© 2007 Lloyd Rieber Rediscovering Gaming In Education New Opportunities for Ancient Ideas Lloyd...

© 2007 Lloyd Rieber

Rediscovering Gaming In Education

New Opportunities for Ancient IdeasLloyd Rieber

[email protected] of Educational Psychology & Instructional Technology


Let me explain.

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.


High Tech, Low Tech, and Everything In-Between


Some Principles to Guide Teaching & Learning

Otherwise, why should you even care about what I have to

say?


The following is a tad oversimplistic, but...

…Oh well!


Constructivist

Instructivist(objectivist)

Nat

ure

of th

ele

arni

ng e

xper

ienc

e

Ass

essm

ent

Epi

stem

olog

y

Cog

nitiv

e pr

oces

ses


Constructivist


Experiential

Didactic

Nat

ure

of th

ele

arni

ng e

xper

ienc

e

Cog

nitiv

e pr

oces

ses

Ass

essm

ent

Epi

stem

olog

y


Constructivist


Experiential

Didactic

Inquiry

Memorization

Nat

ure

of th

ele

arni

ng e

xper

ienc

e

Ass

essm

ent

Epi

stem

olog

y

Cog

nitiv

e pr

oces

ses


Constructivist


Experiential

Didactic

Inquiry

Memorization

Projects basedon authentic &

meaningfulproblems

M/C tests

Nat

ure

of th

ele

arni

ng e

xper

ienc

e

Ass

essm

ent

Epi

stem

olog

y

Cog

nitiv

e pr

oces

ses


I’ve designed the perfect business training

simulation. Unfortunately, it takes 30 years to play.


Designing Learning Environments that Excite

Serious Play

Elusive, But Always Ready to Emerge

“We all play occasionally, and we all know what playing feels like. But when it comes to making theoretical statements about what play is, we fall into silliness. There is little agreement among us, and much ambiguity.” Brian Sutton-Smith


Dimensions of Human Activity


Play Theory

• Confluence of anthropology, sociology, psychology, and education

• Misconceptions of play• Only children play; Play is easy; Play is merely a

diversion and is irrelevant to learning; All play is good

• Play attributes• Voluntary; Intrinsically motivating; Involves active,

sometimes physical, engagement; Distinct from other behavior by having a make-believe quality

• Play as Progress, Power, Fate, Fantasy, & Self


Motivation & Flow TheoryMihaly Csikszentmihalyi


… when it is most needed.

Understanding when instruction is not necessary, or…


“Experience first,Explain later.”


Did you say “Games”?

• The term “game” is a loaded term

• People tend to have a biased view about games – pro or con – few are neutral

• Games are like books and movies in that they refer to a general medium or art form

• Like books and movies, games can be inspiring, good, bad, or disgusting


Defining a Game

• Harder than you might think• But, here’s the dictionary definition:

– An activity providing entertainment or amusement; a pastime: party games; word games.

– A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules: the game of basketball; the game of gin rummy.

– A period of competition or challenge: It was too late in the game to change the schedule of the project.


Defining a Game

• An interactive medium in the sense that the path or outcome of the activity itself changes depending on a player’s input.(I dare you to try to define “interactivity”!)

• One of the best opportunities for “serious play”


Learning in a Game:Affective Domain

• Motivation– Competition, random features– Intrinsic motivation: You create your own

reasons for participating– Triggering challenge and curiosity– A feeling of control, but with an edge of

uncertainty


Learning in a Game:Cognitive Domain

• Meaningful, relevant context

• Active participation in an “interactive story”

• Organization, situation, goals, and feedback– Helps students to organize information,

followed by putting knowledge to use

• Narrative: The power of stories– Myths & Archetypes (Joseph Campbell)


Game Design

• Optimizing challenge– What is your favorite sport?– Change one rule or the parameter of one

game object.– What is the impact of this change on the

game?


4.25 inches


Center court = 36 inchesSide posts = 42 inches


Henry JenkinsMIT Comparative Media Studies

Games-to-Teach Project

Kurt SquireUniversity of WisconsinLearning World History

through playing Civilization III

James GeeUniversity of Wisconsin

What video games have toteach us about learning and literacy

Sasha BarabUniversity of Indiana

Quest Atlantis

High Tech Gamingin Education


Quest Atlantishttp://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/

• Triadic Foundation for Design– Education: Designing for Learning– Entertainment: Designing for Engagement– Social Commitments: Designing for Change


Middle-Tech Gaming


Microworlds

• A place to “live”, not just study, a domain– “Mathland”

• Takes full advantage of processing abilities of computers

• Matches students effectively on both cognitive & motivational dimensions

• Examples– MicroWorlds Project Builder, StageCast– Geometer’s Sketchpad, ThinkerTools, SimCalc,

