The Book Buyer

We briefly looked at some coding apps near the latter half of class today and while I am sure I can be convinced of their educational merit in the classroom, my extreme lack of familiarity with any of the (very approachable) platforms is such that I tend to get very frustrated at around the 30second to 1 minute mark. Granted this is a case of me not liking something if I’m not immediately adept at it – obviously a trait that should have been ironed out some time ago. Perhaps if I spent some time with some YouTube tutorials I’d be more inclined to dive deeper into some of these coding apps; I have used Twine in the past and YouTube was a tremendous aid while learning some rudimentary code. I would certainly welcome these platforms and practices into my classroom and I wonder if I allowed the students who are familiar to lead a part of the lesson how that transparency on my end (that of not knowing what the heck is going on) would affect my relationship with my students. I’m all for various ways of engaging learners, but I am also mindful of multimodality just for the sake of including multimodality. So if I were to include any of these coding apps, I would want to be clear with my intentions as to why I am incorporating them and if the learning outcome I am trying to reach is best met with these tools.

Here is a link to the first episode of Dan Harmon’s Harmonquest. The popular comedy show was the result of a segment on Dan Harmon’s podcast Harmontown in which him and cohost Jeff Davis would play DnD. The games Dungeon Master Spencer Crittenden became an instant show favourite following his fated guest appearance on the first episode in which Dan and Jeff decided to see how playing DnD on their podcast would pan out. The segment became a defining feature of Harmontown, and the group even went on a live tour where fans from all over the states came out to see the comedic troupe engage in fantasy roleplaying. Years later, Dan’s studio Starburns Enterprise took the segment to a whole new level. Harmonquest features the same staple characters from the podcast with the addition of a new guest host every week. The show switched between live footage and animated segments portraying the collective narration. The popularity of Harmonquest is further evidence of the DnD’s growing fanbase and evolution beyond it’s reputation as past time for pariahs and devil worshipers.

Here is an older article (published around the release of Stranger Things Season 2) discussing the rise of popularity for Dungeons and Dragons. The article opens with a reference to Stranger Things and I think this Netflix blockbuster has had a substantial influence on the current generation’s attraction to the table top roleplaying game. As mentioned in a previous post, Wizards of the Coast sold more copies of DnD in 2018 than ever before. There is now a Stranger Things themed DnD starter set which supports the claim that the show had a part to play in the increased sales.

According to the article, a lot of people got into Dungeons and Dragons by watching people play the most recent edition (5th, released in 2014) online. Podcasts have also created DnD celebrities, live shows of Critical Role and The Adventure Zone are frequently sold out to raving fans. It seems that amongst the many factors that have led to Dungeons and Dragons become more culturally acceptable is its accessibility, inclusivity and use of streaming services such as YouTube and podcasts to reach a wider audience than previously possible.

While browsing for pieces and reflections on the rise of DnD, I came across this article by the Washington Post. The article addresses how the demographic for DnD has shifted to become a very inclusive community over the years. I find this interesting as Dungeons and Dragons may have once been seen as a haven for people that would have been more or less segregated from “the popular crowd. The once typical image of a nerd that would likely conjure up in someone’s mind when they think of a DnD player is the cliche bespectacled, pale, neck-bearded basement dweller. But I would argue that this stereotype doesn’t really apply anymore, and may have always been a skewed portrayal of the roleplaying community’s actual demographic. A lot of celebrities from James Franco, Vin Diesel, Drew Barrymore and many others have opened up about their love of the dice rolling game. Perhaps one of the reasons that DnD has grown in popularity is the fact that a lot of the nerds that may have once felt segregated have become the very people that are in charge of hiring especially in tech-savvy companies. It’s also become a a therapeutic environment where individuals may take on a new identity for several reasons – letting off steam, working through issues, exercise in empathy and more. What I find really interesting is the DnD stardom that has arisen through podcasts like The Adventure Zone, Critical Role and to a lesser extent Harmontown. As technology continues to advance at an increasingly rapid pace, why is it that more and more people are turning to this pen and paper collective storytelling game? In 2018 Wizards of the Coast sold more copies of DnD than ever before. Are computers and electronic devices proving to be somewhat isolating? An oversimplification for sure, but I believe that desire for human interaction has a part to play in the resurgence of DnD as well as tabletop board games.

I’m going to insert the link to the Minecraft Education site here just as a reminder to check it out later. As I shared in class, I want to want to incorporate this into my future teaching more than I currently do. I remember the feeling of being “over” video games as a sensation that spread through my body when I tried to play my PS3 at the age of 25 after having been away from home for a bit – the ability to just surrender to the experience wasn’t there anymore. But I can also recall what it was like as a child to be instantly immersed in video games. I’ve been reading “Everything Bad is Good For You” by Steven Johnson and the chapter on what the unique type of problem solving that occurs in video games shed some light as to why I and countless others are drawn to the medium. As far as Minecraft is concerned, it personally does little to interest me. I find that it is almost TOO open world – which is arguably one of its best features and something that draws millions of its devoted fans. I also can appreciate the impressive amount of educational application that Minecraft offers, but unless there is an explicit demand for it in my classroom, I think I will stick with more traditional means of teaching English. Mind you I said traditional, not to be confused with boring.

While I have yet to attend an actual EdCamp seminar, the introductory video and following discussions have left me curious and willing to try the real thing. The in-class example was very helpful as a brief introduction towards the concept and the discussion that the group I was a part of participated in was very engaging. Our group’s topic of discussion was “how to balance student and teacher-selected texts within a curriculum.” An activity that I’m very interested in trying out with my future class is essentially planning a curriculum using the EdTech “interest board” as a starting point. Since I know there will be concepts and texts that I will have to and want to cover I will include some “mandatory selections” on the board but a fair amount of room will be made for students offer up their own suggestions for consideration. Once a considerable amount of time has been given to brainstorming, I would – like we did in the EdTech class- give students three voting tabs which they may disperse as they like amongst the posted choices. My votes obviously count for 5 – but that should not suggest that I won’t take the students’ choices and interests seriously. As all of this is theory based at the moment I can’t comment on how effective it will be – all of that is a problem for future Andrew (Oh man, I’m sure glad I’m not that guy).

The field trip to Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry proved very illuminating. I really appreciated Jeff Hopkin’s talk about his experience running PSII and the inquiry-based approach the school adopts. I feel it’s unfortunate that there aren’t too many schools at the moment adopting PSII’s approach. I have since looked into ARC middle school and would greatly like to have my practicum at either ARC or PSII. It was very endearing to have one of the students come in and address some of our questions and talk about her experience transitioning from a public school system. While I can appreciate the hurdles inherent in having the public school system adopt a new learning model – especially while figuring out how to assess the new competencies – I hope that the inquiry based approach towards education picks up some traction in the near future. I picked up the book “Dive Into Inquiry” by Trevor MacKenzie upon Jeff’s recommendations and look forward to seeing how I might incorporate PSII’s approach into my future teaching practice.