Marked Tree High School - The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game - page 49

Case History 1

Marked Tree High School

Denishia Buchanan

Biology Teacher

Marked Tree High School

Marked Tree, Arkansas

Our first case history comes from Denishia Buchanan, a biology teacher in
Arkansas (see Figure CH1.1). She notes that 80% of her students fall below the
poverty line and typically do not perform well in school, with many failing to
graduate.

An avid gamer, Denishia was a natural when it came to designing a multiplayer
classroom. Her leveling system adds an ingenious time element, and her quests
are given by special quest givers within the classroom, such as the one who
consented to pose with her below in Figure CH1.1.

Her questing system is so successful — have a look at the remarkable statistics —

that she ' s planning quests for her Anatomy class. And the school ' s adminis-

trators are encouraging other teachers to do the same.

Here is her own quest to reach and teach students more used to struggling than
success.