Educational GamesAn introductory lecture

Game Theory 10.12.07

Rasmus Harrrasmusharr@itu.dk

Contents

• A bit of history

• Why educational games got popular during the last 5 years

• The learning theories behind educational games

• The problems of designing educational games

A bit of history

Educational games and the Military• Chaturanga

• 7th century, India – the predecessor of Chess

• Koenigspiel & Kriegspiel• Started as a hobby in

prussian military circles in 17th century, but spread.

• von Reisswitz 1824: LARGE war game for training and fun for the German army

Chaturanga

Educational games and the Military– Start of 20th century: Almost all

countries use war games to train and educate in military strategy

– World War II extensively “gamed”

– Today:• Marine Doom• Delta Force 2• Guard Force and Joint Force

Employment• America’s Army• Full Spectrum Warrior• Close Combat Marines• Full Spectrum Command

Business games and simulations• 1956: US Air Force Monopologs

• Inventory managers managing Air Force supply system

• 1957: Top Management Decision Simulation• University of Washington,

business college class success of business games and simulations has continued ever since

• Commercial successes also• The Tycoon-games, Capitalism-

games

Railroad Tycoon

Educational Computer Games – the early days

• The early years (progressive titles)– Oregon Trail, MECC, 1971– Lemonade Stand, 1971– 1973: Plato: Inspired by Piaget and Dewey –

make math more everyday like ”2 and 2 bananas” – proved to by very effective

– Rocky Boots 1982 (design logical circuits) – simulation as key to learning environment

– The Robot Odyssey 1984

• The start of behaviorist edutainment too:– 1979 Electric Company Math Fun– (The more right answers the faster you progress

through the jungle. If you fail an answer your gorilla is thrown in the river and cannot get up before answering a new question correctly.)

Oregon Trail 1985 (commercial ed.)

Electric Company Math Fun

80s: Adventure games• 1982: Snooper Troops• 1984: Winnie the Pooh in Hundred Acres Wood• 1985: Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego• 1985: Oregon Trail (Commercial edition)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjPL9jwDdhA&feature=related

• 1986: Mickey's Space Adventure

• (Close integration between motivation and learning)

• 80s Educational games contested entertainment games in terms of sales (titles described at The Underdogs, and Mobygames) Snooper Troops

80s and especially 90s: Edutainment• 1984: Seven Cities of Gold

• 1987: Mavis Beacon teaches typing• A curious offspring: ”Typing of the

Dead” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA7CKlpdIh0

• Extrinsic motivation: Learning and game are split up

• Edutainment market grows and behaviorist titles slowly become dominating pushing other types of educational computer games out of the market

Mavis Beacon teaches typing

90s• Educational games move from game

industry to educational publishers• Adventure games grow less popular after

the mid-90s, and ed. games almost die out• Commercial games with educational

elements:– SimCity (1989), Lemmings (1990), SimEarth (1990),

Civilization (1991)– Eco Quest (1992) (designed by Jane Jensen who

later did the Gabriel Knight-series)– The Incredible Machine 1993

• Big current edutainment brands are started in the mid-90s:

– Freddie Fish (1994)– Putt Putt Saves the Zoo (1995)– MS Magic School Bus Explores (1995)– Pajama Sam (1996)

Pajama Sam

Today: Serious gamesThe Serious Games’ initiative

2002

Games for other purposes than merely entertainment

Educational GamesEdutainmentAdvergamesBusiness gamesMilitary gamesPolitical gamesSimulation Games

Examples of recent titles

• Making History: The Calm and the Storm

• GC: Palestine– Trailer

• Science.net

• Constructivist and socio-cultural approaches

Making History

GC: Palestine

Lots of research world wide

• Starting point: Critique of edutainment• Started out as a serious attempt to use games for learning but ended

in caricatures of games and a conservative use of learning, extrinsic motivation bad for learning

• Common Belief• Better learning experiences, better technical platforms – learning

experience is not limited to what happens between player and game (Squire/Gee – constructionist/socio-cultural learning theories gain ground)

Why educational games got popular during the last 5 years

Why the rise on popularity of Serious Games?

