Game as ground experience

Last two weeks, I introduced two researches on integrating games into classroom setting. Today, I will write how games benefit learning outside the classroom.

As we all know, games could offer gamers rich experience, no matter it is role-play games or puzzle games. Some researchers believe that combining gaming experience with formal learning experience it will provide depth in learning.

Playing Civilization simulation game then becoming an expert of this game doesn't increase one's history knowledge, however, research shows that playing and struggling with the game prepared students to learn more from reading a difficult college history text chapter.

In my opinion, when I play a game and attracted by its storyline, I will be more engaged in then reading a textbook, because the game offeres me immediate feedback after any operation I did. Sometimes, I will have the same feeling when I read a textbook. I raised a question from the text, and wanted to know the answer. If I can find the answer in the following part of this book, I would be satisfied and keep reading it. If not, I might stop to go somewhere else to find this answer. In the first situation, I feel I interacted with the book. In the game world, the feeling is stronger, as I can see how I effect the game world, at the same time, it force me to make decision, to think or guess.

According to some researchers, these game play experience will benefit one's future learning. Therefore, the best use of video games in learning might be in providing experience with the subject matter that is to be later acquired via more formal learning settings.

ASTRA EAGLE -- a drill and practice game

Today, I want to introduce a case study about a drill and practice game.

A drill and practice game is one type of puzzle game. As what its name tells us, the purpose of a drill and practice game is to support drill and practice. Different from simulation games I wrote about in last several weeks, drill and practice games are not thought as an effective tool to improving learning and skills by most researchers. The case study I introduce today takes a close look at drill and practice game and want to find out how a drill and practice works, what characteristics they embody, and what learners are doing as they play a game, thus informing whether and how drill and practice games would be a pedagogically sound learning environment.

ASTRA EAGLE[1] was been used in this study, which comprises a serious of web-based online game and developed by the Center for Advanced Technologies of a school district. These games are designed to reinforce academic standards for mathematics required by Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.

The research site is an elementary school in the same district. Participants are 15 4th-5th grade students who were enrolled in a summer program, where this study will be conducted. All the participants played eight ASTRA EAGLE math games during 10 two-hour sessions for five weeks.

The researcher found these drill and practice games enhance students' positive attitudes toward math learning significantly. However, what should be noted is that not every game would engage students' learning. The data shows some good learning game design principles, such as "situating learning activities within the game story and characters that players will take on, making games pleasantly challenging, and scaffolding reflections". Also, the off-computer activities are important, such as offline assistive learning tools, game-based collaborative activities, and the just-in-time guidance of an instructor.

Ke, F. (2008). A case study of computer gaming for math: Engaged learning from gameplay?. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1609-1620.

[1] You don't need an ID and password to log in, just click the login button in the login page, the website will assign you an account.

Supercharged!

Supercharged! is a 3D flying game that is designed to give players an intuitive understanding for introductory electromagnetic reactions.

"The game places students in a three dimensional environment where they must navigate a spaceship by controlling the electric charge of the ship, placing charged particles around the space. Students must carefully plan their trajectory through each level by tracing the field lines that emanate from charged objects, and in the process of doing so, develop a more hands on understanding of how charged particles interact."

 Unfortunately, I can not find this game on the Internet, and only find the two pictures below.

In Dr. Squire's study in 2004, he used this game in one middle school's classroom teaching. Students in experimental group played Supercharged! during class time with supplemental materials and interactive lectures from teacher. Students in control group was taught about electrostatics through guided inquired methods, such as interactive lectures (from the same teacher), experiments, observations and demonstrations of the teacher's design. The experiment group performed better than control group in terms of their post-test scores, the difference between two groups are significant.

From this result, it seems that the game works, but Dr. Squire also took a close at what happened in classroom. By examining the class video, It can be found that as frist students in experiment group are somewhat confused by the activity(game play) and they don't know the point of the activity. And in the second day, the teacher found that students were playing the game but not critically reflected on the game. Therefore, the teacher begin to encourage students thinking such as making prediction. In day 3, the teacher used the projector to display game and let students interpret what happened on the screen and make prediction. Dr. Squire found some of the richest classroom discussion occurred at this time.   

Now, in my opinion, it is not the game but the following activities that the teacher conducted contributes to the scores difference. What do you think?

Even we feel that there are so many potential advantages of video games in education, in fact there are few empirical studies that have examined the use of video games within classroom setting. 

What I have learned from this research is that integrating games into classroom setting is far more complex. So in next blog I will continue this topic by introducing another researcher's study, in that study, the intervention is not just letting students play the game in classroom.

Reference

Squire, K., Barnett, M., Grant, J. M., & Higginbotham, T. (2004, June). Electromagnetism supercharged!: Learning physics with digital simulation games. In Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Learning sciences (pp. 513-520). International Society of the Learning Sciences.

Can we use online games in our classroom?

Last week, I introduce a commercial game for educational purpose, or I can call it "education game". Nowadays, more and more educator, researcher and game developer begin to design and develop education games, or instructional games. But there exists a ton of commercial games and million people play it everyday.A 2008 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 97% of teens aged 12-17 play digital games, and 50% of them report daily or nearly daily play (Lenhart et al., 2008). When gamers play games, they will learn something, at least, they learned how to play this game.

Please try the game below.

Online Physics Games

It just like the games you played on the webpage, on your smart phone or your tablet yesterday! Nothing special. Now, think about what are you doing during playing -- try hard to keep these objects' balance. You may use your intuition and your real life experience to guid you how could you put these objects and protect them from falling down. 

When we talk about keeping balance, we will always refer to the physics concept -- the center of gravity. 

Can we let students play this game whey they learn the concept "balance" and "the center of gravity" in their physics class? If I am the teacher, how can I design one or more classes with this game to facilitate my students learning these basic concepts?

First question, do my students need these game? Or they wil learn well in the traditional way (lecture, hands on activity, Q&A etc.).

I am not sure, some students may understand balance and the center of gravity easily, as they can connect these concepts with their daily experience. For other students who can't find these connections it may be a little bit harder, they might feel these concepts are abstract. 

 

Can I use some material objects to design some experiments to help my students understanding these concepts?

Certainly yes. But experiences are not always success. Students may need to try a lot of times, nonetheless the time of one class is limited. So I need to carefully design my experiment which should not be too hard and also need to align with my teaching content.

Can I use some digital simulation software? 

Compare to material objects experiment, it will save time as we don't need to prepare   anything for it. And students just need click or drag the object.

If we have good simulation, do we need game?   

Well, in my opinion, may be games could engage student more than simulations. As in the game you just played, it have different difficulty levels, from the easiest to the hardest. When you play the game, you are a problem solver just as you use material objects to complete the experiment. But for simulation, if we design some task, not just present, it may reach the same end with experiment or games. 

What's your opinion? Next week, I want to introduce some researches about using games in classroom, to see these researchers thoughts.



Reference

Lenhart, A., Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008) Teens, Video Games and Civics. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Washington D.C.