GradesK to 12
In the ClassroomAs an example, use a verb from Bloom' taxonomy such as "evaluate." Click on the part of the sentence at the top, in parenthesis, to enter your content such as "patterns of environmental issues." Choose the resource you want students to use, the product you want them to make, and the number of students in a group by clicking on the tabs. Example objective: Students will evaluate the patterns of environmental issues using websites to create a news report in groups of two. Save your objective by copying and pasting it into any document or online tool. The Differentiator will give you many project ideas that you may not have thought of yourself, and serves as a welcome reminder of different activities and expectations you can use in your classroom. Take a look at this site at the beginning of the school year or when creating a new unit (or project). Find new ways to differentiate for your gifted students using this creative and powerful tool. If your gifted students test out of your current math lessons, use this site to find new material to challenge their minds. This site is deceptively quick and simple, but it could be very useful when writing detailed, powerful lesson plans.
GradesK to 12
NOTE: Although the videos are listed on this site, they actually "live" elsewhere on the Internet, so some videos may be blocked in your school (those on YouTube, for example). Always pretest to be sure the video you hope to use is accessible at school!
In the ClassroomShare these videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This is a great site to use when planning for substitute teachers, as an introduction to a new unit, or even as additional information on a specific topic.
Challenge cooperative learning groups to create their own videos about topics being studied in social studies, science, math, or nearly any other topic. Share the videos using Teachers.TV reviewed here. Include this link on your class web page for students to access outside of schools for reinforcement and further exploration of concepts.
GradesK to 12
Important note: As with many dictionaries, students will be able to find words that are not appropriate for the classroom. A quick check of the web browser's History will tell you what they have been looking up should you notice a bit too much "interest" in looking up words! Wordnik does add an exclamation point graphic next to inappropriate (swear) words.
If you register, you can add notes to each entry for future use, report typos, and enter information about words. You can also create personal wordlists and more.
As a "social" word tool, Wordnik, is a site for any technology user and could serve as a vocabulary hub for your individual students to become wordaholics by sharing, exploring, commenting, and more -- all about words!
In the ClassroomUse wordnik when students are stumped with definitions or uses of a word. Demonstrate how context clues can help readers understand meanings. Increase vocabulary by finding words that are giving students problems during a lesson and assigning those words to be examined by students. Use wordnik to find words of the day. Students can use wordnik to find examples of the word and create technology or conventional displays of information. Have students create online posters displaying their new vocabulary words. Encourage ESL/ELL students and those with weaker vocabulary to use Wordnik often, possibly creating personal word lists, recording pronunciations, or sharing words with each other (see safety concerns). Use an online poster creator, such as Adobe Spark, reviewed here. Another technology infused idea: create an online glossary book as a class (or in cooperative learning groups) using a tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.
Since the general public can share, make comments, etc, on this site, use this opportunity to discuss netiquette of commenting, and other appropriate behavior on "social" sites before allowing students to establish accounts. Spell out consequences and be sure you know the usernames and passwords your students use. Less mature students may be very tempted by the opportunities to play with "bad" words or record their voices.
Grades2 to 12
tag(s): authors (122)
In the ClassroomIf you are looking for favorite classic stories to use in your classroom, try this site. Project the text on your interactive whiteboard as examples for grammar exercises, such as highlighting adjectives or punctuating dialog. Practice "main idea" on your whiteboard using passages from a classic. Have students choose a book using this list. Instead of traditional book reports, have students create multimedia presentations. Have cooperative learning groups create podcasts using a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here). Another idea: have students create online posters using a tool such as Padlet (reviewed here).
Include this site on your website, wiki, blog, or newsletter that promotes summer reading. ESL and ELL students will appreciate having a ready source for extra reading.
Grades1 to 12
One disadvantage of the site is that you can only enter a keyword when you get to the third step. After a book list based on interests appears, then you can search by keyword to make the search zero in on specifics. When teachers or students select books for a reading list, they can then click to see the complete list of books they have selected. Clicking on a book title leads to another screen, but it does not contain a book summary; instead, it has a list of other keywords for the book along with other book data.
In the ClassroomThis site is great for teachers searching for books at specific lexile levels. Learning support and ESL/ELL teachers can find books to accompany units in content area classes but on the correct lexile level. Students can also use the site by entering their grade levels and what kind of readers they are. Use this site to differentiate the learning experience for all levels of students. Rather than having students complete traditional book reports, why not have them complete a multimedia project? Provide some choices such as a podcast, using PodoMatic (reviewed here), interactive venn diagram comparing characters (reviewed here), or online book using Bookemon (reviewed here).
Grades4 to 12
In the ClassroomWhy search for these sites, when the links can all be found in one place? Use this site in combination with TeachersFirst's rich reviews. Students can use these links as a springboard to research and projects. Be sure to save this site in your personal favorites! There is a lot to explore. List this site on your class website and/or wiki for students to access both in and out of the classroom.
GradesK to 6
In the ClassroomShare this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Assign your students some of these stories to read to use as models for their own creative writing. Try the online spelling bee and ask your students to compare that to the live version! Have students read their own creative stories on a podcast. Use a tool such as PodOmatic, reviewed here, or upload illustrations and read the story on ThingLink, reviewed here.
Grades4 to 12
In the ClassroomUse this site to show your students that anyone can become a poet when they balk at reading poetry. Share some of the poetry on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Read some of your required poems and then look at the "Tags" and ask your students to decide where poetry written by others should be placed. Go on to ask them if they can think of other Tags to add. Since many of the poems here have holiday themes, use this as a quick activity before a holiday or to encourage students to reflect on family holiday traditions. ESL/ELL students will not have to worry so much about their grammar when embarking on poetry writing! They'll love to be thought creative. If you are permitted to "publish" your students' poetry, why not go one step further and have them narrate a picture using the words from their poem at a site such as ThingLink reviewed here. Or have students share their poems using a podcasting site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here).
Grades4 to 10
To read/listen to the articles, you must put in an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
tag(s): news (259)
In the ClassroomHave students make a vocabulary list of new words they see/hear from the stories each week. Include a story from NFY every week to present a slightly different take on the television news or paper news headlines. Have your students create their own "headline" news and video the projects! Share the videos using a tool such as TeacherTube reviewed here.
Grades2 to 12
In the ClassroomIf you have students with limited vision or certain specific qualifying learning disabilities in your class, be sure to save this useful resource in your favorites. List this link on your class website or wiki or email it to parents of these children. If possible, share this site with those teachers working with students with limited vision and qualifying disabilities.
Grades2 to 12
tag(s): authors (122)
In the ClassroomIf you are looking for favorite classic stories to use in your classroom, try here. Make a list of those you would like for students to read online with the URLs here. Include this site on your flyer that goes home promoting summer reading. Or list the link on your class website or wiki. ESL/ELL students will appreciate having a ready source for extra reading. Rather than the "same old" book reports, have students create multimedia presentations! How about comparing two pivotal literature characters using on interactive Venn Diagram (reviewed here).
GradesK to 12
The teacher's link offers classroom activities (many interactive) that tie in with the lesson plans. There is also a link to receive FREE kits and handbooks! The "Parents" link offers activities and ideas for ages 2-17! There are online activities, recommended books, "talking points" for parents, and more. The "For Teens" link includes a wealth of resources: video clips, lessons, 10 steps to take action, downloadable posters, essays, and true stories. The Kid's link offers "read," "Explore," and "Play" options for elementary (and younger middle school) students. A "sign up" box appears when you first enter the site, click on the X to remove the box.
In the ClassroomOf course, the obvious uses for this site include preparing for Black History Month or Women's History Month, consult this site for more than that! Don't just visit the Teacher's link, but check out the kids and teens links for videos and interactive that you can share on your projector or interactive whiteboard. If you are unsure of how to approach a touchy subject with your students--either a subject from the news like the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rules, or something that is happening in your school or community, this site can provide resources for you and your students. Subscribe to Tolerance.org's emailed newsletter, or order one of the curriculum kits; the newest one is Viva la Causa about Cesar Chavez and the struggle for justice for farmworkers in the 1960s. This is a great addition to your school's anti-bully program! Take advantage of the free lesson plans, class activities, interactive, and book recommendations. This is definitely one to list on your class website!
