More Like Ocarina of Timeless Games.

For those of you that know me well, I'm sure you could imagine the grin on my face when I was given the task of investigating a video game for its educational value in my Teaching with Technology class. As a self-identifying "gamer", I am thrilled at the chance to impress upon the world the value that video games can have for children. From the education and literature paradigms, there are few positive commentaries on video games. Most of the discussion is devoted to the harmful and damaging effects that many believe come from playing violent video games. And while this may be the case, it is equally important, in my opinion, to recognize when and where video games provide us some value and can have a positive influence on children.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (OoT) is widely considered by many gamers to be one of the best if not the best video game of all time. The tale follows a young hero named Link (or a name of your choosing when you start the game) in his quest to save the beautiful Princess Zelda and defeat the evil Ganondorf. Along the way, the player must overcome a series of increasingly difficult challenges in the form of temples, monsters, and the most annoying "helper" that you will ever experience in your life (HEY! LISTEN!). The intricacies of the game, the detail given to world (granted detail circa nintendo 64 in 1998) and the thought and attention that must be constantly given by the player makes it a frontrunner in the world of video games. For me to best explain the educational value of the game, I'll break it down by lessons that it taught me. Mind you these are merely single examples drawn out of a bundle of options from this adventure. (Potential SPOILERS below).

Creativity: In the very first temple that you face, you run into a number of doors and openings that are covered in spider-webs. You cannot cut them with your sword, you cannot run through them, and none of the items that you have at this moment are helpful. To get past these webs, you must pick up a stick from the room, light the stick on fire with one of the torches in the room, and then burn the web to the ground. The game doesn't give you hints or tell you what you should do; you must figure it out for yourself. This game challenges the player to think creatively to solve problems. Often times the obvious way is not the best, or even the correct way. This translates to life and the classroom quite readily. We must be able to be creative in order to help accomplish tasks and generate ideas.*

Problem Solving: The situation mentioned above involves some problem solving, but the example provided below comes a bit later in the game. After the first temple, you must sneak into the castle, past all of the guards, and talk to Princess Zelda. The patterns of the guards differ from spot to spot. Therefore the player must begin to recognize these patterns to get by without being spotted. Our classrooms and our working world are littered with problems waiting, needing to be solved. This game helps to develop that mentality and prepare the players to recognize and tackle the obstacles that they will face in life.*

Following Directions: At one point in OoT, you are offered the opportunity to take up a side quest for which you will be given a great reward. You are then tasked to deliver an item to a character in the game who in turn requests you to do the same and so on until you find yourself doing the job of the sporadic, passive aggressive and pompous mailman (seriously, he isn't that fast). In doing each task, you must recall what your delivering to who. At other points in the game as well, you are given clear instructions that you must follow in order to move forward. The applicability of this to learning in children seems obvious, but for the sake of clarity, children must do this every. single. day. Whether it is at home, on the bus, in school, at recess, or playing sports, children are given directions that they are expected to follow. This game provides an opportunity to organically discover the value of following directions and to be motivated to do so.

Patience and Dedication: Finally, the most important takeaways from LoZ OoT (too much "acronymizing"?) are patience and dedication. You cannot beat this game without developing a healthy sense of patience. OoT is challenging enough and complex enough that you will inevitably fail along the way. For some people (myself included) it takes a number of tries just to figure out the Forbidden Forest at the beginning of the game. But the game teaches you that by being patient, dedicated, and motivated, you will be rewarded in the end. These virtues are invaluable in a classroom and for learning. If you don't get something right away, staying patient and staying dedicated to the task at hand are the most important things you can do in that moment. If there are only two critical aspects learning (which certainly isn't the case) they are patience and dedication.

 

 Unless you are attacking a chicken, then it's best to avoid dedication to the task.

