The 7th annual Interaction Design and Children Conferences is being held June 11th -13th 2008 in Chicago. Submission info is available at: http://idc08.northwestern.edu/cfp.php
I'd count this among my favorite conferences because of its international perspective on interactive design rather than one that is US-centric. As such, it tends to attract an eclectic group of designers that are pushing technological boundaries.
I'm hoping to be able to attend this year since it is so close to home.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Life in a virtual world
From CNet: What kids learn in virtual worlds
A brief article that highlights some of the research that is currently being done on youths' use of virtual worlds. Specifically, it highlights the social and commercial nature of the sites that are most popular today, as well as identifying some of the concerns and hopes. There seems to be no doubt that virtual worlds are informal learning spaces - its just a matter of _what_ kids are learning in them.
A brief article that highlights some of the research that is currently being done on youths' use of virtual worlds. Specifically, it highlights the social and commercial nature of the sites that are most popular today, as well as identifying some of the concerns and hopes. There seems to be no doubt that virtual worlds are informal learning spaces - its just a matter of _what_ kids are learning in them.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
wanted: 21st Century skills for 21st Century workforce
from eSchool News:
Voters urge teaching of 21st-century skills: Results of a new poll commissioned by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills shows the vast majority of U.S. voters believe students are ill-equipped to compete in the global learning environment, and that schools must incorporate 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication and self-direction, and computer and technology skills into the curriculum. But the upcoming presidential election, researchers say, presents a perfect opportunity to charter a new path to success for America's students ... http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7434
...But can we convince legislators that real, usable skills are more important than memorized facts and test scores?
Voters urge teaching of 21st-century skills: Results of a new poll commissioned by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills shows the vast majority of U.S. voters believe students are ill-equipped to compete in the global learning environment, and that schools must incorporate 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication and self-direction, and computer and technology skills into the curriculum. But the upcoming presidential election, researchers say, presents a perfect opportunity to charter a new path to success for America's students ... http://www.eschoolnews.com
...But can we convince legislators that real, usable skills are more important than memorized facts and test scores?
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...
Gilligan, eat your heart out! NOAA has created a virtual island within Second Life that is full of learning opportunities: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/outreach/sl/
According to the NOAA site: "On NOAA's island, one can soar through a hurricane on the wing of a research aircraft, rise gently through the atmosphere atop a weather balloon, or search for a hidden underwater cave on a side trip from a NOAA submarine."
According to the NOAA site: "On NOAA's island, one can soar through a hurricane on the wing of a research aircraft, rise gently through the atmosphere atop a weather balloon, or search for a hidden underwater cave on a side trip from a NOAA submarine."
Visit the island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteora/177/161/27/
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
This just in - people are deceptive in cyberspace!
Okay, so its not really breaking news. More anonymous forms of communication tend to foster more truthful and more untruthful communication than standard modes of communication wherein all parties doing the communication are known to one another. None-the-less, this new study goes a long way toward quantifying and explaining some of these commonly-held assumptions:
Deception in cyberspace: A comparison of text-only vs. avatar-supported medium
By Holtjona Galanxhi and Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah
Deception in cyberspace: A comparison of text-only vs. avatar-supported medium
By Holtjona Galanxhi and Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah
Friday, July 13, 2007
Star Schools Session
Brian Lekander provides a brief overview of the Star Schools program and an introduction to today's presentation.
Tim Best: Matrix Learning Project in Ohio
Middle school Achievement through Technology-Rich Interventions (x represents the unknown). Tim compares traditional SES to the primative medical practice of applying leaches - if someone is sick you apply leaches, if they get sicker you apply more...and often people die. So I guess drill and practice is like the educational technology equivalent of a leach. Research shows that middle class kids have extrinsic motivators, are empowered, and find that content is relavent to them (more or lesss) but kids in lower socio-economic groups often lack these core requirements to be successful in math. They are creating a "stealth-math" product to tackle this challenge. Traditionally the continuum in schools runs from coverage/mastery of basic skills before fun stuff can be done - but this project seeks to provide engaging and fun contexts for learning content rather than leaving the fun stuff til the content is mastered. They will be providing 106 hours of programming (during the summer months) and their product will include a robust learning management and assessment tool that will facilitate things for the faciliators (recognize the fact that this is not the primary profession for most of them).
Scott Wilson - University of Oklahoma - the K20 Center, an interdisciplinary research center. Specifically they are studying the effects of Lesson Study - a Japanese profesional development methodology). Started out trying to program for handhelds - now working with UMCP (Ultra-mobile personal computers), there was also a shift from applets to Massively Multiplayer Onlie Games, and a change in game engines. They will have one control group (lesson study only), treatment groups with games and lesson study groups, and a comparisson group with neither (about 1000 students in each group). Why create engine? Wanted to have a unique toolset e.g. interactive map, charts/graphs/spreadsheets for organization and analysis of data, etc. Teachers were invovled in the development of the game and the elaborate backstory that underlies game-play. Undergraduate students at the University of Oaklahoma are assisting in the development as well. Scott played a clip that explains the back-story and has video images four students watching the clip super-imposed and then provided a quick demonstration of the game itself.
Javier - PREL/JUMP Project (again - see notes from today's first post for more info). Developing for Nintendo DS platform - a vocabulary game for 4th graders. The trailer looked fantastic - very engaging and definitely age-appropriate. It has branching dialog in comic book format in which words are presented in compelling ways.
