LearningForward

Kent Chesnut's technology in education blog.

Note added 1/11/08  I received an e-mail this week describing some potentially offensive material in Guitar Hero 3.  To quote from the e-mail (the text is essentially the same as on this Wikipedia article)…

Guitar Hero III: Legend of Rock is the first game in the series to feature a storyline for the Career mode, portrayed through animated cartoon scenes in between venues. The band starts out as a neighborhood sensation, before hooking up with a record producer named “Lou” at one of their shows. After a successful music video hits the web, the band travels to England, and then performs at an Island jail (despite “Lou” encouraging them to “sell out”), which ends up boosting the band’s popularity. As a result, they are invited to headline the Desert Rock Tour festival. After a botched performance in Japan (thanks to “Lou”) they attempt to break free of their contract with “Lou”, who then reveals himself to be the DEVIL and the contract as ownership of their souls. The band is dragged down to “Lou’s Inferno”, where the final showdown comes. In this final showdown, the player must defeat “Lou” in a boss battle to earn back the band’s souls and the title of “Guitar Legend”.

If you feel my ideas (see original post below) are worth pursuing, I’d suggest you use an earlier version of Guitar Hero - which, according to this quote - does not have the animated cartoon storyline. 

 Original Post:

We bought our 15 year old daughter Guitar Hero for Christmas after she raved about it after a friend’s party.  What a game!  By the way, you don’t really learn how to play the guitar… it’s just a game - but it has wide appeal.  Our 10 year old loves it and is getting better.  The 15 year old loves it and is good at it.  Our 20 year old confessed he and his friends have gotten together in the past and played it well into the night.  I’m closing in on 50 and enjoy it and am actually improving!

So why is it appealing? 

1. It is very interactive for the person playing.  First you pick your avatar (who plays guitar in the videos) and name your band.  When it’s time to play, you hold a small plastic guitar that has 5 buttons where the outer frets should be and another switch where you pretend to strum the guitar.  The “music” you are to play comes at you on what looks like a music staff.  As the “notes” reach small circles, you play them.  (Click this link and then click on Media for a screenshot showing 2 staffs on screen with notes.)  If you do it right, you hear your guitar in with the song.  If you miss, you get a clanking sound instead.  The game itself has great intrinsic appeal (you really want to play it right) and extrinsic also (you have to do well enough or the song stops and you get boo’d off the stage).  The user interface is extremely good - and, in my opinion, probably the key to the success of the program.  We have Guitar Hero 3 - Legends of Rock and the music is all rock ranging from pretty old (think Stones and Foghat) to the new rock (I don’t know who these people are! Is this really music?  OK, I’m getting pretty old!).  There’s lots more going on - but I think you get the idea.  For more information, find a friend with the game or read through the Wikipedia article here.
2. Unlike many games, Guitar Hero has great observer appeal.  The video background is great… and it’s also fun to provide constant feedback (positive, negative, or downright insulting) to the person playing. 

So why am I talking about it in a educational technology blog? 

I believe a creative educator could use Guitar Hero in a music class - seriously.  I sometimes watch my daughter play and try to figure out how to do the song she’s playing.  I find I’m thinking in terms of timing (quarter-notes, half-notes, speed…) and comparing what the “play” guitar is playing to what is going on in the song.  Possible music class applications include:

• Assume only 5 notes associated with the 5 switches and put a song from Guitar Hero into music notation.  I believe that when done as a small group (or possibly even a class) project, this could generate good discussions and constructive learning.  Can you play the song with the music from the game?  When does it sound good?  When does it sound bad?  Why?
• Convert sheet music to Guitar Hero notation.  Compressing to 5 notes is the main problem (maybe this has something to do  with the “key” a song is written in - I’m way out of my expertise here!).  Can you play the song?  How does it sound different from the original?  How can you make it better?
• Note - I’m not a musician.  There are probably lots of concepts in music that could be investigated in this manner, I just don’t know what they are.

