Next Gen Learner and the Epic Win

The Next Gen Learner might be a term you’ve been hearing a lot of lately, but did you know that the NGL includes most of us? It’s true. In fact, the NGL has grown up playing some form of digital game with learning value since the 1980s. For example, those born in the age of pastel colors, jelly bracelets and crimped hair can probably recall playing variations of Number-Muncher and Oregon Trail throughout their adolescents. I can personally remember sitting down for the first time to a green-screened Apple computer with brilliantly orange text. I was in digital heaven as I moved my monster from number to number, working hard for the “epic win” of successfully leveling up. The multiple streams of information, inductive reasoning and fine-tuned visual literacy skills hasn’t weaned for the present NGL, in fact these traits continue to evolve for every generation growing up immersed in the digital world. Because of this, digital gaming has steadily been taking precedence in educational discourse and with that comes the need for more awareness on what we can do to make digital games continually educational and engaging.

One suggestion for making digital games more educational and engaging comes from the enticement of an “epic win”. According to McGonigal, an “epic win” is an outcome so extraordinarily positive, you had no idea it was possible until you achieve it. She uses the World of Warcraft (WoW) as an example to show how a collaborative problem-solving environment will facilitate the “epic win” goal. WoW is an online game designed for collaboration with fellow players in search of a mission. This game has been so successful with the enticement of an “epic win” that some criticize it as being addictive, which leads to a concern over the amount of time children spend in digital gaming.

McGonigal has stated in various media outlets that we currently invest 3 billion hours weekly playing online games, but she would like to see that number climb to 21 billion hours weekly. Her reason, in order to solve the worlds problems like hunger, poverty, obesity, we need to play online games that have real world impact and play it as much as possible, resulting in the deep focus often exhibited in gamers. A recent statistic release from Carnegie Mellon University, noted that the average American by age of 21 has spent 10,000 hours of gaming. Coincidently, American children will spend 10,080 hours from 5th grade to high school graduation with perfect attendance (McGonigal, 2010, TED Talks). What does this mean? Well, according to McGonigal, this means that young people are learning as much about gaming as they are about everything else.

So, my fellow NGL, let’s take a look at Evoke once again with our “epic win” mentality and follow Malcom Gladwell’s 10,000-Hour Rule. So far I’m on hour 3 and have a bit to go, but I will update as milestones are made in this game for real world change.