Educational Games

A survey of of chapter 6 of 'Serious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform'.

http://www.amazon.com/Serious-Games-Educate-Train-Inform/dp/1592006221

Transcript

1. CHAPTER 6 EDUCATIONAL GAMES Yohei Yasukawa @yasulab
2. INTRO • Video game as a tool of training and teaching • Past: books, movies, television • Now: computers, internet • Future: video games (?) • Demanding proofs that the games: • teach anything useful, • show how well comparing to traditional methods.
3. INDEX 1. Review the history of games in the classroom. 2. Why/How serious games are being used now? 3. How serious games might be used in the future? 4. What’s the attitudes of educators/parents? 5. What’s the issues of developing serious games for use in schools? 1. Integration of games into lesson plans. 2. Integration of games into testing programs.
4. 1. REVIEW THE HISTORY • 1969: ‘Serious Games (1e)’ by Clark Abt. • Grand Strategy that simulates WW1 was used. • It encouraged students to do Active Learning, the self-motivated research of WW1 in the library. • Growing shortage of teachers would lead them. • 1984: ‘Serious Games (2e)’ • The problem remains, but the market was still minimal. • 2005: ‘Serious Games (this book)’ by David and Sande • The games are fueled by the powerful PCs & Internet.
5. 1. REVIEW THE HISTORY • 1980s: Apple worked hard to get PCs into classroom. • e.g. Classrooms of Tomorrow program, 1985 • 1990s: PCs became ‘Multi-media’ and justified the cost. • Educational software were boomed for parents.
6. 1. REVIEW THE HISTORY • mid-1980s: Lightspan Inc. raised $50 million from Sony and Microsoft. • To develop game-based learning CDs on game consolesɹ ɹTarget: parents ɹGoal: To review the material ɹResult: 30% increased in standardized test scores
7. 1. REVIEW THE HISTORY • 2000s: • The boom of “Edutainment”; however, most of games were poorly conceived & designed. • Teachers tend to be skeptical of the edutainment.
8. 1. REVIEW THE HISTORY • But Japan had a different history of products, which are arguably educational. • The products were built as entertainment, though.
9. INDEX 1. Review the history of games in the classroom. 2. Why/How serious games are being used now? 3. How serious games might be used in the future? 4. What’s the attitudes of educators/parents? 5. What’s the issues of developing serious games for use in schools? 1. Integration of games into lesson plans. 2. Integration of games into testing programs.
10. 2. WHY/HOW USED NOW • According to the University of Washington’s HIT Lab, video games provide an entirely different learning style: • ‘Aggressively ignores’ the format of instruction. • ‘Failure is nearly free’ mentality. • ‘Input from peers’, not authority figures. • ‘Just in time’ learning. ‘If the principles of learning in video games are good, then many children play than in the schools they attend.’ - What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, James Paul Gee
11. 2. WHY/HOW USED NOW • Also, UCLA researchers in 1980s reported that the students who also played video games showed improved cognitive skills that include: • Visualization • Mental Maps • Visual Memory • And NTL Institute found it increased the retention rate: • Lecture-based: 5% • Game-based: 75~80%
12. 2. WHY/HOW USED NOW • The other advantages include: • custom-fit to individual student capabilities: • Can be tailored to match finer gradations of ability. • motivate poor learners: • shy and withdrawn children could become active and communicative within the context of a game. • greater learning than lecture: • providing an immediate reward to correct decisions, while students who failed know & correct their error.
13. 2. WHY/HOW USED NOW ‘Constructivism’ Serious games are aligned with a philosophy called Believing that a person learns best when he or she actively constructs ideas & relationships in their own minds based on experiments that they do, rather than being told.
14. • 1. Linear Approach • The most logical way for the material. • What’s taught today. 2. WHY/HOW USED NOW • 2. Cyclical Approach • Open-ended process encourages exploration and creativity. • cf. Serious Games
15. • Cyclical Approach provides: • 1. Memorize facts • 2. Gain experience • 3. Create their own internalized ‘model’ 2. WHY/HOW USED NOW ‘Games further reinforce the mastery of skills and concepts by dramatizing the relationship or interaction of issues studied.’
16. INDEX 1. Review the history of games in the classroom. 2. Why/How serious games are being used now? 3. How serious games might be used in the future? 4. What’s the attitudes of educators/parents? 5. What’s the issues of developing serious games for use in schools? 1. Integration of games into lesson plans. 2. Integration of games into testing programs.
17. 3. HOW USED FOR FUTURE • Serious games may become a standard part of education and training. • But it won’t happen soon because the public’s acceptance and interest in serious games is too low. • However, eventually they’ll get there like PC/Internet because of the benefits: • 1. Ability to model complex systems. • 2. Higher engagement w/ the material. • 3. Higher interactivity when learning. • 4. Similarities to constructivist teaching methods. • 5. Cost savings by reducing skill training time/money.
