KyEdRPG Spotlight: Ben Little and his Periodic Table TTRPG

When I presented about TTRPGs in education at the Aurora Institute Symposium last year, one of the attendees was Benjamin Little, a secondary science teacher in Massachusetts.  Mr. Little teaches as part of "an innovative, competency-based program at Brookline High School for up to 48 students, entering grades 10-12, who feel they will find more intellectual satisfaction and be more academically successful in a non-traditional setting," where "students get the chance to experience engaging, experiential learning that takes thematic topics and explores them in great depth – often culminating in performance-based assessments" ("About ACE").

As I heard about his clever approaches of incorporating some TTRPG-style play in his classroom, I was intrigued.  After we talked briefly at the conference, we promised to stay in touch.  

Ben -- or "Mr. Ben," as his students call him -- has tried some new things since our November meeting, and in the spirit of reflection we all find ourselves doing at the end of the school year, I thought it might be a good opportunity to celebrate his accomplishments! Here is our interview.

Ben, welcome to Edtech Elixirs!  Share your educator story.

I began teaching biology in 2006 in Tanzania, where I was stationed for the Peace Corps. I spent the next decade adding science subjects, countries, and states to my teaching repertoire. It was the perfect preparation for the job I have now, teaching Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Forensics and Nutrition to mixed grade level classes of sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the ACE program at Brookline High School.

What kinds of games do you personally play?

I’ve been interested in the fantasy and sci-fi genres since I was old enough to read. I distinctly remember the original Final Fantasy video game on Nintendo, and how immersed I became. I have been playing games ever since, although my experience with full-blown TTRPGs has been limited.

You’ve shared in previous conversations that you use a TTRPG gaming mechanic in your Chemistry class.  Share what you’re doing, and how it’s evolved and changed.

Student art of the character Plutonium.

I invented a TTRPG to teach the periodic table that I call Elementopia.

The unit on the periodic table is traditionally one of the most boring units in chemistry, as teachers focus on atomic radii, electron configurations, and ionization energies. This reductivist approach can help some students see the patterns that will become important later on to understand bonding patterns and molecular formation, but it completely misses the depth of properties that the elements have or what technological applications any of them are used for. For any students not interested in chemistry for chemistry’s sake, this is a huge turnoff, as they don’t even know why they’re supposed to be learning all of this boring garbage.

I started doing an “adopt an element” project to get students to become familiar with elements’ personalities. This finally got them to appreciate the character and uses of a single element, but students still didn’t learn much about trends of properties across the table or, for some, spark their interest.

Student art of the character Fluorine.

I then had them illustrate their elements, personifying them as characters. They would incorporate a number of properties into their designs, and put it on a poster with information about its properties and uses. These really got students engaged, but I noticed that they still weren’t necessarily learning the trends on the periodic table, and realized I needed a different product.

Next, I invented a simple turn based game where they would turn their research about properties into character attribute scores. I took the basic mechanic from Dungeons & Dragons, but modified the attributes to reflect chemical and physical properties. Some of them were the same, like Strength and Constitution, but things like their magical ability and Charisma changed to Reactivity and Luster. The scores for the attributes were determined by the properties the element displayed: Strength would depend on density, hardness, and weaponization, Dexterity on malleability and state at room temperature, Reactivity on toxicity, flammability, ionization energy and electronegativity, etcetera, with a total attribute score calculated by adding up the points from each indicator.

Once they had their character's attributes, they needed to come up with attacks and defenses. These could be based on attributes, such as “I am going to body slam you with my density,” but students also needed to incorporate uses and applications, like “I negate your electricity attack because my element is used in lightning rods.” The power of each move is based on the attribute score that it draws from plus the roll of a 6 sided die. One character attacks while the other tries to defend, and the one with the highest power move (attribute plus roll) wins out, as in if the attack score is higher the attack is successful but if the defense move is stronger no damage is inflicted.

Student art of the character Sulfurious.

The first round of this was fun, but it quickly became apparent that I needed a lot more structure. I added hyperlinks to the character attribute sheet to resources and tables to streamline the research process. I simplified the basic attacks so that they all inflict one Hit Point (HP) of damage after a student who ran the D & D club at the school made a broken Boron dragon whose moves were all ridiculously overpowered. I added the opportunity to get creative by allowing a single super move and single passive ability that could afflict conditions, break the simple turn based mode, or do extra damage.

At this point the kids were really into it, but the tournament at the end was kind of a let-down because they did all this work then only used their character once or twice. So, I added other modes of play, like exhibition matches, where they could gain experience points by playing each other for homework outside of class that would increase their base HP. I had prizes for winning battle royales and beating raid bosses like score boosts or 8 sided die that they could upgrade to. Kids really got into it!

Student art of a Mercury Alien.

