More Learning in 2008

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I knew that being involved in the Emergent Media Center was going to be an excellent opportunity to get involved in a creative and technical field with greater, social purpose that feeds my soul.  I’m not the only one as 60+ students who work at the center feel the same way during the time I interview them for positions prior to hiring them. Being part of a young generation who can have the opportunity to work in areas rarely explored is incredible and, knowing all of them, they would agree with me.

As an example, Saturday morning, October 25, Ann DeMarle, 6 Students and I, flew out to Orlando, Florida for the Learning 2008 conference.

Once again, the Emergent Media Center was offered another amazing opportunity by Elliott Masie to have a group of students create a game within a 3-day period on the topic of “Teleworking”.  This year’s stellar team consisted of Chris Rolfs, Kate Baxter, Max Nichols, Auston Montville, Dan Peavey, and Vanessa Blockland.

I must say, the audience, and even I, was impressed with what they pulled off in the short amount of time they had to research, design and program the game.

I view my job at the center as to not only act as the Project Director and to manage projects, but to also help students manage their lives in many cases.  At the conference, the students were working non-stop.

Almost ironically, some of the topics brought up in the game this past week revolved around the idea of balancing out work and life.  Their time awake over the short period was about 60 hours and all of it was worth the effort from their point of view.  They barely slept, needed to cut loose to release their stress and take a breather, but it was not easy.

It took me a little finessing with the help of some attendees and literally closing a laptop of a student to pry them away the last night so they could have some fun by dancing on the dance floor.

Later at probably around 4am, they started sprinting up and down the long, empty corridors to have a little more enjoyment… There’s nothing wrong with that, right?  I’m glad they had some freedom to have fun, which should be part of the whole experience of having a job in my mind.

When they took the stage the final day, they impressed.

Their game is called “Teletrust” and focuses on how employees of a company need to gain each other’s trust while working from home to complete important individual and team tasks with distractions getting in their way.

My eyes swelled as they presented and showed off the game on stage to the 1,800+ attendees.  They spoke well with confidence.

People laughed and applauded as the game mechanics and in-game jokes worked well.  It proved how the team did their research, listened and created the content based on the Learning 2008 participants’ input, feedback and contributions.  Even Tony O'Driscoll had blogged a bit about it!  People filled the halls after the closing session, while we were packing up and getting to ready for the bus to the airport, telling the students how awesome they are and how much fun they had as participants in the game process.  I believe we even had some “groupies” who hung out during every day to talk and catch a glimpse of what was to come.

The game at this point works and is fully functional, however, the students want to spend this weekend to fix a few game play/balancing issues and minor bugs.  In addition to this, they want to continue developing a side component to the game that makes it modular and modifiable. It is not critical to the deliverable people were expecting, but they thought it would vital for the companies who want to use this tool to easily modify game components, without delving into the open source code, to fit in line better with the companies’ training goals.  Who does or thinks this way other than professionals with a large amount of time?!?!

What a great experience it was to be involved in this great process and event.  Unfortunately, Ann had to bow out as she hopped a plane to Boston on Tuesday, a day and a half before the conference ended, to attend the CIMIT Innovation Conference.  She’s definitely a busy woman… Maybe she’ll read this post to get the update on what happened when she’s back.  ;o)

Down to the Wired

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My class is down to the wire in Game Production I. Seems like yesterday the local paper, Seven Days, wrote about our second class.  It is amazing how quickly a semester flies by! Equally amazing is how deep the learning is for the students and myself. 

The goal of the class is to conceptualize and build a game in 14 weeks. The students (artists, designers, programmers) learn how to construct a game, about the creation process, about roles needed, and how to follow a production method. They apply technologies and skills they have learned in other classes thus building those skills further. It is about games, engineering, art, animation and creativity.