Tracy Lau MPT - Learning Games to Go (in partnership with MIT - Scot Osterweil), the program is directed by Gail Long. Game: Labyrinth, will be focused on improving math and literacy in pre-algebra. Goal: creating stuff that will actually get used. COTS titles aren't being used/can't always be used in schools...and stuff being created for schools is often "deadly dull" so creating something that brings the best of both of commercial and educational games is truly a challenging design problem. Teachers are often interested in games but "have a healthy skepticism...therefore barrier to entry is rather high." Solution: games that teachers can ease into, that tackle major content/curriculum standards, technologically easy to use (flash-based, therefore no installation required - don't just want a trickle-down model - i.e. products designed for the best schools that have the best technologies that will eventually trickle down to the poorer schools and students), and activities that don't demand a lot of in-class time...that can be played independently by students - but are also easy for teachers to use in-class. You can make people "play" without them having any fun - their goal is to make games that people can play and have fun. The game also encourages students to think about their problem solving strategies and write about it - they can share with their colleagues but their colleagues will have slightly different challenges so info about how to think about or solve the problem is more effective than "pick the red door." Scot feels that the evaluation/research component is slowing things a bit, but feels there is great benefit to being able to finally have research that shows the effectiveness of games in education.
GameLog - Fostering Reflective Gameplaying for Learning
Jose Zagal - Starts by explaining that this session is not about learning from games or by creating games - but learning about games. How can students use what they already know about games to help them? Can this teach us anything about learning in general?
How many of these games have you played?
Difficulties students have in learning about games: Can't express ideas about games/gameplay, dwell on superficial features ("cool" or "sucks") and lack the language to understand or describe their experiences or observations. In fairness, there isn't much background or resources that prepare or help students to talk or write about games - most game reviews, the closest thing to a related-resource are really only designed to communicate information to potential players about whether or not they are likely to like a particular game (kind of like the difference between a movie review and an academic reflection on a film).
His product, GameLog, helps people learn about games and game playing. Its a free, online blog with many game-friendly features. It allows you to maintain multiple parallel blogs about different games and enables/facilitates blogging about game-play. Why Blogging? - Writing to learn - writing can be a powerful tool for learning - helps learners integrate learning.
We were then given an opportunity to play a game and write a gamelog blog entry. I played two of the games:
Double Wires: http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/double-wires/
UpBeat: http://www.miniclip.com/swfcontent/freegames/upbeat.swf
My review of the former: My initial response was that it looked like “line rider” so I thought it would be relatively fun/easy. I couldn’t get very far – not even off the first ledge. There wasn’t much feedback – nothing that told me what I was doing right or wrong, my co-player suggested some more visual information about whether or not the web had attached. I got bored with it rather quickly because I couldn’t figure out how to improve my performance.
His students/research subjects came to feel more appreciative of video games - and found that it deepened and broadened their understanding of games and many found it to be empowering to write about their experiences playing the game - e.g. things that didn't make sense. It also helped students to realize that different people have different experiences playing games and what he calls "non-obvious insights."
The analysis of their entries revealed that there were six styles of entry: overview, narrative, comparative analysis, plan/hypothesis, experiment, insight/analysis. Most students used many of these styles over time. The overview was typically the first thing that they wrote (like game review - "contextualizing game for the uniformed reader"). Narrative style was common - students explained what happened (what they did and what resulted). Down the road there was more planning and hypothesizing (state what they plan to do and what they expect to happen) and experiment denotes an entry where they explain actual in-game experimentation. Comparative analyses were efforts to compare something specific in the game to something else. Finally, insight/analysis entries were entries about specific insights that came to the player during the gameplay experience.
Students perceived blog writing to be less formal - therefore the overall writing quality in the blogs was farily low, but the informality was liberating for the students. A teacher in the group commented that she had found, to the contrary, that her students were far more careful in their writing when it was going to be posted online and viewable by their peers as compared to private, non-posted journaling.
He provided an example from a game called Facade, which sounded like it was worth checking out a little later.
How many of these games have you played?Difficulties students have in learning about games: Can't express ideas about games/gameplay, dwell on superficial features ("cool" or "sucks") and lack the language to understand or describe their experiences or observations. In fairness, there isn't much background or resources that prepare or help students to talk or write about games - most game reviews, the closest thing to a related-resource are really only designed to communicate information to potential players about whether or not they are likely to like a particular game (kind of like the difference between a movie review and an academic reflection on a film).
His product, GameLog, helps people learn about games and game playing. Its a free, online blog with many game-friendly features. It allows you to maintain multiple parallel blogs about different games and enables/facilitates blogging about game-play. Why Blogging? - Writing to learn - writing can be a powerful tool for learning - helps learners integrate learning.
We were then given an opportunity to play a game and write a gamelog blog entry. I played two of the games:
Double Wires: http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/double-wires/
UpBeat: http://www.miniclip.com/swfcontent/freegames/upbeat.swf
My review of the former: My initial response was that it looked like “line rider” so I thought it would be relatively fun/easy. I couldn’t get very far – not even off the first ledge. There wasn’t much feedback – nothing that told me what I was doing right or wrong, my co-player suggested some more visual information about whether or not the web had attached. I got bored with it rather quickly because I couldn’t figure out how to improve my performance.
His students/research subjects came to feel more appreciative of video games - and found that it deepened and broadened their understanding of games and many found it to be empowering to write about their experiences playing the game - e.g. things that didn't make sense. It also helped students to realize that different people have different experiences playing games and what he calls "non-obvious insights."
The analysis of their entries revealed that there were six styles of entry: overview, narrative, comparative analysis, plan/hypothesis, experiment, insight/analysis. Most students used many of these styles over time. The overview was typically the first thing that they wrote (like game review - "contextualizing game for the uniformed reader"). Narrative style was common - students explained what happened (what they did and what resulted). Down the road there was more planning and hypothesizing (state what they plan to do and what they expect to happen) and experiment denotes an entry where they explain actual in-game experimentation. Comparative analyses were efforts to compare something specific in the game to something else. Finally, insight/analysis entries were entries about specific insights that came to the player during the gameplay experience.
Students perceived blog writing to be less formal - therefore the overall writing quality in the blogs was farily low, but the informality was liberating for the students. A teacher in the group commented that she had found, to the contrary, that her students were far more careful in their writing when it was going to be posted online and viewable by their peers as compared to private, non-posted journaling.
