| Read Narrative by Sasha Barab |
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This last part really shows the power of games. When actually playing the game, the game world changes based on one’s recommendation. So, for example, students who chose to destroy the monster and not use the cure enter a ghost town. Additionally, they learn that there is a group who wants the monster destroyed and if they sign their petition they are given a special in-game pair of rose-colored glasses. We didn’t explicitly state it, but the idea is they are blood items, stained in the color of human blood. What is interesting here is that both the game world and also the identity of the player are impacted by the decision. Anybody who has gone through the curriculum knows that players wearing such glasses “sold out.” It is important to note that this is our conception, others might see them as not selling out but holding to important ethical standards. The point being made here is that games offer a form of what Dewey referred to as transactive curriculum; that is curriculum in which both the environment and learner are changed by choices. More importantly, the transaction is based on the ‘use-value’ of the content being learned and not some arbitrary ‘exchange value,’ referring to its value in terms of how one’s understanding can be exchanged for a grade on a test.
The final mission, Saving Ingolstadt, presents Questers with the culminating activities. First, in Quest “Write the Letter, Save the Village,” they write a persuasive essay
Think about what makes writing such an essay motivating. Young people are given a context in which their writing matters. They aren't asked to perform an empty activity -- writing an essay which has no immediate consequences and which may be read only by the teacher. Instead, there's something heroic about writing in this context. Games provide roles and goals which motivate our activity and that's part of what makes them so engaging. This activity gives them someone to write to, someone to write as, and something they want to accomplish through their act of writing.
to the Ingolstadt City Council, advising them to either use the doctor’s antidote or discard it.
One question that we can begin to investigate with units that have repeated opportunities for students to engage similar content is what kinds of dispositions students are developing. In this case, changes are equally as interesting as consistencies; the question is how the activities provoke particular kinds of engagement, and whether or how the system could be designed to elicit particular kinds of dispositions. From the e-mail that students receive after completing the unit, there appears to be a decision that is preferable; a question to investigate involves better understanding the underlying dispositions that students could potentially develop with respect to making ethical decisions that would likely lead to deciding to use the cure and NOT execute the monster.
Students are provided with a persuasive essay graphic organizer. The final activities in the Saving Ingolstadt Mission will provide Questers with a place to vote their opinions regarding the doctor’s questionable ethics, as well as to help the policeman with a situation regarding the monster.
Here the all pervasive American view that ethics is a matter of personal opinions (and, thus, why not just vote on it) is full entrenched—thanks, in part, to needing to do a “persuasive essay” for school. Imagine—to put the matter dramatically—little German school children writing “persuasive essays” on whether to kill all Jewish people or not. At the least, we could imagine asking the children, “What would you do if the city council did not heed your advice?” Here, too, we would need to reflect on the interactions of moral principles, laws, democracy, and government—a big and long-running issue in U.S. history.
Jim's analogy to Germany and the Jews is a bit of a stretch, but only a bit.
Consider the roots of the Frankenstein story in the Jewish myth of the Gollum
-- a man of clay who can be brought to life to champion his people in their darkest hours. You can read more about this in Michael Chabon's Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, where he sees the Gollum as part of the mythic background of the American superhero tradition. Or consider what Siegfried Kracauer tells us in From Caligari to Hitler -- that German expressionist horror films helped to stage some of the fundamental ethical dilemmas of the Weimar period and can be retrospectively understood as a people working through the choice of a frightening disorder or the prospect of authoritarian rule (which is sometimes depicted in these films as monstrous and sometimes seen as the only defense against the monstrous.) Robin Wood has famously described the basic formula of the horror film as "the normal is threatened by the monstrous," suggesting that this gives us three terms to consider -- the normal, the monstrous, and the relation between the two. What can make horror radical or reactionary is whether we identify with the monster or with normality. And horror films may often contain an implicit critique of the normal, which does force us to see our world through new eyes. So, it is no simple matter to think about the ethics of killing monsters and I'd hope that a good educational activity might at some point pulls us up from the fantasy world and help people think about what monster stories tell us about our culture and its values.
One week after students submit their recommendations (1 - should the town execute the monster or not, 2 - should the town use the cure or not), they receive one of four emails from their in-game mother based on what they recommended. Additionally, the next time the login the world looks different to match the content of the email—giving the player a form of consequentiality on the unfolding narrative. Below are two of the emails:
Recommendation: Execute the Monster, Don’t use Cure
My child,
Let me first say what a difficult time this has been for me. Watching one’s child have to make so many tough decisions is quite hard for a mother. Sometimes I just cried thinking about what you were going through. But I felt like this was important for Ingolstadt and for your own growth. You will always be my child, but you are growing up into such a fine young person. I am a proud mom.
I should share with you that I did hear from Doctor Frank. He said that you told the mayor that his creation should be killed and the cure should not be used. I knew I raised you to have strong values. I hope this was the right decision. It seems that the doctor was quite sick, and he told me that almost everyone there has passed away.
I fear that your decision has had dire consequences. I hope it was the right thing. The good news is that Doctor Frank met one girl who was not sick. He hopes that she is one of many who have survived the plague and are hiding out. I know all of this is hard to hear, but remember I love you.
I miss you dearly and can’t wait to see you again. Write often.
Your Loving Mom
Recommendation: Don't Execute the Monster, Use the Cure
Let me first say what a difficult time this has been for me. Watching one’s child have to make so many tough decisions is quite hard for a mother. Sometimes I just cried thinking about what you were going through. But I felt like this was important for Ingolstadt and for your own growth. You will always be my child, but you are growing up into such a fine young person. I am a proud mom.
I should share with you that I did hear from Doctor Frank. He said that you told the mayor that his creation should not be killed and the cure should be used. The cure worked. Both you and Dr. Frank are heroes in the town. Even the constable understands why you had to lie to him.
I would never support your lying. I think if you had explained the situation he would have helped. Either way, in this case, it seems to have brought about an important ends. I just don’t know if the ends ever justify the means. But it seems like you are a hero, even if you did some shady deeds to create the cure. I am not sure how I feel about all of this, and I do blame myself for getting you involved.
Remember I love you. I miss you dearly and can’t wait to see you again. Write often.
