Learn, Thrive, Connect: GBL as library orientation to engage senior secondary students with their school library
Abstract
Senior secondary students (Year 11 and 12) are bringing preconceived and stereotypical ideas of their school library experience with them from high school, particularly within the feeder area of this particular school (‘School X’). This leads to minimal engagement with the library within the first crucial weeks of their college life, when they should be seeking assistance and resourcing for their first round of assessment. A further impedance: as a shared use library the building is located next to the school, connected by an avenue within the school precinct and not at ‘the heart’ of the school. This chapter proposes to discuss the effectiveness of game-based learning as part of the library orientation process to engage students in a more effective and timely fashion with the library, its staff, and the services on offer.
Proposed outcomes – Game based library orientation
Anecdotal evidence and early formal testing in School X (OLNA, OLSAT) has suggested that all newly arrived students are not uniformly arriving with the skills required to do their best in senior secondary education. This is predominantly because of the varying experiences had in high school.
Introduction of an information fluency program in 2016, compulsory for all Year 11 students (6 sessions over their first semester) has seen a greater uptake of library services. Library orientation has been part of the first session of the program, but teacher librarians and the library team have identified that this needs to happen from Day 1, Week 1 of their senior secondary experience.
Through research and study, game based learning has been identified as a strong contender to excite and animate students about very necessary library orientation. Implementing a game based approach at a time when students are connecting with new teachers, a new school, and other new students – O Week – allows the library to not only engage faster with students, but support them through social and emotional learning(SEL) (CASEL, 2016) and socially include them through participatory learning (see more about this later in this chapter).
The School X Library team are working towards outcomes such as:
- greater student engagement with the library and its services
- student ownership of their library
- the Library’s stronger incorporation into everyday life of the School X community (staff and students)
- the Library contribution to the ‘Connect’ aspect of the school motto (new in 2016)
- a higher profile of School X Library and School X Library staff amongst staff and students.
Game-based learning (GBL) with the appropriate design and pedagogical considerations (Gee, 2014) are an excellent way to introduce a number of curriculum requirements and 21st century learning skills. It can stimulate collaboration, problem solving, creativity, innovation, critical thinking, communication and digital literacy (State Government of Victoria, 2011). At School X, a re-invigorated library orientation as part of the suite of O Week activities would engage the students and provide opportunity for student leaders to be part of the creation and delivery of the event.
Game based learning and digital literacy/digital media literacy/information fluency
Reading the theory and pedagogy behind game based learning, there is a resonance with teacher librarians/librarians and their role working alongside and with staff and students in a school. Digital literacy means that educators must re-vision their role in the classroom. Information skills have moved to digital media literacy, multi-literacies, and it is important for students to have a full experience of this beyond just print or simple electronic resourcing. The self-transforming nature of literacy can have a lifelong impact on an individual’s life (Beetham and Oliver, 2010).
Figure 1: Information Fluency. (2016). Tutorial challenges. Retrieved from http://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/challenge-directory.html
Gee’s observations about multiliteracies in childrens’ lives and his principles championing empowered learners, problem based learning and deep understanding (Thorn, 2013, November 13; Edutopia, 2012, March 21; Gee, 2012; Gee, 2014) are more relevant now than when he first proposed his ideas.
Problem based learning in particular should allow students to solve a problem with a good win outcome (Gee, 2012). For a library orientation, students should be part of the experience, come across challenges, and have the opportunity to figure out a solution that will have far reaching effects during their two years at School X (knowledge of library services and resources; a place of assistance) – concrete, measurable outcomes. As Gee (Edutopia, 2012) mentions in ‘Learning with video games’, our current schooling system gives students much theory (“ the manual for the game”) but little opportunity for immersive learning (Edutopia, 2012, 7:05). He believes that we should bring the students’ games (activities, problems) to the manuals, live in the ‘worlds’ of their subject area (Maths, English and so on), and let them use these as tools to discover new possibilities (Edutopia, 2012, 7:26).
O’Connell (2012) speaks about students and their meta-literacy and the need to provide students with the opportunity to engage in multi-modal projects and make use of those devices in their hands (para 21)! A perfect opportunity for library orientation. O’Connell then goes on to discuss the teacher librarian’s role in curriculum conversation and innovation, including virtual and game based learning (para 33).
