Well, the marking is mostly done and scores are being entered into spreadsheets and the ARG adventure is over.
When I started this project I wanted to find a way to have the students more engaged in a learning task - and, in theory, get a better product from them. I wanted them to create work for a purpose rather than just do an essay. Have I been successful? Probably not.
The feedback forms I have received from students have suggested that the ARG format did not motivate them to produce better work - although it certainly kept them more interested than a regular assignment. Wetpaint seems to have had mixed reviews from students - some finding it frustrating and others confused. A few had no issues.
You can see the full results (updated - google tells me) here.
From my perspective the issue is bang for buck.
I worked pretty hard to set this up, layout the structure, create characters, write media releases and get other teachers involved. Also, we had a fair amount of lab bookings for the students to work on this assignment so that took us away from 'normal' classtime. Oh, and I nearly forgot, we had 23 visitors from Nagasaki for a week!
At night I logged into the fake Dr Frank Tonkin account and the fake Dr Simone Schama accounts to answer any student emails and, of course, I checked each page of their wikis regularly and posted comments. I know that a couple of students noticed these comments but I don't think any actually used the comments to improve their work.
Another hard thing was the stupid lying about me not being Dr Frank Tonkin. Students, if you are reading this - ごめんなさい.
The wikis that the students did were mostly OK. Some were exceptional but I think the choice of technology was a problem. Wikis are at their best when they are collaborative and the students didn't really have to use this aspect to refine their responses to missions. I suspect a blog or even a simple email might have been better. I could have asked them to work in teams but I wanted them all to have some formal writing practice and was worried about 'social loafing'.
One thing I would change in terms of the story structure is to give the students more choice inthe missions. The missions were non-negotiable. Do this. Write that. It was only on the last mission that it occurred to me that games involve choice so I let the students choose to save the samurai or get rich.
Would I run one again? Maybe. The amount of work for me (reduced if I repeat most of it) did not get a substantially better product from students. You'll notice that one of the questions asks them if they want to do an ARG or essay in the future and most picked "A 3rd option".....
What is the 3rd option? I dunno.
It has been fun running the ARG and the kids were definately more engaged than a regular research essay.
Maybe I could be tempted.
Maybe
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I teach gifted kids, that said I think kids today as so programmed to do 'work' the way they've always done it they don't want to work hard and think! Sitting still for a 40 minute lesson and doing a related worksheet is rewarded, and for many kids it is easy. The kid understands the expectation--when they have to 'think' they get a little nervous. I see it all the time in the freedom I give my students the one day they are with me---you can't tell some of them are thinking 'she wants me to do what??' Good luck next time. N.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean -
ReplyDeleteBecause teachers are in many ways "process people" who work within non-negotiable parameters the students can be reduced to just a cog in the machine.
The ARG caused many kids to get stressed about this assignment.
Next time I'll need to find a better balance between making my expectations clear and still keeping the ARG context. Not easy at the high school level.
I realize this is an old blog, but hav eyou done any more on this? I would be interested to hear.
ReplyDeleteYep - its fully automated now. I used gmail's canned responses. MUCH MUCH EASIER
ReplyDelete