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1. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
GAMES-TO-TEACH PROJECTWinter 2003
2. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
The games-to-teach process arises in an historical context.
The games-to-teach process arises in an historical context.
3. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Background / historical context
Research & Design commitments
15 Conceptual frameworks
Issues & Themes
Next steps
The games-to-teach process arises in an historical context.
The games-to-teach process arises in an historical context.
4. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Educational games in context Operatonal frontal lobe
Frank capra
Growing crisis in educaitnal system
‘highquality content with an equallyengaging format”
What format would we choose? The answer is simple: computer and video games
Operatonal frontal lobe
Frank capra
Growing crisis in educaitnal system
‘highquality content with an equallyengaging format”
What format would we choose? The answer is simple: computer and video games
5. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Bell Labs Science Films Operatonal frontal lobe
Frank capra
Growing crisis in educaitnal system
‘highquality content with an equallyengaging format”
What format would we choose? The answer is simple: computer and video games
Operatonal frontal lobe
Frank capra
Growing crisis in educaitnal system
‘highquality content with an equallyengaging format”
What format would we choose? The answer is simple: computer and video games
6. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
While the gaming industry has long sought the "sweet spot" in what looks like a potentially vast educational market, they have largely focused on early childhood (Reader Rabbit, The Magic School Bus, Math Blaster, States and Traits). In this space, we’ve seen that the most successful games have been entertainment titles that teachers have repurposed for educational uses
--slide showing icons or images from these games.While the gaming industry has long sought the "sweet spot" in what looks like a potentially vast educational market, they have largely focused on early childhood (Reader Rabbit, The Magic School Bus, Math Blaster, States and Traits). In this space, we’ve seen that the most successful games have been entertainment titles that teachers have repurposed for educational uses
--slide showing icons or images from these games.
7. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Combating Misconceptions
8. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Combating Misconceptions
9. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Indeed, an entire generation of students is coming of age that grew up learning about systems dynamics through Sim City, which was patterned on MIT professor Jay Forrestor’s work on complex systems, Sid Meier’s Civilization series which explores relationships between geography, economics, policy, and the growth of civilizations, or Railroad Tycoon, which includes not only factually accurate data culled from Hisotry books and GIS maps, but a robust stock market simulator underneath its hood.
Still, these games are developed for entertainment purposes and overlook important areas that one would want to cover in academic settings. As urban planner Kenneth Kolson has pointed out, where is the race in Sim City? As I’ve suggested, where is the slavery in Civilization? Where are the indentured servants in Railroad Tycoon? By and large, these games have chosen to highlight the fantastical elements of urban planning(?) or the growth of civilizations while glossing over politically tricky subjects. Further, these games are designed to be used in commercial settings – a game like civilization might take 15 hours to learn to play, making it relatively unfeasible in many classroom settings.
At the same time, learning scientists have learned a lot over the past 15 years about how to build effective learning tools and learning environments. We know how to build scaffolding tools in our applications, how to incorporate assessment tools into software, or how to promote collaboration between students, which is a powerful predictor of learning.
Some of the most successful game franchises—Civilization, Simcity, Railroad Tycoon—have demonstrated how games can model complex social, scientific and economic processes. Most successful games actually introduced as entertainment games first.
Historically, edutainment has gotten a bad name…but aren’t many of the top selling games at their heart educational? But there has been no sustained exploration of how to create more sophisticated educational experiences for late adolescents, the core game market. Indeed, an entire generation of students is coming of age that grew up learning about systems dynamics through Sim City, which was patterned on MIT professor Jay Forrestor’s work on complex systems, Sid Meier’s Civilization series which explores relationships between geography, economics, policy, and the growth of civilizations, or Railroad Tycoon, which includes not only factually accurate data culled from Hisotry books and GIS maps, but a robust stock market simulator underneath its hood.
