I've kept playing now because of the community I have become a part of. As a war game you need allies or colleagues to support you so that you don't get attacked by others. The camaraderie that has developed has more for me emphasised the difficulty that any online community has to overcome (including this one) - the desire to learn being overwhelmed by the desire to socialise. I still see online communities end up as a social gathering first and that learning occurs accidentally afterwards. Ironically even playing Travian I have seen learning opportunities - even when I try.
I've seen links to all sorts of areas of the curriculum:
I've seen links to all sorts of areas of the curriculum:
- English
- Mathematics
- Science - Chemistry and Physics
- Social Sciences - History and Geography
- Music
- Technology
8 comments:
I'm tempted to try it out, but I'm worried I might get addicted too. War-strategy games are pretty compelling. :-)
Strikes me there's a touch of delusion going on there, Mark!!
Love your title 'accidental learning'. This is whats happened to me in this course - I fell into it accidentally and have learnt a lot in the process-great stuff! Another concept I am playing with at the moment is personal learning experiment - sort of means the same thing. I am trying heaps of things all over the place to try and find out what suits me and how I will use it in my teaching. Michele Martin introduced me to the term on her blog.
Great Mark. How does Monday week suit you? I can book in a session on Elluminate for you if you think you'll be ready.
Hi Mark, One question is which comes first the desire to learn or to socialise. I see you put the emphasis firmly on the latter. Games can be totally engrossing. From a learning perspective I think that games have a great potential and the article was interesting about the nature of games in engaging the 'player' in a whole experience. From a teacher perpective would you consider using them as part of a course? If so why?
Hi Mark
I get disillusioned with games very quickly unlike my husband who is also addicted! But as a learning tool they can be very useful I think. I read the article you posted (in the email forum) and a lot of that rings true for me. I've used simple games to illustrate business concepts - such as the interdependence of economic factors (a farming simulation) and kids get very keen to understand why they might not being doing too well. They want to return and figure it out. As the article stated - "Interacting with a game requires a constant cycle of hypothesis formulation, testing, and revision". And this is learning!
Cheers
Yvonne
Good article Mark. The one thing about games which a lot of educational materials don't do very well is their potential to engage the player. Remember lemmings on the Mac? War-strategy games online must be pretty absorbing esp when you are playing synchronously with others.
Pedagogically I believe they can be very useful, and like any educational tool or resource they need to be well designed and fit for purpose and suit the audience's learning preference. It is not easy to pick something up off the shelf and they can be expensive to create.
I would really love to get my hands on Games and Simulations in Online Learning: Research and Development Frameworks by David Gibson, Clark Aldrich, and Marc Prensky. In the article it mentions it looks at research around gaming and education. A preview is available at: http://books.google.co.nz
I will have a good read of the article. Bron
I've set up an account against my better judgement, and I think I'm in danger of a serious addiction as well. I love the way the game develops slowly. Much more realistic than most similar games that I've played, although that obviously doesn't appeal to quite a few players judging by the chat that I jumped into today.
I'm interested in the relationships that you said you were building with other people in the game (still figuring that bit out). Do you send them messages by clicking on their village in the map screen? Are you a member of an alliance?
Is it socialising or competition that drives the gaming experience..? I think both. A desire to be a part of a group and accepted and also a desire to beat your peers... I'm keeping away from it! Too tempting and potentially edictive for me..! As for its use as a learning tool, we use it from time to time for keyboarding skills, improves them very quickly :)
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