I revel in failure. The size of a failure correlates with the size of the the opportunity it offers. Failure is how we learn. It helps us evolve and grow as individuals and as a society, which is why I was surprised to see a very public aversion to failure at the Games for Change Festival last week.
The festival attendees were roughly split between designers and educators, and everyone had come together to discuss the development of interactive experiences that enact real change. During one session, a teacher admonished game designers for producing what I, too, consider the scourge of real education; e-learning. Her plea was essentially, “We’re providing the pedagogy; you need to make better games”.
My first inclination was to defend game designers, who, in the development of educational technology are often bound by their sources of funding and adoption- schools, school systems or clients. Instead of supporting innovative education, the system desires clear metrics that “plug into” an archaic and undesirable evaluation of learner performance. The fact is, e-learning fits into the standardized testing model we have embraced at the highest levels of our society, and that’s why it’s ineffective. That’s also why it sticks around.
It’s just as unfair to blame “the system” as it is to blame teachers or designers. The fact is, we’ve all failed. Designers have failed to understand the role of immersive technology in education, educators have failed to provide long-term evidence that it works, and the educational system elevates statistics instead of people.
I’ve spent almost a week ruminating on this educator’s point, alternating between optimism and despair. I’ve settled on optimism because I have to. We all have to. We’ve all failed – together – and such a spectacular failure has offered us a great opportunity. It’s time to stop pointing fingers and move forward.