Week 10: Learning in Video Games and Thoughts on a Domain of One's Own

(Readings at Bottom)

      Recently, I bought a new game for the computer called Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 that essentially allows you to design your own theme park, complete with custom paths, roller coasters, and water slides. You manage it with hiring workers, placing food stands, opening and closing rides, and everything else that goes into managing your own theme park. A lot of learning in this game came from tutorials that you had the option to do. In the tutorials, there would be dialogue boxes that popped up that said what the goal of the tutorial was and give instructions on how to take steps to achieve that goal. There were multiple kinds of tutorials, including how to use the camera (what buttons to press for various camera movements), how to start building your own coaster, how to place paths, and how to change the terrain just to name a few. The tutorials were really a general overview of everything that was possible and ultimately was just opening the door to everything else that is possible. It’s worth noting that all controls on the main screen are image, as in you have to click on the image to do things. The description of the images appears when you hover over it (similar to the idea mentioned in the video about Information: it is on demand. If you don’t know what a symbol means, you can hover over it to see). After I was done with the tutorials, which were relatively straightforward and told me what some of the buttons did, I went to experiment a bit in the Sandbox mode, where you got unlimited money to do what you wanted to do in the park, which is exactly what was talked about in the video about the idea of having “sandboxes” where you could do whatever you wanted with no consequences. I was able to try building random coasters and have inefficient setups without risking everything, which helped me learn more. I continued learning throughout this experience, encountering more different situations. For example, I had a problem with the roller coaster not being completed. The way I had built it, it wasn’t clear how it would come back to the start. So I kept trying various paths, and then when they didn’t work, I just deleted the path and tried afresh, until I eventually was able to complete the coaster. That was then the achievement, and it was interesting to see all of the customers try the coaster and read what they “thought” of it. Of course, it is computer generated, but it does give feedback on how to improve for my next coaster. Doing this over and over reminded me of the “Cycle of Expertise” that was discussed in the video. The challenge was to build a coaster, I kept trying until I got it right, I was able to gain more knowledge on how to effectively build a coaster, which then helped when I started tackling larger challenges of bigger coasters and finding ways for the different coasters to fit in with each other. This is just one example of learning in Roller Coaster Tycoon, but as with everything, there is always more to discover in the game.
      In addition to the connections mentioned above, I noticed a lot more connections between Roller Coaster Tycoon and the video on video game principles. First of all, the game does a really good job with the “Empower” principles: “Agent,” “Customization,” “Identity,” and “Manipulation.” This is all because you get to do everything from start to end in terms of anything that concerns your theme park. You feel like an “Agent” because you are always doing something in the game, be it designing coasters, marking out paths, or placing food stands. “Customization” is very well rounded out, since every player will design a different theme park with different paths, different coasters, and so on. “Identity” is also present, because it is clear that you are the manager of the park and can do what you want. There are also potential goals that can be achieved throughout the game that the game gives you if you don’t do sandbox mode. “Manipulation” is very relevant in this game as well, because just about everything in the theme park can be adjusted to what you want, from terrain to roller coasters to paths to workers to everything else. Thus the “Empower” principles are very relevant in this game. The “Problem-solving” principles are also there, though perhaps not as obvious. The problems that the player encounters are generally problems that the player creates for themselves, like the problem of completing the coaster I mentioned earlier. However, the game does give facts and tools to solve the problem through things like the tutorial and the various buttons that can be pressed to build the coaster track. There are stages in Roller Coaster Tycoon as well, starting off slow and then getting harder and harder as further stages unlock, which is like the “Well-ordered problems” idea, that problems you face earlier help you solve problems later, since the knowledge and skills build on themselves. The game is also “Pleasantly frustrating” in that the problems encountered throughout the game. Already I’ve experienced issues that I can’t immediately solve, but I know that eventually I’ll figure out a way to do it, and that whole process is part of what makes the game enjoyable and helps me learn how to solve similar problems in the future. It wouldn’t be nearly as engaging if I already knew how to solve it all, but since I don’t, I can work at overcoming those challenges. “The Cycle of Expertise,” “Sandbox,” and “Information” was already discussed briefly earlier. The concept of “Fish Tank” is also there in that at first through the tutorials and the early stages, the entire complexity of the game is not present. Instead, it is introduced in stages, starting with something like a small park that is already running by itself until eventually you can design a full park from scratch. Finally, the ideas of “System Thinking” and “Meaning as Action” were also prevalent, since each individual coaster or ride is part of the larger complex park system, and there were a lot of symbols and images that the player needs to know in order to properly use all the functions of the game. In general, I think that Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 covers a lot of what was talked about in the video on learning in video games, providing for a well-rounded experience that allows the player to actively engage with the world and succeed in the game through learning by tutorials and experimenting.