This houses a WEALTH of resources! Thank you, Teaching TOLERANCE.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
Grades2 to 12
This site includes advertising.
In the ClassroomCreate a new group by finding an already listed school or adding your own. Create flashcards easily by entering the question, answer, explanations, and mnemonics in the appropriate tabs. Students can create a profile and join or create a group.
Consider creating a class account that has a global login and password that all students can access. Students would need to be cautioned against deleting or changing flashcards created by other students. Students would not be able to join groups using this option. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online.
Create flashcards for students to study or have students create them as an assignment. Create the original questions of the flashcards and assign students to determine the answers, find links for additional information, and add hints and mnemonics to complete the deck. Have groups of students use the flashcards for study time and for critique of the flashcard deck creator(s.) No matter the topic or subject, this flashcard site has great uses for student learning. Use flash cards for terminology, test review, or reinforcement. Have students create and critique sets as the actual assessment, replacing traditional tests and quizzes.
Includes Interaction w general public/ public galleries with unmoderated content
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
GradesK to 6
The "Teachers Section" includes a treasure of information (see the tabs on the LEFT side). Some of the information on other sections of the Teacher Page involves an online course. But there is enough FREE stuff on the left side to make this site phenomenal: podcasts, videos, and many lesson topics. Find lesson plans, videos, teaching tips, research, and more about Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating, Synthesizing, and Using Other Strategies. The Student portion offers interactive, technology-based activities for each of the comprehension concepts. Check out the student-created Visualizing activities, including drawing pictures and adding music using the online tools. This site requires both Flash and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the ClassroomShare the tools (podcasts, videos, and other interactives) on a projector or interactive whiteboard to introduce students to this site. Then have students try some of the interactives on individual computers or at a learning center! Take advantage of these ready to go lesson plans, printables, and teaching tips. What a fabulous site to integrate into your language arts classes! Have students use this site to create multimedia presentations. Have cooperative learning groups create podcasts demonstrating their understanding of one of the concepts. Use a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here).
Grades3 to 12
The FAQ section is extremely helpful, explaining how to use the site with different browsers and languages. It also instructs those who use the site how to zoom, change the "Skins" of the site, and how to convert text to html. Once a student or teacher clicks on a specific language, a separate keyboard appears on the screen that features any diacritical markings or other special language features. This page also contains links to relevant search engines, videos, maps, dictionaries, and other reference tools. Be aware: this site does include some advertisements. This site uses Java and Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
In the ClassroomAs you study English cognates and vocabulary, you can compare the same word in different languages or to make quick comparisons of multiple languages to see the "families" of world languages and etymology. Share this site with your international students and also with students studying foreign languages. They may already know about it as a tool for doing "translation" homework, but you can use it to demonstrate the power of idioms and why direct translation is not so simple! Another strength of this site is in being able to access web-based tools in another language.
Language students will be able to do a complete travel search in another language, for example, search, select, plan, and purchase a trip using another language before writing it up. You can also copy and paste the translations, by clicking "select." Why not have students create a multimedia presentation using this site? Make an online book using the new language (with translations on the next page, if necessary). Or create personal vocabulary books of words from a given language or comparisons of words from multiple languages. Use a tool such as Bookemon (reviewed here).
Grades2 to 12
In the ClassroomWhat a fabulous site for ESL, ELL, learning support, and students learning Spanish! Introduce this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Share this site with Spanish students who do well at working on learning independently. ESL and ELL students will also benefit from going through the lessons, individually or in pairs. Teachers can register independently from their students and keep track of learner progress and participation. As students learn new vocabulary words, challenge cooperative learning groups to create an online book sharing their newfound vocabulary. Use a tool such as Bookemon (reviewed here).
Grades2 to 12
In the ClassroomShare this site, on your interactive whiteboard or projector, with world language students, particularly independent learners at whom the site is aimed. Students getting ready to take school-sponsored trips to European countries, for example, could benefit from the quick introduction and easy access this site provides to simple language lessons. ESL and ELL students will enjoy using the English podcasts as supplements to their in-school English instruction. Why not challenge students to create their own language podcasts using a site such as Podomatic (reviewed here).
Grades2 to 10
tag(s): wikis (21)
In the ClassroomAs with any dictionary, this reference book contains all sorts of words including words of a sexual nature. So be sure to preview your search and give students warnings about appropriate use!
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This is very helpful for all students. However, especially for ESL and ELL students, who might need a quick picture to help define a type of tree, plant, or food not familiar to them. Why not have students create their own wiki about your current science or social studies topic (or any other subjects). Have cooperative learning groups use vocabulary words, provide the definitions, AND find some photos to share. Not sure what a wiki is? Check out the TeachersFirst's Wiki Walk-Through.
GradesK to 12
tag(s): flash cards (45)
In the ClassroomShare the online vocabulary words on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Students can work in pairs at a computer to enhance the flashcard learning. GED and placement test learners will find this feature most useful. Foreign language learners will find all their flash card needs are met with this site. Share this site on your class website for students to use to practice both in and out of the classroom. Use this tool with ESL/ELL students. Use this site for students to practice new science vocabulary words. Imagine the possibilities!
GradesK to 12
In the ClassroomSharing with friends for collaboration does require the sending of an email invitation.
Explore the guided tour to learn an overview or find answers to specific use questions. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be completely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." Create your own groups for each class or subject. Publish your cards for others to use. Published sets can be altered to create a new and personalized set.
Teachers in lower grades will want to create cards their students can use and perhaps have more techno-savvy help with the process. Content and English teachers may choose to set up their own network of users. Learning support teachers could suggest that their students create their own flashcard sets to assist learning of the concepts. Use the interactive whiteboard or projector for quick flashcard or electronic testing using your sets as a whole class or in small groups in the classroom. Collaborate with other teachers to create useful sets for all to use. Rotate responsibility each marking period among student groups in your class to create a set for each chapter/unit/week for the rest of the class to use as review. Give a special award (or bonus points) for the most creative, complete set that marking period.


What is Imaginative Education
We will begin with a piece written by Claudia Ruitenber, and edited by Mark Fettes, which gives an abbreviated look at one of the sets of ideas we have been working with. Claudia gives examples of the main ideas by reference to quotations from Winne the Pooh—you should be warned!
Imaginative Education: an Introductory Exposition
Imaginative Education is a way of teaching and learning that is based on engaging learners’ imaginations. Imagination is the ability to think of what might be possible, in a manner that is not tightly constrained by the actual or taken-for-granted. It is the “reaching out” feature of the mind, enabling us to go beyond what we have mastered so far. Without human imagination, no culture would look the way it does today, and no learner would be able to participate in and contribute to that culture.
Since there are already so many models for education, many of which are quite disappointing when put into practice, you may wonder what Imaginative Education offers that others do not. One of its strengths is that it corresponds more close to how people acquire lasting understandings of the world. Many ideas about education rely on notions of storage and retrieval (or “banking”), where the main challenge for the learner is lies in mentally storing as much correct information as possible, and then being able to retrieve that information when needed. Education is also sometimes thought of as an assembly-line process, in which the main challenge for the learner lies in the progressive accumulation of pieces of knowledge and skills.
Probably most of us are familiar with schools and teachers that function according to the banking or assembly-line models. Some children even succeed in performing well on tests of this kind of learning. However, many do not succeed, and even the successful test-takers find that much of that stored or assembled knowledge has a short shelf-life: it quickly fades from memory. It has also been widely recognized that knowledge of this kind is often difficult to apply to new situations and challenges. Imaginative education tries to address both of these problems, by generating understandings that are both flexible and lasting.
To accomplish this, the imaginative educator seeks to value and build upon the way the child understands her or his experiences, rather than always focusing on the “adult” way of understanding as the measure of learning. To do this, educators themselves must be imaginative and sensitive to dimensions of learning that they may have never thought of as relevant to education.
How can I picture this Imaginative Education?
Think of a child’s journey to adulthood (and, for most children, through school) as a slow climb through five different ecological zones. In each zone, children come to understand the world in different ways, each building on the kinds of understanding they have previously achieved. There are many possible names for these zones, and there could be less than or more than five, depending on what you believe is centrally important in education. The five we use here were described by Kieran Egan, a professor of education at Simon Fraser University, based on the different ways we learn to use language. He called the five zones Somatic, Mythic, Romantic, Philosophic and Ironic.
