- Jose Martinez
- Vancouver, WA
- United States
This conversation has closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »
What should the 21st century classroom look like? Could interactive technology provide solutions to the current system of education?
Can game technology be used to make the system of education more fun,engaging, and valuable?
How would such a “gameful” classroom be structured?
How do we begin to implement this new system? What would the 1, 5, and 10 year plans be for creating a new, more engaging system of education?
Please join graduate students from the Rochester Institute of Technology along with game developers, educators, usability specialists, and others from the global community in an online forum as we attempt to solve this problem collaboratively.
Please share your thoughts at http://tinyurl.com/rit-edu and help us shape the future of education.
Jose Martinez
Bernd Fesel 30+
Today the context of school has changed already; gamification will influence and re-arrange large parts of our work life and leisure as well. Just imagine you buy a car by gaming it first....?!
Maybe it would be good to learn more about games changing society in general today - to estimate what will be possible in classrooms; at the moment it is often the other way round , at least in Germany. Games are not viewed positive by adults at all - and they do all to prevent that games play a role in classrooms. Many still believe games is another (inactive) way of TV. So - how do you teach adults about games first?
We did an interview with Gülicher, Head of PR at Nintendo, in Germany last year on Gamification. Maybe it is of help in our context ? http://www.2010lab.tv/en/blog/life-game-gamification
Good luck Jose - I believe in games and would love a more gamesful classroom; it would unlock a lot of creativity and activity in the children.
Ken Seeroi
On the other hand--and I say this having worked in Educational Technology for over 30 years now--I think it's something of a false promise. That is, you can structure a curriculum and a classroom so that it promotes student-based, project-oriented learning without any advanced technology at all. The technology isn't the key. It's the design. With well-designed curricula and lessons, students can participate in engaging, fun activities regardless of the technology involved. In fact, quite often, the technology actually distances learners. PowerPoint is a perfect example. When it first appeared, it looked like the perfect vehicle for conveying information. But before long, it turned into the perfect way to bore the hell out of people. For learners of all ages, what really seems to be engaging is something they can touch. That's the opposite of watching something on a screen.
I think we also tend to get a little dreamy in our classroom ideals. While it might seem like a great solution to give all the kids iPads and set them off on exploratory projects, we have to remember that students--all the way up through college--aren't always the most motivated characters around. Give them technology and they won't necessarily spend their time reading Wikipedia. They'll just screw off. The teacher still has to play an integral role in assigning tasks and controlling the classroom. It's easy to forget that the teacher isn't responsible for the education of only the motivated students. The teacher is responsible for doing the best he or she can for all the students.
Austin Berrier
I believe that teachers should be there to just excite students about learning. Only this allows students to realize their potential instead of just going through the motions that the modern educational system creates. I am personally more inspired by a 20 minute TED Talk than six hours of teacher instruction a day at my high school, and I personally think that this is a sad reality. So many students get turned off by learning because it's frankly just boring, and they think that all learning is like this. Teachers need to be there to show that this is simply not the case.
Susan Randall
Austin Berrier
Speaking as a high school student in an advanced chemistry course, I have participated in both real life labs and labs on the computer. Honestly, I learned so much more information from the the real labs than the simulated ones because I felt like the technology was giving me distance from the actual lab. Virtual reality is never as exciting as actual reality, and only excitement engages students in the modern day.
George Kong 30+
That said, the logical compromise is to take advantage of technology's ability to provide high quality pre-recordings and cheap and easy iteration (i.e. you can mix many more chemicals virtually, repeatably, than you could with actual chemicals)... while combining the high quality, but cheap repetition provided by virtualized experiences with the contrast of real experiments - allowing the student to understand the consequences of chemical reactions in the context of reality, while also capturing the minutiae of learning that is generally otherwise implicit and uncapturable (e.g. the constant awareness of danger of handling various chemicals).
Bernd Fesel 30+
We should not only think about to take the best out of each learning surrounding, but also consider how the inter-action of a virtual lab / gaming AND non-virtual meetings can create synergies.