He provided an example from a game called Facade, which sounded like it was worth checking out a little later.
Lessons Learned about Educational Game Design
Four groups were partnered to present during this 90 minute session.
Using Videogames as a Strategy for Teaching Complex Topics, Robert Brown UNCG. I could have sworn the presenter's name was Bruce but I could be wrong, and he had a female colleague co-presenting with him who's name I failed to catch. The presentation focused on a game that had been designed to teach introductory Economic principals to Undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The course, "Principles of Microeconomics" was designed as a complete replacement for the introductory econ course - its is delivered completely online and runs 24/7. All assessments are in-game, most can be repeated but the final assessment (a Jeopardy-like game) can only be played once. Grades are based entirely on game performance and progression through a series of levels and tasks and performance on quizzes. The adventure game about a group of aliens that crash land on a futuristic, post-apocalyptic earth presents economic concepts such as the law of dimishing returns and supply and demand through game-related scenarios. There are also humorous mocumentaries (e.g. parodies of Martha Stewart) and short twitch games that also help to present or reinforce concepts as well as ensure continued engagement. The class has run for 3 seemsters and 300 students have completed it - results show that those students do as well, if not a little better, than students in traditional classrooms (determined in part through similar sets of quiz/test questions in the game-based and traditional classes)
Serious Games by Serious Instructional Designers, Jamie Henderson and valerie Hainley
These designers asked the question that has been asked by many that have come before them, can/should instructional designers design games? Their clients, mainly military, bring many constraints, e.g. flash-based only games - nothing that has to be installed on the machines. They found that it was unsettling, at first, as instructional designers to create a program that would foster failure first and then learning through that failure as part of the game-play experience, but respected the fact that it was a powerful learning experience for players to see what happens when they do something wrong. The game that they designed for the Army was based on a course on Tactical Questioning and was designed to teach questioning skills to soldiers that were going to be deployed in the Middle East. They found, upon reflection, that the definitions of instructional and games are fairly close - in both instances things are being done that lead someone to (hopefully) accomplish goals.
Educational Game Design: Confidential, Meagan Rothschiled and Javier Elizondo
This is a Star Schools Grant Project being developed at PREL (Pacific Resources for Education and Learning). Their inital belief was that traditional game design wasn't that different than educational design. In their presentation they recounted many of the challenges they faced along the way to developing their newest game, including culture clashes between very formal corporate cultures and more informal game-design cultures, designers and producers, etc. They also explained some of the constraints of the grant itself, i.e., that the game be delivered on mobile devices and usable in SES settings. They found the evaluation experience to be challenging as well, and suggested the importance of keeping sights on the end-game player that you are designing for - rather than designing for the evaluator. One of the presenters shared a comment made by Will Wright at the Star Schools kick-off meeting - when asked if they could be successful at creating educational games he said "no" - education is about rules, sequences, etc. and games are not. I suspect that it will be interesting to see who is right in the end. Their game seeks to focus on delivering vocabulary content to 4th grade struggling readers.
Games &Schools: A Marriage Made in Heaven or Hell? Angela McFarlane - Presenting on behalf of Futurelab a non-profit group in the UK, McFarlane presented on the Teaching with Games program that they are working on. This program is sponsored by EA, and is a study of Commercial, off-the-shelf software use in classrooms. Specifically they looked at The Sims, Knights of Honor, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and asked general questions about game-use in education. McFarlane pointed out the challenges of getting games on computers in schools - a technical problem that should not be underestimated. None-the-less, they found that 31% of teachers had used COTS in lessons, 59% said they would like to do so in the future, many felt students could gain actual content knowledge as well as higher-order thinking skills through game-play. There were, however concerns over sterotypes and the need for them to be addressed proactively in-class (e.g. Euro and American-centric slants in WWII games) and anti-social behavior. 49% of respondents laced access to appropriate equiment to support game play. Lack of examples and evidence were noted by teachers as being obstacles to implementation, other obstacles included: licensing concerns, time necessary to prep for game us (can't flip through a game like a book), and gaming literacy. They found that gaming literacy couldn't be assumed - not everyone plays games and not everyone that plays them plays well. Even in cases where students reported proficiency at gaming - they were often unable to play well and needed much intial instruction and support. They also found that good teachers did the best job at incorporating games into instruction - more so than younger teachers or more tech-savvy teacher. Another project, Newtoons, allows students to play puzzles that explore Newtonian Physics, and then create and share new puzzles with their peers via cell phones. Their research for this project looks at the effects/outcomes of: Make,Play, Share, Edit or Play, Create, Edit philosophies of gameplay and game design. Do students learn from the games? Do they learn from collaborative experiences related to their gameplay? Do they learn from the experience of creating games? etc. McFarlane concluded by stating that "learning is a process of creation, not a process of consumption" and she reinforced the need for schools to devote more resources to providing tools to create rather than merely products that provide pre-packaged content.