Human behaviour around information gathering and processing is complex and there are many theories and models (Robson and Robinson, 2013. p.169). Information behaviour includes both information seeking and communication. It can be the activities of information users and providers, factors affecting those activities and sources or information products involved (p. 184).
A well-known information seeking model to teacher librarians is Kuhlthau’s ISP (Information Search Process) which underpins Guided Inquiry (as opposed to inquiry learning – GI is a recognised model). It is unique (and therefore quite relevant to this discussion) in that it recognises social and emotional responses (affective, cognitive and physical) to searching and processing of information during the search process) through zones of intervention: initiation, selection, exploration, formulation, collection, presentation and assessment.
These zones of intervention can also be applied to students undertaking game based learning. In the example of library orientation, students would choose to take part, and then explore and formulate a context for their learning while collecting their information. Handing in their ‘answers’ for assessment for a possible reward is the final step. During this time, particularly when first starting or if time becomes an issue, students could have a strong reaction emotionally of frustration – par for the course in the ISP. These need to be taken into consideration when designing an engaging orientation and recognised as part of the activity.
There is metacognitive engagement with information and game based activities. Students’ experience with the library orientation game based activity will depend on the prior knowledge they bring with them, so they can build on it. Webber (2014, slide 22) states that situational awareness of information literacy/fluency should be moved to the foreground, emphasising that it is possible to be information literate with a wide variety of information types and information rich environments. Teaching “an IL recipe” is not enough.
Pedagogical methods and GBL
Winn & Heeter (2006) claim game based learning pedagogies should include games which engage all genders, allow for all types of learners (visual, aural, kinaesthetic), have concrete supports and outcomes for students, and offer immersive and unique experiences otherwise difficult to simulate or create.
Lacovides, McAndrew, Scanlon, & Aczel (2014) support gaming involvement as an informal learning. Based on their studies, involvement with a variety of gaming practices led to a range of different learning experiences.
Library orientation is informal learning about the library. Students at this age, from informal observation, either choose to undertake something like this quest on their own, or they work on collaboration (a 21st century learning skill) and building relationships to gather information to complete the quest. Sometimes, this information is then passed on to other groups (communication – another 21st century learning skill). Interest then (hopefully) grows.
Students do far better when they are active learners – the faster they will learn and the better their skills will be. Interactive elements can help with this. Markey & Leeder (2011) believe that education around information literacy/fluency and familiarity with the library can harness the potential of games to motivate and engage. Many students may feel that traditional information literacy training is irrelevant or uninteresting in the age of Google (p.48). This sentiment has been captured through formative assessment (exit cards) at the end of each session of School X’s information fluency program for Year 11 and echoes Markey and Leeder’s findings.
It is hoped to catch the attention of students by providing (as mentioned in Winn and Heeter, 2006) clear and concrete goals (knowledge of the library space and services, and where the library is located – in O Week), make the outcome achievable for those with and without devices, and offer immersive experiences such as augmented reality (Aurasma,Layar, Blippar) and QR codes (new to School X for 2017).
An exciting and inspiring example/case study of this comes from Mulch (2014). This high school librarian describes how she used iPads to introduce students to the school library. Her goal: the library to come to life in front of new students and for them to learn from peers about all the great resources and services their library has to offer.
Permission was sought and gained from her school district to use library funds for twelve iPads and she engaging the help of the school’s English teachers and TV production and drama students to create videos. Students worked in groups of three. Mulch gave each group information about the particular library section or resource they would describe, but the students used their own words and gave the description a personalized spin by referring to examples of resources that the team members themselves found interesting. Aurasma online studio and the Aurasma app was used to make the videos accessible on each iPad.
When the new school year began that August she introduced the students to her overhauled orientation and was excited to see that students were finding it to be helpful, informative, and fun. She discovered that her use of augmented reality changed students’ vision of the school library space from a boring place to a surprisingly fun and cool place to hang out. Most importantly for Mulch, students remember the orientation and took away a better understanding of the library’s resources than in the past. Something for School X to aspire to in 2017!
External impacts on change of practice – the Horizon Reports
It is important when implementing a game based environment that near future and future considerations affecting education and libraries are taken into account. The Horizon Report for both K-12 and (academic) Libraries (Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada, and Freeman, 2015) are well researched reports created and published on a consultative basis by the New Media Consortium each year.
