Digital Play

By kylemawer 　http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/2010/03/21/online-alternate-reality-game-for-teens/

THE GAME

Whitesmoke is an online free to play Alternate Reality Game (ARG).  Commissioned by Channel 4 Education and aimed at teens, Whitesmoke hopes to educate by providing a personal taster (through a fictional game) of what it would be like to experience some of the dangers of social networking.

WEBSITE SCREENSHOT

INTERESTED?

Read more about this ARG in a Guardian article or visit the Whitesmoke official website.

MY EXPERIENCE

This ARG has been great with an advanced class.  We started up the game during a computer room session where learners were fed up with doing online exam practice and wanted a game that was a bit more mature and serious than a point-and-click game.  For homework I asked them to prepare a short talk on what they had learnt while playing the game.  Next class I was surprised at how involved they’d become in the game and how greater their awareness of internet dangers were.  In fact, they were teaching me.  Subsequently, each time we encounter a new grammar point in the book I am asking them to ‘smokescreen-erize’ the examples.  As a result my teen learners are not only personalizing the grammar and continuing to learn language but also have a platform to discuss such serious issues as identity theft, online stalking and freedom of online information.  It has also provided a long term reading project for the computer room where I can not only assist them with language items but also engage them in mutually interesting and authentic dialogue on elements of the game, issues and the game characters.  It has almost become a class soap opera.

YOUR COMMENTS WELCOME

If any one else is interested enough to try this out in class I would be interested in how they use it.  At the moment, for me, it is a means to use computer time, encourage reading outside the English class context and it is a platform for discussing issues, experiences, opinions and stories.