Group items tagged

An interesting article on game play in the classroom...students take on the role of a video game character and act the part during game performances!

If you look at it as 'play' instead of 'game' I think it opens a whole range of possibilities. Which is not surprising. As young children, we learned through play, often elaborate role-play.

Hi Jackie - this just reminded me to post a link below re: the CUNY (City University of New York) group that reflects on and develops all types of games in teaching. http://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

This is a webinar chat that I sat in on today (A few questions I posed are featured in the Q&A at the end.) With the new SimCity release, they have also partnered with a company called GlassLab that has designed a teacher resource hub and also modified game that enables teachers to easily use the game in classrooms. There will be specific inquiry based challenges that allow students to interact in the game environment to investigate community issues (ranging from water shortages, power outages, labor disputes, earthquakes, budget concerns, etc.) and work with citizens and government to solve the issues. There is also an exciting multiplayer format where neighboring cities are controlled by other students and they must work together to solve problems. Glass Lab is partnering with EA Games, Gates Foundation, and ETS to build the teacher hub where educators can design and share best practices, lesson plans, etc. In addition, they will be doing a long term study to measure educational outcomes. It appears as though they are using this game as a pilot opportunity to build the framework for larger commercial game integration into the classroom.

This is a really interesting article about the story of one of the most popular web-based games of last year. The interesting part is that the creator of the game designed it as a joke, trying to poke fun at other wildly popular games like Farmville. He made the game as simple as possible, compelled users to log in regularly to "Click a Cow," and had them earn points when other people clicked their cows. The message was supposed to be, "these types of games are manipulative in their tactics to keep people playing, and they are mindless and painfully stupid." However, his design stumbled on something that people really enjoy, and as a result, people didn't get that the game was meant to be a joke, and it became a huge hit. I think this shows that flow-inducing actitivities, or ones that keep the user engaged and provide quick feedback, are highly desirable for users.

Interesting article about how certain features of video games (gaining experience points, forming guilds, etc.) are being incorporated in unexpected ways in our lives.

Arguments for game-based learning

Gee comments on video games and project-based learning.

One point not covered in the article is that there may be something inherently similar about "gamers" (such as a motivational, attentional, or perceptive profile) that makes them different types of learners than others. Yes, it's true that some people deeply enjoy the structured (some more/some less) challenges provided by games, both board and virtual...but others do not. The big question is, does it benefit a majority of learners (or, say, a majority of at-risk learners) to invest in curricula that leverages game-based-learning?

It may stray a bit from the topic of motivation, but here's a neuroscience article (that I found quite interesting) that discusses how a difference in striatal volume appears to affect how one's performance improves in playing a game: Erickson, K. I., Boot, W. R., Basak, C., Neider, M. B., Prakash, R. S., Voss, M. W., Graybiel, A. M., et al. (2010). Striatal volume predicts level of video game skill acquisition. Cerebral Cortex, 20(11), 1-9. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp293

The City University of New York connects educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY who are interested in games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching. They hope to facilitate the pedagogical uses of both digital and non-digital games, improve student success, and encourage research and scholarship in the developing field of games-based learning.

Research paper on "recreational learning objects" in this case a math-based computer game, which was shown to increase motivation in Mexican high schoolers.

A chicago school based on the games-centered school in nyc

This blog post describes the successes and failures of one school to integrate games into their latin language instruction. Teachers found the game compelling because it forced students to engage and prepare in a way that students do not in traditional classrooms.

The Pericles Group "saving the world one practomime at a time." Roger Travis at UConn uses a game-based approach to teaching classics.

This very useful forecast highlights augmented reality and game based learning.

Great Game from Muzzy Lane--the folks who'll be speaking next week

This organization develops projects that specialize in game-based learning.

This article discusses play in virtual worlds (focusing on World of Warcraft) with an emphasis both on the learning that takes place and the engagement. You'll have to log in with your Harvard ID to get the article, FYI. "Our observation showed that players are motivated by the game's scope, rules, and scenario to create and participate in virtual communities, and share their knowledge with others, while newcomers are encouraged to engage in collective actions, and develop their skill base. We also found that although current MMORPGs have not been designed as instructional tools, they provide an excellent fantasy environment for intrinsically motivating learning, where players can experience the elements of challenge, curiosity, and control [30]." "People engage in pervasive games that use the best of two worlds, the virtual and the physical, in order to offer to its players the sense of maximum enjoyment."

Overview of what teachers are being offered as professional development for educational games

A video game developed based on a research on children in pre operative phase. With content on the surgery and other aspects that would help children get over their fear of surgeries.

Brookings report on games and learning

It's interesting that so many products have a teacher focused data output model but if the software isn't making recommendations, the student must wait for the teacher to analyze the data to make changes. I wonder when software will empower students to make their own curricular choices based on their data. I don't believe I've seen this.

This post talks about the highly engaging "Gamercamp," referring to some concepts we discussed in T545, and goes on to discuss the potential for gaming in education.