The Sims Go to College

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The Sims Go to College

• Mary Dziorny
• University of North Texas
• United States
• mdziorny_at_sbcglobal.net

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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, its about
  abundance what do the models for learning look
  like now?
• - Randy Hinrichs

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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

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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 its not about the
  technology. Its about the way that your culture
  is organized.
• -J.C. Herz

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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

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Why DGL?

• Many students now are part of the twitchspeed
  generation
• Learner-centered, learner-guided form of learning

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Why DGL?

• 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

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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

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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.

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Contact information

• Mary Dziorny
• University of North Texas
• United States
• mdziorny_at_sbcglobal.net