To learn about all the trends on the periodic table, I came up with lore. Each elemental family acts like a class of character. Students in the same family have to write a tome of lore, or family biography, about their group. I make these available to students, and have an assignment where I ask them to identify strategies for playing against other elements. Finally, I was getting most students to learn about all the trends on the periodic table, because they wanted to win!

I noticed that the emphasis on competition was not motivation for some students, or even turned some anxious kids off, though. After all, they could still pass if they made a character but didn’t ever win. So, in my most recent revision of the game, I’m adding a mandatory campaign mode. I’m turning the periodic table into a “map of Elementopia” that they will use as an actual game board. In each region, there is a boss element that exemplifies that group of elements that they must defeat by strategically teaming up with each other to make a party that will counter that boss’s strengths and capitalize on its vulnerabilities. The cooperative nature of it should appeal to those kids that shy away from competition, and finally require that they really understand not just some, but all of the groups on the periodic table.

That's all so amazing! And kudos to you for all the work you've put into this project. How have the students reacted?

Students that have never played games are initially apprehensive, but it’s so highly scaffolded that they don’t usually have difficulty. Students that are really artistic or are gamers are always really excited, and many of them will start planning their character’s units before the project begins or continue playing the game long after the class has ended. The most interesting take is from students that took chemistry and didn’t pass it in the mainstream before coming to ACE; they all start out thinking they hate chemistry then fall in love with it. I just had one of those students visit me. They are studying music production in university now, but their favorite leisure activity is watching chemistry videos on YouTube. Most students really enjoy and learn a lot from the game, and a few have even made characters without taking the class because they just want to.

It could certainly be a challenge to convince non-gamer students to give this kind of instruction a try. It sounds like you've built in some very helpful supports.

Thank you! As I mentioned, the competitive nature of the tournament is off-putting for students with anxiety, and the open-ended nature of the moves can be hard for students on the autistic spectrum and other "concrete thinkers" to wrap their minds around. The cooperative modes that I’ve added have helped the anxious ones, and sitting with me to concretize ideas has helped those for whom abstraction is a barrier.

Besides some reluctant students, what other challenges have you encountered?  How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge that I’m facing now is the traditional thinking of chemistry educators. It remains one of the most traditional, formulaic, and pedantic fields of both science and education. Most of them think there’s only one way to learn chemistry, even if that doesn’t work and isn’t interesting for many students. They also don’t value the completely novel content that the project inserts: nowhere in chemistry do they actually talk about technological applications or the intersection between physics properties like conductivity and magnetism. Most other teachers think what I do is boutique and cute; I think I have revolutionized the way that the unit on the periodic table can be taught, and made chemistry relatable for everyone, not just formulaic thinkers.

I plan to overcome this by going above and beyond. I’d love to launch a website that students can use to create characters. Every normal person that I talk to wishes they had learned the periodic table this way. Once enough people know that it’s possible, I hope that other chemistry teachers  will take notice. This actually started to happen after we met at Aurora 2024; students that saw the project in a workshop went home, found the chemistry teacher in the hallway, and demanded that he contact me about how to do the project. I hope that even more will contact me after reading this.

Student art of Dragoron the Boron Dragon.

Do you have some future plans for using TTRPGs in the classroom?

I plan to develop a version of Elementopia that is less work; it would still be educational, but more focused on storytelling and game play and geared towards the masses. That will probably be my retirement project.

I also use games in a bunch of my other classes. I use a game to teach about natural selection in evolution, competition and carrying capacity in population dynamics, the cycling of Carbon in climate change, and more! Most of these don’t rise to the threshold of TTRPGs, but I do have an idea for a TTRPG about the dueling energy and environmental crises. In it, students would play as countries. They would have to produce energy via various methods (solar, geothermal, nuclear, wind, coal, etcetera) to meet constantly rising energy demand, while also tabulating greenhouse gas outputs and avoiding catastrophic climate change. Each nation/character would have affordances and limitations according to its economic and political approach. For example, Germany would get to start with lots of wind but couldn’t develop nuclear power, or China would be able to build plants quickly due to government sponsored industry but would have their energy demand grow faster because of rapid modernization.

That would be a great educational tabletop role-playing game!  Last question. What advice would you give to an educator who wants to start using TTRPGs instructionally with their students?

Don’t get intimidated. It doesn’t have to be perfect to still be good, and you can tweak it continually to make it better, like how I developed my project over many iterations. Enlist student feedback! I use former students as bosses, and even had a few help me balance the attributes of the game so that no one attribute would be overpowered compared to others.

Thank you Mr. Little for all you do for your students!  Be sure to reach out directly to Ben via email with any questions, comments, or feedback.

This interview was slightly edited and condensed.

Flint

Flint enters a crowded market of AI tools pitched toward teachers and students.  However, it offers some compelling features and detailed transparency of how it stands out.  In particular, Flint is one of a handful of AI tools that is GDPR and COPPA-compliant, and FERPA-aligned.  That means that Flint can potentially be used by students under 13.  

