Gamers Disrupt Class. Finally!
By Sarah Halstead
Imagine you’re a talent scout for Sony, Nintendo, or a “simulation” software company, and you recruit hot animation, programming, and digital gaming talent for your company’s next generation of products. Where do you look for fresh, creative digital gaming genius? West Virginia, of course. Geek-chic is officially in.
Tucked away in the Appalachian Mountains yet in plain sight from cyberspace, West Virginia’s middle, high school and community college students are getting their game on through the World Wide Workshop Foundation’s local, global, and social media gaming initiative known as Globaloria.
More than 160 students, teachers and administrators in schools statewide are learning and applying basic and advanced computer programming, graphics, animation and game theory to create games addressing pressing social and educational issues. They’re also enhancing their earning power, broadening their study and career options, building niche technical skills and their individual relevance in the New Economy—and having a blast.
Established in 2006 by Dr. Idit Caperton, MIT researcher, Internet entrepreneur, educator and global power-hitter in the world of constructionist theory, Globaloria is in its second year pilot program. The plan is to connect students in Bolivia, Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Israel, India, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, Rwanda, Tanzania, Spain and South Africa. The West Virginia program is one of the first and most extensive pilots.
Its backbone is a network of open-source educational, programmable websites and related wikis and blogs designed to prepare young people to use technology to become makers of games and simulations for the benefit of their communities.
The program targets students who live in technologically underserved communities. A public/private enterprise, it aims to disrupt classrooms around the world with real-world learning everyone can relate to.
Dr. Lee Kraus, West Virginia native, educational technology specialist, entrepreneur and Globaloria project manager describes it as a program where social networking meets global learning. “The program empowers students to learn 21st century skills through game development,” he says. “It’s exciting because it engages students by allowing them to create something that motivates them. The games focus on social or educational issues, but the process of creating them develops knowledge and skills needed to prosper in the 21st Century.”
Globaloria is growing a New Economy crop of “shrinks” who read a situation and bring together the human and material resources needed to complete a task, and “geeks” who have specialized skills for particular projects. Everyone involved in the Globaloria project learns to pull teams together, leverage resources, and collaborate on long-distance projects as well as program and design using cutting-edge software and technology. Educators and students exchange teaching and learning in a top-down, bottom-up approach.
Kraus says the program is more complex than many initially understood. “Some school leaders identified Globaloria as a ‘gaming program’ but it’s far more.
“Participants develop project-based collaborative skills, get a deep understanding of complex interactions in disciplines such as world history, civics and democracy, mathematics, health, science and environment, and engage in a large amount of writing and reflection,” he says.
“Designing and developing games requires advanced programming skills, but the great thing is, everybody’s picking them up as they need them, and at their own rate,” Kraus explains. “It is important that anyone interested in the Globaloria program grasps this bigger picture and comes prepared to work hard--and to have fun.”
Kraus will be at the Create West Virginia Conference October 20-22 at Snowshoe Mountain Resort.For more information on how to get involved with the West Virginia Globaloria project, contact him at lee@worldwideworkshops.org . Read more about the project at www.myglife.org/use/wv
Photo credit: Kristopher D. Lett www.kdlett.com