The key takeaways from the 2015 reports are:
Prioritization of Mobile Content and Delivery – Libraries need to interact with and assist patrons by providing dynamic websites, interactive experience through QR codes, apps, catalogs and eBooks.
Competition from Alternative Avenues of Discovery (identified as a Difficult Challenge: Those that we understand but for which solutions are elusive) – There is a prediction of a declining demand for librarians as the Google search culture has proliferated. However, it is important to remember that teacher librarians/librarians still play a key role in educating students, faculty, and researchers about all of the information that is at their disposal, and to find what is relevant and genuine. Anyone undertaking this role must be able to traverse the “physical, conceptual, and digital realms (p. 26).
Information Visualization (Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years) -Infographics more prevalent as a way to impart information (p. 40). Might this be more visually appealing for orientations?
Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches (Long-Term Impact Trend: Driving Ed Tech adoption in K-12 education for five or more years) – Inquiry learning and project based learning (as per Gee in Edutopia, 2012) (p.10).
Integrating Technology in Teacher Education (Solvable Challenge: Those that we understand and know how to solve) – Greater digital literacy and digital media literacy amongst educators is required and appropriate professional learning must be put in place now.
Participatory and socially inclusive learning as a consideration for game based orientation
In previous reflections (Korodaj, 2016) it was discovered that there is an expectation that games in education should all be like Serious Games, where the outcome is an extension of the rote learning taking place in the classroom. Nothing could be further from the truth.
GBL can effortlessly deliver on the General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum. In relation to social inclusion, the specific capabilities that address this are personal and social, ethical, and intercultural understanding.
Social inclusion, as described in McDonald (2011), touches on four key domains of opportunity. They involve societal participation through access to services, connections with family, friends and the wider community, capacity building for times of crisis, and the opportunity to have a voice heard. Think of what a MMOG such as Minecraft could provide for a child who has trouble interacting with others in a ‘real world’ situation like the playground – an opportunity to engage with like-minded individuals, crafting worlds that are of their own creation with their own input, at a time where they may not have control of circumstance in their own lives.
Elias (2014) suggests that a truly socially inclusive school is student-centred. This supports pedagogical constructs such as participatory and personalised learning, something quite important in the digital world we currently live and interact within. Again, using Minecraft as an example, teachers can engage students in their learning through sites such as Massively@Jokaydia and the recent MinecraftEdu. Students are part of a safe community, actively engaging in rewarding quests and the ability to recreate famous battles, Wonders of the World, and much more in a co-operative manner (in the classroom and as part of a wider digital society).
Jenkins’ New Media Literacies (NML) (2006) complements Gee’s article on video games and learning (2005) and provides current day support to the notion of gaming to promote social inclusivity and skills for positive societal interaction (including the opportunities mentioned in McDonald’s resource sheet).
While Jenkins doesn’t support technology for technology’s sake in the classroom environment (2016, para. 2), there are specific literacies as identified by him and his team that can directly correlate to gaming use in the classroom and the library:
Play: not only the literal sense can be addressed by GBL in the classroom. Play allows students to experiment in a safe environment a number of actions or hypotheses, encouraging them to also take this behaviour into their everyday lives. In the case of library orientation in O Week, it adds to the playful and welcoming atmosphere fostered by a ‘settling in week’.
Simulation: trying out complex ideas, situations, and systems with the ability to make mistakes. Students, while finding their way to and around the library, may get lost. It can lead to interaction with others to find a solution to their problem.
Collective Intelligence: at a time where students contribute and participate in a wider digital ecosystem (be it through blogging, posting skateboarding videos, or social media), gaming and NML can be used to encourage a positive contribution to our wider digital ecosystem. As part of the library orientation, students can be encouraged to tweet using a school and library specific hashtag and share the experience and encourage others to join the fun – linking back to their new school community.
Negotiation: very closely tied to the ethical general capability, as well as the intercultural understanding capability, this NML through gaming encourages students to discern and respect multiple ideas and perspectives and live in multiple communities.