Using Videogames as a Strategy for Teaching Complex Topics, Robert Brown UNCG. I could have sworn the presenter's name was Bruce but I could be wrong, and he had a female colleague co-presenting with him who's name I failed to catch. The presentation focused on a game that had been designed to teach introductory Economic principals to Undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The course, "Principles of Microeconomics" was designed as a complete replacement for the introductory econ course - its is delivered completely online and runs 24/7. All assessments are in-game, most can be repeated but the final assessment (a Jeopardy-like game) can only be played once. Grades are based entirely on game performance and progression through a series of levels and tasks and performance on quizzes. The adventure game about a group of aliens that crash land on a futuristic, post-apocalyptic earth presents economic concepts such as the law of dimishing returns and supply and demand through game-related scenarios. There are also humorous mocumentaries (e.g. parodies of Martha Stewart) and short twitch games that also help to present or reinforce concepts as well as ensure continued engagement. The class has run for 3 seemsters and 300 students have completed it - results show that those students do as well, if not a little better, than students in traditional classrooms (determined in part through similar sets of quiz/test questions in the game-based and traditional classes)
Serious Games by Serious Instructional Designers, Jamie Henderson and valerie Hainley
These designers asked the question that has been asked by many that have come before them, can/should instructional designers design games? Their clients, mainly military, bring many constraints, e.g. flash-based only games - nothing that has to be installed on the machines. They found that it was unsettling, at first, as instructional designers to create a program that would foster failure first and then learning through that failure as part of the game-play experience, but respected the fact that it was a powerful learning experience for players to see what happens when they do something wrong. The game that they designed for the Army was based on a course on Tactical Questioning and was designed to teach questioning skills to soldiers that were going to be deployed in the Middle East. They found, upon reflection, that the definitions of instructional and games are fairly close - in both instances things are being done that lead someone to (hopefully) accomplish goals.
Educational Game Design: Confidential, Meagan Rothschiled and Javier Elizondo
This is a Star Schools Grant Project being developed at PREL (Pacific Resources for Education and Learning). Their inital belief was that traditional game design wasn't that different than educational design. In their presentation they recounted many of the challenges they faced along the way to developing their newest game, including culture clashes between very formal corporate cultures and more informal game-design cultures, designers and producers, etc. They also explained some of the constraints of the grant itself, i.e., that the game be delivered on mobile devices and usable in SES settings. They found the evaluation experience to be challenging as well, and suggested the importance of keeping sights on the end-game player that you are designing for - rather than designing for the evaluator. One of the presenters shared a comment made by Will Wright at the Star Schools kick-off meeting - when asked if they could be successful at creating educational games he said "no" - education is about rules, sequences, etc. and games are not. I suspect that it will be interesting to see who is right in the end. Their game seeks to focus on delivering vocabulary content to 4th grade struggling readers.
Games &Schools: A Marriage Made in Heaven or Hell? Angela McFarlane - Presenting on behalf of Futurelab a non-profit group in the UK, McFarlane presented on the Teaching with Games program that they are working on. This program is sponsored by EA, and is a study of Commercial, off-the-shelf software use in classrooms. Specifically they looked at The Sims, Knights of Honor, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and asked general questions about game-use in education. McFarlane pointed out the challenges of getting games on computers in schools - a technical problem that should not be underestimated. None-the-less, they found that 31% of teachers had used COTS in lessons, 59% said they would like to do so in the future, many felt students could gain actual content knowledge as well as higher-order thinking skills through game-play. There were, however concerns over sterotypes and the need for them to be addressed proactively in-class (e.g. Euro and American-centric slants in WWII games) and anti-social behavior. 49% of respondents laced access to appropriate equiment to support game play. Lack of examples and evidence were noted by teachers as being obstacles to implementation, other obstacles included: licensing concerns, time necessary to prep for game us (can't flip through a game like a book), and gaming literacy. They found that gaming literacy couldn't be assumed - not everyone plays games and not everyone that plays them plays well. Even in cases where students reported proficiency at gaming - they were often unable to play well and needed much intial instruction and support. They also found that good teachers did the best job at incorporating games into instruction - more so than younger teachers or more tech-savvy teacher. Another project, Newtoons, allows students to play puzzles that explore Newtonian Physics, and then create and share new puzzles with their peers via cell phones. Their research for this project looks at the effects/outcomes of: Make,Play, Share, Edit or Play, Create, Edit philosophies of gameplay and game design. Do students learn from the games? Do they learn from collaborative experiences related to their gameplay? Do they learn from the experience of creating games? etc. McFarlane concluded by stating that "learning is a process of creation, not a process of consumption" and she reinforced the need for schools to devote more resources to providing tools to create rather than merely products that provide pre-packaged content.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Augmented Learning with Handheld Gaming Technologies
Eric Klopfer, Eric Rosenbaum, Judy Perry of MIT: Education.mit.org
(Official Presentation Blurb)
-creating higly engaged, motivated students.
-create immersive environments (and take advantage of the original immersive environment, i.e., our real world).
-teach 21st Century Learning Skills
-capitalize on pre-existing mobile gaming hardware - e.g. Game Boy, DS, cell phones/smartphones, handhelds etc. The hardware they use is readily available (COTS), facilitates interactivity/socialization...
Examples of Games:
Participatory Simulations (peer to peer) - The Virus Game. Players all have palm pilots, you "meet" people by going up and letting your palm communicate via infrared - goal is to meet as many people as possible before getting sick (then figure out how you got sick). Its customizable - features can be changed to enable variation in game-play. Teaches kids how to keep learning - learning skills will continue to be important even if specific science we are learning becomes out-dated.
Palmagotchi - Builds on lessons learned from pilots and usage of Participatory Sims. Inspired by Tomagotchi, Palmagotchis are games/simulations on handheld computers that are played over several days between and within classes. Initial content was based on Darwin's observation of finches on the Galapagos Islands. Transported to PocketPC platform (wider capabilities - myWorld platform). Goal: try to keep your virtual birds alive by taking care of them. They are investigating: personal investment in play/characters, patterns of play (short spurts vs. longer interactions), and in-class reflection to develop and reinforce learning. The goal of gameplay is taking care of birds that have good traits and mate accordingly - game pay during the pilot lasted for one-week. Client-Server Architecture enables accumulation of data and ability for advanced analysis. The program was tested in a serious of pilot tests - students' pre- and post-game-play responses to the question "Is evolution predictable?" were compared and they found that game-play did enhance students' comprehension of evolution concepts. Students also got very attached to their birds. They liked it and felt that it was truly a game. Outcomes are truly open-ended - "its not A, B, C; its A, B, ?" - unique and unscripted outcomes motivated students (teachers just need to be prepped/comfortable to handle a variety of outcomes in a variety of ways).
