KyEdRPG, Part Three: Westward Expansion, d20 Style

This is Part Three of a three part series to kick off a new website, KyEdRPG, and how role playing games can positively impact student learning.  In Part One, we celebrated the launch of the website itself. In Part Two, we shared the experience of a Kentucky middle school teacher who runs an extracurricular D & D club that has been both virtual and in person. In this final entry, we discuss how a Kentucky teacher created a more engaging and impactful way of teaching about U.S. westward expansion with an in-class role playing game.

Patrick La Mar is a social studies teacher currently at North Oldham High School in Oldham County Public Schools (KY-USA).  Back when he was teaching at Oldham County Middle School, a principal asked if there were ways to make his lessons on westward expansion more engaging for students. Patrick became inspired and synthesized two games into one:  Dungeons & Dragons, and The Oregon Trail.  (Coincidentally, both of these started within a few years of each other; the first The Oregon Trail [text-based] video game launched in 1971, and D & D was first published in 1974.)

For this in-class RPG, the students are put in groups.  They either choose or are assigned roles such as Banker, Doctor, Trapper and so on.  Each role gives a certain advantage in one of its character abilities.  Next, students embark on their journey via a Slides deck of twelve events, often rolling a d20 dice to see if they persevere through their challenge or fail.  (Yes, death by dysentery is a possibility.)

Coupled with an opportunity to individually reflect on the experience at the end of the lesson (what was the biggest takeaway? what would you do differently if you played the game again?), I imagine students have a much better appreciation for the hazards of westward expansion in the 1800's, and that knowledge can also spur some interesting conversations.  For example, how often did the Sioux actually attack the Oregon Trail pioneers?  How might we look today at the point of view of various First Nations tribes that such settlers were moving through territory that pioneers didn't own and without Native American permission?   We can see how the power of role playing games to both problem solve, as well as critically consider and think through alternative perspectives. 

For Patrick's game materials, check out the Google folder here.  And for more RPG teacher resources, check out this page of the KyEdRPG website!

I hope you enjoyed this three part series.  For those new to the idea of role playing games in education, may it inspire you to find some ways to incorporate them into your own school or classroom.  And for those that are educators and already ardent fans of RPGs, may you share your own resources, articles and ideas by interacting through the KyEdRPG social media as well as using the hashtag #KyEdRPG!

KyEdRPG, Part Two: The Power of a D & D Club

 This is Part Two of a three part series to kick off a new website, KyEdRPG, and how role playing games can positively impact student learning.  In Part One, we celebrated the launch of the website itself. In this entry, we prove how a D & D club can be a wonderful extracurricular opportunity...before or after school, in person or virtual!

File image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gaming_Dice_%284434184961%29.jpg.

Justin Gadd is a Kentucky social studies middle school teacher who recognizes the multiple ways that a Dungeons & Dragons extracurricular club can improve student learning, both socially-emotionally as well as academic.  After hearing his story, I asked Justin if he would agree to an interview, which I'm happy to share below (slightly edited for clarity).

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

Hello, My name is Justin Gadd. I am currently a Social Studies teacher at Marnel C. Moorman K-8 School. This is my 4th year of teaching and my second year in Shelby County Public Schools. I have taught both ELA and Social Studies for 8th, 7th, and now 6th grade.

When did you start playing role playing games?  What got you started?

I got started playing role playing games when I was first introduced to D&D in college by a friend. I had only heard of it in pop culture prior to that, and when he invited me to play, I gave it a shot. We played the Curse of Strahd story and it was so much fun. My first character was a Mountain Dwarf Barbarian named Tor'uk. I have played as a Bard, Warlock, and my current character is a Ranger, and I have been involved with my current campaign as a player for almost 3 years now!

What RPGs do you personally play today?

Currently I am only playing D&D but I have played some different one shots from friends that were set in different time periods but same rules as D&D. My favorite was a holiday themed one shot I played that a friend ran where we all played as different holiday movie characters to try and save Santa! I think it goes to show the versatility of tabletop RPGs.

You've shared with me that you started a virtual D & D afterschool club at your previous school when the pandemic began, which is equally impressive and awesome given the obvious challenges.  Tell us more about that experience.  

