We are excited to announce that Global Challenge 2.0 | Metamorphosis was recently nominated for the Breakthrough of the Year Award at the Falling Walls Competition in Berlin. The category was the Future of Learning.
The project was presented to the competition in the following way:
Core Idea
Global Challenge. 2.0 | Metamorphosis is a game-based learning system for social studies classes.
Short Description of the Project
Global Challenge 2.0 | Metamorphosis turns the class into a game developing and problem solving team. After receiving simple rules, students create questions from the course content / curriculum. During the game, they answer these while playing out different scenarios on a world map. As a result, students learn, not in anticipation of a test, but by preparing for and playing the game.
After seven years of using the game in my world history classes, I pursued graduate research on the underlying phenomena, i.e. participation / engagement in a game-based environment. The result was an “emergent” theory of education, e.g. class behavior was similar to how the internet took shape following the introduction of user-generated content in places like Wikipedia or on blogs and social media. Using the powers inherent in self-organizing systems, Global Challenge 2.0 is thus a social studies game and an experiment, which lays the groundwork for a new model of education.
What is the problem your project is trying to solve?
Simply put, this project is trying to solve the problem of how content is delivered to students. But, it also works on the problem of what kind of content we choose and how it will be absorbed by students. As I learned from seven years of observation and research, students simply learn better when interested in a subject or when in charge of the method of how they learn.
Methods advocated in this project challenge the centuries old model of education where subject matter is delivered from the top down, categorized, static (not evolvable), applied in the confines of the classroom and assessed using standardized testing. LIke a genetic algorithm in a simulation game, every player in the old model is limited by the code and confined to the platform. Choice, creativity, student enthusiasm, engagement and progress are not necessarily priorities in such a system.
Global Challenge, in contrast, was intended to dramatically shift this model and open up the door to a new, fun, student-centered way of delivering content to students. It would effectively tackle the problem of student engagement and participation in a world history or social studies class.
The scope of the project evolved over time to be wider and potentially more impactful, aiming to work on the problems of a.) student engagement and participation; b.) connectedness or how a student sees the way a subject connects to other subjects or life outside the classroom; c.) preparedness for real world situations, e.g team building, collaboration, finance, interpersonal, social, emotional intelligence, political skills, etc. and d.) neurodiversity and the differently intelligent - or not addressing different types of learning and thinking in the classroom
Please describe the successes your project has already had, as well as the ones you wish it to have in the future.
Some of the best successes have been more qualitative than quantitative. On one occasion in the early years of the game, I saw a student at a local library with big maps sprawled out over the table. When asked what he was doing, he told me he was preparing for the game. I was a little surprised since this particular student was not normally one of the top performers in class. In fact, he was usually near the bottom grade-wise. But, he was "fired up" about the game and couldn't wait to get started.
On another occasion, it was the last day of school and students were supposed to be going home for Summer vacation. Yet, a few students walked into my room as if Global Challenge was still going on. They were discussing strategies and such. As much as I appreciated their enthusiasm, I had to assure them the game was over and that they could take a break if they wanted. I might have suggested that they write up some ideas and suggestions for the incoming students for the following year.
During the fifth or sixth year the game emerged into a local TV show on a community access TV station. Only the best players were selected for this, but every other student would be part of the supporting cast and crew, helping their teammates out. This added an extra layer to an already motivated group of students.
Growing larger still, the game was featured on local TV news and teachers from other schools began asking me about the program. On one trip to the United Nations, a future assistant to Kofi Annan (Hassan Ferdous) asked if I would present at a future conference.
The project resulted in many positive reviews from students, teachers and administrators. https://buff.ly/2Ue07O4. I would also end up giving away dozens, if not hundreds of free copies to teachers in places all over the world.
Information gathered during the seven year project was used to explore new models of education resulting in a Complex Adaptive Theory of Education. https://buff.ly/2H1fukA
Moving forward, I hope to bring this game to a digital, internet environment so that students and teachers might share and adapt this game as they see fit.
Global Challenge. 2.0 | Metamorphosis is a game-based learning system for social studies classes.
Short Description of the Project
Global Challenge 2.0 | Metamorphosis turns the class into a game developing and problem solving team. After receiving simple rules, students create questions from the course content / curriculum. During the game, they answer these while playing out different scenarios on a world map. As a result, students learn, not in anticipation of a test, but by preparing for and playing the game.
After seven years of using the game in my world history classes, I pursued graduate research on the underlying phenomena, i.e. participation / engagement in a game-based environment. The result was an “emergent” theory of education, e.g. class behavior was similar to how the internet took shape following the introduction of user-generated content in places like Wikipedia or on blogs and social media. Using the powers inherent in self-organizing systems, Global Challenge 2.0 is thus a social studies game and an experiment, which lays the groundwork for a new model of education.
What is the problem your project is trying to solve?
Simply put, this project is trying to solve the problem of how content is delivered to students. But, it also works on the problem of what kind of content we choose and how it will be absorbed by students. As I learned from seven years of observation and research, students simply learn better when interested in a subject or when in charge of the method of how they learn.
Methods advocated in this project challenge the centuries old model of education where subject matter is delivered from the top down, categorized, static (not evolvable), applied in the confines of the classroom and assessed using standardized testing. LIke a genetic algorithm in a simulation game, every player in the old model is limited by the code and confined to the platform. Choice, creativity, student enthusiasm, engagement and progress are not necessarily priorities in such a system.
Global Challenge, in contrast, was intended to dramatically shift this model and open up the door to a new, fun, student-centered way of delivering content to students. It would effectively tackle the problem of student engagement and participation in a world history or social studies class.
The scope of the project evolved over time to be wider and potentially more impactful, aiming to work on the problems of a.) student engagement and participation; b.) connectedness or how a student sees the way a subject connects to other subjects or life outside the classroom; c.) preparedness for real world situations, e.g team building, collaboration, finance, interpersonal, social, emotional intelligence, political skills, etc. and d.) neurodiversity and the differently intelligent - or not addressing different types of learning and thinking in the classroom
Please describe the successes your project has already had, as well as the ones you wish it to have in the future.
Some of the best successes have been more qualitative than quantitative. On one occasion in the early years of the game, I saw a student at a local library with big maps sprawled out over the table. When asked what he was doing, he told me he was preparing for the game. I was a little surprised since this particular student was not normally one of the top performers in class. In fact, he was usually near the bottom grade-wise. But, he was "fired up" about the game and couldn't wait to get started.
On another occasion, it was the last day of school and students were supposed to be going home for Summer vacation. Yet, a few students walked into my room as if Global Challenge was still going on. They were discussing strategies and such. As much as I appreciated their enthusiasm, I had to assure them the game was over and that they could take a break if they wanted. I might have suggested that they write up some ideas and suggestions for the incoming students for the following year.
During the fifth or sixth year the game emerged into a local TV show on a community access TV station. Only the best players were selected for this, but every other student would be part of the supporting cast and crew, helping their teammates out. This added an extra layer to an already motivated group of students.
Growing larger still, the game was featured on local TV news and teachers from other schools began asking me about the program. On one trip to the United Nations, a future assistant to Kofi Annan (Hassan Ferdous) asked if I would present at a future conference.
The project resulted in many positive reviews from students, teachers and administrators. https://buff.ly/2Ue07O4. I would also end up giving away dozens, if not hundreds of free copies to teachers in places all over the world.
Information gathered during the seven year project was used to explore new models of education resulting in a Complex Adaptive Theory of Education. https://buff.ly/2H1fukA
Moving forward, I hope to bring this game to a digital, internet environment so that students and teachers might share and adapt this game as they see fit.