The process of climbing through these five zones is not a steady and inevitable one. Children do not “naturally” develop one kind of understanding at a particular age, and another kind at another age. All kinds of understanding are closely bound up with the cultural context, the place and time, in which the child develops them. One of the problems posed by “banking” or “assembly-line” education is that it does not cultivate any of these kinds of understanding particularly well. It is as if the children, instead of hiking upwards at their own speed with helpful and unhurried guides, are crammed into a bus and whisked up the road with checklists clenched in their hands and noses pressed to the window, trying to make sense of the landscape as it whips by.
It is also important to realize that these kinds of understanding are not completely distinct from one another, just as one ecological zone blends into the next with no clear dividing line. Nor are later kinds of understanding necessarily “better” than earlier kinds. Each kind of understanding brings new capacities with it, but these work best if they can be combined with earlier capacities rather than replacing them. In Imaginative Education, the challenge is not only mastery of new tools for understanding the world, but also not losing mastery of old tools! Even if, at different ages and for different tasks, certain kinds of understanding are used more than others, we rarely use only one tool to construct meaning (like we rarely construct an object with only one tool).
In the story of a child’s journey that we develop here, it is the acquisition of different kinds of linguistic tool that propels the child from one zone to another. All children begin in the Somatic zone, and progress to the Mythic zone with entry into oral language. After that, however, the story differs greatly for different children. In modern, western cultures, many children are tugged rather abruptly into the Romantic zone with exposure to the products of mass literacy, including other media such as television which are heavily influenced by the written word. In school these same children are exposed early on to the products of Philosophic thinking, which permeates the textbooks and curriculum. At this point in their lives, children have not had the time or experience necessary for a deep imaginative understanding of these forms of language; some, including children from very different cultural backgrounds, may find them so meaningless that they develop a profound detachment (typically by the age of nine or ten) from the whole process of formal education.
Imaginative education presents an alternative vision of what education could and should be. It suggests that almost any topic can be made meaningful for children at almost any age and stage of development, but that this requires a deep rethinking of teaching and learning. In order for teachers to be able to use the model, they have to develop the ability to construct and reconstruct meaning along with their students. Teachers who have taught in this way have observed that the model changes the whole learning environment. It changes what they teach, and how they teach it, but it also changes how they think about the very process of education.
Instead of conceiving of Imaginative Education as a simple linear journey, or as a jigsaw puzzle, where we can focus on one piece at a time, it is perhaps better to try to picture Imaginative Education as hologram. If a hologram is broken into pieces, each piece contains an image of the whole.
In the following explanation of the five zones of understanding, A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh story “An Expotition to the North Pole” will be used as a focal text. This whimsical tale of a rather baffling journey to an uncertain destination parallels, in some ways, the child’s journey through life and school. At the same time it has many layers that can be accessed in different ways to develop different kinds of understanding.
- Somatic Understanding
- Mythic Understanding
- Romantic Understanding
- Philosophic Understanding
- Ironic Understanding
The Piglet was sitting on the ground at the door of his house blowing happily at a dandelion…
Somatic understanding is corporeal, physical, bodily understanding. The child’s own body, the way that body moves around in space, and the way it relates to the objects and persons it encounters in the space, are the primary tool, the first way of making sense of experience. Sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell provide the child with information about her or his own body, and about her or his immediate environment. But also beyond these direct sensory perceptions, the pre-language-using child, through her or his body, experiences balance, movement, tension, pain, pleasure, speed, distance, and so on.
Imaginative education recognizes the importance of this kind of understanding to children’s development; it also highlights the effort required to retain and enrich it as the child gets older. As other kinds of understanding are developed, it can be quite challenging to maintain mastery of the body and its senses. When we observe that someone doesn’t know “how to listen to his body,” or that someone “has become disconnected from her body,” we are referring to the loss of a Somatic understanding of the world. The result can be to cut off the individual from realms of experience that are necessary for the imagination to function well, as poets and other artists know.
Many parents and teachers have observed with surprise that young children listen attentively to stories that are much too difficult for them to understand, and even to stories in languages foreign to them. Even if the child is unable to “make sense” of the story, because the language used is abstract and complex, and/or because the story structure is very complicated, and/or because the themes are entirely unfamiliar, that child may seem to enjoy the story. So what is the child enjoying about the story, and how is the child processing the experience?
The child is relating to the changes in volume and pitch of the voice, to the sounds of the words, to the rhythm of the sounds. The child is relating to the facial expressions and gestures of the storyteller. When the child is curled up against the storyteller, s/he also related to the rhythm of breathing, the heartbeat, warmth and smell of the storyteller. From these examples, it is clear that the child’s body is the main tool that allows the child to enjoy the experience.
When reading (and perhaps singing) aloud “An Exposition to the North Pole,” the body is the tool used to relate to the rhythm and energy (and perhaps melody) of the song Winnie-the-Pooh sings to himself when he is on his way to Christopher Robin.
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
I don’t much mind if it rains or snows,
‘Cos I’ve got a lot of honey on my nice new nose!
I don’t much care if it snows or thaws,
‘Cos I’ve got a lot of honey on my nice clean paws!
Sing Ho! for a Bear!
Sing Ho! for a Pooh!
And I’ll have a little something in a hour or two!
Through a bodily way of relating to the song, the child can develop a Somatic understanding of the song, of its cheerfulness and carefree tone, without having a language understanding of “cheerful” and “carefree.” This embodied understanding of those emotions, of the nature of song, will stay with the child and undergird the later interpretation and use of language.
They’ve no imagination. A tail isn’t a tail to them, it’s just a Little Bit Extra at the back.
It is in the transition to oral language that human understanding becomes quite distinct from that of other species. Learning to make sense of the world not through direct experience, but through conventionalized sounds that evoke and blend certain aspects of experience in novel ways, is an extraordinary leap – one propelled by imagination. The term “mythic”, from the Greek mythos, story, is chosen to highlight one crucial feature of oral language: the story constitutes its central structure for communication. The story form not only organizes content, but also directs our feelings about that content: that is why it is memorable. At a still more detailed level, one can identify a number of basic features that help stories accomplish this, even though all are not necessarily present in a single story. As children climb upward through the Mythic zone, they can be aided to achieve a deeper mastery of these tools that will stand them in good stead later on.
Binary structuring helps us organize our experience through the tension between two opposites. In many fairy tales, for instance, the battle between good and bad characters is the central organizing principle that gives meaning to the story. As Mythic understanding progresses, simple binary opposites come to be mediated by many intermediate qualities: between hot and cold can be located warm, and then lukewarm, tepid, cool, and so on. It is the sharp, effectively engaging contrast between extremes, however, that makes this feature of storytelling so effective. Of course binary opposites, such as good/bad, active/passive, and male/female are rather primitive organizing principles, and it is important that we learn to see the many shades of grey that lie between black and white. Binary opposites are a way into sense-making, but in the process of constructing meaning, the opposites need to be mediated.
Story not only organizes and energizes the world of experience; it also provides a means for exploring beyond the latter’s limits. To reflect on the contrast between life and death, we invent ghosts. To reflect on the contrast between nature and culture, we invent talking plants and animals. To reflect on the contrast between humans and animals, we invent mermaids and Sasquatches. These imaginative constructs enable us to probe and extend our understanding of the world, finding unlooked-for connections and discrepancies, personifying abstractions.
Closely allied to fantasy is the imaginative capacity of metaphor, which arguably is central to language. In the process of learning to talk, children are unconsciously acquiring an enormous store of everyday metaphoric projections. This could be considered an “as if” tool: when we say, for instance, that the weather “smiled” at us, we speak of the weather as if it were a person. Children of five and six often have a capacity for inventing metaphors that exceeds anything adults have to offer.
Rhyme and Rhythm
The nature of oral language gives it qualities over and above its use as an imaginative tool. Rhyme and rhythm are features that build upon our Somatic understanding, using it to create ways of helping us remember stories. The poems and chants that form an important part of children’s literature owe much of their power to the physical and aesthetic pleasure gained from reciting them.
