Definition:
The gerund form of “glarn” from the infinitive “to glarn.” To glarn is to learn by gaming. Characterized by abnormal digital environments, problem-based learning, and imaginative preponderances of atraditionalism.
Example: Did you see that new summer camp where kids glarn? Yeah, you can’t stop them from learning.
See, gaming. See, learning. See, the 21st century.
All jovial expressions aside, my point and my lead should be evident. Learning is an age-old experience; to whatever extent you believe mankind goes back in history, so too does the effort to learn. Play is likely just as old if not older. Let’s take a look at two philosophies that are inherent to gaming that prove its relevance in education today.
No other era has experienced play in the same way as the late 20th century into the 21st century. From 8-bit visual depictions of aliens and spaceships to the stunning landscape that is Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, games have been bringing to life the most extravagant dreams of our imagination for forty or more years. While not everyone is a “gamer”, even many parents who just “don’t get it” cannot themselves resist the temptation to pull out Candy Crush or Words with Friends for a little mental floss. And who’s to blame them? I can honestly say I’ve likely spent days in front of the tube myself.
So, what? Listen to James Gee, Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University: “After I played a number of hours [of video games] poorly, I really was fascinated by this cultural phenomena [sic] that, people are paying for a long and hard and difficult thing that has to be successful in teaching them to play it because it will go broke if it doesn’t.” What a stunning indictment. Gee is identifying that video games fail if they do not teach. That they lose money when the student is not successfully taught the subject area of the virtual world. No wonder the industry is failing and is billions of dollars in the hole.
![The X-Men character Juggernaut running through an endless amount of walls.](https://sites.psu.edu/willingworth/files/2017/01/juggernaut-186v1f4.gif)
I expect it will be the next industry to be bailed out for the fact that there has been such a large investment of time and people into it that it mustn’t fail. Seriously, with the Global Games Market Report of 2016 showing a meager 23.5 billion earned in the US alone, we’re in for a real shocker: games aren’t going anywhere.
Satire and poor writing gags aside, the Global Games Market Report also states that mobile gaming made up nearly 37% of the global market in 2016. How can we ignore such a juggernaut? Clearly, these teachers (game designers) are doing something right with their learners (video gamers).
What we have to ask, as educators, is how can we appropriate this practice to ensure that its greatest skills are assumed into our field and its greatest weaknesses left behind? Before that even, how do we decide what is a strength or a weakness of an industry that is not our own? I believe, as the proof is in the pudding, that gaming has clearly identified an addictingly persuasive way to teach learners. It is not behaviorism, it is not cognitivism, and it is not even constructivism. I think it is a natural blend of all of the above that represents each epistemology’s best components.
When I log into a game I’m familiar with, I do not need the built-in map. I’ve memorized the layout.
When I get into a fighting game and use my favorite character, I don’t need a moves list. I know the sixteen-button move combo that will one-hit K.O.
When a dozen or more enemies burst out of the door beside me, I do not need time to think about my strategy. I call out to my comrades online for help, back up from the enemies, and keep shooting.
Each of these examples is an experience I have had that shows mastery of a skill that some game taught me. Imagine this learning objective: “The student will differentiate between the typical, unclimbable rock surface and the orange-textured rock surface that the game engine will allow them to climb.” Trust me, I’ve mastered that. If it looks different, it is different, and there’s a reason. To that effect, I believe that gaming is epistemologically sound and instructionally designed.
While Gee himself is a good example of a non-gamer identifying the fundamental learning principles in gaming, my wife is an even better case study. I have had the privilege of watching her experience gaming as learning. In one sense, watching my wife play video games has become a socio-metacognitive experiment for me. While she plays, I am critically analyzing her strategies, her skills, her efforts, and wondering to myself “how would I do it?” In many cases, it’s helped me identify what skills I have assumed as natural to me (like the ability to remain calm, survive, get headshots, and communicate with teammates in the midst of a screaming horde of non-humanoid combatants who are simultaneously clawing for my digital flesh and screaming to rend my digital soul- imagine that). I do not have to think about reacting to a game environment anymore, but as I work to coach her through it I have to suggest things to her that seem obvious to me. “Look for the orange-textured wall. See if you can climb it.” And, even better, as she begins to identify the patterns in one game, she is learning to employ them in other games. Eureka, it can be done! Learning can transfer; skills honed over hours of repetition can stick; memory can be used! All of these hard-fought ideals of teaching are present in my life because of a simple recreational hobby.
This to me is the benefit of glarming.
WVHI
Class Prompts
- What are the ways in which the learner role is being conceptualized within the context of connected learning? Is it different from how it has been conceptualized in the past, and why?
- Connected learning is characterized through two different experiences. In one way, connected learning is the idea that the learner does not stop being a part of their learning experience: they are members of their learning community and so they are always accountable to that community’s deadlines, updates, and rearrangements. In another way, connected learning is the idea that the learner can integrate into the learning community when and where they want to. These two ideas clash in essence, but practically we see that they truly support one another. When a learner knows that they are a part of a community, they hold themselves accountable to that community. Yet, the learner still retains the autonomy to decide not to participate when they need to. Connected learning is the representation of proper agency in the learner. I believe that this is different from the past experience because agency in most learning ecologies is shared by the teacher and learner. While I am not supposing that connected learning removes the teacher’s role, I think it properly raises the significance of agency in the learner. In a traditional sense, though, the teacher is just as responsible as the learner for ensuring that the practice field is created and sustained for the learners.
- Especially, how do you see the role of teacher as learner and what challenges and opportunities are possible?
- What my above statements affirm is that the teacher role is changing as much as the learner role. And so, the teacher must naturally adapt to meet this metamorphosis head on. What that means is that teachers have to humbly admit that while they are trained in their subject area, they are not the end-all resource for the topic. Therefore, they can commit to participating in the community of practice that they are establishing in their classroom and not suppose that they are in some way a demi-god of learning that is above the mere plebeians that they are teaching. This process reflects the importance of the teacher continuing their education, participating in socio-metacognition as a teaching tool instead of relying on didactic methods. In this way, they are essentially considering themselves the lead learner in the classroom. “Come, follow me as I learn this subject which I will teach you.” In many ways, this might reflect the Christian discipline of discipling acolytes.
- What do you see as challenges to implementing this view of the learner in formal and informal contexts?
- In many ways, I see this as the staple of learners in informal contexts. It is rare that I see a conference attendee, a book club member, or even a churchgoer without their phone being a co-participant in their learning experience. Apparently, we have readily accepted connectedness into our daily living experience. The perceived danger in allowing the same connectedness in formal education ecologies is that the learners may not follow the standard learning path or they may be unruly according to educational norms. However, if we are willing to rethink standards and reestablish social norms, I think we can rise above the way things were to accomplish the greatest learning yet.
References:
James Gee. “Games and Education Scholar James Paul Gee on Video Games, Learning, and Literacy.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNfPdaKYOPI.
Newzoo. “Global Games Market Report for 2016.” https://newzoo.com/resources/.