High Tech, Low Tech, and Everything InBetween

1
Rediscovering Gaming

• High Tech, Low Tech, and Everything In-Between
• Lloyd Rieber
• The University of Georgia

2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
High Tech
5
Low Tech
6
And Everything In-Between
7
Did you say Games?

• The term game is a loaded term
• People tend to have a biased view about games
  pro or con few are neutral
• Games are like books and movies in that they
  refer to a general medium or art form
• Like books and movies, games can be inspiring,
  good, bad, or disgusting

8
Something to Ask Yourself

• What is your opinion of the role of games in
  education?
• Consider this from both an instructivist and
  constructivist view
• Instructivist
• Students learn by playing educational games given
  to them and designed by others
• Constructivist
• Students learn by designing and building their
  own games

9
Defining a Game

• Harder than you might think
• But, heres the dictionary definition
• An activity providing entertainment or amusement
  a pastime party games word games.
• A competitive activity or sport in which players
  contend with each other according to a set of
  rules the game of basketball the game of gin
  rummy.
• A period of competition or challenge It was too
  late in the game to change the schedule of the
  project.

10
Defining a Game

• An interactive medium in the sense that the path
  or outcome of the activity itself changes
  depending on a players input.(I dare you to try
  to define interactivity!)
• One of the best opportunities for serious play

11
Designing Learning Environments that Excite
Serious Play

• Elusive, But Always Ready to Emerge

We all play occasionally, and we all know what
playing feels like. But when it comes to making
theoretical statements about what play is, we
fall into silliness. There is little agreement
among us, and much ambiguity. Brian
Sutton-Smith
12
Dimensions of Human Activity
13
Play Theory

• Confluence of anthropology, sociology,
  psychology, and education
• Misconceptions of play
• Only children play Play is easy Play is merely
  a diversion and isirrelevant to learning All
  play is good
• Play attributes
• Voluntary Intrinsically motivating Involves
  active, sometimes physical, engagement Distinct
  from other behavior by having a make-believe
  quality
• Play as Progress, Power, Fantasy, Self

14
Of course, suggesting play as a viable learning
strategy in a profession known for championing
instruction comes with risks
15
(No Transcript)
16
when it is most needed.
Understanding when instruction is not necessary,
or
17
(No Transcript)
18
Experience first,Explain later.
19
Learning in a GameAffective Domain

• Motivation
• Competition, random features
• Intrinsic motivation You create your own reasons
  for participating
• Triggering challenge and curiosity
• A feeling of control, but with an edge of
  uncertainty

20
Learning in a GameCognitive Domain

• Meaningful, relevant context
• Active participation in an interactive story
• Organization, situation, goals, and feedback
• Helps students to organize information, followed
  by putting knowledge to use
• Narrative The power of stories
• Myths Archetypes (Joseph Campbell)

21
(No Transcript)
22
(No Transcript)
23
4.25 inches
24
Center court 36 inches Side posts 42 inches
25
High Tech Gaming in Education
James Gee University of Wisconsin What video
games have to teach us about learning and literacy
Henry Jenkins MIT Comparative Media
Studies Games-to-Teach Project
Kurt Squire University of Wisconsin Learning
World Historythrough playing Civilization III
Sasha Barab University of Indiana Quest Atlantis
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
(No Transcript)
31
4 Levels of Historical Understanding

• Just because
• Linear puzzle
• Mature beginning
• Mature

32
Quest Atlantishttp//atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/

• Triadic Foundation for Design
• Education Designing for Learning
• Entertainment Designing for Engagement
• Social Commitments Designing for Change

33
(No Transcript)
34
(No Transcript)
35
Microworlds, Simulations, Games
Not today, sorry!
36
Learning Objects are like
Is there a better metaphor?
37
Cooking! Where learning objects are the
ingredients
38
http//it.coe.uga.edu/wwild
39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
(No Transcript)
43
Mineshaft
44
Learning by Designing

• If you want to learn something well, teach it!
• Teaching is but one form of designing
• Design activities take time!
• The challenge is to find design activities that
  students find authentic and compelling
• Our research shows that game design is an
  excellent strategy for students as young as
  fourth grade

45
Designing a Game

• Part art (creativity) and part science (analytic)
• Similar to story writing
• Weaving the educational content and game together
  into a meaningful whole
• Lends itself to team work

46
Game Design

• Optimizing challenge
• What is your favorite sport?
• Change one rule or the parameter of one game
  object.
• What is the impact of this change on the game?

