2006 2007
The Oregon Trail and Exploring
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
So I’ve always heard a lot about the game, “The Oregon Trail.” It came a little too late for me to play it in school (well, a lot too late – we didn’t have computers in my school, we had cave paintings). The other day, I got curious enough to look up “The Oregon Trail” at Wikipedia:
“An entire generation of schoolchildren grew up on the various incarnations of The Oregon Trail. Thus, it has entered popular culture. Characters suddenly dying of a disease, such as cholera and dysentery, or drowning while trying to ford across a river are plot aspects that are fondly remembered.”
Cholera, dysentery and drowning are “fondly remembered”??!!
I guess nostalgia can make anything sound good.
As I understand it, the first versions of the game were of their time, meaning that they were simple (as you can see in this screen grab from… April 25, 1848!):
Kids loved this game. And it taught them a lot about American history. And it suggests that you don’t necessarily need a load of bells and whistles to make a compelling game, just exciting game play that makes players want to keep playing and playing.
So contemplating all of this led me to think about a few other things, foremost among them, “exploring.” I’ve written a lot about us old folks having to be brave as we face the new world of technology. It’s easy to feel stupid when we try new things (and it’s especially easy when those new things are easily mastered by most eight-year-olds!). But having courage in the face of embarrassment is the only way to learn things. It’s how kids learn at school. And it’s how grown-ups learn at work. And it’s how all of us learn at home. We’ve got to be explorers ...
Kids are quite naturally explorers, while we adults are a little more careful.
But one thing that definitely makes it easier to explore is if you’ve got some company along the way.
I’m lucky enough to work with a group of folks on the Learning Games to Go project who are really, really brave. They’re at the forefront of a movement to bring cool, effective learning games into classrooms around the country. And if this plan of theirs works, it will make a huge impact on how teachers teach and how students learn. And it will make things better.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually been involved with something that was truly “new” in my adult life ...until now. I’ve always marched along trails that had already been made by others. It’s so exciting to be an explorer!
I just hope none of us gets cholera ...
Old Skates ... And Hope
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I hit the big four-seven recently (see above). And I hit it hard. To reference an earlier theme on this blog, I feel about as old as these skates….
You know how it goes. Little aches and pains don’t go away anymore. I forget stuff more often. Etc. Etc.
Now I’ve heard that there are ways to withstand the aging process, at least insofar as it relates to our gray matter. Sudoku. Crossword puzzles. Learning a language. Learning a musical instrument. All of these things are supposed to keep the gears in our minds well lubricated.
But I think the best way to stay “young” is to have hope.
My kids are six and nine, and they pretty much always have hope. They just expect things to work out for them. They’re ready to take on new challenges because they haven’t had lots of disappointments yet. Most of the stuff they’ve tried has worked out pretty well. They are naturally game for just about anything.
Me? I have to work at being game (and as readers of this blog know, that’s especially true when it comes to games ...).
I got to thinking about all of this because of some recent reader comments. One was from MetalheadMissy74 (and as an aside, I can’t believe I have a reader who calls herself MetalheadMissy74 – thank you so much!). Like me, she’s had struggles with the game, Crazy Machines, and she wondered if I’d been able to figure out the puzzle I described here. The other comment was from the less colorfully named, but just as terrific, Carolyn. She offered me encouragement to return to my own personal Waterloo ... that is, The Sims 2. Carolyn even explained how I might be able to feed my Sims avatar should I decide to play the game again. (Thank you, Carolyn!)
So the thing that really struck me was that both of these readers were hopeful. One was hopeful that she could find a better way to master a tricky game. And the other – let’s call her a dreamer (!) - was hopeful that I might find a better way to master a tricky game.
Now all of this might seem obvious and not that important, but I think it’s really meaningful. We old folks have to notice hope. After all, it’s hope that fuels our new adventures, whether we’re six ... or nine ... or even 47. It’s just that when we’re 47, we have to work harder to feel that hope. We have to seek it out. Unlike the youngsters, we know that things can go badly. But if we’re hopeful, we wind up giving it a shot anyway.
So thank you, MetalheadMissy74 and Carolyn. I am going to go back to Crazy Machines and The Sims 2. I don’t necessarily feel any younger today, but I do feel more hopeful and maybe even ... game.