My First Raid: In Praise of Guilds

Last January I began to really begin playing World of Warcraft.  On Friday I got to participate in my first raid. My guild was short a person for a raid--so they invited me along.  I was definitely the weak-sister in the crew.  I had the lowest gear rating and least skilled.  I spent a good share of the raid dead on the floor, or for a while in a deep pit.  I much prefer the floor--you can watch the battle and learn about techniques!  I had a great hour of play and learned a lot.

I've been playing this game so that I can help find ways to use adolescents' passions for games and the skills and strategies they have learned to pull them into literacy development.  My lessons on Friday were many.

1. Work ahead of deadlines!  [I took time from my guild to help me make modifications to my armor that I could have done myself.]  I think this is a particularly valuable lesson for students.  If you are working ahead you profit more from instruction!  In other words--the prepared are better able to advantage of opportunities.
2. Guilds are wonderful!  My guild is comprised of educators.  We all have interests in how to use gaming for educational purposes.  While playing you can ask for advice or help.  Often the guild members will give you gear or actually make things for you!  
3. My guild also offered very helpful advice about strategies during the raid.  In my case it was mostly keep working on improving the "level" of my gear.  But with each other they had great suggestions for how to improve play.

How does this  connect with literacy learning?  First, I think it connects to choice and collaboration.

 I've been involved with a learning management system, 3D GamesLab for a number of years.

One of the quest lines I've been working through is related to gaming theory in education.  I chose this quest line because of personal interest--gaming is getting in the way of my son's life--and because of the number of adolescents I meet in schools whose lives pretty much revolve around gaming.

It's been a great experience for me.  I've "leveled up" one character and have been working on getting a high enough "gear" rating so that I could raid with my guild.  [For those of you who are unfamiliar with video gaming--a raid is when 10-25 players work collaboratively to defeat a particularly tough challenge in the game or in a fight against another team. Gear refers to the various pieces of armor and clothing that help build up your defenses against attack and make you stronger.] It's amazing how much socialization and teamwork is required to be successful in the MMORPGs

Me and the Amish!

Sunday I took a walk on our Greenbelt.  I'd just finished teaching Friday night and Saturday, a course in Advanced Content Literacy.  Of course I infused the course with lots of technology.  In fact, we're trying out 3D Game-Lab as a learning management system (instead of BlackBoard).  At one point my students asked, "Are we in a technology or a literacy course?"  (I think they were joking--the response so far seems good!)

I was thinking about these things and what I would want to modify next semester while I walked.  I ran into a group of four men dressed like Amish who were speaking in something other than English (German?)--I didn't follow them to try and find out.  I was in shorts with my iPod going.  It suddenly crossed my mind how completely they would be flummoxed by my uses of technology in learning!  Later I ran into a young family who appeared to be attending the same conference. 

Our lives are full of extremes these days. I think this accellerates because of the extremes.  The universe is self-correcting.  If we go too far to one extreme then an opposite extreme will pop up to create balance.

Well back to work--or perhaps I'll go watch Star Trek: The Next Generation.

CCSS-Mind Control

CCSS-Mind Control

Just heard some NPR converage of CCSS yesterday.  http://www.npr.org/2013/07/23/204516709/teachers-hit-the-books-to-master-new-education-standards

They were reporting on the East coast teacher development.  It scared me a bit.  They said teachers were planning to teach fewer titles and go more deeply into them.  Also that they weren't going to spend so much time in prereading activities.  I think they are getting away from the idea that teachers can choose how to reach the standards.  This sounds like heavy handed control of curriculum & instruction.  (Also--somewhat in direct opposition to what we know about the importance of background knowledge to comprehension.  Starting students cold in a book with only widen the achievement gap!  The kids who don't come from white upper/middle class homes are going to sink in this approach to CCSS)

Right now my Advanced Content Literacy course is reading some YA books related to an inquiry unit on media effects on society.  The books we're using probably wouldn't make it into the curriculum if we only had 2 books to teach in a semester.  I'm pretty certain "they'd" choose ​The Great Gatsby ​instead!

The books we're using are  

• The Carbon Diaries:2015 , by Scai Lloyd
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Beauty Queens, by Libba Bray

One of the things I am pretty convinced of is that too often we bore students by taking too long with particular books or units.  Our students are used to fast-paced lives.  I can't imagine being forced to tear apart a book that I hate for months!

I suppose I should add a comment to the NPR website on this!

Greetings World

Some of you follow my book blog (lee'sbooks.blogspot).  I've finally decided I need two blogs.  One for my reading and one for my explorations in Literacy and Technology.  I also began a twitter feed this spring.  Maybe my ego is inflating too much?!

I was helping a student today with an interest and guided her to John Greene's video blog (vlog) The VlogBrothers.  There are two that I would like to share and comment on.  The first is one from his "sub," Maureen Johnson, while he's on paternity leave.  She's addressing dealing with differences of opinion in public conversations.  The keeper line I've gleaned is. "We're just learning the language of mass discussion!."  It's well worth listening to this new voice on the vlogbrothers:

I found the previous video because I was looking for the vlgbrothers and only knew to search for John Greene.  I am, perhaps, not watching enough YouTube!  John Greene was brilliant in the following comments about censorship of YA books in schools.  (He's responding to an attempt to ban his book, "Looking for Alaska."

As we move into CCSS these are excellent examples of argumentation.  Examples that we might share with students (well--probably jr/sr high students).