I worked in Oldham County Public Schools from 2019-2021.  I began a DnD club with a co-worker at the start of virtual learning in 2020. We created it because we wanted something that was engaging, free, and something we could do safely from home at a very stressful time.

In the first year of the club, in the spring of 2020, we had about 5 students and it was pretty fun, although we didn’t use many manipulatives, maps, or dice rolling.  It was more description and imaginary story telling.

In year two (2020-2021), we were teaching part virtual, part in-person and this time we were able to get a consistent group of about 8-10 students every week. The club itself was still virtual but it was from 6-8pm every Tuesday as that was a time that worked for everyone’s schedule but wasn’t terribly late.

We were able to use some funding to give each student their own set of dice but virtual rollers were utilized as well as virtual apps such as dndbeyond.com which is also free, and it can be used for effortless character sheet creations and managing a character's inventory.  But really, the start up cost for a club was not terrible as there’s so many free online sources now for D&D and other RPG games.

I should point out that in Shelby County, we have a Profile of a Graduate, and what they do in D&D definitely authentically applies several of our PoG competencies: Effective Communicator, Responsible Collaborator, Critical Thinker.  

The best part of the experience was we were able to build a really great community with these kids and it was such a stressful time where we were still part virtual and Covid was still looming. I had one student tell me after a game that “D&D nights are so great because it’s one of the times I laugh the most all week” and parents emailed us telling us how much fun it brought them and they wanted to start playing with their kids too!

Parents playing with their students, that's fantastic!  I also love how playing D & D ties into your district's Profile of a Graduate, and clearly there is some great social emotional learning going on, too.  Can you elaborate further on the academic benefits of students playing role playing games?

The academic benefits of tabletop games is pretty broad if you come into it with an open mind. There is creative writing when crafting a backstory for your characters and their motivations. For those who run a game as GM (Game Master) or DM (Dungeon Master), there is planning involved in preparing the story, and how they decide if one thing happens, what happens next? There is math and probability in the dice rolling, and making those calculated risks based on their character statistics is vital to success. In Shelby County, playing D&D definitely applies to several of our PoG competencies.

• Effective Communicator: Students have to be able to communicate their actions with the players and DM running the game. 
• Responsible Collaborator: Team work! It is so important to success in the game as well as the choices you make can have ripple effects in the story and world of the game! 
• Critical Thinker: Thinking about your actions and the affect they have on others and the success of your mission.

Now that students are fully back in person, what are you thinking of doing differently with a D & D club this school year? 

This year I hope to start a D&D club with the Quest program in October, which is an in-school club or area of interest for students to participate in for 9 weeks.  It would be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings for 45 minutes and could be a fun experience to introduce the game to others and be able to play some D&D consistently.  

What advice would you give to someone trying to start up a club like this in their own school, especially if they have little or no experience with playing D & D? 

The advice I would give to someone wanting to start a D&D or tabletop gaming club is to first just ask around and do some research! See who's interested in your school community in playing or helping run it. There are so many resources on the official Dungeons and Dragons website for beginners wanting to start and even some beginner book sets with all the rules and stories written out for you. For my beginner players I give them a pre-made character (available from the website) and then have them come up with the back story for their characters. Knowing how to play without having to stress about the whole character creation process gives you more time to focus on the play time!

I have found that overall, the D&D community on Facebook groups and Reddit can be very helpful resources for asking beginners. Just searching "D&D for beginners" brings up loads of helpful links. The next thing I would say is don't go too big your first time around. 8-10 is about the maximum size of a group I would run if you were the only DM because that way every player can feel included. If you have students who know how to play, encourage them to DM and then you can have more players in your club and smaller player-to-DM ratios. And feel free to reach out to me via email to ask questions!

Last question, and for this one forgive me if I geek out with you a bit.  D & D has some changes and expansions coming up, such as the Spelljammer sourcebook which allows your characters to play in outer space, and a playtest of a new backwards-compatible edition that will be launched in 2024.  What are some things about D & D that keep you excited about the game?  

 I love to geek out about stuff! I think taking D&D into space could be a lot of fun. The beauty of Dungeons and Dragons is it is quite literally limitless what stories you can tell and "Homebrewed" spells and items you can use. For example, my DM, whose campaign I have been in for almost three years, mixed Call of Cthulhu stories with the regular D&D world and it's so cool! Teachers could make a story with any content or book they are reading with a bit of time and effort. I am grateful for shows like Stranger Things making Dungeons and Dragons "cool" for kids because it makes it that much more engaging when we bring it into schools.

