A lot of the teachers at some of the "best" schools have told me that out of 20 kids in their class, up to 14 have been diagnosed with some kind of learning or behavioral problem. That sounds like a lot!
I'm wondering if maybe the definition of normal isn't too narrow. The problem is, these kids who have been followed by therapists for all of their schooling often end up in my class at university convinced they need help but the help isn't there anymore.
What I want to know is how can we widen the goalposts, so to speak, and expand the definition of "normal" to include more kids, and how can we help kids who think they aren't normal (but I think they are).
lunes, 8 de diciembre de 2014
domingo, 30 de noviembre de 2014
slides as GBL
My toddler loves slides. Slides operate on gravity. Ergo...my toddler now understands gravity?
Clearly there's a step missing.
I think this may be a problem with some forms of game-based learning: we tend to assume that the player (or student) is learning what we intend them to learn form the game. We make the same mistake with reading: we assign a text such as a work of fiction, or a newspaper article and we assume that the student can understand more than just the words on the page, that he or she can grasp the idea or the message being conveyed. But that might be too much of an assumption. It takes skill and training to read texts properly, to understand concepts like metaphor and foreshadowing, or the differences between fact, bias and opinion. Why should we assume any differently with games?
Ian Bogost uses the term "procedural literacy" to describe the ability to understand how games represent systems. This, I believe, must be taught. Once the learner understands how games represent systems, then they can use and even design games to learn. Just as we learn to read so that we can read to learn, we need to learn games so that we can use games to learn.
I would like my toddler to one day think about why you go down on slides (and why climbing up them is so hard) and then to extrapolate that idea to swings, and then to planets in motion. Then, maybe, she'll be ready to design her own jungle gym.
Clearly there's a step missing.
I think this may be a problem with some forms of game-based learning: we tend to assume that the player (or student) is learning what we intend them to learn form the game. We make the same mistake with reading: we assign a text such as a work of fiction, or a newspaper article and we assume that the student can understand more than just the words on the page, that he or she can grasp the idea or the message being conveyed. But that might be too much of an assumption. It takes skill and training to read texts properly, to understand concepts like metaphor and foreshadowing, or the differences between fact, bias and opinion. Why should we assume any differently with games?
Ian Bogost uses the term "procedural literacy" to describe the ability to understand how games represent systems. This, I believe, must be taught. Once the learner understands how games represent systems, then they can use and even design games to learn. Just as we learn to read so that we can read to learn, we need to learn games so that we can use games to learn.
I would like my toddler to one day think about why you go down on slides (and why climbing up them is so hard) and then to extrapolate that idea to swings, and then to planets in motion. Then, maybe, she'll be ready to design her own jungle gym.
viernes, 28 de noviembre de 2014
synonyms for "good student"
Diligent.
Responsable.
Conscientious.
Has grit.
Focussed.
Motivated.
These are all synonyms to describe students who do what the adults want, the way the adults want it, in the time frame the adults assign...and with a goddamn smile on their faces, Soldier!
Responsable.
Conscientious.
Has grit.
Focussed.
Motivated.
These are all synonyms to describe students who do what the adults want, the way the adults want it, in the time frame the adults assign...and with a goddamn smile on their faces, Soldier!
lunes, 24 de noviembre de 2014
game mechanics
Early thoughts on a paper...
A POOR
UNDERSTANDING OF GAME MECHANICS UNDERMINES GAME-BASED LEARNING WITH
STUDENT-DESIGNED GAMES
INTRODUCTION
Game-based Learning (GBL) seems to be everywhere these
days, and it intuitively seems that this is a good idea. From a round of Simon Says at preschool to
the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) played by increasingly diverse groups of
adults; from grand-master Chess and World Cup Football to the ubiquitous
cell-phone games of Candy Crush and Angry Birds, it seems that everyone likes
games and everyone plays games. Thus, it
seems only natural to incorporate games into the classroom.
There are many ways to introduce game-based learning
in the classroom, from the simple Friday-afternoon reward to the highly complex
GBL system in place at Quest to Learn schools.
In this paper, however, I propose to focus on using
games in a very particular way. Rather
than superposing content on a game base in a “chocolate-covered broccoli” type
of way, I will argue that the core mechanics of the game themselves are what
drive the message, and that this learning can be enhanced if the students
themselves design the game.
I will argue that just as we learn to read so that we
can then read to learn, we must be taught to design games in order to then be
able to design games to learn. I suggest
that it is not enough for students to play games that others have designed, for
the real learning occurs in the process of design itself.
In my study, I show how a group of university
undergraduate students understood the concept of game-design when designing
games about human-rights and social justice issues. I will show that their ideas were based on a
faulty grasp of the power of game mechanics leading them to learn less than
they otherwise could have about the content and that this can be remedied by
educating them first in the basic of game-design.
I conclude that the lack of fundamental understanding
of how games work undermines the Game-Based Learning approach.
viernes, 21 de noviembre de 2014
10 second carpe diem lesson
Take out a piece of paper and something to write with.
Think of someone you love. It could be a relative, a friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Write to this person telling them how you feel.
You have 10 seconds.
GO.
3,2,1 STOP.
That's not enough time!
So how much time would be enough?
Carpe diem, kids...SEIZE THE FUCKING DAY!
Now go out and have a great weekend.
Think of someone you love. It could be a relative, a friend, a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Write to this person telling them how you feel.
You have 10 seconds.
GO.
3,2,1 STOP.
That's not enough time!
So how much time would be enough?
Carpe diem, kids...SEIZE THE FUCKING DAY!
Now go out and have a great weekend.
martes, 18 de noviembre de 2014
How to plan a lesson
There are many ways to plan a lesson.
You could plan it in the order you're going to teach it. You could start by planning the warmer and work your way to the end.
Or, you could start with the cheese and work your way back to the entrance of the maze. Being, in other words, with the final task. This way you know where you're going.
Or you could go back and forth between the different stages of your lesson.
In EFL, you could start with the grammar and find a topic to match, or start with a topic and add the language you want to teach.
You could start with a text or a picture.
You could start from the course book and see how to make it communicative, or start with a communicative task and see how you can make it fit the course book.
No matter how you plan the lesson, always remember:
In the end, you don't teach the lesson...YOU TEACH THE STUDENTS.
You could plan it in the order you're going to teach it. You could start by planning the warmer and work your way to the end.
Or, you could start with the cheese and work your way back to the entrance of the maze. Being, in other words, with the final task. This way you know where you're going.
Or you could go back and forth between the different stages of your lesson.
In EFL, you could start with the grammar and find a topic to match, or start with a topic and add the language you want to teach.
You could start with a text or a picture.
You could start from the course book and see how to make it communicative, or start with a communicative task and see how you can make it fit the course book.
No matter how you plan the lesson, always remember:
In the end, you don't teach the lesson...YOU TEACH THE STUDENTS.
Revolution from within
Changing education ideally would mean smashing down the system completely.
No more kids in rows of desks!
No more boring textbooks!
Down with parrotting and up with real learning!
The problem is, most teachers work inside that system. We have to put food on the table and clothes on our kids' backs. We may want to rebel, but we can't afford to lose our jobs. Welcome to the real world.
Is compromise between "the system" and our ideals possible? I say it is.
I say take the books, take the rows of students and add little drops of meaning.
How do you do that?
Make tasks communicative. Not all of them, not all at once. But start.
Take a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Put the students in pairs and have one read the sentence to the other while the other fills in the gap.
Take two readings and have students do a jigsaw task.
Have students demonstrate comprehension with art such as drawings, collages and cellphone videos.
Have students break down concepts from the book to teach each other.
No more kids in rows of desks!
No more boring textbooks!
Down with parrotting and up with real learning!
The problem is, most teachers work inside that system. We have to put food on the table and clothes on our kids' backs. We may want to rebel, but we can't afford to lose our jobs. Welcome to the real world.
Is compromise between "the system" and our ideals possible? I say it is.
I say take the books, take the rows of students and add little drops of meaning.
How do you do that?
Make tasks communicative. Not all of them, not all at once. But start.
Take a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Put the students in pairs and have one read the sentence to the other while the other fills in the gap.
Take two readings and have students do a jigsaw task.
Have students demonstrate comprehension with art such as drawings, collages and cellphone videos.
Have students break down concepts from the book to teach each other.
viernes, 14 de noviembre de 2014
The Breakfast Club
I've discovered something in common with all the TV shows I like: The Big Bang theory, Two and a Half men, Friends, M*A*S*H, House, Star Trek...they're all character-driven.
In class, character driven plays, poems, literature, movies, TV shows, even videogames can springboard a lesson into endless possibilities.
"What if we put these two characters together?"
"How would these characters react if..."
"What if I substitute myself for one of the characters?"
Thus The Breakfast Club reference: take 5 kids who couldn't be more different, force them to interact and see what happens.
In class, character driven plays, poems, literature, movies, TV shows, even videogames can springboard a lesson into endless possibilities.
"What if we put these two characters together?"
"How would these characters react if..."
"What if I substitute myself for one of the characters?"
Thus The Breakfast Club reference: take 5 kids who couldn't be more different, force them to interact and see what happens.
miércoles, 12 de noviembre de 2014
exams are like french fries
To continue with the food analogy, here is an exerpt from a trainee journal followed by my response:
I heard some pretty good assessment types from my classmates, but in the end, each one was shot down by you and that was kind of frustrating. I mean I understand WHY you do that and I would hate it if you didn't, but I got the feeling of "So what the hell are we supposed to use then if everything has a flaw?" I understand the triangulation concept, but it just seems like it's so so so much work, and with all the other crap that we as teachers have to do, I don't know if there's time to do so much stuff! What if you think of it like food? There are SO many nutrients we’re supposed to get every day, but on the other hand we can’t consume too many calories (this was how I gained 20 pounds in my first trimester: I was determined not to have any kind of nutritional deficiency!). On top of that there are foods you just won’t eat because they’re too pricey or you don’t like them or they’re not available…The point is to do the best you can within the limitations you have. To continue the analogy, I think easy-to-grade exams are kinda like French fries: they’re good when you just need something fast. Doing projects, on the other hand would be more like cooking Christmas dinner: time-consuming, impossible to do every day, but well worth the extra effort.
