Hello. The risk of this game with 14-16 year olds is that their BS detector is pretty accurate. The 'reality' of the game is reduced and the 'game' part of the game is accentuated. The kids all know that this is an assignment with make-up on BUT because it is a game they have thrown themselves at the tasks.
Today dd bring up a couple of funny (peculiar) aspects. Wetpaint is being used by the kids to build their samurai wikis - but wetpaint is problematic. On the one hand I want the learning product of the students to be viewable to the world. On the other hand it seems to allow people to edit their wikis. I've already had a problem with spam on one of the sites, unfortunately.
The other problem is my alter-ego, Dr Tonkin. The students suspect me of being Tonkin and I am doing my best to convince them otherwise but I think I am failing.
The students have until Monday to have stuff up on their wiki although if they complete the task before that I will release the next clue.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Purpose, Background and Day 1
Trawling the web on a school night I came across classroom2.0. Being a bit of a nerd-burger I signed up and had a look around at all the cool toys....er...learning tools that other teachers had trialled. ONE of those cool ideas was, in many ways, really low-tech. The Alternative Reality Game. Posts by Kev (go to classroom 2.0 and look at the Forum) intriguied me - although like many people I had never heard of them before.
After reading everything I could find and staying up way too late I started to think about how I could use this for my Japanese classes in High School. The cool aspect of ARG is that the student is immersed in the game...and the cool thing about gaming generally is that it is purposeful learning. What I mean is that working from a text book or puzzle-style worksheet rarely (if ever) becomes an experience that STICKS with students. I can't think of a time when my eyes misted over as I got lost in the nostalgic reverie of old worksheets I completed in high school! The ARG gives the learning task PURPOSE and CONTEXT. Now, the debate, as I see it, with ARG (and by inference things like Second Life and WOW) is that the ARG is NOT real life. Or worse, it is OBVIOUSLY not real life and hence nothing better than a worksheet afterall. I think that opinion is in error.
OK, so philosophical rant over (for now) on to the fun stuff.
The learning area for this assignment is Samurai of the medieval period of Japan. The students are Y9 and Y10 (oblivious for now of the other's participation) of both gender. Specifically, I want the students to learn about :
Dr Frank Tonkin is an evil genius working for the government in Canberra. Although his job title is Director of the Institute for the Study of Traffic, he has been secretly building a machine to transport himself back in time to any place in the world. Late at night on the 25th of February 2009 he activated his machine. But something went wrong. Instead of being sent somewhere - a man from the past was dragged into our time. Media reported a high localised lightning storm over the school and also of a mysterious government agency 'cleaning' the scene before most staff and students arrived. Rather than arouse suspicion, Dr Tonkin has recruited students to investigate the scene and determine who was zapped into 2009.
The plot will reveal that the man zapped into our time has no memory and needs to be taught who he is (Miyamoto Musashi). Tonkin will be discovered and thwarted by the noble and wonderful Dr Rogers, who acting on the instructions of students will send Musashi back to his time and have Dr Tonkin arrested for perverting the course of time.
Day One:
Before school started but while most of the kids were milling around I made an announcement over the PA saying "Goodmorning, just to let you all know, the lightning storm last night that hit our school has damaged nothing and all our IT sytems are working fine". The irony being that in a drought we rarely get storms (or rain) and our IT systems are rarely fine. First period with my genki Y9 kids started with regular roll marking and I casually asked if anyone living near the school heard the storm. There was no storm here last night as it turns out but one kid claimed to have heard it all! It made me look very trustworthy!
I told the kids that as it turned out I had a media release about the storm at our school and that they should read it......which made them all a little uneasy. Then I gave them the CLASSIFIED material with the beginning of the scenario. The material was from Dr Tonkin who, it was said, required them to set up an email account and wetpaint site. The first 'mission' was in Japanese. It told them to ask a teacher (after a code phrase) for instructions - which was to go to the tennis court. Now, my kids are pretty keen at the best of times but this HAD them completely! All of them, even the somewhat sullen with incredibly enthusiastic.
They ran out to the tennis court where they found the word 'samurai' (I wrote it that morning) in chalk on the ground in Japanese.
The rest of the class they set up their accounts on wetpaint and mail and at recess they could wait to ask staff for more instructions/information. I had talked to our very excellent but somewhat surrly janitor that morning about being a part of the conspiracy - something he agreed to. This made it all so much more convincing because they asked him about the storm and he confirmed my silly story.
