Insane enthusiasm matched with good teaching is a hard mix to beat. Spend a moment listening to your kids talking about computer and video games. Look at the energy they spend, watch their unbridled excitement, see them write and read voluminous amounts about their passion.
Stitch the game into a well designed curricular lesson, and you’ve got the recipe for harnessing student energy and making learning exciting.
]]>
1. Enjoy and play games. They are hella-fun.
2. Play outside in meatspace. At least a few hours a week.
3. Depressed? Sad? Hiding? Gaining weight from playing WoW? When playing a game is more about hiding from real life than enjoying it, you should probably stop playing games for a while.
4. Real life friends are fun. have some.
]]>
1. Pay attention to ESRB ratings. Computer games aren’t like movies - they are more immersive and you need to think harder before you let your kid play a game that has a Teen or Mature Rating.
2. Write up some rules about computer use with your child. Make sure to include stuff like safeguarding personal information, limiting the amount of time your child can play on the computer, cyberbullying (don’t say it online if you wouldn’t say it in person), and what to do if your child encounters some inappropriate content. Finally, agree on a healthy amount of time to spend on the computer. here’s a template you can use.
3. Find out why your child plays games. This will involve some work. read this thoroughly - pay special attention to the part about how kids run into trouble when they use games to escape. People play games for different reasons - we need to understand this as parents.
]]>Tourist jokes aside (not that the tourist problem is a joke, mind you), I’ve come to this brilliant conclusion: MMOs are just not that fun for most people.
I know, shocking.
With all the time we spend going back and forth on how X game is awesome and your MMO sucks, or how game Y would be so much better with feature Z, the majority of gamers are telling of us ALL our games suck. The whole genre, garbage. And in a way they are right. Why in gods name would I pay $15 a month to complete 100 kill x mob quests when I could do far more interesting tasks in a single player RPG? Why would I grind up an imbalanced character so I can PvP ‘sometimes’ when I can just get a FPS for cheap and have all-access to PvP of all flavors?
]]>Without belaboring it:
COTS -commercial, off the shelf
Edutainment
Serious games
There has been an emergence of a fourth category of game, I’m calling it kick-ass-game-for-schools (kagfs). The qualities of a kagfs include:
1. Very high production value
2. Content-accurate information (like, accurate representation of history, medical information, government structure, etc…)
3. Really good tools for reporting individual student progress to teachers
4. All the stuff that make COTS games good like:
4.1 ...dynamic, adjustable difficulty
4.2 ...easy early goals
4.3 ...play experience invites entrance into Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of “flow”
4.4 ...allows different player types to enjoy the game
4.5 ...is a game a kid would want to play at home (this is kind of my ultimate litmus test for games in education)
I have only seen one instance of a kagfs, at muzzy lane but a recent feed popped up on my rss reader: t.h.e. journal had a piece titled: Researchers Study Effects of Educational Games on Math Achievement by Scott Aronowitz. I think this might be another example of a kagfs link here for dimensionM. But I need to play this game to see.
It looks like there is some snazzy instruction stuff on the front end, and then the kids explore a pretty cool-looking interactive world, applying the math skills they are studying.
The only thing I don’t enjoy: stopping the game while the kid solves a math problem. Update: after playing their demo, I kind of nudge this particular game into the edutainment arena. Gorgeous production values, great tutorial, but zapping all the transmitters that have an even number? That doesn’t quite fit into my kagfs category.
Anyone else see any kagfs?
]]>From the article:
What is good learning? That may be a subjective question. But it’s likely that many educators would give answers that fall in the same ballpark…
…students collaborating and discussing ideas, possible solutions…
…project-based learning, designed around real world contexts…
…connecting with other students around the world, on topics of study…
…immersing students in a learning experience that allows them to grapple with a problem, gaining higher-order thinking skills from pursuing the solution…
To many educators, these notions are music to their ears. Would it seem terribly strange then to hear that students
indeed are doing these things regularly outside of their classrooms? While Timmy or Susie may not be running
home from school saying, “What fun, deeply-engaging learning experience can we do today?”, they are engaging
with new technologies that provide them with the same opportunities. Every day, many students are
spending countless hours immersed in popular technologies—such as Facebook or MySpace, World of Warcraft,
or Sim City—which at first glance may seem like a waste of time, and brain cells. But these genres of technologies—
Social Networking, Digital Gaming, and Simulations—deserve a second, deeper, look at what’s actually going
on.
From the article:
Those who believe in using games in education usually start from a common set of assumptions. They observe that game player’s regularly exhibit persistence, risk-taking, attention to detail and problem solving skills, all behaviors that ideally would be regularly demonstrated in school. They also understand that game environments enable players to construct understanding actively, and at individual paces, and that well-designed games enable players to advance on different paths at different rates in response to each player’s interests and abilities, while also fostering collaboration and just-in-time learning.
We are therefore prepared to argue that:
1. games can engage players in learning that is specifically applicable to “schooling;” and
2. there are means by which teachers can leverage the learning in such games without disrupting the worlds of either play or school.
To succeed, we must look at where the strengths and challenges of both classrooms and games lie and situate
“learning games” at the most productive intersection of these separate environments. We will examine these issues
through concrete examples of existing best practices, and speculative designs currently under development
at MIT’s Education Arcade, and elsewhere.
]]>