Voices of QA » Kid Voices

Capitalizing on Play Time

StevieS — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:24:42 +0000

Student building in QVille

One of our main goals with Quest Atlantis is to position students to be actively engaged in the learning process and not just passive recipients. This still requires quite a bit of intervention and scaffolding from our part and the teachers’; but students still have one place where they have free reign – QVille. And the best lesson we can learn from QVille is that even when left completely to their own devices, students will still try to actively make sense of the world around them.

QVille started as a world where students could explore 3D building and play a little, but by the time I came to QA in 2008 it had already evolved beyond that. Students are able to rent a plot of land for six cols (QA’s currency) a month. Since this is the equivalent of 2-3 solid essays for the teacher a month, the price was often too steep for some children to get a lot or maintain it for long. In response, those children who had the extra cols would rent lots and build hotels. Students wanting an area of their own could then rent a room from the original builder at a more affordable price of one col a month. The students with more than six rooms in their hotels found a way to turn a profit.

Qville Stock Market Information

By 2011, a simple hotel is just old hat. Students are wanting more out of the QVille experience and even more of a profit. Now, hotels and other business have the option to join the QVille Stock Market or a company. I know the first time I saw kids talking about the stock exchange, I was skeptical – can elementary school kids really understand the complexities of the stock exchange? It would appear so. When buying stock, you give the business a certain amount of money depending on how well it is doing when you buy your stock. Each “stock” is equivalent to one percent of the company, and at the end of the month you are entitled to one percent of the profits in addition to being allowed to make decisions about the business. If the company is doing really well and others want to buy the stock you can sell it at the new price. This is not the NYSE, these are the rules of the QVille Stock Exchange.

Advertising others in the company

With all this money and investment going on, students are now more responsible for the continuation of their hotels and businesses. You now have the option to enter your business in a partnership with a Qville “company,” which resembles a conglomerate in the real world. Multiple business, including restaurants, hotels, arenas, and karaoke bars, enter into these companies in order to help one another by advertising the others or giving building advice. As part of the company, students are required to maintain company standards in the quality of their buildings, follow company protocol which could even include a uniform, and attend meetings.

Now that money and regulations are involved, laws must be enacted, right? Students are working on a Qville Supreme Court with judges, lawyers, and police. The chat excerpt below shows two students working to set a legal norm.

Student A: ’What is the meeting about anyway????’

Student B: ’money, advertisments, trademarks, and company laws and expectations of partnership’

Student A: ’okk……’

Student B: ’trademarks would mean that if u take a company name – say i have DJ Commons’

Student B: ’and some one wants a DJ Suites, they have to pay 1 col’

Student B: ’were trying to figure out if that should be illegal or legal’

Student A: ‘I mean wanting not whating’

Student B: ’no- they want to open a hote lwith DJ in it’

Student B: ’the word- all there merchandise are DJ’

Student B: ’the other thing we believe is that to be registered in a group that u get cols from- u should have to put up adds and u have to get rated and put a sign up of it’

Student B: ’we think that t oput up sings like- QVILLE’S TALEST OR BIGGEST HOTEL_ SHOULD HAVE TO BE MEASURED’

Student B: ’that concludes the meeting’

I do wonder how the first lawyer for a completely digital world will work out. As an international group as well, will they be willing to work through the complexities of international law in addition to the business law?

Yes, students will need to traverse the waters of international law. These companies and stock exchanges are not just one class or even a school that could have been learning about economics at the time. These are students from different countries that have come together to collaborate on making their businesses grow.

Did I mention the kids put this together all on their own? It just goes to show that even when playing, students are still finding ways to engage themselves in their environment.

Student Leaders

hees15karthik — Tue, 11 May 2010 07:28:12 +0000

Hello, fellow readers. I’m Karthik, and I would like to share how it feels like to be Student Congress leader. I am very happy to represent my fellow Questers in the Student Congress. I get to talk about our experiences and suggest new ideas. Being a leader is a very responsible job. I try not to be bossy but at the same time, I try to get the job done. We attend weekly meetings where new projects are discussed. My parents, school teachers and QA Congress members encourage and support me a lot.

