ISTE annual conference: an overwhelming experience

I’m currently at the International Society of Technology in Education’s (ISTE) annual conference in Washington, DC. There are about 18,000 K12 teachers, tech staff, and administrators, university faculty, and vendors attending this conference. We’re all here for a similar purpose: to find ways to improve learning through the use of contemporary technology. It’s an overwhelming experience that I’ll be writing about in many blog posts.

I’ll start with two of the three keynote speakers (the third hasn't spoken yet). Sunday night we heard from Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers. He spoke about the importance of failure in education—and how we need to stop viewing failure as, by definition, a bad thing. He used Fleetwood Mac and sports as examples of successful entities that failed before they succeeded. You can listen to his talk beginning at 54:30, NECC 2009 keynote.

Today’s keynote is a panel debate: “Resolved: that bricks and mortar schools are detrimental to learning.” A pre-talk “clicker” survey indicated that the attendees were against the resolution 2 to 1. After listening to the arguments, the survey indicated that nearly 75% were against the resolution. A video of the debate, moderated by Robert Siegel from NPR, should be available shortly here.

I’m finding this debate fascinating, in part, because I conducted my undergraduate course, “Contemporary ideas in information technology,” via desktop videoconferencing last evening. There are 9 students in the class; most are working at least part time; and about half are non-traditional students. One of the students orally summarized a chapter in one of the books that we are reading for the class after which I led the remainder of the discussion. The rest of the class used the chat space as a back channel to discuss what he was talking about while listening. They also used the chat space to participate in the class. I asked them to discuss their experience at the end of class. More on this in my next blog post.

Homeless in The Sims 3

Can a video game show us what it would be like to live on the streets? Can it show how growing up in a dysfunctional family could influence a person later in life? Can it inspire others to donate to charity to help the homeless?

These questions are starting to be asked, ever since a social "experiment" began in The Sims 3, the new "real-life simulation" game by EA Games. Robin Burkinshaw, a game development student in the UK, decided to act out a homeless family in The Sims 3 and publish the family's development on a blog.



Enter Alice and Kev, a father and daughter who live in a park of a neighborhood in The Sims 3. Kev is a pretty bad father: neglectful, often angry, and accusing. Alice is a clumsy girl, very much alone but still kind-hearted. She takes solace in going to school every day, and puts off going home as long as she can.

They sleep on benches, or the occasional bed that they can find when they go over others' houses (much to the owner's displeasure). Alice eats at school, but is otherwise left to eat whatever she can find on the street...or in other people's refrigerators.

There are many interesting dynamics at play here. First is the relationship between Alice and Kev. The story starts with Alice as a child, and she later grows into a teenager, which brings a whole new dimension to her relationship with her father as well. Then there is the relationship Alice and Kev have with the rest of the neighborhood -- particularly the reactions that others have when Alice smells because she hasn't showered, or when they find her curling up for a nap on their couch. We also see how tough it is for Alice and Kev. When you have no money to buy food, what do you do? When you don't have a bed, and are miserable because you are tired and have not had a comfortable place to sleep in weeks, how does that affect the rest of your life and interactions?

Some of the interactions and events in this story are dictated by the creator, but Robin states on her site that "a surprising amount of the interesting things in this story were generated by just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over."

The story is quite moving. Robin documents the family's exploits, complete with some rather realistic looking screen shots. At times amusing and at other times saddening, this story has gotten quite a following, as readers are anxious to see what might happen next and how Alice will grow up.

The comments on the blog posts are really interesting to read as well. There are some pretty varied reactions, but overall people seem to be saddened by the story and yet drawn to it, rooting for Alice and hoping for a happy ending. A couple of user comments in particular caught my attention:

Good god, I feel so sorry for Alice. I know she’s a fictional Sim and everything but everything that’s happening to her is truly miserable. It makes one think of the similarly difficult lives that many among us live out here in the real world.

(posted by "Sol Invictus" in Just trying to be alone)

This makes me wonder. What is Kev’s backstory? Was he an Alice at one point? On the streets with a horrible parent, struggling like Alice? Or was he placed here by his own actions and circumstances? Where is Alice’s Mother? Will Alice become a Kev? And have an Alice of her own?

(posted by "Eric" in Better than Teddy)

As part of the blog, Robin has also linked to various charities that give to support for homeless. I wonder if anyone has gotten involved in any of these because of this story. It seems to be generating awareness, at least.

Read the full blog here.