Thinking out of the (x)Box: Gaming to expand horizons in creative writing

Updated April 11, 2008.

Most people's perceptions of games and gaming have more to do with the arcade or shoot-em-ups that they experienced when they were teens. How wrong (happily) could they be.

Certain games are incredibly effective at generating more expanded horizons in students imaginations when they are writing and speaking creatively or transactionally.

We opened some training sessions by looking at something from which is relatively easy to draw the educational link: the arithmetic and literacy challenges in the Nintendo DS game Dr Kawashima's Game Training. LTS's Derek Robertson has undertaken some small-scale case study work which revealed, in this example at least, some increase in attainment, but, more importantly, a great motivation on the part of students to undertake mathematics drills using the game. The interviews with teachers and students help us see where the game added a certain value, and in 2008 this research is being scaled up to 500 DS users.

We also considered the kinds of skills games can help students learn. Marc Prensky's breakdown of the stages of learning in a game are useful for starters. Most teachers would see the 'how' in playing as the main activity in a game, but moving into the moral dilemmas and complexity of decision-making in more long-term "no endgame in sight" games like Sim City or Rollercoaster Tycoon, we can see that very quickly students are moving into the areas of when, where and, ultimately, 'whether and if' type decisions.

To see where this might head in the very near future, it's worth bearing with Sim City creator Will Wright as he takes us exploring his forthcoming PC and console game Spore:

Expanding the horizons of our imaginations
The environments within Spore are far more graphically advanced and appealing, far more personalisable than anything that has gone before it. While we wait for Spore to hit the shelves, though, we can still get that buzz and expansion of our imaginations by touring around Myst, Samorost 2 or Haluz. Taking Myst first, a $20 game that has been around for 10 years now, we have ample resource on the web already to see how it could be exploited to bring students' use of language up a bar or two.

Maintaining rigour and engagement
Tim Rylands is by far the Myst Master, using the dreamy and occasionally spooky landscapes in Myst III in particular to get students loving creative writing - and improving attainment as a result. LTS has also carried out a Myst case study to show how replicable this way of teaching can be. Viewing Tim at work you'll notice that although the method appears spanking new, the pedagogical background is as firm as it's ever been. I love the use of realia to help students find out what sand really feels like, for example. You'll also notice writing being modeled around extensive use of adjective and adverb, effective punctuation using the punctuation pyramid to differentiate and escalate grammar use:

.
. ?
. ? , !
. ?, ! ’ “”
- . ? , ! ’ “” : ; ()

The result is the kind of writing from young children that is well beyond their (apparent) years. And even with our youngest learners, these ones just seven years old, we can use paired writing to achieve equally magical results. The trick is not the technology, but the support it provides to a great teacher intent on getting kids exploring the wonderful world of words.

Visuwords.com was a wonderful tool introduced to me here in New Zealand just minutes before the workshop in Auckland, which will provide more independent learners with a means of seeing the connections between the basic vocabulary they already have and the new words they don't know exist yet.

The kind of tasks you can do with these games, though, is not limited purely to 'creative' writing in the fantasy-land way:

• journalistic accounts of what has happened (past tense)
• descriptive tourist brochure of the place you are
• "What happens next?" cliffhanger writing
• poetry or haiku (this could even be done through Twitter, as I described here).
• writing a transactional piece of writing (a cheat sheet or walkthrough)

And the writing needn't be done individually: group and collaborative writing is possible, too, either using the technology of Google Docs and wikis for some virtual collaboration, or using large A3 paper, rectangle drawn to create a large margin in which up to four students write a little before spinning the paper to add to their friends' texts.

Other ideas to help structure writing might be found in books that have spawned from Raymond Quéneau's original "Exercices de style". The notable visual literacy offspring from this masterpiece would be Matt Madsen's 99 ways to tell a story, some of whose pages you can preview on the web.