While Flint can definitely make teaching easier, it clearly believes not only in the importance of students using AI, but doing so in a non-passive, critical way.

Flint argues how they are different than other AI tools.

Flint does not get pulled off topic, nor does it lower the cognitive work of your students  -- although this is adjustable (see below).

Let's dig into Flint and see what learning campfires we can kindle!

How does it work?

As shared on its website, "Flint is powered by Claude 3.7 Sonnet."  Flint also offers a point-by-point comparision between itself and other AI tools such as ChatGPT,  Toddle, Brisk, Khanmigo, SchoolAI, and MagicSchoolAI.

A teacher can sign up with Google or their Microsoft account.  (Student spaces and "accounts" are handled inside the teacher account -- they don't need to create separate accounts.)

Once logged in, Flint offers itself as your "AI Teaching Assistant."  For the upper section of the home screen, it suggests several ways it can help your instruction, such as lowering the reading level of a text, creating a lesson plan or rubric, and writing an email.  In the lower section, you can create an activity published to an online space made accessible to students by a URL.  Teachers can also save time by using an activity from a public library of pre-made content. 

"Activities" are broadly defined here.  It could be "problem solving practice," "speak a world language" (50+ are available!), provide writing feedback, or create a "quiz."  Here, however, is an example of Flint using an antiquated term of expectations when compared to what students would really experience.

A quiz in Flint is really a conversation between the student and the AI.  Once you give it objectives, potential material to utilize via uploads, and/or standards, Flint begins an assessment by probing what students know, coaxing them when they struggle.  The results of this or any other activity are provided as "Analytics" that look at both how the class did overall as well as an individual's strengths and areas for growth.

Building an activity is a conversation between teacher and Flint.  Here, I asked if I could upload a standards-based rubric to make a quiz.

You could also just provide the standard you are wanting to assess.

Safety seems essential to Flint, given several different features it has to protect students.  Student and teacher data is not shared to third parties and data is not used to train AI models; the data stays secure in the school/district's domain.  Additionally, you can export any student-AI conversation to PDF, inappropriate messages are flagged, and every user exchange can be viewed by admin.  

Educators can make Flint "more or less flexible" with how it helps students.

Flint offers a depth of support for new users, from professional development resources to an onboarding guide for teachers.  They even have an AI Literacy Course for students, which includes lesson materials such as videos, slide decks, and Flint activities you can push out.

Here is Flint's most recent overview video on the platform posted on Loom (1:43).

How could you use it?

Flint offers specific, targeted opportunities for both instructional design and student demonstration of understanding.  Its offerings of World Language activities is unique.  Flint provides students a first tier of tutoring support, particularly with its integration of a whiteboard that could improve math practice and review.  A quiz's use of naturalistic language changes the game for what it means for a teacher to assess.   Last but not least, Flint's ability to discover class data trends as well as drill down to individual student performance makes the potential action pivot from assessment analysis to adjusted instruction much quicker and easier.

Downsides?

One must always be cautious with the accuracy and veracity of artificial intelligence tools, as well as verifiable impact on student learning.  To Flint's credit, they mention several times in their list of features their efforts to be as accurate and transparent as possible, and they share several detailed case studies of partnerships with schools where student learning has improved.

"In-line citations" is one of several ways Flint attempts transparency in its AI results.

Elementary teachers will likely be just fine with the limit of 80 students in the free account, although secondary teachers may rightfully fret.  However, secondary instructors can delete and reassign the seats every few periods to get through a typical day, sacrificing historic data for extending the free usage.  That would hopefully give enough of an opportunity for a teacher to try out Flint to see if a premium account would be worth it.

Flint is not the only tool to promote itself as "AI for personalized learning," but its suite of features make it a contender for honoring that vaulted claim.  Come to it as a skeptic and see if it sparks some innovation for your instruction.

Have you used Flint?  If you are a heavy user of another AI platform, how does Flint compare?  Comment below!

Full disclosure: Flint is in talks with my employer OVEC for potential offers and opportunities for its members.

KyEdRPG Spotlight: Christopher Woo and Seneca High School's "TableTop RPG Club's Adventures"

Christopher Woo -- a social studies teacher who has been at Seneca High School since starting his educational career in 2014 --  came across my social media feed last month in the form of a video by JCPS (the Jefferson County Public School district, in Louisville, KY):

At first, the story seemed wonderfully typical of today's pop culture scene -- yet another high school's afterschool Dungeons & Dragons club was well liked by its students -- but I was quickly struck by two things.  The first was the passionate, palpable community that Mr. Woo cultivated, made evident in the testimony of the young people in the video.  The second was the discovery of Woo's self-published book series that turns the fictional exploits of his students' characters into a recorded, narrative history.  