There has been concern in the media and fears amongst parents and the wider community in recent years about video games fostering violence in young people. Banville’s recent article (2016) debunked that myth, with one of the researchers, Katherine Keyes, noting that children who played video games may not only be socially comfortable with their peers, but also comfortably integrated into their school community (Banville, 2016, para. 8). It was also noted by the study that in support of the above mentioned General Capabilities and Jenkins’ New Media Literacies, some games reward cooperation behaviour that supported others (Banville, 2016, para. 6). Keeping these points raised in mind, designing library orientation in a quest style with rewards along the way (by incorporating a tweet or social media comment to encourage others) may have many benefits.
Despite the date that Gee proposed his ideas and wrote his article, his premise still stands well alongside current research and digital literacies in supporting the notion of a socially inclusive and participatory classroom. His discussion of multimodality of text and different literacies has provided us with his 36 Principles of Learning (2003) that provide a wonderful scaffold. It supports inquiry learning and problem based learning – pedagogies that underpin the curriculum that is delivered in classrooms today. The following principles from Gee’s list apply directly to teacher librarians and librarians designing useful, engaging, and meaningful orientation experiences for their use (annotations/observations by writer in italics):
Semiotic Principle
Learning about and coming to appreciate interrelations within and across multiple sign systems (images, words, actions, symbols, artifacts, etc.) as a complex system is core to the learning experience.
The library is often signposted with unfamiliar signs and systems that the student must interpret in order to locate what they are seeking.
Achievement Principle
For learners of all levels of skill there are intrinsic rewards from the beginning, customized to each learner’s level, effort, and growing mastery and signaling the learner’s ongoing achievements.
When undertaking an orientation, there must be scaffolding in tasks assigned to allow the student to engage with the content but not in a way that is so difficult that they are discouraged – see “Regime of Competence” Principle.
“Regime of Competence” Principle
The learner gets ample opportunity to operate within, but at the outer edge of, his or her resources, so that at those points things are felt as challenging but not “Undoable”
Situated Meaning Principle
The meanings of signs (words, actions, objects, artifacts, symbols, texts, etc.) are situated in embodied experience. Meanings are not general or decontextualized. Whatever generality meanings come to have is discovered bottom up via embodied experience.
Students must be able to undertake tasks within their orientation that are in situ, and not removed from the specific space. Given the premise for this essay – to draw users to the library – this is particularly important.
Multimodal Principle
Meaning and knowledge are built up through various modalities (images, texts, symbols, interactions, abstract design, sound, etc.), not just words.
Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle
The learner is given explicit information both on-demand and just-in-time, when the learner needs it or just at the point where the information can best be understood and used in practice.
Teacher librarians/librarians must make themselves available as the “guide on the side” during the orientation experience. While students must navigate on their own/in groups to problem solve and really immerse themselves (see Discovery Principle), it is important to provide appropriate support when all solution avenues have been exhausted.
Discovery Principle
Overt telling is kept to a well-thought-out minimum, allowing ample opportunity for the learner to experiment and make discoveries.
Cultural Models about Semiotic Domains Principle
Learning is set up in such a way that learners come to think consciously and reflectively about their cultural models about a particular semiotic domain they are learning, without denigration of their identities, abilities, or social affiliations, and juxtapose them to new models about this domain.
The orientation experience, particularly for the example within this essay, must provide students with an opportunity to disperse and dispel the preconceptions of “cranky librarians” and “quiet libraries” they bring with them to their new environment.
Dispersed Principle
Meaning/knowledge is dispersed in the sense that the learner shares it with others outside the domain/game, some of whom the learner may rarely or never see face-to-face.
Informal observation over Semester 1, 2016 suggests that simple advertising and high visibility on school slideshow screens and posters on pinboards around School X, as well as greater engagement with an entire cohort of students (Year 11) via a compulsory information fluency program, gives rise to positive “word of mouth” and greater numbers in the door. It is hoped that with a more dynamic form of orientation as part of O Week activities that this “word of mouth” happens sooner in the school year where it is most important.
Juxtaposing these principles with Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy and Puentedura’s SAMR model provides educators with the ability to design powerful and dynamic tasks, particularly when incorporating GBL.
While there are many considerations when undertaking the implementation of game based learning in library orientation, the focus should always be on the rich, pedagogical and learning advantages to be gained for students in undertaking this. School X looks forward to developing an interactive and engaging orientation that will have long lasting benefits for the student population.