In the story “An Exposition to the North Pole,” Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh and their friends go on an adventure in search of the North Pole. In a Mythic Understanding of the story, it is primarily an exciting fantasy story, built upon the binary opposites of safety and danger. Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh and their friends leave the safety and familiarity of home to go somewhere uncertain and unknown. During their journey, Pooh and Owl have a talk about Ambushes and Roo encounters Danger when he falls in a stream. It is important that the central binary opposites of safety and danger are mediated. Excitement and adventure are experienced when danger and safety are mediated: too much safety leads to dullness, too much danger to paralyzing fear – but a bit of danger, handled wisely, can be quite exciting.
‘Pooh’s found the North Pole,’ said Christopher Robin. ‘Isn’t that lovely?’
Romantic Understanding help us organize our experience through an exploration of the extremes of experience and the limits of reality. The word “romantic” is derived from the French romance, which originally referred to a species of fictitious writing, first in meter in the Romance dialects, and afterward in prose, such as the tales of the court of Arthur. The word “romance” came to denote any fictitious and wonderful tale, especially about the adventures of a hero or heroine. This way of making sense of the world derives from the way that written language has been used in Western culture. It is this personifying or humanizing tendency, in which the reality principle is becoming more important, that most clearly marks the Romantic from the Mythic zone. Allied to it is children’s growing realization of the complexity and strangeness of the world, and their own marginality within it. This sensibility has become so pervasive in modern society that not only works of fiction but newspapers, magazines, films and television shows are largely oriented toward Romantic understanding.
Central to mastery of the tools of Romantic Understanding is a sense of the self as an autonomous unit, that interacts with, but is separate from the world. Once we understand that we are not integral participants in all stories and processes, the way we previously thought in our somatic and mythic understandings, we may end up feeling disconnected. Making sure that we don’t lose our ability to make sense of the world in somatic and mythic ways, is what can keep this alienation in check.
Exploration of Limits and Extremes
Limits and extremes provide a basic organizing principle for Romantic understanding. An exploration of limits and extremes gives a sense of the boundaries within which we need to make sense of experience: not only the limits of reality “out there,” but also the limits of the human endeavors possible in that reality. A child in the Romantic zone will pore over the Guinness Book of Records, compose stories of dinosaurs and space travel, spend hours on their trading card or postage stamp collection – all in aid of measuring the familiar against the possible.
Identification with Heroes and Heroines
Heroes and heroines show that human beings not only live within constraints, but also that, at times, they manage to overcome these constraints. Identification with human beings who have been exemplary, in courage or compassion, strength or love, ingenuity or humility, is an important component of Romantic understanding.
In “An Exposition to the North Pole,” the “exposition” of course isn’t a real expedition, and the North Pole isn’t the real North Pole; but we understand and empathize with Christopher Robin as he sets out to reenact Peary’s trek in his imagination. Who would not want to be an explorer, a Discoverer of Things? As in others of the Pooh stories, we are presented with personality types, from Eeyore the Extremely Gloomy to Piglet the Very Timid, that help to map out the complicated terrain of human temperament. Pooh, as the unassuming hero who saves Roo from drowning, offers a role model that suggests one need not be the Best at anything in order to succeed.
Owl was explaining that in a case of Sudden and Temporary Immersion the Important Thing was to keep the Head Above Water.
Written language, of course, can be used for many purposes; and it is its use for developing a systematic understanding of the world that propels the child into the zone of Philosophic understanding. The word “philosophic” is derived from the Greek philosophia, love of wisdom (philos = dear, loved; sophia = wisdom, learning). The Philosophic mind focuses on the connections among things, seeing laws, theories, and larger purpose as tying together the previously disconnected phenomena and experiences. One of the most important connections is that between the individual and the world. The Romantic understanding of the self as separate from but involved in the world now receives a Philosophic explanation.
Generalization is central to Philosophic understanding: the search for new organizing principles to make sense of the multitude of experiences in the adolescent’s expanding horizons. What needs nurturing at this stage is a willingness to compare generalization with concrete particulars. If Romantic understanding risks trivialization, Philosophic understanding risks falling into dogmatic assertion of Truth. This risk may be especially high if the prior forms of understanding, Somatic, Mythic, and Romantic, are set aside in the pursuit of abstract knowledge.
In “An Exposition to the North Pole,” the contributions of the various members of the party raise interesting questions about motivation, effectiveness, and ethics. Consider, for example, the following exchange between Christopher Robin and Rabbit:
As soon as he had finished his lunch Christopher Robin whispered to Rabbit, and Rabbit said, ‘Yes, yes, of course,’ and they walked a little way up the stream together.
‘I don’t want the others to hear,’ said Christopher Robin.
‘Quite so,’ said Rabbit, looking important.
‘It’s – I wondered – It’s only – Rabbit, I supposed you don’t know. What does the North Pole look like?’
‘Well,’ said Rabbit, stroking his whiskers. ‘Now you’re asking me.’
‘I did know once, only I’ve sort of forgotten,’ said Christopher Robin carelessly.
‘It’s a funny thing,’ said Rabbit, ‘but I’ve sort of forgotten too, although I did know once.’
Rabbit, of course, is the overbearing know-it-all who can’t bring himself to admit any weakness at all; but what should we make of Christopher Robin, leading his friends off on a wild-goose-chase? Is it not incumbent upon a leader to know exactly where they are going? Has he taken Rabbit aside to save face or to save the Expotition?
‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ‘I know.’ But he didn’t really.
The great appeal of Philosophic understanding is that it will finally and completely explain the world through which the students have made their way for fifteen or twenty years. If this kind of understanding is well developed (as it presently is for relatively few people), one will eventually run up against the limits of systematic, theoretic thinking, and the illusion that language can ever capture everything that is important about the world. From this realization grows Ironic understanding. The word “ironic” is derived from the Greek eironeia, which means feigned ignorance (from eiron, dissembler). Socrates, the most famous classical ironist, professed ignorance, but was accused of feigning this ignorance and using it as a rhetorical device in his method of questioning. Today, irony more generally refers to the use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
Ironic understanding has a certain transparency or reflective quality to it. When we use it together with other kinds of understanding, we not only make sense of our experience, but we are also aware that that meaning has been constructed by us, and does not exist “out there” in some objective world. An Ironic understanding of the world tells us that the way we have made sense of our world is dependent upon our historical and cultural perspective. Although this can lead to disappointment or cynicism, a more positive alternative is a kind of lightheartedness, a sense of humour about it all. People with a developed Ironic understanding are able not only to take sides on a particular question, but to understand their motives for taking sides, to understand the reasons why others might disagree with them, and perhaps to share their ironic sense of the situation. The generalizing tendency of the Philosophic mind is turned back on itself, to locate every generalization and every abstraction in the human context from which it sprang.
The story “An Exposition to the North Pole” is full of irony and clever word plays. Consider the following brief encounter between Winnie-the-Pooh and Rabbit.
The first person he met was Rabbit.
‘Hallo, Rabbit,’ he said, ‘is that you?’
‘Let’s pretend it isn’t,’ said Rabbit, ‘and see what happens.’
‘I’ve got a message for you.’
‘I’ll give it to him.’
Rabbit’s answer is paradoxical, and humorous because of it. While he answers when Pooh addresses him as “Rabbit,” he also puts forward the possibility that he is not Rabbit. Of course in a scientific, literal understanding of the world, it is not possible to be and not be someone at the same time. In an Ironic Understanding of experience, however, the mind is able to read, write and speak, while at the same time calling the underlying assumptions of that reading, writing and speech into question. This kind of self-reference recurs throughout the Pooh stories and helps to give them their quirky, memorable charm.


If you’d like to read about the implementation of the video game Gone Home in a high school English class, start here. Want to know how to turn your class into an alternate reality game, start here for an overview, or keep reading for the resource toolkit.
Welcome to the Toolkit
In the last post we introduced you to ARGs and reviewed some examples of how teachers are using them. Now you’re ready to turn your class into an immersive game, and everything you need is right here. With the help of these resources, you can develop your own gameful class, cook up a transmedia project, design a pervasive game or create your very own ARG. Games aside, these links are useful for all types of creative learning projects. In most cases, what is on offer is free and/or web based, so only your imagination will be taxed.
Please write or comment with suggestions for additional resources or to report dead links, as this will be a living document which will hopefully grow and support any educator who wants to transform a class, a unit or the entire school year into an engaging, immersive and memorable experience.