I heard some pretty good assessment types from my classmates, but in the end, each one was shot down by you and that was kind of frustrating. I mean I understand WHY you do that and I would hate it if you didn't, but I got the feeling of "So what the hell are we supposed to use then if everything has a flaw?" I understand the triangulation concept, but it just seems like it's so so so much work, and with all the other crap that we as teachers have to do, I don't know if there's time to do so much stuff! What if you think of it like food? There are SO many nutrients we’re supposed to get every day, but on the other hand we can’t consume too many calories (this was how I gained 20 pounds in my first trimester: I was determined not to have any kind of nutritional deficiency!). On top of that there are foods you just won’t eat because they’re too pricey or you don’t like them or they’re not available…The point is to do the best you can within the limitations you have. To continue the analogy, I think easy-to-grade exams are kinda like French fries: they’re good when you just need something fast. Doing projects, on the other hand would be more like cooking Christmas dinner: time-consuming, impossible to do every day, but well worth the extra effort.
martes, 4 de noviembre de 2014
The dangers of tasting (and testing)
I'm not much of a cook, but I do know that you can't stop to taste the food too often. For one thing, there'll be nothing left to serve. Not to mention you'll make yourself fat, or possibly sick (on raw food).
It's the same with testing what your students have learned. When you stop the class to administer a test, that time is taken away from learning. Plus, you might be seeing the results of an intermediary stage which won't tell you what the final results will be. Cookie dough doesn't taste much like cookies.
A good cook uses other ways to check how the food is coming: texture, color. Imagination. Guesswork. Basic knowledge of kitchen chemistry.
Good teachers also know how to use alternate forms of assessment, from informal hallway conversations with students, to class discussion, to more formally assessed portfolios, artwork and other assignments. The really good teachers know how to make assessment a part of the learning itself.
It's the same with testing what your students have learned. When you stop the class to administer a test, that time is taken away from learning. Plus, you might be seeing the results of an intermediary stage which won't tell you what the final results will be. Cookie dough doesn't taste much like cookies.
A good cook uses other ways to check how the food is coming: texture, color. Imagination. Guesswork. Basic knowledge of kitchen chemistry.
Good teachers also know how to use alternate forms of assessment, from informal hallway conversations with students, to class discussion, to more formally assessed portfolios, artwork and other assignments. The really good teachers know how to make assessment a part of the learning itself.
Poker as a metaphor for our education system
Poker rules do not specify that you have to bluff...but you can't play poker if you don't bluff.
What about school? Teachers complain endlessly about cheating, copying, plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, but don't we ask for it by the very nature of the system?
Think about it: you're a student, you've got unreasonable amounts of work for all of your different classes. Something's gotta give. In the best case scenario, you plagiarise a little on one assignment so you can devote more time and effort to another. In the worst case scenario, you simply have so little respect for your teacher for handing you such a dumb-ass assignment in the first place that you plagiarise to show your contempt. Or, you genuinely don't understand the material and the time given simply isn't enough for you to master it, so you plagiarise just to get the grade you need to pass.
The only question is...will the teacher call your bluff?
What about school? Teachers complain endlessly about cheating, copying, plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, but don't we ask for it by the very nature of the system?
Think about it: you're a student, you've got unreasonable amounts of work for all of your different classes. Something's gotta give. In the best case scenario, you plagiarise a little on one assignment so you can devote more time and effort to another. In the worst case scenario, you simply have so little respect for your teacher for handing you such a dumb-ass assignment in the first place that you plagiarise to show your contempt. Or, you genuinely don't understand the material and the time given simply isn't enough for you to master it, so you plagiarise just to get the grade you need to pass.
The only question is...will the teacher call your bluff?
jueves, 30 de octubre de 2014
Deconstructing to reconstruct the teacher-learner paradigm
"TEACHER: Welcome to school, Pippi. I hope you will enjoy yourself here and learn a great deal.
PIPPI: Yes, and I hope I'll get some Christmas vacation. That is the reason I¹ve come. It's only
fair, you know.
TEACHER: If you would first tell me your whole name, I'll register you in school.
PIPPI: My name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter
Longstocking, daughter of Captain Efraim Longstocking, formerly the Terror of the Sea,
now a cannibal king. Pippi is really only a nickname, because Papa thought Pippilotta
was too long to say.
TEACHER: Well, then, we shall call you Pippi, too. But now suppose we test you a little and see
what you know. Pippi, can you tell me what seven and five are?
PIPPI: (shocked) Well, if you don't know that yourself, I'm certainly not going to tell you!"
(Adapted from Pippi Goes to School by Astrid Lindgren
http://www.timelessteacherstuff.com/readerstheater/PippiGoesToSchool.html)
***
Let us join Pippi in daring to question the teacher's role, shall we?
Let's begin with knowledge.
In the information age, what can we really teach that the students can't find on the internet? That's not a rhetorical question, there are answers. But it's essential that we realise that the information we purport to provide can just as easily be found elsewhere, and most likely of better quality too.
So what do we offer that the internet doesn't? To a certain extent, we offer a scope and sequence to follow. For example, it's easy to find grammar rules and translations of words online, but we offer a structured way of learning a language. There are online programs which do this, but I would say not as well.
We certainly offer the discipline to complete the work and progress, which is harder to find when you're studying on your own.
We offer our passion for whatever it is we're teaching, for whatever that's worth to our students.
We could offer personalisation, but all too often we don't. The stand-and-deliver type of lecture, especially when it slavishly follows a textbook, offers nothing that couldn't be better done online.
However, when we differentiate our students, design projects and games for them, develop assignments in line with their interests and abilities, and generally treat them as individuals...Ahhh, THEN we begin to offer value for time.
What about mastery? Don't we know more and better than our students? Simply put, yes. I speak better English than my learners do. But does this automatically confer upon me the right to determine what my students should do in my class, how they should do it, and how long it should take? Do I then get to be judge, jury and executioner by setting the agenda, designing the assessment and determining whether or not students have achieved what I think they should? In reality, no; all that is taken care of by distant authorities, governments and textbook publishers; but in the classroom I represent this vast body who makes these decisions. The students are rarely empowered to take such decisions for themselves.
These ideas are not new: the point has been made before by the likes of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Paolo Freire and many others.
My action research is based on a simple question: if we wanted to deconstruct the current teacher-learner paradigm in order to better reconstruct it, how would we go about it?
My answer is to redesign our teaching method using what we know from the related fields of game design and motivation, then see how it impacts the teacher-learner relationship.
PIPPI: Yes, and I hope I'll get some Christmas vacation. That is the reason I¹ve come. It's only
fair, you know.
TEACHER: If you would first tell me your whole name, I'll register you in school.
PIPPI: My name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter
Longstocking, daughter of Captain Efraim Longstocking, formerly the Terror of the Sea,
now a cannibal king. Pippi is really only a nickname, because Papa thought Pippilotta
was too long to say.
TEACHER: Well, then, we shall call you Pippi, too. But now suppose we test you a little and see
what you know. Pippi, can you tell me what seven and five are?
PIPPI: (shocked) Well, if you don't know that yourself, I'm certainly not going to tell you!"
(Adapted from Pippi Goes to School by Astrid Lindgren
http://www.timelessteacherstuff.com/readerstheater/PippiGoesToSchool.html)
***
Let us join Pippi in daring to question the teacher's role, shall we?
Let's begin with knowledge.
In the information age, what can we really teach that the students can't find on the internet? That's not a rhetorical question, there are answers. But it's essential that we realise that the information we purport to provide can just as easily be found elsewhere, and most likely of better quality too.
So what do we offer that the internet doesn't? To a certain extent, we offer a scope and sequence to follow. For example, it's easy to find grammar rules and translations of words online, but we offer a structured way of learning a language. There are online programs which do this, but I would say not as well.
We certainly offer the discipline to complete the work and progress, which is harder to find when you're studying on your own.
We offer our passion for whatever it is we're teaching, for whatever that's worth to our students.
We could offer personalisation, but all too often we don't. The stand-and-deliver type of lecture, especially when it slavishly follows a textbook, offers nothing that couldn't be better done online.
However, when we differentiate our students, design projects and games for them, develop assignments in line with their interests and abilities, and generally treat them as individuals...Ahhh, THEN we begin to offer value for time.
What about mastery? Don't we know more and better than our students? Simply put, yes. I speak better English than my learners do. But does this automatically confer upon me the right to determine what my students should do in my class, how they should do it, and how long it should take? Do I then get to be judge, jury and executioner by setting the agenda, designing the assessment and determining whether or not students have achieved what I think they should? In reality, no; all that is taken care of by distant authorities, governments and textbook publishers; but in the classroom I represent this vast body who makes these decisions. The students are rarely empowered to take such decisions for themselves.
These ideas are not new: the point has been made before by the likes of John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Paolo Freire and many others.
My action research is based on a simple question: if we wanted to deconstruct the current teacher-learner paradigm in order to better reconstruct it, how would we go about it?
My answer is to redesign our teaching method using what we know from the related fields of game design and motivation, then see how it impacts the teacher-learner relationship.
- Would there be less confrontation between what the teacher wants and what the students want?
- Would the teacher be in a better position to respond to the learners as whole individuals rather than a homogenous group?
- Would the teacher be able to scaffold the students not only in the academic learning process but also in the skills necessary for a 21st century adult to have?
