Hannah, Steve, and Me

     In the past few days, during the Thanksgiving holiday, I had the chance to reflect upon the many ways I am most fortunate. This is not intuitive since, rather than counting my blessings, I tend to dwell on my disasters. Still, one particularly rich source of joy in my life has multiple implications for learning as well.
     My eight year-old goddaughter, Hannah, spends a great deal of time with me and my wife. Though I will probably be dismissed as being "partial" (which I am) in saying this, I truly believe that she is one of the most intelligent and creative souls I have ever encountered. Everything, everything, is potential lumber in the rich constructs of her imagination. Like many children her age, she has more technological knowledge and ability than I will probably ever have - a skill set that she uses on multiple platforms and devices. Aging knees and a brittle back make it more difficult for me to climb trees with her and do other things that she enjoys in the "real world", so I have tried to find other fields of play that we could romp in together. Over the past few months one of those outlets has come to be the game Minecraft, which we explore using my Playstation 4, IPad, and even Android phone.
     It is not unusual for me to be late for the party and, apparently, many others recognized the educational value of this wickedly absorbing game long before I did. In fact, I have seen a number of articles about how Minecraft  is being utilized in classrooms across the country. The game's makers have cashed in on the mania with a plethora of books, toys, posters, and other marketing. Since the game basically consists of building "worlds" using blocks and other very primitive, simplistic shapes, it seems to me not unlike the Legos and Lincoln Logs I spent so much time playing with as a child. These, of course, are "virtual" bits and bots that flow in electrical currents that can only be accessed with some sort of device, still the similarities were enough to at least get me to experiment with it. Hannah was delighted that her "Uncle David" was taking an interest in something she so loved.
     For the uninitiated, Minecraft involves creating a "world" in which you can move around freely, build things, and fight all manner of other souls. You can choose "survival" mode in which you must accumulate basic supplies and building materials while escaping "zombies" and other dangerous creatures (much like what I did as a school principal), or you can defer to "creative" mode, which gives you the same exploration and building experiences without having to constantly flee for your life. You can enter another person's "world" with their permission and even move about their world with them. Apparently the name of the default character is "Steve" - something that bothers me for some reason that I cannot pinpoint. The psychological damage that could be done to an impressionable eight year-old child by allowing her into my twisted "world", in any form, will not be discussed here. So far, at least, the ill effects have not surfaced and, instead, we have had a lot of fun building our "world" together.

    
     Hannah delights in watching me fumble about, destroy things, and fall from various heights in this virtual world as I do in real life. Still, moving beyond my wounded male ego, I have decided that the learning possibilities in this game abound in areas such as:
1. Constructivist learning - Minecraft involves putting things together, tearing them apart, and using them in ways that might not have been intended. This is what we should be doing with concepts in our classrooms. For example, there are no pre-packaged chairs or couches to sit on in this world. So, you have to use other things such as "stairs" to build them. Need a diving board for the family "pool"? No problem. A few squares of "carpet" connected end-to-end work just fine and even add a bit of color. Because the objects can be turned and otherwise manipulated in many ways, the constructs are almost limitless. The creative and analytic skills that are required have obvious crossover implications for the classroom.
2. Collaboration - Hannah and I build together, and we discuss various strategies to accomplish our goals. While in Minecraft, as in real-life, I often defer to the judgment of my persuasive companion, the point is that communication is fostered and usually leads to a much more attractive and functional "world" than we could have constructed individually. Using dual controllers when on my Playstation, we build, and sometimes rebuild, in real-time. Such team work is an example of collaborative learning at its best, and it takes place in an environment that is much richer than could typically be accomplished in the classroom.
3. Pacing - Because Hannah and I can save our "world" and return to the same point whenever we like, we are not bound by customary time constraints found in the normal classroom. If I am not progressing at a fast enough rate, which is sometimes the case, Hannah can create her own "world" and move at her own pace. Another possibility that she made use of recently was to "move out" of the house we built together in our world, relocate to another locality across the "plain", and start work on her own mansion. I must admit that, at first, I was a bit hurt - I had not been abandoned in such a manner since my roommate suddenly moved out during my freshmen year of college - but I soon felt proud that my little buddy was gaining the confidence to construct her own world. That is as it should be, though I made her promise to come "visit" our original "home place" often.
     As we continue to play with our virtual blocks, I am sure that the teacher in me will find even more educational connections. In a regular classroom there would have to be devices for every student and some way for the teacher to "move about the worlds", but that seems to be a minor problem and it has probably already been solved. As with the other educational games that are out there, a method would have to be found that could tether learning to the standardized testing constraints that enslave our classrooms. Given the enormous amount of research and writing being done in educational gaming, I suspect that this, too, will be surmounted soon if it has not already.
     For now, though, it is enough to romp the virtual landscape with Hannah and Steve. I may never be able to quantify our educational achievements, but the gains in other more valuable respects are immeasurable.

"Making It Happen" in the Online Classroom

     The benefits of project-based learning have been well-documented and they certainly resonate with teachers who favor the constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning. Reformer Dale Dougherty has focused renewed attention on the concept with his "Maker Movement" (complete with "Maker Faires"), but the concept has been around for quite some time and is anchored securely in the writing of educational theorists such as John Dewey. The approach emphasizes that concepts only become "knowledge" when they are "used" in real-life applications. Less famously, but perhaps just as convincingly, the psychologist D.W. Winnecott delved extensively into the necessity of "play" in Playing with Reality and other writings.
     Convincing teachers and administrators to devote precious learning time to the principles of the Maker Movement continue to prove difficult in an educational structure that is so driven by high stakes testing. While, according to Dougherty, "makers" are "in control", students and teachers are, unfortunately, often not. Curriculum and teaching are held hostage as long as what is taught must be demonstrable using a number two pencil and a Scantron sheet. Tinkering in the sense that Dougherty talks about may well be fun and intrinsic to deep learning, but my Dad's Erector set will have an awfully hard time carving out a place in the educational landscape we find ourselves in. Though applications such as Minecraft have been integrated by some tech savvy and brave teachers into the curriculum, the "Maker Movement" will continue to compete with the "Mimic Movement" and probably lose badly in the short term.
     While all of this may seem pessimistic, I hold out hope that the "Maker Movement" will gain a following. Sometimes a recasting of familiar concepts can be enough in today's world where packaging is so essential to popularity. Technology in the classroom offers myriad possibilities and a new playground for the kind of strategies that the "Maker Movement" envisions. As an online teacher in a Master of Arts in Teaching program, I encourage my young educators to create ways for students to construct learning both in and outside of the classroom. Going in this direction requires the kind of personalized pedagogy that incorporates differentiation, personalization, and individualization. It also entails a great deal of time and energy in implementation and monitoring. At a time when time and resources are both precious commodities, it is not necessarily an easy sell - particularly as teachers navigate the first perilous years in their profession. The "teach smarter not harder" mantra may well be true and have a certain ring to it, but the realities of the classroom present a formidable obstacle to buying into the principal upfront.
     Still, as someone who sees my task as being a "maker", in a sense, of future teachers, I remain committed to a constructivist vision for my program and individual teaching. I remember the many hours I spent as a child playing with Legos and Lincoln Logs. If I can communicate the same joy in playing with ideas, then I will have made a strong case for the core beliefs of the "Maker Movement".