References:
CASEL. SEL Competencies. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning/core-competencies/
Banville, L. (2016). New Research Finds Video Games May Boost Academics, Don’t Affect Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2016/03/10/new-research-finds-video-games-may-boost-academics-dont-affect-mental-health/
Beetham, H. and Oliver, M. (2010). The changing practices of knowledge and learning. In Sharpe, R., Beetham, H., de Freitas, S. (2010). Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age: How Learners are Shaping their Own Experiences. (pp.155-170). Hoboken, N.Y.: Taylor and Francis.
Elias, M. (2014). How to become a socially inclusive school. Edutopia. George Lucas Educational Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-become-a-socially-inclusive-school-maurice-elias
Gee, J.P. (2014). Games as well designed teaching and learning. P21 Blogazine, 1 (8). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/news-events/p21blog/1511-gee-games-as-well-designed-teaching-and-learning
Gee, J.P. (2012). Digital Games and Libraries. Knowledge Quest, 41(1), 60-64. Retrieved from http://issuu.com/markisan/docs/kq_sepoct12_final/5?e=3075883/4700022
Edutopia. (2012, March 21). James Paul Gee on learning with video games [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnEN2Sm4IIQ&feature=youtu.be
Gee, J.P. (2005). Good video games and good learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2), 33-37.http://dmlcentral.net/sites/dmlcentral/files/resource_files/GoodVideoGamesLearning.pdf
Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Information Fluency. (2015). Full Circle kit. Retrieved fromhttp://21cif.com/resources/difcore/
Information Fluency. (2016). Tutorial challenges. Retrieved fromhttp://21cif.com/tutorials/challenge/challenge-directory.html
Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium
Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 K-12 Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
Korodaj, L. (2016, March 5). INF541 Blog task #2: how might games be used to develop a more socially inclusive classroom or workplace using Gee’s viewpoint? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/emusings/2016/03/22/inf541-blog-task-2-how-might-games-be-used-to-develop-a-more-socially-inclusive-classroom-or-workplace-using-gees-viewpoint/
Lacovides, I., McAndrew, P., Scanlon, E., & Aczel, J. (2014). The gaming involvement and informal learning framework. Simulation & Gaming, 45(4-5), 611–626.
Markey, K., & Leeder, C. (2011). Students’ behaviour playing an online information literacy game. Journal of Information Literacy, 5(2), 46-65. Retrieved fromhttp://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL/article/view/1637
Media Literacy Project. (2015). What is Media Literacy? Retrieved fromhttps://medialiteracyproject.org/learn/media-literacy/
McDonald, M. (2011). Social exclusion and social inclusion: resources for child and family services [Resource sheet]. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. Retrieved from https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/social-exclusion-and-social-inclusion-resources-child
Mulch, B.E. (2014, Mar-Apr). Library Orientation Transformation: From Paper Map to Augmented Reality. Knowledge Quest, 42(4), 50-53. Retrieved fromhttp://www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab/kq/v42no4
New Media Literacies. (2006). Create Circulate Connect Collaborate. Retrieved fromhttp://www.newmedialiteracies.org/the-new-media-literacies/
O’Connell, J. (2012). Learning without frontiers: School libraries and meta-literacy in action. ACCESS, 26(1), 4-7. Retrieved fromhttp://www.asla.org.au/publications/access/access-commentaries/school-libraries-and-meta-literacy.aspx
Robson, A. & Robinson, L. (2013). Building on models of information behaviour: linking information seeking and communication. Journal of Documentation, 69(2), 169 – 193. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00220411311300039
State Government of Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2011). Games-based Learning. Retrieved from: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/research/pages/techgamelearn.aspx
Thorn, C. (2013, November 13). Jim Gee: Principles on gaming [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQAgAjTozk
Webber, S. (2014). Blended information behaviour and information literacy for 21stCentury life. [Slideshare]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.slideshare.net/sheilawebber/webber-brno-2014 (Slide 22 in particular)
World Economic Forum. (2016). New vision for education: fostering social and emotional learning through technology. Retrieved fromhttp://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_New_Vision_for_Education.pdf
Part 1: Motivation
Emerging readings, research, environments & change factors that require or validate a move into game-based learning.
Master of Education (Knowledge Networks and Digital Innovation) developed by the
School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, 2016.