Still, these games are developed for entertainment purposes and overlook important areas that one would want to cover in academic settings. As urban planner Kenneth Kolson has pointed out, where is the race in Sim City? As I’ve suggested, where is the slavery in Civilization? Where are the indentured servants in Railroad Tycoon? By and large, these games have chosen to highlight the fantastical elements of urban planning(?) or the growth of civilizations while glossing over politically tricky subjects. Further, these games are designed to be used in commercial settings – a game like civilization might take 15 hours to learn to play, making it relatively unfeasible in many classroom settings.
At the same time, learning scientists have learned a lot over the past 15 years about how to build effective learning tools and learning environments. We know how to build scaffolding tools in our applications, how to incorporate assessment tools into software, or how to promote collaboration between students, which is a powerful predictor of learning.
Some of the most successful game franchises—Civilization, Simcity, Railroad Tycoon—have demonstrated how games can model complex social, scientific and economic processes. Most successful games actually introduced as entertainment games first.
Historically, edutainment has gotten a bad name…but aren’t many of the top selling games at their heart educational? But there has been no sustained exploration of how to create more sophisticated educational experiences for late adolescents, the core game market.
10. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Indeed, an entire generation of students is coming of age that grew up learning about systems dynamics through Sim City, which was patterned on MIT professor Jay Forrestor’s work on complex systems, Sid Meier’s Civilization series which explores relationships between geography, economics, policy, and the growth of civilizations, or Railroad Tycoon, which includes not only factually accurate data culled from Hisotry books and GIS maps, but a robust stock market simulator underneath its hood.
Still, these games are developed for entertainment purposes and overlook important areas that one would want to cover in academic settings. As urban planner Kenneth Kolson has pointed out, where is the race in Sim City? As I’ve suggested, where is the slavery in Civilization? Where are the indentured servants in Railroad Tycoon? By and large, these games have chosen to highlight the fantastical elements of urban planning(?) or the growth of civilizations while glossing over politically tricky subjects. Further, these games are designed to be used in commercial settings – a game like civilization might take 15 hours to learn to play, making it relatively unfeasible in many classroom settings.
At the same time, learning scientists have learned a lot over the past 15 years about how to build effective learning tools and learning environments. We know how to build scaffolding tools in our applications, how to incorporate assessment tools into software, or how to promote collaboration between students, which is a powerful predictor of learning.
Some of the most successful game franchises—Civilization, Simcity, Railroad Tycoon—have demonstrated how games can model complex social, scientific and economic processes. Most successful games actually introduced as entertainment games first.
Historically, edutainment has gotten a bad name…but aren’t many of the top selling games at their heart educational? But there has been no sustained exploration of how to create more sophisticated educational experiences for late adolescents, the core game market. Indeed, an entire generation of students is coming of age that grew up learning about systems dynamics through Sim City, which was patterned on MIT professor Jay Forrestor’s work on complex systems, Sid Meier’s Civilization series which explores relationships between geography, economics, policy, and the growth of civilizations, or Railroad Tycoon, which includes not only factually accurate data culled from Hisotry books and GIS maps, but a robust stock market simulator underneath its hood.
Still, these games are developed for entertainment purposes and overlook important areas that one would want to cover in academic settings. As urban planner Kenneth Kolson has pointed out, where is the race in Sim City? As I’ve suggested, where is the slavery in Civilization? Where are the indentured servants in Railroad Tycoon? By and large, these games have chosen to highlight the fantastical elements of urban planning(?) or the growth of civilizations while glossing over politically tricky subjects. Further, these games are designed to be used in commercial settings – a game like civilization might take 15 hours to learn to play, making it relatively unfeasible in many classroom settings.
At the same time, learning scientists have learned a lot over the past 15 years about how to build effective learning tools and learning environments. We know how to build scaffolding tools in our applications, how to incorporate assessment tools into software, or how to promote collaboration between students, which is a powerful predictor of learning.
Some of the most successful game franchises—Civilization, Simcity, Railroad Tycoon—have demonstrated how games can model complex social, scientific and economic processes. Most successful games actually introduced as entertainment games first.