I had to visit, and a few weeks ago I made the pilgrimage to Mr. Woo's classroom to learn more.

Christopher Woo become a player of the game in the 1990's, when he first got his hands on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual.  (He still has a copy in his classroom!)   But the club's story began several years into Woo's teaching, when a student asked if he would sponsor it. What started with four students in 2018 has now grown to a dozen, ranging from freshmen to seniors.  Woo is usually the Dungeon Master (DM) who facilitates the adventures, and like many DM's, took on the burden of capturing each session's detailed notes for what choices were made by the characters and how the narrative they co-created together marched forward.  Additionally, Woo's club is somewhat unique for an extracurricular K-12 experience, because the game's "campaign world" has been consistently growing since its start; as students graduate and leave Seneca, the feats of their heroes become legendary lore for the incoming new members of the club. 

But such continuity created a conundrum.  How would the new players ever catch up on all of that lore?  Additionally, Woo wanted to give the members of the club something to remember of their playing time together -- tangible proof that their voice matters, that it makes an impact and carries a legacy.  Last but not least, what's a catchy way to recruit new members for your afterschool club?  The solution for all of these problems: put it in a book.  And so, the first volume of Fate, Friends, and Fortune: A High School TableTop RPG Club's Adventures was self-published by Woo via Amazon in April 2023.  As of now, the series is up to eight books, with Volume Nine in the works for late summer.

The first book in the series, held by the real Mr. Woo, with the cover Mr. Woo peeking behind a DM screen.

It's important to note that Woo gives away the copies of the book to the members of the club, and that the cost of the self-publishing comes out of his personal pocket (currently over $200 per new edition).  While that is certainly one kind of impressive obstacle that Woo rises to overcome, the second is the time involved, from writing the original session notes to later crafting the notes into a coherent story.  

Thankfully, he has help from La'Kori Carson, a former Seneca student.  After Mr. Woo set up an introductory email, I was grateful she agreed to an interview to share her perspective.

La'Kori had played a little D & D in middle school, but hadn't planned to join Woo's club until a friend brought her in. "I came in, and I was like, okay, I'm just actually going to sit here the first day. And [Mr. Woo] was like, you can join. I'm like, you want me to join? Very well. So I ended up joining with a character named Holland who starts off as a rock gnome and gets completely obliterated through the story, funnily enough."

Despite such inauspicious beginnings, La'Kori kept coming.  Over time, she became a "secondary DM" to help Mr. Woo out with running adventures.  By the time she graduated in 2023, her role grew to be a session notetaker (she still occasionally drops in on gameplay remotely via Woo's laptop and Zoom).  These notes are not vague and general.  As an example: "They rolled an 18, which means this passed the DC check that had been say a 15 at the time. This is how they did the attack. This is their name. This is who they attacked." By Volume 6 of the Fate, Friends, and Fortune series,  she also became a volunteer editor and co-author.  La'Kori manages all of this while attending college ("I'm a criminal justice major, sociology, anthropology with a minor in environmental justice sustainability with certifications alongside agriculture and different parts like veterinary sciences, animal sciences") and now runs a personal campaign as a DM herself.  And the gameplay she sets up for her players is not just hack and slash combat! "I'll puzzle them with random problems, and they have to sit here and try to figure out these math equations. They're like, when did algebra get into D&D? I'm like, oh, I don't know."  You could hear the  smile of professed innocence in her voice. "And I'm honestly testing their real-world skills, and that's something that my players have mentioned that they like.  I've brought in real-world problems for them to fix. Each location that I write has some real-world problem. One area has poverty. Another area has bad schooling because of who's in charge. There's a monarchy that's falling apart."

In his own quest for authentic learning, Mr. Woo also brings in TTRPGs into his social studies instruction. He has students roleplay as President Kennedy and members of his cabinet during the Cuban Missle Crisis -- a roll of the dice at the end (augmented by their choices) determines whether the world ends in nuclear war.  Students participate in a simulation based on the War in Ukraine, gaming out whether they as the United States can de-escalate, or will inadvertently escalate, the situation.   As 13th century explorers and merchants on the Silk Road to China, students play to see if they end up rich from trade, or dead from a duel.  Woo emphasized that reflection afterwards is essential.  What did you learn? Could the outcome have gone differently if you had made other choices?  He hopes to one day share modules of his TTRPG examples so that teachers could benefit from his front-loaded work, as he can see what a difference playing TTRPGs makes in student engagement and learning. 

As we wind down this blog entry, it seems fitting to return to La'Kori to ask about the impact of Mr. Woo and the Seneca D & D club.  By many metrics, she was a successful student - yet prior to that fateful afternoon her rock gnome was "completely obliterated," she felt unappreciated as the creative and multifaceted person she truly is.  "I've been a student that's always been categorized by their test scores.  A 3.99 GPA student who passed with straight A's and B's or just straight A's in many semesters. But I'm horrible at standardized testing. So I was never with all the smart kids. I didn't receive the rewards being on a bus that had multiple destinations, a compound bus. I didn't get my perfect attendance award, and that was something that I couldn't handle.  That wasn't even something that was my fault, and it was still held against me."  