Before you journey too deeply into the ARG universe, you may want to learn some of the lingo. There aren’t too many ARG specific terms, but a quick look at glossaries offered by Unfiction and Wikipedia will bring you up to par. Ready to test your newfound knowledge? Try a round of ARG Buzzword Bingo to reinforce your new vocabulary.
Initial Design and Structure
Anastasia Salter sketches a concise 5-step overview that will ground you in the basics, while Jane McGonigal outlines a basic 10-step process to designing an ARG in a slideshow format. Christy Dena, an experienced pervasive game designer, highlights some examples of flowcharts and mind maps used in the preliminary design process. You might also want to read Rui Corado’s blog post, where he details the back end of an ARG where you play a forensic investigator.
A Few Words on Story & Narrative
Story is the broth that hold an ARG or pervasive game together. It creates conflict, context, opportunities for emotional connections and can lead to a satisfying resolution. Players often persist as they are curious to know how the narrative unfolds. Don’t worry – stories don’t have to be complex. A history class can send students back in time to find a lost document, or a chemistry class scrambles to devise a formula to save the world from a pandemic. Some teachers use medieval settings, but it’s also interesting to create a plausible story that fuses the reality of your setting with the game story. For example, a teacher is an alien impostor and players have to identify it before it kidnaps a victim for nefarious purposes. Stories can be lifted from existing sources, such as books, TV shows, games or films, or you can make up your own. Once you establish the basic premise, the story can grow and change while the game progresses.
The Rabbit Hole
The rabbit hole is the hook that draws your student-players into the magic circle of the game, the gateway that ushers them from the mundane reality of daily classroom life to the unpredictable possibilities of the game. John Fallon offers excellent guidelines and examples for creating a rabbit hole. A good example is from the Nine Inch Nail’s Year Zero ARG, where the highlighted letters on a concert T-shirt spelled out the phrase “I am trying to believe”, which led players to a website that launched the game. The Beast started with an unusual “sentient machine therapist” credit on the poster for Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence which also led to a phony website. In most cases, the rabbit hole is usually hidden in plain site, but in an educational context it should be easier to discover, as a teachers are works with more constraints than their commercial counterparts.
Gamified Classroom Management Platforms
These three platforms aren’t free, but they can help manage many aspect of your game, including score tracking, levels, badges, character classes, quests, etc. They are essentially learning management systems that operate with game-like elements. Each is worth considering if you want to run your class as a game.
- 3DGameLab – From their site: “GameLab is a gamified content creation and student tracking platform where teachers can design and share quests and badges to create personalized learning for their students. Students “level up” through the curriculum, choose quests they want to play, and earn experience points, badges, and awards.”
- Classcraft: From their site: “Classcraft’s mission is to transform the learning experience by using game mechanics to engage students and provide teachers with well-designed tools to do so.”
- Gradecraft: From their site: “GradeCraft is a learning management system dedicated to supporting the gameful classroom. We are actively researching and developing tools to encourage student engagement, and aid instructor workflow.”
The following tools can help you keep track of points, leaderboards or a monetary system. First, I have used our existing learning management system to track points and in-game currency – see what yours can do. You can also use and modify spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Here are a few other options:
- XP Calculator and Leaderboard: Ignite Education offers a number of free classroom gamification tools and resources, including tutorials on how to create free XP and player tracking sheets. Check out the site and this video to get started.
- ScorekeeperXL: A basic and straightforward score keeping app.
- MyCred: From their site: “An adaptive points management system for WordPress powered websites, giving you full control on how points are gained, used, traded, managed, logged or presented.”
General ARG Community Sites
ARGology, Unfiction and ARGnet are the largest online ARG community sites. They’re filled with resources, news, events, forums, conference announcements and other helpful links. They’re not deliberately geared for education, but educators can glean a great deal from these sites and get a sense as to what ARGs are all about.
- ARGology – From their site: “a group effort by a bunch of great people from the IGDA ARG SIG. It is a site which hopes to aggregate much needed information about alternate reality games for developers, journalists, researchers and players.”
- Unfiction – From their site: “Unfiction.com is a comprehensive resource for those interested in Alternate Reality Gaming, both from the players’ perspective and from that of the puppet masters. It is also intended as a gateway to be used in introducing neophytes to this unique genre of gaming.”
- ARGnet – From their site: “The Alternate Reality Gaming Network is the largest and most complete news resource available for players of online collaborative Alternate Reality Games. For many years, this site was the central hub for an affiliate network of sites that were independently owned and operated by volunteers for the enjoyment of themselves and the ARG community.”
Puzzles, Codes, Encryptions and Ciphers
Puzzles and encryptions are useful for gating information, setting up breadcrumb trails, and encouraging critical thinking. As you design your game, you’ll find endless uses for them. If you only read one thing about designing puzzles for ARGs, it should be Adam Foster’s post “Alternate Reality Game puzzle design”. It does an excellent job of succinctly explaining some crucial best practices. The links that follow these resources will help your puzzle crafting,
- ARG Tools and Puzzle Sidekick: A free and useful iOS apps to both solve and create puzzles.
- Online Tools: Provides resource ranging from morse code to worldwide payphone locations.
- Useful Tools (Endgame ARG Wiki): A vast and well organized list of tools that help both solve and create puzzles.
- Cryptstagram: A unique tool that allows you to hide messages in images.
- Geocaching Toolbox: A well organized and updated warehouse of tools originally designed for geocaching, but entirely transferable to ARGs and pervasive games.
Image Manipulation, False Documents and Phony Artifacts
Creating credible items, documents, images and artifacts help blur the lines between reality and fiction and contribute to a game’s sense of immersion. These resources are all easy to use tools that allow you and your students to create realistic looking items. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, a good tip is to try a Google search using the name of the item followed by “generator” or “creator” i.e. “fortune cookie generator”.
- Creative Commons: The best site to find all types of royalty free images and media.
- Photo editing software like Photoshop or Gimp are ideal to modify and create images.
- Phony web pages can be built on Wix, Weebly, Google Sites or Word Press.
- Say-It.Com: A plethora of generators to create everything from dog tags to highway signs.
- Page Plug-Ins: Generate a variety of notes, including fortune cookie messages.
- Simitator: Creates social media post facsimiles for Facebook, Twitter and more.
- FakeConvos: Phony Facebook wall conversation generators.
- RPG Sheets: Can create dozens of different types of RPG character sheets.
- Top Alternate: Links to create false documents ranging from gift certificates to university diplomas.
- Meme Generator: As the name implies, this site allows you to create your own memes.
- Legal Fakes: Create false legal documents.
- Funny Fake IDs: Choose from a variety of phony IDs.
- Badge Maker: Another site to create phony IDs
- Photofunia: Lets you combine your pictures and images with all types of templates and backgrounds from movie posters to tattoos.
- PhotoFaceFun: Similar to Photofunia, but with additional options.
- Logo Maker: A free and fairly sophisticated logo design tool.
- Flaming Text: A free logo generator.
- Mozilla WebMaker – The X-Ray Goggles tool lets you quickly edit a website with your own content – great for taking screenshots of phony articles or websites.
- Apple Pages – an intuitive document maker that can be used to make anything from articles to flyers to invitations.
If you’re really ambitious, and have a budget, use Lulu.com to print real books and calendars, while CafePress allows you to create your own custom merchandise. You can also hire somebody at Fiverr to do just about any small design work for you for – you guessed it – 5$.
Shoot and Edit
Videos are an ideal way to transmit information and add depth to the game world, whether they’re used to transmit messages from in-game characters, author video clues or simply deliver mysterious surveillance footage. Depending on comfort and technology available, video can be made using phones, video cameras, GoPros or embedded laptop cameras. Films can be edited on Apple’s iMovie or Final Cut Pro, Microsoft Movie Maker, or any of these 10 online editing tools. Also, if you want stock footage, check out this site that lists 19 free stock footage sites or the Creative Common licensed videos on Vimeo.
There are a wide variety of clips, effects and animations that creative artists upload onto Youtube for general use. If you find a video, try MacX Youtube Downloader to download it onto your Mac and Keepvid will work with either platform. You can then drop it into iMovie (or another editing program) as you need. If you’re on a PC check out these options.
