You cant Change History

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You cant Change History!
Nick deKanter Muzzy Lane Software, Inc.
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Pop Quiz

• When was Poland invaded by Germany?
• What is lebensraum?

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Why we teach history

• Data
• Names
• Places
• Dates
• Skills
• Critical thinking
• Cause and effect
• Bias detection

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Making History is

• An educational experience that capitalizes on
  students digital skills and schools
  technology investments.
• A history simulation, where students assume the
  roles of world leaders during the WWII era.
• A computer game that is fun, challenging and
  thought-provoking
• Built upon a game platform that gives instructors
  the power to track, analyze, and assess students
  actions. 

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Best Practices Game Design

• To succeed, a gaming environment designed for
  education must have all of the following
  characteristics
• Accuracy - Reporting
• Transparency - Customization
• Multiplayer - Consumer Quality
• - Always-On - Classroom
• Integration Materials
• Game production costs must be in line with market
  size and its ability to pay

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Best Practices Content

• Representative of commonly accepted historical
  thought
• Reliable Sources
• Peer review standards
• Supportive of teaching objectives
• Familiarity
• Comparative judgment
• Awareness of manifold truths
• Appreciation of authority
• Hindsight

David Lowenthal Dilemas and Delights of
Learning History, 2000
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Why is absolute accuracy an unrealistic goal?

• The complexity of historical accuracy may be
  undesirable to the learning process
• High cost
• Research
• Content development and input
• Increases technical requirements
• RAM
• Video Cards

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The role of the teacher

• Setting context
• Facilitating participation
• Inducing critical thinking
• Leading discussion

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The role of the student

• Learn the issues countries faced during a
  specific historical period
• Consider the options available to leaders and
  make choices
• Evaluate results
• Compare results to known history
• Apply learning to other historical situations

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Causes of World War II
67 of Test students showed an improvement in
scores control group was basically stable
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European Geography
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Essay Questions

• Depth of content significantly improved in post
  test

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Counter-factual and Alternative Histories

• I can fix that.
• David McDivitt, Oak Hill High School

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Counter-factual and Alternative Histories

• Students who had not performed well on
  traditional assessments did very well in
  leading the class through discussions scenario
  options vs. history and post game writings
• Karen Kriebel, Out of Door Academy

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Counter-factual and Alternative Histories

• Students recognized that they did better in the
  game if they understood all the options avaialble
  to them as leaderssending many back to re-read
  their texts
• Christopher Mauriello, Salem State College

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Counter-factual and Alternative Histories

• Counterfactuals are a vital part of the way we
  learn. Because decisions about the future are
  usually- based on weighing up the potential
  consequences of alternative courses of actions,
  it makes sense to compare the actual outcomes of
  what we did in the past with the conceivable
  outcomes of what we might have doneThis is the
  value The Calm the Storm adds to an
  undergraduate course on World War II.
• Niall Ferguson, Harvard University, author of The
  War of the World

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Hindsight Bias

• Hindsight Bias the tendency to view what has
  already happened as relatively inevitable and
  obvious without realizing that your knowledge
  of the out come is influencing your judgment.
• Hindsight bias diminishes when people stopped to
  consider the reasons why the results might have
  turned out differently.
• Fischhoff, B., Beyth, R. (1975) I knew it
  would happen Remembered probabilities of
  once-future things. Organizational Behavior and
  Human Performance, 13, 1-16.
• Slovic, P. Fischoff, B. (1977) On the psychology
  of experimental surprises. Journal of
  Experimental Psychology Human Perception and
  Performance, 3, 544-551

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You cant change history

• But you can change the way you learn about it,
  think about it, and apply it.