn the skills and techniques necessary to move on to create your own world in your chosen medium.
A number of my students and people I’ve met through various fan and art sites have started out creating fan art, learning the techniques for the craft in trying to mimic a favorite author’s voice or an artist’s style and then building on that to develop their own style, their own point of view. They use what they learn in creating fan art to create original works with a sharper eye than would have been possible when they were just starting out. Some of them let this growth lead them into a more creative career, inspired by that original foundation. Others continue on as just a hobby. Some use these skills to teach others what they’ve learned or to help guide them as they comment on others’ works.
Becoming involved in the creation and sharing of fan art benefits the artist by allowing them to gain skills, to gather feedback for improvement, to learn to deal with harsh criticism or criticism that missed the mark gracefully. and to give others constructive feedback.
Sep
18
The value of information
Filed Under content development, education, teaching moments | View Comments
There have been quite a few jokes lately on the widespread misinterpretation of the quote, “Information wants to be free.” Call it optimistic hopefulness. Call it brutish ignorance. Call it whatever you will. The simple fact of the matter is that because “free” has multiple definitions, people interpreted it to fit their worldview (perhaps saying something about themselves in the process).
Most of my students haven’t heard this quote, in context or out, but they definitely face the inherent spirit of it on a near-daily basis as they learn about copyright and plagiarism. I’ll never forget the student who, in all seriousness, told me that she could take anything she found on the internet and do whatever she wanted with it because it was “free”. I quickly explained to her that copyright does extend to work on the internet, and it’s only free if it’s specifically labeled public domain. She wasn’t too sure about that, but she was at least willing to consider that I knew what I was talking about.
It’s amazing how many of my students have either not been taught this, or have tuned out the teacher. These students tend to be frustrating because they whine on and on (in a private tutoring center, no less) about how they can’t get to the information they want for a school project because some jerk had the gall to lock it up away from them. They then boast that they can just find that same information somewhere else…and that never works out. They don’t get it. They don’t understand.
What they’re missing, and what I think is a part of what makes copyright protection so nice, is that information doesn’t want to be certain definitions of free. It wants to be unrestrained, but at the same time be respected and valued.
Aug
17
The struggles of scaffolded math
Filed Under education | View Comments
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in and out of doctors’ offices because of a stabbing pain in my ankle that turned out to be tendinitis. Recuperating has left me plenty of free time to make some headway on a couple of current projects. While rethinking my approach and topics for Dead Bunny, I discovered that I can’t just confine myself to algebra and adequately do what I want to do.
In order to really develop a sequence of skills, I’ve discovered I have to be open to exploring the algebra and geometry skills in that sequence. It makes sense- I often have to review more basic algebra skills with my geometry students to help them successfully understand a new skill.
This got me thinking about the Integrated Math Program, which attempted to teach algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and statistics in one multi-level class. The original approach presented the students with real-world situations that they had to decode and then determine or discover the math principles behind what they were doing. The main problem was that if the students could even understand what the questions were trying to ask, they often hadn’t been exposed to the skills they needed to attempt the problem. Eventually, the program moved to textbooks that looked like traditional math textbooks, but they were divided back out into their overarching subjects. (No one would ever admit that, but they were.)
I’ve never agreed with the IMP because there was no discernible place in the curriculum for actual instruction, or discussion about student discovery, to take place. I never actually thought about expressing an opinion on interweaving different maths together to build a curriculum.
Now I am, and I feel like it’s opened up this whole new world of possibilities in designing and structuring Dead Bunny’s curriculum.
Jul
29
Informal learning doesn’t have to be declared
Filed Under animation, content development, education | View Comments
If I’ve learned one thing from being an animation fan my entire life, it’s that a cartoon doesn’t have to be educational to teach you something. I think it’s important to remember that when debating the “usefulness” of watching cartoons.
This isn’t meant to belittle the educational cartoons, either. I’ve spent many an afternoon watching Arthur and Cyberchase. To this day, the animation/live action-hybrid Blue’s Clues is still a favorite show. They’re all three well-done shows where a learning outcome is clearly displayed, regardless of whether it’s a lesson about friendship, math and science, or exploring the world around you.
The E/I rating (as near as I can tell) helps identify cartoons that aren’t necessarily educational in nature, but fit a certain criteria to be considered “educational enough”. More recent examples of this include Magi-Nation, which offered interesting and relevant moments of math and science instruction interspersed throughout the storyline, and Winx Club, which encourages girls to develop strong, positive characters.
Then you have the cartoons that are either built around a trendy toy or game (card or video). Because they’re really trying to sell something, they get written off. The cartoons are often shorter than cartoons in the educational or E/I categories, and the writing can get downright insipid at times. That said, though, the writers on these cartoons take advantage of the nature of the world they’re writing in to slip in mini-lessons from science and social studies. I can even think of a couple of cartoons that promote literacy simply by having the characters read frequently. My favorite cartoons tend to fall into this last group, and I can’t tell you how many things I learned from those cartoons in the 80’s are still with me now as an adult.
Just because something isn’t “educational” doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from it.
Feb
13
Teach, don’t forbid
Filed Under education | View Comments
It’s never ceased to amaze me how many people honestly believe that making something off-limits will protect others. It rarely works that way, mainly because forbidding something just triggers the innate curiosity we’re all born with.
Rather than block access to something you perceive as dangerous, teach the people you’re trying to block out. Teach them what the blocked item is, and then explain why you feel they shouldn’t go near it. It’s far easier to get a toddler to not touch a hot stove if you help them understand why than to just tell them not to do it.
Adults are much the same way. If you tell someone to not do something, and the best reason you can come up with is some variation on either, “Just don’t do it,” or, “Trust me,” you can rest assured the other person will do it. You haven’t given them an actual reason to listen to your advice. School districts are learning this the hard way as they’re slowly coming to realize their students will be far safer with lessons on how to live online safely than if they block MySpace and Facebook from school networks.
People, regardless of their age, respond best to reason. Even those crazy, rebellious teenagers are more likely to actually listen if you can give them actual reasons. If you forbid, regardless of the age, you’ll lost your audience.