- Would it be possible for feedback to usurp numerical grades as the endpoint of assessment?
- Would the teacher find herself exploring more of her own humanity with the students, sharing her own passions and interests rather than simply being a purveyor of facts and on-duty class management cop?
martes, 28 de octubre de 2014
Why are missions better than quests?
Interesting development: it seems like everyone seems to want to start with the missions.
Is it because the quests are boring? Maybe we could find ways to make them more interesting.
Is it because there isn't actually as much relevance between the quests and the final mission as there should be? Is it because you don't actually need to complete the quests before you're able to do the mission?
Is it because the missions are more intrinsically interesting? If so, then what are we doing right?
Is it because if you try the missons first you have a better understanding of the relevance of the quests?
On the other hand, I may be wrong about my original assumption. Which leads to other questions such as :
Are the missions intrinsically interesting and worthwhile?
Are the quests useful in helping you to accomplish the missions?
Do you feel the quests and missions help you to learn English?
Do you feel the quests and missions help you to learn about global issues?
And possibly the scariest question of all (for me!):
Are you learning anything in this course?
Is it because the quests are boring? Maybe we could find ways to make them more interesting.
Is it because there isn't actually as much relevance between the quests and the final mission as there should be? Is it because you don't actually need to complete the quests before you're able to do the mission?
Is it because the missions are more intrinsically interesting? If so, then what are we doing right?
Is it because if you try the missons first you have a better understanding of the relevance of the quests?
On the other hand, I may be wrong about my original assumption. Which leads to other questions such as :
Are the missions intrinsically interesting and worthwhile?
Are the quests useful in helping you to accomplish the missions?
Do you feel the quests and missions help you to learn English?
Do you feel the quests and missions help you to learn about global issues?
And possibly the scariest question of all (for me!):
Are you learning anything in this course?
viernes, 24 de octubre de 2014
Action research: why implement a game-model for EFL?
We have approximately 200 students
distributed unevenly among 7 levels with most (approximately 60%) being in the
bottom three levels. This is surprising
given that the vast majority of our students have been studying English since
primary school or even pre-school. Why,
then, is their level of English so low?
There are many possible reasons. We posited that the students were simply
unmotivated. We therefore set out to
find out what motivation was and how to create, or at least stimulate it in the
EFL classroom.
There are two main groups of researchers
who seem to be most interested in motivation and who actually have a great deal
to do with each other: motivational psychologists and game designers.
Games seemed interesting at first simply
because of the statistics. In 2013,
$21.53 billion dollars were spent on
videogames. 59% of American play video
games, divided between 52% male and 48% female players, a combined 61% of whom
are under the age of 35. Games are an
interesting study because there is no (or rarely any) real-world benefit to
playing games, yet people are collectively spending millions of hours playing
them. Therefore, one can assume that
there is something inherently motivating about games. Is it
possible to harness this in the classroom?
Many are certainly trying, but what methods are succeeding?
Motivational psychologists Edward Deci
and Richard Ryan studied motivation from an interesting angle: they started by
asking what the factors are without
which motivation cannot happen.
Self-determination theory, as they call it, posits that the three most
important aspects of motivation are autonomy,
competence, and relatedness. The
first concept, autonomy, suggests
that the antithesis of motivation is micromanagement; in class this would
translate to teachers imposing assignments and deadlines without regard for the
learning styles and preferences of their students. Games, on the other hand, would seem to offer
players a certain freedom of choice, beginning with whether to play at all. Once the player is in the game world,
gameplay progresses through a series of choices: whether to go left or right,
whether to jump, crawl, run or hide, whether to slay the enemy with a gun,
grenade, sword etc., or not to slay the enemy at all.
This point actually turned out to be
more important than all that follow. Most
games lie on a spectrum from linear narratives, such as early versions of Super Mario Bros in which the player
literally moves forward in a single direction overcoming obstacles along the
way until he eventually reaches the castle of princess Peach; to games with a
single goal but many ways to achieve it, such as beating the other team in
football, to non-linear games such as Grand Theft Auto in which, though players
have missions, they have considerable freedom to complete quests in the order
of their choice and to pursue side missions if they so desire. While the elements mentioned below were
fairly easy to implement, this seemed to be the sticking point, as I will show.
Competence refers
to the feeling of being able to succeed at something, which may be difficult in
a system where students are graded on a curve and points are deducted from 100. Games, on the other hand, offer such things
as experience points and levelling up.
If you die (fail) you can “respawn”, or simply keep on trying until you
achieve your goal.
The term relatedness is used to describe the feeling that one’s work matters
to others; again, this is difficult when the only person who reads students’
assignments is the teacher, and then not out of interest but in order to
correct it. Many games, in contrast, are
highly social, whether they involve raiding teams or a friendly Scrabble game
against your mom.
My
action research began with the following question: How can we design an EFL curriculum for university students at
Universidad de los Hemisferios in Quito, Ecuador based on game-like learning
(Salen, 2004) in which students have greater autonomy, competence and
relatedness (Deci and Ryan, 1985) than in “traditional” EFL classes (ie: the
lecture-course book-test model) they are accustomed to?
My
first answer was inspired by a non-linear game model, my second by a linear
game model.
miércoles, 22 de octubre de 2014
critical pedagogy
Critical pedagogy begins with questions...all kinds of questions.
My story:
I had decided (prior to reading Freire, interestingly enough) to question my role as authority figure in my university classes. What right do I have to assign tasks and determine deadlines? What would a classroom look like where students could determine their own workload and deadlines, while still following a pre-set curriculum and course book?
I tried the experiment. I told the students they were required to complete the coursebook and I added what I thought were extra fun tasks for when they finished. I set only the deadlines imposed by the university (3 per term). I told them they could send their work to be corrected as often as they needed as long as it was perfect by deadline. If so they would get 100%, if not, they would get 50%.
It failed.
Students were paralysed and confused for most of the term, and lined up outside my office to be corrected the day before deadline. They didn't seem to enjoy the extra tasks at all because they saw them as extra work.
They didn't say any of this of course. According to the surveys, they seemed to enjoy the freedom. They said they enjoyed the extra tasks as a way to make the course book topic come alive and be more relevant. But the reality appeared different.
Then I realised my question was wrong. It was based on the wrong theories and the wrong assumptions. The problem with students isn't necessarily that they want more freedom. A different educational paradigm wasn't the answer.
It's true that they sometimes find the coursebook a little dull and it's true that the coursebook fails to teach certain crucial skills that can be taught through extra tasks. But the solution isn't to flip the teacher-student paradigm. I now think the solution is to use the book as a springboard for more meaningful, structured assignments.
Why I made the mistake I made:
I was inspired by the fact that so many people seem to enjoy playing videogames, so I decided to learn more about them.
Video games tend to fall along a spectrum: "sandbox" games allow for greater player freedom to do things in the order of their choice (the Grand Theft Auto series, for example, gives you missions, but there is a certain amount of freedom in how you choose to go about them). Mario, on the other hand, is linear: you move in the direction the designer wants you to go.
I tried to teach "sandbox". Now it's time to go back to linear.
Now, how can I do that, and still make it great?
- If I have a class of 30 kids, how do I treat them all as individuals?
- I'm supposed to keep discipline and order in the classroom, but real learning is messy.
- How can I apply standards when I have students who learn at different speeds?
- How can I teach creatively when I have to follow a book and a curriculum?
- What's my role as teacher? How can I have authority while still being their friend?
- Is what I'm teaching useful?
- How do I know my students have learned? How much learning is enough?
My story:
I had decided (prior to reading Freire, interestingly enough) to question my role as authority figure in my university classes. What right do I have to assign tasks and determine deadlines? What would a classroom look like where students could determine their own workload and deadlines, while still following a pre-set curriculum and course book?
I tried the experiment. I told the students they were required to complete the coursebook and I added what I thought were extra fun tasks for when they finished. I set only the deadlines imposed by the university (3 per term). I told them they could send their work to be corrected as often as they needed as long as it was perfect by deadline. If so they would get 100%, if not, they would get 50%.
It failed.
Students were paralysed and confused for most of the term, and lined up outside my office to be corrected the day before deadline. They didn't seem to enjoy the extra tasks at all because they saw them as extra work.
They didn't say any of this of course. According to the surveys, they seemed to enjoy the freedom. They said they enjoyed the extra tasks as a way to make the course book topic come alive and be more relevant. But the reality appeared different.
Then I realised my question was wrong. It was based on the wrong theories and the wrong assumptions. The problem with students isn't necessarily that they want more freedom. A different educational paradigm wasn't the answer.
It's true that they sometimes find the coursebook a little dull and it's true that the coursebook fails to teach certain crucial skills that can be taught through extra tasks. But the solution isn't to flip the teacher-student paradigm. I now think the solution is to use the book as a springboard for more meaningful, structured assignments.
Why I made the mistake I made:
I was inspired by the fact that so many people seem to enjoy playing videogames, so I decided to learn more about them.
Video games tend to fall along a spectrum: "sandbox" games allow for greater player freedom to do things in the order of their choice (the Grand Theft Auto series, for example, gives you missions, but there is a certain amount of freedom in how you choose to go about them). Mario, on the other hand, is linear: you move in the direction the designer wants you to go.
I tried to teach "sandbox". Now it's time to go back to linear.
Now, how can I do that, and still make it great?
martes, 14 de octubre de 2014
Paolo Freire
I've just been reading Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It's a brilliant read that intuitively feels right, but apart from having trouble seeing teachers apply that theory, I don't even honestly think university-age students who've been told what to do all their lives can deal with breaking out.
Maybe the aim isn't to "free" them so much as to teach them English in a way that resonates with them, at least to the extent that they look on English class with enough fondness that they might consider contnuing to learn on their own.
