It’s funny… I do a lot of writing using similar methods to what Derrick describes with Dosequis, using Google docs and a buddy, but several times during the article, I found myself shaking my head. Yes, human interaction is helpful, but how is computer literacy not essential? It was a different time, I suppose, with different expectations. While his exercises rang true to me (and did not seem gamified at all), the way he talked about it was not my experience on either “side” of the classroom.

I also went into the Haas and Gardner thinking: how on earth would a LAN MOO be any use in the classroom? Why not just talk over and around the computers, or move the computers, or something else? But as I read, I thought about my students’ research forthcoming research unit, and the eternal struggle of teaching strong proof for claims, and I thought about students in collaborative spaces, like the aforementioned Google docs, or a chat room, in which they could quickly exchange ideas, quotes, sources to get ideas and feedback. What Ashley said last class period got me thinking about sharing my own process with my students, and this may be one way to do it, particularly if it’s a persistent resource they can access at any time they are working on the research. It may help the research process, and may disrupt it, but since my students this semester are part of a small group and will be working within a pool of research topics, I might now test something like that out… though again, it doesn’t seem gamified to me, but maybe that’s because I played too many MUDs and MUSHes and have pretty particular associations with games versus purely social/communicated spaces (maybe it wasn’t supposed to seem gamified? I dunno.)

Finally, as I read Daisley, I think I have come to understand that I don’t see games in these readings because what is described is my baseline normal. I am irreverent and silly even with the things I do take very seriously (well, most things) and in that sense, I guess my classroom tends to be a very playful place. But I want to establish comfort and engagement and for me, that’s one of the easiest ways to do it, or maybe I mean most natural.

Lots to think on.