A huge thank you to Justin for taking the time to share his insights!

Be sure to check out Part Three, where you'll hear how a Kentucky teacher uses a custom-created role playing game as part of his lesson plans.

KyEdRPG, Part One: Site Launch Announcement!

This is Part One of a three part series to kick off a new website, KyEdRPG, and how role playing games can positively impact student learning.  In this entry, we discuss the "grand opening" of the site itself. 

I have certainly expressed my passion for game-based learning several times in prior Edtech Elixirs entries.   On the digital side of the equation, the power of such gaming tools comes through in examples like the K-8 science and math lessons of Legends of Learning, the learning management system Classcraft, and an adaptive learning system like DreamBox for K-8 numeracy.

But I also have a fondness for good ol' fashioned table-top role playing games (TTRPGs) and how they can have a place inside a school.  I wrote about those possibilities in a guest blog entry for Classcraft back in 2017.

In the five years since I wrote that article, I've been fascinated to watch how the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons (the granddaddy of all RPGs) has ascended to heights even its 1980's pop culture peak would envy.  (This is, of course, in no small part to the popularity of Netflix's excellent Stranger Things series.) Indeed, as I write this, a new big budget Hollywood D & D movie is months away from hitting the screen.   Role playing games, and D & D in particular, are reaching rarified heights.

So with that in mind, I'm launching a new website:  Kentucky Educators for Role Playing Games (or KyEdRPG for short)!

KyEdRPG is several things:

• A place for articles and multimedia links on how roleplaying games can, or are, being used in education and making a positive impact on student learning.
• An opportunity for educators in Kentuckiana to share their resources and experiences in using RPGs in their schools.
• A series of related social media - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook Page -- as well as a hashtag, #KyEdRPG.
• A chance for Kentucky educators who play RPGs to find each other in order to join campaigns.

To help celebrate the launch, Parts Two and Three of this series of entries will spotlight how two Kentucky educators are incorporating RPGs in their schools.  

I highly encourage you to check the site out, follow KyEdRPG on social media, and share it out with others!

Be sure to check out Part Two of our series, where we highlight a Kentucky teacher who has used an extracurricular D & D club to improve the social emotional as well as the academic lives of his students!

A New Chapter

In July of 2014, I stepped out of my high school classroom at Oldham County and into a newly created district position that was both exciting and terrifying.  As the first Technology Integration Coach for Shelby County Public Schools, I fully felt the weight of the task -- to help launch a technology 1:1 initiative for seven thousand students and hundreds of staff.  Over the years, the position and responsibilities changed (as did the title to Digital Learning Coordinator!), and my educational journey at Shelby has taken me far and wide.  Project-based learning, personalized learning, competency-based education, blended learning best practices -- all this and more has been infused into my educational DNA along the way.  I've been very fortunate to grow my pedagogy in such an innovative district.  My colleagues have become co-learners, friends, and an extended family.

And now, a new chapter of my educational journey is about to begin.

Late last July, I accepted my next challenge.  This Monday (8/22/22), I'll be starting a new position as a Deeper Learning Design Specialist at the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC).  I'll be joining the just launched Deeper Learning Team (with Lacey Eckels and Rachel Albright) that's led by the legendary Carmen Coleman.  Beyond the DLT itself, I'm also looking forward to working with the many other fantastic educators at OVEC, including the new incoming CEO Jason Adkins.  Lastly, I am excited to collaborate with the Deeper Learning Teams from the other seven regional co-ops around Kentucky.

What is Deeper Learning? It is a broad concept, and one that I will undoubtedly blog more about in the future, but this "elevator pitch" definition is a great introduction:

Our mission. Great things happening in Kentucky. #KYDL #thrive #transfer pic.twitter.com/njkJhynOu2

— Robb Smith (@DrSmithKAEC) August 11, 2022

I am eager to spread, support, and celebrate the Deeper Learning innovation throughout OVEC's fifteen districts and 150,000+ students -- which includes Shelby as a member!