We had a lot of very good experience to bring virtual groups & their aims into real-life projects: this transformation was a high motivation for the participants - we did this however in the field of urban labs; urban change through online art experiments, which were then exhibited in the urban situation they researched: http://www.2010lab.tv/en/video/been-out-vol-1-0
The idea was to bring virtual & non-virtual / digital & real labs in a positive, self-re-enforcing cycle...
Aidan Parchelo
To me, the greatest problem is a lack of personal engagement for the students, which has likely existed since the dawn of school, but now is getting progressively worse in North America. We know from the outstanding work of Sir Ken Robinson and so many others that what matters most to the success of the classroom is the quality of the teacher. Connecting with any mind - young minds most of all - is not some simpleton task, but one requiring creativity, empathy, communication, expertise, and herculean perseverance. As such, teachers ought to be the first step.
Personally, I think we need to see more education in technology and games - not the other way around. Virtual reality is so often proposed as a software "fix" for the malaise of our real experience within the world. Students are disconnected because the system forces them live disembodied: from their own beliefs, concerns, sensitivities and dreams. A virtual world will only enhance this.
Math on a computer is just as much of an abstraction as math on a page or a blackboard. Rather than frame a tool as an end in itself, why not relate it to their Real world so they can understand its purpose: actually let them USE the tools (i.e. using trig to design a house, French to order at a caf/e, etc.).
For a more constructive reply, the promise of technology that excites me most is the possibility for it to connect students to the world in ways otherwise logistically inviable. Sir David Attenborough's "Planet Earth" series is a beautiful example of transforming any screen into window to the wide world.
We ought not shape a world in the image of our escapes, but one in which we eschew them for the splendour of natural sunlight and the wellbeing of an embodied self.
P.S. John Dewey's "Experience and Education" is worth the read.
Jose Martinez
Very good points! I think the idea is to wrap all of the concepts in a manner that is not reliant upon memorization and repetition, as it has been the norm when trying to introduce new technologies into the classroom in the past.
I agree that using technology to drive the same old paradigm will result in failure, so my question is what principles of gaming can be used to turn education into an activity that would excite students? I know that if I am not engaged in a project at work, I don't even feel like getting out of bed but when I am dialed in, I can't wait to get to the office to continue my work.
Marek Vanžura 20+
Your topic really excites me. I want to sketch some brief idea which came to my mind during thinking about your questions.
Well, certainly, game technology can make education more fun, also engaging but I am not so sure about its value. It probably depends on how well it would be balanced. I want to draw one example. From my experience, a lot of people around me said that education is too abstract. Concrete example should be mathematics. Actually only few students in every class enjoy mathematics (I am speaking about primary and secondary schools). And if you ask them why, they answer that because they cannot touch something out there. And this is the place where game technologies can do really big job. I mean, for example, you can use some virtual reality where numbers and equations and other stuff would be visualized and connected to some real life situations and things in our everyday lives. When teacher is speaking let's say about mathematics (and physics) of combustion engine, pupils aided with some virtual reality glasses would be exploring appropriate parts in real time. And I am sure that it is possible to use it in more abstract mathematics and also in other fields of studies.
In sum, I think that game technologies can make education really better, especially in situations where words are too abstract and it is pretty hard to imagine some applications and so forth.
So, this was my modest idea for your theme. I hope it is not superficial and useless.
Jose Martinez
Thank you for your kind comments and great ideas. I think that using technology to motivate students would be a good start to motivating them but I think that the bigger question is how can we turn education into a game? How could we teach students to not be sad to go into school but rather be interested in continuing their tasks because they are fun, like games are, and because their goal is not to learn but rather to move to a "new level" in understanding? :)
Bernd Fesel 30+
"How could we teach students to not be sad to go into school but rather be interested in continuing their tasks"?
But most topics in school or university students do not identify as "THEIR" task. This is a major bottle neck - so first question might be: how do we motivate students to make a topic "their case" / their task"?
You could crowd-source / student-source some parts of the curriculum? And could do this by technology and games?
