What Video Games Teach us about Learning

1. What Video Games Teach us about Learning Debbie Greh AENJ 2011 This is an exploration of the power of video games to educate, engage, and empower 21st-century students to apply their creative and artistic skills as they learn to problem solve, read visual cues and make meaning of the world!

2. What Do Video Games Teach us about Learning? • Looking at our students • Looking at ourselves • Looking at Learning, how we learn and • Looking at art education specifically

3. In 2010, Gen Y, the group defined as having graduated high school around the turn of the millennium, might as well be considered over the hill. They are growing up and out of their "teen" phase, paving the way for tweens to take the crown. And Now PRESENTING: Gen Z • They have access to almost all the best things one could get, such as communication tools, internet cell phones, MP3 players, Ipods, and all the current gadgets. They are the children of the modern world and are also called the digital generation. They also are growing up in a world of equality and they believe men and women are equals. • This generation has embraced technology and also they are highly dependent on it. They are more inclined to the virtual world and are less likely to take to extreme measures like terrorism. • They can achieve a lot more than their earlier generations using the digital media. However, they may be poor with interpersonal skills and, they may not give too much importance to family values. They are very individualistic in their characteristics. • They use their cell phone as a camera, a watch and for text messaging; everything BUT a phone call!

4. Generation Z: young, yet very active consumers, born after 1995, they are very connected (from being born into a world of digitaltechnology). The have influence over their parent’s purchasing decisions, and are at ease with single-parent families or same-sex partnerships. They are comfortable with equality at home and in the workplace They will: • be an essentially transient workforce; they will move to where the work is, rather than expect to find employment in their home town, • be relentlessly tested from an early age, they will see constant appraisal and feedback as the norm, not the exception, • have more degrees, certificates and diplomas than any generation in history, but will need encouragement to notch up meaningful work experience, • know sponsorship through their schools and clubs, by possible future employers, in a bid to secure young talent early on, • live primarily via the web and for those who find work less than satisfying, a virtual or second life will become their comfort blanket, • be loyal to employers; engagement at work will become an urgent priority as young workers switch jobs and locations more often, • have had regular access to technology as children, but limited physical freedom means they will grow up fast, and use their political power via their online identities, not the ballot box. Generation Z’s will continue to be the dominant generation in high schools into the 2020’s.

6. The first national survey of its kind finds that virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement. The survey was conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, an initiative of the Pew Research Center and was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The primary findings in the survey of 1,102 youth ages 12-17 include -- Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day. Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories. Game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life. Another major findings is that game playing sometimes involves exposure to mature content, with almost a third of teens playing games that are listed as appropriate only for people older than they are. Teens, Video Games and Civics Pew Research Center Sept 16, 2008

8. Being educated today is not so much about what you’ve been taught It’s about what you can teach yourself

9. From James Paul Gee • James Paul Gee is interested in the cognitive development that can occur when someone is trying to escape a maze, find a hidden treasure, or even blast away an enemy with a high-powered rifle. Talking about his own experience learning and using games as diverse as Tomb Raider and Arcanum, Gee looks at major specific cognitive activities including: • -How individuals develop a sense of identity • -How one grasps meaning • -How one evaluates and follows a command • -How one picks a role model • -How one perceives the world. • Digital games are, at their heart, problem solving spaces that use continual learning and provide pathways to mastery through entertainment and pleasure. Not surprisingly, there has been a growing interest recently in so-called serious games that involve learning the sorts of domains, skills, or content that we associate with school, work, health, citizenship, knowledge construction, or community building, and not limited to pure popular form of entertainment (i.e., witchcraft, sorcery, fantasy war, etc.).  • Video games are not content-driven media though they do have content. They are driven by choices and problem solving. Content is there to motivate player choices about how to solve problems. Our understanding or illumination comes through solving problems or trying to solve them or by realizing there are multiple ways to solve them. Perhaps the problem is how to wage war in contemporary global conflicts (Full Spectrum Warrior), sneak past enemies (Metal Gear Solid), manage a city (SimCity) or a civilization (Civilization), or clean house and keep a family happy when you are a four-inch robot (Chibi-Robo).

10. From James Paul Gee • We learn from games quite differently than we do from news and books. We also learn from games quite differently than we learn in school where failure is a big deal. Not so in games; just start over from the last save. A low cost for failure ensures that players will take risks, explore and try new things. • Games are based on performance before competence: learn by doing, then read. School often is based on competence before performance: learn by reading, then maybe you get to do. Players are able to understand manuals and strategy guides because they have experience with the game. In school, too often, students have not lived in the worlds described by the books they are reading (i.e., they have not “played” the game of biology, but only read about it). • Games let players practice skills as part of larger goals they want to accomplish; in school, kids are often skilled and drilled apart from any meaningful context. Games make players master skills through practice and then challenge that mastery with a “boss battle,” forcing the player to learn something new and take mastery to the next stage. School can be too challenging if kids are never allowed to practice enough to attain mastery. Alternatively, schools too often fail to challenge the routine mastery of kids who get good grades. • Games encourage players to think about how they are designed—in order to beat them—and even to design games themselves through “modding,” in which they use tools that often come with games to make new levels or entirely new games. Schools rarely let kids design or redesign the curriculum.