My first project was to ask my classmates if they wanted to stay in General Visibility in middle school or in Middle School visibility in Middle School. It was a very interesting experience finding out what my classmates thought. All of the students I surveyed wanted to stay in general visibility so they would not lose their lumins and cols. My classmates and I were succesful in convincing the teachers that kids should stay in General Visibility. All of my classmates were happy at the outcome. Here is the link to my blog: Middle School Visibility vs General Visibility

The second project I did was the 2010 Earth Day Quest. Me and two other students had to come up with ideas for the quest. It was very hard because we had to make them find things in the core worlds and the Otak Hub. In those worlds, it is very hard to find things that help the Earth. We made the quest for 4+1 bonus lumin. Everyone who has done that quest so far is very happy. They feel that they are learning so much about the Earth and the Environment.

My third project was to teach Middle Schoolers about Quest Atlantis. It was very difficult because they thought that it was dumb that 4th graders were teaching them. But they didn’t realize what a hard time me and all of the other students have. They were reckless and they were not to excited to do it. I feel that because I don’t think they have an open mind like the 4th graders. We as 4th graders enjoy Quest Atlantis because we like to explore and we have an open mind.

Right now in Student Congress, we are building areas for all of the different Social Commitments. I am the leader of the Environmental Awareness group. In my design group, we are trying to create a mission. The summary of the mission is that when you enter the area, you will find a mother polar bear and her cub. These bears will talk to you and say that the iceberg that they are standing on is the last one they could find. Also, they will mention that they cannot find food anymore . The bears see an Ecologist’s boat and ask if the avatar can go and ask them for help. The Ecologist tells the avatar to go into the town’s research lab and find out information about why the ice caps are melting. In the research lab, they talk to the main researcher. The researcher gives the avatar informational notes. The Avatar has to talk to different researchers to understand what the notes mean. When the Avatar talks to the last person, he/she has to go back to the main researcher and take a test. When they finish the test, then the researcher tells the Avatar to go back to the Ecologist. The Ecologist asks the Avatar what they learned. After they are done, they will earn a hat for finding out how the Ice Caps were melting. That is our design plan.

All in all, I think that being a student leader is a great honor and responsibility. I am having a great experience creating these blogs, quests, and teaching middle schoolers. I am learning a lot myself.

Bridging the Gaps

StevieS — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:26:41 +0000

It’s been hard to avoid Olympic fever these last two weeks. Certainly the kids have gotten in to it with the cheers for their countries. The Olympics provide an opportunity for people around the world to come together and highlight their talents. The students in QA are going through some of the same experiences; while they are not competing in sports, they are navigating some interesting territory.

By far my favorite part of working with the QA team is reading the chat and seeing what goes through kids’ heads on a daily basis. They certainly have a complex way of looking at the world and think on a much higher level than most adults give them credit for.

For example, before the winter holidays two girls were talking about the difference between the friendships you make online and in person. QA has students all over the world and it’s encouraging to see friendships spring up between students who otherwise would have had no chance to meet. These particular girls were debating on whether you need to know someone in person to really like them or if the way you have a crush on someone you met online is the same kind of crush you would develop on someone you met at school. Of course, these are questions I couldn’t answer myself.

Then again, there are also the just-plain-fun chats. I was able to explain to students that giving away your height is not against the Iburst rules. Although, I’m still not really sure why they needed to know my height. (It’s about 5′ 5″, by the way.) But, it is encouraging to see them thinking about the rules critically and how to protect themselves on the internet. There are also times when students will warn another not to use names. Our stance is that first name only is ok, but students should never feel pressured to give out more information than they are comfortable with or their teacher allows.

We’ve also seen students starting to understand geography and how people can come from different places. We had one student doing a states project on Florida and asking questions of another student who lives in Florida. They were talking about the wildlife and the student in Florida responded “in Florida we have snakes, and up in North America they have bears.” That same week a student from Canada was talking about how excited she was to visit America for the first time. She admitted that she had been to America before but it was only driving through on her way to Disney World. In another instance one of the younger students in North America was talking to a teacher in Australia. She was trying to wrap her head around time zones and that it could be night in Australia but still morning in America. Finally she asked the teacher, “So are you from the future?”