'Free' writing
Buying Myst or a bunch of Nintendo DSes (for which Myst was launched in November 2007) might still be too much of an investment for a teacher just wanting to dip their toes in the water. For that, there are some flash-based free games on the web which provide equally mysterious imagination food.

Samorost is available in two versions. Samorost 1 is great fun, although the opening scene with a hooka-smoking hippy may push some teachers away. Samorost 2 is a great game for all ages when it comes to dreamy landscapes on which to base some creative writing. When I blogged about it last session Kim picked up on it and almost instantaneously jumped into creating some amazing teaching and learning opportunities in her classroom. Thankfully, she's blogged about the process and her thoughts on using the game as a stimulus for creative writing. I don't want to copy and paste her thoughts, so take a look for yourself at this great teacher's work, in particular:

• The initial challenge: students' writing is flat, unimaginative
• Student reactions on a first walkthrough the game: “If I did that - what would happen next?”; “The game is great. The best thing is that you can’t die!” Marshall; “Keeps you working, thinking and playing.” Nadine
• Initial student writings: learning how to compose the introduction to a story
• Six Thinking Hats and Samorost: A wondering debrief on how the logic of the six thinking hats can help us add structure while not taking away the creativity in the process.
• Wondering why students' writing was so much better

I think I know the answer to the last question, and it's the answer with so much of this technology. It's not that the technology is particular cool, funky, well-made or educationally sound. It's that the teacher's style of teaching and learning has almost undoubtedly changed. We've been seeing it since, too, with Ant's students with additional support needs.

Here, in this last example, we witness Kim going from the unknown into the deeper unknown. Living on the edge, not sure how it will pan out, being on the same level of anticipation and discovery as the kids in this new emerging world, means that her practice is also constantly emerging. And that, as I have said so often this past year, is a central key to us doing better.

Are you using games or game-making to expand the imaginations of yourself or your students? Are you talking about it on your blog or wiki, or even sharing your students' work? I'd love to know about it.

Pic: Nintendo DS

Comments

[Gavin Heaton]

I love the phrase "going from the unknown into the deeper unknown". This openness to curiosity is one of the great things about working or playing with kids but it seems that it is something that we lose as adults (though our interest in games and gaming may indicate a rekindled desire). Some great links and food for thought here, thanks.

[Damien]

Ewan,
great blog and thought provoking stuff.

However, I would question one assumption at the heart of your entry - that games have to be bought. I'd suggest that they don't. With a little bit of technical know-how and some guidance from learning theorists (such as Prensky and Gee) teachers can, if they're willing to put in the time, create web-based games using some basic 2.0 services like Flickr, Google Earth and free blogging softwares like Vox and even more primitive ones like that found at Eduspaces.

In addition to being free, using such a diverse range of services encourages the acquisition of some IT skills, encourages free exploration of online materials (hell, you can even get them to post their findings in a wiki) and hits all the cross-curricular buttons that tend to set high-falutin' educators all a twitter.

The Wii and DSlite may be the mutts nuts, but they do have an overhead. Assuming that you can provide every child with a machine with broadband, many excellent games can be devised without having to give Nintendo/Sony any more money. And besides, they should be giving 50% discounts to educational organisations. But that's a whole other story...

[Ewan McIntosh]

Hi Damien,

I've written tons of other posts about using Flickr to create flight of fantasy games, or using blogs and 'hidden' comments to encourage creative writing games. Alternate Reality Games, which I've written about less but read about a lot and enjoy playing myself, use free everyday objects.

My games category might be interest here:
http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/gaming/index.html

and also my bookmarks:
http://del.icio.us/ewan.mcintosh/gaming

[damien]

Cheers Ewan. I'll check those out.

[Eat Sports Magazine]

I use to play Runescape everyday for hours and I felt in my own little world while doing so. Now when I look back on it, it seems like a waste of time although I also think it has helped to gain leadership attributes among others. I've since lost interest in games and now focus more on offering the games to people.

-Scott