11. I prefer to “play with others!” • Whether on line or at home, young people prefer to play with people • And they prefer to play with people they know

12. Failure? No problem! I’ll try again (until I get it right)

13. I don’t need a rule book • I can figure out the game play • Most of today’s video games come without a user’s guide. Players learn to play the game by getting in and pushing and pulling and exploring so they can learn the goals, figure out the rules and learn how to work the rules to accomplish the goals

14. We're looking at a technology which allows people to drill deeply into subject matter, to explore choice and consequence, to play with complex variables, to simulate real world processes, to create peer-to-peer teaching opportunities, to create an immersive and highly motivating mode of learning -- and all of that if enormously valuable for learning in the k12 classroom. Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media MIT • The great thing about video games is that it puts people in a world where they can connect language to actions, to images, and to talk -- so they don't just get words for words, they get images and actions and dialog for words. And they learn how to use those words in context and they know how to use those words for problem solving and problem solution. James Paul Gee

15. Can you be more specific? • Funny you should ask! This is a picture of Dan Floyd who answers LOTS of questions about video games: go to Penny Arcade TV

16. SimCity The SIMS (like SIM city) are great teachers The objective of SimCity, as the name of the game suggests, is to build and design a city, without specific goals to achieve. The player can mark land as being zoned as commercial, industrial, or residential, add buildings, change the tax rate, build a power grid, build transportation systems and take many other actions, in order to enhance the city. Also, the player may face disasters including flooding, tornadoes, fires (often from air disasters or even shipwrecks), earthquakes and attacks by monsters.

17. Roller Coaster Tycoon is another example of work-style video game/SIMS. You’re building and running an amusement park; you’re designing (engineering) a roller coaster. You’ve got to “know” physics if you want to build a successful roller coaster and if you want to run the park, you have to know management and marketing strategies as well.

18. World of Warcraft (WoW) is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG,and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers.

19. WoW • World of Warcraft, an MMORPG takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, • With more than 12 million subscribers as of October 2010,World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. • As with other MMORPGs, players control a character avatar within a game world exploring the landscape, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players. • Much of World of Warcraft play involves "questing". Quests usually reward the player with some combination of experience points, items, and in-game money. Quests also allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, and explore new areas It is also through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest's text and through scripted NPC actions. • While a character can be played on its own, players can also group with others to tackle more challenging content. Most end-game challenges are designed in a way that they can only be overcome while in a group. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group • In addition to playing the game itself and conversing on discussion forums provided by Blizzard, World of Warcraft players often participate in the virtual community in creative ways, including fan artworkand comic strip style storytelling.

20. Gaming is Good For You! So says author, Jane McGonigal, PhD, author of the new book ‘Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.’ • “There’s a big misconception about games, that they’re a waste of time. But 10 years of scientific research show that playing games is actually the most productive thing you can actually do, more productive than most of what we spend doing at work, school.” • McGonigal’s thesis stems from the premise that video games require a player to be motivated, optimistic, team-oriented, and resilient. • She makes the case that certain skills required to play video games can be utilized in reality, can be positive for society, and may even make the world a better place. She created the video game Urgent Evoke

23. McGonigal is not alone Games For Change Annual Festival: NYC Often referred to as “the Sundance of Video Games”, the Games for Change Annual Festival is the biggest gaming conference in New York City. It brings together leaders from government, corporations, philanthropy, civil society, media, academia and the gaming industry to explore the increasing real-world impact of digital games as an agent for social change. The Festival is also a showcase for some of the most innovative new games in production. The 7th Annual Festival was held in May 2010 in New York City and was headlined by The Honorable Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra. It attracted over 600 participants. http://gamesforchange.org/

24. Are Video Games Art? • Are Video Games Art? Journal of Contemporary AestheticsAaron Smuts … by any major definition of art many modern video games should be considered art. Rather than defining art and defending video games based on a single contentious definition, I offer reasons for thinking that video games can be art according to historical, aesthetic, institutional, representational and expressive theories of art. Overall, I argue that while many video games probably should not be considered art, there are good reasons to think that some video games should be classified as art, and that the debates concerning the artistic status of chess and sports offer some insights into the status of video games. I think He should be arguing from an expanded vision of art to include music and film and literature (comics)