The Olympics will be coming to an end this week but that doesn’t mean students need to stop thinking of ways to bridge the gap with others around the world. Afterall, there will always be someone from the future out there.

QA Student Congress: A Celebration of Participatory Design

Bron Stuckey — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:27:27 +0000

Come share your ideas on a Student Congress.

An idea had been mulling for some months now about creating a world in Quest Atlantis where students can take up ownership, leadership and have opportunities to share their lifeworld experiences in the QA social commitments.

The first formal meeting of our steering group happened this week to focus on writing a design proposal for a new world where the particpants will be the designers. What will it look like? What will the students roles be? What will motivate students to come here? What passport will be required to get there? What resourcing issues will we have? What infrastructure will support the goals? Six teachers and our first very brave student member met to begin to answer some of these questions.

The Student Congress will evolve in a disused world once intended for teacher professional development.As such it has a shell of buildings and landscape that the currently forming team of students and teachers can leverage, adapt and reshape to suit this new purpose.

The basic idea of the congress is that students, who have luminated to a certain level, would be able to access this world where they can take up leadership roles and further share their knowledge and commitment with Questers about the globe. There they will be the designers of activities, be able to teach each other new skills like machinima and take their online communication to a new and more reflective level.

If you are a QA teacher and want to explore the world in question you can find the teleporter by walking past Brianna in Teacherville, toward the grass huts to a sign that directs you to Student Congress.

You can join us or follow how this proposal and world are shaping up at the Student Congress Wiki. The audio of the team discussion is also linked inworld at the Teachers Lounge of Islandview Elementary, Teacherville.

The (Fun) Work of Transformational Play: Shifting Mindsets one Family at a Time

Steve Zuiker — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:50:20 +0000

In our work with Quest Atlantis here in Singapore, my colleague Doreen and I repeatedly confront the pragmatic ambitions of a well-run, centrally-organized education system. It is therefore a pleasure for us when the things that kids say as they contribute to QA make us to step back for a moment. In this post, we share one such episode that occurred recently in the home of a not atypical local family. The video is not particularly long, but we think it highlights QA’s influence on the mindsets of both Singapore children and their parents. Before rolling the film, however, we think it is also important to share some of the tensions that QA must navigate in Singapore’s “schooling straits” and so we begin by setting up the video with a bit of background information.

It is safe to say that Singapore schools do not just work; they work quite well in accomplishing their stated objectives. While some people may recall that Singapore students perform well on international comparison studies in math and science, few are aware of the local efforts to improve not only conventional test scores but also the fundamental experience of learning. Singapore is perhaps most impressive not when you consider where its education system was or is, but when you consider how consistent the pace of change has been and how determined it is to continue. Of course, these accolades may lead you to believe that I am drinking the local water but, deferring to the long view, education leaders here are quick to acknowledge that the envisioned evolution of learning will not occur in a year or through a policy but rather by means of persistent, incremental shifts in education. They are not the first to think this way. For example, in his book The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition, Michael Tomasello offers a kind of parallel idea about cultural shifts, be they in learning, business, art, or anything else. Tomasello characterizes change in terms of a “ratchet effect” and ratcheting up entails a blend of both continuity in some existing ways of doing things and transformations to other ways. In other words, rapid, wholesale change is a rare thing, it would seem. And so, it may be that educational shifts in Singapore are similarly envisioned to ratchet up over time.

But for an outsider like me, who arrived only two years ago, it feels sometimes that these shifts cannot happen fast enough. The profound and pervasive emphasis on testing often runs the risk of reducing the most complex of topics to a constellation of facts and figures. And it is this kind of approach that has led to distinctions between subject matter factoids that students memorize to get high scores and disciplinary practices that learners master in order to conceptualize and solve problems. By the same token, for some insiders here, people who might recall the birth of this relatively young nation, these shifts have perhaps been too fast. But, either way, it seems that everyone would agree that shifts in education are persistent and incremental. Singapore is moving, step by step, away from subject matter and towards disciplines. In fact, an appealing local mantra happens to be “teach less, learn more.” This clever turn of phrase (already engrained as TLLM) succinctly captures an aspiration; equally important, it also alludes to the kinds of self-directed and collaborative learning often observed as students use QA

