Nicole Fisher

Leadership Rationale & Reflection

Leadership comes in many forms. For this project I chose to put leadership in
a box by creating a board game titled, StARTer, that ultimately forces players to
think outside the box. I wanted to develop a platform to promote leadership
through team building skills, stimulating questions and hands on engagement.
StARTer incorporates themes of leadership and advocacy through both explicit
and subtle elements throughout the game. Not only are games fun and
enjoyable, but, they promote interactive learning and can be used effectively as
educational tools, taking those who play the game from learner to leader.
I explored gamification in order to produce a game that enabled
participants to grow and learn through play. Additionally, as I examined how the
world of gaming integrated with education, I recognized that it is not simply a tool
for teaching a particular lesson, but could be an educational platform that I can
implement as a future arts educator in my teaching style, philosophy and
curriculums. As I began the development and design process for my game, I
explored the connections between gaming, education, and leadership, and the
information and research already available on this topic. Gaming (both analogue
and digitally) is being used not only within schools and work places as an extra
component or device to enhance understanding, but; it has become the
philosophy and foundation of an entire school model, designed by the Institute of
Play and implemented in their school initiatives in New York and Chicago, with
NYC public school Quest to Learn and ChicagoQuest, taking a new approach
to education(Institute of Play).
The innovative educational philosophy at Quest to Learn, uses gamebased learning to create an environment where students are engaged in their
own quests to be inventors, designers, innovators and problem solvers (Quest to
Learn). Top educational research in recent years has shown the value of learning
experiences through gaming, because they: show learning by doing; encourage
collaboration with others; can immediately indicate failure and success in a

setting that allows us to retry and continue after a loss; they show that failure is
necessary (unlike traditional educational systems) and is a part of the game,
which provides a space for students to become motivated to try again and
succeed; allow learning to feel like play and become natural as opposed to
forced (Quest to Learn). As I looked into the resources and philosophies at
Quest to Learn and the Institute of Play, it confirmed the vast opportunity and
educational value of gaming, and thus my pursuit of designing an educational
game to build leadership and advocacy skills. Outside of the traditional class
room environment is where youth have the opportunity to explore and gain a
sense of creativity, visual exploration, and cultural knowledge, so by taking the
notion of play, and converting something fun and not a part of the traditional
class room and incorporating it with education felt like a strong way to make an
impact on students and incorporate in my future teaching (Transforming City
Schools Through Art, 62-68).
The current prototype functions as an actual game, but it was important to
me to create this game as a platform built for adaptability. In this initial version,
the emphasis is on leadership and advocacy. In art education, advocacy often
focuses on supporting and maintaining art education programs, while leadership
facilitates transformation, progress, and new ideas (Freedman, 2011). I wanted to
approach advocacy in an open-ended way by posing abstract questions and
prompting ideas that cause players to ultimately consider advocacy, what they
advocate for, how do they become advocates, what causes do they want to
advocate, and how do they want to show these things. Using the scaffolding
provided by advocacy, StARTer focuses on leadership skills through different
challenges, team building activities, and elements enabling players to make
different decisions such as on the Lego structure or mascot they are creating,
how to separate tasks among teammates in various challenges etc. These
challenges have the opportunity to lay a foundation similar to the metaphor used

by Elliot Eisner referencing the crucial contribution by educators planting seeds

that will spark new idea, creativity, and inspiration for change (Eisner 2002, p. 71)
StARTer incorporates strategies to stimulate brain-storming scenarios and
creative inspiration allowing players to explore their own ideas and work toward
goals outside of the game such as: for group projects, creating curriculum and
policy, learning the curriculum, developing and exploring research topics and
projects, business strategies/concepts/products and a multitude of other things.
The format in this, original, model of StARTer is malleable and can become
applicable to a host of environments, purposes, subjects etc. The game can be
adapted by changing the character cards to other things for example focusing on
building a company, one could explore creating product cards, or different people
who play a role in the business from the boss to the supplier, transportation,
customer, employee etc. Another way to change the content learned in the game
is simply through changing the question / challenge cards.
Through StARTer, you will have the opportunity to work in a team. One of
the most essential parts of leadership is trust and relationships. Through initial
team decisions on which character cards to use, how to create your game piece,
designing your 5th character card, building your mascot throughout the game, and
the nature of the different types of questions and activities you will form (or grow)
relationships with your teammates, get to know each other better, and develop a
sense of trust. The teams opposing each other will also get to know each other
better and have opportunities to work together during the game. Building
relationships and trust are key elements of effective leadership, and can be
fostered through a gaming and team environment.
This experience uses visual literacy and has the opportunity to take the
notion of multimodal experience to a new levelIn exploring different game
variations, visual literacy could be emphasized strongly and used as a point of
focus. As the game currently stands, the cards and game board are images that
the players need to decode, and through use of visual responses to challenges,
creation of the new character, building with the Legos and other elements of
the game engage the players in new forms of learning and a multimodal

experience. It is vital to recognize and address different forms of education and

apply them into our learning, continuing to view the world through linguistic and
print-based sensibilities limits ones experiences and narrows the forms of
expression and interpretation available in todays expanding visual culture
(Serafini, 2014, p. 21). The game I have designed intends to not only incorporate
and address the increase of visual content and structures in our society, but also
appeal to modern students, educators, business people and more through an
educational device that can be utilized for a wide range of content, learners, and
educators. Through participating in the game and discussion about the imagery
provided within the game, visual responses prompted by challenges and tasks in
the game, and general imagery around our daily lives, educators/bosses can use
the game to focus on students/employees (or other groups of people) skills that
enable them to become visually literate through a range of complex cognitive
behavioral and aesthetic dimensions, which becomes another tool for them to
leverage in their leadership (Serafini, 2014, p. 21).
As I reflect on the experience of creating StARTer, I realize that how much
the lessons of leadership and advocacy that we discussed in class were solidified
for me. By creating a game, I created a curriculum, and in the process furthered
my own understanding of how teamwork plays a part in developing as a leader. I
wanted to focus on something that would bring together both tangible and
abstract ideas. My hope is that the game promotes creativity, problem solving
skills, and divergent thinking, while participants learn about and experience
different styles of leadership. Additionally, I experienced exactly what the
research shows: "Games drop students into accessible, inquiry-based, complex
problem spaces that are leveled to deliver just-in-time learning and that use data
to help student players understand how they are doing, what they need to work
on, and where they need to go next" (Institute of Play).
I wanted to make sure the Arts remain an important aspect of the game
regardless of the subject being played. I struggled to make this work while still
focusing on the main target: building leadership and advocacy skills. I think this
was achieved the design of the game, the characters, the cards and the prompts

to create visual responses. The idea of players needing to read/interpret visuals,

and to think visually, while building their Lego bricks provides an opportunity to
develop building skills, creative exploration, fun, hands on, working together,
creating a tangible product.
Once again, I found myself in a position of over-achiever. My game
became more and more detailed as I tried to balance all of the elements of
Leadership, advocacy and art, but ultimately I feel I was able to simplify all of the
different ideas and elements into a concrete and playable game.I am very excited
about the potential of StARTer and believe it could actually be a great teaching
tool for leadership and has the ability to expand to a variety of subjects and
contexts.

References:
Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and The Creation of Mind. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Hutzel, K., & Bastos, F. (2012). Transforming City Schools Through Art:
Approaches to Meaningful K-12 Learning. New York: Teachers College Press ;.
Quest to Learn. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2015, from http://www.q2l.org/
Institute of Play. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2015, from
http://www.instituteofplay.org/
Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal
Literacy.