Historically, edutainment has gotten a bad name…but aren’t many of the top selling games at their heart educational? But there has been no sustained exploration of how to create more sophisticated educational experiences for late adolescents, the core game market.
11. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Contemporary Pedagogy
+
State-of-the-Art Gaming
=
Next Generation Educational Media
The goal behind the games to teach project is to take what we’ve learned about effective learning technologies and integrate it with understandings with the emerging discipline of gaming studies to create next generational media. We hope that this media will excite students, provoke them to think about material more deeply.
Imagine using the
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
The goal behind the games to teach project is to take what we’ve learned about effective learning technologies and integrate it with understandings with the emerging discipline of gaming studies to create next generational media. We hope that this media will excite students, provoke them to think about material more deeply.
Imagine using the
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
12. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Games-to-Teach Over the past year, the Games to Teach Project, a research collaboration between Microsoft Research and the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, has conducted a series of elaborate "thought experiments," developing conceptual frameworks exploring different models for how games might enrich the instruction of science, engineering and math at the advanced placement high school and early college levels. different game genres, different content areas, different pedagogical approaches, different delivery mechanisms.
Over the past year, the Games to Teach Project, a research collaboration between Microsoft Research and the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program, has conducted a series of elaborate "thought experiments," developing conceptual frameworks exploring different models for how games might enrich the instruction of science, engineering and math at the advanced placement high school and early college levels. different game genres, different content areas, different pedagogical approaches, different delivery mechanisms.
13. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
14. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
15. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Learning is a process of personal construction
Pre-existing beliefs color all understandings
Learning occurs through testing ideas
Knowledge is socially negotiated
Communities of practice determine “truths”
Realism is not always best
“Perfect models” are too complex
Simplify conditions to illustrate concepts
Instruction is preparation for future learning
Transfer studies
We create meaning with media
We ask questions, wrestle with meaning, explore fantasies
Media consumption is a social experience
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best”.
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best”.
16. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Increased motivation (Cordova & Lepper, 1997; Malone, 1985)
Role of Instructional context (White & Frederickson, 1998)
“Metacognition”
Set up
Reflection
Effective within inquiry framework (White & Frederickson, 1998)
Social interactions produce learning (Johnson & Johnson, 1985)
“Emerging pedagogies” (Squire & Reigeluth, 1999)
Problem Based Learning (Barrows et al, 1999)
Anchored Instruction (Bransford et al, 1992)
Goal-Based Scenarios (Schank, 1996)
Case-Based Reasoning The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best”.
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best”.
17. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Appeal to broad audiences
Women in lead design roles
Gender inclusive game designs
Leverage existing genres
Provide “transgressive play”
Grounded in existing learning sciences research
Address misconceptions
“Induce” contextuality
Designing for sociability (Preece, 1999)
Recognizing Instructional Context
Embedded Assessment Data
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
18. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
19. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
20. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
21. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat.
The player must learn to “read” the body’s defenses, deciphering between antibodies and white blood cells, using the body’s responses to gauge how close the player is to getting ‘caught”. In this respect, the game play resembles grand theft auto, a little, in that the player is orchstrating an elaborate chase game.
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat.
The player must learn to “read” the body’s defenses, deciphering between antibodies and white blood cells, using the body’s responses to gauge how close the player is to getting ‘caught”. In this respect, the game play resembles grand theft auto, a little, in that the player is orchstrating an elaborate chase game.
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.
22. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat.
The player must learn to “read” the body’s defenses, deciphering between antibodies and white blood cells, using the body’s responses to gauge how close the player is to getting ‘caught”. In this respect, the game play resembles grand theft auto, a little, in that the player is orchstrating an elaborate chase game.
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat.
The player must learn to “read” the body’s defenses, deciphering between antibodies and white blood cells, using the body’s responses to gauge how close the player is to getting ‘caught”. In this respect, the game play resembles grand theft auto, a little, in that the player is orchstrating an elaborate chase game.
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.
23. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.
24. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.In our essay in the Game On companion book, henry Jenkins and I argued that games are the art of contested spaces. Fundamentally, they are about struggles and contests over spaces, where they be mazes like in Pac Man or labyrinths as in Quake.
Viruses and the human body have been fighting their own contests over the human body for over millions of years. Each one evolves a complicated set of responses toward the other. Imagine a game where the player is the virus, attacking the host, trying to replicate as quickly as possible, while still staying “under” the body’s radar. In Replicate, the player can choose from one of several set viruses, and gradually unlock the ability to change his / her features such as rates of propulgation or his / her type of proteing coat
Games can put players in contested spaces where they reenact … as in the human body where they might take place in century –old battles between the body and viruses.
25. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
BiohazardBiology through Pathology Games model not simply principles but processes, particularly the dynamics of complex systems. Imagine a game that moved with the pace of E.R. and cast players as young medical interns required to identify the cause and track the spread of an epidemic. Students will learn the scientific method through their own active observation, measurement, experimentation, tinkering and hypothesis testing, while embedded resources feed them the information they need to make life and death decisions.
Games model not simply principles but processes, particularly the dynamics of complex systems. Imagine a game that moved with the pace of E.R. and cast players as young medical interns required to identify the cause and track the spread of an epidemic. Students will learn the scientific method through their own active observation, measurement, experimentation, tinkering and hypothesis testing, while embedded resources feed them the information they need to make life and death decisions.
26. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
BiohazardGoal-Based Scenarios Games model not simply principles but processes, particularly the dynamics of complex systems. Imagine a game that moved with the pace of E.R. and cast players as young medical interns required to identify the cause and track the spread of an epidemic. Students will learn the scientific method through their own active observation, measurement, experimentation, tinkering and hypothesis testing, while embedded resources feed them the information they need to make life and death decisions.
Games model not simply principles but processes, particularly the dynamics of complex systems. Imagine a game that moved with the pace of E.R. and cast players as young medical interns required to identify the cause and track the spread of an epidemic. Students will learn the scientific method through their own active observation, measurement, experimentation, tinkering and hypothesis testing, while embedded resources feed them the information they need to make life and death decisions.
27. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
28. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
BiohazardSimulated RPGs Games model not simply principles but processes, particularly the dynamics of complex systems. Imagine a game that moved with the pace of E.R. and cast players as young medical interns required to identify the cause and track the spread of an epidemic. Students will learn the scientific method through their own active observation, measurement, experimentation, tinkering and hypothesis testing, while embedded resources feed them the information they need to make life and death decisions.
Games model not simply principles but processes, particularly the dynamics of complex systems. Imagine a game that moved with the pace of E.R. and cast players as young medical interns required to identify the cause and track the spread of an epidemic. Students will learn the scientific method through their own active observation, measurement, experimentation, tinkering and hypothesis testing, while embedded resources feed them the information they need to make life and death decisions.
29. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Combines physical world and virtual world contexts
Embeds learners in authentic situations
Engages users in a socially facilitated context
30. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Proof of Concept
Players briefed about health problems
Givenbackground information and “budget”
Goal: Determine source of pollution by drilling sampling wells and remediate with pumping wells
Work in teams representing different interests (EPA, Industry, etc.)
31. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
32. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Drilling wells Choose
Sites to sample
Sampling methods
Influence budget, accuracy and timeliness of samples
33. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Other Simulation Events Triggering of media events at specified locations
library ?
web documents
machine shop ?
video interview
“Racing” virtual players
Sharing and interpreting data with team members
34. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Game Conclusion Pinpoint location and cause of pollution
Scenario 1 (middle school)
Present evidence to a jury
Scenario 2 (MIT students)
Drill remediation wells and take new samples
Requires complex dynamic underlying model
35. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Game Extensions New Adaptations
Customize location, toxin, etc.