AR Games - Gameplay is triggered by actual locations in the physical world
Website: education.mit.edu/ar
Example of Indoor Game: Outbreak!
Location-based, in more compressed timescale. Based on a series of models - virus/disease spread is modeled at a very detailed level. There is a limited amount of protective gear and medicine. Players can interact with other players and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). 30 minutes of real time is equal to 1 week in game-time. There are multiple roles that players can play (with different capabilities). Game was evaluated through surveys, interviews, gameplay and diagrams of disease systems.
Themes in the research:
-How do students prioritize personal involvement relative to goals of the games?
(found that students found the importance of keeping themselves and their colleagues alive take on more importance after playing)
-Style of gameplay - students naturally spread out rather than staying together.
-What they learned - diagraming exercise revealed more complex causality and a more sophisticated model.
Example of Outdoor Game: POSIT
Looks at changes in public opinions over time - POSIT: Public Opinions of Science using Information Technologies - it is a collaboration between MIT and local museums. ex: Discussion Game - tracking players' opinons over time - Susan Yoon (University of Pennsylvania). Central question in the game: Should MIT build a BSL-4 lab? Players win based on the strength of evidence that is collected (using an opinion slider similar to that used in the Discussion Game, and by asking questions/challenging other players or NPCs - NPC opinions can change over time based on the model for information dissemination/public opinion). Results: personal opinion survey - a few large and several small changes, were more against it at the end than at the beginning. Dialog was also analyzed. Students' ability to argue effectively developed over time. Location matters - one student's opinion was swayed while standing on the site where the proposed, hypothetical building was set to be built and realizing how many people were walking around near-by.
(Official Presentation Blurb)
-creating higly engaged, motivated students.
-create immersive environments (and take advantage of the original immersive environment, i.e., our real world).
-teach 21st Century Learning Skills
-capitalize on pre-existing mobile gaming hardware - e.g. Game Boy, DS, cell phones/smartphones, handhelds etc. The hardware they use is readily available (COTS), facilitates interactivity/socialization...
Examples of Games:
Participatory Simulations (peer to peer) - The Virus Game. Players all have palm pilots, you "meet" people by going up and letting your palm communicate via infrared - goal is to meet as many people as possible before getting sick (then figure out how you got sick). Its customizable - features can be changed to enable variation in game-play. Teaches kids how to keep learning - learning skills will continue to be important even if specific science we are learning becomes out-dated.
Palmagotchi - Builds on lessons learned from pilots and usage of Participatory Sims. Inspired by Tomagotchi, Palmagotchis are games/simulations on handheld computers that are played over several days between and within classes. Initial content was based on Darwin's observation of finches on the Galapagos Islands. Transported to PocketPC platform (wider capabilities - myWorld platform). Goal: try to keep your virtual birds alive by taking care of them. They are investigating: personal investment in play/characters, patterns of play (short spurts vs. longer interactions), and in-class reflection to develop and reinforce learning. The goal of gameplay is taking care of birds that have good traits and mate accordingly - game pay during the pilot lasted for one-week. Client-Server Architecture enables accumulation of data and ability for advanced analysis. The program was tested in a serious of pilot tests - students' pre- and post-game-play responses to the question "Is evolution predictable?" were compared and they found that game-play did enhance students' comprehension of evolution concepts. Students also got very attached to their birds. They liked it and felt that it was truly a game. Outcomes are truly open-ended - "its not A, B, C; its A, B, ?" - unique and unscripted outcomes motivated students (teachers just need to be prepped/comfortable to handle a variety of outcomes in a variety of ways).
AR Games - Gameplay is triggered by actual locations in the physical world
Website: education.mit.edu/ar
Example of Indoor Game: Outbreak!
Location-based, in more compressed timescale. Based on a series of models - virus/disease spread is modeled at a very detailed level. There is a limited amount of protective gear and medicine. Players can interact with other players and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). 30 minutes of real time is equal to 1 week in game-time. There are multiple roles that players can play (with different capabilities). Game was evaluated through surveys, interviews, gameplay and diagrams of disease systems.
Themes in the research:
-How do students prioritize personal involvement relative to goals of the games?
(found that students found the importance of keeping themselves and their colleagues alive take on more importance after playing)
-Style of gameplay - students naturally spread out rather than staying together.
-What they learned - diagraming exercise revealed more complex causality and a more sophisticated model.
Example of Outdoor Game: POSIT
Looks at changes in public opinions over time - POSIT: Public Opinions of Science using Information Technologies - it is a collaboration between MIT and local museums. ex: Discussion Game - tracking players' opinons over time - Susan Yoon (University of Pennsylvania). Central question in the game: Should MIT build a BSL-4 lab? Players win based on the strength of evidence that is collected (using an opinion slider similar to that used in the Discussion Game, and by asking questions/challenging other players or NPCs - NPC opinions can change over time based on the model for information dissemination/public opinion). Results: personal opinion survey - a few large and several small changes, were more against it at the end than at the beginning. Dialog was also analyzed. Students' ability to argue effectively developed over time. Location matters - one student's opinion was swayed while standing on the site where the proposed, hypothetical building was set to be built and realizing how many people were walking around near-by.
Science learning games for Informal Science Education
Presented by Walt Scacchi of the Institute for Software Research at teh University of California - Irvine.
Scacchi's game-related work has focused on networked games that facilitate social learning opportunties (more so than on games played by individuals) and opportunities for doing real science.
Science Learning Games: (1950-2005+)
In the 1950's there were research articles and source codes for computer games - game design helped to spur on advancements in computer science.
In the 70's there were non-game science learning programs (e.g. Plato and Sophie)
+Science-inspired games - e.g., science fiction - fun to play but learning outcomes related to science objectives are unclear.