One last thought on "having fun": I realized in my university teaching that students heavily engage in topics and tasks - even if they are no fun, involve long working hours and obstacles. Given they identifited the task as important to them, more precise: to their values.
so you might ask: how can math help a student tackle a real life problem he has? How can can be part of a game? I am afraid my questions do not make it easier, but I hope they give you some new ways to research.
Marek Vanžura 20+
many thanks!
Well, my point was that some part of process of turning to the education as more fun is through modern technologies, which we use to better visualization of connections between education (which would be sometimes uninteresting) and their real lives (which they live and have the biggest value for them). I mean, if they will see that they are not learning something useless but highly important, then it is very probable that they will really enjoying it.
And what about your question how to skip to the education as a game? Well, my idea is to look at what is the most interesting aspect of games. I think that it is perhaps something like big integration into the games. So we may take this aspect and put it into education. And If we do this I think then we are on a right way to solve this part of problem.
In short, my idea here is that through studying of "addictive" aspect of games we can teach a lot about how to implement some improvements into our education. Unfortunately I actually have no more ideas how to do this really big and important step.
Elena Zgardan 500+
When I first saw it, I said ok, looks nice, they are all about technology and online... But where is the outside world? I don't think this classroom is really meant to stimulate any creativity, maybe it's a way to keep kids focused :).
Jose Martinez
Daniel Kinzer 500+
Jose Martinez
George Kong 30+
I think there's plenty of merit behind a system that combines peer feedback and accreditation weighting.
e.g. if these thumbs up attached to these comments were weighted on the basis of an algorithm that could determine how much critical authority the person had. Kinda like Google does for links and searches.
Then we could use that system for a community driven discussion learning method. Like we already do right now on these forums. Except with greater efficacy and less noise.
Daniel Hettrick
Donna Nichols
Daniel Hettrick
Ricardo Kagawa
Mary Meyers
Kids have a particular need for socially interactive tech/IT - not simply Tech interaction.
Manue M
A green environment with fields, and an organic farm, and some animals... a swimming pool, lakes, trees.... Basic material like fabrics, pieces of wood, stones, branches, shells... basic tools... And then also magnets, electronic parts, solar panels, all sorts of more sophisticated material. Access to 3d printers.
Children wOuld be free to evolve outside depending on weather conditions. They could clim trees. They could have tree-houses with cushions inside. And trampolines, and trapezes...
Every Child wpuld have a six sense. This will just change education I believe. They could interact with the real world alone or through their sixsense. They could Interact easily with other kids around the world.They coukd visit places virtually.
They would be encouraged to work alone aswell as in groups, they would have always opportunities to show their work in front of part of the community or everybody in the communities, plus to other classes they meet online.
Ages would be mixed.
Crossing disciplines would be encouraged at all time.
There would be a lot of freedom. No punishment, no promise of reward. Just a question..."are you proud of yourself?"
My kids can't wait for the six sense to be commercialized!
Ricardo Kagawa
1) Another point of including games in the education system should be to teach kids to fail. Fail and recover. The current system denies the chance of failing, and makes recovering unreasonably difficult, expecting them to avoid failing at all costs. This only makes kids overly stressed and deprives them from the ability to recover, as they could never learn it in the first place.
2) And kids should have more contact with the dirtier side of the real world. Not that they should be forced to watch porn, but at least do not make too much fuss about it whenever they ask. As far as I know (and I don't know much), kids tend to give more value to things, the harder you try to hide them. We should be preparing them to face some dirtiness, not expecting them to be "pure and innocent" their whole lives. Teach them properly, and they should not get tainted even in the face of the dirtiest thing on Earth. If you don't teach it yourself, someone else will, and maybe not as well as you would like.
Actually, both items are about letting them try the real world and learn how to handle it properly. I see some people trying to keep kids away from all kinds of harm, even enforcing that by law, all the while not teaching them to fend themselves against any of that harm. I am concerned that future generations will not have enough time to learn their maturity after 18 (when their parents finally allow them some freedom) and before 18 (after which the real world expects a lot of maturity from them).
