For this week, as planned in my
timeline, I have continued with my research and have tried to narrow it down
and be more selective. For this week I
have found two interesting blogs that deal with role-playing games (RPGs) as a
learning tool in the classroom. Both of
these I feel like will be a welcome addition to the sources I currently have,
adding some more real world examples and experiences. However, after last week’s post where I
discussed an article’s definitions of simulation and role-playing games, I find
it necessary to briefly provide my own definition of what a role-playing game
is.
For me a role-playing game is inherently
focused on the development of an individual character, the cooperation of that
character with other people’s characters, and someone taking on the role of a
dynamic and involved storyteller who unravels the world and events to
players. The problem I have with the
definition of RPGs discussed last week is that they do not necessitate a
fictional or fantastical setting. I have
read and played many RPGs that have set themselves in highly realistic
settings. For example there is a game
where you play as Mormons in the American Wild West called Dogs in the Vineyard. So I find the distinction of RPGs being
fictional to be a little antiquated with the state of thriving indie RPGs
filling niche settings and markets. Now
that I feel like I have adequately discussed this I will move on to discussing
some new sources.
There were two blogs that I researched
and wanted to highlight with this post.
The first one I wish to discuss focuses on a sophomore world history
teacher at Native American reserve in Montana named Taylor Nix. You can find an article talking about Nix’s
classroom here and Nix’s blog
here. Nix states that his class was plagued with
apathy and wanted to do something to liven up his classroom and engage his
students. Nix began by having his
students take on the roles of characters who were adventurers seeking
information about different civilizations throughout history. His students were divided into one of two
groups, created characters, and they chose classes or roles to fill within
their group. Once a week Nix would post
quests at the back of the classroom, some were to be done individually and
others to be done in pairs. These quests
would yield experience and items which would make their character more
powerful. This all culminated into what
Nix describes as a “raid” at the end of the unit. This “raid” was organized like a Jeopardy
game with five columns of increasingly difficult questions. The two teams would them compete to win the
raid by answering questions correctly as prep for a test, and after the
question was answered correctly the characters could fight a culturally
specific monster using the results of dice to determine a winner. After the raid Nix had the students fill out
a “field report” about their adventures, which in reality was just a standard
test. For me this is an intriguing
concept, I like how Nix was able to really integrate the concept of an RPG into
just about every aspect of his class. The
rewards that were given for completing quests and raids would serve to entice
the students and to make later raids easier.
And since there are two groups for the final raids, but the quests are
often done individually, there is a certain pressure to do well on the quests
so that you may best help your group during the raid. There is no mention of how these quests or
assignments were graded, but I think it might be an interesting idea to award
better gear or more experience as part of getting a better grade.
The other article I have does less to
discuss the details of how to integrate RPGs into the classroom and is more
about how it affected students as an extra-curricular activity. Brian Foglia is writing about how Dungeons and Dragons or D&D (a
highly popular RPG which has been around for decades) has helped students in
his non-profit democratic school in South Jersey. Foglia discusses how his school’s D&D
club has helped students develop skills including creativity, memorization, social
skills, arithmetic, probability, reading, writing, and as Foglia highlights as
the most important, patience. I find
that this article does an
excellent job of highlighting the skills that children would be exercising from
an average RPG session. There is also
one thing that Foglia writes that I find really resonates with me:
“I hope parents will come to accept that
their child’s natural desire to play is a boon, not a hindrance, to his or her
education. It’s the drive to seek fun and novelty that motivates us to grow and
flourish. Games are educational because they inspire us to delve into new
environments and challenge ourselves — what better way to spend their time at
school?”
I hope that this genius hour project can
help and illustrate this fact. In the
coming days I will be posting a model that will help to explain how I would
intend to implement RPGs into a classroom.
After spending some time thinking on the subject I am considering making
two models. One would be a blend of
simulation and role-play games, something that might be more accessible for
some educators. It would be an activity
that would likely only last one unit. The
other model will be a stronger commitment to integrating RPGs into the
classroom throughout the year, something similar to what Nix and Wells have
done with their class. I look forward to
writing about it and hope that the results will be illuminating for you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment