Massively@jokaydia Project
Massively @ jokaydia was a Guild based learning community for kids aged 4-16 who were interested in developing digital media skills, exploring their creativity and developing online social skills by playing games!
Our guild was founded in mid 2011 for kids and parents, using game-theory and our experience of developing communities of practice in virtual worlds. The project was personally funded by Jo Kay – Director, jokaydia.com, with a little help from kind donations. We had over 1000 registered players from around the world.
What happened at Massively @ jokaydia?
Massively @ jokaydia was a whitelisted, multiplayer Minecraft server. We had several ‘maps’ inworld, along with this Guild portal which provides a community space and a project based learning oriented awards system, built with gamification and engagement in mind.
Progression in the community was achieved by undertaking tasks in the Awards section of the site. By completing awards challenges, players were given increasing power and responsibility in the game – both actively developing the game-world and working as community mentors.
There were no formal teaching or lessons allowed in the game in the way people might think about a games-based learning space. Kids and adults were free to explore ideas as long as they are following the social charter that sets out the Guild’s expectations on how to be a productive, positive player in our community.
All players were expected to follow the rules set out in the Massively @ jokaydia Charter, and strategies for being an effective digital citizen are regularly discussed. Membership in our community allowed kids to develop and practice safety skills and respect and tolerance for others in online spaces.
Learning in the Mines
Massively @ jokaydia’s Awards System was designed to enable the following knowledge, skills and attitudes among our players:
- Writing – communicating thoughts and ideas in written form clearly and concisely.
- Speaking – communicating thoughts and ideas to others clearly, concisely and with confidence.
- Information-Literacy – Finding, consuming, and comprehending information and identifying what’s most important in the face of a problem or challenge.
- Decision-Making – Identifying critical issues, prioritizing, avoiding common errors and handling ambiguity.
- Numeracy – Using concepts from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus and statistics to analyze and solve common problems.
- Rapport – Interacting with other people in ways that encourages them to like, trust and respect you.
- Conflict-Resolution – Anticipating potential sources of conflict and developing resolutions to disagreements when they occur.
- Planning – Identifying the necessary next steps to achieve an objective, preparing for the unknown and coping with change.
- Self-Awareness – how to accurately perceive and influence your own internal states and emotions, including effective management of limited energy, willpower and focus.
- Skill Acquisition – how to go about learning a desired skill in a way that results in competence by finding and utilizing available resources, deconstructing complex processes and actively experimenting with potential solutions.