At its heart, what is Village? Over the years I've tried to develop my "elevator pitch." But the game has so many pieces that it needed to be a really long elevator ride. So this year, when we began distance learning, I sat down and tried to map out what Village is and what its key learning is. I say "key learning" because every year, Village takes different twists and turns. Different elements of the game are magnified or shrink away. It makes Village difficult to quantify in an offical way. I've had many people who have asked for the curriculum but, like a lot of thematic learning, I can predict many of the learning outcomes but certainly not all.
Some years, villagers become extremely well versed in the court system, busying themselves with endless suits and counter suits. Other years, architecture and city planning take the forefront - what makes a great city and why. Still other years, students learn the impact of counterfeiting on a monetary system...
There are also different ways to succeed in Village. Businesses and bank accounts are one measure. But we encourage students to look beyond numbers and think about Peep University or creative endeavors or government service or house design.
So I drew out this map and then took a deep breath. How could we ever do this on-line?
And the answer is, we couldn't, at least not completely. There were elements of the game - like the math involved in designing a house or the budgeting needed for paying back a loan that we didn't try to do. Many of our town decisions are based on our land and our interactions with each other. When we were isolated, the conflict that necessitated laws abated and the towns found themselves wondering what to do with themselves.
But new facets of the game appeared when we went on-line. Within a day or two of launching, we had our first on-line business, complete with a "how-to" on website design. The students who were running businesses soon discovered the need to learn about order forms and spreadsheets. How do you keep track of everying? How do you create products that people want? How do you get people to notice you?
Of course, one of the first questions that business owners had was, "How do people buy our things?" We began the game without any kind of money and that prompted a lot of questions: How do we get things from each other? How does money start? Who makes money have value? Gabe designed a system to exchange "Peep Coin" and the students began to try to sell things to each other which quickly gave the peep coin value.
Creative videos, our very own YouTube started to proliferate. Peeps developed stronger personalities in these virtual spaces where they were never out of character. Serial stories were written and performed. Peeps (and their big people) shared their talents in ways they hadn't been able to before. There had never been a stage to shine on.
The houses this year also showed an ingenuity that astounded us. Usually, the Village store is packed with kids buying every kind of doo-dad imaginable. But not this year. Everyone started with the same simple materials and yet they were deployed in such different ways. Necessity was indeed the mother of invention.
Next year's Village, I hope, will be back out on the land. But there are new facets that I am excited to add to the experience. Cia Iselin, the creator of Village, always insisted on playing the game alongside the other Villagers. She guided the game from within, not from above. This year, we took a leap and tried to follow her lead - letting the Villagers guide the way the game developed. They truly created a whole new world.
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