1 / 39

Introduction to Games in Education

Introduction to Games in Education. Mark Wagner Coordinator Educational Technology. What is Hard Fun ?. “It’s hard. It’s fun. It’s LOGO.” (1st Grader) “I have no doubt that this kid called the work fun because it was hard rather than in spite of being hard.” (Seymour Papert)

cybil
Download Presentation

Introduction to Games in Education

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Introduction to Games in Education Mark Wagner Coordinator Educational Technology

  2. What is Hard Fun? • “It’s hard. It’s fun. It’s LOGO.” (1st Grader) • “I have no doubt that this kid called the work fun because it was hard rather than in spite of being hard.” (Seymour Papert) • “How do we make writing become hard fun?” (Seymour Papert) • Seymour’s gears…

  3. Welcome and Introductions • Name • Site • Grade / Subject • What were your gears? • What are your students’ gears?

  4. Overview Piaget, Papert, Prensky and more…

  5. Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants (Prensky, 2001) Incidental vs. Intentional Learning (Jonassen, 2002) enGauge 21st Century Skills (NCREL, 2003) Digital Age Literacies Inventive Thinking Effective Communication High Productivity Constructivist Learning Environments… Context, Choice, Collaboration (Wagner, 2005) Purpose/Rationale

  6. Relevant Theorists • Jean Piaget (1929 to 1976) • Seymour Papert (1980, 1993, 1996) • Marc Prensky (2001) • James Paul Gee (2003, 2005) • Clark Aldrich (2004, 2005) • Graduate Students…

  7. Jean Piaget • Cognitive Structures & Schemes • Functional Invariants • Adaptation • Organization • Adaptation • Assimilation • Accommodation • Stage Theory

  8. Seymour Papert • Mindstorms, 1980 • The Children’s Machine, 1993 • The Connected Family, 1996 • www.papert.org

  9. Marc Prensky • Digital Game-Based Learning, 2001 • marcprensky.com • games2train.com

  10. James Paul Gee • What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, 2003 • Why Video Games are Good For Your Soul, 2005

  11. Clark Aldrich • Simulations and the Future of Learning, 2004 • Learning by Doing, 2005 • Learning Circuits

  12. Virtual Leader simulearn.net

  13. simSchool simSchool.org

  14. Graduate Students • Nick Yee • Kurt Squire • Constance Steinkuehler • Fiona Littleton • Mark Wagner • And more…

  15. Share Resources • Share new or striking ideas from your own… • Reading • Listening • Viewing • Experience

  16. Break - 5 minutes

  17. Hands On Experience an Educational Game The WFP’s Food Force

  18. Richard Halverson (2005) “Nowhere is the current generational gap in technology greater than in game literacy, and while asking school leaders and teachers to play commercial video games may be a stretch, integrating game-based learning experiences in their professional development may help them see the merits of gaming from the inside.”

  19. Reflection Questions • What was your experience like as a player? • What relationships do you see between this game and the theories we discussed?

  20. Break - 5 minutes

  21. Games in Your Classroom What can you use on Monday?

  22. Web-based Games • Browser based • Mostly FREE • Engaging and content related • Great for younger students

  23. Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Games • Teachers may not be able to develop a cutting edge game, but many games can be repurposed. • “Instead of embedding a game into learning, it is possible to embed learning into a game.” (Downes, 2005)

  24. Civilization III • Real Time Strategy • Systems Content • Social Studies Concepts • Complexity, flexibility, replayability • Failure and choice • Kurt Squire’s Dissertation (2004)

  25. 25% complained the game was too hard, complicated and uninteresting. 25% loved playing the game,thought it was a “perfect way to learn history”, and a highlight of their year. Students played the game in different ways, leading to highly different understandings. Playing games does not appeal to everyone, and no one game appeals to all gamers. Kurt Squire (2005)

  26. Making History • Designed for education! • Assessment features • Successfully piloted

  27. Unreal Tournament • First Person Shooter • Mod-able • Used to teach chemistry!

  28. Neverwinter Nights • Role Playing Game (RPG) • Toolset for user-made content • Teachers can be gamemasters (GMs) • MIT’s Revolution Mod

  29. MMORPGs • Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games • Context, Choice, Collaboration • Guilds!

  30. Teen Second Life • 13-18 year olds • Avatar customization • User created content • In game economy

  31. Age of Empires Age of Mythology Rise of Nations Morrowind The Sims SimCity etc… Zoo Tycoon etc… Myst … And More…

  32. Benefits of design Deep understanding of the subject required and developed Variables identified Relationships between variables identified Inventive thinking Benefits of implementation Technical Literacy Effective Communication High Productivity Designing a game?

  33. Think, Pair, Share • What are some possible uses for games in your class?

  34. Lesson Planning • Outline a lesson plan incorporating a game into your class.

  35. What would a state of the art instructional video game look like? (Gee, 2005)

  36. Just do it! (Aldrich, 2005) “[Teachers] can nudge. They can implement. They can make case studies.” (2005)

  37. Games in Education, Part II • Social Constructivism: Dewey Vygotsky Bruner • Serious Games • Games for Change • May 9th, 2006 - http://register.ocde.us

  38. Go forth and do great things! Mark Wagner mwagner@ocde.us 714-966-4153

More Related