Mr. Woo, and by extension the D & D club, was crucial for La'Kori to feel connected, seen and heard, and highly recommends other teachers run their own: "It allows you to form bonds outside of it. And if students are having trouble with, say, schooling, for example, they may even come to you because they feel connected to you through this game to ask for help. And that's a great way to form a bond because a teacher's job is to help students, and what better way for a teacher to help them than to understand their problems better?"  

Today, La'Kori is a published writer who will likely graduate college early with multiple majors, and she enthusiastically gives credit to Woo's D &D club for helping to launch her on that adventure.  "I really do appreciate what experience he gave me because I'm part of the small student group of like, say, minority. And that also just didn't make friends well. So to be put into a team-based game where me as a person, I don't like group projects. I don't like group projects solely because I'm always the one who does everything. I'm always the one who has to take a leadership position. I'm always put into a leadership position by my teachers, by my professors, so to be put into a game where I can just kind of sit down, de-stress after schooling, it was fine. Then I became the group leader, funnily enough, through the situation, and I was allowed to like reach my own peaks of interest where I could play out what I could do. That was pretty cool, but I also understood balancing out my skill set. I was not a fighter, but I was a healer of the group. And through being a healer, I was probably, I think, the smartest person in my group."

Amplifying voices.  Finding balance.  Challenging what it means to be "smart."  Giving opportunities for leadership. Healing.  For La'Kori, and for so many other Seneca High School students that have gone through Christopher Woo's D & D club through the years, the fantasy game of funny shaped dice has transformed real lives.

Writing with AI: WeWillWrite and Short Answer

As a former high school English teacher, a big fan of game-based learning, and a person with a keen interest in how artificial intelligence can positively impact student learning, I'm delighted when an edtech tool ticks off all three boxes.  Friends, I give you two such tools:  WeWillWrite and Short Answer.  In a world where we wonder what writing instruction will look like in the near future of school, these AI-empowered tools might show us one possible way.

There are several similarities between the platforms:

• Both combine competitive and cooperative gameplay to writing; an individual student replies to a prompt set by the teacher, then uses established criteria to evaluate the writing of others presented anonymously (providing gamified feedback), "voting" until a winner emerges.
• You should hopefully get enough in the free versions to test out each platform (including premium trials), but as with many AI tools today, you'll have to pay to unlock more features.
• Both have libraries of pre-made material.
• Once the teacher launches an activity, students join with a PIN; the students do not have to create an account.
• There's a process at the end of games that encourages the teacher to show and share submitted responses to elicit further discussion.
• Both platforms have teachers as part of their design teams.

However, both have different strengths.  Here's more details on each tool.

WeWillWrite

WeWillWrite was developed by a Norwegian team of educators.  (I found it interesting that one of their advisors is Johan Brand, founder of Kahoot, as I can see a bit of Kahoot's design aesthetic in the platform.) WeWillWrite's learning principles are Social, Safe, and Playful; you can read more here.   

First, you create a login with email and password (no Google SSO option).  After walking you through your teaching areas of interest, you have the ability to create classes to organize your activities inside.  You can choose prompts from the library in the "Discover" tab (via filters for ELA-related "Topic" and "Type"), or create your own with the premium plan.  The teacher determines the length of the response timer when launching a game.

A "Classroom Simulator" allows you to see what it will look like for you and your students.

From a Google Slide deck of teacher resources.

Note that AI generated images are prominently placed alongside the prompts (with the premium plan, you can generate new ones or upload your own images, AI or not).  The overall visual look of WeWillWrite seems a bit more appealing to younger students, although I could see high schoolers also enjoying it too.

Before gameplay, students are randomly assigned teams.  (Manually selecting team membership doesn't look like an option currently.) For WeWill Write, a student first evaluates writing from their own team, which leads to a text that will represent their team in the game's final for another round of voting; therefore, the team is celebrated at the final leaderboard.

Once students have completed their work, you can view and download results under "Student Texts":

From a Google Slide deck of teacher resources.

For an overview of the platform, you can watch this video (1:48):

For more support, a Google Slide deck of teacher resources that could function as a solo PD is available here, which includes "Strategies for Success."

If you're interested in an upgrade, the paid plans are listed here.   Besides the ability to create your own content, it gives you full access to the WeWillWrite library, student history of work over time, and allows you to do the "AI literary device analysis" feature as briefly shown in the video overview above. 

Short Answer

Short Answer was designed at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, creating "an experience based on learning science." (Cofounder Adam Sparks was an English and Social Studies teacher.)  You can read more about their approach here.