To be honest, I could write a novella on the benefits reaped from Ocarina of Time and a full series on the Legend of Zelda games. This blog could have just as easily have been written about A Link to the Past, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, etc. The LoZ series has always captivated me because of the value that these games have outside of pure enjoyment. They teach the player lessons that are necessary in almost every domain of life. And if this learning process can happen while the individual is having a great time, well that seems like a win-win to me.

*For those with experience in the game, I could have simply put the Water Temple down for every category and made my point.

Avoiding The Michael Scott Mentality

"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine." --Abraham Lincoln

 A very interesting perspective was brought to my attention several days ago, regarding both my post about Facebook as well as the website itself. One of the professors for my Teaching with Technology course suggested that Facebook often times is simply our "best" selves. We can choose to put up our most inspiring/interesting thoughts, our best photos, and the things that we think portray ourselves in the best light. Not only that, but we can come back and delete these things at a later date if they haven't been received well by our peers (in terms of likes or comments). In essence, he was suggesting that we need to approach an online portrayal of an individual with a healthy skepticism because it might not be an honest depiction. This idea turned out to be a wonderful transition to our class today. We played a rousing round of 20 questions (I'm sure you are wondering, "Is that possible?") in which our instructor gave himself the ability to lie twice. Quickly, our cohort started to try and close loops; fact check prior questions by asking new questions that eclipsed aspects of those that came before in a way that could check for honesty. In doing so, we proved that we were capable of approaching a task with a healthy skepticism. I should mention that, prior to the game, our teacher told us that this activity had important implications in regards to doing research online and using the internet at large. This connection is the same healthy skepticism mentioned above in regards to online selves. When we do research, read a story, or interact with the web in some other way that demands a certain level of credibility, it would behoove us to make sure that we are getting the full story including as many perspectives of the events as possible.

I'll be the first to admit, I don't do this enough. I've come close, at least half a dozen times, to ignorantly declaring the death of Charlie Sheen while he is still alive and....well not well I guess. Fortunately I have this handy website to refer to in the future. All jokes aside though, this provides another opportunity for me to reiterate the point that my Professor (he had many other outstanding points) and I are hoping to make. If I gathered my news solely from this source, I wouldn't be doing the topic the due diligence that it deserves, assuming that I have a vested interest in the vitality of Charlie Sheen (which I do, obviously...#winning). One area, among many, where this does have practical and real implications is when doing research for a job proposal, school assignment, lesson plan or anything else where your reputation is factored in. You need to ensure that the information that you are including in your work, the material that you are wedding yourself to, is accurate and honest. Nothing deflates an argument faster than false information; consider it the pin to your fragile helium balloon. But in taking some simple precautions and approaching the process of your internet research with a healthy sense of skepticism and inquiry, you can add a nice layer of Teflon to that balloon of yours! (Might not float so well anymore). Looking beyond just the interweb, I think it (it being the healthy sense of skepticism) is appropriate for addressing books, magazines, even photos and such.

Finally, if I might add as a closing thought, I don't think that this practice of ensuring that you are receiving an honest and fair depiction of an event/idea/etc is reserved for things of a professional or academic nature. I think that it deserves just as much consideration when you are having discussions with friends, sharing your opinion over the internet via some sort of social media website or perhaps, hypothetically, filming a documentary at your paper business in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Organizing Your Online Life

If you are anything like me, your bookmarks are completely overflowing with useless pages that you thought were interesting three years ago. And with half of these bookmarks, you can't make any sense of why you felt it was worth marking in the first place. Occasionally you find a gem, (20 year old Casey bookmarked a page about "the 35 manliest mustaches of all time") but most of these pages have long since eclipsed your interest. For this reason, I was super excited when I got matched with my website for this assignment. Diigo, is an incredible useful tool for anyone that spends a reasonable amount of time using the interweb. Through it, you can bookmark pages, add sticky notes to websites to remind yourself of something on a later visit, and highlight passages that you would like to remember among other things. The most convenient thing about the website, is that anytime you do one of the above functions, it automatically puts it into a very sortable and accessible library on Diigo's website. Best of all, the website is free to use and starts with a fantastic instructional video explaining how to do everything. An accurate comparison of how I felt when discovering this website, is how Michael Scott feels about Wikipedia.