On August 1, 2014, I published the first post for this blog, initially started as a way to share information and innovation with Shelby staff.  At the end of the entry, I used the words "humbled" and "thankful."  Those are definitely the words that come to mind now.  I am thankful for the opportunity to work at OVEC, humbled to be chosen among many deserving applicants.  But I am also so, so humbled by the teachers, staff and students of Shelby County Public Schools, who are amazing people and are doing amazing things.  You have inspired me to grow, and stretch, and dream.  I am thankful for all that you have personally done for my own learning journey, but even more importantly, I am full of gratitude to have been a part of your innovative, impactful team of educators for eight wonderful years.

Another school year launches, and a mention in Forbes!

Like many districts across Kentucky, tomorrow is Shelby County's first day of school: my ninth one since joining the district in 2014.   Also tomorrow, back in the district where I live, my youngest daughter will be starting sixth grade.  I'm definitely experiencing a lot of emotions as I look back both at my professional journey in Shelby as well as thinking about my daughter reaching the halfway point of her schooling.  

Today, however, was celebration and kickoff.  Shelby held its Opening Day ceremonies at the Martha Layne Collins High School gym.  One of the highlights was members of the Shelby County High School Rockets choir treating us to a lovely rendition of "True Colors":

Opening Day! @shelbycountysch educators, let your beautiful true colors shine through this school year. #IL3 #ShelbyInspired pic.twitter.com/vsRbJeFGEn

— Adam Watson (@watsonedtech) August 9, 2022

In the opening remarks, there was discussion about promoting the legacy and story of Shelby County, including our recent mention in Forbes!

A quick recap for context: back in 2020, Lora Shields (the former Shelby County Public Schools Staff Developer) and I co-created and co-led our first "Shelby Speaks" vodcast series where we interviewed staff during the pandemic to share their challenges, their successes, and how their learning was going to be applied post-pandemically.  Several months later, I created and led the second "season" in the vodcast series, with SCPS teachers sharing strategies on how to teach in a hybrid/concurrent model.  The vodcasts were highlighted in a national report by Next Generation Learning Challenges  -- with Shelby the only Kentucky district mentioned by name. (For more on the report itself, click here; for more on the vodcast series, click here.)

That brings us to last month. In an article about the NGLC report in Forbes magazine, our vodcast series was mentioned again at length.  So glad to see the hard work of SCPS staff recognized!

Educators, I wish you the best as your new school year launches!

Streamable Learning

 Streamable Learning is new to me, and something that I'm excited our district is launching this fall.   I would consider it less a digital platform and more of an opportunity to connect with dozens of experts from institutes and museums not just across the United States, but around the globe!

Summed up in an elevator pitch, Streamable Learning gives students an opportunity to take a virtual field trip via two ways: registering for a livestream event, or accessing a voluminous bank of archived webinar videos from the past. 

While access is mainly teacher-centered, some options exist for student access to prior recordings; more on that below.  It should be noted that teachers will need the Zoom program to participate in livestreams, and that Streamable Learning is a paid service.  Licensing is available at the school or district level, and homeschooling options are also offered.

How does it work?

Streamable Learning can whitelist your domain's email address so that staff can self-create accounts, or it will work with Clever integration (which is what we use in Shelby).  Remember, only teachers and staff need accounts.

As mentioned, there is a wide range of content partners working with Streamable Learning.  Once logged in, you can browse them by clicking on the "Content Partners" tab at the top.  You'll see the partners first grouped geographically, then listed alphabetically.   Click on a partner to see more information about them and additional links (for example, to their main website).   You also usually see links to check for upcoming scheduled livestreams and/or archived recordings with that partner.

While many partners exist in the United States, quite a few are in other countries!

Example of information on a partner.

By clicking on the "Livestreams" tab at the top of the page, you can see their scheduled events for the school year via a calendar.  (As of mid-July 2022, you no longer see the 2021-2022 calendar and the 2022-2023 has not been posted yet; it is usually up by early August.) The calendar allows you to find and register for a particular session, and there is no limit to the number of sessions you can choose.  By registering, you will get the Zoom link emailed to you, along with a confirmation of the date and time.  Streamable Learning told me that they usually have an average of a few livestreams scheduled every day Monday through Friday, with 400+ live sessions held over the course of a school year calendar. The sessions themselves are between 30 and 40 minutes.  While the livestream will have some interactive elements such as a chat room and polls, remember that it is the teacher who has the Streamable Learning account and is technically the one logged into the Zoom; therefore, the teacher should be prepared to facilitate their students' discussions in their classroom and will be the one to type in the chatroom or make a poll answer choice on behalf of their students.