You can create a teacher account for Short Answer with Google.  

Unlike WeWillWrite, Short Answer does not have a class organizational structure for your activities.

You can choose prompts from the library or create your own (even in the free version).  You add "Feedback Criteria" (a bank of suggestions are available).  However, it's worth noting that Short Answer's library includes prompts for multiple contents and grade levels -- even, to my surprise, guides to help create prompts for math as high as trigonometry!

In the "Discover" tab, there are some "Starter Activities" prompts suggested, or tab across to one of the four main academic content areas to see others.

One of the premium AI features is helping students with stems and outline tools when they begin writing their response.

Short Answer has more gameplay modes than WeWillWrite, such as "All-In," "Pair-It," and "Battle Royale." (And I appreciate that Short Answer provides guided walk-throughs of each game via Arcade.)

The teacher and student view from the start of a "Battle Royale."

These games take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes to complete.  Students play the games individually, and as such, the student with the most "points" is celebrated at the final leaderboard.  I noticed that a student can attach files or even use LaTeX formula characters in their response.

Once students have completed their work, you can view their individual results, but you cannot export/download results in the free version.

For an overview of the platform, you can watch this video (4:57):

For more support, a robust page of resources is here.

If you're interested in an upgrade, the premium option is described here.  Besides some of the features listed above, you can have unlimited question creation, open peer-to-peer feedback options for students, Immersive Reader support, and an additional game called Quick Write that has AI feedback.  

As of the published date of this blog entry, it looks like the premium version of Short Answer may cost a bit more than the premium version of WeWillWrite, but to be fair, Short Answer also offers several more premium features.  

I hope this blog entry inspires you to try both platforms out in your classroom.  Turn composition into a joyful, vibrant experience by gamifying your students' writing!

BOOK RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT: Three titles -- including my own!

I've been fortunate to have my writing published over the years, starting of course with this blog, and continuing with other wonderful institutions.  I've also been quoted in a few books over the years as well (such as here and here). Recently, however, I've been a contributing writer to a few titles:

• In Dr. Karin Hess's Applying Depth of Knowledge and Cognitive Rigor (Teachers College Press, March 2025), I provided one of its "Stories From the Field" where I discuss my collaboration with Lexie Bewley-Gilley of Bullitt Central High School (Bullitt County Public Schools).  We took Lexie's tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) social studies activity and found ways to deepen its DOK.
• In a collection edited by Dr. Barbara J. Smith, I wrote a guest chapter about my journey with Kentucky Educators for Role-Playing Games.  I am humbled to join contributions from such educational luminaries like Rick Wormeli and Doug Reeves!  Look for Urgent Care for Educators: Situating Responsibility as a Way for Educators to Transform School Cultures (Brill) when it releases in July.

I didn't plan on the release schedule above to be a ramp-up of sorts -- or a thematic refrain on the topic of TTRPGs in schools -- but serendipitously, that's what it now appears to be. I'm excited to announce that my first education book will be published by McFarland, with a tentative release date of late 2025!

For more on the design of the cover art, click here.

Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom: Infusing Gameplay into K-12 Instruction will be part of McFarland's "Studies in Gaming" series.  For more details about the book's content, you can visit here.  To keep up to date on release information, including when the pre-order link goes live, please sign up here.

I will have plenty of thanks for many people that helped me get to this point of my educational journey where a published book was possible -- my Acknowledgements section will be lengthy! -- but for now, I'll just say that I'm humbled to have this opportunity to share my passion on how TTRPGs can positively impact student learning.

Note 4/15/25:  With the release of the official cover art, I've updated this post accordingly!

A Visit to Western STEM Magnet High School's new eSports Arena

Late last year, a video came across my LinkedIn feed.  It was a ribbon cutting ceremony at Jefferson County Public School's Western STEM Magnet High School, celebrating their newly built eSports Arena and multimedia learning space:

I was blown away by what I saw, and reached out to Western's Principal Melanie Weaver and Project Manager Greg Fehr about the possibility of facilitating a visit for OVEC educators (and others!) to see the space in person.  Melanie and Greg enthusiastically accepted, and on February 13, our caravan arrived!

Before discussing the eSports arena, I'll share some school demographics for Western.  This is Western's first school year as a district-wide magnet program, with four learning pathways: Culinary Science, Public Health Discoveries (Data Science), Computer Science, and - as the most relevant pathway tying into their arena - Digital Design and Gaming Development.  Western currently has over 400 students. As a sign of their diverse student population, their current freshmen class comes from 22 JCPS middle schools and represent 13 zip codes.

Melanie Weaver, Western's Principal

Greg Fehr, Western's Project Manager

At first, Western's arena project faced an uphill battle, as the school tirelessly problem-solved how to renovate an existing area with working tech at an agreed budget.  To share one of several challenges along the way,  they had to figure out how to consistently provide air conditioning to the space so that its high performing computers didn't overheat.  Vendors such as Creative-Image Technologies and Extron helped Western manifest their vision.  Finally, by December 2024, it was ready for students. 

