In this video I describe an idea for an educational game called The Business Model Generator.  I submitted this video as my final project in the Educational Media Design and Technology graduate certificate program at Full Sail University.  Even though it has taken me awhile to make it through the program, I am proud of what I have accomplished and will continue to explore how to use technology and media more effectively in my teaching.

 

I just received great news - I have been awarded a grant to purchase some iPads and sign them out to business students who will investigate how businesses are using iPads to create competitive advantages and/or increase efficiency.  We will also explore how to use iPads and various apps to enhance the learning experience of business students. 

It would really help us if you could share what kinds of apps you use in business or in educational environments.  If you have suggestions on what kinds of apps business students should know about when they graduate, that would be helpful, too. 

I am very excited about this opportunity and hope to share our findings throughout the next few months. 

As I am about to begin a new semester, I decided to repost this entry from Nov. 5, 2010 in order to remind myself (and my students) why I push them to use their full potential.  Feel free to share your thoughts on ways to overcome all of the pressures that fuel mediocrity. Enjoy!

Last week I read a blog post by Seth Godin entitled "Pushing Back on Mediocre Professors" in which he offers some great advice to students who find themselves uninspired and unchallenged in their courses.  Godin suggests that faculty 1) give assignments that push students to solve interesting problems, overcome fear or learn something that they could learn in no other way;  2) assign chapter material as homework, so we can have real conversations in class; 3) provide opportunities for authentic interactions; 4) read and write blogs and books about our discipline, so we can stay current; and 5) embrace new ideas and innovative ways of teaching.

In my own career as an educator, I have battled against mediocrity within myself and when I've seen it in my students.  Godin argues that fear fuels much of the mediocrity around and within us.  While I agree that fear holds me back sometimes, I think there are a number of other factors that make it so easy to fall into the mediocrity trap.  Some of these factors are structural and reflect the economies of scale approach to education - cram as many people into a room for an hour, three times a week for 15 weeks and pour knowledge into their brains.  This mindset is one of the most frustrating challenges I confront every day - I know that structuring large lecture classes in this way is not a good idea.  Yet, if I want to keep my job I have to find a way to teach effectively in this format. 

I give assignments that push students to find solutions to important social problems and volunteer their time and energy to make a difference in our community.  I do not regurgitate text material in lecture, but I try to have conversations about how course content applies to my students' lives and can be used to help them be more successful in their careers and personal relationships.  And I interact with them in an open and honest way, trying to connect, not only with their minds, but with their hearts.  And yes, I read blogs and books that reflect current thinking in my field and I share what I am reading and thinking about in class, as well as in this blog.  I am also constantly looking for new ways to be innovative in my teaching practice.

But I still struggle with the emotional labor that is required to keep mediocrity at bay.  The many hours I invest each week in preparing for and teaching my five classes, is but one small part of my job.  My students wrestle with the same dilemma - they want to do well in my course, but they are taking four or five other classes and working 15-40 hours a week.  We are all trying to juggle so many obligations at the same time, that it is no wonder that, more often than not, mediocrity wins. 

So what are the obligations that are dragging us down this path?  How can we prioritize and say no to some of the activities that are distracting us from putting our heart and soul into the things that really matter to us?  When is it ok to accept mediocrity, so that we can excel in other areas?  I don't have any answers, at least not any good answers to these questions right now, but I will certainly be thinking about them over the next few weeks.  Feel free to share your thoughts or any strategies you have used to combat mediocrity in your life.  And thanks for reading my blog.

 

 

In this assignment for the Gaming Strategies and Motivation course at Full Sail University, I had to use the Comic Life software program (http://plasq.com/products/comiclife/mac) to design and produce a digital postcard that highlighted my experience in the course.  Since I had the most fun playing the online strategy game "Gone to the Dogs," I decided to use screen shots from the game and embedded them in a Comic Life template.  It was easy to adjust the type, size and color of the font to get the design I wanted.  I had never used Comic Life before and it was fun to create a postcard that I can print and share easily.  Let me know what you think!

I created this video to discuss how I might use gaming to assess the strategic thinking skills of students enrolled in my capstone course in strategic management.  Feel free to share your comments and thoughts about how gaming demonstrates strategic thinking.  Enjoy!

In this video I discuss some of the insights that job characteristics theory can offer to help educators understand why digital games and simulations have such strong potential to engage and motivate today's learners.  I created the video as the second capstone project in the gaming strategies and motivation course at Full Sail University.  Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment or asking a question.  Enjoy!