James McGuiness
The best reform theories today favor autonomy too. But no one has taken it so far as to say that the new knowledge of how the mind grows its own capacity, called "neuroplasticity", demands autonomy. Thus "authority" must become a new negotiable currency and not the instant totality it has long been.
Education must cease neglect of social development as well and be "spaced" throughout the entire life spectrum to become the motivation that puts horse in front of the cart of knowledge development. Motivation by "threat of consequence" must yield to motivation by determination of personal relevance. All "rooms" and possible "game" theories must support have these fundamentals behind them or the whole effort will be a laughing stock for the others who do replace dysfunction with ideal function. I have many insights, models, definition of new language and concepts to conventionalize an education reform driver that doesn't accept failure in any way. E-mail me if you're interested.
Charles Whithead
However, one recent addition to the classrooms has been Smart-boards (not sure how familiar people are with these?) which effectively combine whiteboards and computers. One benefit of this is the expanse of knowledge available in class: a teacher's broad understanding teamed with a worldwide database doesn't leave many questions unanswered. The interactive element is also fun in problem solving and sharing ideas. Smart-boards are the future
Jose Martinez
Ricardo Kagawa
- Simply turning something into a game will not help. The game must be designed to be interesting, it will not be interesting simply because it was turned into a game. Whatever you do, be careful not to let educators or parents take control of the project (they should help, but they must not take over), as they might carry some flawed views and overdo the educational aspect of these games without enough care for the psychological stuff.
- Based on some ideas from the Self-Determination Theory, people are more intrinsically motivated if they feel mostly competent and autonomous. That basically means you should avoid imposing any game, especially the educative types, in your educational system. As soon as the kids are forced to play your game, they will find it boring, no matter how much fun it might actually be. Also, these games must be very well balanced, because too easy and too hard are equally boring.
- Following this idea, knowledge and values should be passed without obligation. You should set a good example, not simply push some beautifully meaningless values or knowledge. Give them the choice to be good, show them how it is done if they show any interest, and show them that they can also do it as well as you do.
- And as was commented before, we must review the set of skills we have been trying to teach. We do not use 1% of all the things we are *forced* to learn. Most people simply forget all that unused stuff, and many will not have learned to become curious and self-teaching. Actually, most people will learn the exact opposite, because it was so traumatic and worthless in the past.
We should be learning happiness, willpower and respect before quantum physics. But that is not the way things are going, as I see it.
Tugbiyele Henry
George Kong 30+
1. Exploit record and playback lectures by creating high quality interactive lectures that involve graphics, hyperlinks, quizes. Basically, take what Mr. Khan is doing over at his academy and amp it up to the Nth degree.
2. Use established game feedback mechanics - achievements, rewards, social comparison to incentivize behaviour. Pace it regularly, create currencies and larger rewards. Maybe even combine it with an avatar representation system to allow students to express their achievements and individuality.
3. Encourage open forum discussion on topics and subject matter - this is where avatars are handy (i.e. students can see other students avatars and get a quick and dirty, but fun assessment of their academic accomplishments). Also plays off community self help mechanisms. Encourage activity and participation among multiple grade levels, while enforcing a strict set of rules of conduct.
4. Abolish the concepts of year groups. Focus class sizes around the kind of community group size and dynamics humans have evolved to cope with... i.e. 100-150 people villages, varying ages and skill levels - capable adults caring for and teaching youngsters, and children interacting with more mature children. Have multiple adults in the groups - around 4-8 adults per 100-150 student group, and they are used to settle disputes, and lead group activities, moderate discussion, etc.
5. Where possible, develop games that incorporate multiple elements of thinking and learning into a cohesive package. Look towards stuff like Civilization, and The Sims for a starting point - incorporate more educational appropriate mechanisms and opportunities.
sanghun lee
She gave a book as gift to her child,and then he threw out the book suddenly after he touched it for short time. That article described he was handling with the book like i-pad. I just was suprised when I saw the story.