By clicking on "Recordings," you can access an archive of past sessions.  (Be advised that some partners choose not to allow their sessions to be recorded and only livestream.)  First, you will see a way to categorically filter for recordings via several checkbox choices, such as grade level and content area; it is also possible to type search terms in the search bar.  One of the strengths of Streamable Learning is that is has surprisingly varied content.   While Science and STEM are clearly popular, there are also Social Studies, Math, ELA, the arts, and even College and Career topics.

Note the numbers in parentheses.  This indicates the number of recordings available for that particular filtered characteristic/category.

Once you find and choose a recording, they are playable on site; there is no need for Zoom for the end user.

An archive recording from an American Civil War Museum webinar.

Many of these recordings also have a standards-aligned document to go with them based on a state of your choice.  However, once opened, some of these alignment documents say "Coming Soon" or there is no link at all because no standards doc has yet been made available.

The standard alignment document for the above recording.

A final feature worth noting is that a URL to a recording can be shared with a student directly.  In order to do so, the student will need your district's "code."  (A teacher can look up the code for their district.) Once a student clicks on the link, they will need to type in the district code or they can't watch the recording.  Again, Zoom is only necessary to participate in a livestream; no Zoom is required to watch a recording.

For a video overview of Streamable Learning, here's a screencast I made (11:00):

How could you use it?

Teachers have always loved bringing in a guest speaker, but that might not always be easy or convenient; similar issues with logistics hamper just jumping on a bus with 30 students and going to a museum.  (Especially if it's in Alaska or Australia!)  Streamable Learning gives a convenient, cost effective, interactive, safe way of bringing outside expertise into your own four walls.  Additionally, it's a great way to show authenticity around the content being learned in your classroom, by seeing more vivid examples of its use, impact and application.

Streamable Learning can also address equity issues and give some students virtual opportunities that they may have little to no chance to do in person.  An affluent suburban district may have parents that can easily afford supplementing the cost for that annual class trip to Washington, D.C. or Chicago, but for high poverty schools or rural districts already far away from their own local cities, this may not be an option.   Streamable Learning can potentially level that playing field.  

The ability to potentially share a recorded webinar with students via your district code opens up other options.   A student may get pushed a certain video that fits their personalized learning needs and passions.  Another may use a recording as a way of vicariously exploring a career path.  Or a group of students might benefit from a video to build schema for the focus of their project-based learning.

Downsides?

I wish that search results for recorded webinars were more logically organized, such as the most recent event at top and then going back in time, or perhaps have a few filtering options (alphabetically by partner, for example).   Also, it would be helpful if the standard alignment documentation was more consistent. While I understand this may possibly be uploaded sometime after the archived video is put online, several that I randomly found were missing this information even months later.  

While the platform costs, the number and variety of content partners and the ability to access previous webinars can make Streamable Learning a valuable instructional resource for students!

Have you used Streamable Learning or another "virtual field trip" platform?  Share in the Comments below.

Launch of my new website!

A short announcement today!

I've just launched my professional educator website...created with Google Sites, of course!  It's linked to a domain I've owned for years: adamwatson.org.

I now have a job-agnostic site that has the following:

• My educational biography.
• Publications (things that I have written).
• A "press room" (educational articles, podcasts and other examples where I've been interviewed, featured or mentioned, going back to 2006**).
• Years ago, I was inspired by Stella Pollard.  When she leads a session at a conference, she has on her own site a page that houses her presentation materials.   It's a great one stop shop that's easy to find.  I now finally have the same, starting with a KET Summer PD session I just led last week.  
• A clean, clear list of links to my main social media accounts.

There may be more than a few of you smirking that launching a website is so 2005 of me, and you'd be right.  Better late than never, I suppose. I ask for grace, and more importantly, for you to give the site a visit!

**Update 7/19/22: After discovering and uploading two articles from 2006 where I was interviewed -- my first year of teaching! -- I updated my website and edited this blog entry from the original "back to 2009."