Mind Games Looking to Video Games for Instructional

Mind Games Looking to Video Games for Instructional Design Best Practices Darlene Redmond 2006

Purpose Instructional Designers are taking notice of the hours children spend playing computer games. As they play, they are exploring, creating, solving, learning, and enjoying. What is it about these games that captures their attention and imagination? Should we be using game design methodologies for educational purposes? Can a video game provide an ideal constructivist learning environment? Darlene Redmond 2006

Educating the Natives There is no reason that a generation that can memorize over 100 Pokémon characters with all their characteristics, history and evolution can’t learn the names, populations, capitals and relationships of all the 181 nations in the world. It just depends on how it is presented. (1) Mark Prensky, 2001 Darlene Redmond 2006

The times they are a’ changing… Video games were a $6 billion industry in the US in 2000, growing into an $11 billion dollar industry by 2003. The games are in 80 percent of American homes with children, and 60 percent of Americans play video games. (2) Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5, 000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10, 000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20, 000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. (1) Darlene Redmond 2006

And so are the Students… Children raised with the computer “think differently from the rest of us. They develop hypertext minds. They leap around. It’s as though their cognitive structures were parallel, not sequential. ” (3) Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to “serious” work. (1) Darlene Redmond 2006

The Twitch Generation Their world is much more vital, colorful, and engaging than their educational one. (4) Consequently, John Katz, who coined the term “Twitch Generation”, says most traditional educational tasks we put before our students seem meaningless and desperately boring to many of them. They set out about getting their diplomas with as little effort and time as possible. (5) Linear thought processes that dominate educational systems now can actually retard learning for brains developed through game and Websurfing processes on the computer. (6) Darlene Redmond 2006

Traditional vs. New Environments Traditional environment New environment Theories Instructivist Constructivist, Collaborative, Active Learning, Connectivist Strategies The learner gets organized information, even in inquiry based methods The independent learner is at the core of the learning process, Students learn in a self-discovery environment Objectives Acquire knowledge and understanding Create a product (research task or project) Content The teacher constructs the knowledgebase for students Interdisciplinary, Students construct their own knowledgebase Resources Textbooks, guides, activity sheets, and lab kits Online resources, computerized simulations, games, blogs, podcasts, electronic communication Darlene Redmond 2006

Traditional vs. New Environments Traditional environment New environment Presentation Static linear form through text or pictures Modular, connected, dynamic and visual Activities Text-based exercises and problem solving tasks Cooperative activities and simulation; construction and manipulation of objects Environment Defined time and place involving the teacher and the classroom No defined time and place Outcome Individual achievement Piece of work created by the individual or the group Assessment Learning is measured by testing and grades are issued. Portfolios, learning process and products determined and developed by the learner Darlene Redmond 2006 Sources (8 – 10)

Instructivism vs. Constructivism The basic idea of instructivism is that teaching is just a matter of giving facts to students. Instructivist classes work in transmission mode. This means that the flow of information is one way, from the teacher to students. The students are simply passive receivers of knowledge. [8] The basic idea of constructivism is that knowledge cannot be instructed by a teacher, it can only be constructed by a learner. This means learning is not just a direct result of listening to a teacher. The students have to organize and develop what they hear and read. [8] Darlene Redmond 2006

From Constructivism to Active Learning In active learning, knowledge is directly experienced, constructed, acted upon, tested, or revised by the learner. The question is, how can we design a creative learning environment that promotes active learning? [9] Darlene Redmond 2006

The Active and Connected Learner Another body of research on collaborative or cooperative learning has demonstrated the benefits of children working with other children in collective learning efforts. When children collaborate, they share the process of constructing their ideas, instead of simply labouring individually. [9] A relatively new theory is George Seimens’ connectivist theory. On his blog, Siemens offers a taxonomy of connectivism, “a staged view of how learners encounter and explore learning in a networked/ecological manner”, that sounds very much like the process of mastering a complex games space. Siemens explains how the learner explores his environment, discovers tools, discovers uses for them, and finally impacts his own environment by controlling events and outcomes. [10] Darlene Redmond 2006

Making the Connection with New Theories and Methods Emerging Pedagogies focus on: l l l l Engaging the learner Continuously challenging the learners skills Giving the learner control of the environment Providing resources but not solutions Providing immediate feedback Rewarding knowledge transfer Encouraging expertise Encouraging collaboration Educational Theories Methodologies Student Darlene Redmond 2006 Knowledge

What can Instructional Designers Learn from Video Games? T. K. Malone (1981) identified three main elements that make video games fun: Educational programs should have: l l l clear goals that students find meaningful multiple goal structures and scoring to give students feedback on their progress multiple difficulty levels to adjust the game difficulty to learner skill random elements of surprise an emotionally appealing fantasy and metaphor that is related to game skills [11] Darlene Redmond 2006