New Dimensions
Played across entire city
Played across months or weeks
Altered Spatial Scale
Entire building represents human body
New Domains
Historical Simulations
Walking the freedom trail
Epidemiological Studies
Tracking disease through population
New Tools
Authoring your own AR Simulations
36. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
Talk about collaborations which led to the current state of those designs -- creating common ground between content specialists, ed tech folks, and game designers.
37. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Design Themes Leveraging “contested” spaces
Managing success & failure
Provide early successes, non gamers
Failure ? learning
Graduated difficulty & complexity
Simulation underpinning
When do you cheat?
Where do you draw boundaries
Provide & anticipate transgressive play
Explore “what if scenarios”
What decisions is the player making
Practicing useful skills
Thinking “like an expert” Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
38. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Microworld Simulation Playing by an “arbitrary” set of rules
Designing solutions, inferring meaning, testing system boundaries
Experiencing complex interactions from simple rules
Visualization
New ways of seeing information
Supercharged, Replicate
Level Design is critical
Force players to confront properties of a system
Power-ups, “health” clocks
Encouraging deep understanding
Fostering metacogntion
Encouraging reflection through social interactions (i.e. discussion)
Learning by design / creation
Designing solutions
Designing levels for others to play
Recording and publishing levels for critique Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
39. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Role Playing Games What are the core concepts & skills?
What interesting roles (could) use these skills
Evaluating information from advisors
Choosing Advisors, information, interactions
Access to information as a constraint
Hidden Agenda, Civilization
Use RPG conventions
Build a character over time
Choose between skills, tools, statistics
Multiple solution paths
Use established pedagogical models
Anchored instruction, Problem-based learning, Goal-based scenarios
Building “teachable moments”
Failure starts a learning cycle
Failure ? learning
Recording & replaying actions Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
40. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
41. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
42. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
43. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Walkaways Games are social experiences
Explain what you did
Critique other games
Games allow hypothesis formation & testing
Failure leads to learning
Trust game conventions
Power-ups, character development
Differentiated roles,
Games vs. Simulations
Game designers cheat & this is good.
Games are motivating
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
44. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Building a network of teachers, researchers and developers…
http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/
ksquire@mit.edu
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
45. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Contested spaces
Leveraging contests in content
Power – ups
Ways of making students choose
Ways of manipulating variables
Character development – choosing skills / items
Creating emotional investment
Inducing creative thinking
Differentiated Roles
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
46. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Leveraging Social Interactions If learning is participation…
What is legitimate participation in social practices
Simulations vs. reality
Social interactions
Explaining strategies
Teacher’s “just-in-time” lectures
Collaborative communities of practice
Online communities
Sharing strategies (ala The Sims)
Using Games to “induce” complex problem solving
Role Playing
Microworlds
Strategy / Resource Management
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
Show slide(s) showing the results of our survey of MIT undergrads and their relationship to games.
47. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Internal Development
Supercharged! (Electromagnetism)
Environmental Detectives (Environmental Studies)
Replicate! (Biology & Virology)
Developing with partners
- Biohazard (Emergency Response workers)
New content partners
Royal Shakespeare Company
Colonial Williamsburg The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
The historical research on gaming has been “spotty at best” Educators have long utilized digital models, simulations and visualizations. Games, however, can motivate students to more fully engage with such exercises. A gamer, confronting a challenging level, draws on their full intelligence, often rehearsing alternative approaches, working through complex challenges well into the night. Many parents wish that they could get their children to devote this determination to solving their problem sets. Games push learners forward, forcing them to stretch in order to respond to problems just on the outer limits of their current mastery. Discuss motivation issues in relation to Replicate and the potential use by terminally ill children.
48. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Communities show images from Sims culture -- I have powerpoint slides here.
As this example suggests, our educational games are designed to exist in relation to a broader array of classroom activities. We don't think that games can make you a scientist or engineer any more than they can make you a school shooter, and we don't think they are an adequate substitute to real-world experiments. We see games as enhancing the capabilities of gifted teachers, not displacing them with impersonal machines. Yet, games do offer teachers enormous resources they can use to make their subject matter come alive for their students, motivating learning, offering rich and compelling problems, modeling the scientific process and the engineering context and enabling a more sophisticated assessment mechanisms.
