CS3540 Dr Brian Durney World of Borecraft by Justin Peters June 27 2007 Never play a video game thats trying to teach you something httpwwwslatecomid2169019 Peters asks these philosophical questions ID: 585902
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Educational Games" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Educational Games
CS3540
Dr. Brian DurneySlide2
World of Borecraft
by Justin Peters, June 27, 2007
“Never play a video game that’s trying to teach you something”
http://www.slate.com/id/2169019/
Peters asks these “philosophical questions”:
When
does a game stop being a game and turn into an assignment?
Can
a game still be called a game if it isn't any fun?Slide3
Persuasive Games, according to Justin Peters
“The
training games that I tried are
unsparingly, terrifyingly banal. Take Stone City, a game Persuasive wrote to train Cold Stone Creamery employees. You play a scoop jockey who has
to customers' orders. At the end of the game, you're told just how much ice cream you wasted, and how much your poor performance will end up costing Cold Stone over the span of one year. The only fun to be had in Stone City comes from deliberately mishandling the orders. (At my Cold Stone franchise, everyone gets strawberry.
)”Slide4
“This
is not fun.
This. Is. Evil
.” “The
California-based company called Seriosity, for one, claims to be brainstorming a virtual work environment that mimics online worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft. "[
T]oday's
multiplayer games," the company explains, "embody tasks that are analogous to corporate work."
Imagine: a virtual office, with virtual paper to be filed, virtual meetings to be dreaded, and virtual gossip to be shared over virtual coffee.
I have seen the future, and it makes me want to go back to chisels and stone tablets, or at least get a job working construction. This is not fun. This. Is. Evil
.”
Justin PetersSlide5
“A soul-crushing training exercise”
“… the
fundamental conceptual problem still remains:
Animating mindless, boring repetition doesn't make the repetition any less mindless or boring. No sane Cold Stone employee will be fooled into thinking that Stone City is anything other than a soul-crushing training exercise
.”
Is there a better way to make educational games?
Justin Peters
Stay tuned…
Meanwhile, we’ll look at a differing point of view.Slide6
Getting It Wrong: Slaying Myths About Video Games
by Lee Wilson, August 22, 2008
“
many … perceived barriers
to integrating video games into learning are ill-founded. In fact, there are a number of well-circulated myths that have reinforced widespread negative attitudes toward games”
http://www.techlearning.com/article/7826Slide7
Myth #1—Games are all about twitch speed, not higher order thinking skills.
Early edutainment games: animated flash cards
Mavis Beacon typing, Math Blasters
“fairly
rigid, linear, and reward answering a question quickly rather than thinking through complex
problems”
Recent games
“Players
are challenged to tackle deeply nested problems, and there are multiple paths to success. Meanwhile, they're attuning themselves to the game's culture, the human social context
.”
Railroad Tycoon, Making HistorySlide8
Making History
Simulates Europe just before World War II
Reading, math, social studies
teamwork, initiative, creativity, problem solving, and leadership
http://making-
history.com/products/mhgold
“Teachers have reported finding groups of students in the lunchroom arguing about the Potsdam Conference.”Slide9
Myth #1—Games are all about twitch speed, not higher order thinking skills.
“In
the examples given above there is no right answer, only multiple paths to success, and there is as much to be learned from failure as from success. Most important, the games encourage students to
use core academic skills in the pursuit of solving complex problems
. Thinking deeply, not flicking buttons, is key
.”
Do you know of any games where this is true?
Are they fun games?
Can games like this be made for any educational topic?Slide10
Myth #2—Games are just about violence and sex.
Author mentions Grand Theft Auto, Postal
“In
fact, there have always been lots of video games that don't fit this profile
.”
Oregon Trail, Civilization, SimCity
Three games isn’t “a lot.” Do you know of other games that fit this category?
Serious games:
Peacemaker, Food Force,
ReDistricting
Game, Quest Atlantis
WolfQuest
http://
www.wolfquest.orgSlide11
Myth #2—Games are just about violence and sex.
“
A related concern is the perception that
any game used in the classroom has to compete with the slick production values of commercial games
. This too
turns out to be
false
.”
Redistricting Game
http
://
www.redistrictinggame.org
/Slide12
Myth #
3 Learning
elements leach all the fun out of games.
“Chocolate-covered broccoli”
Poor game design will cripple any game
, serious or commercial. Many of those creating educational games have not grounded themselves deeply enough in games and gaming culture to grasp what makes a great game.Slide13
Myth #
3 Learning
elements leach all the fun out of games.
It's also a myth that video games are all about instant gratification
. The most popular video games of all time are actually extremely complex puzzles, and they succeed because deep and difficult learning is fun in itself
(the Zelda series,
Myst
, and Prince of Persia by Nintendo, Cyan, and
Ubisoft
, respectively, are just a few examples).
If
“deep and difficult learning” is fun, why isn’t college like one big video game?
Can entertainment games make use of this? (assuming that it’s true, of course)Slide14
Myth #
4 Teachers
don't need to be involved in the game; kids can do it on their own.
This isn’t really an issue for us.Slide15
Myth #
5 There
isn't any scientifically based research to support the use of video games for learning.
The author quotes a couple of studies, but in my opinion they aren’t particularly impressive.Slide16
Back to World of
Borecraft
and Justin Peters
“The basic issue here is that it's easier to make a fun game educational than it is to inject fun into an educational game. In his 2005 book,
Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson argues that games like The Sims and Grand Theft Auto make us smarter by training the mind in adaptive behavior and problem-solving. Most overtly educational software, though, ignores the complexities that make games riveting and enriching.
The serious-gaming types think they can create educational software from whole cloth. In reality, they have a lot to learn from Grand Theft Auto
.”Slide17
What makes a game fun?
What makes a game educational?Slide18
Five Principles of Learning
Effort is proportional to commitment, and commitment in turn is proportional to both confidence in ability to succeed and impression of usefulness of what is to be learned or done
.
Behavior changes only when it is occurring. People learn just the ability they practice, not a related ability
.
Transfer of a learned ability from a school setting to real-life usage is proportional to the degree of identity between the practice conditions and the usage conditions
.
Feedback is necessary for learning to occur.
Conceptual meaning cannot be transmitted from a teacher to a learner.
From a 1979 presentation by C. Durney and D. HarrisSlide19
Eight things that make games fun
Sensation
Fantasy
Narrative
Challenge
Fellowship
Discovery
Expression
Masochism
(Getting into the game)
I Have No Worlds & I Must Design, Greg
Costikyan
2002Slide20
Maybe not. What about …?
?
+
+
+
OrSlide21
Educational
Entertainment
The ContinuumSlide22
What do you have to say about educational games?
Talk about it in the forum.
Coming soon to a
Moodle
page near you…