I am now in week three of the final course in the Educational Media Design and Technology graduate certificate program at Full Sail University - Game Strategies and Motivation (GSM).  I must admit that I have had mixed emotions about this course.  I knew coming in, that I had a strong bias against using gaming in education, probably because I have never been very good at playing or winning video or other digital games. 

I’ve also seen nieces and nephews, as well as some talented business students, invest dozens of hours each week, in what seemed to be rather addictive game playing behaviors.  While I understood the emotional thrill of becoming completely engrossed in a game, I wondered if it were possible for someone to “be in the flow” of the game and still be able to reflect on the decisions and outcomes that emerged during the course of the game.  I also struggled with the notion that most players just jump right in and figure out the rules, as well as competitive strategies to employ, while they are playing the game.  I soon discovered that the idea of developing a well-thought out strategic plan with contingencies, just in case things do not go as planned - doesn’t work very well in the world of highly interactive virtual environments.  Being able to notice what is going on within the game, react quickly, think on your feet and shift your course of action in a heart beat - are crucial to winning most digital games.  My personal strengths in analyzing the environment, developing a set of reasonable alternatives and evaluating the likelihood of successful implementation - are precisely the skills that make me “suck” at playing digital games. 

So right now I am struggling with a dilemma - do I have to be good at something in order to incorporate it as a teaching strategy?  Do I have to be able to win the business strategy simulation in order for me to use it in my strategic management capstone course?  If I can’t beat my students at the game, will they see me as less of an expert?  Can my ego and sense of professional identity handle my inability to play the game at least as well as my students?  I am supposed to be an “expert” in strategic management, yet that doesn’t mean that I have to be an expert at playing a strategic management simulation.  Or does it?

Both Aldrich (2009) and Gee (2007), as well as other gaming scholars (Brown, 2009;  Chatfield, 2010;  McGonigal, 2011;  Prensky, 2001) argue that there should be some element of fun when educators use gaming to enhance learning.  Yet when I spent four hours trying to learn how to play the business strategy simulation Mike’s Bikes, I did not have much fun at all.  I made business decisions that seemed to be based on sound strategic thinking, yet I got hammered by the competition and destroyed eighty percent of the shareholder value with which I started the game.  Unfortunately, I didn’t understand why my performance was so bad, which made it difficult for me to learn from my mistakes. 

Most of my educational experience has focused on coming up with either the right answer or an argument that makes sense - and I have been extremely successful in practically every academic environment in which I have enrolled.  Yet, all of a sudden, when immersed in the business strategy game, I feel like I don’t know what I am doing.  My rational arguments and explanations do not help me play the game any more successfully.  I feel like a fraud and an impostor, so naturally I am wondering “How can my students learn anything from playing this game?” 

Yet, one of the reasons I wanted to be a part of the EMDT program in the first place was because I realized that my students are not like me in some fundamental ways, and I wanted to figure out how to help them learn despite those differences.  I understand that when the learning environment is fun, students are more likely to be engaged and motivated to persist on the learning journey.  Will they be able to have fun and enjoy playing a game that is not fun for me to play?  Will they be able to teach me how to play the game more successfully?  And is that ok?  Am I open-minded enough to let go of control and see where this journey takes us?  Can I develop an implementation plan that will help me feel more confident that my students can learn a lot about strategic thinking by playing this kind of game, even though I can not necessarily articulate exactly what they will learn before it happens?

While I am not sure if I will have the courage to take the great leap of faith that is necessary to adopt the Mike’s Bikes simulation this semester, I would like to share how the simulation fits within the PICK-A-SEAT framework.  In the sections that follow, I evaluate Mike’s Bikes Business Strategy Simulation on nine elements - pacing, instructions, controls, knowledge, achievements, story, endgame, assessments and timing.  If I decide to incorporate this simulation into my capstone course in strategic management, I will use this analysis as the blueprint for my lesson plan.  Enjoy!

Pacing.  The Mike’s Bikes strategic management simulation is divided into decision periods (i.e. rollovers) that represent the passage of one year in the business cycle.  Within each decision period, students will conduct research, analyze data, and make business decisions as they compete with other bicycle manufacturers.  It will take players approximately three hours to run through a practice cycle of the game and get familiar with the user interface and reports that are generated within each decision period.  Once the practice phase has been completed, students will work in teams of 3-4 members and compete against other student teams.  We will run two team practice cycles to allow teams to get comfortable with making decisions together and analyzing their performance results.  We will run the actual simulation over an eight week time frame, moving through one decision period each week, eventually compiling eight years’ worth of shareholder value and other financial results.

