We’re getting to a stage in the learning game where we should be thinking about ways to help students create connections to each other and to their learning. Handing students and teacher a device that connects students and serves as a platform for the teaching and learning in a system just makes sense, even though it’s not always a socially or culturally or politically accepted idea. That needs to change. Soon. I feel like the political climate for 1:1 (or even 1:3, or 1:10) continues to improve - but we’re still in a transitional place between analog and digital instruction. I can’t say that the iPhone is THE device - I couldn’t imagine writing anything of substance on the iPhone or any other tool without a reasonable keyboard - but I understand why they featured it, as I do think it’s a game-changer, in terms of its functionality and ease of use. Of course, there are plenty of othergame-changers coming to the table at the moment.
I’ve had a cold all week that’s been slowly taking away my ability to think and to communicate at the same time. I’ve been striking back as best as I can, but last night, after the very enjoyable fireside chat session with the K12 Online folks, the cold won the battle. I caved and took some cold medicine. Now, irony of ironies, I can’t sleep, as all of the thinking I was trying to do today was sort of backed up in my brain until now, so I’m learning instead. So long as there’s no talking, I think my brain can keep up with my typing. Maybe. Thanks to Rick, I spent some time this evening at YouTube. Here’s a video that pretty much matches our reaction to finding Cathy’s Book on the bookshelf. Sean Stewart, one of the authors of Cathy’s Book, has an essay on ARG’s posted at his website on ARG’s. Since he’s been involved with the artform/genre/mindtrip since the beginning of the artform, I think he counts as an expert. You should definitely read in its entirety, particularly if you think gaming has a place in schools. This is a little jumbled, I know, between the cold medicine and the excited synapses going off and fighting for control of my intellect. Forgive me. There’s lots of synthesis to do between Stewart’s words and lots of the great conversations going on about how to tell a new story in school. This might be one of those ways to teach the new story in schools — or I’m mixing my metaphors. Either way, I blame the virus.
On the idea of ARG’s not being a new experience, Stewart writes:
By the way, I do NOT assert that the Beast was the first, or greatest,
example of massively multi-player collaborative investigation and
problem solving. Science, as a social activity promoted by the Royal
Society of Newton’s day and persisting to this moment, has a long head
start and a damn fine track record. Not to mention more profound
investigations and way more scandalous gossip.
We just accidentally re-invented Science as pop culture entertainment.
Can you imagine the classroom power of reinventing our content as pop culture entertainment? Sure, there’s some dangerous ground there — but plenty of potential in there too. Feels like the cold’s taking over again — off to rest. And read. Before I go, though, I’m curious — how many of you actually dialed the number on the cover (650-266-8233)? What was your reaction?
I’m teaching a book club class in the afternoons for students who want to take their independent reading a little further. We meet twice a week, discuss their reading and generally do book clubbish things, such as share ideas, questions, and, occasionally, chocolate. There are only two students in the class at the moment, and we’ve been together for nine weeks, so we’re starting to get used to each other as readers and thinkers. We pick the books that we’re reading together, and so it was a pretty normal day when we arrived at a local book store to pick out our next text, as well as some new books for the library that I had ordered. Of course, the book we had selected wasn’t in. But we found something else. A student handed me a black, hard cover book, with the words "Cathy’s Book: If found call (650) 266-8233" written with what appeared to be silver marker on the cover. She asked me what I thought. On a hunch, I asked her if she had her cell phone with her. She pulled it from her pocket, at which point I instructed her to dial the number. She was nervous about that, so she asked me to instead. I’m going to interrupt this narrative to ask you to dial that number, so long as it’s reasonably cost-effective for you to do so. If you’ve a Skype account, it’s probably a free call for you at the moment — go ahead and dial. I’ll wait. From the moment we heard that message, we were curious. Then, we opened the book. Alongside a pretty standard looking book was a pouch full of documents and other stuff: ripped up photographs, a menu, some old letters, and some other odd items. We shared the find with the other student in the class, dialed the number for her, she took a listen, and we headed to the register with our new read in hand. This is an interesting book. Written by one of the creators of I Love Bees, an early incarnation of an ARG (alternate reality game), Cathy’s Book is a puzzle wrapped inside a book and scattered around lots of voice mail boxes, collections of documents, websites, and . . . well, we’re not sure what else yet. We just know it’s addictive and contagious. At least one other student here at school is waiting to read the book, and we’re all reading voraciously; we even met up today during lunch to check in on the progress that we’ve each made. (All of us had discovered different clues that allowed us to access various hidden puzzles. We needed each other to make the picture begin to be complete. VERY COOL.) I like the idea of a novel that uses a narrative that exists in lots of places. I’ve written about this before, but I really, really think there’s potential in these types of stories, stories where we have to access different types of information and begin to make sense of what’s real, what’s relevant, and what’s important to the story. After only a day of reading Cathy’s Book, I’m hooked, as are my students. The only problem I see with that excitement is that in a week or two, we’re going to need another book that engages us in this way. Got any ideas?
Great post from Terry Freedman on possible uses for cell phones at school. Who needs those pesky clickers that only do one thing — can’t we set up cell phones to do that job and so much more? Another question: how long do you think it’ll take some smart thinking company to put together some hardware and software just so we can capitalize on cell phones in our classrooms? It’s taken my school more than a year to set up a wireless network — and it’s still not complete — but the cell companies already have multiple, fairly reliable, networks that penetrate into most, if not all, schools now. I’d gladly spend a little bit of money to piggyback some of our work on one of those networks, particularly since most of my students already carry phones.
