I want a gaming librarian…

That may sound like an odd title for a blog post but it’s what I want. What do I mean? I want a gaming librarian. I want to create a position and fill it with someone who understands libraries and gaming and who can bring the two of them together.

Why would I want such a thing? Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several years you probably have heard of World of Warcraft. The game has more than 7 million subscribers. SEVEN MILLION. WORLDWIDE. As a result, it’s going to make a billion dollars this year. ONE BILLION. It is everywhere. Are librarians paying attention to that?

World of Warcraft succeeds because it’s based on sound pedagogy. Wait a minute…did he say that? Yeah…I did.

You see, there’s this guy whose name is Robert Gagne and he’s considered one of the “stars” of instructional design. Back in 1965 he published something called The Conditions of Learning. In it created a nine step process. This process has become known in the world of education as “Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction”. They are:

Gain the learner’s attention

Inform learners of objectives

Stimulate recall of prior learning

Present the content

Provide learning guidance

Elicit performance (practice)

Assess performance

Enhance retention and transfer to the job.

World of Warcraft does all of these. Not only does it do them, it does them well! It does it in an attractive setting; uses “cool technology”; encourages peer teaching and mentoring; and – more importantly – it’s just plain fun.

World of Warcraft is the ideal learning environment. Learners know the intended outcomes from the start. They start with clearly outlined objectives from which they learn strategies by working independently, with mentors and in small groups. Individual online assistance is immediately available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As they progress they are given tasks that are also progressively difficult until they reach a mastery level. Along the way they receive rewards or encouragement to continue them along the path. When they reach a certain level they “graduate” and can move on to the next.

What if we could harness the technology behind World of Warcraft for use in libraries? What if we could create library systems that were more like World of Warcraft and less like Pong? Have we even created the Pong version yet?

I want a gaming librarian!

My Encounter with a Student

Today I had an interesting experience.  While returning to my office I was stopped by a student who recognized me from this blog.  He essentially stopped me to offer a few suggestions and to thank me for making the effort to communicate using the tools of the day.  (I hope if he reads this he emails me his name because in the course of conversation I neglected to ask!)

He encouraged me to write more frequently and I mentioned how I wanted to take the time to carefully consider each post.  His response: just write about what you’re doing - say something about a book you’re reading.  It doesn’t always have to be “big thoughts”.  You know….he’s right.  People crave communication.  It doesn’t always have to be the “big issues” but it should be heartfelt.  So, thank you - whoever you were!