What can Instructional Designers Learn from Video Games? Mark Prensky (2001) argues it must first be a great game, and only then a teacher. He identifies six structural elements of a game: [13] l l l Rules Goals and objectives Outcomes and feedback Conflict/competition/challenge/opposition Interaction Representation or Story Darlene Redmond 2006

What can Instructional Designers Learn from Video Games? To succeed, game designers incorporate principles of learning that are well supported by current research. Put simply, they recruit learning as a form of pleasure. [14] James Paul Gee, Author of “What Video Games have to Teach us about Learning and Literacy”, suggests that successful games have sound learning strategies built in. Since good video games are long, complex, and difficult, designers must incorporate into the games strategies for children to learn them if they are to be successful. Darlene Redmond 2006

Would you rather read about it or experience it? If you were to take part in an interactive, online, multiplayer game, in which one of the following historic places and periods would you most want to be? a) In Troy, during the war between the Trojans and the Greeks (1200 B. C. ). b) In Great Britain, during the Roman conquest (43 A. D. ). c) In America, during the Revolutionary War (1776). d) In the United States, during the Civil War (1861). e) In Europe, during World War I (1914). [16] Darlene Redmond 2006

Think about it Your standard computer game can take 50 hours to play. Imagine if a student loved spending 50 hours learning a language. We have a lot to learn from video games. [17] Darlene Redmond 2006

References 1. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1 -6. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http: //www. marcprensky. com/writing/Prensky%20%20 Digital%20 Natives, %20 Digital%20 Immigrants%20 -%20 Part 1. pdf 2. Children Spend More Time playing Video Games than Watching TV. (2004). Newswise. Michigan State University. Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http: //www. newswise. com/articles/view/504080/ 3. Gee, J. P. (2003). High Score Education: Games, Not School, Are Teaching Kids to Think. Wired 11, no. 5. Retrieved February 24, 2006 from http: //www. wired. com/wired/archive/11. 05/view. html? pg=1 The Educational Potential of Electronic Games: From Games-To-Teach to Games-To-Learn 4. Winn, William D. (n. d. ). Director of the Learning Center, Human Interface Technology Laboratory. University of Washington. Quoted in Moore, Inferential Focus Briefing , (See 5) 5. Katz, Jon. (2000). Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho. Random House, New York, NY. Quoted by William A. Kennedy. (See 18) Darlene Redmond 2006

References 6. Peter Moore, Inferential Focus Briefing, September 30, 1997, quoted in Prensky in Digital natives, digital immigrants, part II: Do they really think differently? (See 7) 7. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants: Part II Do They Really think differently? . On the Horizon, 9(6), 1 -9. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http: //www. marcprensky. com/writing/Prensky%20%20 Digital%20 Natives, %20 Digital%20 Immigrants%20 -%20 Part 2. pdf 8. Mac. Millan English Dictionary. (2002). Mac. Millan Publishers Ltd. http: //www. macmillandictionary. com/glossaries/instructivism. htm 9. Mitra, S. (2000). Minimally Invasive Education for mass computer literacy Centre for Research in Cognitive Systems, NIIT Limited Presented at the CRIDALA 2000 conference, Hong Kong, 21 -25 June, 2000. Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http: //www. hole-in-the-wall. com/docs/Paper 01. pdf 10. Siemens, George. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. elearnspace. Retrieved February 19, 2006 from http: //www. elearnspace. org/Articles/connectivism. htm Darlene Redmond 2006

References 11. Malone, T. W. (1980). What makes things fun to learn? A study of intrinsically motivating computer games. (Report CIS-7). Palo Altao, CA: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Quoted by Squire, (See 12) 12. Squire, K. (2003). Video games in education. International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming. Retrieved Feb 14, 2006 from http: //www. sp. uconn. edu/~myoung/IJIS. doc 13. Prensky, M. (2004). Digital Games: Concept Overview. Teach Online, Michigan State University. Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http: //teachonline. msu. edu/public/designers/featured_approaches/index. php? page_n um=5 14. Gee, J. P. (2005). The Classroom of Popular Culture: What video games can teach us about making students want to learn, Harvard Education Letter. Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http: //www. edletter. org/current/gee. shtml 15. Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave/Macmillian. Quoted by Squire. (See 12) Darlene Redmond 2006

References 16. Sohn, E. (2004). What Video Games Can Teach Us. Science News for Kids. Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http: //www. sciencenewsforkids. org/articles/20040121/Feature 1. asp 17. Squire, K. , & Jenkins, H. (2004). Harnessing the power of games in education. Insight, 3(1), 5 -33. Retrieved February 14, 2006 from http: //website. education. wisc. edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/insight. pdf 18. 2003. Teaching at Tech: Educating the Twitch Generation, Michigan. Tech Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development, Retrieved February 25, 2006 from http: //www. admin. mtu. edu/ctlfd/twitch. htm Darlene Redmond 2006