I mentioned above the the user interface (how the guitar, video, moving notes, etc all work together) is probably the key to the success of the program.  It is elegant - but the functional elements are not terribly complicated.  I think a creative educator could use Guitar Hero in a computer class - seriously.  Possible programming applications include:

• Investigation / analysis of the Guitar Hero user interface.   Discuss possible applications in other settings (operating system user interface? business software?).  This would probably work at a high school (or above) level.  Personal note - If this activity seems to be a stretch of reality, good!  Think about the advances sparked by the Xerox PARC project including the mouse and the graphic user interface (GUI) that form the user interface of virtually all modern PCs.
• Use a programming environment like Scratch to create your own version of Guitar Hero.  The sophistication of such a model would depend on the level of programmer and programming environment used.  I don’t suspect that the background videos are practical… but kids who are properly motivated (that are doing something because they want to - for the pleasure / value they derive from the effort - a.k.a. intrinsic motivation) can do remarkable things (in other words, I wouldn’t stop them from trying)!

Do you have an unstoppable urge to do a cross-curricular music / computer project?  A couple of ideas come up here as well:

• Use the model you programmmed to create your own Guitar Hero songs (based on sheet music, music you have written, or music on CDs). 
• Investigate, design, and create a program like Guitar Hero that “really” teaches one to play the guitar.  By the way, if it works well and is as fun as Guitar Hero, you might just find yourself rich.

One last note (pun intended).  I’d suggest that implementing activities such as those I’ve mentioned above can generate powerful engagement and learning in the classroom - if the intrinsic motivation of the task is NOT destroyed.  Introducing such activities by listing how many points they are worth and how they will be graded - like providing a 2 page rubric to students - will surely kill any intrinsic motivation and most learning.  Maybe, just this once, try one of the shorter ideas just to see how much the kids can learn, do, and enjoy without worrying about a grade.

That’s my 2 cents worth.  I’d sure love to hear other ideas like this.

In Mindstorms - Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (published in 1980), Seymour Papert seemed to foresee that schools would leave the great potential of the computer as a constructive tool largely untapped.  We can clearly see this - schools now have a significant number of powerful computers - but most are used to teach keyboarding, Microsoft Office, or to “look stuff up” on the internet.

In Chapter 8, Images of the Learning Society, Papert discusses possible venues that might be used as models to create learning environments that support the use of the computer in a way compatible with his ideas - “one that helps us not only to learn but to learn about learning.”  (page 177)  One of those models discussed is the Brazilian Samba school.

The Brazilian Samba school model is fascinating to me.  Papert describes the samba school as a social organization that forms for a specific purpose (to perform in Rio’s carnival), is composed of a few hundred to a few thousand people of various ages, works together as collaboative co-learners to put together their performance.  In this post, I’m going to make a few comments about the samba school model and then try to come up with educational examples that may fit with the model.

The samba schools:

• Are voluntary.  It appears that people choose which (if any) of the various samba schools they want to be a part of.  This would appear to enhance intrinsic motivation.
• Allow for significant choice.  There are lots of tasks associated with preparing for the carnival… and it appears the members can choose which activities to be a part of.  Also an intrinsic motivator.
• Don’t allow for infinite individual choice.  The schools as a whole appear to set their goal, and then work together.  I assume an individual can’t change the direction of the whole group.  This fosters a sense of community and teamwork.
• Provide for intergenerational interaction / teaching / learning.  This wouldn’t always be just the adults telling the students how to do something.  I suspect the more mature sometimes rely on the younger to come up with and develop new ideas. 
• Provide for collaboration between novices and experts.
• Provide authentic tasks / learning experiences (making costumes, choreography, learning to dance, …) within a real-world context (preparing to perform in the next carnival).

OK, so my goals don’t include travelling to Rio to perform in the carnival.  I want to understand and encourage constructive thinking and learning using technology.  Are there educational programs available that include some of the attributes of the samba school?  Let’s do some brainstorming…

• IEEE Future City
• Botball
• After-school Computer Club (possibly with Logo Mindstorms / LCSI MicroWorlds)
• Saturday Computer Camp (possibly Scratch or NetLogo Programming)
• AECT’s ISMF (Association for Educational Communications and Technology International Student Media Festival).
• Maybe there could be an after-school or Saturday club to explore the use of various web 2.0 tools - like blogs.  However, I think this kind of task would be best situated within one of the other clubs.  For example, someone in a botball group may choose to blog about the progress of their project.  Or the IEEE Future City group may use a wiki to collaborate on the design of their city, …

All of the above are voluntary and I belieive will allow for the kinds of constructive efforts that Papert described in the samba school.  I also believe they would foster intrinsic motivation.  Future City and Botball are competitions with a pre-specified goal - very much like the samba schools.  ISMF is a competition but with many choices for products.  These competitions supply an overall goal and real-world context.  The computer club / computer camp ideas are more geared for individual exploration and goals - in these the individual would be setting their own goals.