GenScope


http://it.coe.uga.edu/wwild


http://www.merlot.org


Using Homemade Online Database Games in Teaching


The story unfolds…


…and you are an archaeologist. You are part of a team that has uncovered a lost civilization which appears to be from around the turn of the 21st century, a period for which historians have a huge gap in their understanding. As part of the "dig", you have uncovered a large underground room housing a series of ancient documents, referred to during the time period as "letters". These documents are all fairly intact and the language appears to be a recognizable form of ancient English. Of course, many of words are completely unknown to you. But, it is clear that each of these letters describe how to perform very specific ancient tasks and rituals. It is your job to identify what task each of the letters describes.

It is the year 4028…


What task or skill is this?

1. Grab one bacle in each hand.2. Pull the bacles tight with a vertical pull.3. Cross the bacles.4. Pull the front bacle around the back of the

other.5. Put that bacle through the liger.6. Tighten the bacle with a horizontal pull.7. Make a charm.8. Tighten the charm.


What task or skill is this?1. Grab one bacle in each hand.2. Pull the bacles tight with a vertical pull.3. Cross the bacles.4. Pull the front bacle around the back of the

other.5. Put that bacle through the liger.6. Tighten the bacle with a horizontal pull.7. Make a charm.8. Tighten the charm. bacle = lace

liger = holecharm = bow


Low-Tech Gaming


Math Target Games

2 0 0 6Throw away


Low-Tech Gaming

Designing Your Own


Which of these defines the Pythagorean Theorem?

a

c b

d

ef

a + b = c

d + e = f

2 2 2

2

a + b = c2

d + e = f2 2 2

I really don’t know

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.


What is the significance of the What is the significance of the Battle of Saratoga?Battle of Saratoga?

1. Led to fateful encampment at Valley Forge

2. Brought France's support of the American effort

3. Exposed Benedict Arnold's role as a traitor

4. Established Washington's role as commander-in-chief


How well did we do?


Implications?

• Is direct instruction enough?

• Is direct instruction appropriate for all learning?

• Is direct instruction an appropriate model for learning?


Knowledge as Design• Four Design questions:

from David Perkins (1986)

– 1. What is its purpose? "What's it for?"

– 2. What is its structure? "What's it like? What's it made of? What are its parts?"

– 3. What are model cases? "What's an example?"

– 4. What are the arguments to support it? "How is it supposed to work? Does it do a good job?"

• If you can't answer all four, the knowledge you have acquired may be "inert."


Learning by Designing

• If you want to learn something well, teach it!

• Teaching is but one form of designing• Design activities take time!• The challenge is to find design activities

that students find authentic and compelling• Our research shows that game design is

an excellent strategy for students as young as fourth grade


Designing a Game

• Part art (creativity) and part science (analytic)

• Similar to story writing

• Weaving the educational content and game together into a meaningful whole

• Lends itself to team work


Designing Games• Game Fantasy

– Where will the game take place?– Give your game a title.– Write a story for your game.

• Game Objects– What/who are the game characters and game objects?

• Game Goal– How does someone win the game?– Will anything special happen when someone wins or loses?

• Game Rules– What are the 2 or 3 most important rules of the game?

• Game Directions– The goal of the game is to…– To play the game you have to…– To win the game you have to…

• Artwork


It’s better because it’s homemade!

Lloyd Rieber & Gretchen ThomasThe University of Georgia

http://it.coe.uga.edu/wwild


Using PPT for Educational Games

• Why PowerPoint?– “Almost ubiquitous” software application– Teachers love it: Higher probability for

adoption and scalability– Hyperlinking feature has lots of gaming

potential– Excellent way to “package” and “deliver” a

game


Teacher finds existing PPT templatesand inserts his/her own content

(Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, etc.)

Teacher adapts another teacher’sPPT game

Teacher makes an originalPPT game

Students createor adapt their own!

Instructionist

Constructionist


Who Stole the Bacon?


Universal Design for Learning and Instruction:

More than ALT Tags

Lloyd Rieber & Michele EstesDepartment of Educational Psychology & Instructional Technology

Center for Teaching and Learning


Universal Design (UD)

• Coined by Dr. Ron Mace of NCSU

• “Design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design” (Ron Mace, Center for Universal Design, North Caroline State University)


So, in conclusion…


“It’s not the distance traveled that matters, it’s the direction in which you are going.”

© 2007 Lloyd Rieber Rediscovering Gaming In Education New Opportunities for Ancient Ideas Lloyd...

Documents

Transcript of © 2007 Lloyd Rieber Rediscovering Gaming In Education New Opportunities for Ancient Ideas Lloyd...