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cscase
November 21st, 2013, 20:09
Discussion question:
Do RPGs and platforms like FG have much potential value for use in education? I'm talking mostly about higher ed online education, though I suppose this could be more broadly applied.

Obviously, traditionally they have not seen a lot of use in the classroom (though I am sure there are exceptions here and there), but I say this with the context in mind: The face of education is changing quickly with the advent of the internet. The demand for online education is huge and growing quickly, but by and large, many online programs have been stuck in the paradigm of traditional classroom, and approach it from the angle of, "Let's try to reproduce the traditional classroom in an online format." Having taken my share of online courses and participated plenty of forced forum "discussions," I can say that that just doesn't work.

A lot of work is going on right now from different angles to take the strengths of online format and build courses with those strengths in mind, from the ground up, instead of trying to imitate online something that used to be in person. We already know that storytelling is a fantastic way to communicate nearly any kind of idea and that we as human beings are largely wired to hear, enjoy, love, and retell stories.

I dunno, maybe this is a lame idea. Maybe it would be like attempts to integrate PC gaming into education, producing games that might be educational but that are trite and nobody really wants to play. (You got an A on your paper! That gives you enough XP to reach level 3, and an achievement!) I dunno :P

Just thought I'd toss it out there and see if anyone had any thoughts or anecdotes to share on the topic.

edit: This might ought to have been in "The Commons" forum instead, on second thought. My apologies if I've misplaced it.

Bubo
November 22nd, 2013, 05:58
To be honest, I view the Fantasy Grounds platform as simply a tool to extend the range of RPG. As such, I will be speaking towards RPGs and gaming in general rather than Fantasy Grounds.

As you said, the face of education is changing quickly, although the change is incorporating far more than just the internet. At some point in my past, I was a technical trainer for a large computer company, and I have been studying the subject of Gamification. Due to these, I feel that I can share some insight into this subject.

The question that you raise is a tricky one due to the varied nature of your audience, and the difference in goals as related to the particular subject being taught.

A young child will respond differently than a teenager than a college student than a grown adult. To better illustrate this, one simply has to consider the game "1000 Blank White Cards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_Blank_White_Cards)". This is a game that consists of a set of blank cards at the start of the game. Each player is given a set number of blank cards to literally create anything they want with it. A few cards are kept in reserve as blanks, and after a set period of time all of the player cards are collected and shuffled together with the reserved blanks. Cards are dealt and played, with the game and goal evolving through the cards created by the players themselves. Blank cards are considered wild cards that can be turned into playable cards by the player that draws it from the deck. A deceptively simple game, the act of play can reveal many psychological and sociological elements of the players. Younger children will trend towards simple by flashy cards such as "I Win" and the like. In Modern American society (simply because I am not as familiar with other cultures), as the player ages, their strategy will turn more tactical in nature, and then trend towards various personality nuances such as cynicism or humor as they leave "childhood". RPGs are simply another blank card game, and the "players" being exposed to it in an educational system will exhibit a similar range of responses as shaped by their particular personal experience and cultural exposure.

Couple this with the varied result needs of different class subjects (for example, grammar classes may want to focus on descriptive or story elements while math may focus on the formula inherent in the game system) and prevalence of cultures with such high student to teach ratios in the world, and you'll find that it is a herculean task to create a "role play" that can be applied as a universal tool to different groups of students for different subjects. A Storyteller that wants to take on this challenge will find that the best effort for a true application of RPG to a multitude of classes will treat each set of students (for many given variations of set) as a different "group" with storylines hand tailored to both the group and subject. To that end, this is a subject that is difficult to discuss in the macro sense that you are approaching it.

However, this does lead to another concept that is very similar and may prove of better worth to you. The modern subject of Gamification (due to a general distaste of this name in the professional world, this is also sometimes referred to as "motivational design" or "human focused design") is the idea that elements drawn from games can be applied to non-gaming formats. At this time, most people will have been exposed to gamification elements via video game achievements, loyalty reward programs, and motivational programs. The simplest concepts of gamification is the idea of taking "points", "badges", and "leaderboards" and applying them to tasks that you want to encourage, usually with an associated "reward" to enhance that encouragement. The actual subject is extremely deeper than what I've listed here, with concepts of "intrinsic vs extrinsic motivators", "activity loops", and "behaviorism" representing just the tip of the iceberg. This is not the proper forum and I'm not the proper to teacher to really go in depth into this subject, but Coursera does offer a free course on the subject from Kevin Werbach of the University of Pennsylvania. I believe that you may find what you are looking for in this subject, if you apply gamification with an RPG theme (i.e. "XP" instead of "Points", "Levels" instead of "Badges", and with a strong story linking everything together).

GunnarGreybeard
November 22nd, 2013, 08:50
When I was in middle school for a math/statistics elective class we spent the entire semester playing Statis Pro Football and then used the game results for math purposes so I guess if done the right way it could be useful for teaching certain things. Probably the best thing I can think of, and what I have used it for my kids and their friends when they were younger, is problem solving and teambuilding.

dr_venture
November 23rd, 2013, 18:33
There is tremendous potential for RPGs to offer autistic and emotional/psychological challenged people an opportunity to explore relationships with others outside of themselves. One session with my son made a marked difference in his ability to interact with others in the real world, all stemming from the otherwise completely unremarkable interaction between his characters and a wandering group of gnomes in a dungeon who asked, "And are you having a good expedition?" In the real world, he would simply avoid such conversations, but in the pretend world, he worked very hard to collect his thoughts and tell the gnome how he/his character felt. It was a pretty big revelation to me, and I bet there are plenty of other people out there who would have similar responses to such situations... just for playing a game.

The other use that I've discovered is placing historical events into a much clearer perspective, in terms of relating events to other events. In my old west game I had to pick a time period for the game, and things like where or not the transcontinental railroad was completed yet, and what types of guns were available, whether the telegraph existed and how prevalent it was, what was the state of medicine in the 19th century (answer: it went from basically medieval to the dawn of modern medicine in 100 years, so it depends on your selected game date)... all became questions that needed addressing and to be put in context to each other. All of them required a moderate amount research on the Internet. In the name of having fun, I was suddenly able to relate these events with local history in a way that was relevant to a specific time period, and it gave me a *lot* more clarity as to how those events unfolded and related to each other. I probably learned far, far more about 19th century American history than I ever did in public school, just because it mattered to me.

Griogre
November 23rd, 2013, 19:27
I've found that for younger children, dice in RPGs can be used to teach basic probabilities and then the usual visualization of problems and abstract reasoning. However, like dr_venture, in adults I found running Ars Magica taught a great deal of historical development of the setting timeframe. IE there were no pockets during the time of the middle ages Ars Magica is set in.