Examples:
-Disney Dino
-Zoo Tycoon - Dinosaurs (fictional world where humans and dinos co-exist)
-Nanosaurs - Dinosaurs with Jetpacks do combat with one another
-LucasArts Droidworks - Teaches engineering design skills e.g. tradeoffs and iterative design
-Kinetic City - NSF keystone science learning games - produced by American Association for the Advancement of Science - 2million+ grant - for 5th and 6th graders with several mini-games e.g. Body System Identification. Requires iterative play - reset if incorrect.
-Genius - Task Force Biologie - German game, not available in English
-Industry -Player - about how commodity markets work - investment science. Developed in UK for teens
-GTR Racing Simulation - control and configure the mechanical design of the car to determine in-game performance - teaches graduate level mechanical engineering more or less.
-NASCAR Racing 2007 (by EA) provides telemetry data from a cars test run on the track.
"Graduate level engineering concepts, undergraduates don't know how to do it...but kids do."
Intro to DinoQuest at Discovery Science Center - in Santa Ana, California. Science Centers are increasingly becoming a prefered source of hands-on science instruction in California and the rest of the US. Scacchi briefly discussed the challenges for Science Centers and other museums to cover operating expenses.
This leads in to the portion of the presentation prepared by Joe Adams (who was offsite working on a dino dig in Montana)...wherein the business end of things are discussed: e.g. the importance of capturing the visitor's interest within 15 seconds, the challenges of securing funding. The DinoQuest exhibit is dino-themed but focused on Life Science...dinos are surragotes for humans in this exhibit - they capture children's interest and help them to learn life science concepts that they are expected to learn.
The HighSchool graduation rate in Santa Ana is 50% or less despite the fact that it is in the 5th most affluent county in the US. More than half the local potential workforce has not graduated - and that is problematic in world of work that is requiring more and more skilled workers.
(Photo of Argentinosauras that visitors can walkthrough and interact with and see demonstrations of bodily functions in addition to seeing the anatomy.)
The exhibit:
-IR Transmitters (shaped like a wand), developed by Creative Kingdoms - the same folks that developed the wands for the Harry Potter theme park (it was cheaper to go with the wand looking devices rather than recreating one of their own - an economic decision), allow visitors to interact with items throughout the exhibit and complete tasks.
-Kiosk stations are tied into science collaboratories (a current push to foster emerging scientific experience with hands-on involvement rather than mere exposure experiences)
-opportunities for social role playing - familes and gropus complete the tasks together.
-rewards - earn research points
The Online Game:
http://dqonline.org/game/login.php
Use: "demo" and "demo" for user name and password.
Game design considerations:
-Had to put things in the game solely for the purpose of adults - kids knew what was going on, but adults didn't, e.g. interstitial explanations of what's going on.
-Budgetary limitations force players to make decisions about where to search, therefore fostering learning via strategy and preventing an exhaustive search
-Multiple different sciences are touched upon in a series of different games.
-Different game genres are used - including very short mini-games designed for young learners
-Rewards (items accumlated) for missions that are accomplished
Evaluation:
Player Centered: Scores and missions completed identify progress and provide feedback in context
Exhibit Centered: ability to test content comprehension by player quiz upon completing mission
Different stakeholders have different goals - business goals (its successful if it is bringing more people in), educational goals (its successful if people are learning)...
The exhibit has helped to double the science center revenue and increased memberships by 75%, in part because it is very visible from the 5 freeway. New goal/idea: Massively Multiplayer Online Science Learning Games! Link together networks of science centers - via a cyberinfrastructure.
Future:
-Build on the past, but develop for the future: e.g. The Incredible (nanotech) Machines (based on the game: "The Incredible Machine")
-Game-based Science - Games as scientific investigation/exploration instruments, e.g. Plasma fusion simulation exploration game
Scacchi's game-related work has focused on networked games that facilitate social learning opportunties (more so than on games played by individuals) and opportunities for doing real science.
Science Learning Games: (1950-2005+)
In the 1950's there were research articles and source codes for computer games - game design helped to spur on advancements in computer science.
In the 70's there were non-game science learning programs (e.g. Plato and Sophie)
+Science-inspired games - e.g., science fiction - fun to play but learning outcomes related to science objectives are unclear.
Examples:
-Disney Dino
-Zoo Tycoon - Dinosaurs (fictional world where humans and dinos co-exist)
-Nanosaurs - Dinosaurs with Jetpacks do combat with one another
-LucasArts Droidworks - Teaches engineering design skills e.g. tradeoffs and iterative design
-Kinetic City - NSF keystone science learning games - produced by American Association for the Advancement of Science - 2million+ grant - for 5th and 6th graders with several mini-games e.g. Body System Identification. Requires iterative play - reset if incorrect.
-Genius - Task Force Biologie - German game, not available in English
-Industry -Player - about how commodity markets work - investment science. Developed in UK for teens
-GTR Racing Simulation - control and configure the mechanical design of the car to determine in-game performance - teaches graduate level mechanical engineering more or less.
-NASCAR Racing 2007 (by EA) provides telemetry data from a cars test run on the track.
"Graduate level engineering concepts, undergraduates don't know how to do it...but kids do."
Intro to DinoQuest at Discovery Science Center - in Santa Ana, California. Science Centers are increasingly becoming a prefered source of hands-on science instruction in California and the rest of the US. Scacchi briefly discussed the challenges for Science Centers and other museums to cover operating expenses.
This leads in to the portion of the presentation prepared by Joe Adams (who was offsite working on a dino dig in Montana)...wherein the business end of things are discussed: e.g. the importance of capturing the visitor's interest within 15 seconds, the challenges of securing funding. The DinoQuest exhibit is dino-themed but focused on Life Science...dinos are surragotes for humans in this exhibit - they capture children's interest and help them to learn life science concepts that they are expected to learn.
