Games+for+Learning

CREATE AND CONSTRUCT YOUR DIGITAL IDENTITY

Evaluating Learning Games

=AGENDA for Class on X/X/X=
 * Essential Questions**
 * **How do we understand digital games within and educational Framework?**
 * **How might you include your students’ interest in gaming when you begin teaching?**
 * **What educational advantages do you see for games that go “against the grain” by featuring cooperation, creative problem solving and peaceful solutions to problems?**
 * **What do you think is the impact of the strong violence and intense competition found in many video or computer games on the youngsters who play them?**
 * **Can video gaming be us ed to re-engage boys and some girls into school culture?**

DATE: RELATED READING: SUPPORTING RESEARCH:

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

OPENING ACTIVITY: Game Sample in Action Observe or play the game sample. If you take a turn playing the game, note the types of feelings, emotions you have before, during and after you play. If you observe another classmate playing the game, carefully observe the player's actions, take notes. How does the player interact with the game? What do you notice about the way the game player interacts with the game?

Game Rating Established in 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit independent organization rates video gaming software and mobile applications. ESRB is the originator of a two-tiered evaluation system offering both a category addressing age appropriateness and related descriptions of software content. The highly popular ESRB rating system has been adopted by the entertainment industry,retailers, and family organizations. Activity: ESRB Bingo

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ESRB RATING GUIDES: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp Game name here, also known as a serious game: Watch the Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbCvKz6UOFQ&feature=fvwrel Visit a Serious Games Webiste: http://seriousgamesmarket.blogspot.com/

This week we will explore the use of software, games and apps for problem solving and critical thinking. There is an extensive collection of resources to use with students, but teachers need to carefully evaluate each potential resource for its quality and effectiveness as a learning experience.

Think of locating digital games for learning on two continuums of online game experiences (see Figure below). The horizontal line is for learning goals and ranges left to right from “entertainment” to “edutainment” to “education.” The vertical line includes Bloom’s thinking skills arranged from lower order to higher order from bottom to top.



Many popular computer and video games are designed to mainly “entertain” users. Such games include fighting and first person shooter action games as well as simple games for chance and probability. In the middle of the horizontal continuum are games that “edutain,” where game designers seek to blend the entertainment of point scoring competition and engaging graphics with the teaching of academic content. Math Blaster, Treasure MathStorm and other skills-learning games are examples of edutain games. Games that “educate” use the structure and format of a game to teach academic content. Many of these games include lots of entertaining features (graphics, avatars, points), but the emphasis remains more explicitly on learning academic material. Stop Disasters!, the Nobel Prize-related games, and iCivics are all examples at the educate end of the scale.

Games can also be displayed according to the thinking skills they emphasize as part of the game play. Some entertainment and edutainment games require complex strategy on the part of players, placing them at the left end of the horizontal line, but high up on the vertical line next to analyzing, evaluating or creating (see Game A on chart). At the same time, some educational games emphasize mostly factual recall of information, placing them at the right side of horizontal line, but lower on the vertical line opposite remembering or understanding (see Game B on chart).

=Related Homework:= Play and then evaluate two educational games in your subject field. You may want to invite either a small or large group of students to help you.

Place the games you evaluate on the above chart in terms of learning goals and thinking skills. What are some of the Edutainment qualities that you found to be most beneficial within the context of your teaching field? Include a short paragraph explaining the reasons for your selections.

What types of games have you used or have observed being used in the schools or learning situations? What types of conversations are happening at your school in light of the types of learning games being used, how they are used, and who is in charge of choosing the educational games?

Power Point Conceptual Framework for Understanding Digital Games

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Game Walkthrough: Trauma Center, Second Opinion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0UWKM4mcR4&feature=relmfu

The Inspiracy, A resource an expert in Gameification, Noah Falstein is one of the first at Lucasfilm Games (now LucasArts Entertainment), The 3DO Company, and Dreamworks Interactive. http://www.theinspiracy.com/

= BIG THEORY ONE: Games Can Re-engage Students Into the School Culture = Based on the essential question: Can video gaming be us ed to re-engage boys and some girls into school culture?

Teaching History Blogspot-**Joe W.** @http://teachinghighschoolhistory1.blogspot.com/ My digital presence is a look at connecting pop culture and many forms of media with education. The site focuses a lot on connecting different video games, board games, and movies with a history classroom. = Listen to All Carr-Chellman of Penn State on Gaming to re-engage boys in learning = []

= BIG THEORY TWO-conflicting data- video violence acts of violence = = Violent Video Games Alter Brain Function in Young Men = December 1, 2011 INDIANAPOLIS -- Sustained changes in the region of the brain associated with cognitive function and emotional control were found in young adult men after one week of playing violent video games, according to study results presented by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. This is the first time the IU researchers, who have studied the effects of media violence for more than a decade, have conducted an experimental study that showed a direct relationship between playing violent video games over an extended period of time and a subsequent change in brain regions associated with cognitive function and emotional control... ....Dr. Wang said that another important point of the study was that the young men were supplied with laptop computers and played at home in their “natural environment.” Some of the previous research was done with players participating in a lab setting Source:[]

As with many medical studies, one criticism that could be farely levelled against this work was how applicable the extreme levels of exposure to a certain environmental factor that the study examined were to more typical level of exposure **(e.g. Most gamers don't play 10 hours of first person shooter action per day, so does 2 hours really have the same effect?)**. This is similar to questions raised regarding studies that examine the "cancer causing" properties of certain substances, but exceed the common dose by orders of magnitude in lab animal tests. [|Source: http://www.dailytech.com/AntiGaming+Groups+Fund+Study+on+Violent+Gamings+Changes+in+Brain+Activity/article23435.htm]