Instructions.  It will take players approximately three hours to run through a practice cycle of the game and get familiar with the user interface and reports that are generated within each decision period.  Once the practice phase has been completed, students will work in teams of 3-4 members and compete against other student teams.  The simulation’s support website includes a Quick Start Guide and Players Manual, as well as a slideshow that reviews the user interface.  There are also HELP icons on each decision screen that provide explanations of terminology and relationships across concepts.  The simulation interface also provides reminders of constraints - for example, before a team can introduce a new line of bicycles, they must first invest in research and development and then make decisions about the timing of the product launch, pricing, marketing budget, distribution channels, etc.

Controls.  Players have control over how much money they allocate to various functional areas of the business, such as product marketing (i.e., marketing mix for each product - design, price and promotion), firm marketing (i.e., branding budget and distribution strategy), operations management (i.e., production capacity, quality standards, production quantity), product design and development (i.e., developing and modifying products to meet customer needs), and finance (i.e., financial strategy, debt or equity, dividends, takeover strategies).

There are a number of constraints built into the simulation that limit the choices available to players in terms of market segments (e.g., adventurer, commuter, kids, leisure, racer), promotion strategies (e.g., product advertising, product public relations, brand advertising), media choices (e.g., television, internet, magazines) and distribution channels (e.g., bike shops, sports stores and department stores).

All teams begin the simulation with the same level of capacity, financial resources, market share, operating expenses, number of employees and shareholder value.  After the first decision period, resource and performance levels are adjusted based on the decisions made by all teams that are competing in the simulation.

Knowledge.  Before they begin the simulation, all teams will need to develop a strategic plan that includes a detailed mission statement, description of business objectives, analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and description of strategies that the company can use to achieve its objectives.  Teams must use their strategic plan to guide decision making as they move through the eight decision cycles.  They will learn how to make sure that their investment and resource allocation decisions fit with the strategic plan.  At the end of each decision cycle, teams will also have to analyze and make sense of performance results and then use that analysis to inform future decisions.  At the end of the simulation, teams will conduct a detailed performance review and make recommendations on how they could improve their overall performance if they were to play the game again.

Achievements.  While the ultimate goal of the simulation is to generate the highest level of shareholder value by the end of the eight business cycles, each team will also monitor annual increases or decreases in retail sales, revenue, efficiency and net income (i.e., profitability).  In addition, market comparison data will be provided that shows market and distribution channel share, operating results, and financial performance across all teams/companies.  All teams will have access to their own performance data, as well as all data that compares results across the industry.  The comparison data shows how each team/company ranks on each of the aforementioned performance measures.  We will track the rankings throughout the eight week time period and discuss how various strategic decisions impacted the rankings.

Story.  Student teams play the game from the perspective of the top management team of a bicycle manufacturing company.   The top management team’s job is to make decisions about pricing, marketing, operations, product development and finance, with the ultimate objective of maximizing shareholder value.  Teams will also compete against each other for market share, which will ultimately affect their ability to create the most value for shareholders.

Endgame.  The primary goal or endgame is to enrich shareholders/owners by providing a return on their investment in the bicycle manufacturing company.  Just as in “real life” this return is measured as Shareholder Value and will be compared to the amount of value generated by other competitors.  The student team that creates the most shareholder value will be declared the winner of the game.  All student teams that are able to create positive shareholder value will receive 5 bonus points.  Even students who destroy shareholder value will learn how their decisions and those of other teams, impacted competitive positioning, financial performance and the creation of value for owners.

Asessment.  This simulation builds in assessment in a variety of ways.  Just as in real life, performance can be measured by how much shareholder value is created by each management team during each of the eight decision periods and over the entire course of the game.  Students will also be asked to evaluate how the decisions they make throughout the game fit with their strategic plan.  Finally, regardless of whether performance improves or declines from one decision period to another, teams will be required to submit an executive analysis of the decisions they made in the period and how they impacted performance and competitive positioning.

Timing.  Student teams will be allowed to play the simulation at their own pace, however they must complete one decision cycle each week for eight weeks.  Teams that make their decisions early in the week will have more time to evaluate performance results and determine future strategic decisions.  Since we will only spend eight of the 15 weeks in the semester playing the game, we will be able to discuss and evaluate their experience with the simulation during the remaining weeks of the course.

