Voluntary Learning

Continuing in the vein of thought from my, "What is a Game?" post, it's been going through my head about the play aspect of games when it comes to education.

"if its purpose is more important than the act doing it, it probably isn't play" - http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html

Just today I came across an essay at the Lost Garden that says games should grant the freedom to leave and the freedom to participate. With that being the case we have to look more at motivation and keeping people involved. It also seems to mean that games for serious learning goals need to be a part of personal, unofficial learning, rather than an official part of education.

People have been talking about the motivation that is a natural part of games, but that is mostly for those who choose to play them repeatedly. Your standard game is like most of today's toys and tools; single purpose. This means that they are made to do one thing, and if that one thing doesn't interest you, the game won't interest you.

Now, with that line of logic is makes sense to aim for multiple purposes. However, with multiple purposes you sacrifice some of your time and effort from your main purpose to devote to the other purposes. So, those only interested in one thing will go buy the single purpose games they're interested in, and have been trained to look for.

At this point it may look a little bleak, but there is hope. For instance, learning just about anything can be improved when you use high quality teaching methods, but what are they? Sure, a person needs the info to do things, but memorizing facts is not going to make a person proficient in a skill. Yet, it seems really hard to properly quantify a quality. That's where games can come in, as pleasant practice.

If you ask a student today whether they would rather do pages of math & science problems or play a good game that includes that helps just as much, there may be a chance for multi-purpose games. See, up till now they normally aim at competing with for fun games when they are made for more than fun. That is likely the wrong demographic. Aiming for those who want to learn more with less time, effort and pain could do a lot more, if you get the learning methods of good game design to apply to the topic.

Of course, if you ask those same students if they would rather play an enjoyable game that could replace their reading and practice homework, I'd guess you'd have a higher percentage wanting to play the game. Textbooks are one of the aspects of schooling that really don't hold the interest of most students, and reading doesn't have a statistically high retention rate compared to reading and immediately using. This is how the games should be framed for the students, as either an alternative to the normal methods, or as extracurricular activities.

Personally, I'd love to have been able to play a game and get extra credit, or replace assignments with gameplay. Some assignments really don't work so well for this, but repetitive work like math problems, science questions and so on are perfect for game alternatives. Part of this is that you are giving the work a direct, related value for being done.

Another aspect of this is that it can answer the real live usage question and cover some cross-topic aspects of learning. By having the problems wrapped in a relevant setting with realistic results, such as a business accountant for a small business doing different levels of difficulty of math, people can understand the connection to money matters, running a business and some economics in a single game, or game series.

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan
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Voluntary Learning

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Work Ethic and Play

It may seem like a strange combination, but this whole concept is based off of the quote, "if its purpose is more important than the act doing it, it probably isn't play" ( http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html ). The idea is that if the quote is true, which I think it generally is, then work ethic is key to making more of life possible play situations. Why, because work ethic is caring for how well you do the work.

If asked about the purpose of work, many would say that it's to get paid, to pay the bills or both. Those focused on the long term goal loose track of the short term goal of getting the job done, but even focusing on the short term goal isn't enough for this relationship. See, it's still about the purpose, not the doing.

As much as this may irritate people, life isn't linear. Working towards a single goal, long term or short term, can cause problems. How? Let's say you make bagels. (Why bagels, because that's what came to mind first.) In making bagels there are several processes that happen in the kitchen, several business and selling processes as well. Now, if your focus is to do well financially, you will likely start valuing money more than product quality, employees and so on. Putting bagels on tables becomes more important than the bagels on the tables.

This is where the work ethic concept comes into play. If you care more about the doing than the purpose, the bagels rather than making money, you are more satisfied with the customer reactions and being able to continue doing the job, even when things get tight. The money and the quality of the effort are indirectly connected to the pay received to a person with high work ethic. The pay, the goal, the purpose is less important to them than the act of doing it, and doing it well.

It reminds me of the work places where people do what they love. They joke with each other and with the customers. So long as they can continue doing the job, they are happy to continue. How could this help you have a happier work experience?

Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan
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Work Ethic and Play

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