Learning Object: "Flight to Freedom"

For our analysis of an LO, we chose to look at "Flight to Freedom", accessible HERE

In this game, students first learn about the origins of 9 real-life slaves in the South of the United States, during the period 1815-1865. During this time, slavery was legal in the South, and these 9 men and women were able to escape their masters and go to the North, where they were able to be free.

To play the game, students select one of these 9 slaves as a "starting point", and then are allowed to make choices about where to escape to, whether to keep running or rest for 1 day, and depending on their choices and which cities they choose to go to, they may or may not be successful in escaping. By following the real-life choices of these slaves, students will successfully escape their masters and the game will inform them why these choices worked and why others didn't.

According to Churchill's classification of LOs, this game is a combination of an information object and a contextual representation.

It is an information object because it gives historical information about the lives of the 9 slaves, as well as the cities they visited. It tells the student what the status of slavery was in each city, and what factors made those places helpful or dangerous to escaped slaves.

Next, it is a contextual object because it provides an authentic scenario, based on real-life history, for students to experiment with different choices and decisions, and to see how those impact the final outcome of successfully escaping slavery, or being caught by the slave masters. Players have the option of where to go next, to wait or rest, and which city to go to. Based on their knowledge of slavery laws in the 19th century United States, students will either be successful or unsuccessful in their attempt.

Studying history could be boring for some of the students, unlike other subjects, such as science, where there could be simulations or even experiments available for students to try. Most of the time teachers who teach history would simply deliver the information, and students would receive passively. Through the LO students are allowed to learn proactively, and using this type of activity can deepen their learning. For teachers, it allows them to bring up some discussion topics and elicit students to discuss.

(Written collaboratively by our group)

Reference:

Churchill D., Towards a Useful Classification of Learning Objects, The University of Hong Kong.