In going through this assignment, I realized how much my online self is like my actual self. Most of my bookmarks were things that I would classify as "happy", "funny" or "optimistic" which are three things that I try to be on a daily basis. Additionally, there is very little, if any, semblance of organization in my web browser and on my computer. Up until this point in my life, I have managed to survive without setting up a strong system of keeping careful track of things, but I believe that needs to change now. As we start this program and as I realize the duties of my hopeful profession, it's time for me to "grow up" in that sense. And this website, which was only brought to my attention because of this assignment, will play a huge role in that organization. All in all, I'm grateful for the opportunity to discover such a helpful tool and I'm excited to see what others have to say about their websites.

What's a "Like" Worth to You?

Social experiment time. If you have a Facebook, go to your wall and click on your Activity Log. This new comprehensive activity feed tells you everything that you do, including what you "like". Do me a favor and look at the past five things that you liked. When is the last time that you spoke to that individual in person?

I'll go first.

1.) A photo of an old coworker posted by his girlfriend. The prior about a year, the latter never.
2.) A photo of an old childhood friend. Probably about two years ago for maybe five minutes.
3.) A photo of a friend. At least a year if not longer.
4.) A status of a facebook friend. Maybe spoke once or twice in high school; possibly never.
5.) A status of an old college roommate. At least 6 months.

I could continue on like this, and probably about 80% of the answers would be the same. Yet, when I post this blog to Facebook, I'm certain I'll feel better about the content and the message if I get several likes. Hell in the past, I've timed the posting of a photo or a link to match when I think the most people will be on Facebook in order to get likes. But if the people that are liking my posts are anything like myself, there is a chance they haven't spoken to me in months, possibly years. So even if I get a lot of likes on a particular post, does that really mean anything?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that we are changing the make-up of self-esteem for future generations. Even someone who considers himself to be a well-adjusted, friendly and likable (pun intended?) guy feels differently if something I, I mean "he", posts on Facebook gets no likes or a lot of likes. What does that mean for adolescents that put their thoughts and beliefs out there and remain unreceived? In perhaps the most tumultuous period of transition throughout our lives, when we are already scientifically prone to low self-esteem and self-consciousness, this has the potential to be so, so harmful. What happens when they put something out there that they find is amusing and no one agrees? Do they start to question their sense of humor? Do they start to believe that what they think is funny isn't? Same scenario with a cry for help, a plea for someone to care and to recognize that they are suffering. What if this status goes unnoticed or overlooked? Even worse, what if someone likes it in an attempt at mockery? How about an actual suicide note? Sadly, these are not simply hypothetical situations (see video below). In a world where we are relying more and more on technology, both inside the classroom and in our personal lives, we are inevitably, and most likely involuntarily, putting more and more weight on what these superficial means of approval are worth.

On this day, when a major U.S. court case was settled in a fairly controversial fashion, I watch my newsfeed overflow with arguments, likes, and words of anger and support pass back and forth between people that I'm quite confident, over the past several years, haven't even taken the time to see how the other was doing. Yet here they are insulting, mocking, berating and belittling one another. And others have the ability to "like" these habits. Facebook will continue to remain the great enigma of our generation, for better and for worse, as long as people continue to use it in all of it's various forms.

So today I'm going to challenge you, if you truly like an idea or a photo that you see on Facebook, certainly like it, but give the person a call if you feel like they might appreciate it.* Let them know that you are thinking of them and that you hope they are well. You never know the difference you might make. And that is something I think we can all agree is worth "liking".


*Unless a hug is an option, always choose a hug.