      On a different topic, this week I read various articles about the concept of “A Domain of One’s Own” and the need for students to start having their own, personal online website to showcase their work for the future, essentially as a sort of digital portfolio. The three articles all more or less talked about similar themes, mentioning the need for students to be able to take the websites beyond school and being able to keep the work they did on that, and so on. However, what really jumped out at me was the phrase “reflective learners” in “Becoming Literate Digitally in a Digitally Literate Environment of Their Own.” It was mentioned in connection with students already creating a digital portfolio starting in elementary school, and how they can start the process of identifying their best work. The paragraph ended with the idea that the students will become “reflective learners.” I think that phrase really popped for me in part because over the summer, I went to a leadership camp, and in it the leaders discussed the importance of being a reflective listener. What that meant is being able to understand what someone is talking about, internalize it, perhaps summarize it back to them shortly, then pose a question that leads the discussion further. Of course, in everyday conversation, this isn’t as relevant, but it is especially helpful when talking about problems in life or issues that people are going through. So that’s what a reflective listener does, but I think the fact that I learned that concept over the summer is why “reflective learner” resonated with me. In the context of the article, I think it likely means being able to look back on what you, the student, did in the past and then choosing the best parts to put on display. However, I think it has a deeper, richer meaning when considering the idea of a reflective listener, because how I see it, what it means to be a “reflective learner” is to be a reflective listener of your past self, then talk to your present self about that. What I mean here is to think about what you did and learned in the past, all the struggles you had, what successes you achieved, what was going on in your life at the time, and so on. From that, internalize those experiences and those understandings. Don’t just let them go past, forgotten. Really be able to get a better idea of who you were in the past, in school, at home, and with friends. Once you have a grasp of that, then you ask your present self questions. Are you still the same person you were in the past? Do you understand school subjects as well now as you did when you first learned about them? What knowledge have you added on, or do you hope to add on? Are you happy with the friends you have? Do you hope to grow closer to your family? And the questions go on, all with a basis in that examination of the past self. From that process you try and answer those questions, and for me, that leads to a better understanding of self and what the future of said self is. It’s an opportunity for growth, and it’s an opportunity for learning more about yourself and the world with which you interact. It’s listening to the past self and questioning the present self for the benefit of the future self. That is what the term “reflective learner” means for me, that constant process I just described. Perhaps it is taken a bit out of context given this article, but I think having such a digital page of one’s own can be a tremendous help for being a reflective learner. After all, it is meant to keep track of your ideal self, as was mentioned in “A Room of Your Own (Online).” It can help you reflect on the successes of the past especially and even some times when you came up short. It can also show you how you viewed yourself in the past, and how you may want to update that digital image in the future. It all plays a role when talking about identity of self. It can get very philosophical, since it is all about answering those ‘self questions,’ not only for the present self, but also by looking back at the past self and considering the future self that will soon be the present. I see it as an amazing tool in aiding this “reflective learning” that I talked about earlier. I think what’s really important about this whole idea as well is what was discussed somewhat in “The Web We Need to Give Students,” that students need to have much more say and agency in what they present to the world in this ‘Domain of One’s Own.’ Whatever school runs the website cannot truly capture what the student’s self is, and as a result there is the necessity that students are able to take these digital domains into their own hands with the realization that the domains are uniquely theirs, and they are responsible for them. Additionally, there is the need to have the learning portfolios online travel with them, that they aren’t deleted after a school year, since ultimately, life is about learning, and that isn’t constrained to just school subjects. Students, and even people in general, have an entire lifetime to participate in reflective learning, and if they lack the tools like a Domain of One’s Own to do so, they may struggle to actively do that. Not to say that it is required, but having that active digital tool of a domain of self can be extremely valuable in that process.

Readings for the week:

"Becoming Literate Digitally in a Digitally Literate Environment of Their Own" by W. Ian O’Byrne, Kristine E. Pytash

A Room of Your Own (Online)

The Web We Need to Give Students