Engaging Brains Through Games and Simulations

1. Engaging Brains Through Games and Simulations Bernie Dodge, PhD San Diego State University http://webquest.org/workshops/engaging/

2. Outline • Games vs Learning • An Equation for Learning Power • Star Logo 2 • Second Life • The Glass Bead eGame • Choose Your Own Edventure • Turoff’s Game • Simulated Diaries

3. Good Games vs Good Teaching • Engagement • Unforgetableness • Positive emotion • Uncertainty But also… • Adrenaline • Addiction • Mindless automatic behavior

4. Game Addiction

5. Mini-Games Marc Prensky distinguishes between mini-games and complex games. Mini-games… • Take less than one hour • Have simple content

6. Mini-Game Examples • Card games (except Bridge) • Quiz / Trivia games • Board games (except Chess & Go)

7. Complex Games • Require learning a wide variety of strategies and skills • Develop mastery by progressing through a series of levels • Include ethical dilemmas and choices • Take 10 to 100 hours to complete

8. Example Complex Games • Rise of Nations • Civilization • The Sims • World of Warcraft • America’s Army • John Madden’s Football

9. Two Burning Questions: • Who’s got 10-100 hours to spare in their course? • Who’s got a million dollars to develop a complex game wrapped around their course content?

12. Brain Minutes

13. Learning Power P = ADE Power = Attention x Depth x Efficiency

14. Attention The proportion of time learners spend • looking at, • listening to, and • thinking about what you want them to. • Ranges from 0 to 1.

15. Causes of Attention Human Interest Variability Attention Competition Uncertainty Challenge Social interaction

16. Attention as a Ratio Attention = Brain Minutes spent attending to X Total Brain Minutes

17. Depth • the degree to which thinking is required • ranges from 0 to 100

18. Efficiency • Curricular efficiency is the proportion of time learners have to spend thinking about what you’re trying to teach. Efficiency = Brain Minutes Devoted to Curriculum Total Brain Minutes

19. Efficiency and Games If a game is… • Unfamiliar • Particularly creative • Richly detailed Learners will.. • Spend brain minutes on figuring out the game • And not figuring out your content

20. Learning Power P = ADE Power = Attention x Depth x Efficiency So a perfect game would be 1 x 100 x 1 = 100

21. Star Logo TNG

22. Star Logo TNG • Programming by building blocks

23. Wash Your Hands, Homer

24. Wash Your Hands, Homer

25. Wash Your Hands, Homer

26. Wash Your Hands, Homer

27. Learning Power of Star Logo • High attention • High depth • Low efficiency • Power = .9 x 90 x .2 = 16

28. Second Life

29. Second Life

30. Second Life

31. Second Life

32. Second Life

33. Possibilities • Mathematics of scaling, geometry • Theater productions • Machinema • Cross cultural exchange • Role plays

34. Learning Power of Second Life • Attention will be very high • Depth could range from low to high • Efficiency could be low to medium • Power = .9 x 90 x .5 = 40 at best • Power = .9 x 10 x .2 = 18 at worst

35. Choose Your Own Adventure • Popular book series for children • Adapted for adult training • Branching stories, multiple endings

36. Choose Your Own Edventure • Narrative/simulation based on your content • Emphasis on choices and their consequences • You create a starting point and two or more choices • Students carry the story on from there • Easily implemented in Google Docs

37. Learning Power of CYOE • High attention • High depth • Medium efficiency • Power = .9 x 90 x .5 = 40

38. The Glass Bead Game • Based on Hermann Hesse’s Magister Ludi. • A kind of Scrabble for ideas

39. Glass Bead eGame • Can use Inspiration or Gliffy • Learners take turns placing a bead and explaining how it relates to adjacent beads • Players reward points based on the elegance or surpringness of the linkages

40. Glass Bead eGame

48. Learning Power of the GBG • High attention • High depth • High efficiency • Power = .9 x 90 x .9 = 73

49. Turoff’s Game • Invented by Alan Turoff • Played on Compuserve in the early 80s • Useful to liven up an online chat • Development cost: $0

50. Turoff’s Game • Two lines will be shown • Intertwingled between them is a word or phrase that matches the clue • Example: A U.S. President • GARPETCHACHINA • WOTRONGYERDUNG • GARPETCHACHINA • WOTRONGYERDUNG • WARRENGHARDING