Computer and tech specs, courtesy of Halston Turner with C-it.

The arena ended up at a whopping 4300 square feet, with a "shoutcast station," a competition area, a separate production studio room, and two instructional spaces that can serve multiple classes simultaneously.  Not only is Western's eSports arena easily the biggest in a Kentucky K-16 school, it would likely rival the size of many across the nation.  Greg mentions one of the design intentions was to have a "wow" factor for students, and it succeeds!   

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Besides all of the amazing technology, we can't forget about the learners!  We were able to interact with some students during their Game Design and Development class, and were impressed by their engagement and their level of rigorous work. 

Despite creating such an incredible learning and competition space, Western is not resting on any laurels.  They expect to grow to 1000 students within the next few years, and soon want to have eSports tournaments both within JCPS and between other districts in the state.  Community partners like Louisville Geek are coming in to work with students. And the seniors at Western don't have to hang up their video game controllers when they graduate.  One of the day's guests was Mitch Greenwell, Director of eSports & Sports Administration Professor at Bellarmine University, and a consultant for the arena project.  Mitch reminded us that Bellarmine has an eSports Management Minor, and offers scholarships for players, as many colleges now do across the nation.

Overall, the visitors and I had all of our expectations surpassed, and left inspired.  Here's to more schools innovatively transforming their learning spaces like Western STEM Magnet!

Special thanks to Melanie Weaver and Greg Fehr for hosting our visit, to Greg for providing many of the background details on Western and their arena project, and for Western's student ambassadors for helping our visitors around the building.

Note: eSports is also often stylized as "e-sports" and "Esports" (as you can see even in this post); my choice was arbitrary, but I wanted to be consistent in my wording for this blog entry.

Cruise Ship or the Titanic? Leadership Lessons to Consider When Launching a New Initiative

Recently I was attending an OVEC role group meeting, where educators of a similar job position came together for fellowship and learning.   During an open forum discussion, the topic of implementing high quality instructional resources (HQIR) came up.  (In Kentucky, schools have been legislatively mandated to adopt HQIR for our core content classes that have been vetted and meet certain criteria.)  An educator shared their district's challenges with following through with such change, particularly for teachers already struggling with barriers to overcome, and especially when it feels like forced compliance from outside pressures rather than motivated from the inside.  (There were a lot of shared head nods from those in neighboring districts.)  The educator finished the lamentation with the remark, "At least at our district, we are all on the same boat."  I then quipped, "But is the boat a cruise ship, or the Titanic?"

We shared a laugh in the room, and I made a few points about leadership -- in short, when there are very few silver bullets to solve complicated problems, and change is always painful (even when it's perceived as a good thing), a major part of the success in a new initiative comes down to the tone set by leaders and how they model a positive stance.  At the same time, this is not to dismiss the genuine ache felt by educators, whether it is in HQIR implementation or whatever other major change you are trying to enact.  We riffed for a few minutes on the metaphor of "cruise ship or Titanic" before moving on.

After the meeting, I kept ruminating on the idea, and that led to today's blog entry.  In the initiative you are currently in, do you see signs you are on the Titanic, or a cruise ship?  As a leader, how can you shift from the former to the latter?   (By the way, an educational leader here is broadly defined.  Of course a superintendent or principal has positional authority, but leaders in a district or school setting come in many forms.)

Here are signs what ship you're on.  Come aboard!  We're expecting you!

