I had not heard about World of Warcaft until I listened to an episode on a NPR Technology podcast several weeks ago. It is amazing how many people are playing the game worldwide. No doubt gaming is something educators should be paying more attention to. Microsoft certainly is, and I wonder whether or not before long gaming will become Microsoft’s bread and butter for income. I wish more students viewed the learning process as a quest. I know educators and the attitude they have can be contagious. We need more teachers, librarians and principals who are inviting students on learning quests! 
The article “You Play World of Warcraft? You’re Hired!” in the April 2006 edition of Wired suggests that the “accidental learning” that takes place in online games prepares students for real life precisely because it provides a safe environment for players to fail and learn:
Unlike education acquired through textbooks, lectures, and classroom instruction, what takes place in massively multiplayer online games is what we call accidental learning. It’s learning to be – a natural byproduct of adjusting to a new culture – as opposed to learning about. Where traditional learning is based on the execution of carefully graded challenges, accidental learning relies on failure. Virtual environments are safe platforms for trial and error. The chance of failure is high, but the cost is low and the lessons learned are immediate.
Failing safely? Is that value part of your classroom culture and mine? It should be!
The article also suggests that the roles required of a guild master in “World of Warcraft” are analogous to those in a leadership laboratory:
In this way, the process of becoming an effective World of Warcraft guild master amounts to a total-immersion course in leadership. A guild is a collection of players who come together to share knowledge, resources, and manpower. To run a large one, a guild master must be adept at many skills: attracting, evaluating, and recruiting new members; creating apprenticeship programs; orchestrating group strategy; and adjudicating disputes. Guilds routinely splinter over petty squabbles and other basic failures of management; the master must resolve them without losing valuable members, who can easily quit and join a rival guild. Never mind the virtual surroundings; these conditions provide real-world training a manager can apply directly in the workplace.
Both the Boy Scouting movement and the culture our U.S. military academies are sometimes referred to as laboratories for leadership development. I have not played World of Warcraft myself, and I am not making the assertion here that playing online multiplayer fantasy games is equivalent to participation in formal organizations like Scouting or the US Military.
I do think we need effective leaders at all levels of organizations today, and it is interesting that leadership development is an essential component of success in online, multiplayer games. Leadership is the top undergraduate minor at Kansas State University, and may be at other institutions as well. Rather than just wringing hands and lamenting the ills of gaming (which there certainly are many that should not be ignored,) we need to also recognize the benefits. These are not limited to the ability solve problems in ill-structured environments (comparatively more real-world than well structured school problem solving) but also extend to leadership lessons.
Thanks to Aaron Schmidt for the article reference.
On this day..
- Shifting from Writing to Videography - 2011
- The Doritos Tablet - an iPad YouTube Spoof - 2010
- Visually summarizing ideas with Sean Griffin - 2009
- Live from the OK State Superintendent's Dropout Summit - 2009
- Twitter follower bio word clouds - 2009
- Web 2.0 in the Enterprise - 2008
- Offline QuickTime Versions of "Growing Up Online" videos - 2008
- Making Google Reader feed subscriptions easier - 2007
- SITE Fireside skypecast - 2007
- ISTE Online Learning Awards - 2006