Maybe the aim isn't to "free" them so much as to teach them English in a way that resonates with them, at least to the extent that they look on English class with enough fondness that they might consider contnuing to learn on their own.
How can we make learning more like a game?
I've discovered that this is a harder question than it looks. Games do a lot of things:
- In a good game, you learn as you go. You may look at the manual or watch the tutorial before or during play, but many people prefer the learning to be seamlessly integrated within the game itself. In English class, should there be a time when the teacher stands up and delivers a lecture on grammar or essay writing?
- In a game there is a clear progression from one level to the next, often culminating in a "boss mission". In English, it's hard to design a boss mission in which you actually need everything you've learned in terms of grammar, vocabulary, essay writing etc, unless the teacher specifically makes that part of the grade. So does having a "boss mission" still have value?
- In a game, even though there may be a logical progression between levels, there are still many choices the player makes. The more linear the plot, though, the fewer meaningful choices you have; the looser the direction of the story, the more choices you have. In the interest of designing a course where students feel free do choose the assignments they feel like doing ("I feel like writing today"), do you lose the linear path to the boss mission? There are arguments that say that learning should be progressive and the students may even feel adrift without it. A game is usually voluntary and many game designers and academics go so far as to include that in their definition. English class is not voluntary, so is there a point to pretending that it is? How much choice should the students have in theory... and how much are they even prepared to handle?
lunes, 13 de octubre de 2014
Communicative language teaching traps
Communicative language teaching is all about having the students use the language to communicate something meaningful.
This isn't as easy as it sounds. There has to be a genuine reason to listen or read what the other is communicating. there has to be a goal that both communicators are working towards. And, it has to be meaningful to the learners.
The first trap: SELLING
Trying to convince someone to buy something or to do something is an excellent idea. However, there must be the possibility of rejection. No prospective buyer can buy everything. Even Bill Gates, arguably one of the richest people alive, doesn't just hand out his money to charities willy nilly. He has them prepare a good pitch, which he evaluates and considers. In the end, he donates his money where he thinks it will do the most good.
If you're preparing some kind of a buy-and-sell activity, the buyers have to be limited in some way. Money is the obvious choice; each student is given a set amount to spend which is less than the total of what is being sold.
However, you can also simply say "you are only allowed to say yes to a maximum of three".
A final way is to make the task real world. For example, my students have to convince their classmates to sign a pledge to boycott a particular company for the duration of the term. They can sign as many as they think they can reasonably handle. Most students will honestly journal their attempts and failures in such a boycott.
The second trap: AWARENESS RAISING
A lot of teachers might have their students research a topic such as climate change or healthy eating and then make posters as an "awareness raising" project. That's cute, but like all advertising, the target group needs to be carefully identified. You'll do better making little storybooks for kindergarteners or facebook campaigns for teens tahn just putting up useless posters in the hallways. Kids know when something is real and when it isn't, so make their work as real as possible.
This isn't as easy as it sounds. There has to be a genuine reason to listen or read what the other is communicating. there has to be a goal that both communicators are working towards. And, it has to be meaningful to the learners.
The first trap: SELLING
Trying to convince someone to buy something or to do something is an excellent idea. However, there must be the possibility of rejection. No prospective buyer can buy everything. Even Bill Gates, arguably one of the richest people alive, doesn't just hand out his money to charities willy nilly. He has them prepare a good pitch, which he evaluates and considers. In the end, he donates his money where he thinks it will do the most good.
If you're preparing some kind of a buy-and-sell activity, the buyers have to be limited in some way. Money is the obvious choice; each student is given a set amount to spend which is less than the total of what is being sold.
However, you can also simply say "you are only allowed to say yes to a maximum of three".
A final way is to make the task real world. For example, my students have to convince their classmates to sign a pledge to boycott a particular company for the duration of the term. They can sign as many as they think they can reasonably handle. Most students will honestly journal their attempts and failures in such a boycott.
The second trap: AWARENESS RAISING
A lot of teachers might have their students research a topic such as climate change or healthy eating and then make posters as an "awareness raising" project. That's cute, but like all advertising, the target group needs to be carefully identified. You'll do better making little storybooks for kindergarteners or facebook campaigns for teens tahn just putting up useless posters in the hallways. Kids know when something is real and when it isn't, so make their work as real as possible.
miércoles, 8 de octubre de 2014
Game-like learning workshop takeaway ideas
Point 1.
Game-like learning doesn't mean playing lots of games: it means seeing what's appealing about games and seeing how those concepts translate to the classroom.
What's a game? People suggested words like: FUN, RULES, REWARDS, COMPETITION, CHALLENGES.
I suggested: GOALS, WORK, PARTICIPATION.
We looked at Jane McGonigal's types of work:
Then we focused on making course books more game-like with the following running dication:
Game-like learning doesn't mean playing lots of games: it means seeing what's appealing about games and seeing how those concepts translate to the classroom.
What's a game? People suggested words like: FUN, RULES, REWARDS, COMPETITION, CHALLENGES.
I suggested: GOALS, WORK, PARTICIPATION.
We looked at Jane McGonigal's types of work:
- High stakes: spelling bees, competitions that aren't for grades
- Busy work: doing workbooks outside, with friends or with music in a relaxing atmosphere
- Mental work: puzzles and brain teasers
- Physical work: scavenger hunts and running dictations
- Discovery work: research, but not just looking for the first answer on Google.
- Team work: work where the sum of the group can do more than any individual in it
- Creative work: projects, art, music etc.
Then we focused on making course books more game-like with the following running dication:
Games have three
stages.
First you learn how to play the game: you learn the rules and the limits of what you can and cannot do.
Secondly, you start to experiment with the rules. You try to find loopholes and strategies to maximize your chances of winning.
Third, you can now begin to work toward the goal of winning.
Course books should be taught with the same three stages.
First the students do the exercises to practice the target language.
Then they create their own similar exercises for each other. Creating multiple choice and gap-fill tasks is difficult and helps them see the limits of the language.
Finally they should have a communicative task with a clear goal that will be shared with others. Can you think of any examples?
First you learn how to play the game: you learn the rules and the limits of what you can and cannot do.
Secondly, you start to experiment with the rules. You try to find loopholes and strategies to maximize your chances of winning.
Third, you can now begin to work toward the goal of winning.
Course books should be taught with the same three stages.
First the students do the exercises to practice the target language.
Then they create their own similar exercises for each other. Creating multiple choice and gap-fill tasks is difficult and helps them see the limits of the language.
Finally they should have a communicative task with a clear goal that will be shared with others. Can you think of any examples?
In other words, course books need added participation and added goals. No coursebook writer will build that in for you; this is how you develop your own style as a teacher.
Play the game: teach.
Play the game: teach.
viernes, 3 de octubre de 2014
Yom Kippur game
Kol Nidrei is one of the most contentious, yet central prayers in Judaism. Literally, kol nidrei means "all our vows" and roughly translated, it asks God to ignore all of our vows in the past year and in the year to come.
You can see the problem: on its surface it is pure fuel for anti-semitism, as in "Jews break their promises". But that isn't what it means. On the contrary, it means that we take vows so seriously, that when we make impossible ones, we feel terrible if we can't deliver the goods. This prayer is what allows Jewish people to be at peace with themselves and with God, and to make every effort to honor vows all the more.
I asked my students to complete the following:
1. I will make this class better by...
obstacle 1:
obstacle 2:
obstacle 3:
2. I will make the world better by ...
obstacle 1:
obstacle 2:
obstacle 3:
Then they played a simple board game where they had to make their way across the spaces of the board. Every space that had a dot on it, they had to say what their obstacle was and how they planned to overcome it. I noticed that, although on the surface it was a competitive game (who can reach the end first?), students nonetheless seemed to help each other when they got stuck for solutions. I found that interesting.
Then they journaled what their partner learned from the game. Jewish people are well-known for helping each other, and I wanted to get some of this spirit into our class.
From now on, they will continue to write journals from their partner's point of view by asking them what they accomplished that day and how they felt about it. They will also be responsible for checking first drafts of each other's work before having me check it.
To me, it seems like a good idea to have students "buddy-up" in this way for several reasons. One is simply more speaking practice in English. Secondly, being accountable to a peer in addition to a teacher means that an extra resource is available.
Unfortunately, some students didn't seem to like the idea much. I think I would like to try the experiment for at least a couple of weeks. Then if there are problems, maybe we can either find a way to solve them, or try a different approach.
You can see the problem: on its surface it is pure fuel for anti-semitism, as in "Jews break their promises". But that isn't what it means. On the contrary, it means that we take vows so seriously, that when we make impossible ones, we feel terrible if we can't deliver the goods. This prayer is what allows Jewish people to be at peace with themselves and with God, and to make every effort to honor vows all the more.
I asked my students to complete the following:
1. I will make this class better by...
obstacle 1:
obstacle 2:
obstacle 3:
2. I will make the world better by ...
obstacle 1:
obstacle 2:
obstacle 3:
Then they played a simple board game where they had to make their way across the spaces of the board. Every space that had a dot on it, they had to say what their obstacle was and how they planned to overcome it. I noticed that, although on the surface it was a competitive game (who can reach the end first?), students nonetheless seemed to help each other when they got stuck for solutions. I found that interesting.
Then they journaled what their partner learned from the game. Jewish people are well-known for helping each other, and I wanted to get some of this spirit into our class.
From now on, they will continue to write journals from their partner's point of view by asking them what they accomplished that day and how they felt about it. They will also be responsible for checking first drafts of each other's work before having me check it.
To me, it seems like a good idea to have students "buddy-up" in this way for several reasons. One is simply more speaking practice in English. Secondly, being accountable to a peer in addition to a teacher means that an extra resource is available.