Perhaps we want a rehash of the games as I click through my summary points there.show images from Sims culture -- I have powerpoint slides here.
As this example suggests, our educational games are designed to exist in relation to a broader array of classroom activities. We don't think that games can make you a scientist or engineer any more than they can make you a school shooter, and we don't think they are an adequate substitute to real-world experiments. We see games as enhancing the capabilities of gifted teachers, not displacing them with impersonal machines. Yet, games do offer teachers enormous resources they can use to make their subject matter come alive for their students, motivating learning, offering rich and compelling problems, modeling the scientific process and the engineering context and enabling a more sophisticated assessment mechanisms.
Perhaps we want a rehash of the games as I click through my summary points there.
49. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Communities show images from Sims culture -- I have powerpoint slides here.
As this example suggests, our educational games are designed to exist in relation to a broader array of classroom activities. We don't think that games can make you a scientist or engineer any more than they can make you a school shooter, and we don't think they are an adequate substitute to real-world experiments. We see games as enhancing the capabilities of gifted teachers, not displacing them with impersonal machines. Yet, games do offer teachers enormous resources they can use to make their subject matter come alive for their students, motivating learning, offering rich and compelling problems, modeling the scientific process and the engineering context and enabling a more sophisticated assessment mechanisms.
Perhaps we want a rehash of the games as I click through my summary points there.show images from Sims culture -- I have powerpoint slides here.
As this example suggests, our educational games are designed to exist in relation to a broader array of classroom activities. We don't think that games can make you a scientist or engineer any more than they can make you a school shooter, and we don't think they are an adequate substitute to real-world experiments. We see games as enhancing the capabilities of gifted teachers, not displacing them with impersonal machines. Yet, games do offer teachers enormous resources they can use to make their subject matter come alive for their students, motivating learning, offering rich and compelling problems, modeling the scientific process and the engineering context and enabling a more sophisticated assessment mechanisms.
Perhaps we want a rehash of the games as I click through my summary points there.
50. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Join Us! Prototypes 1-10 on the web
Designs, pedagogy, technical notes, art
Documentation and media
http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/
Kurt Squire
ksquire@mit.edu
51. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Game Data
Levels completed, time per - problem, solution paths
Observations
Notes & Video-taped
Pre & Post - tests
Content “Interviews”
Written tests & Surveys
Dynamic tasks (zero, near, & far transfer)
Interviews with Instructors
Comparisons with “traditional groups”
52. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Contact Information Information:
http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/
To participate in pilot program
Email: cms-g2t-pilot
Contact:
Henry Jenkins: henry3@mit.edu
Randy Hinrichs: randyh@microsoft.com
Kurt Squire: ksquire@mit.edu
53. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Questions
54. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Importance of instructional context
set-up, debriefing, and reflection
Leveraging collaboration (e.g. Koschmann, 1996)
Reflection
Power of local culture & conditions (Squire et al., 2002)
Adoption & Adaptation
Teacher support and professional development
Communities of teachers
55. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
56. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Immersive Learning Environments
Students developing and testing hypotheses
Role playing Games
Solving “authentic problems”
Access to authentic tools / resources
Visualization and Simulation
Leveraging potential contests
Spatial Conquests
Remediating physical laws
57. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
Control, Challenge (Malone, 1981)
Instantaneous feedback
Adjusted Difficulty level
Choice
Fantasy, Exploration
Narrative, whimsy, fantasy, discovery
Social Contexts
Collaboration, Competition
58. Games-to-Teach Project, MIT Comparative Media Studies
555 respondents listed at least 1 favorite game.
Final Fantasy series (I-VIII) 55
Starcraft 46
Civiliation I/ II 29
Zelda 24
Tetris 22
Quake 21
Super Mario Brothers 21
Tournmanet 12
Snood 12
Madden Sports 8
The Sims 6