A group of middle schoolers in a New York City suburb play World of Warcraft at school. But they’re not slacking, it’s their English class. World of Warcraft is an immersive online game where millions of people a day run around fighting monsters. The classroom is a din of clattering keyboards and kids shouting back and forth about meeting up in the same virtual location and an oft repeated, never answered plea to know which of their classmates is called Grimblade.
Peg Sheehy helped create a language arts curriculum done inside the world of the game. But she says figuring out how to teach literary concepts to ork and elf avatars instead of students in desks wasn’t easy until she found something called 3D Gamelab.
“We took a look at it and it was like happy dance, we’d died and gone to heaven,” Sheehy says. “This is the tool we’d really needed all along.”
3D Gamelab is a computer platform that allows teachers to turn any class into a game.
“All of a sudden everything gelled and matched,” she says. “It wasn’t like you were going out to this thing that smelled like school and you got to do some cool stuff on the side. It was like it all was cool stuff now.”
Instead of assignments that must be done in a certain order, 3D Gamelab gives students quests and freedom on when to do them. Then instead of getting a grade for taking a math quiz or writing an essay, they get a badge when they demonstrate competency in a skill. It was developed by Chris Haskell, a clinical assistant professor at Boise State in the department of educational technology and Lisa Dawley the CEO of Gogo Labs.
Until recently Dawley was also in the university’s department of educational technology. But after developing 3D Gamelab Boise State helped her form a private company. Gogo Labs is what’s known as a spin out. The company has about 700 customers so far, teachers using 3D Gamelab in a wide variety of classes. Chris Haskell says the program is about reinventing education using the best aspects of gaming.
“In the video game environment if we make a mistake we learn from it,” Haskell says. “We go back, we try the level again, we try the task again until we get it right.”
He says in traditional education students are punished for making mistakes with bad grades and if they make too many mistakes it becomes impossible to succeed.
And while Haskell, still the teacher, is consumed with transforming education, Dawley the new CEO now has to worry about the future of her company.
“With startup corporations it’s usually great idea, great prototype ‘OK we’re ready to launch now need a COO and a CTO and a security person and a database engineer.’ And that takes a nice chunk of change,” Dawley says. “Tech start-up companies go into a ‘valley of death’ while they’re looking for that funding. And that’s where we are right now.”
Gogo labs shares many of the challenges of any new business. But in one way it’s unique. It’s the first spin out company from Boise State. But it’s something other universities have been doing for decades.
Robert Strom directs research for the Kaufman Foundation, which focuses on entrepreneurship and education. He says for many universities spinning out companies is a common occurrence. Strom says university spin outs are a huge part of the world economy, but he says there are no solid estimates on how big. And he’s convinced they’ll become even more important because, he says universities are increasingly the only places doing the type of research that can lead to high growth companies.
“If I’m developing some sort of molecule that’s going to go into some new drug that’s going to cure some disease, it’s tough to do that in my garage,” Strom says.
At Boise State Mary Andrews is in charge of developing partnerships with businesses, including creating spin outs. The university added her department in 2009 as part of its goal to increase focus on research.
Andrews says the school’s new emphasis on entrepreneurship is also the result of the changing relationships public universities have with states.
“Especially as we went through this recession, we saw a lot more attention nationwide on making sure universities are contributing in the economy,” Andrews says. “And we see that here in Idaho.”
For universities spin outs are a source of pride. They’re also a way to convince lawmakers and others that schools are contributing to a state’s economy. But spin outs are relatively new to Idaho. The University of Idaho has founded two, both last year. And Idaho State is working to develop its first.
At Boise State it’s too early to tell if Gogo Labs will make the university or its creators any money or even if it will survive. That depends on how many teachers want to turn school into a game.
Copyright 2013 Boise State Public Radio