Unfortunately, some students didn't seem to like the idea much. I think I would like to try the experiment for at least a couple of weeks. Then if there are problems, maybe we can either find a way to solve them, or try a different approach.
miércoles, 1 de octubre de 2014
reggeton and the F word
"The stuff kids listen to these days...it's not music, it's just noise!"
Hasn't every generation said that about the next one? My husband brought that up in the context of the reggeton his niece listens to.
Emma Watson has recently been all over the news with her now-famous speech to the UN on her #heforshe campaign. Although it was nice to see a fresh new face join the fight, nothing she said was really new. At least once a generation since the 50s and before, someone has said something similar.
What's the connection between bad music and a good speech? The themes are recurring. Most regetton videos show scantily clad women dancing around a fully dressed man. Girls dream of being those girls: thin, beautiful and wanted. Boys dream of being that man: surrounded by beautiful, half-naked, dancing women and wanted.
#Heforshe cannot happen when teenage dreams are still so unbalanced.
Hasn't every generation said that about the next one? My husband brought that up in the context of the reggeton his niece listens to.
Emma Watson has recently been all over the news with her now-famous speech to the UN on her #heforshe campaign. Although it was nice to see a fresh new face join the fight, nothing she said was really new. At least once a generation since the 50s and before, someone has said something similar.
What's the connection between bad music and a good speech? The themes are recurring. Most regetton videos show scantily clad women dancing around a fully dressed man. Girls dream of being those girls: thin, beautiful and wanted. Boys dream of being that man: surrounded by beautiful, half-naked, dancing women and wanted.
#Heforshe cannot happen when teenage dreams are still so unbalanced.
lunes, 29 de septiembre de 2014
Why course books?
I probably shouldn't ask this question since I've just been hired to write one...
However, the question does get asked by students a lot: "WHY do we have to do this? Can't we do something interesting for a change?"
It gets worse with exam-prep books which are exactly what they sound like: you have to do the book so you can pass the exam which proves that you know what was in the book. It's a bit of a stupid circle, isn't it?
So the first thing we need to face is the idea that a coursebook isn't there to help the student learn, it's there to support the teacher. It helps the teacher know what to teach next and it helps her to support the assumption that "they know this material", whatever that means.
It also helps to standardize the course to the extent that a teacher can tell her boss "we've completed 3 units so far". In this vast system that we call education, I suppose there is some comfort in the idea that all children of a given age are turning pages at exactly the same pace all over the country. It's comforting if your aim is conformity, as opposed to, say, actual learning.
It seems, then, that we won't be getting away from coursebooks for a while. So how can we take them and make them more educational in the sense of wringing more real learning from them?
First, we can make it more interactive. From jigsaw readings to whistle-gap dictations, we can have the students working together by re-envisioning the basic exercises as pair-work puzzles.
Second, we can actually analyse and recreate the tasks. It isn't easy to write a good gap-fill or multiple choice, and seeing why that is makes for a far deeper level of understanding. Plus it's fun to make questions to see if your classmates, or the class next door, can actually answer them. It's even nicer to create workbooks for underpriviledged kids.
Third, we can break out of the workbook-test cycle completely by designing projects based on the coursebook material that are relevant in real life. This is where social media can be used to showcase the work beyond the classroom.
However, the question does get asked by students a lot: "WHY do we have to do this? Can't we do something interesting for a change?"
It gets worse with exam-prep books which are exactly what they sound like: you have to do the book so you can pass the exam which proves that you know what was in the book. It's a bit of a stupid circle, isn't it?
So the first thing we need to face is the idea that a coursebook isn't there to help the student learn, it's there to support the teacher. It helps the teacher know what to teach next and it helps her to support the assumption that "they know this material", whatever that means.
It also helps to standardize the course to the extent that a teacher can tell her boss "we've completed 3 units so far". In this vast system that we call education, I suppose there is some comfort in the idea that all children of a given age are turning pages at exactly the same pace all over the country. It's comforting if your aim is conformity, as opposed to, say, actual learning.
It seems, then, that we won't be getting away from coursebooks for a while. So how can we take them and make them more educational in the sense of wringing more real learning from them?
First, we can make it more interactive. From jigsaw readings to whistle-gap dictations, we can have the students working together by re-envisioning the basic exercises as pair-work puzzles.
Second, we can actually analyse and recreate the tasks. It isn't easy to write a good gap-fill or multiple choice, and seeing why that is makes for a far deeper level of understanding. Plus it's fun to make questions to see if your classmates, or the class next door, can actually answer them. It's even nicer to create workbooks for underpriviledged kids.
Third, we can break out of the workbook-test cycle completely by designing projects based on the coursebook material that are relevant in real life. This is where social media can be used to showcase the work beyond the classroom.
martes, 23 de septiembre de 2014
Prospero's game
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, we see Europe on the cusp of a new era: the shift from the dark Ages and its attendant belief in magic and the supernatural to the Enlightenment, a period that saw the rise of scientific growth.
We meet Prospero the magician at just such a stage in his life. We see him about to perform one final act of magic before giving it up forever. But why does Prospero give up magic? And what makes it so difficult?
Prospero is a man with enemies. He is also a man with a beautiful young daughter. The temptation to dispatch the former with well-chosen curses and to protect the latter with arcane incantations must be overwhelming.
But...he knows that magic isn't real. You cannot really curse your enemies, and as much as any father would have it otherwise, you cannot truly protect your daughter.
And so we see him both wanting to face reality and scientific truth, and not wanting to give up the illusion magic has to offer.
The game:
Each player has the following cards describing powers:
They describe to each other what they would do with these powers.
Then the players begin to lose their powers one by one.
Each player must draw a card from the following deck (shuffled and placed face-down before them):
When they draw a card, they must discard the corresponding card in their hand. With each draw, their magical powers diminish. Each player then tries to force the other to admit he is no longer truly a magician. The loser is whomever admits defeat first.
In this game, the players experience what it feels like, not only to lose one's magical powers, but also the desperation with which Prospero wanted to hold onto them.
"Star Trek: the next generation" has an episode called Hide and Q in which one of the characters is offered omnipotence. He attempts to use his powers to give his friends what he believes they want: for the android to become human, for the boy to become a man, for the blind man to see. But they refuse, because they know these not to be real. "This above all else: to thine own self be true" says the android, quoting Shakespeare.
And so the parallel can be made between a magician giving up his powers and a teenager giving up the perceived powers of adolescence for the more mundane, yet infinitely more satifying life of the adult. The game is similar with the "adolescent" cards being:
and the "adult" cards being:
We meet Prospero the magician at just such a stage in his life. We see him about to perform one final act of magic before giving it up forever. But why does Prospero give up magic? And what makes it so difficult?
Prospero is a man with enemies. He is also a man with a beautiful young daughter. The temptation to dispatch the former with well-chosen curses and to protect the latter with arcane incantations must be overwhelming.
But...he knows that magic isn't real. You cannot really curse your enemies, and as much as any father would have it otherwise, you cannot truly protect your daughter.
And so we see him both wanting to face reality and scientific truth, and not wanting to give up the illusion magic has to offer.
The game:
Each player has the following cards describing powers:
|
You are
immortal
|
You command the spirit world
|
You have the ability to fly and defy gravity
|
You have a deep knowledge of magic
|
You have the ability to cast spells to help and to curse
|
They describe to each other what they would do with these powers.
Then the players begin to lose their powers one by one.
Each player must draw a card from the following deck (shuffled and placed face-down before them):
|
You are mortal
|
You are alone
|
You must obey the laws of physics and the natural world
|
You have a deep understanding of scientific truths
|
You have the ability to set a good example for others
|
When they draw a card, they must discard the corresponding card in their hand. With each draw, their magical powers diminish. Each player then tries to force the other to admit he is no longer truly a magician. The loser is whomever admits defeat first.
In this game, the players experience what it feels like, not only to lose one's magical powers, but also the desperation with which Prospero wanted to hold onto them.
"Star Trek: the next generation" has an episode called Hide and Q in which one of the characters is offered omnipotence. He attempts to use his powers to give his friends what he believes they want: for the android to become human, for the boy to become a man, for the blind man to see. But they refuse, because they know these not to be real. "This above all else: to thine own self be true" says the android, quoting Shakespeare.
And so the parallel can be made between a magician giving up his powers and a teenager giving up the perceived powers of adolescence for the more mundane, yet infinitely more satifying life of the adult. The game is similar with the "adolescent" cards being:
|
You believe death happens to other people, mostly the old and the
stupid
|
You are popular and have a big group of friends
|
You live for speed, excitement and danger
|
All the information you need is contained in your
cellphone so you don’t need school
|
You rebel and “fight the system”
|
and the "adult" cards being:
|
You have faced your own mortality
|
You have your
family
|
You carefully weigh the risks and benefits of each action
|
You understand that knowledge, experience and wisdom, which cannot be
“googled” is trae power
|
You recognise your rights and responsabilities
|
jueves, 18 de septiembre de 2014
Action research
At one point it seemed that the tendency in education was to subdivide fields into ever narrower subjects. They actually did it Ecuador in some schools with EFL, so the kids had a course called "Reading & Writing" which would be separate from another course on "Grammar" taught by a completely different teacher with different books.
Coursebooks used to be written with very little unity as well. The unit would very often have a title such as "Around the World" but the reading and listening texts would only tangentially touch the theme while the grammar exercises would ignore it completely.
Currently it seems that some people are trying to steer the trend in the opposite direction. Now the idea of cross-curricular unity, and the idea of having a learning axis is coming back into fashion (at least here).
It is said that there is no unemployment in Azeroth (the fictional world of World of Warcraft) and this is because the player always has clear goals to work towards. In its simplest form, the idea resembles Super Mario Bros, where the aim is to keep Mario moving to the right in order to eventually arrive at the castle.
