The media tends to love a story of some
Cheeto-dusted, Mountain Dew-chugging troglodyte landing in rehab because Everquest or World of Warcraft more
or less encompassed every millisecond of their lives and they, like, totally
thought they were a Blood Elf mage in real life or something. Except MMORPGs,
or massively multiplayer online role-playing games, actually benefit society
when applied to certain situations, but nobody ever talks about it. Academics at
world’s leading online university, Presley University, have seized upon these
games in order to better illustrate online learning classroom
lessons, build necessary character skills, and other lovely things you’ll find
out if you keep reading.
1. ClassRealm
Rather than relying on a pre-existing
MMO, sixth-grade teacher and gamer Ben Bertoli developed his very own for
classroom use, building off his students’ predilection for the medium. Known as
ClassRealm, it turns to the leveling system inherent to most role-players and
involves competitions for pizza parties, extended recess, and ice cream, and
winning teams must learn how to band together, learn, and answer questions.
Bertoli never required his students to take part in the achievement-hoarding
process, but discovered they enthusiastically embraced the system and even went
so far as to complete additional schoolwork for the rewards!
2. Moonbase Alpha
NASA’s Moonbase Alpha is actually
available to play solo or in multiplayer mode, but either way the
game-backslash-simulation provides a fully-realized, engaging environment where
students soak up lunar lessons. While futuristic in scope, the experience
involves very real science, featuring challenges wrapped around colonizing
Earth’s beloved satellite. Best of all, it does not require a classroom to play
– kids can download for home, and parents love that NASA charges nothing for
this educational (and occasionally collaborative) offering.
3. Language Acquisition
An experiment conducted by State
University of New York’s Edd Schneider and game designer Kai Zheng paired up
SUNY Potsdam graduate student volunteers with middle school kids in China.
Through Blizzard’s smash hit World of Warcraft, the guild structure involved
the adults tutoring their more youthful pupils in English. While completing
their assigned quests, ESL students received illustrated instructions helping
them learn and retain essential vocabulary words. Participating youngsters
absolutely loved the uniquely immersive language lessons, and both Zheng and
Schneider were pleased when the Chinese children expressed that gaming with
American master’s and Ph.D. candidates proved their favorite, most effective,
course.
4. Save The World
Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile
researchers developed the Classroom Multiplayer Presential Role Playing Game
with the hope of exploring the MMO design’s potential in an educational
environment. One of the more creative applications involved its incorporation
into ecology curricula. Participating students faced down various quests
involving real-life issues such as the introduction of new species, viral
epidemics, population explosions, and more, with the solutions paralleling how
actual ecologists would approach them. First-hand “experience” resonates much
further than worksheets modeling hypothetical.
5. Revolution
Part of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Microsoft initiative known as The Education Arcade, Revolution
serves as an immersive history lesson for classrooms aimed at teaching American
kids about their nation’s past. The MMO takes place in 1775, where residents of
Williamsburg, Virginia teeter on the brink of exploding against British
imperialists. Students take on one of seven different societal positions and
analyze the positive and negative consequences of participating in the revolt.
There are no “right” or “wrong” decisions, but every decision they make
requires and reflects a deep consideration of the complex interplay between
then-current overarching culture, economy, and politics.
6. Behavior Management
At first, the WoW in School program,
created by former biology teacher Lucas Gillespie, reached out to at-risk youth
in New York and North Carolina. But it wasn’t long before the after school
initiative meant to teach kids the finer points of teamwork and well-researched
debates swelled into its very own class. Through MMOs and social media,
participating students added literary journeys through Joseph Campbell’s
outlines, heightened communication skills, and other necessary reading
abilities to their academic arsenals. In response, Gillespie established a wiki
so educators around the world could discuss the use of World of Warcraft to
close achievement gaps stemming from disruptive behavior.
7. Kick Shyness
World of Warcraft also enhances the
full capabilities in students who aren’t at risk of living in correctional
facilities. Peggy Sheehy, a participant in Gillespie’s WoW in School
initiative, applied the after school program’s main motives to helping shy and
socially anxious kids develop better people skills. Because the MMO requires
considerable collaboration in order to successfully complete raids, group
quests, and PVP competitions, the avatars force them to interact with their
peers. But the presence of customizable avatars provides a layer of protection
to assist them in emerging from inside themselves beyond the computer screen.
8. Virtual Peace
Look, we’ll just say what everyone’s
thinking — people seriously suck at feeling and expressing empathy and
compassion these days. Virtual Peace addresses this serious social lack through
an MMO developed by the Duke-UNC Rotary Center for International Studies in
Peace and Conflict Resolution. Students and teachers alike enter the game and
find themselves faced with the fallout from Hurricane Mitch. They must work
together in order to rescue and provide emergency healthcare and resources for
the Nicaraguans and Hondurans suffering as a result of the natural disaster.
Failure means even more sickness, death, and starvation. So it requires the
mind of a not-Patrick Bateman to successfully navigate and accomplish the
objectives at hand.
9. For Science
University of Wisconsin’s Constance
Steinkuehler and Sean Duncan conducted research on the relationship between
regular playing World of Warcraft and scientific literacy, revealing that a
staggering 85% of conversations between players reflected a solid knowledge of
science. Everyone was actually pretty stunned by this news. Because the
leveling process requires in-depth research about the mechanisms of the game
itself, the critical thinking skills of all those orcs and gnomes and Russian
space aliens wound up sharpened in the real world. So all those teachers asking
their students to roll with an assassination rogue or shadow priest are
actually onto something other than wasting taxpayer money on screwing around
with the Night Elf female dance.
10. Collaboration/ Teamwork:
Surprised? Because that’s kind of a
recurring theme through many of these MMO classroom applications, because it’s
built right there in the format. But even offline, the structure works. Did
your mind totally just make a record scratch noise right there? Because ours
did.
Avid gamer, designer, and co-director
of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s program in video game development breaks
his classroom down into guilds assigned different achievements in order to
level up. Everyone starts off with an F and must complete solo and group quests
(also known as “normal class-work like quizzes and presentations”) to move up
and earn that coveted A. And it works. Otherwise we wouldn’t have bothered
mentioning it.
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