Creative use of audio can enhance videos, relay messages or help create realistic voice mail messages, podcasts or radio broadcasts, to name a few. Audacity is the go-to free application for recording and editing audio. There are a plethora of Youtube tutorials that walk you through the process of applying various effects and modifications. Here are a few you may find useful that make your voice sound:
You get the idea – if there’s a voice effect from TV/movie/video game, chances are someone has broken down how to mimic the effect in Audacity. The simple act of hiding, masking or mutating your voice is a significant but simple element for maintaining an immersive narrative.
You can also have a look at the previously mentioned Fiverr. It’s not limited to sound effects, but teachers have produced videos with professional level voice acting hired through this site.
There are also quite a few free sound effects available in the Freesound library and Sound Bible. You can find many more at 10 Best Websites to Find Free Sound Effects. For royalty free music, try Jamendo, CCmixter, Incompetech and Soundcloud. Also, Apple’s iMovie recently added a fairly deep library of generic sound effects.
Location-Based Tools and Platforms
ARGs and pervasive games can break down the classroom walls and make learning an anywhere and anytime experience. The following resources will let you extend gameplay outside your classroom and turn the real world into your game world.
- QR Codes will probably go the way of the fax machine, but for the time being they are an inexpensive (free!) way to facilitate planting digital information in physical spaces. You can use them to create treasure hunts or as portals to websites, videos, images, etc. Try this QR code generator to make them, and this is a good scanner for iOS, and this one works for Android.
- Augmented Reality (AR) tools and apps can help you layer digital information on the real world. Expect a dramatic increase in AR use in the next few years, but in the meantime there are some consumer level products that can help include AR in your game. Aurasma, Blippar, and Mybrana are all free and easy to use.
- ARIS From their site: “ARIS is a user-friendly, open-source platform for creating and playing mobile games,tours and interactive stories. Using GPS and QR Codes, ARIS players experience a hybrid world of virtual interactive characters, items, and media placed in physical space.”
- Taleblazer – From their site: “TaleBlazer is our latest augmented reality (AR) software platform. Developed by the MIT Scheller Teacher Education Program (STEP) lab, TaleBlazer allows users to play and make their own location-based mobile games.”
- Bluetooth Beacons are a more expensive and elaborate than QR codes. They transmit signals that can be detected by mobile devices. A variety of information can then be transmitted to the smart device. They could signal the presence of hidden material, or transmit data and media. You can also read this article that provides a good overview on beacons. Estimote and iBeacon seem to be the two most popular products on the market.
- Geofencing uses GPS systems to create virtual perimeters. I’ve never used this technology, but it’s integrated in a number of apps, and you can research to see which one might suit your needs.
- BreakoutEDU: Escape rooms are popping up everywhere. BreakoutEDU has created a package where you can purchase an escape room kit to use in your classroom or integrate in your game.
- LyteShot: Allows players to essentially play a video game in real life. The combine hardware and peripherals ranging from guns to wands with tracking software and augmented reality interfaces.
Incorporating social media is an effective way to expand a game’s reach, but proceed with caution. Familiarize yourself with your institution’s social media policies, make sure it’s age appropriate and get to know the platform well enough that you can suitably manage it’s privacy settings.
Facebook has an option to create fictional characters pages, and you can start fictional characters and institutional accounts on Twitter. You can also create faux accounts on other social media sites – check their policies. Depending on the social media platform, you can post missions, videos, images, updates and clues publicly and privately that players can access anywhere and anytime.
Passwords Protect Documents
Password protecting documents, folders and images are an ideal way to gate information and add additional challenges to treasure hunts, document troves or clues. The following links all instruct you on how to password protect basic documents and folders. If you have any other type of file you’d like to hide behind a password, try searching it on Google. Here’s how to password protect a:
Anonymous Information Storage
Storing and uploading anonymous media and documents can come in useful if you don’t want students to know that you are behind a master scheme. Try these sites to quickly and easily upload anonymous content.
- Infotomb: From their site: InfoTomb is a secure, anonymous, data repository. You can put your text files, documents, pictures, audio, etc. ‒ whatever kind of files you want ‒ on the InfoTomb servers, and we’ll keep them there for you.
- Postimage: a quick, easy and anonymous way to upload images for sharing.
- Mega: offers a secure, encrypted and anonymous file storage option. They also have a suite of secure communication services.
- Try Vidme or Sendvid to upload videos anonymously.
It’s amazing how motivated players and students become when there’s a timer ticking. Use these for treasure hunts, doomsday timers, task completions or anything else that would benefit from a good old fashion race against the clock.
- Time and Date: A suite of free and flexible options for all matters related to time and date, including calendars, countdown timers, lunar calendars, etc.
- It’s Almost: An elegant and simple countdown timer with a transferable link.
- Online Stopwatch: A wealth of free clocks and timers.
Looking to reward and recognize your players with rewards and achievements. Have a look at these sites to make your own custom badges and achievements. Some learning management systems, like Haiku, have built-in badging systems.
- BadgeOS: From their site: “BadgeOS is a powerful free plugin to WordPress that lets you easily create achievements and issue sharable badges as your users succeed.”
- Official Badge Generator: One of my favorite badge creation site. Good starting templates with a great deal of built in flexibility.
- 3D Badge Maker: More granular than Official Badge Generator, but also more work.
- ImageFu: Easily create basic badges with a variety of detail adjustment tools.
- Achievement Generator: A tool that easily creates XBox and Steam style achievements to reward your players.
- XBox Achievement Generator: A more flexible XBox achievement generator.
Combined, the three books listed below will provide a solid foundation on most aspects of ARGs and gamifying your classrooms.
- Reality is Broken – Jane McGonigal
- This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming – David Szulborski
- The Multiplayer Classroom – Lee Sheldon
Nothing is what it seems in the tales that follows. In every case, unwitting participants have been drawn into a reality fabricated by overseeing puppet masters.
- The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown – G.K. Chesterton
- A Game of Viet – Joanna Russ (short story)
- Triton – Samuel R. Delany
- Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
- Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
- The Magus – John Fowles
- The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon
- Escape from Mr Lemoncello’s Library – Chris Grabenstein
- This is Not a Game – Walter Jon Williams
- The Wave – Todd Strasser
David Fincher’s The Game is a feature film about a wealthy banker (Michael Douglas) who is inducted into a game that is indistinguishable from reality. Moving from fictional feature to a real world documentary, Spencer McCall’s The Institute chronicles an elaborate ARG called “The Jejune Institute” played in San Francisco.
ARGNetcast – From their website: “The ARG Netcast is a monthly show covering all things Alternate Reality Gaming, cross-media storytelling and whatever else strikes our fancy. Each episode, we discuss recent events, current projects and interview special guests.”
Hunt the Truth – From their site: “An investigation into the origins of modern-day superhero Master Chief, this digital log serves as part docu-diary, part audio archive. Join me each week for a new episode as we question everything and assume nothing.”
Active Alternate Reality Games
If you want to find an active game, check out ARGNet’s “Now Playing” list of games currently being played. The ones listed below are some of the bigger ongoing ARGs you can join.
- Ingress: From wikipedia: “The gameplay consists of capturing “portals” at places of cultural significance, such as public art, landmarks, monuments, etc., and linking them to create virtual triangular “control fields” over geographical areas.”
- The Secret World; From their site: Imagine if every myth, conspiracy theory and urban legend was true. Imagine a world where you can become anything you want to be, without restrictions such as classes or levels. This is the premise for The Secret World, Funcom’s massively multiplayer online game set in the modern-day real world.
- The Black Watchmen: From Steam: “In the first ever Permanent Alternate Reality Game, you join the ranks of The Black Watchmen, a paramilitary group dedicated to protecting the public from dangerous phenomena beyond human understanding: ritualistic murder, occult secret societies, and the paranormal, to name but a few.”
- Cloud Chamber: From their site: “Players collaborate with each other to explore, investigate and discuss the fragments of information they collect on their journey through the dataworld, writing the story themselves of a young scientist, Kathleen, who risks her sanity and betrays her father and everything she has believed to be true. Her decision will not only determine the Petersen Institute’s future, it will impact all of humanity itself.”
Special props to John Fallon for his valuable contributions to this post. Be sure to check out his awesome blog!
“The Ultimate Alternate Reality Gamified Transmedia Classroom Toolkit” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.