18. 3. HOW USED FOR FUTURE • Ex. Dance Dance Revolution • It has been used in physical education classes in schools in the US, UK, and Europe. ‘Key to the acceptance of teachers, though, is proof, backed up by solid research, that the games actually do a better job than current methods.’
19. • Research into Games and Education: • “Are games educational?” is too broad, remarked by Eric Klopfer, Associate Prof. at MIT. • Research is still in the early stages, but some of the research shows real promise & the potential benefits. • Anecdotal evidence is hard to quantify. 3. HOW USED FOR FUTURE
20. • The 3 significant research areas: • 1. Assessment of learning • How well the student learned what’s being taught? • 2. Cost per student • What’s return on investment of serious games? • 3. Potential uses of serious games • How extensively they can be used across a variety of disciplines? 3. HOW USED FOR FUTURE
21. INDEX 1. Review the history of games in the classroom. 2. Why/How serious games are being used now? 3. How serious games might be used in the future? 4. What’s the attitudes of educators/parents? 5. What’s the issues of developing serious games for use in schools? 1. Integration of games into lesson plans. 2. Integration of games into testing programs.
22. • The Concerns of Teachers: • From the 19th century, new tools have all drawn the ire of educators who feared the end of literacy and an appreciation for the classics. • cf. Movie, TV, Comic, Rock-n-roll Music. • But of course, not all teachers think so. • Ex. In 1965, American Federation of Teachers said: • ‘Games would keep teachers too busy to do their jobs and games were also a threat to their jobs.’ 4. WHAT THE ATTITUDE
23. • But actually, when games applied, the teacher would become a coach, rather than a lecturer. Abs wrote: • The teacher must learn to give brief but very intensive analyses and explanations, • interspersed w/ longer periods of observations of student experiments and occasional coaching remarks. 4. WHAT THE ATTITUDE
24. • A survey of teachers in the UK, 2005: 1. Potential negative reaction from teachers/parents. 2. Lack of examples of how games could be used. 3. Fear possibly learning less than traditional methods. 4. Worry that PCs are insufficient to run the games. 4. WHAT THE ATTITUDE
25. • Four requirements of games from teachers: 1. Examples from other teachers • it’s now always obvious how it can be used. 2. Lite Games • remove all ads/features not relevant to classes. 3. Maintain Accuracy • avoid controversy and remove the boring parts 4. Support Homework • start off where there were before & able to assign HW. cf. Language Cloud supports HW/assignments. 4. WHAT THE ATTITUDE
26. INDEX 1. Review the history of games in the classroom. 2. Why/How serious games are being used now? 3. How serious games might be used in the future? 4. What’s the attitudes of educators/parents? 5. What’s the issues of developing serious games for use in schools? 1. Integration of games into lesson plans. 2. Integration of games into testing programs.
27. 5. WHAT THE ISSUES • Not all educators are good game designers, and not all game developers have experiences to educate. • Need to collaborate closely w/ each other to ensure accuracy & pedagogical value. • Teachers and parents can consider the scenarios: • 1. Are they authentic/relevant? • 2.Tap into emotions & compel the students to act? • 3. Provide a sense of unrestricted options? • 4. Are they replayable?
28. 5.1. ISSUES INTO LESSONS • Measurable Results and Reporting • whether or not the student has actually learned the content? • Test before & after playing the game • cf. Traditional Approach: “tell-test system” • ‘somebody who knows more than the students is telling them what they have to learn,’ • ‘and then testing them on it.’ • Simple & fast approach maybe the most important.
29. 5.2. ISSUES INTO TESTING • Traditional types of testing: • Multiple-choice • Interviews • Surveys • A mixture of those tests. • The question of the proper grading system: • Does a student’s grade really reflect • the student’s progress in material? • the teacher’s abilities?
30. 5.2. ISSUES INTO TESTING • In serious games, there’ll be no need for a separate quiz/ test and learning. • could identify by the behavior of a student in a game • SW has the ability to assess the player while interacting • Also there’s a need for more research on how people play and learn, and how they learn while playing. • Tend to use tech to reproduce what we’re already doing • cf. Visual Bucket List • comes from an idea to reproduce successful person.
31. CONCLUSION • Video games offer a flexible, non-linear, learner-directed approach to learning. • that will become more important in the 21st century. • But no matter how important, though, they won’t replace teachers, professors, and other educational facilitators. • It’ll be part of the new educational toolbox. • It won’t happen soon, but will come because • more and more of the so-called video game generation become teachers and professors.
32. INDEX 1. Review the history of games in the classroom. 2. Why/How serious games are being used now? 3. How serious games might be used in the future? 4. What’s the attitudes of educators/parents? 5. What’s the issues of developing serious games for use in schools? 1. Integration of games into lesson plans. 2. Integration of games into testing programs.
33. CHAPTER 6 EDUCATIONAL GAMES Yohei Yasukawa @yasulab