What is most interesting to us in all of this background info, though, is the number of Singapore citizens who assume that it is the very central role that their government plays that propels and will continue to propel shifts in education. On one level, we agree. It is routinely the Singapore Ministry of Education that drives change through carefully crafted policy initiatives. At the same time, as kids voices in the video below reminded us, everyday moments of interaction in families plays an important role too. We think this episode highlights one way in which these shifts are propelled by Singapore students and, in other instances, by teachers too. And so, finally, now consider the brief exchange that this brother-sister duo have with their parents around whether or not QA is actually work.

Students from Singapore use QA.

Yes, it is just a brief moment. But yes, it is also one in which kids refuse to equate learning with QA and learning through typical homework from school. We think it is an inspiring, if not also powerful, example of the moments that can ratchet up to significant changes or shifts. Specifically, these siblings challenge the ways we often think about what it means to learn or work, and their relationships to playing. Research already suggests that when kids plug in to QA’s game-based learning framework, they encounter opportunities to learn through the idea of “transformational play”. This video illustrates that kids also create opportunities to plug QA into their parents’ mindsets by rethinking play and work. In this way, the exchange punctuates, perhaps even catalyzes, both the natural ratcheting effects of culture that Tomasello talks about and the perhaps more deliberate shifts in education that experiences with QA enable.

Nurturing the Learner with Quest Atlantis

Lucy Barrow — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:58:46 +0000

It was exactly twelve months ago that I attended a Quest Atlantis presentation at the Australian Computers in Education Conference in Canberra. Since then, an amazing journey has unfolded for our students, teachers and even parents! Participating in QA has far exceeded our expectations. At first, it was hoped that QA would provide us with an innovative way to deliver aspects of our curriculum. However, it became quite evident after only a short time, that what we had in fact been given was an incredible opportunity on a number of different levels. So what are these other opportunities? We have found that this is sometimes difficult to put into words. Yes, we saw high levels of motivation in the students. Yes, the students submitted excellent work as part of their Missions and Quests. Yes, it gave the students a real purpose for their work. But QA is so much more than that. It requires teachers who are nurturers and truly dedicated to their role as educators and life long learners.

The Learning Engagement Theory of Quest Atlantis, “learning, playing, helping” has not only formed the basis of the students’ work in QA, but has become part of their whole class experience. It has been beautiful to witness the way that the students themselves have recognized this. After their first term of participation, students were asked to reflect on their QA journey. Some of the responses from our 11 and 12 year old students were:

“Quest Atlantis is good for having some fun and doing some work. So it’s like learning and playing at the same time.” “I think that the future of learning lies here, that Quest Atlantis can make everyone aware of human errors and that Quest Atlantis is a great way to communicate.” “I see people helping others, opportunities to learn and new friends. I think outside the square, about the world, about how others feel.”

We were, to say the least, “blown away” by these responses! You can read all of the responses on our My Quest Atlantis Blog or view our movie about Learning, Playing & Helping in Virtual World. We have seen a wonderful sense of gratitude from our QA students. One teacher commented that he feels QA has not only changed the way he teaches but even the relationship he has with his students.

“The students are able to participate in such a positive learning experience. They realize that you are the one helping to make that possible for them. As a result, there’s a definite feeling of gratitude towards all QA teachers.”

There have been a number of special moments that we have experienced with our QA students.

After our first student, Cleo, luminated for the first time, we decided to mark the special event by presenting her with a laminated picture of herself “in-world”. I will never forget the look on Cleo’s face as she took the picture out of the envelope. After giving me a hug she said proudly, “I know exactly where I’m going to put it – above my bed! That’s where I put all of my special things.” My heart melted! You can read more about Cleo’s QA experience in her blog post. For a number of years, our school has been involved with Kidzpositive and The Positive Beadwork Project. The project produces beautiful customized beadwork that provides income for many HIV/AIDS affected women in South Africa. We were able to create our own QA badge using their Online Design Tool. It was an exciting day when the badges arrived! The students were not aware of the QA badges that would be presented to them as they luminated for the first time. As I showed the students the beautiful new badges and explained their purpose, I remember looking at their beaming faces and hearing the chorus of “Wooow…” as I held them up. “Does anyone have any questions?” I asked. “I don’t have a question but I just wanted to say thank you.” Yet again, my heart melted!