The idea of the Missions and Quests that were are designing for the EFL classes at UDLH is to use the Missions as a goal using all of the knowledge and skills acquired in the Quests. We are a long way from doing it perfectly, but in my humble opinon, we are getting better with each passing term. We are trying to make the "quests" in the form of readings, videos, essays, grammar points and vocabulary all lead to information that will help the student finally complete the mission.
Coursebooks used to be written with very little unity as well. The unit would very often have a title such as "Around the World" but the reading and listening texts would only tangentially touch the theme while the grammar exercises would ignore it completely.
Currently it seems that some people are trying to steer the trend in the opposite direction. Now the idea of cross-curricular unity, and the idea of having a learning axis is coming back into fashion (at least here).
It is said that there is no unemployment in Azeroth (the fictional world of World of Warcraft) and this is because the player always has clear goals to work towards. In its simplest form, the idea resembles Super Mario Bros, where the aim is to keep Mario moving to the right in order to eventually arrive at the castle.
The idea of the Missions and Quests that were are designing for the EFL classes at UDLH is to use the Missions as a goal using all of the knowledge and skills acquired in the Quests. We are a long way from doing it perfectly, but in my humble opinon, we are getting better with each passing term. We are trying to make the "quests" in the form of readings, videos, essays, grammar points and vocabulary all lead to information that will help the student finally complete the mission.
miércoles, 17 de septiembre de 2014
The most challenging issue
TeachThoughts's blogging question for today is "what do you think is the most challenging issue in education today?"
Sounds like a simple enough question...but it ain't.
First there's the in-and-out of education:
1. How can we improve the way the information goes in? Clearly the I-talk-you-shut-up method isn't working so well. We need to look for alternate methods: multiple intelligences, project-based learning, game-based learning etc.
2. How can we improve the way we measure what comes out? Pencil-and-paper standardized tests can really only go so far in telling us what we really need to know about what our kids are learning.
Then of course there's the curriculum itself:
1. How did the stuff on the curriculum get on there? Who decided? On what basis?
2. What else could, or should, be on there? What could, or should, be removed?
The fact is when my grandmother sent my mother to school, she could guess pretty much what future her daughter would have. When my mother sent me to school, she could pretty much guess what future I would have. But what does the future hold for my daughter? What skills will she need in a world where she will have the sum total of the world's information at her fingertips?
How the hell do we design for a future that is so radically different from our past?
Sounds like a simple enough question...but it ain't.
First there's the in-and-out of education:
1. How can we improve the way the information goes in? Clearly the I-talk-you-shut-up method isn't working so well. We need to look for alternate methods: multiple intelligences, project-based learning, game-based learning etc.
2. How can we improve the way we measure what comes out? Pencil-and-paper standardized tests can really only go so far in telling us what we really need to know about what our kids are learning.
Then of course there's the curriculum itself:
1. How did the stuff on the curriculum get on there? Who decided? On what basis?
2. What else could, or should, be on there? What could, or should, be removed?
The fact is when my grandmother sent my mother to school, she could guess pretty much what future her daughter would have. When my mother sent me to school, she could pretty much guess what future I would have. But what does the future hold for my daughter? What skills will she need in a world where she will have the sum total of the world's information at her fingertips?
How the hell do we design for a future that is so radically different from our past?
martes, 16 de septiembre de 2014
Tests as research questions
The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is 42. The answer doesn't make sense because the question was poorly posed.
Most tests are answers to a poorly posed question which is usually a variant on "how much have my students understood about X?" The problem is the word "understood" which isn't clearly defined.
Therefore a test needs to be specific in its scope. The question "can students read?"is meaningless because if a student gets all the answers right, it's entirely possible he still can't read, depending on what reading means in that specific context. A six year-old may be able to identify letters while a 22 year-old may be able to read a medical journal.
Of course I will never know if she can read and understand ALL medical journals, so here's the challenge: to create a test that isn't too long (so it's humanly possible to concentrate that long) yet comprehensive enough to give me an idea of what she can do. So what's MY research question? Can this student read scientific articles in medicine well enough to understand what the hypothesis was, what the results were and whether the methodology was sound. Now that I can prepare a test for.
Most tests are answers to a poorly posed question which is usually a variant on "how much have my students understood about X?" The problem is the word "understood" which isn't clearly defined.
Therefore a test needs to be specific in its scope. The question "can students read?"is meaningless because if a student gets all the answers right, it's entirely possible he still can't read, depending on what reading means in that specific context. A six year-old may be able to identify letters while a 22 year-old may be able to read a medical journal.
Of course I will never know if she can read and understand ALL medical journals, so here's the challenge: to create a test that isn't too long (so it's humanly possible to concentrate that long) yet comprehensive enough to give me an idea of what she can do. So what's MY research question? Can this student read scientific articles in medicine well enough to understand what the hypothesis was, what the results were and whether the methodology was sound. Now that I can prepare a test for.
superpower
If I could have a superpower as a teacher, it would be to give my students superpowers to learn, do and achieve anything they want.
Mesopotamia
On the show 2 1/2 Men, the early seasons involved Alan Harper trying to convince his son to study.
Alan: Now, what year did Magellan circumnavigate the globe?
Jake: It's not gonna be on the test.
Alan: Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt for you to know it anyway.
Jake: Why would I want to know something I don't have to?
Alan: Because maybe you'll need to know it in the future.
Jake: Well, then that's when I'll learn it!
Alan: Why can't you just learn it now?
Jake: 'Cause there's only so much space in my brain that if you put Magellan in there, I might forget my locker combination
http://www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/characters/alan-harper/page-54.html
How do you convince a 12 year-old that they ned to learn ancient history? Obviously Alan's arguments above failed to have an impact.
The solution is to create what Salen calls a "need-to-know", or "just-in-time learning".
I was asked to give a demo lesson on Mesopotamia. I loosely based my activity on http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/quest-curriculum/mission-pack-i-spy-greece/
The resulting task: Alexander the Great wants to make Mesopotamia part of the Greek Empire. You are his advisers and you need to find answers to his 2 questions:
1. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we assimilate?
2. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we eliminate and how can we do so without inciting the people to riot?
It turned out surprisingly that women's rights, which under the early Mesopotamian Empire included owning property and businesses were to be curtailed, while the practice of slavery was to be kept and expanded. So how did we get from there to where we are today?
Alan: Now, what year did Magellan circumnavigate the globe?
Jake: It's not gonna be on the test.
Alan: Maybe not, but it wouldn't hurt for you to know it anyway.
Jake: Why would I want to know something I don't have to?
Alan: Because maybe you'll need to know it in the future.
Jake: Well, then that's when I'll learn it!
Alan: Why can't you just learn it now?
Jake: 'Cause there's only so much space in my brain that if you put Magellan in there, I might forget my locker combination
http://www.tvfanatic.com/quotes/characters/alan-harper/page-54.html
How do you convince a 12 year-old that they ned to learn ancient history? Obviously Alan's arguments above failed to have an impact.
The solution is to create what Salen calls a "need-to-know", or "just-in-time learning".
I was asked to give a demo lesson on Mesopotamia. I loosely based my activity on http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/quest-curriculum/mission-pack-i-spy-greece/
The resulting task: Alexander the Great wants to make Mesopotamia part of the Greek Empire. You are his advisers and you need to find answers to his 2 questions:
1. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we assimilate?
2. What elements of Mesopotamian culture should we eliminate and how can we do so without inciting the people to riot?
It turned out surprisingly that women's rights, which under the early Mesopotamian Empire included owning property and businesses were to be curtailed, while the practice of slavery was to be kept and expanded. So how did we get from there to where we are today?
lunes, 8 de septiembre de 2014
The meridian game
Challenged by a trainee to come up with a lesson to teach longitudes and latitudes, I came up with three games:
1. Battleship.
Each player marks 5 locations with hidden bombs or battleships which the other tries to guess by naming geolocations. This helped to familiarize students with searching and naming geographical points.
2. Rescue mission
Thee are two teams. The teacher names a geographical location, eg: 40N, 116E and the students have to locate the city where the missing person is as fast as possible.
3. Conference call
Students are assigned cities. They work with each other to find a convenient time for a phone or video chat. Then the whole class tries to find a time to meet online.
1. Battleship.
Each player marks 5 locations with hidden bombs or battleships which the other tries to guess by naming geolocations. This helped to familiarize students with searching and naming geographical points.
2. Rescue mission
Thee are two teams. The teacher names a geographical location, eg: 40N, 116E and the students have to locate the city where the missing person is as fast as possible.
3. Conference call
Students are assigned cities. They work with each other to find a convenient time for a phone or video chat. Then the whole class tries to find a time to meet online.
Play tested: AR addiction
"You have a secret addiction that nobody at this university knows about, but you can't keep this secret much longer. Maybe your teacher can help you. Write a journal to her telling her what you're addicted to, how it feels and how you've managed to keep it secret. "
This was the secret message each students received on a folded piece of paper as they entered class today.
The creativity of the responses was astounding. We had people addicted to shopping, cocaine, pain, sex... You name it! We spent the better part of an hour reading and answering each journal with questions to lead each story in new directions. The idea is to get the students to understand that if you're addicted to something, it's because it feels good but the consequences are bad. The idea is to counter the message that drugs are bad. They aren't: they can make you feel wonderful...until they don't, and THAT is the danger.
jueves, 4 de septiembre de 2014
What's to love about teaching?
What do I love the most about teaching?
On the planning side, I love coming up with lesson ideas that will help my students see the world differently.
When I get into the classroom I love it when they take my ideas and run with them or twist them to give them even more meaning.
On the planning side, I love coming up with lesson ideas that will help my students see the world differently.
When I get into the classroom I love it when they take my ideas and run with them or twist them to give them even more meaning.
Ethics game results
In a previous post I mentioned how I have students pass around the Slash doll when they hear each other speaking Spanish.
