This week’s question is whether we agree or disagree with
Matera’s proposition in Chapter 3 of Explore
Like a Pirate: Engage, Enrich and Elevate your Learners with Gamification and
Game-Inspired Course Design (2015).
Matera proposes that the ‘digital native’ students of today need a
different way to learn and be engaged, that we literally have ‘ move away from
the monolithic structures of education’ (paragraph 2, Chapter 3, Kindle
version) and ‘require(ing) us to look past the old ways and create more dynamic
learning environments and methods of teaching” (next paragraph, same edition). In our response we are to cite literature and
research supporting our pro or con disagreement. As I was unable to get good internet access
for side things like this class search while I was away for work. I did read the suggested books and do a lot of
thinking. Instead of a deep research of
the literature, I would propose several ‘case studies’: pastor’s college class,
science ‘wunderkin’, 5th
grade, and Helen Keller .
But first my response to Matera, I believe he is right that you need to engage and interest in students in the topic and connect the topic somehow to that engagement or interest. I disagree with his take that today’s students are so different from those of previous days, or even that the engagement has to be different. That being said, I see no reason the engagement has to be the same, or even the same for every teacher, kid or topic. Without all the hyperbole, I do think that gamification can be one more tool for engagement, and possibly even the preferred tool for some topics (maybe especially teaching digital skills like those suggested by Palfrey and Gasser (Born Digital, 2008) as being needed by every ‘digital native’ to live their digitized life with some privacy, sense of identity and safety.) Of course maybe some of that is because Matera’s take on gamification emphasizes the competitive, and in the process of trying to catch up I am mixing up weeks and lessons, but having taken the quiz about what type of gamer I am I will note that I score so low on the competitive, kill the other guy type that I might qualify as the anti-killer, so maybe I am mostly reacting to Matera’s style of gamification.
So yielding the side bar and getting back to the main topic, the case studies that support my take on all students responding to teaching and learning better when engaged, that is not unique to the current ‘digital natives’. Nor do the tools used previously to engage students fail to engage the current crop of students. Recently (Sunday, Oct 7, 2018) during the sermon Paster Phil Campell (Northern Light United Church, Juneau) used a story about his undergraduate school to illustrate a point that is not relevant to this argument, but the story does show even college professors have long worked on various ways to engage students in learning. There was a required class, that many students considered a dry required course. The professors used various ways to engage and enrich the learning environment of the students, by coming to class dressed and acting as the historic characters being studied and then re-enacting the big moments in philosophical discussions. A STAT article about the 2018 Wunderkind of Science (https://www.statnews.com/wunderkinds/, accessed October 11, 2018) explains that what captured Alan Williams attention in his 7th grade science class was a teacher who “helped students memorize the multisyllabic names for biological organisms with songs”. Further the article notes this was culturally appropriate as it was New Orleans and the music was ‘in their blood’. Williams notes that got his attention enough that he paid attention to the rest of the class. In fifth grade, my teacher caught the attention of the ‘fast’ readers group by reading a story to us when we had finished the regular assignment and hadn’t disturbed the rest of the class if we got done early and were bored. She picked books specifically for our group and would sit with us and read out loud about lands far away and full of adventure. I still read the genre and even had read all of that author’s books I could find. (Tolkien, The Hobbit, in case you are wondering) More importantly for this essay, the ‘fast’ reading group would quietly read extra chapters or do other extra credit class work, so we could get the teachers time with us reading something extra. And while I still read that genre, even more I remember the teacher taking time with the ‘fast’ reader group even when most of time had to go groups that were slower and needed more help. Boy did she get my group’s attention and our commitment to do more in the class. Helen Keller, who Matera later quotes in Explore Like a Pirate, is another example of how teachers have long worked in different ways to engage students, Anne Sullivan her teacher initially found the way to engage and lead Helen in exploring was through touch, but they soon moved on to books, with both ladies attending Ratcliffe College. Digital games and gamification are more tools in engagement, but I don’t think they are radical changes from the past history of teaching and learning, rather a new adaptation of some very old methods. Watching youngsters I know engage (or not) in learning, it seems the tool and method that catches their attention doesn’t have to be new or digital, just fit to the topic and the kid.
But first my response to Matera, I believe he is right that you need to engage and interest in students in the topic and connect the topic somehow to that engagement or interest. I disagree with his take that today’s students are so different from those of previous days, or even that the engagement has to be different. That being said, I see no reason the engagement has to be the same, or even the same for every teacher, kid or topic. Without all the hyperbole, I do think that gamification can be one more tool for engagement, and possibly even the preferred tool for some topics (maybe especially teaching digital skills like those suggested by Palfrey and Gasser (Born Digital, 2008) as being needed by every ‘digital native’ to live their digitized life with some privacy, sense of identity and safety.) Of course maybe some of that is because Matera’s take on gamification emphasizes the competitive, and in the process of trying to catch up I am mixing up weeks and lessons, but having taken the quiz about what type of gamer I am I will note that I score so low on the competitive, kill the other guy type that I might qualify as the anti-killer, so maybe I am mostly reacting to Matera’s style of gamification.
So yielding the side bar and getting back to the main topic, the case studies that support my take on all students responding to teaching and learning better when engaged, that is not unique to the current ‘digital natives’. Nor do the tools used previously to engage students fail to engage the current crop of students. Recently (Sunday, Oct 7, 2018) during the sermon Paster Phil Campell (Northern Light United Church, Juneau) used a story about his undergraduate school to illustrate a point that is not relevant to this argument, but the story does show even college professors have long worked on various ways to engage students in learning. There was a required class, that many students considered a dry required course. The professors used various ways to engage and enrich the learning environment of the students, by coming to class dressed and acting as the historic characters being studied and then re-enacting the big moments in philosophical discussions. A STAT article about the 2018 Wunderkind of Science (https://www.statnews.com/wunderkinds/, accessed October 11, 2018) explains that what captured Alan Williams attention in his 7th grade science class was a teacher who “helped students memorize the multisyllabic names for biological organisms with songs”. Further the article notes this was culturally appropriate as it was New Orleans and the music was ‘in their blood’. Williams notes that got his attention enough that he paid attention to the rest of the class. In fifth grade, my teacher caught the attention of the ‘fast’ readers group by reading a story to us when we had finished the regular assignment and hadn’t disturbed the rest of the class if we got done early and were bored. She picked books specifically for our group and would sit with us and read out loud about lands far away and full of adventure. I still read the genre and even had read all of that author’s books I could find. (Tolkien, The Hobbit, in case you are wondering) More importantly for this essay, the ‘fast’ reading group would quietly read extra chapters or do other extra credit class work, so we could get the teachers time with us reading something extra. And while I still read that genre, even more I remember the teacher taking time with the ‘fast’ reader group even when most of time had to go groups that were slower and needed more help. Boy did she get my group’s attention and our commitment to do more in the class. Helen Keller, who Matera later quotes in Explore Like a Pirate, is another example of how teachers have long worked in different ways to engage students, Anne Sullivan her teacher initially found the way to engage and lead Helen in exploring was through touch, but they soon moved on to books, with both ladies attending Ratcliffe College. Digital games and gamification are more tools in engagement, but I don’t think they are radical changes from the past history of teaching and learning, rather a new adaptation of some very old methods. Watching youngsters I know engage (or not) in learning, it seems the tool and method that catches their attention doesn’t have to be new or digital, just fit to the topic and the kid.
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