Well I have finished to play Starcraft II: Winds of liberty. I started to play at 8:05 PM and ended up 9:23 PM because I downloaded the demo and I could play just one campaign (enough for my research I think).
About flow? It is true. Let's review:
1.- There are clear goals every step of the way: of course! In a game you know you have to do, like in the classroom, when you give good instructions, students know what or how they must perform. The goals are clear. In my Starcraft II, every mission that I played had aims. When I achieved the aim, I went to the next step.
2.- There is immediate feedback to your actions: When I did something stupid in my game, I lost my brave marines and I was attack and I should start again thinking of my mistake. In my English class, I used to give my students immediate, indirect feedback.
3. -There is a balance between challenges and skills: I decided to level my game in normal. Because I have play Starcraft I but I haven't seen Starcraft II before. So, I decided my level using my previous knowledge. We have to do the same in our classes. It is very different to teach a 7 years old student a song than a 15 years old student. You always must think about their background knowledge and skills.
4.- Action and awareness are merged: I was completed immersed in my game, at the point of feel worried about the characters that I was protecting. I think this is difficult to achieve it in the classroom, but not impossible
5. - Distractions are excluded from consciousness: When I arrived at home, my roommates were at the living room. when I finished my game... They have gone and I hadn't notice! (bad roommate). I think when you bring something interesting, funny and challenge into the classroom you can achieve this. An experiment, a movie, etc. Once, I taught Imperatives using origami. It was awesome.
6.- There is no worry of failure: When you start a game, you know you can start again if you die or not accomplish the mission or whatever. He know that before starting the game. And what about classes? I have a professor that in my first English class at college He said: "You must make mistakes here, not in the test". I took that phrase too.
7.- Self-consciousness disappears: I didn't notice that I almost ate my screen when I were playing. This one is also difficult to achieve it in classroom. Kids are always worried about the look when they are doing something.
8.- The sense of time becomes distorted: Yes. Starcraft has a resume after each level. When I noticed that the first one took 30 minutes, I said to myself: No way! Sometimes this happen in classroom when we use games or another funny activity.
9.- The activity becomes ‘autotelic’ – meaning it is an end in itself: At the end I really enjoyed my time playing starcraft. I really wanted to win. I forgot "life"for a while and immerse myself in a new world.
Can we do this the whole semester?
See you!
