AT: Week 9 - Topic Reflection Games, Immersive Social Networking, & Virtual Worlds

Topic Reflection: Games, Immersive Social Networking, & Virtual Worlds

Readings:  - Brooks-Young Ch. 6 & 9
                  - Rosen Ch. 5

What are the possibilities and limitations of using games, immersive social networking, and virtual worlds in the classroom? 

First, I feel I need to state my original position on virtual worlds and gaming in the classroom.  I have heard about the use of avatars and virtual learning and how gaming should be embraced for many years now in my attendance at various state and national conferences. It has never sat quite right with me. In theory, it sounds... okay. Creating a new environment that students are eager to participate in and therefore are more willing to engage sounds great.  But I am hesitant because it feels very faddish to me and a bit hokey. Teaching high school students I have never thought the reward (the learning or the engagement) outweighed the risks (the time and energy spent by myself to learn and/or create these virtual environments or the class time needed to prepare students in how to behave, maneuver, or create in these places.) I see a greater use in classes such as English Language Arts or Social Studies, but in art I see much greater value placed on the teaching the creativity skills, the content skills, the media skills that could be translated to the creation of these very programs in the future. I don't see it fitting in to the bulk of what we are responsible for teaching. Connected to yes, but not a good fit for the way our current art class systems are set up. 

 Probably about five years ago now, there was some hubbub in the media about people being addicted to Second LIfe, people being addicted, having virtual affairs, getting real life divorces due to the lack of intimacy or even real life interactions with spouses, etc. That in connection with all I was hearing in the art ed world about tying in virtual worlds and gaming into learning made me curious, "what experience did my own students have with virtual worlds?" In my own small populace, when I ask students about their virtual reality participation, very few have admitted to using it. I'm not always sure we define these virtual realities the same way - many male students don't define the interactive video games they play (such as World of Warcraft or Call of Duty) as a virtual world. But barely any have heard of Second Life. And Gigapets and Webkinz were all they had interacted with as children. However, very few consider the Facebook games as virtual worlds (myself included, really.). Nowadays I find very few if any are playing the fb games such as Farmville and see it as an annoying thing some adults do on fb. So, maybe my questions weren't worded correctly, or maybe I wasn't asking the correct questions. 

As far as the question, "What are the possibilities and limitations..." I see many of these environments being creative for the teacher but not as much for the learner. Or at least I do when I am in my shoes as Intro to Art teacher. Perhaps if I was a digital media or an AP Studio teacher, I could allow my students to work independently to create these virtual worlds or even programs. It is another way to deliver content, but it seems a little heavy handed, time intensive, and possibly frustrating. I confess that for me, this might just not be where my interest lies and therefore doesn't work for me. In the hands of someone who is very interested and knowledgeable, it might fit their teaching style wonderfully. Right now I am sitting here thinking that I spend a lot of time setting up an elaborate scavenger hunt game based on the Gardner Museum art theft of 1991. With all the time I spend creating badges, and case notebooks, and clues I could probably just as easily create a virtual environment that students could use to solve the case and learn about art history. But which is better? Engaging with peers in reality or virtually? Would they learn more by having a more "realistic" virtual world or is it better to stretch their imaginations through recreations?
I see more value in the power of play and a game than I do in the virtual worlds for many of the reasons that were cited as concerns in the Chapter 6 of the Brooks-Young book: Safety and privacy, technological capacity, cyberbullying, and unwanted content. It also makes me wary that I can not monitor content. Many issues in classroom management are controlled by  my mere presence. And to a point, you trust students with the responsibility to behave and act appropriately. But it makes me worry to know that my livelihood or more importantly the safety of a student could be at risk in any way if I a m unable to monitor student interactions during my class.  

So I see both positives and negatives associated with the content of these chapters. I am still  not sold on Virtual Worlds, but see the benefit to inserting gaming into learning activities. I see a lot of benefit to Project Based and Problem Based Learning experiences, which in essence are elaborate games. Art History seems ripe with possibilities for this as well as students learning about Art Careers. Could students create avatars of famous artists and present a bio of them? Sure, but is that what we are wanting them to learn about the lives of artists? I am not sure the objectives I am trying to engage my students in are going to be met by these virtual worlds. At least not in the classes I teach.