Hello Nancy, Heidi, and others,

I have previously mentioned on this discussion list the book by James  
Gee,  _What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and  
Literacy_. Gee invites us to look at what we can learn from the most  
successful, and brilliantly designed, computer games about how to  
create classroom learning experiences.  I would like us to look at  
what video games have to teach us about _online_ learning for adults.

[Caution: this message contains vision.]

1. When you begin to play a video game you know it will be  
challenging, but it always begins at the easiest level and gradually,  
level by level, gets more difficult. Is this always true of online  
learning for adults?

2. Video games (Gee points out) usually have no written instruction  
manuals.  You are expected to learn how they work from playing them.  
They are designed that way. You _can_ learn how they work from  
playing them. Can students learn how an online course works just from  
taking it?

3.  In a video game you can take as little or as much time as you  
need to go through any level.  You can replay a level any time you  
want -- to strengthen your skills for the difficult challenges that  
you know lie ahead, or for fun.  In an online course, even an  
asynchronous one, you usually have to complete the assignment within  
the week.

4. In a video game you are rewarded each time you learn something,  
and at the end of each level.

Although Gee lists more principles I think you get the idea.  Gee  
learned these principles from studying video games. He describes them  
in detail throughout the book and conveniently lists them in the  
appendix. Examining typical classroom activities in light of these  
learning design principles, you realize that many students are  
disengaged with K-12 classes and drop out because the classes are so  
poorly designed as learning environments, whereas video games engage  
them. Most classes just cannot compete with video games, or many  
other engaging life learning experiences. As Mark Twain put it, "My  
whole life was an education, except of course for my years in school".

Of course, this kind of thinking may lead us back to the drawing  
board, to reconsider whether we should be offering online "classes"  
at all. The answer to the National Institute of Literacy's question  
about how much literacy is needed for online learning  might be "only  
very basic literacy skills" or even "no literacy skills are required"  
to participate in online learning if reading and writing could be  
learned entirely through playing an online video game.

Some of you are chuckling at the very notion. Consider however Second  
Life, the online environment where those with low-level reading  
skills can even now learn how to do many things without reading.   
Suppose users could have Second Life signs, notices, billboards,  
letters, e-mail and other written documents -- or parts of these --  
read out loud if they wished, for example when they got stuck on a  
word. Suppose they could attend completely asynchronous reading  
improvement groups when and if they wanted to in an online learning  
center, reading groups which took advantage of computerized  
assessment features. In a large-scale, online reading group  
environment, people could be assigned to a reading group with those  
who had their interests, and same reading level. There could, of  
course, be scheduled real-time discussions for those who wanted them.

I learned recently that some people with physical disabilities (who  
describe themselves as "differently abled")  are active in Second  
Life.  Like everyone else there, they can choose who they want to be,  
can pick or design their own avatar (a mobile, animated icon that is  
"who you are" in Second Life) but also -- for the first time -- they  
can walk, run, even fly. One physically disabled user said that this  
mobility is liberating. Could Second Life be "liberating" for low- 
literate adults?

Where am I going with this vision?

The National Institute for Literacy, and/or other public and private  
funders should invest in creating an online environment -- perhaps  
build a learning center island on Second Life -- where adults,  
including young adults, -- can improve their reading, writing and  
numeracy skills in an interactive, online environment. This would be  
a bold step.  There is nothing like this now -- although I understand  
a new GED center has just opened on Second Life and there is a  
massive center being built there for post-secondary education.

Suppose participants learned to improve their reading, writing and  
numeracy skills as they were doing other things, and that the  
"scaffolding" was there to support literacy improvement. Perhaps the  
U.S. and Canada could co-invest in a Second Life adult learning  
environment where adults could go to pursue some compelling learning  
goals, and could -- at the same time -- get the assists they needed  
to improve their reading, writing and numeracy skills, not  
necessarily through online classes, but as they learned construction  
skills, learned to maintain a computer, improved their bowling  
skills, learned to fully use the features of a new mobile phone, or  
some other personal goal or objective.

Such an environment, originally designed for English users or English  
language learners, might be adapted for learning other languages as  
well.  It might become a world literacy learning environment.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net