Yet if one was to cut to the core of this class and dig out the seeds, it is about team work. It teaches the skills needed to work and live successfully in today's world. And learning to work together is a vital concern for our global future. As Dr. R. K. Pachauri writes in Greenhouse Gases: The Developed World's Role (Time, Mar. 24, 2008):

"There is need, therefore, for enlightened minds from north and south getting together to define the sustainability imperative and persuade political leaders of the benefits of growth with lower natural resource intensity in all countries — developed and developing."

It is the nature of the team that if it can not organize itself efficiently, if ego takes the place of commitment to the goal, the project fails and so does the individual. Surprisingly consensus does not equal success, in much the same manner as passive aggressiveness does not equal peace.

For these reasons it is a very difficult class. A student's grade is not dependent solely on his/her individual effort. It relies on how they can work together towards a common goal. All this I knew having constructed, taught and guided many courses employing team projects. Yet this class has been different from the formers because the entire semester is devoted to one project. Team skills can not be slowly built on a starter project and then reapplied to another in one course. Likewise for the students to learn, I as the instructor must let go of the reins enough so that they can master teamwork and achievement. No lectures here, instead direction as to process and resources, tuning in, analysis, guidance and response. So this semester, my students taught me a deep message through their experience. It is this: willingness to be on a team and individual effort can not succeed without a solid leader enabling team success. The key being enabling. 

At the start of the semester, the class had four projects in process—each with strong concepts. On each team are members of varying capability, no one team stronger than the other. Yet by midterm, one team had fallen completely apart. A member even quitting the class and leaving the team hanging with no deliverable project! It was not from lack of talent or idea. It was because they did not have an organization or structure in place to guide them through the rough spots. The team leader aka "producer" lacked the experience needed to pull together a resourceful team when crisis hit. He did not have time to build honest dialogue and commitment from the individuals. This team was reassigned. Despite this painful outcome, each member now flourishes on new teams.

Crisis struck two weeks later with a team that looked to be one of the best. It was not for lack of talent—in fact it may be due to it. Strong talents and stronger personalities compose this team. In this case the gregarious and well-liked producer was unable to give hard, meaningful criticism. The strong individual preferences and prejudices could not be balanced towards the goal. When offered the choice to bring in new members to get them to goal, this team elected not to.  This became the downfall. The good news is that after two weeks of struggle, this team has managed to pull themselves together. They were given an ultimatum and encouragement. Roles have been reassigned. They are committed. It looks promising.

You may wonder about the two successful teams. In both cases, I tip my hat to the producers. Both were also relatively new to the game. What they possess is the ability to listen, understand and evaluate their team's personalities, motivations and skills. They balance and moderate the teams. They are strong at organizing, setting goals, giving feedback, being transparent and accountable. Each is surprisingly soft spoken, yet determined to succeed with a resilient belief in each member of their teams. The respect is returned.

During the course of this class I discovered a book through the Center's project manager, Ray McCarthy-Bergeron. He pointed me to "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni. The students read it three weeks ago, within the chaos, and recommend that it be included early in my next course, but not so early that it has no relevance yet. This I will do and we will require it of the Center's project teams. It gives a basic conceptual framework to understand team dynamics.

The class delivered their "Alpha" or near-to-final game tonight. In two weeks final projects are due, pizza is promised. The games are looking strong. Though there is a lot of work to be done, I believe they will all make it. They've learned the lessons necessary to succeed. You can be sure when they do I will post links. 

Two other quick notes on learning and technology, check out the recent SITE blog by Bonnie Bracey Sutton entitled "Toward Digital Inclusion of All Students in a Flat World". She ponders deep questions and suggest sources for answers. In it she refers to a new web site developed for Scholastic and the National Governor's Association on Innovation America www.youinnovate21.net (image above) . I got hooked on the game section.

Also check out Clint Hocking's blog from February26, 2008 on GDC. He responds to a question I posted on the meaning of the potential power of games to influence by responding:

"What does it mean that they do have that power? Well - I suppose that today it means that we have a responsibility to ensure we develop an industry that wields that power responsibly."

All interesting stuff when we are talking about learning and media. I know I'm learning a lot—much from this generation and the media they consume and create.