Check out this Creativity (K12 Online Conference)

One of the strands of this year’s ongoing K12 Online Conference is Creativity. This video is a cool inside look at the ways teachers around the world are using music and technology to spark creativity with their students.

Check out more about K12 Online Conference. There’s always cool sharing and all the presentations are archived, so you can always peruse past presentations whenever you get the time.

Peace (sounds beautiful),
Kevin

Girls, Gaming and Gender Stereotypes

lego gender remixerI’ve shared this Lego Gender Remix site before but it is so powerful in what it does that it is always worth sharing out again. I used this site yesterday in my class of sixth graders as we begin diving into the concepts of our Digital Life unit, in which we explore technology and media from a variety of angles. Talking to 11 year olds about the permanence of the web and technology … it’s an eye-opening experience for many of them.

One of the many angles we explore is advertising and gender stereotyping (a term which is relatively unfamiliar to them and which leads to a long discussion about cultural values placed on gender). If you spend time with the Lego Remixer site, you’ll see why it is so powerful for this conversation. By mixing the media of a “boys’ commercial” with the media of a “girls’ commercial,” you can deconstruct the stereotypes embedded in the advertising.

It’s a real eye-opener for many of my students when we do this, and in one of my classes, it led to a long discussion about the design of aisles in toy stores (the few that are left in existence). The girls’ aisle? All dolls and filly pink dresses and unicorns and horses. The boys? Guns and vehicles and action heroes.

“You know,” one of my astute girls observed, “if we saw a boy walking down the girls’ aisle at the toy store, we’d probably make a judgment about them. We’d look at them funny.”

Another piped in. “But if a girl is in the boys’ aisle, no one cares,” he added, and the room went silent as we thought about that. No one disagreed with those assumptions.

We talked about avatars, which was the main hub of our lesson, and how people represent or misrepresent themselves in online spaces. I asked my students why they think a boy might use a girl avatar or vice versa. More quiet thinking.

“In some gaming sites,” said one boy, “girls are not always welcomed. Maybe a girl would want a boy avatar so they can just play and not get harassed.”

No one took exception to that insight — that girls are treated differently in gaming sites that they visit. But when I asked if girls are as good gamers as boys, everyone agreed that gender does not connect with gaming skills.

So, I asked, why are girls treated different? More quiet.

“I think it’s because some sites are like clubs for boys,” a girl suggested,” and they think they own the world. They don’t like having girls in the club.”

“Or,” suggested another girl, ” they don’t like that girls being better than them at the game.”

Some of you know that I teach a video game design unit, and I do try to pay attention to these gender issues. It’s not a boy-centric unit of learning, yet I do find I have to be attentive to supporting and elevating the girls to a certain confidence level. Many girls seem apt to cede the expertise to the boys, and I work against that tide.

When I showcase student-created games as exemplars, I make sure the girls get slightly more equal footing than the boys. I ask girls who have figured out “workarounds” to share that knowledge and insight with the class. I don’t ignore the boys, but I pay attention to the girls a little bit more in our gaming unit. I have never heard any of my boys speak down to girls when we do gaming. But I am not naive, either. I know it happens in the spaces where I don’t go and that the adult world simmers with these inequities.

Look at this quote from Anita Sarkeesian, who is the heart of #Gamergate.

“The notion that gaming was not for women rippled out into society, until we heard it not just from the games industry, but from our families, teachers and friends. As a consequence, I, like many women, had a complicated, love-hate relationship with gaming culture.” from New York Times

What is very obvious each year is this insight as a teacher: my girls often design and build and publish more engaging games than my boys do. Ok, so I am generalizing a bit and maybe stereotyping my kids, but it’s true. (Note to self: document this during this year’s project?) The girls often design their video games with rich storytelling, where the game play informs the storytelling (the while premise of our game design unit). The boys go for the rapid fire action, the shooting avatars, the survival of the protagonist. Their stories are often the weakest element of their projects.

My challenge as a teacher is to do my best to remove those walls and have girls and boys share the best of what they bring to the table, so that we can all learn together as a community of many, not a group of two genders. I can’t take it for granted that gender issues do not exist as a wedge in the world of gaming and beyond. It does. I just need to be cognizant of this reality, and make sure girls are not just invited into the party, but are front and center alongside the boys at all times.

Peace (in the think),
Kevin

 

Six Second Stories (or What’s Your Moment?)


Over at the K12Online Conference, Ben Wilkoff quilted together a presention entirely constructed of 6-Second Vine videos, using the overall piece like a canvas effect to talk about how teachers can tell our stories — not just in the larger scope of education but also of the smaller moments in time. Check out Ben’s presentation, and then consider taking him up on his invitation to record and share out your own “moment” via Vine.

Here’s mine. I kept the volume off so as to be less annoying than I already am. Click on the sound icon to bring it back.

If you do create one, be sure to share it out, and Ben suggests the tags: #6secSFL or #6SecondStoriesForLearning

Peace (in the quick),
Kevin

Launching a K12Online Conference Game

k12gamemap

(Click on the image to go to the K12Online Video Game)

I suggested to the various colleagues/presenters in the Game Design/Gamification strand of the K12Online Conference that we try to design a game for participants of the conference to play. The goal was to use game design principles to engage participants in the presentations (still being released over the next few weeks) in ways beyond just “viewing.”

There are two phases to what I came up with. The first phase is a simple video game built in Gamestar Mechanic. You play the video game, collecting “PD points” to unlock the Golden Block of Innovation and avoiding the boring professional PD monsters (ie, slow-moving dragons) who will bore you to death with their droning-talking-presenting, and when you win by getting to the Golden Block of Innovation, you are given a website URL where the second phase of the game takes place.

In that second phase, you earn points by doing things like viewing a K12Online Conference video, sharing with a friend, posting a comment, and earning bonus points for various things. There’s a Tally Sheet right at the link where folks can keep track of their points. And hey .. everyone’s a winner in this game. We just hope that folks get more engaged in the content and in the innovative ideas being presented. The game is the nudge forward into sharing and engagement.

(What? You’re impatient? You want to get right to the second phase and avoid the video game? Sheesh. OK.  Find the direct link to Phase Two hidden somewhere in this blog post and uncover the shortcut. It’s here. It’s not easy to find but it’s here in this blog post, somewhere. Think of it like a Scavenger Hunt round. If you find it, give yourself a point.)

Or go play the video game.

Peace (in the gaming of the conference),
Kevin

Game On – the K12Online Collection

I was fortunate to be the keynote speaker for the K12Online Conference strand of Gamification and Game Design this year. I was also fortunate that others in the strand took on gamification, so that I could focus on video game design for learning. Here are all of the strand’s videos, and they are all well worth your time if you are interesting in gaming for learning.













Peace (in the game),
Kevin
 

A Game Design Keynote Teaser for K12Online

I am honored to be one of the keynote presenters for the 2014 K12Online Conference, which is set to launch tomorrow (Monday) with a week of presentations around gaming, game design and gamification. Here is the video teaser that I made, talking as I play a student video game.

The name of my keynote presentation, also set for release tomorrow (Monday), is Game On: How Design and Play Impact Learning. I even dance in the keynote. I know. I know. The things a presenter will do to get your attention …

My keynote has less to do with overall gamification ideas and more to do with game design elements can be learning elements in the classroom, with a focus on my own sixth graders’ Science-based Video Game Design project.

You can find the full schedule of the K12Online Conference here, and be sure to check out Wesley Fryer’s opening salvo, Igniting Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Peace (in the learning along with you)
Kevin