Notes from a panel session at SXSWedu 2013
http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_EDUP11714
Teaching is a complex undertaking. Learning is a deep challenge. Schools are messy.
How do we approach game development and what role does it have in learning?
Play is fundamental to how we learn. How to make them work in education is the question.
Learning things that are challenging for kids to learn is a process that unfolds over time across multiple media and experiences. What process are you seeking to support and where does a game fit in the process?
What is the learning outcome and what are the components needed to get there? Build the game around that. Focus on player experience rather than classroom ecology.
Who are students and teachers in 2013?
We live in a time when children are playing games more than at any other time in human history. Kids in 2013 have well developed game playing abilities, but they check those skills at the schoolhouse door b/c that's not their school experience.
Teachers are increasingly from game playing backgrounds, but they are under the gun to produce results. Which makes them busy. One of the developers assumes he is designing for overworked, highly skeptical teachers. (Love his realistic grasp of educators today!)
Teachers are often surprised by how their students respond to games. Struggling kids often become stars. For students, call a "test" a "game" and it changes their level of excitement and investment increases.
How kids work as learners varies dramatically depending on their age and developmental stage. As they get older, their experiences narrow from elementary to middle school. But their ability to begin abstracting is growing. So games can capitalize on this in the context of encouraging kids to engage in play and experimentation.
One of the developers creates "gamelets" with small footprint, focused on one skill, playable in one to four class periods. Targets the space where "kids must be ready for the test". (CATS - Center for Advanced Technology in Schools)
Another developer (Possible Worlds) creates pre-instructional experiences. Creating a common analogy that can be referred to later as the teacher covers the content later. Gives conceptual model for processes that cannot be directly observed. Ex: photosynthesis. Students are not held responsible for learning specific things by the end of the game. It's all about the experience forming concepts.
MIT development lab - put a mystery cypher out via the Internet and students voluntarily collaborated to solve the mystery. A few teachers and classes joined in too. Thinking of ways to bring this to the classroom.
How do you know if game based learning working?
Possible Worlds - Check with kids for comprehensibility of materials. Do the kids think the game is about what you think it's about? Check for feasibility - Can it be learned in the classroom? In PW case, they were asked to assign for homework. Kids took the DS home. Then, suss out what is working in terms of student outcomes. PW was not able to directly claim impact. Part of this they think was due to the fact that teachers did not play the game.
CATS - Heavy focus on assessment. Test the heck out of kids all the time. In the game and on paper. They make the teachers play the games as part of their PD. To make them aware of content and student experience. Also can see where hang ups might occur.
MIT - Let the kids play the game and then let the students teach them how to play it. Takes a bit of onus off the teacher for having to master the game first.
Games have to be interesting to players and authentically challenging. Has to have small steps to enter; don't blow players away too much. But overall the game has to be challenging. Have to have a sense that you can get better.
Set up opportunities to fail without making the student feel like a failure. When they get stuck, it might be a teachable moment.
Should have opportunities to engage in the game in multiple ways. If you decide to crash the robot into the wall, it doesn't break the game.
Q: What incentives work best?
A: Mastery. "Trinkets" should reward real success.
Q: What helps get the teachers to sell games to students?
A: Often harder to sell to teachers than students. Need to see how it helps them teach.
Q: Issues of teachers as tech support?
A: Don't think teachers should be tech support. Don't do things that require downloads. Stick with mature technologies. Have some support online.
Installed game on flash drives with executables to try and mitigate differences in access to technology.
Q: Is there any work toward integrating physical/face to face/real world application into the digital?
A: MIT: Do worry that we spend too much time in front of screens. Is working to incorporate physical building challenges into their mystery game.
Q: Any work on group games that could be used on IWBs?
A: Working on games on tablets that can be played with multiple touch. Or games that can be played in small groups in front of one screen.
Q: What is the biggest prob with Ed games today and where should they be in 10 years?
A: Have to believe topic of game is inherently interesting and that fun and learning are one in the same. Many game designers aren't passionate about the topics of their games. In 10 years, games will be ubiquitous.
Showing posts with label gamification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gamification. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Got Game? Learning Through Play. Seriously! #SXSWedu
Notes from panel presentation at SXSWedu.
http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_EDUP13059
Brainpop.com/games - New project from Brainpop bringing together educational games for teachers and students. Started 2 years ago. All free content. No login necessary. About 57 games with content support. Working toward allowing teachers to gather data on student use and progress in the games.
Learning Games Network - nonprofit spinoff from university r&d groups. Central offering is Xenos. Play multiple games within a 2D environment and promotes second language learning. Also offers Game Design tool kit and another device to help students and teachers design learning games.
Filament Games - analyze commercial entertainment games to see what makes them engaging and then try to bring to learning games. Found people have fun in commercial games when they are learning. The learning in learning games doesn't need to be hidden. Use PBL and constructivist principles in their games.
