The Fun Theory by canttakesky

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

The Fun Theory

POSTED BY: CANTTAKESKY
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 18:04
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VIEWED: 916
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Monday, January 24, 2011 5:33 PM

http://www.thefuntheory.com/piano-staircase

Fun is the best way to change behavior.

So, how do we make not polluting our environment fun? :)

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 6:31 AM

DREAMTROVE

awesome.

Also, I noticed more people click on the video if you embed it ;)

Additionally, learning can be fun, if you sneak the learning into the fun. I learned to type playing action video games on the apple ][e. They were all keyboard, and if you took your eyes off your guy in stick situations, you died. So, you had to type real fast, and not look at the keyboard.

No one plays "learning games" but I don't think it's an edu-phobia, it's just that the learning games were primarily designed for their learning value, not their game value, so they weren't as much fun. I could have played more "type attack" but nothing much would happen, and in a competition, I would lose to any secretary. (As I often did). Something like Aztec had me going through ancient ruins to find objects and treasures, fight monsters, and fall down stairs. While typing very quickly.

I actually recently suggested while doing this cancer research that what we really needed were some great new videogames.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:11 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

Most excellent, thank you! Of course, then comes the question of whether it uses more energy to work those stairs than the escalator, in which case, it kind of defeats the purpose. Tho' it does help with health, so there's that...

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:15 AM

THEHAPPYTRADER

That is so cool!

Far as Ed related phobias are concerned, Educators are often hesitant about utilizing new technology, and are often criticized for it, but I think folks should spend 2 weeks at a brand new school or a school that just got some new form of technology before they brand all teachers technophobes. I did my student teaching in a similar situation and this "great new technology" was constantly malfunctioning. Their computer programs were losing grades and attendance data at least once a month and it seemed half the time you weren't even able to log into it. Now, the program was a great idea, it was designed so that parents can go online and see exactly what's going on in their children's classes, what grades they are getting, etc... the problem was it sucked, and this is more often the case than technophiles are willing to acknowledge.

Considering the limited amount of time teachers have to address their state standards, can you really blame them for preferring to keep their records in Microsoft Excel or on paper and sticking to lessons that utilize tech they know won't fail them like pencils, paper and a dry erase board?

Also, try filling every classroom with enough working computers for every student.

I try and make my own learning games from time to time when I teach lessons. They work great for jeopardy style reviewing of concepts and vocabulary.

It occurs to me now, that you might have been going in a different direction concerning education games and their lack of popularity. I think the best games that teach something, teach a little problem solving. In the Myst series of computer games, for example, you're searching for clues and using problem solving to do something like figure out how to get exactly how many volts into the spaceship on the island so you can open the door. Now, you can't really just guess, try door, and guess and try again because the generators are underground and several screen changes away. The clue to the exact voltage is in a book in the library, and the generators are inconsistent (likely damaged) so you have to figure out exactly which ones to bring on line to get your precise voltage. Assuming you get all that done, upon opening the spaceship's door, you find a keyboard instrument in the background. There were keys marked in another book in the library and it turns out there's a musical code required to... well I won't ruin it for you

but you can see what I'm getting at. Problem solving is the best thing we can teach children. That's where they learn to make use of their knowledge, outside of just regurgitating answer onto a test sheet.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 11:44 AM

DREAMTROVE

Happy.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of half a dozen of those parkour guys in a flash mob could play beethoven, and that would just be fucking awesome.

At last, a use for synchronized dancing.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 1:11 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Ah indeed Happy, I remember those days - luckily my business teacher, which got stuck with trying to teach computer lit, and wound up with a broom closet, a couple TSR-80 Model I's and a manual, had a secret weapon in the person of the antisocial kid who had his own TSR-80 Model II COCO long prior to that, and was annoyed enough at the ignorance of his educators, not to mention so-called-peers, that he rose to the challenge...

Not that this was unexpected given I was already maintaining the overhead and reel projectors since otherwise they'd be unusable as there were no funds available to have them repaired.

This also encouraged them to look the other way concerning my habit of occasionally subbing porn reels for education material cause I found it amusing.

It bothers me that education these days is expected to be such a passive one-way street, if you get them INVOLVED in their own education, you not only save yourself a lot of work, but the kids learn vital skills - although since one of those skills is critical thinking and our current educational system seems hell bent on crushing it out, I can certainly see why.

I gotta say though, technologically....
I had a set of encyclopedia britannica my mom got from a yard sale, otherwise unaffordable, and very much enjoyed it - thus when I first encountered an encyclopedia on CD-Rom, complete with multimedia presentations I was practically ecstatic, and nowaways, hell, we have the internet, the combined knowledge of humanity itself, right at ones fingertips!

To not make use of that in an educational context is downright shameful, you ask me.

-Frem

I do not serve the Blind God.

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011 6:04 PM

DREAMTROVE

Anyway, yes happy, skills. Hidden in the game. But lots of skills, problem solving ones are good, But there are many. I'm designing a game right now where players will hwve to research online for information in order to survive in the game, but it's not an edugame, it's an RPG. But it's going to get them digging through wikipedia et al, still the main purpose is to entertain

Most people miss this:

Games have to be fun. I'm all for educational elements of all content, but if you are doing satire, your main job is to be funny. If you make politically commentary through it, fine, but if your not funny, I'm leaving.

If a writer wanted to hit me over the head with a message, I'm gone. I didn't come to have him tell me right and wrong or how to live my life, I came to be entertained, and any message or insight is welcomed if it's new, and holds some truth, and it doesn't totally fuck up the story to the point where you realize that the story was just a construct to make this point.

Because, if your just there to get a point across, make it. Say "democracy is hoax, it's a choice between two members of the same elite every time." don't waste my time getting around to saying it

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