• Computer games more mainstream• More research on computer games• Technology• Learning is high on the public agenda

• Life-long learning, home learning, supplementary training a more flexible approach to learning

• Part of the general focus on new media and learning

• Remediation: New media affects and are affected by other media – does that also apply for education?

• Games: Engagement and motivation

Claims about education and new media

• 21st century skills• Twitch-speed generation• Generation G• Before every child is left

behind• Teaching for Innovation• Staying in front of India

and China• We must look at what

games have to offer vs. other educational media

10 min. break

• Grab some coffee – after the break its theory!

How do educational games work?A look at learning theories used on games

Behaviorism

Cognitivism

Constructionism

Socio-Cultural Approach

Behaviorism• The player practices a specific area through repetition

while receiving rewards after each proper response.

• Extrinsic Motivation and a focus on transfer rather than construction

• Pavlov: Experiments with dogs

• Thorndike: Law of Exercise and Effect

• Skinner: Drill-and-practice machine. Overt actions, not reflection, not understanding

• 80s behaviorism was prominent, in the 90s it became the norm

• Typing of the Dead a very good example

Behavorism – strengths and weaknesses

• Strengths– Has been very effective within game design– Has been effective within area of health– A study of the game Bronkie the Bronchiasaurus, which compares the game with

watching a documentary (Lieberman 1997, 2001)

• Weaknesses– Scope of learning: Focuses merely on training of mechanical operations, therefore

limits to what one can learn – memorizing/rote learning of specific behaviours but no deep understanding (works for writing, typing etc. but not much else)

– Extrinsic Motivation: Makes kids more interested in playing the game than learning – ex. getting points for completing a level becomes more important than learning

Cognitivism• How to enhance the learning of video games by

being aware of the limitations of the humans cognitive apparatus

• Titles: Discovery and inquiry, letting the player construct his/her own learning representations in an active dialogue with the game

• Schematas with limits and opportunities• Piaget is often referred to as the father of

cognitivism• Neuro-science on organization of materials

– Retrieval, Encoding, Chunking, Modalities, Transfer-problems, scaffolding of information

• Game Example: Phoenix Quest & Super Tangrams

Super Tangrams

Phoenix Quest

Cognitivism - continued• Malone and Lepper: 1987 Extrinsic motivation is in the way of the learning experience

• Challenge– Difficulty level, short-term and long-term goals, uncertain outcomes, and facilitating investment of

self-esteem through meaningful goals

• Feedback • Curiosity

– Encourage exploration and organization of the information in relation to both the sensory and the cognitive areas. (via pointers towards large unknown information hidden in game)

• Experience of control– Responsive environment, high degree of choice, ability of player to perform great effects

• Fantasy– Fantasy elements which appeal to the target group emotionally, metaphors for the learning content,

and be an endogenous part of the learning material

• Interpersonal activity– Increased motivation resulting from social context of game: Competition and collaboration with

peer. Recognition of peers serves as motivation

Cognitivism - Limitations and potentials

• Strengths• Has a lot to say on the design of the game, and the motivation of the learner

– Flow experiences, audiovisual props, control of learning process– Marshall Jones: Learning games’ theory for flow – explains a great deal on intrinsic

motivation– Klawe: Strong elements in video games: unlimited number of activities, visualization,

manipulation, symbolic representations, adaptive sequencing, feedback, and meaningful, contextualized activities.

• Learning outcome: Klawe and Sedighian: Super Tangrams and Phoenix Quest (Math teaching)

• Weaknesses• Cognitivism often focus on meta-skills: Problem-solving, thus less on content-side• Still focuses on the relation between the player and the game – does not include context of

play

Constructionism• Emphasizes the active role of the learner and external

objects in the learning process.

• Seymore Papert – drawing on Piaget – The Logo programming language, uses geometric shapes to draw – for children. - Mindstorms book and Lego toys!

