Thursday, March 30, 2023
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Education Needs to Change
Global Challenge 2.0 | Metamorphosis challenges the centuries old model of education where subject matter is categorized, delivered from the top down, static, applied in the confines of the classroom and assessed using standardized testing. LIke a genetic algorithm in a simulation game, every player in this 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. One possible solution would be a user-generated, game-based model. In such a collaborative atmosphere, there would be less limitations on time, curiosity and learning content. Neurodiverse / differently intelligent students would create and answer their own questions across disciplines to maintain status, for example, on a geo-political map. All work and activities would be incentivized through a tokenized economy as students worked to solve local and global problems.
Monday, July 26, 2021
We are now finalists in the Falling Walls Competition for Breakthrough of the Year!!! / Presentation this Thursday, July 29th at 10 PST
Great news came in on Friday, July 23rd from Germany!
Lee and colleagues are honored to have been selected as finalists in the Falling Walls Competition for Breakthrough of the Year in the category of Future Learning. I'm thankful to family, friends and colleagues who have been there at various stages of this project, which started over 25 years ago!
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87369215699?pwd=ZXFxbERpWStZeTdGMm9iTkY4RysrQT09
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Global Challenge 2.0 | Metamorphosis Nominated for Falling Walls Breakthrough of the Year Award at the Falling Walls Competition
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:
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.
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
The Story Behind Global Challenge: How I Turned a Bad Set of Circumstances into a New Theory for Education
It’s your first day as a teacher. You walk into a noisy class of sophomores. Everything has been leading up to this moment. You finished a bachelor’s degree, went on to take courses for your teacher certification and completed 16 weeks as a non-paid student intern.
You ask the students to stand up for a little warm-up exercise and a student named “Butch” in the front row tells you to “suck it.” During the first week, you see students slouched in their seats, not bringing materials to class, tapping fingers on the desk, swearing at one another and directing their anger and frustrations toward you – the person who wants to help them.
Here's the full story (go to 01:04)
