It is no secret that students hate English class. The bold ones will remind you of this fact on the first day… and the second… and three weeks in once they see their grades. The challenge as an instructor is to create a compelling learning environment that forces them to engage with text in all the necessary ways, but also keeps them excited about learning. In my experience the only thing I’ve found that keeps people excited and engaged for that long a period of time is a video game–specifically MMOs. So, obviously, I turned my class into an MMO.
I call the game Dominion. The backstory is that control–of ideas, values, virtues–has been taken out of the hands of the people and quietly placed in the hands of a cadre of corporations who control various aspects of the social message through movies, books, religion, etc.
The students start off the game (the first day of class) as freelancers taking jobs from these different corps. The jobs involve writing, research, and rhetorical analysis. They are being asked to deconstruct arguments, create marketing campaigns for specific audiences, even propose specific actions in regards to local and global situations. Each job is worth a certain amount of experience, which leads to students gaining levels. The higher their level, the higher their grade. Those who make it to level 10 will earn an A.
I’m conducting this game in two learning modes. There is an online class doing the game and a two face to face classes doing the game. This will give me small sampling of the student experience and help me make any relevant changes to the model this summer (for online) and fall.
I’m pretty excited about the classes. I even assembled an opening video with animoto to get them hyped for the game. You can find that here.
Some Thoughts:
- Flag football went as well as it possibly could. 4 games and 4 wins with the kids playing their tiny hearts out. I’m a proud dad after that effort.