Applying the Game Frame - Email Story Games for Literacy

As part of the Games and Learning group I belong to, we have been reading Game Frame by Aaron Dignan.

The book provides a model to help the reader design games to solve problems - whatever they are. The rationale is that we can everyday, boring jobs more engaging and fun by adding a game layer to them. And ok, this doesn't work for everything, boring things often are, indeed, boring, but where it does work we might as well have some fun!

Having had a practice at designing a game with the group (we planned a Ninja library resource finding activity), I wanted to have a go at applying the framework to an idea I had for a game for my son.

Scenario: My 7 year old son needs lots of encouragement to read and write at home

The game I'm designing to help in this scenario, is a personalised email story game. He will get a 'chapter' a day which he needs to read and respond to in order to get the next installment the following morning.

1. Activity: regular reading and typing
2. Player Profile: my son, or other 6-8 year olds who can read, but who would rather play games than read and write
3. Objectives: Find out what happens next in the story
4. Skills: Accessing email, Reading, Understanding, Using imagination, Typing
5. Resistance: Only one email a day (scarcity)
6. Resources: access to email, My imagination
7. Actions: Send email to son every day building on his response to the previous days question
8. Feedback: next chapter builds on his response to previous days question
9. Black Box: My imagination to interpret his response and develop the story
10. Outcomes:  regular, enthusiastic reading

So, assuming you won't judge my story telling ability too harshly, here is a flavour:

Chapter 1

Archie and the Plasma Planet - Chapter 1 

There was once a boy called Archie who lived in Shoreham-by-Sea. 

One day Archie saw a strange light in the school playground and went over to see what it was. It was a spaceship, and as he got closer a strange figure came out and spoke to him: 

"Hello, I am from Plasma Planet. Would you like to come on my spaceship and visit Plasma Planet with me?" 

Would you like to go? Reply to answer the question and find out what happens next! 

Chapter 1 response

yes

Chapter 2

Archie and the Plasma Planet - Chapter 2

Archie said "Yes, I would love to visit Plasma Planet" and then climbed aboard the space ship.

The strange alien said, "my name is Pluto, and I am very happy to meet you."

The space ship was very comfortable, and soon they had taken off and Archie could look down on the school as it got smaller and smaller.

Pluto said "it will take a long time to reach the planet, so would you like something to eat on the trip? Our food is not like human food, can you guess what sort of food we eat?"

What do you think? Reply to answer Pluto's question about food on Plasma Planet to find out what happens next! 

Chapter 2 response

rocks and moon dust

Chapter 3

Archie and the Plasma Planet - Chapter 3

Pluto said "On Plasma Planet we eat rocks and moon dust!"

Archie looked sad, he didn't want to eat rocks. "Don't worry" said Pluto, "we have human food on Plasma Planet too for visitors!"

Archie looked out of the window and could see an amazing planet. "Is that Plasma Planet?" said Archie.

"Yes" said Pluto, "I will land the ship and then we can explore. Where do you want to go first?"

What do you think? Reply to answer Pluto's question about where to go on Plasma Planet to find out what happens next! 

Chapter 3 response

The purple spot

etc.

This morning the first thing he did when he got up was check his email, excitedly read out the chapter to his brother and send the reply. He wanted to know what happened next straight away - the one email a day scarcity certainly increases the anticipation. Tonight I sent Chapter 4 (where we actually start exploring the planet and I have to figure out what the purple spot is!).

I think this has mileage. It's a great exercise for me coming up with the next installment and something he is really enjoying. I imagine it will last about a fortnight before we both get a bit bored with it. I'm not sure the Game Frame helped here or if I understood it correctly, in fact it's probably clear I had the idea and then filled in the framework - but I think it does meet the requirements so maybe it was just a good design to start with.

Social Networks for Seven year olds

How does my own knowledge and experience of social networking affect my attitude towards my children's online activities?

I got a mixed set of replies to this tweet - some agreed, however some thought what they knew, of Facebook in particular, would make them less likely to allow their children access to social media. 12 seems to be the average age parents allow their children on Facebook, so I've some way to go with my 6 and 7 year olds - I don't have to make that decision yet! (although they do go on my Facebook account - supervised - as Farmville is too much of a temptation).

I believe I'd rather teach the children good habits than restrict access so am particularly interested in exploring appropriate social networks with my children to help them learn their way around and judge when they are socially ready to hit the big time of Facebook.

Their favourite (semi-social) sites at the moment are Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin. 

There are lots of activities and puzzles (maths, spelling etc) on Moshi Monsters (above), and the social features are the note-board where you can leave messages and the friends tree where you can add friends. The usernames are so obscure usually it's hard to tell which friends are actually people you know - very little social interaction.

Kid's social circles are a lot smaller than adults. This week, at his request, I helped Archie set up a club website for the club he plays with his friends at school (Plasma Planet). I chose Ning for this, as it is easy to set up and for him and his friends to join and use. We went for the mini option (£20/year), so basically all they can do is edit their profile, add friends and post words, pictures and videos. He is delighted. He can quite happily draw, scan and post his Plasma People and share them with his friends. 

Because the site is small I hope moderating it should not be too much work for me. All memberships are approved, and I will only approve people we know. By practising networking in this small, safe way, I hope they can learn the etiquette and potential, ready to hit whatever the social network of choice is for them in a few years time.

I do think there is a gap in the market for a Ning-like product designed for kids to have their own online clubs. It doesn't need to be a dumbed-down Ning, but simpler options, built-in parental moderation settings etc would provide something ideal for purpose.