**Co-director, Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media**
"It’s clear that the ‘big fears’ bandied about in the press - that violent video games make children significantly more violent in the real world; that children engage in the illegal, immoral, sexist and violent acts they see in some of these games - are not supported by the current research, at least in such a simplistic form. That should make sense to anyone who thinks about it. After all, millions of children and adults play these games, yet the world has not been reduced to chaos and anarchy." Read:

Are there any particular theories that you have begun to develop about gaming culture and teaching? Note theories presented today that may be relateable to you OR one or two you'd like to explore in the future.
 * ACTIVITY TWO** **Subject Area Discussion Groups**- discuss two educational games you have explored while teaching


 * ACTIVITY THREE: What are the Big Takeaways?**

=AGENDA for Class on X/X/X= Evaluating Learning Games (Continued)


 * Essential Questions**
 * **How might you include your students’ interest in gaming when you begin teaching?**
 * **What educational advantages do you see for games that go “against the grain” by featuring cooperation, creative problem solving and peaceful solutions to problems?**
 * **What do you think is the impact of the strong violence and intense competition found in many video or computer games on the youngsters who play them?**
 * **Can video gaming be us ed to re-engage boys and some girls into school culture?**

DATE: RELATED READING: SUPPORTING RESEARCH:

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

OPENING ACTIVITY: Watch and Listen to TED Talk with Tom Chatfield Watch and listen to TED Talk video guest Tom Chatfield describe his theory of “measureablity” in digital gaming as it relates to learning and engagement. How does his theory of “rewards” relate to your personal schooling or teaching experiences? Describe how elements of gaming may translate into classrooms and schools. @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyamsZXXF2w&list=PLE2083A5E6D403628&index=6&feature=plpp_video

**Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked**
||

Henry Jenkins MIT Professor
A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction. ...young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. [] ||
 * 1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.**
 * **2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.**
 * 3. Children are the primary market for video games.**
 * 4. Almost no girls play computer games.**
 * 5. Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.**
 * 6. Video games are not a meaningful form of expressio**
 * 7. Video game play is socially isolating.**
 * 8. Video game play is desensitizing.**
 * Read More Here:**

= BIG THEORY THREE: =

By [|Judy Willis MD]
4/14/11 The popularity of video games is not the enemy of education, but rather a model for best teaching strategies. Games insert players at //their achievable challenge level// and reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of //incremental goal progress//, not just final product. The fuel for this process is the pleasure experience related to the release of //dopamine//. Visit the source:[| http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-student-engagement-judy-willis]

= Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games =

An Arizona State University professor sees a bright future for video games in the learning process -- in and out of school.
[]

= 10 Truths About Books and What They Have to Do With Video Games = Lots of people these days -- some old, some young; some in suits, some not -- are advocating that we use video games for learning, education, health, social change, and other "non-entertainment" purposes. However, lots of people who understand games, don't understand books and lots of people who understand books, don't understand games. There are 10 key truths we know about books. Read more here: []

= Big Ideas (summary) - SO HOW DO WE FIND WHAT WORKS? (REPORT CARDS to EDUTAINMENT) = James Paul Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy, describes 36 learning principles that well-designed games embody. Following are four: =Subset Principle: Learning, even at its start, takes place in a (simplified) subset of the real domain. For example, the setting for the loading dock game should represent an actual loading dock, so that players can easily map their in-game behavior to on-the-job performance. However, it must be a simplified version that omits unimportant details, so that players can focus on aspects of the simulation that are relevant to the learning objective—things like crosswalks and pedestrians.= = = =Active, Critical Learning Principle: The learning environment must encourage active and critical, not passive, learning. In the loading dock example, this means players do not merely watch correct and incorrect examples of loading dock behavior, followed by a quiz—they actually think, act, experience consequences and pursue goals in a variable game environment.=

=Probing Principle: Learning is a cycle of probing the world (doing something); reflecting on this action and, on this basis, forming a hypothesis; re-probing the world to test the hypothesis; and then accepting or rethinking the hypothesis. For example, an effective loading dock game must present a functional environment in which players may choose from and evaluate many different actions. The goal is to find the right course of action via experimentation—making choices and experiencing the consequences.= Source: [|NMI White Papers] http://www.newmedia.org/game-based-learning--what-it-is-why-it-works-and-where-its-going.html =Social media and video games in classrooms can yield valuable data for teachers= Photo by BarbaraLN Social media, video games, blogs and wikis are playing increasingly important roles in classrooms across the country. Some worry that incorporating more social media and other technologies into education is leading to too much computer time, as well as to a generation of students deficient in the face-to-face social skills needed to survive in the workplace. Proponents say schools need to find ways to use these technologies to improve teaching and learning, or else risk losing the attention of digital natives [|(2012)].

Alternative ESRB Activity: Established in 1994, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit independent organization that rates video gaming software. ESRB is the originator of a two-tiered evaluation system offering both a category addressing age appropriateness and related descriptions of software content. The highly popular ESRB rating system has been adopted by the entertainment industry, retailers, and family organizations. Play and then evaluate two popular video games related to your subject field. As you play, note the ESRB rating of the games you play. Do you agree or disagree with the rating issued by the ESRB board? Explain your opinion.

Next, visit the Common Sense Media website, and explore how this non-profit initiative has developed a //Learning Rating// aimed at popular movies, websites, applications, and games. As you explore, develop a companion educational rating for the two games that you have explored. Decide both the overall educational impact of your two games along with how the games teach a topic related to your subject field. Consult the ESRB and Common Sense Media rating systems as you develop your own educational descriptions and rankings.

Entertainment Software Rating Board: http://www.esrb.org/about/index.jsp