E-Line Media - how to bring games for learning to scale but keep them affordable. Look for engagement points on on a 24/7 basis. Where do students have interest on their own? Scaling interest from early childhood to career.
Q: How do we make sure students are learning and not just playing passively?
A: Play is engaging and inherent to learning. As long as you aren't separating it out (learning then blasting asteroids a then going back to learning again). Without good scaffolding from the teacher and the game, students can get through a game without critically reflecting on what's going on. Teachers must be involved! Reward is often found in overcoming a challenge.
Q: How do we assess/test learning?
A: This is a place where game designers need to improve. Teachers need more access to formative assessment data. The best way to design a game that makes someone better at taking a test is to design a game that looks like a test (that's a pitfall to avoid by the way!).
Another challenge here is in many games students create their own story. How do we decide their story is right or wrong.
Games are about doing something. The best assessment might be taking a look at what the game player is able to accomplish. Ex: imagine a game for training surgeons.
Q: Do game design companies have instructional designers permanently on staff?
A: All designers at one company have instructional backgrounds to one extent or another. They also bring in educators and subject matter experts during the design progress.
Q: Is there a movement toward integrate games into LMS systems?
A: There isn't enough data output from either type of system to make this useful right now. Over time it will evolve.
Q: Can games be used to improve recall of knowledge, not just provide an experience?
A: Games can provide context or prepare for future learning. Can also help make learning difficult content easier than traditional means.
Q: What do educators actually want?
A: To find out, create the nucleus of a game and get it out to teachers to get their feedback. Avoid making too many assumptions about what will work.
Q: In traditional education, we discourage risk taking and failure. How can games work in this space?
A: Games allow failure and we learn from failure. Schools don't have innovation cycles - test approaches and reiterate. Games provide a place to teach students about innovation cycles.
Q: What percentage of traditional teacher led learning can be replaced by games?
A: Difficult to quantify. If students are learning from games, the teacher is often supporting instruction in other ways. Should/can games replace the classroom experience? Opinions differ.
http://schedule.sxswedu.com/events/event_EDUP13059
Brainpop.com/games - New project from Brainpop bringing together educational games for teachers and students. Started 2 years ago. All free content. No login necessary. About 57 games with content support. Working toward allowing teachers to gather data on student use and progress in the games.
Learning Games Network - nonprofit spinoff from university r&d groups. Central offering is Xenos. Play multiple games within a 2D environment and promotes second language learning. Also offers Game Design tool kit and another device to help students and teachers design learning games.
Filament Games - analyze commercial entertainment games to see what makes them engaging and then try to bring to learning games. Found people have fun in commercial games when they are learning. The learning in learning games doesn't need to be hidden. Use PBL and constructivist principles in their games.
E-Line Media - how to bring games for learning to scale but keep them affordable. Look for engagement points on on a 24/7 basis. Where do students have interest on their own? Scaling interest from early childhood to career.
Q: How do we make sure students are learning and not just playing passively?
A: Play is engaging and inherent to learning. As long as you aren't separating it out (learning then blasting asteroids a then going back to learning again). Without good scaffolding from the teacher and the game, students can get through a game without critically reflecting on what's going on. Teachers must be involved! Reward is often found in overcoming a challenge.
Q: How do we assess/test learning?
A: This is a place where game designers need to improve. Teachers need more access to formative assessment data. The best way to design a game that makes someone better at taking a test is to design a game that looks like a test (that's a pitfall to avoid by the way!).
Another challenge here is in many games students create their own story. How do we decide their story is right or wrong.
Games are about doing something. The best assessment might be taking a look at what the game player is able to accomplish. Ex: imagine a game for training surgeons.
Q: Do game design companies have instructional designers permanently on staff?
A: All designers at one company have instructional backgrounds to one extent or another. They also bring in educators and subject matter experts during the design progress.
Q: Is there a movement toward integrate games into LMS systems?
A: There isn't enough data output from either type of system to make this useful right now. Over time it will evolve.
Q: Can games be used to improve recall of knowledge, not just provide an experience?
A: Games can provide context or prepare for future learning. Can also help make learning difficult content easier than traditional means.
Q: What do educators actually want?
A: To find out, create the nucleus of a game and get it out to teachers to get their feedback. Avoid making too many assumptions about what will work.
Q: In traditional education, we discourage risk taking and failure. How can games work in this space?
A: Games allow failure and we learn from failure. Schools don't have innovation cycles - test approaches and reiterate. Games provide a place to teach students about innovation cycles.
Q: What percentage of traditional teacher led learning can be replaced by games?
A: Difficult to quantify. If students are learning from games, the teacher is often supporting instruction in other ways. Should/can games replace the classroom experience? Opinions differ.
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