Game: Never Alone
Twitter: @NeverAloneGame
Web: http://neveralonegame.com/
Never Alone keeps me awake at night.
It's not that I constantly get killed by a bear, (which by the way occurs because I am a totally hopeless gamer and forget how to use the functionalities) It keeps me awake as this game evokes an unrelenting curiosity within my myself. There is a quality in the game that I find difficult to capture and express in words.
I was introduced to this game by Rachel Bolstad @shiftingthinkng a couple of years ago.
I attended a CORE Education Breakfast. @coreeducation
I recall my school could not afford the whole morning session but $20 was doable. Believe me - my $20 bite size morning PD was ample! (I wonder if most PD should just be short and sharp and to the point where we interact with the essence.)
Never Alone is the game that totally convinced me there was something in this thing called Games for Learning. So this game... we play.. for what purpose?
People are some what polarised about the use of games for learning and games in the classroom and actually just digital games full stop.
I hear very few conversations about what is gained from creating & playing digital games.
I hear a lot about what is lost and a fear of loosing face to face interaction. (what I think of as the warmth of human interaction.)
I hear about schools in NZ who have filtered out students having access to YouTube.
When I talk to colleagues about Games for learning, more specifically the engagement with creating and playing digital games, seriously, I feel like I'm pushing drugs.
Some how in the game Never Alone...
- I'm interacting with some thing like a collaborative process, where I'm inside shared knowledge that by the actual interaction and lived game experience I am contributing to building shared knowledge.
- The actual learning in the game is taking place without conscious awareness
- I'm interacting with increasing levels of complexity and improvement
- Although the game has a 'learning / educative' thing going on there is some thing about a bigger purpose going on.
- The building of an understanding in the game is non linear, a bit confusing and messy at times, often slow and for me difficult.
My own knowledge, perception and reality of digital games keeps colliding.
There are swags of seriously inspiring communities and individuals surfing this thing called Games for learning
- Never Alone