• Constructionist titles: Microworlds – engage with artefacts in microworlds and learn about them

• The constructivist edutainment microworlds simulate a part of the world allowing the player to explore

• The focus is not on hard content as such, but rather on the general skills of creativity, problem-solving, critical-thinking skills, sequential planning, and memory

• Kafai: Research w. letting kids design games – new media literacy

My Make-believe Castle

Constructionism - continued

• Strengths– Includes the context more in the learning– Works for maths and programming-teaching (Kafai)

• Weaknesses– Kafai (1996) Design of microworlds is a lot harder than drill-and-

practice games• The topic in the microworld has to be integrated, no well-tested action

formula blueprint as with behaviorist or cognitivist titles

– Does not say much about the game

Socio-cultural approach• Video games are not the learning experience per se –

but the tool for creating a learning experience.

• Rote learning is not what video games is about – instead they are about mediating discussions, reflection, facts, and analysis via the surrounding classroom cultures.

• Vygotsky: Video game as an embodied tool extends action of a given agent (learner) and creates opportunities and limitations for the learner.

• Different contexts and tools facilitate a variety of learning experiences.

• Carsten Jessen’s research: Peer-learning around gaming. Informal learning processes

• Squire 2004: Civilization 3 in the classroom for mediating History discussions

Civilization 3

Socio-cultural approach - continued

• Proximate development (Vygotsky): How far can I get alone, how far can I get with help?– From actual point of development

to potential point of development.

• Tools/helper are mediators to facilitate the learner’s appreciation of a given activity

• Video game as an embodied tool extends action of a given agent (learner) and creates opportunities and limitations for the learner.

Tensions between the 4 theoretical frameworks• Learning vs. Playing: A whole or two parts? Extrinsic or intrinsic motivation?

• Freedom vs. control: How much freedom to students? Teachers creating a firm setting w. educational goals

• Drill-and-practice vs. microworlds: Benefit of drill and practice is limited, but it is cheap to create, most research is on micro-worlds, but few games reflect that (Making History and GC: Palestine)

• Transmission vs. Construction: Only behaviorism and early cognitivism believes in learning as transmission, most other theories are about constructing knowledge

• Transfer: Immersive effects of video games lead to lack of awareness of contents, structures, and concepts in game – results in weaker learning and transfer. Stealth or explicit learning?

• Teacher intervention vs. no teacher intervention: Behaviorism and cognitivism neglect teacher approach even though a lot of research says it is important

The problems of designing educational games

Practical Barriers

• Practical/structural– Technical limitations– Limited space– Time slots for lessons

• Game-related– Learning the game– Complexity of the game– Students a wide target audience w. diff. prefs. and skills.– Balance between playing/learning and integration of computer games

with teaching

• Expectations– The students’ and the teachers’ initial way of thinking about computer

games, history, learning, and teaching.

History teaching as an example• Procedural skills

Civilization 3, Making History – often counter-factual history – understand the system behind history (as opposed to facts)– History the Niall Ferguson- or Jared Diamond way

• MicroworldGC: Palestine – simulate the experience – realism, understand the places and the people behind a Discovery-like experience

• Often a mix:– Epistemic Games – both the system and a simulation of the experience – ex:

science.net, games for companies

Design with all 4 theories?• Behaviorism

– Examines the narrow relation between video game and students focusing on the role of motivation (no context at all – very focused on cause-and-effect)

• Cognitivism– Examines how knowledge of the human cognitive apparatus can be used to facilitate

learning and motivation (a little more context, focuses on the “why” also, as well as preferences of the individual player)

• Constructionism– Shows us how video games can be used as a shared artifact for constructing knowledge (a

lot more context – how the game is just one tool on the road to learning, includes a social aspect)

• Socio-cultural approach– Examines the environment that emerges around video games in negotiating and

constructing knowledge. Collaboration, debriefing, and discussion (focuses on EVERYTHING – how the game can be a small part in an educational and cultural context)

Discussion