The age of the universe is a point of dispute between the Bible and the opinion of the majority of astronomers today. The Bible implicitly teaches us about the age of the universe. In other words, it gives us sufficient information so that we can compute approximately how long ago God created the universe. The Bible teaches that the entire universe was created in six earth-rotation days (Exodus 20:11 ). Furthermore, the Bible provides the age differences between parents and descendants1 when listing certain genealogies. From these kinds of biblical references, we know that the elapsed time between Adam and the birth of Christ was roughly 4,000 years. From other historical records, we know that Christ was born roughly 2,000 years ago. Since Adam was created on the sixth day of the creation week, we can conclude that the earth, the entire universe, and everything in it were created approximately 6,000 years ago.
Many people today would scoff at this claim. After all, most geology textbooks, astronomy textbooks, and the majority of schools and universities teach that the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and that the universe is even older, but what is the basis for the secular belief in billions of years? Why is it that so many scientists choose to ignore the recorded history of the Bible, and instead believe in a vastly inflated age of the universe?
One answer is circular reasoning: many scientists believe the world is old because they believe most other scientists think the world is old. Although a given scientist may be well aware of evidence that is not consistent with long ages, it is very tempting to dismiss such evidence because, “How could all those other scientists really be wrong?” How many of those other scientists believe in long ages simply because they also think that other scientists do? A majority opinion can become self-sustaining through circular reasoning; people believe because other people believe. It is surprising that many people do not realize the inconsistency here.
Many times, the circular reasoning can be cross-disciplinary. A geologist may feel assured that the earth is billions of years old since most astronomers believe that the solar system is billions of years old. However, an astronomer may feel confident that the solar system is billions of years old since the majority of geologists accept this for the age of the earth. Of course, the majority opinion can be wrong. In fact, many scientific discoveries have gone against the majority. Nonetheless, the psychological pressure to agree with the majority is a very powerful and well-documented phenomenon.2
The evolution connection
It is noteworthy that most (though not all) of the scientists who believe in billions of years also believe in particles-to-people evolution. Evolution requires vast ages. It couldn’t possibly have happened on a mere 6,000-year time scale, because such profound changes would then have to be happening so rapidly that we would not only see massive transformations all around us, we would have historical records of many examples. Yet, we have never seen life evolve from non-life, nor have we ever seen a living organism evolve into another kind with greater specified complexity. These “uphill” changes just aren’t observed; indeed, they seem to be impossible.
The imaginary vast ages are invoked to make these seemingly miraculous leaps feasible. As George Wald has stated, “Time is in fact the hero of the plot. . . . Given so much time, the ‘impossible’ becomes possible, the possible probable, and the probable virtually certain. One has only to wait; time itself performs the miracles.”3 The insurmountable obstacles to evolution are simply swept under the rug of vast ages.
The addition of the billions of years does not actually solve the problems with molecules-to-man evolution. These problems have been addressed in detail on our website at answersingenesis.org and in the materials available there, and so there is no need to elaborate in this astronomy book. The point here is simply that evolution requires vast ages. Hence, this is an example of how worldviews can affect a person’s interpretation of evidence. Evolutionists must believe in vast ages. Their worldview bias does not allow them to consider the possibility that the universe could be only thousands of years old, regardless of what recorded history teaches, and regardless of any scientific evidence. People who reject molecules-to-man evolution would do well to remember this before jumping on board with the vast ages.
The big-bang connection
I have found that most people who believe in billions of years also believe in the “big-bang theory.” The big bang is a secular speculation about the origin of the universe; it is an alternative to the Bible. The big bang attempts to explain the origin of the universe without God. It can be considered the cosmic equivalent of particles-to-people evolution. Sadly, a lot of Christians have bought into the idea of the big bang, without realizing that it is based on the anti-biblical philosophy of naturalism (there is no God, nature is all there is or ever was). Furthermore, they are generally not aware that the big bang contradicts the Bible on a number of points and has many scientific problems as well.
According to the big bang idea, the universe is nearly 14 billion years old; whereas the Bible indicates that the universe is about 6,000 years old. For those who claim to believe the Bible, this difference alone should be sufficient reason to reject the big bang. It is wrong about the age of the universe by a factor of over two million! But it is not just a problem of time scale; the Bible gives a different order of events than the current secular opinion. The big bang / naturalistic view teaches that stars formed before the earth, fish came about before fruit trees, and the sun came about long before plants. However, the Bible teaches the exact reverse—that the earth came before stars, fruit trees came before fish, and the plants were created before the sun.
The big bang is a story about the alleged past, but it is also a story about the alleged future. According to the currently favored version of the big bang, the universe will continue to expand indefinitely and grow colder. Usable energy will become increasingly scarce, and will eventually cease altogether, at which point the universe will die a “heat death.” At this point, no “heat” will be left, so the universe will have a temperature close to absolute zero everywhere. No life will be possible at that point since no usable energy will exist.
Heat death is a rather bleak scenario, and quite different from the future the Bible teaches. Scripture indicates that the Lord will return in the future in judgment. The paradise lost in Genesis will become a paradise restored. There will be no “heat death,” nor any death of humans or animals, since the Curse will be no more. The new earth will remain perfect in the Lord’s presence forever. (See diagram this page.) Many Christians are inconsistent; they accept what the big bang says about the past (instead of the Bible), but reject what it says about the future (in favor of the Bible).
The Assumptions of Naturalism and Uniformitarianism
A belief in naturalism and uniformitarianism can cause a person to make a vastly inflated estimate of the age of the earth and universe. Recall that naturalism is the belief that nothing exists outside of nature. In this view, the universe and everything in it came about by the same kinds of processes observed within the universe. Naturalism is, of course, an unbiblical concept since the Bible makes it clear that God created the universe supernaturally. The problems with naturalism will be discussed in greater detail in the next chapter. Naturalism often leads to exaggerated age estimates when applied to supernaturally created things.
As an example of this, consider the first man. Adam was created as an adult—a fully grown man. Suppose that we were asked to guess the age of Adam on the seventh day, only 24 hours after God created him. If we incorrectly assumed that Adam was not supernaturally created but that instead he came about the same way people come about today, then we would derive an age that is far too old. A naturalist might guess that the one-day-old Adam was about 30 years old by incorrectly assuming that he grew to adulthood by the same process that other people do today. Naturalism leads to an age estimate for Adam that is 10,000 times too old, but the universe was also supernaturally created. A person who denies this would likely conclude an age that is many times older than the true age.
A belief in uniformitarianism can also lead to severe overestimates of age. Uniformitarianism is the idea that most things in the world today (mountains and canyons, for example) were formed at about the same (i.e., uniform) rates that we see operating in the world today. People who hold to uniformitarianism would assume that radioactive decay has always occurred at the same rate, that canyons have (generally) been eroded at the same rate as today, and that mountains have been uplifted at the same average rate as today. They would certainly deny a worldwide flood (Gen. 6:8) since it would alter these rates dramatically. Uniformitarianism can be summed up by the phrase “the present is the key to the past.”4
However, both naturalism and uniformitarianism are merely philosophical assumptions. They are both anti-biblical since the Bible teaches both a supernatural creation and a worldwide flood. Moreover, naturalism and uniformitarianism can lead to contradictory conclusions (as we will show) which brings into question the reliability of those assumptions.
The distant starlight problem
One of the most common objections to a “young universe” is often called the “distant starlight problem.” There are galaxies in the universe that are incredibly far away. These distances are so extreme that even light would take billions of years to travel from these galaxies to the earth. Yet, we do see these galaxies; this indicates that the light has traveled from there to here. Since this process is supposed to take billions of years, the universe must be at least billions of years old—much older than the biblical time scale. It is argued that distant starlight therefore supports the big-bang story of origins.
There are actually several different natural mechanisms that God might have used to get the starlight here in thousands of years. These have been published in TJ [now Journal of Creation] and other places and so we will not repeat them here [for more information, see “Does Distant Starlight Prove the Universe Is Old?”]. The point here is to show that the objection itself is vacuous. The argument that distant starlight disproves the biblical account of creation and supports an old “big-bang” universe is based on faulty reasoning.
First, notice that the distant starlight argument is based on the fallacious assumptions of naturalism and uniformitarianism. It assumes that the light got here entirely by natural means, and traveled at a constant rate, over a constant distance, with time also being constant. Of course, it is possible that God may indeed have used “natural means” to get the light here. It may also be that some of the things assumed to be constant in time (such as the speed of light) are indeed constant, but is there any logical reason why we would automatically know beforehand that these must be the case? Remember that God created the lights in the sky to give light upon the earth. This happened during the creation week where God was creating in a supernatural way.