The HighSchool graduation rate in Santa Ana is 50% or less despite the fact that it is in the 5th most affluent county in the US. More than half the local potential workforce has not graduated - and that is problematic in world of work that is requiring more and more skilled workers.
(Photo of Argentinosauras that visitors can walkthrough and interact with and see demonstrations of bodily functions in addition to seeing the anatomy.)
The exhibit:
-IR Transmitters (shaped like a wand), developed by Creative Kingdoms - the same folks that developed the wands for the Harry Potter theme park (it was cheaper to go with the wand looking devices rather than recreating one of their own - an economic decision), allow visitors to interact with items throughout the exhibit and complete tasks.
-Kiosk stations are tied into science collaboratories (a current push to foster emerging scientific experience with hands-on involvement rather than mere exposure experiences)
-opportunities for social role playing - familes and gropus complete the tasks together.
-rewards - earn research points
The Online Game:
http://dqonline.org/game/login.php
Use: "demo" and "demo" for user name and password.
Game design considerations:
-Had to put things in the game solely for the purpose of adults - kids knew what was going on, but adults didn't, e.g. interstitial explanations of what's going on.
-Budgetary limitations force players to make decisions about where to search, therefore fostering learning via strategy and preventing an exhaustive search
-Multiple different sciences are touched upon in a series of different games.
-Different game genres are used - including very short mini-games designed for young learners
-Rewards (items accumlated) for missions that are accomplished
Evaluation:
Player Centered: Scores and missions completed identify progress and provide feedback in context
Exhibit Centered: ability to test content comprehension by player quiz upon completing mission
Different stakeholders have different goals - business goals (its successful if it is bringing more people in), educational goals (its successful if people are learning)...
The exhibit has helped to double the science center revenue and increased memberships by 75%, in part because it is very visible from the 5 freeway. New goal/idea: Massively Multiplayer Online Science Learning Games! Link together networks of science centers - via a cyberinfrastructure.
Future:
-Build on the past, but develop for the future: e.g. The Incredible (nanotech) Machines (based on the game: "The Incredible Machine")
-Game-based Science - Games as scientific investigation/exploration instruments, e.g. Plasma fusion simulation exploration game
Teaching Evaluation - through games
Presented by a team of developers at UW-Madison: Rich Halverson, Moses Wolfenstein, & Dan Norton.
Concept: create a tool that can help school leaders run schools better. The problem with this is that there's way too much that could be done, so they narrowed their focus a bit to teacher evaluation.
Four stages/phases of the game:
1) Observation (done)
2) Argument Construction (just now under development) - reporting back on what was observed
3) Expert Analysis - kind of like John Madden play-by-play reporting
4) Conference
The game/tool is being created with Transana - www.transana.org.
They piloted the program with a group of students in a UW class on Supervising Teaching and Learning and found that the observation application worked fairly well as a tool. Administrators have requested being able to use it - thought it would be valuable to sit down with their teachers and walk through things together.
The interface is very basic - a classroom map on the right, with class&teacher data/lesson background buttons above. a large video window in the upper left, anda set of commenting tools beneath it. there are four buttons that can be customized by the person doing the evaluation. They found that when these buttons were predefined it constrained the evaluation strategies and styles of the person playing the "game." The tool allows the "player" to pause - in the game mode, they envision removing the ability to pause time - as a reflection of the players greater evaluation skills.
We then got a chance to try our hand with the observation tool.
One of the presenters came by to see how we were doing. We wandered slightly off-topic and he shared an annecdote from another project (using DSs for classroom vocabulary instruction) he was working on where an evaluator refused to see student discussion as a positive thing - a lively discussion about evaluation strategies and PT3 video programs then ensued among the folks at my table.
Concept: create a tool that can help school leaders run schools better. The problem with this is that there's way too much that could be done, so they narrowed their focus a bit to teacher evaluation.
Four stages/phases of the game:
1) Observation (done)
2) Argument Construction (just now under development) - reporting back on what was observed
3) Expert Analysis - kind of like John Madden play-by-play reporting
4) Conference
The game/tool is being created with Transana - www.transana.org.
They piloted the program with a group of students in a UW class on Supervising Teaching and Learning and found that the observation application worked fairly well as a tool. Administrators have requested being able to use it - thought it would be valuable to sit down with their teachers and walk through things together.
The interface is very basic - a classroom map on the right, with class&teacher data/lesson background buttons above. a large video window in the upper left, anda set of commenting tools beneath it. there are four buttons that can be customized by the person doing the evaluation. They found that when these buttons were predefined it constrained the evaluation strategies and styles of the person playing the "game." The tool allows the "player" to pause - in the game mode, they envision removing the ability to pause time - as a reflection of the players greater evaluation skills.
We then got a chance to try our hand with the observation tool.
One of the presenters came by to see how we were doing. We wandered slightly off-topic and he shared an annecdote from another project (using DSs for classroom vocabulary instruction) he was working on where an evaluator refused to see student discussion as a positive thing - a lively discussion about evaluation strategies and PT3 video programs then ensued among the folks at my table.
Teens tell it like it is...
Three teens present in Madison (Angela, Jonathan, both Global Kids leaders, and Lane a 13 year old from NY who had gotten involved through Second Life) and one logged in remotely via Skype (audio) and in Second Life join Barry Joseph, the director of the online leadership program for Global Kids, in presenting this teen panel.
After a brief introduction, Barry showed a video that introduced information about the Global Kids program and highlighted many of the program participants talking about their experiences. The group was then invited to play a card game/mingler that helped to introduce various things that Global Kids has done.
Jonathan, one of the teen panelists described his experience in the Playing for Keeps program - designing a game about life in Hati last year and a game called "Consent," developed in Second Life that explores the problems of experimentation on prisoners.
