Well. When I woke up this morning, I certainly wasn't expecting a Monday quite like what happened. In all seriousness, these are the kinds of days that you never want to deal with as a parent or teacher because it shatters the sense of safety that should prevail within our schools. That some idiot somewhere thought that this would be fun or a good idea just makes me angry. While I'm relieved that there was no incident in any of our city's schools, it was frustrating to see the disruption and confusion in what should have been a fairly normal day.
That being said, I did have a chance to actually do some reading and took advantage of some free time to get started working on "The Multiplayer Classroom" by Lee Sheldon. I've been impressed so far with the emphasis on developing a wholesale approach to gaming as the classroom as opposed to playing games in the classroom. This is perhaps where I felt like I've been coming up short in my own limited attempts with programs like ClassCraft. I love what the app allows me to do but it isn't really integrated into my approach as a teacher: it is tacked on and feel more like a gimmick.
Fairly early in the book, Sheldon talks about how learning through play is an important part of our own identity. We develop our understanding of the world around us as we experiment with our senses at a very early age. He uses the oft-used example of the child drawn to the heat of the fire who ultimately learns best by making the 'mistake' of being burned. Sheldon argues that this is far more effective than any instruction on the matter and ends up asking why it is that we stop this play once children reach a certain age. This decision to "get serious about learning" by regimenting it lessens the whole point of learning.
Needless to say, I continue to be intrigued and think I've found something that I'm anxious to work my way through. More to come...
Stardew Valley
Last week, I came across some review for an independently developed game called "Stardew Valley" which has been described as a love letter to some of the classic life/farm sims from the mid-1990s. I can remember absolutely loving a game called Harvest Moon 64 which was incredibly simple in its premise: make relationships with those in the community, explore the surrounding environment, and save the family farm. It is that simplicity that made the game so charming and enjoyable back in the day, and it is that feeling which Stardew Valley is trying to capture.
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| Behold...Schute Farms (I was going for Schrute but made a little typo)! It ain't much but it's mine! |
I love the fact that the game so lovingly creates that vintage / retro feel of its predecessors. It definitely has captured that essential "just-one-more-day" drive that has so far kept fans coming back for more. I've probably put in more time than I'd care to admit, but I'm amazed at just how much depth there is in something so seemingly simple. Perhaps there's a lesson there.
And that music though... Beautiful!
I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a break from the hyper-realistic, overly violent shooters that too often drive the gaming industry.
~Mr.T
i agree with you on this but i feel like that classcraft can be fun it just needs more content to fufill its purpose too make it fun for the class but we don't know when they will add more content but when they do i hope it works in the end
ReplyDeleteI wish that we would use classcraft more often than maybe the problems with the phones would go down in the classroom, maybe don't take my mark
ReplyDeletei think gamification is a really good idea and we should start doing it more often. they idea of it just is a really good idea it will make me pay attention in class. i like gamification.
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