25. Are Video Games Art? • Video games are nothing if not experiential. They are visuals and music and poetry all wrapped up into a single package. A video game isn't just a game—it is a controlled passage through an overwhelming aesthetic experience. This is also the basis for my own definition of art as any sensory aesthetic experience that provokes an emotional response in its audience, be it wonder, anger, love, frustration or joy. • (Kyle Chayka) Why Video Games are Works of Art . May 2010 /the Atlantic) Games certainly have artistic qualities and elements. There are even games that are absolute masterpieces. And there are artists — from graphical artists to true visionaries in the world of video games. Will Wright and Sid Meier are true artists, even if the games that they make aren't entirely art. However Trying to label games as a whole as art diminishes the word and the meaning of art. Not every painting is art, and not every film is art ... Peter Suciu, Feb 26 2011, dvice.com/

26. Video games use images, actions, and player participation to tell stories and engage their audiences. In the same way as film, animation, and performance, they can be considered a compelling and influential form of narrative art. Many museums have explored art inspired by video games, but The Art of Video Games exhibition is the first to examine comprehensively the evolution of video games themselves as an artistic medium.

27. The Art of Video Games The exhibition will explore the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects, the creative use of new technologies, and the most influential artists and designers. We want you to help us select the eighty video games that will be represented in the exhibition. Remember, this is an art exhibition, so be sure to vote for games that you think are visually spectacular or boast innovative design!

29. Super Mario Remember the Original Mario? Some classics never get old. This update of the classic Mario Bros. title for the industry’s best selling console was the first to let players play together. It has sold 14.7 million copies worldwide and is the Wii’s second-best selling Mario title (behind “Mario Kart”).

30. God of War 3 Brutal and bloody, this franchise tells the ongoing tale of Kratos, a Spartan warrior who takes on the Greek gods. This concluding chapter of the game’s first trilogy is arguably the best and demonstrates the graphical prowess of the PS3

31. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 The game has sold over 14 million copies worldwide and is now the third-best selling game of all time in the U.S. total sales for the entire Call Of Duty series have surpassed 55 million units worldwide

32. Dead Rising Zombies are definitely “in”

33. Final Fantasy An MMORPG with more than 97 million units sold, and one of the best selling franchises

34. The Halo Trilogy (Reach is Part 3) has been called the Star Wars of Video Games

35. Epic Mickey Created by Will Wright, who also designed Sim City

36. Hand-held, social media Farmville Pokemon for the DS (gold and silver) were 2 of the top ten ds games of 2010, Mario Kart was #3 Since December 2010, CityVille, pulled ahead of FarmVille. According to the Facebook stat-tracking site, CityVille now more than 86 million monthly users.

37. APPS! For phones and pads Doodle Jump and Doodle Truck! Angry Birds debuted in the middle of December 2009, and rocketed to the top of the charts. Its publisher say downloads are over 7 million, which suggests gross sales for the $0.99 game are well over $7 million Infinity Blade for the iPad The largest growing game market: apps and games designed for social network

38. Monday, January 31, 2011: CNN Today How Serious Games Can Make You Smarter Serious Games as powerful learning tools Scott Steinberg addresses video games, stating that “contrary to popular belief, many build, not burn brain cells by requiring extensive problem solving, teamwork and dynamic decision-making skills. Also capable of building players' confidence and helping them see the world from multiple viewpoints, games can be powerful learning tools. At minimum, they readily encourage fans to fall on their face then pick themselves up and try again, promoting hands-on learning without the fear of ridicule or embarrassment.” Hands-On ExperienceMore interactive and absorbing than passive forms of entertainment like movies and TV, video games promote higher levels of engagement because observers are actively and enthusiastically involved with on-screen activity.Job Training Businesses and Universities are increasingly turning to Serious Games as training tools to educate employees.Contextual LearningVideo games may soon save lives as well. "Serious Games are the future of education.”Beyond allowing for greater scalability and group collaboration than traditional classrooms, every decision made in a virtual world, can be tracked and benchmarked against best practices, then standardized or archived for others' review… "Gaming platforms will offer an interactive way for students to learn and apply information in context."Teamwork and CollaborationMassively multiplayer games such as "World of Warcraft," "EVE Online" and "City of Heroes" may seem like idle fantasy and sci-fi escapes. But many require active teamwork and high-level project management to do well. Collaborative elements often take the form of loose alliances disguised as in-game guilds, factions or virtual corporations where players join forces to complete objectives such as seizing territory or battling otherwise unstoppable opponents.

39. What are students using to create games? Alice, Scratch, Game Maker, Daz Studio? • Where do they play, show, exhibit? YouTube, FaceBook Podcast (and vodcasts!) or in Virtual Worlds

40. http://www.teachstory.org/ • http://www.half-real.net/ • http://www.jamespaulgee.com/ • http://www.alice.org • http://scratch.mit.edu/ • http://www.pewinternet.org • http://www.ted.com/ • Jane McGonigal and Will Wright and others! • http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/ • Quest 2 Learn (NYC School) • Games for Change