"Simply Making an Observation"

Earlier this summer, I took some time off from work before I started the MAC program to enjoy the things I foresaw not having time to once I started classes. Besides spending a shameful amount of time playing video games, I took the opportunity to read for pleasure, something that I haven't done in quite some time. In about three weeks, I managed to finish four novels all of which were outstanding (Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Endurance, American Sniper, and The Great Gatsby). While going through these books, I realized how rarely I read for pleasure as an undergrad, and I realized how rarely I would get to read for pleasure during this program. We read constantly in my courses: articles, book chapters, bills, biographies and more. Yet I feel as though I'm constantly distracted while reading this information: making notes of what I want to remember later, checking my email to see if there are any updates to assignments, thinking about the other readings that I have to do, and much more. Yesterday during our Teaching with Tech class though, we took 20 minutes to just sit down and read an article (Ironic right? Doing nothing but reading a paper copy of an article in a technology class?). The article was about the advent of the "digital native children" and their arrival and adjustment at school. It recommended practices and suggested things that one might do to engage this child in the work at hand. I'm astounded, as I sit down to write this blog, at how much I remember from that article especially considering I didn't annotate, highlight or make any other effort to keep track of the information. I internalized this particular course reading the way that I do a novel that I have chosen to pick up. I never once felt distracted and I focused on the content in the piece the entire time. I wonder if any of my classmates had a similar experience? In my undergraduate experience and even in my high school years, I can recall very few incidents that we took the time during class, to read and then discussed the content. I wonder if people would take more away from academic readings if they occurred during class time? I wonder if that atmosphere better facilitates focus?

Switching gears dramatically,we devoted much of our class period to discussing John Dewey's philosophy on education and how we felt it meshed with modern day necessities. We spent a fair amount of time discussing a particular belief of Dewey's Creed which says,

"I believe that next to deadness and dullness, formalism and routine, our education is threatened with no greater evil than sentimentalism."

He said that sentiment had its place in the classroom, but it had to be relevant and focused. This idea of sentimentalism as an "evil" is curious to me because so much of educational research right now points to emotional connections with students as a great approach to form the best learning environment possible. An investment in the interests of the student seems to be a key ingredient to academic success for students, and that is going to come with some sort of sentiment. Perhaps there is a limit though. Perhaps a teacher needs to recognize and understand places where they should get involved and places where they should step back and leave the sentiment to a fellow classmate or to a different adult in the child's life. It's an interesting thing to consider through the technological paradigm because mediums of interaction with our students are increasing immensely. In class yesterday, an anecdote was shared about a teacher who started a twitter account for a class and was then followed by one of his students who had some very revealing tweets about his destructive and unhealthy personal life. This raised issues of privacy and issues related to this idea of sentiment and engagement. Does a teacher have a responsibility to try to reach out to the student? Is that important, or is that an example of a domain that shouldn't involve the sentiments of a teacher?



This video recently went viral not too long ago, and I think addresses both of the issues (perhaps somewhat loosely) that I've brought up in this blog. In the video, you can see a young student, who has returned to the classroom after dropping out of school, passionately appeals to a teacher to, instead of just pass out handouts, "touch their freakin' hearts". What exactly does this entail? He discusses that all kids don't learn the same and need to be stimulated. Could it entail reading sessions in class where the only objective is to read? Might this involve technology or might this be something entirely different. Might this involve sentimentalism? If so, how much? I think these are all more than worthy of our consideration and hopefully, through resolving some of these issues, we can begin to "touch some freakin' hearts".

We're All in This Together

"Education is a process of living and not a preparation for future living."