Then I thought about that: students policing each other...it sounded a bit Nazi-ish to me. I wondered if the students would have a problem ratting each other out.
I had invented a few new games to help my students review grammar (also detailed in another post), but they all require cards with the names of the grammar points and the example sentences. Since my philosohphy is to have the students do as much of the preparation work as possible (they have to learn English, I don't), I had them prepare the cards. The problem was, I knew it would take a while and I knew it might be kind of boring.
So I added these instructions:
I was curious to see if and how the students would try to communicate, and if and how they would "rat each other out".
As it happened, two girls immediately began ratting out their classmates. But then everybody got smart: instead of asking each other for information, they simply started writing information they already knew, like "X is taller than Y".
Then one guy took it a step further with sentences like: "Everyone in this class is shorter than me." I saw where this was going, and sure enough he did not disappoint. He eventually came up with a sentence beginning with "Everyone at this university..."
I thought the students had brilliant responses to the ethical conundrum I had set.
Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the game I had envisioned. What I wanted to do was my game "Factory Line" (see my blog for June 7, 2014) the aim of which was to have my students try to get to know each other better. Because of the parameters I had set and the sneaky way they got around it to be more ethical, that didn't happen.
Lesson: Never underestimate how ethical my sudents really are.
Then I thought about that: students policing each other...it sounded a bit Nazi-ish to me. I wondered if the students would have a problem ratting each other out.
I had invented a few new games to help my students review grammar (also detailed in another post), but they all require cards with the names of the grammar points and the example sentences. Since my philosohphy is to have the students do as much of the preparation work as possible (they have to learn English, I don't), I had them prepare the cards. The problem was, I knew it would take a while and I knew it might be kind of boring.
So I added these instructions:
TRY TO FIND
OUT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CLASSMATES AND INCLUDE THIS INFORMATION IN YOUR
SENTENCES. FOR EACH SENTENCE ABOUT A
CLASSMATE, YOU GET 2 EXTRA POINTS, BUT IF A SPY CATCHES YOU, YOU LOSE ALL OF
THE SENTENCES YOU HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT YOUR CLASSMATES UP UNTIL THAT POINT.
YOU ARE
ALSO A SPY. IF SOMEONE TALKS DIRECTLY TO
YOU, YOU CANNOT RAT THEM OUT BUT YOU CAN RAT OUT OTHER PEOPLE IF YOU SEE THEM
COMMUNICATING. FOR EVERY PERSON YOU RAT
OUT TO ME, YOU GET 5 EXTRA POINTS.
I was curious to see if and how the students would try to communicate, and if and how they would "rat each other out".
As it happened, two girls immediately began ratting out their classmates. But then everybody got smart: instead of asking each other for information, they simply started writing information they already knew, like "X is taller than Y".
Then one guy took it a step further with sentences like: "Everyone in this class is shorter than me." I saw where this was going, and sure enough he did not disappoint. He eventually came up with a sentence beginning with "Everyone at this university..."
I thought the students had brilliant responses to the ethical conundrum I had set.
Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the game I had envisioned. What I wanted to do was my game "Factory Line" (see my blog for June 7, 2014) the aim of which was to have my students try to get to know each other better. Because of the parameters I had set and the sneaky way they got around it to be more ethical, that didn't happen.
Lesson: Never underestimate how ethical my sudents really are.
miércoles, 3 de septiembre de 2014
Games for grammar review
STEP 1
Have students work individually. For each structure
write the name of structure on one card and three cards with examples (with the
structure underlined). Repeat this for all of the structures you need to review.
STEP 2
Game 1:
Memory: 18 structure cards + 18 example cards
Instructions:
place all cards face down. Take turns to
flip over two cards. If they match (structure-example)
the player keeps the pair and continues.
The player with the most cards wins.
Game 2: Gin:
only example cards
Instructions:
Start by dealing 5 cards to each player.
Place the rest of the cards face down on the table. On each turn a player may discard one card
and pick another up from the pile. The
winner is the first player to get 5 examples of the same structure
Game 3: Card
game: only structure cards + books
The deck is
face down on the desk. Turn the card
over. The first player to find an
example of the structure in a book keeps the card. The winner is the player with the most cards
at the end.
Know what's in my ss heads
The most dangerous word a teacher can use is "they", as in "they enjoyed the class" or "they understood the material".
There shoudl be no such thing as a geberal "they". Innstead the focus should be on each and every individual learner: "What did Maria learn? What did Pedro have trouble with?".
Of course every teacher thinks that they've answered that question only to find nasty surprises when deadlines and tests come around and they find that not all of "them" do well.
I'm no exception.
This term I vow to try harder to do better: to be more aware of what's going on in every student's head at every minute of every lesson.
Impossible, you say? Teachers do at least six impossible things every day!
There shoudl be no such thing as a geberal "they". Innstead the focus should be on each and every individual learner: "What did Maria learn? What did Pedro have trouble with?".
Of course every teacher thinks that they've answered that question only to find nasty surprises when deadlines and tests come around and they find that not all of "them" do well.
I'm no exception.
This term I vow to try harder to do better: to be more aware of what's going on in every student's head at every minute of every lesson.
Impossible, you say? Teachers do at least six impossible things every day!
Enforcement-free English only
I can either be teacher or "cop", not both. Alfie Kohn points out that one major flaw with a system of rewards and punishments is that if it's to be enforced, you have to be vigilant. That cuts into my teaching time. If I have one student with a legitimate question and one student speaking his mother tongue instead of English, I don't want to be diving my attention.
Fortunately, an idea a friend gave me a long time ago got buried in my subconcious and finally resurfaced the other day.
I have a little doll that's supoosed to look like Slash, the rock guitarist (a long-time crush of mine). If I hear someone speaking Spanish, I simply put Slash on that student's desk. Then I step back. If that student hears someone else speak Spanish, he gives the doll to her. Whoever has Slash at the end of the period loses a point off their final grade.
Now I don't have to be cop.
Of, course, they're now policing each other, and as we all saw in the Harry Potter stories, that's not exactly a sweet thing either...
Fortunately, an idea a friend gave me a long time ago got buried in my subconcious and finally resurfaced the other day.
I have a little doll that's supoosed to look like Slash, the rock guitarist (a long-time crush of mine). If I hear someone speaking Spanish, I simply put Slash on that student's desk. Then I step back. If that student hears someone else speak Spanish, he gives the doll to her. Whoever has Slash at the end of the period loses a point off their final grade.
Now I don't have to be cop.
Of, course, they're now policing each other, and as we all saw in the Harry Potter stories, that's not exactly a sweet thing either...
martes, 2 de septiembre de 2014
What capoeira taught me
As a Jewish child, every Passover I was taught that we had been slave in Egypt for four hundred years. Despite the rich traditions surrounding the storytelling, the concept of slavery meant little to me.
As a teenager, I read Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the life of a slave girl" and I was moved to tears.
As a twenty-something in Latin America, I decided to learn capoeira, an athletic, dance-inspired Brazilian martial-art done to music. I learned that, unlike the more severe martial arts of the Far East, capoeira was not an upper-class military activity. It was preparation for a slave revolt. It was disguised as dance to make the overlords think "Oh, how sweet, the slaves are dancing". In reality it was practice for a fight to death or freedom. To disguise it even further, it is traditionally performed inside a human circle.
Then I learned capoeira angola. Instead of energetic high kicks and acrobatics, this version was slower and closer to the ground.
The performers of capoeira angola had worn leg irons.
Suddenly the brutal dehumanization of slavery hit me in the gut. I understood slavery from the inside. That feeling of raw empathy has stayed with me.
That is the power of games. When you hear about an injustice, you understand it intellectually and move on. When you read a first-hand account, you feel sympathy. But when you experience the injustice through the mechanics of a well-designed game, you come to understand the true horror of having your freedom curtailed, if only for a fraction of a second. But it stays with you.
As a teenager, I read Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the life of a slave girl" and I was moved to tears.
As a twenty-something in Latin America, I decided to learn capoeira, an athletic, dance-inspired Brazilian martial-art done to music. I learned that, unlike the more severe martial arts of the Far East, capoeira was not an upper-class military activity. It was preparation for a slave revolt. It was disguised as dance to make the overlords think "Oh, how sweet, the slaves are dancing". In reality it was practice for a fight to death or freedom. To disguise it even further, it is traditionally performed inside a human circle.
Then I learned capoeira angola. Instead of energetic high kicks and acrobatics, this version was slower and closer to the ground.
The performers of capoeira angola had worn leg irons.
Suddenly the brutal dehumanization of slavery hit me in the gut. I understood slavery from the inside. That feeling of raw empathy has stayed with me.
That is the power of games. When you hear about an injustice, you understand it intellectually and move on. When you read a first-hand account, you feel sympathy. But when you experience the injustice through the mechanics of a well-designed game, you come to understand the true horror of having your freedom curtailed, if only for a fraction of a second. But it stays with you.
I'd incorporate MMOs
Today's blog prompt from www.teachthought.com asks us to write about a piece of technology we'd like to incorporate in our school this year.
Gamers need to use English to communicate, particularly those playing MMOs (massively mulitplayer online games). As an EFL teacher, I would love to encourage my students to play these more so they can see how English really is necessary: not just in some distant far off future in some distant far off land in the real world, but in some distant future in a distant land right now on your computer!
Gamers need to use English to communicate, particularly those playing MMOs (massively mulitplayer online games). As an EFL teacher, I would love to encourage my students to play these more so they can see how English really is necessary: not just in some distant far off future in some distant far off land in the real world, but in some distant future in a distant land right now on your computer!
lunes, 1 de septiembre de 2014
Goals for this year
Katie Salen of the Institute of Play talks about the principles of game-like learning, the 7th of which is "it kind of feels like play". My teaching goal for is year is to make everything feel like play. It already does for me...but how to make it so for my students. Ay, there's the rub!
viernes, 22 de agosto de 2014
Me vs Me: a challenge
I really enjoy lesson planning.
