Archive for the ‘Knowledge Quest’ Tag
Did you invent Knowledge Quest?
Filed under: Knowledge Quest | Tags: English skills, gamification, Knowledge Quest, learning, pedagogy
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Did you invent Knowledge Quest?
Did you make up Knowledge Quest?
How did you make Knowledge Quest?
I’m just back from two weeks in Victoria where I visited several schools using Knowledge Quest.
In every class I visited, 13 year olds peppered me with questions about Knowledge Quest and my capacity for creativity and innovation.
Regrettably I had to answer these questions with ‘no, I didn’t invent Knowledge Quest, but I wish I did’.
It is always a good sign when students ask these sorts of questions.
In an industrial economy, there was little scope to ask questions. Compliant workers in factories had a set of procedures to follow. Schools were established so that compliant workers could be churned out to work in factories.
No need to ask questions, just do what you’re told to do.
The rapid changes of today’s economy require a new worker. Today it is important to ask questions, take some risks, have the capacity to solve problems and create new ideas. This presents a cultural shift in the way we live and work in the 21st century.
Knowledge Quest symbolises a cultural shift. As a learning resource, it draws on elements of gaming in popular culture which are combined with new ways of learning in the 21st century. It gives students a new way of learning grammar.
No questions here about engagement from the students I met – they like this way of learning.
But these 13 year olds also peppered me with questions about features they would like to see in the next version of Knowledge Quest. No shortage of ideas here.
At this point, I opened my notebook and jotted down their ideas to pass on to some of my colleagues at Jacaranda.
These 13 year old inventors had many ideas to share.
Knowledge Quest: serious fun
Filed under: Knowledge Quest | Tags: English skills, gaming, Knowledge Quest, NAPLAN
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What has happened to ‘fun’?
Once upon a time we had a very clear distinction between ‘work’ and ‘fun’. We went to work. When we finished work we went home and had fun.
This separation of ‘work’ and ‘fun’ is a construct of an industrial economy.
In post-modern knowledge economy, we complain about not achieving work-life balance. We’re too busy to have time for fun.
Instead of thinking about separating fun from work, we now need to integrate the two.
Separating work and fun is the industrial economy mindset. Integrating work and fun is the new post-industrial mindset we need to apply. We need to have fun when we work.
We also separate work and fun in education. There is a time to be serious and a time to have fun. Why not have fun whilst learning?
It is also time to apply a new mindset to education in the 21st century. Let’s have fun while we are doing the serious work of learning.
Jacaranda’s Knowledge Quest integrates work and fun. Knowledge Quest English is an immersive, interactive game, supported by a full colour workbook, that builds core skills in English. It helps students, teachers and parents prepare for the NAPLAN test with best-practice diagnostic technology that monitors individual progress.
Time to have serious fun!
Knowledge Quest is released next week!
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John Raiti 