Welcome back!

Fearless Adventures In Learning T-shirts, hats, and school supplies are planned for the future. Please email info@fearlessadventuresinlearning.org to tell us what you'd like and we'll consider it!

Yes. To create a FREE Google Account, navigate to the Google Account sign-in page (accounts.google.com)and click on "Create account". Alternatively, you can start from Google's homepage, click "Sign in", and then select "Create account".

Currently, the Professor Independence and the Quest for Truth game is not optimized for mobile or Mac use. For the best game experience, play it on a PC or a Chromebook.

All help desk inquiries submitted to info@fearlessadventuresinlearning.org will receive a response within 24 hours.

‍

Proficiency with specific applications or software is not required. If experiencing any technical difficulties, contact info@fearlessadventuresinlearning.org

‍

All educational activities, including the Professor Independence and the Quest for Truth game, the Quest Lab, and the Quest HelperAI, are free. We are a nonprofit organization that depends on donations to operate. A paid version of the Quest HelperAI will become available with additional functionality.

There is a growing body of evidence about the value of this approach:

• Games for building resilience/learning gains
  
  • A culture of “fixed” mindsets can be mitigated by reframing failure as part of a game, which facilitates better performance (Dweck, Gee, Kapur and Kinzer)
  • “Playing to get better at something (anything!) really does help you become . . . more resilient in real life” (McGonigal, 2015).
  • “fundamentally, all good games … engender in players a desire to persist past failure” (Gee, 2012).
  • “[The] Number of level failures in an educational game [are] shown as a positive predictor of learning gains” (Anderson, 2018).
• Game-making for Improved Learning outcomes and empathy
  
  • “The feasibility of literacy learning by game-making is confirmed across the reviewed studies, with the disciplinary literacy in computer science and 21st century literacy being most prominent” (Hung, Hsiu-Ting, et al., 2020)
  • Game design is “a potentially fruitful context for cultivating perspective-taking” (Dishon & Kafai, 2020).

‍

The Professor Independence and the Quest for Truth game requires an internet connection and will only play on a PC or a netbook, such as a Chromebook. The game is not designed to play on Mac products or on mobile devices.

The Quest Lab, through which anyone can create Google Slides choice adventures and escape rooms, is available to anyone with a Google Drive account. To create a FREE Google Account (accounts.google.com), navigate to the Google Account sign-in page and click on "Create account". Alternatively, you can start from Google's homepage, click "Sign in", and then select "Create account".

‍

Players complete self and peer assessments at intermittent stages during the quest-building process. These assessments help reinforce a growth mindset and design thinking.

There is evidence to support this approach:
‍
"Assessment Trends In Education: A Shift To Assessment For Learning," published in 2020 argues that, "assessment practices are changing to embrace assessment for learning, not assessment of learning . . . assessment is becoming more student-centric  . . . more personal for the individual student" (Goble).

Further, a 2020 meta-analysis of control group studies on the impact of peer assessment on academic performance found that "peer assessment is more effective than no assessment and teacher assessment and not significantly different in its effect from self-assessment" (Double et al.). 

‍

Fearless Adventures In Learning products are designed with diverse learning styles in mind. For example, Where’s Professor Indy? includes the following accommodations:

• AI Game Master can read text aloud
• AI Game Master can answer questions about the game and/or its content.
• Video instructions include subtitles.
• Audio cues throughout the game offer additional support.
• Game interface allows for collaboration among players and teachers via:

• drawing
• messaging
• speaking

• Teachers given exit passcodes and curriculum guide so they may offer support
• Works with VR headset

‍

The Professor Independence and the Quest for Truth game and the Quest Lab were specifically designed to help learners develop resilience and a growth mindset. While our activities are challenging, there are a variety of supports embedded and unlimited opportunities to achieve mastery.

"In good games, the price of failure is lowered—when players fail, they can, for example, start over at their last saved game. Furthermore, failure . . . is often seen as a way to learn the underlying pattern and eventually to win. These features of failure in games allow players to take risks and try out hypotheses that might be too costly in places where the cost of failure is higher or where no learning stems from failure” (Gee).

According to Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design, games are “limited formal systems,” that exercise our brains in a way that can be useful in real life. They are fun because they provide “that moment of triumph when we learn something or master a task . . . In other words, with games, learning is the drug” (Koster).

Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done, by Jon Acuff, argues that we accomplish our goals much more easily when we enjoy the process. Acuff and Peasley’s research concluded that participants’ chance of performance success increased by 46% when performing tasks they thought were enjoyable (Torres). 

‍

‍

The Professor Independence and the Quest for Truth game and the Quest Lab were designed for middle school students and teachers. It is recommended for anyone above age 10 working under the supervision of an adult.

Gamification is about transforming the classroom environment and regular activities into a game. It requires creativity, collaboration and play. There are numerous ways to bring games and game playing into the classroom to promote learning and deepen student understanding of subject matter.