I concern about my future's chilren. Let you think aout the situation.
Manue M
I have young kids. I am happy that they like all kind of books. But I do agree with my children: interactive books are just cool! My kids like books with 3d content. They also like to open windows in it. And they like the I-pad too.
I feel a bit sorry that this child was not creative enough to at least imagine that her book was interactive... That is a pity.introducing the computer too early in childhood might not be the best idea. But, nothing wrong for me with quality interactive books on I-pad...
Jeff Baggett
james bob
Jose Martinez
Daniel Hettrick
Nikhil Goyal
http://www.good.is/post/is-sweden-s-classroom-free-school-the-future-of-learning?utm_content=prev-next&utm_medium=post-page-top :
The traditional setup of school classrooms—straight rows of desks with accompanying chairs—doesn't do much to foster creativity or collaboration. Many experts have proposed redesigning classroom furniture, but a Swedish school system wants to take things a step further. Vittra, which operates 30 schools in Sweden, is seeking to ensure learning takes place everywhere on campus by eliminating classrooms altogether.
Tugbiyele Henry
Manue M
Nikhil Goyal
We must reform the classroom, a relic from the Industrial Revolution. Classrooms are structured in educating kids by making them sit in desks, shut down, and hear the teacher passively. It is based on the fallacy that efficient delivery of content is equal to effective learning. Research demands a personalized education mode. Let’s design a 21st century classroom. Scientists have concluded that there exists a close correlation between human productivity and space design. Facebook and Google are your evidence.
Prakash Nair, an architect and school planner, writes in Education Week that there is a conglomerate of design principles for tomorrow’s schools. (1) personalized; (2) safe and secure; (3) inquiry-based; (4) student-directed; (5) collaborative; (6) interdisciplinary; (7) rigorous and hands-on; (8) embodying a culture of excellence and high expectations; (9) environmentally conscious; (10) offering strong connections to the local community and business; (11) globally networked; and (12) setting the stage for lifelong learning. A revolution is brewing!
Daniel Hettrick
Greg Keys
George Kong 30+
Not that this isn't true... but when you contemplate that language is itself a form of technology... it places into perspective how natural it is for humans to use tools and technology. We should embrace it, as part of who and what we are, and not shy away from it. It is the understanding of the flaws, foibles and remarkable things that technology can do for us that will allow us to use it in wisdom after all.
Greg Keys
George Kong 30+
In respect to what we're discussing... I think we're pretty much on the same page - you're not saying anything that I would disagree with - simply that I would like to reiterate the importance of taking advantage of technology and incorporating it fully into the way we learn and concieve of the world. The future will bring more progress, not less - so that technology, like language, and agriculture, etc before it, will be a stable substrate for us to build our lives on top of.
Of course the application and use of this technology, as any technology requires wisdom... but with discussions like this happening... I'm confident that we're on the right track.
Reilus Heliodromus
http://isi-ias.blogspot.com/2012/02/trivium-quadrivium-cliffs-notes.html
http://isi-ias.blogspot.com/2012/01/logic-fallacies-and-trivium.html
The first link has great notes and gives a good overview. The second link has a great video and useful links.
Jose Martinez
Reilus Heliodromus
To make the teacher "the source of knowledge" is to make the teacher as an authority figure; this action imposes an authoritarian epistemology on the minds of our young. Authority cannot be replicated or studied. This is exactly why we need critical thought and we can get there through trivium education, which would expose our children to epistemology and they would understand where authority -- and it's figures -- place among the several sources of knowledge (epistemology).
Besides, why would you want to set up a dynamic where an authority figure passes knowledge to a nest of squawking baby birds? This is not education; it is training. True educators show people how to unfold their hearts, minds, etc. by giving them tools e.g. critical thinking skills, research skills, analytic skills. The effective teacher (educator) is not a source of knowledge, but a guide -- paid for by taxpayer money or private money -- to show your children how these tools work. The children should find knowledge themselves and not become dependent on anyone for any reason unless genetic limitations prevent this.
Jose Martinez