The Sims Go to College

1. The Sims Go to College Mary Dziorny University of North Texas United States mdziorny@sbcglobal.net

2. Quotable Quotes …up to this point, education has been based on a model of scarcity because it was hard to get good academic material. It was hard to get the right kind of books. It was hard to get access to the teachers. So naturally, school formed a solution, an economical way of delivering information, using the classroom model, using the teacher model. What you got is a really constrained environment. Today, it’s about abundance: what do the models for learning look like now? - Randy Hinrichs

3. Quotable Quotes It is amazing to me that in the modern age, when we have technologies like the Internet and the hand-helds and the computers and the computer games, we are still teaching inside four walls, where all the information is coming from within those walls and where all students, regardless of the amount of preparation they have, are sitting together. - James Paul Gee

4. Quotable Quotes Right now, universities are still, to a large degree, structurally nineteenth-century institutions. Everyone says, ‘We want to go to the twenty-first century, and we want to get this latest technology.’ But it’s not about the technology. It’s about the way that your culture is organized. -J.C. Herz

5. Definition of DGL • No concise definition • Any digital game can be used for DGL (Prensky) • For this presentation, computer based or console based video games

6. Why DGL? • Many students now are part of the “twitchspeed” generation • Learner-centered, learner-guided form of learning

7. Active, Critical Learning Principle Design Principle Semiotic Principle Semiotic Domains Principle Metalevel Thinking about Semiotic Domains Principle “Psychosocial Moratorium” Principle Committed Learning Principle Identity Principle Self-Knowledge Principle Amplification of Input Principle Achievement Principle Practice Principle Ongoing Learning Principle “Regime of Competence” Principle Probing Principle Multiple Routes Principle Situated Meaning Principle Text Principle Intertextual Principle Multimodal Principle “Material Intelligence” Principle Intuitive Knowledge Principle Subset Principle Incremental Principle Concentrated Sample Principle Bottom-up Basic Skills Principle Explicit Information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle Discovery Principle Transfer Principle Cultural Models about the World Principle Cultural Models about Learning Principle Cultural Models about Semiotic Domains Principle Distributed Principle Dispersed Principle Affinity Group Principle Insider Principle Why DGL?

8. DGL in the Classroom • Civilization III- used to teach various historical and political concepts • Age of Empires • Hidden Agenda- used to teach politics, history, economics, sociology, culture

9. DGL in the Classroom • SimCity- used to teach Public Administration • SimEarth- allows students to manipulate otherwise unalterable variables • Railroad Tycoon All three also allow students to observe behaviors of systems over time.

10. Contact information Mary Dziorny University of North Texas United States mdziorny@sbcglobal.net