There, I said it.
I enjoy lesson planning the way some people enjoy cooking or writing novels or making music. It relaxes me. It energises me. My lessons are the very essence of ME.
So, to feed that, I'm going to set myself a little challenge. This semester, I promised my students more demo lessons for them to analyse. But this time, I'm going to ask them to give me a topic, language point or subskill, a level or age and a method or a trend. Then I'll prepare a short demo lesson for the following week.
You know what's even more fun? I can even make bad lessons and just call it an analytical learning experience for them!
There, I said it.
I enjoy lesson planning the way some people enjoy cooking or writing novels or making music. It relaxes me. It energises me. My lessons are the very essence of ME.
So, to feed that, I'm going to set myself a little challenge. This semester, I promised my students more demo lessons for them to analyse. But this time, I'm going to ask them to give me a topic, language point or subskill, a level or age and a method or a trend. Then I'll prepare a short demo lesson for the following week.
You know what's even more fun? I can even make bad lessons and just call it an analytical learning experience for them!
lunes, 18 de agosto de 2014
Human rights games re-thought
In order to inspire my students to take an interest in the human-rights games project, my idea is to turn it into a game itself. I will show the students all of the games I have. They may then use one of my games as is, adapt it or design something else entirely. They will then have to insure that it is throughly play-tested and make sure the materials are aesthetic and well-designed. On the day/days where we play our games with visitors, the visitors will be asked to rate the games they play in terms of effectiveness as a learning tool as well as in terms of fun. Whoever gets the highest rating gets the full 10 points, the second place winner gets 9, third, 8, and the rest get 7 (the passing grade).
viernes, 25 de julio de 2014
apologies for tactlessness
In my previous post, I had a great idea with a valid question, with the caveat that it isn't very nice to afterward tell the students "Yeah, you're all a bunch of mindless followers". Gotta find a way to rethink that.
Challenging my assumptions
In most of my work, I seem to be making the following assumptions:
Both the university and the high school students are mainly fairly affluent middle-upper middle class students, and both institutions claim to impart Catholic values.
To begin with, I'd like to find out answers to the following questions by means of a group interview with the university students:
Whether my hypotheses are proven true or not, I still think both sets of students will benefit and enjoy the project.
Plus, then I'll be able to make a more rational decision about my own daughter's education, ie: given that the students I'll be working with are supposedly the best and brightest, having gone to the best schools in the country, is it worth sending my daughter to one of these schools if she will turn out like them?
- That "traditional" teacher-centered instruction kills the desire for independant learning.
- That the "best" students in the traditional system are those who can spit out memorised facts, and that these very students cannot think creatively or analytically.
- That games, by placing the player directly in the action and giving him or her the possibility to impact the game, encourage deeper learning, creativity and analysis.
- That the deeper learning introduced by games will lead students to pursue knowledge on their own.
- That being in a position to teach others will encourage the student to learn more about the subject.
Both the university and the high school students are mainly fairly affluent middle-upper middle class students, and both institutions claim to impart Catholic values.
To begin with, I'd like to find out answers to the following questions by means of a group interview with the university students:
- What global issues concern you most? What do you know about them? What ideas do you have about how to solve them?
- What was your high school education like? Did you get good marks? Did you enjoy high school?
- How do you think people learn best?
- Have you ever studied something alone or with friends that was totally unrelated to school?
- What were your family's attitudes toward education? Did they focus on getting good grades or on something else?
Whether my hypotheses are proven true or not, I still think both sets of students will benefit and enjoy the project.
Plus, then I'll be able to make a more rational decision about my own daughter's education, ie: given that the students I'll be working with are supposedly the best and brightest, having gone to the best schools in the country, is it worth sending my daughter to one of these schools if she will turn out like them?
martes, 22 de julio de 2014
The ultimate game: travel
While re-reading McGonigal's book, "Reality is Broken", yet again, I came upon the part where she talks about the game "Portal" which essentially twists the essence of gaming around: instead of being given the rules, the game itself is about trying to figure them out. Now, of course, there are loads more games in this genre, but it suddenly hit me: THIS is what I've always loved about being in foreign countries! Everything is a mystery to solve. Talking with people when you don't speak the language and even the physical gestures seem alien, leaping over cultural barriers to get the simplest chores done... even reading menus or street signs is a challenge; especially for someone like me who reads voraciously in her own language, to be unable to read is the biggest challenge of all.
The whole magic of travel is that no matter how much you prepare yourself, you will never be prepared enough. That is the ultimate challenge!
The whole magic of travel is that no matter how much you prepare yourself, you will never be prepared enough. That is the ultimate challenge!
jueves, 17 de julio de 2014
Review of Republia game
Wow. This game is truly disturbing. According to the game http://dukope.com/play.php?g=trt, the instructions are: You've just been assigned the editor-in-chief position at The Republia Times in the glorious and free nation of Republia. You must use your influence to print positive articles that paint Republia in a good light.
BUT, they've got your family hostage. Rebels are trying to persuade you to print articles against the governement, in exchange for which they will free your family.
Which articles do you print?
BUT, they've got your family hostage. Rebels are trying to persuade you to print articles against the governement, in exchange for which they will free your family.
Which articles do you print?
Game: Toxic Love
There is a game show called "Family Feud" which aired for a while in Spanish as "Que dice la gente". You can check out the rules on wikipedia, but the basic premise is that surveys are conducted with people on the street with such questions as "what kind of kitchen spill is the most difficult to clean?" or "what personal care products are most commonly found in a bathroom?" and contestants need to guess the most popular answer.
The show strikes me as being the absolute antithesis of creativity because the point is to guess what most people think.
However, in considering dating violence or domestic abuse or any other kind of intimate agression, what struck me most was that it exists in abolute secrecy. It's a documented fact that one of the first things an abuser will do is isolate the victim or swear her to secrecy through guilt, insults, fear or any other means.
This game format works to raise awareness of what can be considered appropraite dating behaviour. The idea is the students come up with the survey. Since this game is planned for English language leanrers, the idea would be to come up with binary questions (yes/no, good/bad, etc.) and administer the survey to other, higher or lower level groups. Then the game can be played, if possible with the respondents of the surveys as audience.
The show strikes me as being the absolute antithesis of creativity because the point is to guess what most people think.
However, in considering dating violence or domestic abuse or any other kind of intimate agression, what struck me most was that it exists in abolute secrecy. It's a documented fact that one of the first things an abuser will do is isolate the victim or swear her to secrecy through guilt, insults, fear or any other means.
This game format works to raise awareness of what can be considered appropraite dating behaviour. The idea is the students come up with the survey. Since this game is planned for English language leanrers, the idea would be to come up with binary questions (yes/no, good/bad, etc.) and administer the survey to other, higher or lower level groups. Then the game can be played, if possible with the respondents of the surveys as audience.
lunes, 14 de julio de 2014
Israel vs Gaza
This is not going to be a political entry, but my mom is in in a bomb shelter in southern Israel right now and it occurs to me that this particular round of fighting started with children. For the sake of convenience, we can start with the incident a few weeks ago when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed. In retaliation, a Palestinian teenager was burned to death. Obviously it didn't begin there and everyone has different versions of where it did...but the point is disturbing: a child for a child. Soldiers are not fighting equals in this scenario, rather the revenge is taken on the offspring of the enemy.
There are hundreds of war games out there, but they're all about matched armies, or at least matched opponents in skills (ex: warriors vs monsters or aliens). None that I know of really simulate this feeling that "You hurt my child, so I'll hurt yours" and so on in a kind of permanent zig zag that continues down through the genrations.
Yet this is important to any understanding of any real war. World War II, for instance, didn't just happen out of the blue; a lot of it was started in direct response to the horrors of World War I. From Hitler to Israel to Gaza isn't much of a jump whichever way you look at it.
How can we create a game that helps us understand the generational aspects of war?
There are hundreds of war games out there, but they're all about matched armies, or at least matched opponents in skills (ex: warriors vs monsters or aliens). None that I know of really simulate this feeling that "You hurt my child, so I'll hurt yours" and so on in a kind of permanent zig zag that continues down through the genrations.
Yet this is important to any understanding of any real war. World War II, for instance, didn't just happen out of the blue; a lot of it was started in direct response to the horrors of World War I. From Hitler to Israel to Gaza isn't much of a jump whichever way you look at it.
How can we create a game that helps us understand the generational aspects of war?
jueves, 10 de julio de 2014
Units vs systems thinking
Western civilization has a tendancy to divide things into units: people, parts, elements. This has led to some of the greatest advances in history. Capitalism for instance, with all its flaws, is still better than any of the alternatives. Medicine has made huge strides forward too. However, consider this old joke:
A urologist suggests that his patient drink less beer, perhaps replace it with spirits.
"But Doc, won't spirits damage my liver?"
"Yes, probably. But you came to me about your kidneys, not your liver."
The point is that having separated concepts into units or elements, the challenge is to bring it all back together. Sure cars are a great means of transportation, but they have to exist in the environment which they currently destroy. We will never solve the problems of humanity unless we learn to see units as part of systems.
Therefore, systems comprehension needs to be part of the list of 21st century literacies that we need to teach our students..
A urologist suggests that his patient drink less beer, perhaps replace it with spirits.
"But Doc, won't spirits damage my liver?"
"Yes, probably. But you came to me about your kidneys, not your liver."
The point is that having separated concepts into units or elements, the challenge is to bring it all back together. Sure cars are a great means of transportation, but they have to exist in the environment which they currently destroy. We will never solve the problems of humanity unless we learn to see units as part of systems.
Therefore, systems comprehension needs to be part of the list of 21st century literacies that we need to teach our students..
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