Does anyone have experience with such clubs / competitions / festivals?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on them.

Now I’m sure I’ve missed some really good ones!  (For example, I know there’s a small school district in Canada that hosts an international media competition - but I don’t remember where it is!)  I’d love to hear from readers (assuming such people exist) with additional ideas.

One of the hardest aspects of blogging for me is determining what to name my posts!  Here I am in part 3 and have yet to talk about using Scratch in the classroom.  Oh well, I’ll try to do better.

In this last segment I’ll reflect on what Scratch can be used for in the classroom (reveiw Part 1 for an overview of Scratch as a programming environment and Part 2 for a comparison of Scratch to NetLogo).  Again I’ll note that these uses are compiled from others I read, including Gary Stager, Wesley Fryer, and Seymour Papert.  See Blogroll for links to Stager’s and Fryer’s blogs.  Papert is the author of Mindstorms  - Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas.  However, it’s possible that I may contribute something to this conversation - hopefully!

Ways that Scratch can be used in the Classroom:

• As a programming environment to allow kids to learn programming (and powerful Mathematic and Scientific principles - see Papert’s Mindstorms).
• To create a slideshow (for a book report, history report, …).
• To create a narrated slideshow (digital storytelling).
• To create an animated story, cartoon, …
• To create an animated story, cartoon, … with sound (narration, character voices, sound effects)
• To simulate a science principle.
• To simulate a math problem.
• To design a set for a play or design a layout for a room.
• To block out the movements of characters on the stage for a play (I saw this in one of Gary Stager’s posts recently).
• To make a video game.

I think all of these would be valid uses of Scratch in the classroom.  However, in line with Constructionist thought, any of these activities could be vastly improved by encouraging reflection, discussions, and explanations of what was done, why various design decisions were made, …

I would have liked to create an example of each of these uses and explain how they could be used in the classroom - but I don’t have that much time or energy at the moment.  So I’ll settle for 1…

This link will demonstrate a simple physics principle (trajectory motion) in the context of juggling (pretty much laid out as Papert described in Chapter 4 of Mindstorms) that I think would be appropriate in a secondary Physics course.  Oddly enough, the balls move significantly faster when playing in the Scratch environment… they seem a little slow on the internet.  The motion of the balls is described by the script shown here.

This script is executed when the tossleft message is received - it simulates a throw from the left hand to the right hand.
The main part of the script executes only when the ball is in the left hand (AtLeft = 1).  The ball ignores the message if it is flying or in the right hand.
A loop of 101 passes calculates the differential x and y positions.

The 3 degree turn is just eye-candy; it looks nice for the balls to be turning at different rates.

When the ball is about at the apex (programmable with GlobalTossTime), a message is sent to toss the ball in the right hand.  (Actually the message is sent to all the balls, but only the one in the right hand responds to it.)
When the ball arrives in the right hand, the AtRight flag is set.
The X and Y positions are cleaned up so the juggle doesn’t walk across the screen.

The tossright script (tossing the ball from the right hand to the left hand) looks very much like the tossleft.  Each of the 3 balls have scripts that are very similar.  (The main difference is that ball 3, which starts in the left hand, ignores the first tossleft.)  A link to the project file is here if you want to look at it.

So what kinds of questions could be discussed in a secondary science or Physics class based on this simulation?

• How are the equations of motion in the script similar to those studied in class?  How are they different?  Why?
  Probably similar to X(t) = Xo + Vx * t, Y(t) = Yo + Vy *t - 1/2*g*t^2
  (Does WordPress have an equation editor????)
• What does it mean that the equations in the script are implemented as differential?
• Where do the constants in the script come from?
• Do the balls move as the equations of motion predict?  Are there anomalies - caused by bugs in the program?  Can you find the bugs?  Can you fix them?
• Do the balls move as they do in the real-world (affected by the assumptions in the equations of motion)?  What kinds of forces would we need to add to better reflect the real-world situation?

I a reader can think of any other ways Scratch can be used in the classroom, I’d appreciate hearing about them.