Thus, I've felt that reflecting on some of those Learning Principles in relation to my own experience and the readings on this and other courses would help me assimilate them better.
Screenshot: by the Gol' Bolar quarry in World of Warcraft
“Psychosocial Moratorium” Principle
The importance of a safe environment has been widely recognized by many educators as an essential characteristic for having learners "to be enticed to try" interesting approaches and learn from their mistakes or successes.
Besides the various environments making this possible (such as the traditional classroom - when it is well used), it's interesting to notice the particular case of learning outcomes since they contribute to achieving this. Discussing the exploration of ideas and the development of creative approaches, Moon says:
“the writing of learning outcomes at threshold is fair to students, provides accountability and a form of liberation of learning, in that it allows for the expression of these higher qualities of higher education learning”
Moon (2002, p. 75)
Committed Learning and Practice Principles
Both in playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (PES) and World of Warcraft (WoW), I get lots of practice: depending on the game, it can take the form of attacking strategies, specific types of shooting skills, fighting skills, etc. Practice after modelling has taken place in a form or another is particularly important when one takes into account the fact that most skills may be further divided in sub-skills.
Identity Principle
The view of “learning as becoming” may be the most important learning principle so far, for it implies all the others.
Mostly experienced in formal or informal learning settings (for instance, while learning about nature as part of my photography pastime), Gee has reminded me of a few “symptoms” of my virtual identities:
- the fact I often restart a game in PES when I feel that I've let my team down (when I feel I haven't played the way I would, ideally, like to play)
- a recently felt “sadness” at killing a rabbit in WoW, which showed the impact of my real-world identity onto my virtual one.
Ongoing Learning Principle
As Gee puts it, “the distinction between learner and master is vague” because as soon as the videogame player has mastered a skill, he/she becomes a novice again (he/she needs to develop more evolved skills or move one level up).
In WoW, this is quite relevant since I don't need to go one level up once I feel that my fighting skills are very effective: the quests that I undertake do it for me. For instance, a few days ago, I almost felt surprised that my routinised fighting skills proved ineffective against one Break-skull Macheroc in the Gol' Bolar quarry who could protect against my magic spells.
My slight surprise may be the expression of the good design of the game: I had received just the right amount of practice. And if I had found it too hard, I would still have been able to choose an easier quest.
I think that for many students, this principle isn't as well represented at school: because of the number of students enrolled, it's hardly possible for teachers to tailor the teaching to their learners. That's one of the reasons adaptive learning technologies can help (computer games, computer adaptive testing, etc.)
However, it is quite relevant to informal learning where intrinsically motivated and self-regulated learners will learn a particular content or skill, which will then open the door to new knowledge to acquire: the metaphor of learning as an adventure which was proposed by Flery is actually the perfect link between learning in games such as WoW and learning in more traditional settings.
References:
Gee, J. P. (2003). Learning and identity. What does it mean to be a half elf? In What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York, Palgrave Macmillan: pp. 51-71
Moon, J. (2002). Writing and using learning outcomes. In The module and programme development handbook. (London, KoganPage): pp. 50-78.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (2007). Football game. Konami.
World of Warcraft (2009). MMORPG game. Blizzard Entertainment.
Keywords: challenge, e-learning, identity, IDGBL2009, video_game, virtual_world, WoW
Comments
Using the game we lastly discussed, here's an example of the power of the identity principle:
I could gradually feel that I was becoming a football player over the months and years that I played PES:
The fact the experience was virtual doesn't matter (too much) because the most important characteristic of a good player in a team sport is to be able to perceive, evaluate and select patterns for action within the global context.
This is quite complex because that context involves team strategy, timing, score, here-and-now goal, location of other players, strengths and weaknesses of each individual players in the team (and in the opposing team), etc.
Actually, what this kind of virtual setting doesn't allow for is technical skills because these require other senses (touch mainly here): I will never be able to be an accomplished player on a technical level by simply playing a video game.
But there are signs - the Wii for example - that future directions, perhaps through the influence of military or other professional simulators, will aleviate this barrage through improved input/output devices.
In the meantime, and like with many things in the e-learning area, a blended approach can fix this issue: for example, surgery students may use such simulations alongside getting real-world practice on laboratory-prepared tissues.
Either way, educational games can greatly benefit learners to become accomplished professionals nowadays: this is because the difference between two workers is now high-level skills (critical analysis, etc.), while technical ones are taken for granted with everyone. And those high-level skills can definitely be the focus of virtual worlds.