At the risk of being redundant,  I would love to quote an amazing professor to start this blog off. For those  returning subscribers (I require high fives and fist bumps), and for newcomers who I'm thrilled to share this wisdom with, Chris Peterson lived and taught by three simple words, "Other People Matter". As I read through the John Dewey's creed, I couldn't help but think back to some of the things that Professor Peterson stressed so often in his class, the prior quote taking precedence above all others. Without question, the most common theme throughout Dewey's musings is the importance of the social element. A quick ctrl+F of the word "social" reveals roughly 57 times that he uses the word. Now not all of these uses are in direct relation to the point I'm making, but a great number of them are appropriate. For example:

• He suggests that school is primarily a social institution. 
• School should act as a model for social life.
• The true center of subject matter is the student's own social activities.
• Teachers are engaged in training individuals, but also contributing to the forming of a proper social life.
• Schools should advance socially accepted norms and values.
• The primary way that student's learn is through social involvement.
• I think you get the idea.

Now for those of you that don't know, John Dewey was a philosopher, psychologist, and an educational reformer who lived from 1859 to 1952. Remind you of any handsome young bloggers you might know? Exactly, Ryan Gosling (Hey girl, I see you reading this blog, I'm interested in what you have to say too). Back to Dewey, I find it so fascinating that two very different men (Peterson and Dewey) living in two very different times, could arrive at a similar conclusion. Other people matter. They influence us, they encourage us, they educate us, they can do a plethora of things, both good and bad, to us. I think this is what Dewey so passionately conveys in his Pedagogical creed. Other people are so integrated in our lives, that we must recognize all the ways that they influence us. And, from the age of four to anywhere from 18 to ?, where do we spend an immense amount of time? In some school setting. We constantly interact with the spectrum of personalities, interests, values, ideals and opinions. These social influences are absolutely essential to our development and to our education. We see this resurface in other aspects of education as well. The idea of social justice speaks directly to leveling the social and academic playing field for all students. The practice of Developmental Design, which is just one of the many new approaches to teaching, is intimately wedded to developing social interactions between the teacher and students as well as amongst the students. These are just two quick examples drawn from a whole sample.

This makes the idea of technology in the classroom so harrowing, because if you buy into the notion of "other people matter" then the practice of removing social interactions and engagement with people becomes quite frightening. I find this particularly interesting because we read another piece which used the thoughts of Dewey to support further implementing technology in the classroom. Perhaps it is a lesson on how the same piece of text or evidence can be twisted enough to support either side of an argument or perhaps Dewey would have agreed with the authors interpretation. Regardless of what Dewey may have thought, I am confident that he would insist on the students still being socially engaged. 

The recent attacks at the Boston Marathon of 2013 really sum up the extremes of human nature. On the one end, you have senseless, devastating, sadistic destruction. On the other though, and overwhelmingly more popular, you have incredible heroism and altruism; selfless individuals setting outstanding examples for others. This is, in my opinion, the exact sort of social setting that Dewey describes as being so beneficial and critical to education: support, encouragement, and a selfless nature will only benefit us all; and this comes about easiest when we all believe that, "other people matter". This video (which I am getting chills watching again at the moment) sums that up better than I ever could.

It's a Calvin and Hobbes kinda life

To live a life worth living, one must cast asunder their inhibitions and insecurities and boldly walk into the unknown with a clear mind and a hopeful heart. By stepping off the sturdy, well studied ground with only a belief that they will not lose their footing, one can begin to truly find who they are and what they mean to others. Each person will surely stumble and fall, for it is the nature of the unknown path. Yet, whether it is done with their own hand or another, they must rise again and trek onward. For at the end of this trail, after a bounty of trials and tribulations, awaits a peace unbeknownst to most. It is a pure unadulterated peace, one which will envelop and warm us and those that make us who we are, for as long as we can know.

The above paragraph is a note that I've had on my phone and have been messing with for the better part of a year. I'd forget about it for about three weeks, then come back, reread it, edit it and forget about it again for awhile. It really sums up many of the realizations that I've come to over the past few years. And as I start this program, I feel it applies more now than ever. Because despite all of the recent, negative commentary on the teaching profession, I still can't help but feel like Calvin after a fresh snowfall.

Let's go exploring.