47
Motivation Flow TheoryMihaly Csikszentmihalyi
48
Knowledge as Design

• Four Design questionsfrom David Perkins (1986)
• 1. What is its purpose? "What's it for?"
• 2. What is its structure? "What's it like?
  What's it made of? What are its parts?"
• 3. What are model cases? "What's an example?"
• 4. What are the arguments to support it? "How is
  it supposed to work? Does it do a good job?"
• If you can't answer all four, the knowledge you
  have acquired may be "inert."

49
(No Transcript)
50

• Eight Years of Elementary and Middle School
  Students Designing Educational Computer Games
• http//www.nowhereroad.com/kiddesigner/

51
(No Transcript)
52
Children as Multimedia Critics

• Do children, other than those who designed the
  educational computer games, find these games
  interesting?
• What characteristics of games do children find
  most compelling/significant?
• Do these characteristics jive with the adult
  literature on what children should like?
• Are childrens critiques consistent with their
  actions?
• Do they take the role of critic seriously?

53
Its better because its homemade! Lloyd Rieber
Gretchen Thomas The University of
Georgia http//it.coe.uga.edu/wwild
54
Using PPT for Educational Games

• Why PowerPoint?
• Almost ubiquitous software application
• Teachers love it Higher probability for adoption
  and scalability
• Hyperlinking feature has lots of gaming potential
• Excellent way to package and deliver a game

55
Constructionist
Students create or adapt their own!
Teacher makes an original PPT game
Teacher adapts another teachers PPT game
Teacher finds existing PPT templates and inserts
his/her own content (Jeopardy, Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire, etc.)
Instructionist
56
Welcome
to
Jeopardy!
57
Designing Games

• Game Fantasy
• Where will the game take place?
• Give your game a title.
• Write a story for your game.
• Game Objects
• What/who are the game characters and game
  objects?
• Game Goal
• How does someone win the game?
• Will anything special happen when someone wins or
  loses?
• Game Rules
• What are the 2 or 3 most important rules of the
  game?
• Game Directions
• The goal of the game is to
• To play the game you have to
• To win the game you have to
• Artwork

58
KID DESIGNER Approach

• Ice breaker
• What makes a game fun?
• What games do you play now? Why?
• What games did you play as a kid? Why?
• Design teams form
• Identifying individual roles
• Brainstorming game topics
• Initial design
• Design/development cycle
• Academic standards
• Social negotiation
• Game day!

59
(No Transcript)
60
(No Transcript)
61
Honey Creek Elementary School
62
Activity Theory
http//www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/pages/chatandd
wr/chat/
63
Activity Theory
http//www.edu.helsinki.fi/activity/pages/chatandd
wr/chat/
64
(No Transcript)
65
Experience first,Explain later.
66
Sam WinwardNumbers All Around
67
Archiving the Best Multimedia Designed by
Graduate StudentsJoin the WWILD Team
http//it.coe.uga.edu/wwild

• Lloyd Rieber
• University of Georgia

Simon Hooper University of Minnesota
Glen Holmes Virginia Tech
Ron Zellner Texas AM University
68

• Eight Years of Elementary and Middle School
  Students Designing Educational Computer Games
• http//www.nowhereroad.com/kiddesigner/

69
Evolving Project KID DESIGNER Questions

• Authentic motivation for school?
• Collaboration enablers obstacles?
• Ability to engage in social negotiation?
• Competence to engage in design activity?
• Social dynamics child-child, child-adult, gender
• Do other children find these games worthwhile?
• Hmm, what research question is missing?

Learning
70
Understanding the Project by Playing the Games
71
(No Transcript)
72
A Summing Up of my Sum Up

• If you are interested in student meaning making,
  learning, and motivation, you should be
  interested in serious play
• Our field needs less attention on instruction and
  more attention on serious play

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly
are, far more than our abilities. Professor
Dumbledore to Harry Potter
73
(No Transcript)
74
Barriers to Learning Access

• How many of you can explain the following?

? dx x
Hint What is an example of a little bit?
Pinch, tad, morsel, ?
75
Universal Design (UD)

• Coined by Dr. Ron Mace of NCSU
• Design of products and environments to be usable
  by all people, to the greatest extent possible,
  without the need for adaptation or specialized
  design (Ron Mace, Center for Universal Design,
  North Caroline State University)

76
(No Transcript)
77
(No Transcript)
78
(No Transcript)
79
(No Transcript)
80
(No Transcript)
81
(No Transcript)
82
http//physics.syr.edu/courses/java/mc_html/kepler
_frame.html
83
(No Transcript)