Fun and Motivation.  As I mentioned earlier, I did not particularly enjoy playing this game, primarily because I couldn't figure out how to beat the computer that was competing against me.  Fortunately, I think asking my students to work in teams and use the multi-player version of the game, will add a social element and decrease the pressure for any one individual to win the game.  Using teams will also give learners the opportunity to discuss strategies and evaluate performance outcomes from different perspectives.  The competition that is built into the simulation will hopefully keep the teams motivated to stay engaged and learn as much as they can about strategic management processes.

Hopefully you now have a good idea of how we can use the PICK-A-SEAT framework to guide the use of Mike's Bikes strategic management simulation in a capstone course in strategic management.  Feel free to leave comments, ask questions or borrow any of these ideas for your own use.  Thanks for reading.

References

Aldrich, C. (2009) Learning Online With Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

Brown, S. (2009) Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul.  NY, NY: Penguin Group USA.

Gee, J. P. (2007) What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

McGonigal, J. (2011) Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. NY: The Penguin Press.

Penenberg, A. L (2010) Everyone’s a player.  Fast Company, 134-141.

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Game-Based Learning. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House.

Note: All of the images used in this post were either screen shots from the Mike's Bikes website at (http://www.smartsims.com/simulation/mikes-bikes-advanced), used for educational purposes or licensed from (http://www.thinkstockphotos.com).

 

Earlier today I came across Guy Kawasaki's Enchantment page on Facebook and decided to spend a few hours reading his advice on Enchantment - The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.  Lately I have been feeling a bit discouraged in my role as a teacher, finding it increasingly difficult to capture the attention of my students, especially given all of the distractions with which they must contend on a daily basis.  So I decided to read the first few chapters of Kawasaki's book with the intention of uncovering ways to enchant my students.

One of the first things that struck me was that enchantment must start with building an authentic connection with another human being.  This feels like such a daunting challenge when each semester I come face to face with 300+ students in large lecture classes, who expect anything but enchantment.  Up until now my efforts have focused on trying to persuade students that coming to class and actively participating will help them do well in my course.  I have revamped my lectures using the principles of Presentation Zen and have invested many hours in becoming a better storyteller.  Yet I have met with resistance because this approach is unfamiliar to my students and requires them to develop different ways to listen and take notes.  Many have expressed frustration that my attempts to help them learn more effectively have pushed them too far out of their comfort zones.  Clearly my efforts to do what I believe is the right thing to do, have failed to enchant my customers.  So I am in need of a different approach.

Since the semester is almost finished (two more weeks to go) I will take some time to reflect on how I can use Kawasaki's ideas in my fall semester courses.  I would like to engage in conversation with students before the course begins and try to find out some of the things about which they are passionate.  Maybe one way to enchant them is to connect the course with things they care about.  I might set up a Facebook page for the course and invite those who are registered to share ideas about how to make the course interesting and engaging. Over the next few weeks I will continue to reflect on how to enchant my students.  Feel free to share any of your ideas.

During my recent trip to San Francisco I had the opportunity to spend some time with Nancy Duarte, author of Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences and Slide:ology - The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. I was inspired by her passion and commitment to making a difference in our world by helping others learn how to communicate more effectively and build authentic human connections.  My sense is that Nancy really lives this mission - I witnessed her ability to put those around her at ease (including me) and felt her compassion, as we talked about my frustrations with the structure and dysfunctional norms of higher education.  I was also touched by her generosity - taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with me and then inviting me to have lunch with some of her staff as they engaged in a brainstorming activity related to the forthcoming Resonate App.  If you haven't already picked up copies and read Nancy's books - I highly recommend them. 

Yesterday this short video was posted on the Duarte Blog - an interview of Nancy conducted by  Mac Slocum of O’Reilly (publishng company).  Once again, I felt inspired as Nancy talked about finding wonderment in one's subject area and sharing that sense of wonder and passion with the audience in a very human way.  In my own teaching I have been looking for opportunities for human connection, no matter the size of the audience.  I believe that it is our ability to build those human connections that can help us revitalize the educational system.  I am certain that Nancy's work will continue to inspire and provide great ideas on how to craft presentations and interactions that help us connect with each other.  Bravo Nancy and thank you for making a difference in our/my world.

At least I should be. Right now my flight is delayed because the cockpit can't communicate with the cabin. No word on when the problem will be fixed.

I'll let you know more about the trip when I get there.