As my role is to assist teachers with implementing Quest Atlantis in their curriculum, it is not uncommon for Questers to “pop in” and tell me about their latest achievements in QA. ”Mrs B, guess what I’ve done in Quest Atlantis?!” In particular, I have enjoyed following the journey of our students who have been learning to build in QA. The students have an incredible opportunity to develop skills in building in a 3D virtual world. Students as young as 9 years old are building their own houses, furnishing them and, as I found out, building areas as gifts for other Questers. As I sat with Tess, she took me on a tour of her virtual home, complete with furniture and garden. “I made a mushroom house for you,” Tess proudly told me, “and I put a laptop computer in there because I know you love computers.” You guessed it, my heart melted! You can read more about Tess’ QA building experience in her blog post.

As we approach our last school term of the 2009 school year in Australia, it is also time to sit down and assess our participation in Quest Atlantis. Our School’s Strategic Directions document states “Nurturing the Learner” as our first goal with “new programs enhancing the social, emotional and spiritual well-being of learners.” For us, Quest Atlantis has not only provided opportunities for our students to combine the “learning and playing” but, as we watch on proudly, we continue to see the “helping” shine through.

Lucy Barrow is the Staff ICT Trainer at a K-12 Independent School in Victoria, Australia. She is fortunate to work with wonderful staff, including Janet Hillgrove and Roger Barrow who have embraced the Quest Atlantis program. You can read the School’s My Quest Atlantis blog by going to http://myquestatlantis.edublogs.org/

Can’t help feeling chuffed!

Bron Stuckey — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:12:38 +0000

I was setting up accounts in the next Teacher Online Professional Development for QA and I got a Skype call from someone I did not recognize. I did not accept the call but instant messaged the person to find out what they wanted. The caller said they were part of the next online course and wanted to know when their account would be ready. I proceeded to tell the caller that he would need a partner teacher as is this is a requirement of our online PD program; schools must present 2 teachers in the workshop. He went on to make excuses and say that the school was poorly resourced with computers and could not present 2 teachers and started putting forward more and more excuses. Hmm, I became suspicious …

I became suspicious as the excuses grew more far fetched and looked up the family name on our QA database to discover there was as student with the same family name in one of last year’s retired classes. I asked the caller if this was him and he finally had to confess “oh pshhhhhh” yes it was him. The upshot was that he had changed schools, in fact states and his new school had not heard of Quest Atlantis. He totally loves QA declaring “Sorry i’m really sorry. its just i’m really interested in QA! im like crazy for it and i really wana learn more about it“. It seems my young Quester friend thought that if he were to do the teacher training he could bring QA to his new school. Well my heart rose from a my adult annoyance at his presumption and cheekiness to being so totally chuffed that our program actually means that much to the learners who inhabit it.

And I know you are wondering what happened to our young QA advocate. I decided to sponsor him in QA myself and to give him a special role in the community, not quite as a teacher, but commensurate with the initiative he had shown. He certainly seems worth keeping around even if only for the warmth of this one day’s events

New OTAK Hub

StevieS — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:54:17 +0000

As I’m sure anyone who has been in the OTAK Hub in the past couple of days knows, there are some new changes in QA. We were really excited to see that some of the first people to log in were teachers and that the changes were met with enthusiasm. The students had some mixed-reactions however. One student who has been playing since April was excited. We receive lots of requests for students to be allowed into new worlds, or see a place that not everyone can.

For the students who like exploration this was an opportunity. Then some of those who had been playing longer felt disoriented and unsure of where they were in the world. Since it has been a point of pride among the kids to help newcomers, they probably felt they no longer had anything to offer other students. Everyone is “new” in a sense and has been on the same playing field for the time being. However, as the majority of the game play remains the same, such as quests and missions, they will most likely adapt to the new Hub quickly and be able to help the income students.