The evolutionist insists that if we cannot show a naturalistic mechanism for a particular event of the creation week (like distant starlight), then the Bible cannot be trusted. This is an unrealistic “heads I win, tails you lose” sort of argument. Since many of the events that happened during the creation week were supernatural in essence, it is irrational to demand a naturalistic explanation for them. It is ridiculous to argue that a supernatural explanation is wrong because it cannot be explained by natural causes. This would be circular reasoning. Now, it is perfectly fine to ask the question, “Did God use natural means to get the starlight from galaxies to earth? And if so, what is the mechanism?” However, if no natural mechanism is apparent, this cannot be a legitimate criticism against supernatural creation anymore than a lack of a natural mechanism for Christ’s resurrection could invalidate that event.
Light travel-time: a problem for the big bang
There is another fatal flaw in using a light travel-time argument like distant starlight to reject the Bible in favor of the big bang. Such an argument is subtly self-refuting. This is because the big bang also has a light travel-time problem! In the big-bang model, light is required to travel a distance much greater than should be possible within the big bang’s own time frame of about 14 billion years. This serious difficulty for the big bang is called the “horizon problem.”
Attempts at compromise
The belief in billions of years has a stranglehold on our culture today—even within the church. Many professing Christians have been taken in by the fallacious distant starlight argument or other eisegetical6 claims involving anti-biblical assumptions. As a result, many Christians have compromised; they have attempted to “add” the billions of years to the Bible. One of the most common methods of trying to believe both the Bible and the billions of years is called the “day age” position. In this view, the days of creation were not actually days, but rather were vast ages—many millions of years each. According to the day-age idea, God created over six long periods of time.
It is important to point out that even if the day-age position were true, it would not bring the biblical account into alignment with the secular story of origins since the order of events is different between the two. Recall that the big bang / naturalism view teaches that stars existed long before fruit trees which came after fish. The Bible teaches that fish were made on day 5 after the stars which were made on day 4, and after the trees which were made on day 3—regardless of how long the days were.
Day-age followers point out that the Hebrew word for day (yom) does not always indicate a “day” in the ordinary sense, but can sometimes mean an unspecified period of time. In certain contexts, “day” can refer to a longer period of time, but not in the context of the days of creation. Similarly, our English word “day” can mean an unspecified period of time in certain contexts like “back in grandfather’s day. . . .” However, it would not mean an unspecified period of time in other contexts such as “five days ago, the third day, day then night, morning of the day, evening of the day, the evening and morning.” Clearly, in the preceding phrases the word “day” must mean an ordinary day from context—not a period of time.
The Hebrew language also obeys grammatical rules, and as with English, the meaning of a word is always determined by its context. The Hebrew word for day means an ordinary day (and is never translated as “time”) when in any of the following contexts:
- When combined with an ordinal (list) number (“the first day, the third day, etc.”) day means an ordinary day—not a period of time.
- When associated with the word “morning,” such as “There was morning that day,” day means an ordinary day—not a period of time.
- When associated with the word “evening,” such as “There was evening that day,” day means an ordinary day—not a period of time.
- When evening and morning occur together, such as “There was evening and morning” (even if the word “day” is not present), this constitutes an ordinary day—not a nonspecific period of time.
- When contrasted with “night,” such as “There was night then day,” the word day means an ordinary day—not a period of time.
In Genesis chapter 1, we see all of these contextual indicators used for the days of creation. The days of creation must be ordinary days from context; they cannot be long periods of time because context does not permit this. It would be wrong to try and read “day” to mean “a period of time” in Genesis 1, when the context clearly precludes such a meaning; such an error is called an unwarranted expansion of an expanded semantic field. The day-age idea is not logically sound; it is simply an unsuccessful attempt to make the Bible compatible with anti-biblical notions.7
Ultimately, the Bible teaches that God created in six days and the secular opinion is that the universe evolved over billions of years. Each of us must decide whether we are going to trust the secular opinions of human beings, or the clear teaching of the Bible. As we saw in the last chapter, the Bible has always been correct when it touches upon astronomy.
It is important to remember that we are at just another point in history. Yes, people today will scoff at and ridicule a belief in a “young universe.” Then again, many of those same people will ridicule a belief in Jesus Christ being the one true God, or even the very belief in a Creator. The Bible has always been vindicated in the past. So there is no reason to cave in to mere peer pressure today.
The evidence confirms a young universe
Even now, the scientific evidence is very consistent with what the Bible teaches about the age of the universe. Why then do many secular scientists believe that the evidence points to a multi-billion-year-old universe? People who believe in the big bang generally interpret the evidence according to the big bang (sometimes without even realizing it). In other words, they simply assume that the big bang is true and they interpret the evidence to match their beliefs. We all interpret the evidence in light of our worldview; there is no getting around it. However, the Bible can also be used to interpret the evidence. Since the Bible records the true history of the universe, we will see that it makes a lot more sense of the evidence than the big bang does. Let us now look at some facts about the universe. We will see that the evidence is consistent with 6,000 years, but doesn’t make as much sense if we hold to the big bang.
Of course, big-bang supporters can always reinterpret the evidence by adding on extra assumptions, so, these facts that follow are not intended to “prove” that the Bible is right about the age of the universe. The Bible is right in all matters because it is the Word of God. However, when we understand the scientific evidence, we will find that it agrees with what the Bible teaches. The evidence is certainly consistent with a “young” (roughly 6,000-year-old) universe.
The Horizon Problem
In the big-bang model, the universe begins in an infinitely small state called a singularity, which then rapidly expands. According to the big-bang model, when the universe was still very small it would have developed different temperatures in different locations. Let’s suppose that point A is hot and point B is cold. Today, the universe has expanded and points A and B are now widely separated.
However, the universe has an extremely uniform temperature at great distance—beyond the farthest known galaxies. In other words, points A and B have almost exactly the same temperature today. We know this because we see electromagnetic radiation coming from all directions in space in the form of microwaves. This is called the “cosmic microwave background” (CMB). The frequencies of radiation have a characteristic temperature of 2.7 K and are extremely uniform in all directions. The temperature deviates by only one part in 105.
The problem is this: how did points A and B come to be the same temperature? They can only do this by exchanging energy. There are many systems where this happens; consider an ice cube placed in hot coffee. The ice heats up and the coffee cools down by exchanging energy. Likewise, point A can give energy to point B in the form of electromagnetic radiation (light). (This is the fastest way of transferring energy since nothing can travel faster than light.) However, using the big bang supporters’ own assumptions (such as uniformitarianism and naturalism), there has not been enough time in 14 billion years to get light from A to B; they are too far apart. This is a light travel-time problem—and a very serious one. After all, A and B have almost the same temperature today, and so must have exchanged light multiple times.
Big-bang supporters have proposed a number of conjectures which attempt to solve the big bang’s light travel-time problem. One of the most popular is called “inflation.” In “inflationary” models, the universe has two expansion rates; a normal rate and a fast “inflation” rate. The universe begins with the “normal” rate (which is actually quite rapid, but is slow by comparison to the next phase). Then it enters the inflation phase, where the universe expands much more rapidly. At a later time, the universe goes back to the normal rate. This all happens early on, long before stars and galaxies form.
The inflation model allows points A and B to exchange energy (during the first normal expansion) and to then be pushed apart during the inflation phase to the enormous distances at which they are located today, but the inflation model amounts to nothing more than storytelling, with no supporting evidence at all. It is merely a speculation designed to align the big bang to conflicting observations. Moreover, inflation adds an additional set of problems and difficulties to the big-bang model, such as what would cause such inflation, and how to turn it off in a graceful fashion. An increasing number of secular astrophysicists are rejecting inflation for these reasons and others. Clearly, the horizon problem remains a serious light travel-time problem for the big bang.
The critic may suggest that the big bang is a better explanation of origins than the Bible since biblical creation has a light travel-time problem—distant starlight. Such an argument is not rational since the big bang has a light travel-time problem of its own. If both models have the same problem in essence,5 then that problem cannot be used to support one model over the other. Therefore, distant starlight cannot be used to dismiss the Bible in favor of the big bang.