Titanic

• Reacting to icebergs vs. proactively charting a course around planned-for problems.  The Titanic was only outfitted for enough lifeboats for a third of its passengers.  (Interestingly, at the time, this was over the legal requirement.  It was assumed such lifeboats would calmly ferry passengers from a sinking ship to a rescue ship over several relays.)  The captain of the Titanic received several warnings about icebergs from other boats in the Atlantic, but chose to ignore them.  There was pressure for the Titanic's maiden voyage to land in New York in record time, so a "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" mentality was pervasive amongst its crew.  All of these short-sighted choices forced the crew and passengers to react to a catastrophic disaster in real time.  Imagine if a proactive approach for the journey was done instead.  How can we chart a course around our known icebergs?  What pivots can we make when an unforeseen iceberg looms?  Do we have enough lifeboats (i.e. resource support in all its forms: human capital, guidance, funds in the budget) for the perils ahead?
• First class versus third class perceptions.  Passengers from the third class of the Titanic perished at a much higher percentage than the first class, although the difference in voyage experiences between the classes was obvious long before the Titanic hit an iceberg. What is the perception on your ship?  Do the admin have a different view of reality than the teachers?  Are there some perceived as sipping champagne while others feel they are being shoved into steerage without sunlight?  Is everyone's voices being heard not just equally, but equitably?  (From an equity perspective, the ones who are actually doing the hardest work of the change -- likely, the teachers in classrooms -- need more representation at the table, not just "a" seat at the table.)
• Rearranging the deck chairs.   It's an old Titanic joke about pointless action that may avoid facing the true crisis at hand, but in education we can find ways to make it even worse.  We not only ask the teachers to shuffle the components on their already spinning plates, we often add to the plates.  In other words, we don't just rearrange the deck chairs, we double them.  If we are asking our staff to do work while implementing needed change, let's make it genuinely purposeful in a way that actually does what the point should be: to help students.  While we are at it, it would be better to not simply add more to the plate, but find ways to transform the plate itself.  Putting band-aids on a broken system is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs while the boat sinks.  Let's build a new boat instead!
• "And the band played on."  The story of the Titanic musicians continuing to play while people were rushing to life boats is traditionally presented as an example of stoic courage -- a way of setting a calm tone in the face of panic.  But seen in another light, it could be perceived as pollyannish at best, or insensitive at worst; to mix our analogies, our plucky musical leaders could be seen as Neros fiddling while Rome burns.  Yes, let's set a calm and confident tone, but let's also make visible signs that we recognize the struggle of our shipmates and they are not being ignored.

Cruise Ship

• Servant leadership.  A cruise line that hopes to stay in business knows they don't exist without their clientele.  Therefore, no one on a cruise ship, from the captain to the custodian, is above the main work of making the passenger happy.  One of the best things a leader can ask is, "How can I remove an obstacle in the way of your joy?"  A good leader listens; a great leader follows through with a promise to make things better.
• Personalized opportunities.  A popular cruise ship offers not just a single buffet table, but buffet tables of different cuisines for different levels of appetite.  A cruise director wants to not only offer a schedule of multiple activities, but makes sure there are entry points for a passenger regardless of their ability level (beginner, intermediate, advanced).  How can we make sure we personalize the learning for teachers in the face of our new initiative?  How can we guarantee there are multiple entry points, whether you are an excited innovator, a skeptical laggard, or somewhere in between?
• "All-inclusive."  Applicable to both vacation resorts and cruises, there is a real comfort (and joy!) knowing that every meal, drink and activity is already prepaid.  How can we make sure the total cost of the journey is factored in and taken care of before leaving the harbor?  We sometimes forget items like the cost of personalized learning (the facilitators, the staff stipends, etc. ) in light of only budgeting the annual subscription fee for the new tech platform.  Let's also remember that the "cost" to implement an initiative is not just money spent, but can also be calculated in time, sweat, and other metrics.  Furthermore, you should extend the idea of all items being included in the cost of our journey to all people being included.  Make sure the voices of the table are truly representative of who is affected by your initiative.  It's also better to fold in the skeptics early on to earnestly hear their concerns than to ignore them while they deflate morale from the margins.
• Docking for excursions.   (I thank OVEC's Chrissy Jones for this phrase!) Sometimes you just need to get off the boat, hit the shore, and see some new sites.  There's a psychological and physiological need why cruise ships build in visits to exotic ports into their cruising agenda.  Whether it's at the start of the initiative for inspiration, or in the middle for calibration and/or affirmation, or at the completion of certain phases to share and celebrate your successes, venture outward!  This could be visits to other schools or districts, or participating in conferences; this could be virtual or in-person.  That said, there is true power in the organic, natural bonding that occurs in a team that goes off-site together.  It's a social component that can't be replicated in a school hallway five minutes between periods, or in a faculty meeting jam-packed with need-to-know items.

It should be pointed out that in a school or district, there should be cruise ships within cruise ships: what is good for principals to do for their teachers is also good for teachers to do for their students.  Teachers should do their best to identify and remove barriers to student learning; they should be "guides on the side" to their students' personalized learning; they should intentionally plan ahead to include all learning styles and needs, while both hearing and empowering student voices; they should find ways to build community and extend learning of their students beyond the four walls of their building.

Let's end with a little levity.  As I gave a nod to already in a link above, while writing this entry I couldn't help but think of the theme song from one of television's "so bad it's good" series from the 1970's and 1980's.  Hum along with an excerpt of my parody lyrics!

Original image from this article; the copyright to the original logo art and theme song lyrics are reserved to their respective entities, and the parody image and lyrics are for educational purposes only.

LEARN, life's sweetest reward.

Let it flow, it floats back to you.

The LEARN Boat soon will be making another run,

the LEARN Boat promises something for everyone.

Set a course for adventure,

your mind on a new CLASSROOM.

LEARNING shouldn't hurt anyone:

it's an open smile on a friendly shore.

In the face of new initiatives and (often unfunded) mandates, let's do our best to create more open smiles and make the shores more friendly for our teachers and students.