Game programmingfor beginners

Tony Forster03 9796 8161

forster@ozonline.com.au

Game Maker• Game Maker “lite” is free software

• windows only• download the installer gmaker.exe from• www.yoyogames.com • V7 and V5 being passed round on USB (V5

is good for old computers)

dont upgrade now

Advanced mode

Web resources

• http://beam.to/billkerr

• http://ictmindtools.net/gamemaker/

• http://rupert.id.au/schoolgamemaker/

WHY

?

A pedagogy with pedigree

• Plutarch

• Dewey

• Piaget

• Vygotsky

• Papert

• Crawford

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

Plutarch (46 - 127)

John Dewey (1933/1998)

• Education depended on action. Knowledge and ideas emerged from experiences that have meaning and importance to learners.

John Dewey (1933/1998)

• Learning occurs where students join in manipulating materials, creating a community of learners who build their knowledge together.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

• ‘To understand is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, and such conditions must be complied with if in the future individuals are to be formed who are capable of production and creativity and not simply repetition’ (Piaget, 1973)

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

• Learning is most effective in a zone of proximal development where the child can function with just a little assistance.

Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

• Learning is a social process, teachers provide a scaffolding process to provide non-intrusive intervention.

learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. The learner selects and transforms information, constructs hypotheses, and makes decisions, relying on a cognitive structure to do so http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html

Constructivism / Constructionism:

• “Literature on school improvement is full of exhortations to make the content of instruction "relevant." …….. But if one does belong to a culture in which video games are important, transforming oneself from a consumer to a producer of games may well be an even more powerful way for some children to find importance in what they are doing.”

Situating Constructionism By Seymour Papert and Idit Harel, the first chapter in Seymour Papert and Idit Harel's book Constructionism (Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1991). http://www.papert.org/articles/SituatingConstructionism.html

• "Games are thus the most ancient and time-honored vehicle for education. They are the original educational technology, the natural one, having received the seal of approval of natural selection. We don't see mother lions lecturing cubs at the chalkboard; we don't see senior lions writing their memoirs for posterity

The Art of Computer Game Design by Chris Crawford 1982

http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html

Justification of games programming

Games programming can be justified on the grounds:

• transferable cognitive skills,

• metacognitive skills

• affective benefits

• mental model building

transferable cognitive skills

• Cartesian coordinates• Negative number• Position, speed, acceleration• Algebraic variables• Relative & absolute value• Estimation• Chance• A programming language similar to Visual Basic• New unidentified skills for a digital age?

Engage other teachers: • “Using the same representation as used in

other accompanying modes of mathematics education (textbook, lectures, worksheets) will help students transfer and integrate understanding between the different modes”

When Does The Use Of Computer Games And Other Interactive Multimedia Software Help Students Learn Mathematics? (DRAFT June 14, 98), Maria M. Klawe, Department of Computer Science The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada, V6T 1Z4

http://mathforum.org/technology/papers/papers/klawe.html

Metacognitive skills

• Metacognitive skills are the self management skills we employ when we are learning.

Affective benefits

• Affective benefits refers to our attitudes to school, teachers and classrooms. If students enjoy going to school, they will learn better.

Relevant- important to self

Authentic- important to others

Right tools & environment- ZPD, flow

Right Tools

If there is

•Relevant challenge

•Authentic challenge

•Right tools & environment

Then the learner will place themselves in the zone, in flow , they will seek out social support that puts them on the edge, the ZPD, they will match the challenge to their ability and stay in flow

The programming cycleThe rapidity of this cycle is a major factor in the appeal of games and game programming

Implement Test

Cognitive conflict

Cognitive growth

New solution

Runnable mental models

• http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/mireille/papers/Betrancourt_Chassot08.pdf

• http://tinyurl.com/4s4g4w

• http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=1161198&type=pdf

• http://tonyforster.blogspot.com/2008/02/problem-solving-creating-runnable.html

• Whether we are constructing an understanding of a physical process or reading a literary text, we construct our mental model which is an imperfect representation. We can run our mental model and use it to make predictions and so make our model more complex and robust.

• What happens if the force increases.......

• What was Macbeth thinking .........

Cross curriculum

• Game programming could be a framework within which team skills, music, art, drama, maths, history, geography or almost anything could be learned. The important feature of the game is its power to motivate. Motivation leads to learning.

• ‘The computer is a medium of human expression and if it has not yet had its Shakespeares, its Michelangelos or its Einsteins, it will. …. We have scarcely begun to grasp its human and social implications.’(Papert 1990)

• “there is such a thing as becoming a good learner and therefore … teachers should do a lot of learning in the presence of the children and in collaboration with them.”

What is Logo? Who Needs It? by Seymour Papert Logo Philosophy and Implementation© Logo Computer Systems Inc. 1999