Thomas & Brown (2012) highlight and exemplify the every changing atmosphere that the education system is in. Education is at a crossroads facing the past and the present. 20th Century education on one side and 21st on the other. They define that learning has transitioned to online communities with their own cultures embracing one another to foster growth an being ethical digital citizens. (ISTE) That teachers need to revolutionize their educating format to promote this “new culture of learning”. Herring et al. (2016) embrace this challenge to educate educators on TPACK and how technology can be integrated in the classroom. Thomas exemplifies this through his experiment of utilizing Star Wars Galaxies in his classroom and how that enhanced the learning of all students. Along with the example of learning code through the act of “Googling” there are many stories of learning through online communities. As a computer science major, I am familiar with the many ways that if code broke/failed to compile/run, Google and GitHub were the saving graces of learning. Even my professors were telling us to Google and learn more through internet sources. As an undergraduate student this was a shocking expression to be told from my teachers, but I lived by that rule through college. Along with the help of a certain duck. I can also relate to learning from video games and other forms of media as I can recite the story of any book or lore of my favorite game to the ends of annoying my parents. It wasn’t until my dad worked at Purdue that he tolerated and saw the benefit of being a part of an online community.

Even with all this experience, I still fell within the “mechanism” of analog teaching and learning and it wasn’t until seeing what this course can offer that changed my view of how to integrate technology. Mundy et al. (2012) and Herring et al. (2016) helps showcase this hinderance caused by established beliefs. Which will unfortunately have educators both in active or preservice keep choosing the path leading to the past

References:

Thomas, D. & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning. CreateSpace.

Herring, M. C., Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2016). The Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) for Educators (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Mundy, M.-A., Kupczynski, L., & Kee, R. (2012). Teacher’s perceptions of technology use in the schools. Sage Open, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244012440813

ISTE | 2. educators. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/educators

Thomas & Brown (2011) once again highlight the importance of being a student within the collective. How that collective can embrace the member and allows them the freedom to participate with privacy by also publicly. They also highlight how this collective and learning culture is present within games. Games result in creating an individual that not only is part of the collective, but learn many important skills and behaviors through this collective of gamers. From bottom line measurement, diversity, and engagement, to problem solving.

Video games are an avenue of cooperation, team dynamics, leadership, and problem solving. Like Thomas & Brown (2011) showcasing raids in WoW, I have been an avid gamer of high-skill PvE and PvP content in my chosen video game -Destiny and Destiny 2. Like WoW, these raids require teamwork, role management, communication, and problem solving between the team of 6 people to complete the activity. The first blind completion of these activities are the pinnacle of accomplishment for all players. These activities also embody the ISTE standards for students as they incorporate every aspect to complete the encounter. From being 1.1 Empowered Learner learning the activity and completing the goals to 1.7 Global Collaborator as these activities have bought me to complete them time and again with people from all over the globe and forming connections with them through this collective.

Molebash et al. (2003), along with our WebQuest PBL, highlight how games can be utilized to engage, enhance, and extend the learning of our students (Kolb, 2015).

References:

Molebash, P., E. and Dodge, B. (2003) Kickstarting Inquiry with WebQuests and Web Inquiry Projects, Social Education 67(3), pp. 158-162

Thomas, D. & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning. CreateSpace.

Kolb, L. (2015). About - triple E framework. Triple E Framework. https://www.tripleeframework.com/about.html

ISTE | 2. educators. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/educators

ISTE | 1. students. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/students

These next two chapters were hard for me to place in respect to the content of this course. The concepts of knowing, making, and playing remind me of readings about childhood developmental psychology that alludes me. The quote of these two chapters that sparks any discussion is: “The Internet can provide access to an immense amount of information related to their particular interests…”(Thomas & Brown, 2011, p. 104). This quote extends of the purpose of integrating technology in engaging ways for the purpose of active and meaningful learning (Kolb, 2015).

When looking at making and hanging out as points of discussion, that addresses ISTE standards 1.4 Innovative Designer and 1.6 Creative Communicator (ISTE). Technology is the avenue where students will engage in communication between global peers in create ways through the use of incorporated technology and designing communication/responses of their own.

During the time ANCOL’s publication, it was the beginning of a new age of social media: Snapchat. This became the ‘hub’ of social interaction as everyone was sending “Snaps” between one another and the expansion of “Hanging out”. Along with this was Instagram which took the social sphere by storm creating a new age of students learning how to be Digital Citizens and a Global Collaborator (ISTE). Students were interested in how to create engaging posts and viral accounts and embrace the social media world. While these were after school activities, educators could have integrated this new tech into their instruction to enhance their learning and fulfilled their rules as established by ISTE Standards for Educators.

References:

Thomas, D. & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning. CreateSpace.

Kolb, L. (2015). About - triple E framework. Triple E Framework. https://www.tripleeframework.com/about.html

ISTE | 2. educators. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/educators

ISTE | 1. students. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/students

In the culminating chapter of ANCOL, Thomas & Brown (2011) highlight all aspects that WoW , along with other video games can be used to exemplify the ways that play engage, enhance, and extend (Kolb, 2015) the learning of individuals. Highlighting how they create digital citizens, collaborative communicators, thinkers, learners, and designers (ISTE) to solve the problems and encounters of gaming activities/raids.

As I have stated before, I am an avid gamer that also completes social raids (though a different game) along with other online/multiplayer games. My knowledge of lore from these games has not only engaged me in the story but also extended that engagement into the real life influences of each aspect of the source. Destiny utilizes historical context through the formation of enemy factions (Cabal being Roman military based), Genshin Impact has their story rooted in different cultures folklore and Gnostic roots, and Detroit: Become Human address themes of Civil Rights, immigration, and The Holocaust.

These video games can be utilized not only for play, but teachers could reference/utilize them to foster 21st Century scholars.

References:

Thomas, D. & Brown, J. S. (2011). A New Culture of Learning. CreateSpace.

Kolb, L. (2015). About - triple E framework. Triple E Framework. https://www.tripleeframework.com/about.html

ISTE | 2. educators. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/educators

ISTE | 1. students. ISTE. (n.d.). https://iste.org/standards/students