Literary Rebel, Sherri Caldwell, blogs about books, reading, education and literary events in Midtown, as well as random, sometimes odd, bits and pieces about other things.
Admittedly, this is a different take on books, reading and education, but it is a New Adventure in Literacy—and I’ve even managed to impress my 14-year-old.
I have been virtual/homeschooling for the last five years, 4th grade through 8th grade, with my youngest son, who is now a rising 9th grader at Grady High School. With the oldest graduated and in the Navy, my daughter a rising senior at Grady, and soon to be out of my primary teaching role... I am going to have some free time on my hands. I still need to stay flexible, available and involved during this transition-- and keep busy.
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Two years ago, as my virtual/homeschool student entered the more complicated maths portion of his middle school experience, I searched around for some online courses I could take to brush up on my Algebra. I discovered Coursera:
“Coursera is an education platform that partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.”
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There are several other providers of free or low-cost online college courses, and I sampled several. I took a College Algebra course from Udacity, and it helped me follow my 8th grader’s math curriculum, especially as he explained it all to me as we went along, when he invariably got the answer first, because he is brilliant like that. Aside from the Algebra course, I surveyed several other very interesting classes and course offerings, started a few, and have generally enjoyed dipping back into college curricula here and there, part-time, on my own schedule, as interactive as I want to be: FREE.
Which brings me back to the New Adventure in Literacy: Last week, I received an email from Coursera with “Recommended Courses For Sherri” and this compelling little item leaped out at me:
Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative
Vanderbilt University
Begins July 14, 2014
Focused on Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings Online, this course explores what happens to stories and films when they are turned into online games.
I don’t really play video games, but my three teenagers sure do. I learned a long time ago, a great way to relate to today’s tech-savvy, video-game-obsessed kids is to at least listen, when they want to talk about the latest level or achievable or whatever, and pay attention. It is amazing and wonderful how much kids will open up and talk, if you show an interest in what is important to them—even angst-filled teenagers.
I do love Literature, New Media, and Narrative. I have never read Lord of the Rings, but I read The Hobbit with my then-7th grader, and we watched all the movies, so how bad could it be?
From the course description:
The course is designed as a university-level English literature class—a multi-genre, multimedia tour of how literature, film, and games engage in the basic human activity of storytelling. Our journey will enable us to learn something about narrative theory, introduce us to some key topics in media studies and cover some of the history and theory of video games.
Ohhh, I am all a-tingle. Furthermore:
No background in gaming is required. Whether you are non-gamer who is interested in understanding what video games are all about, a person who loves both popular culture and serious literature, or a guild leader who runs large raids three nights a week, this course will challenge you to think more deeply about important issues confronting our culture.
I am all in. The funny thing is, my kid is, too—he thinks it is great that Mom is interested in, and, quite honestly, appreciative of, some of the educational benefits and potential integrated within video games, particularly the programming worlds of Minecraft and the epic quests designed around epochs of time and history, where players are actually introduced to historical figures and play through actual historical events and landscapes.
Although the syllabus says you do not have to play LOTRO® (Lord of The Rings Online) to follow the course, there is some in-game programming and interactive chats and adventuring, specific to the course. My kid promptly downloaded LOTRO, got it all set up for me, and helped me create my character/avatar: Angebrenian of Lindon, an Elf Lore-Master (of course?). I spent about an hour running through Thorin's Gate, right-clicking on different characters I met for instructions or interaction and beating things with a stick to add to my inventory.
No, I really don’t know what I’m doing, but I am very interested in the bridge from my world of books and literature to our children’s high-tech world of super-connection, worldwide interaction and extraordinary capabilities in programming, education and technology.
It’s all good, because my son was right there with me.
There is still time to join in this class session, or many, many others on Coursera beginning in the next several weeks. You never know what you might find, what you might learn.
Happy Reading!