RIB 7 & 8
I felt the section “Quest to Learn – And Why Our Schools Should Work More Like a Game” on a personal level. I never noticed it until now, but the comparison made that the reason that school, primarily high school, was so damn boring was because the virtual world engaged me, and gave me freedom of thought that I (along with basically every other person my age) desired. Whenever I failed in a video game, I’d learn from it with (usually) no lasting consequences. However, in school when I slipped up I’d become stressed to counteract it because it was permanent. As said in the book, “School today for the most part is just one long series of necessary obstacles that produce negative stress.,” which is a straight fact. In all of my classes, it was just “listen to the teacher”, “complete this”, “study that”. We were all just enslaved to the fact that we had no say, and if we just couldn’t understand the concept, well, tough luck. This brings me back to my original thought. I now realize that I was always so excited to get home to my gaming devices back home, which has progressed from a GameBoy to an XboxOne, was because I could finally escape to a world where I could do as I please and learn along the way, whilst still having fun. I remember once reading about a school using Minecraft to help engage kids in class (I don’t remember the details just the video game part). The school system failed to adapt to our generation. But if it can do so for the next one, then maybe school won’t be seen as just a “necessary obstacle”. I do feel like UR is doing a good job of this, in a sense that in all of my classes my professors engage the students in discussions by asking a question and then listening to us. This may seem like mini rant (and maybe it is) but I like I said, I really felt attached to this specific section of the book. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
I was able to relate to this chapter as well. It was more so in middle school when I would be bouncing my leg in anticipation for the bell to ring at 2:45 so I could rush home and play videogames. They were an escape, I could play for hours (until my mom would mention homework and a lightbulb would go off in my head like “oh yeah, that’s a thing.”) There’s a plethora of reasons why I was unhappy at my middle school, but I later came to realize that one of the main reasons was exactly what McGonigal said: I wasn’t stimulated. I did well in my classes, and that was exciting for maybe the first semester. Then it just was about not dropping below that threshold, which was stressful concept. I didn’t want to lose anything, but there was no need to aim higher. It was just maintaining, no reason to grow. I feel that in a school with ‘levelling up’ as a concept, that fear of falling down would be less encompassing or, better yet, nonexistent. And without a crippling fear of failure, they would be less afraid to try new things and aim higher.