They have to email Dr Tonkin with the code word, wiki and email. Dr Tonkin then instructed them to write about what exactly the word 'samurai' means on their wiki. Hopefully, by the time we finish with the game the kids will have a full wiki about samurai.
So, that is today. I'll post docs and links on this blog ASAP but I ask you not to join our game at this time. The inspiration, Kev, will recognise some of his fine work but the rest is my gumf.
Be well!
After reading everything I could find and staying up way too late I started to think about how I could use this for my Japanese classes in High School. The cool aspect of ARG is that the student is immersed in the game...and the cool thing about gaming generally is that it is purposeful learning. What I mean is that working from a text book or puzzle-style worksheet rarely (if ever) becomes an experience that STICKS with students. I can't think of a time when my eyes misted over as I got lost in the nostalgic reverie of old worksheets I completed in high school! The ARG gives the learning task PURPOSE and CONTEXT. Now, the debate, as I see it, with ARG (and by inference things like Second Life and WOW) is that the ARG is NOT real life. Or worse, it is OBVIOUSLY not real life and hence nothing better than a worksheet afterall. I think that opinion is in error.
OK, so philosophical rant over (for now) on to the fun stuff.
The learning area for this assignment is Samurai of the medieval period of Japan. The students are Y9 and Y10 (oblivious for now of the other's participation) of both gender. Specifically, I want the students to learn about :
- a samurai's role
- A samurai's weapons and armour
- A samurai's religious inclinations
- A samurai's home and source of income
- General Japanese medieval history when Samurai were rel event.
Dr Frank Tonkin is an evil genius working for the government in Canberra. Although his job title is Director of the Institute for the Study of Traffic, he has been secretly building a machine to transport himself back in time to any place in the world. Late at night on the 25th of February 2009 he activated his machine. But something went wrong. Instead of being sent somewhere - a man from the past was dragged into our time. Media reported a high localised lightning storm over the school and also of a mysterious government agency 'cleaning' the scene before most staff and students arrived. Rather than arouse suspicion, Dr Tonkin has recruited students to investigate the scene and determine who was zapped into 2009.
The plot will reveal that the man zapped into our time has no memory and needs to be taught who he is (Miyamoto Musashi). Tonkin will be discovered and thwarted by the noble and wonderful Dr Rogers, who acting on the instructions of students will send Musashi back to his time and have Dr Tonkin arrested for perverting the course of time.
Day One:
Before school started but while most of the kids were milling around I made an announcement over the PA saying "Goodmorning, just to let you all know, the lightning storm last night that hit our school has damaged nothing and all our IT sytems are working fine". The irony being that in a drought we rarely get storms (or rain) and our IT systems are rarely fine. First period with my genki Y9 kids started with regular roll marking and I casually asked if anyone living near the school heard the storm. There was no storm here last night as it turns out but one kid claimed to have heard it all! It made me look very trustworthy!
I told the kids that as it turned out I had a media release about the storm at our school and that they should read it......which made them all a little uneasy. Then I gave them the CLASSIFIED material with the beginning of the scenario. The material was from Dr Tonkin who, it was said, required them to set up an email account and wetpaint site. The first 'mission' was in Japanese. It told them to ask a teacher (after a code phrase) for instructions - which was to go to the tennis court. Now, my kids are pretty keen at the best of times but this HAD them completely! All of them, even the somewhat sullen with incredibly enthusiastic.
They ran out to the tennis court where they found the word 'samurai' (I wrote it that morning) in chalk on the ground in Japanese.
The rest of the class they set up their accounts on wetpaint and mail and at recess they could wait to ask staff for more instructions/information. I had talked to our very excellent but somewhat surrly janitor that morning about being a part of the conspiracy - something he agreed to. This made it all so much more convincing because they asked him about the storm and he confirmed my silly story.
They have to email Dr Tonkin with the code word, wiki and email. Dr Tonkin then instructed them to write about what exactly the word 'samurai' means on their wiki. Hopefully, by the time we finish with the game the kids will have a full wiki about samurai.
So, that is today. I'll post docs and links on this blog ASAP but I ask you not to join our game at this time. The inspiration, Kev, will recognise some of his fine work but the rest is my gumf.
Be well!
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