Some reflections on journalism as a game

Now that I have birthed the notion that journalism assessment standards could be linked to game levels, a couple of insights have emerged...

Insight one... have we got our standards wrong?

When you look at the media syllabus standards, you will see that the higher the stage, the greater requirement for autonomy and independence. Yet in the game sphere, the higher the stage the greater the collaboration and the complexity - learning how to deal with inter-dependence.

Interesting. Why do our current standards value independence? Is this a throwback to authoritarian education systems where we value experts and independently held knowledge? What might be new values in our current digital/social age and how might these be better reflected in our standards. Perhaps our current standards don't make sense to our students because they seem to go backwards in skill level rather than evolving in complexity.

Perhaps when we educators value rigor, we are valuing rationality and linearity - whereas students are creating a new type of rigor - socially connected, intuitively sensitive, complexly organised. Hmmm?

Insight 2 - have I understood what level and part of the game my students are playing?

No. And I think I have got it wrong. I wonder now by reconceptualising journalism as a game with levels whether I can be more strategic in seeing my students needs and what challenges might keep them on the edge of the seat engaged at at their learning edge.

Take Bo, the co-editor. He has been bored lately. He hasn't actually written much in terms of journalism articles for Jescador, the student on-line magazine. (Yet, other students are absolutely engaged in following a story and getting it published. ) Why doesn't Bo want to write when he has an aim of wanting to change the world and the media? He has his own blog with 11,200 readers who keep coming back. Yes, it is one genre, one niche audience but he understands what his readers want and is delivering. He has mastered Level 2 of the journlaism game already, prior to even coming to class, albeit within a small aspect of journlistic writing. Should he be aiming to broaden out his skills at this level or move on? I have been trying to get him writing but now these game levels seem to indicate that maybe to engage him I need to introduce higher order challenges for him. How can I build on his skills and use his strong drive to change the world?

Bo moved on pretty quickly from writing articles into managing the graphics/ technology side of the magazine - creating an overall product - putting it together in frontpage and making flash advertising banners. Initially he found that interesting and challenging, and had a lot of pride in his products, but now finds that aspect repetitive with no more new challenges unless he revamps the whole look and the set up.

His next level was taking on a management role of the team, but he just didn't engage with this - he can collect ideas, and lead ideas meetings but doesn't yet have the skills of managing the team, and it didn't help that I was picking up the pieces to make sure people got their stories in. We moved to having two editors, who work together. Lewis is a slick operator, moving around the class, checking what is ready to go in, what the obstacles are and solving problems - exactly what I would expect of an editor. (he has coordinated collaborative LAN games and is extremely capable.)

It is like true leadership is just too far beyond Bo's line of comfortability and by me putting in a co-editor I have reduced the need for Bo to deal with his weakness - Lewis has ended up doing it all rather than them sharing. So Bo is getting fidgety again - he is looking for design challenges elsewhere - like a completely new publication rather than dealing with the issues of the current one in terms of people skills.

So where do I go from here? I am interested in finding out if the game metaphor and story is useful for my students - does it help them get a clearer idea of the levels and what to aim at? Does it give them the motivation to master a level? Will it help Bo to see what he has achieved and what he hasn't - and that to achieve a game Level 6 (Mwaahaaha... I want to change the world) that he needs to ensure he has mastered prior level skills. At the moment he can't really see the importance of management skills to his own goals. Perhaps we need to help students taste the upper levels to give them reasons to go back and flourish the lower ones, integrating more basic skills with higher picture thinking?

This makes me really wonder about how to conceptualise assessment so it really is assessment as learning, as well as for and of learning.

I will keep you posted...