Welcome to Programma

GPS

Is it possible for the writing classroom to learn from the learning environments embodied in online multiplayer games? There is an obvious irony in this goal, of course: such games have themselves understood many fundamental learning principles much better than writing teachers. They are more effective at motivating their participants, better able to define agendas, and to provide the tools necessary not only to realize immediate goals but to facilitate further self-directed learning. True, the learning environment in online games has certain advantages over the classroom. Play for its own sake is motivating: learning for learning’s sake, sadly, is not. Despite being highly machined, richly refined products dependent, usually, upon a very specific technological infrastructure, games are free of constraints in ways that the writing classroom, at least in the United States, will never be. That said, however, are there things that writing teachers can learn from these games in terms of designing our individual writing classes? Designing a a more effective writing program? Or are the kinds of learning environments evident in MMORPGs only able to be realized through the (re)design of larger pedagogical structures like general curriculum requirements?

Programma Mission Map

Media, Learning, Adaptation Where Do I Start? Playing to Learn