Playing
Settlers and reading McGonigal’s book has helped me understand in more detail
what it takes to live. It would be nice if we could play the game; The Long View,
she refers to but current obstacles are not surmountable, yet. In the real
world, entrepreneurs have always been the ones with the long view, those that
could see the future, even beyond their own, and we have corporations, and buildings
to attest to that. Playing the game and thinking about this made me think that we
all need to be entrepreneurs in our own lives, how we live and manage the
obstacles we encounter and look beyond them. Soon after I began playing this
game, I encouraged a friend’s 16-year-old grandson to play with the hope that
we could have a discussion later about what he learned. I wanted him to see the
interconnectedness of the supply chains to the expansion of community, and the
need for resource management and then be able to translate that to his own
worldview, his needs, and wants. In doing this, having those discussions, I
realized how much I personally was not recognizing those obstacles and long
view in my own life.
We see it on
the news almost daily of how areas of our ecosystem are damaged by human or
natural actions, but we invariably dismiss it and do not see how it relates to
our own lives. I wanted Jeremy, my friend’s grandson to see how doing one thing
can have negative or positive outcomes in many unexpected ways. I believe I
have seen a small light of understanding on his part in our talks, but my own
light has come into sharp relief. This is how I want my students to see the
world, beyond their own needs and wants, to recognize the bigger picture and
continue to open their eyes to possible futures that they have the power to
create. I want them to know, that right now, they are engaging in what McGonigal
refers to as pilot experimentation, and now is the time to try small things to
see what changes can be made, safely in their own lives. Games, in the right context, can empower them
to do that. One example that was offered this week was the “what if game,” World
Without Oil. I can see some kind of variation of this would work well in the
classroom with the use of media to let them be creative in their expression of
ideas to help solve smaller problems in their own life.
Choosing
only three concepts from the book is a difficult task, but the author sums it
up best in her conclusions on page 350: “Good games can play an important role
in improving our quality of life. They support social cooperation and civic
participation at very big scales. And they help us lead more sustainable lives
and become a more resilient species.” Who could ask for more?
Michael, great blog this week. There are many in our government and some corporations are only looking at the short term, this quarter’s profit, the year’s profits, and next year’s election. When I worked for a medical manufacturer, every three months our manager would harp on us “close out all your installs this week so we can collect the money”. It seemed that all that management cared about was the bottom line, not necessary that the work was finished.
ReplyDeleteI’m consistently trying to explain to my kids to recycle and conserve. When they leave lights on or throw their towels on the floor after one use, I tell them that someone had to leave his family and go down a coal mine and work underground all day because they were too lazy to hang their towel up and use it again. I think all my lecturing is falling on deaf ears though. I keep telling my wife that I can’t wait for when the move out and have a house of their own and I can visit them and leave the front door open and leave all the lights on.
I’ve been following the author on twitter lately and I notice that she does a lot of traveling, it reminds me of Al Gore and all his preaching on global warming, like do what I say, not as I do.