Angela then described a digital media project that she worked on that tackled the problem of obesity, using Dance Dance Revolution among different things and showed a brief video. Shen then showed a video, entitled "A Child's War." Created in Second Life, this short film was a great example of machinima with elaborate scenes acted out by avatars (at least that's how I'm assuming it was created), told the story of a boy from Uganda forced to fight as a rebel. Angela served as the interviewer in this movie and explained how Second Life enabled them to make a film that they otherwise would not have been able to make. She described the use of SL as an educational tool as "fun as well as complex." She explained a situation where their movie was tampered with after they first put it up on SL, and Barry explained that the permissions were subsequently changed to protect the students' work.
Next, Lane was invited to help with a demo of Teen Second Life. Barry explained that there are nearly 1000 teens that now own some form of property in SL. Other property is owned by Linden Labs and organizations such as Global Kids. Barry explained how he had come to meet Lane in SL - because Lane (and his avatar "Cheesepuff") had created a form of in-world graffiti that protested the involvement of adults in the teen grid. Lane explained that this was in response to having heard that some kids had gotten kicked off the adult grid. The interaction that resulted between Lane and Barry, sparked additional public conversations about the role of adults in the teen grid that continue to this day. In April, shortly after the one year anniversary of Teen SL, a debate was held in-world. This ultimately led to a proposal to more clearly delinate adult-owned lands in Teen SL. When Linden actually modified the grid accordingly. Lane was quite pleased about the fact that he had contributed to changing SL - he commented that he was suprised that he had as much "power or voice" as he did - how much power a group of teens had when they got together to protest.
(the modified look of the Teen Grid displayed)
Then Barry turned back to SL, joining Brooke Barmy, a well-known in-world furniture designer. Brooke described his involve in the Global Kids camp in SL. The camp adressed global issues (such as child sex trafficking) and leadership, but also allowed time for traditional camp activities such as in-world campfires. A brief video on YouTube explained more. The participants ultimately created a maze that mirrors the exprience of being drawn into the world of child sex trafficking). This maze was incredibly helpful not only in raising awareness about the image, but also in helping to raise funds to help combat the problem in-world.
Barry asked Brooke, why did you create a maze (a game) to raise awareness? Brooke's response: "in world, people don't just want to come and sit and hear someone speak. The maze, on the otherhand, is a physical activity that people can try their hand at." Barry then asked Brooke about the promotional strategies. Brooke explained that Linden put messages up on the welcome screen about the maze and a special teach-in event, and several in-world products were also created to promote awareness.
Q&A
What barriers do you see to doing something like this in your regular school experience?
J: the school officials would never agree to it - they are more concentrated on academics...they would see it as not good enough. Games are seen as a waste of time - they destroy your brain, or so they fear. In a very professional and adult manner he then cited a study done by a Harvard professor who did a study that showed students who played games went on to do better in school than peers in a control group that did not play games.
Once schools see what students learn, how can they deny the value of it?
B: its not always enough
I'm a teacher, one of the challenges I see is that everything takes time. How long did it take you to do this project and build this game?
A: it took us the whole school year. To make "A Child's War" it took 2-3 months and we didn't finish during the school year.
J: the computers were too slow at our school. We couldn't develop the games ourselves, we just came up with the idea and did the design. Barry explained the Digitial Refinery (headed by a home-schooled 15 year-old who started the first for-profit in-world development company) helped to actually make the game in-world.
Have you ever thought about taking this to libraries instead of schools? Would you go to this program if it was in a library?
J: a good idea
L: If you do libraries you get a much wider spectrum of teens, if you target one school at a time you aren't going to make much progress.
A: I go to a musuem, so why not a library.
B: GK was the second adult-owned island in teen SL - the first was owned by librarians.
Strictly virtual vs real-world? Benefits to doing it in person/in the real world?
J: shouldn't be strictly virtual - good to meet people. Instructors help you out - I didn't know much about it before, plus got to meet and socialize.
L: benefits to online - get lots more people involved, don't have to drive anywhere. But I also agree, if you don't meet in person you don't get the social element - good to have a balance.
A: Both, it is helpful to have somebody there to lead you but doing it in SL at the same time.
How important is your identity in SL:
J: I believe that the avatar enables kids to create an image that is more creative and lets you do things that you can't do in real life.
Resources:
The Program: http://Globalkids.org
The Blog: http://www.holymeatballs.org/
PS: it is _really_ hard to take notes in real time - but it was sure fun to give it a try.
After a brief introduction, Barry showed a video that introduced information about the Global Kids program and highlighted many of the program participants talking about their experiences. The group was then invited to play a card game/mingler that helped to introduce various things that Global Kids has done.
Jonathan, one of the teen panelists described his experience in the Playing for Keeps program - designing a game about life in Hati last year and a game called "Consent," developed in Second Life that explores the problems of experimentation on prisoners.
Angela then described a digital media project that she worked on that tackled the problem of obesity, using Dance Dance Revolution among different things and showed a brief video. Shen then showed a video, entitled "A Child's War." Created in Second Life, this short film was a great example of machinima with elaborate scenes acted out by avatars (at least that's how I'm assuming it was created), told the story of a boy from Uganda forced to fight as a rebel. Angela served as the interviewer in this movie and explained how Second Life enabled them to make a film that they otherwise would not have been able to make. She described the use of SL as an educational tool as "fun as well as complex." She explained a situation where their movie was tampered with after they first put it up on SL, and Barry explained that the permissions were subsequently changed to protect the students' work.
Next, Lane was invited to help with a demo of Teen Second Life. Barry explained that there are nearly 1000 teens that now own some form of property in SL. Other property is owned by Linden Labs and organizations such as Global Kids. Barry explained how he had come to meet Lane in SL - because Lane (and his avatar "Cheesepuff") had created a form of in-world graffiti that protested the involvement of adults in the teen grid. Lane explained that this was in response to having heard that some kids had gotten kicked off the adult grid. The interaction that resulted between Lane and Barry, sparked additional public conversations about the role of adults in the teen grid that continue to this day. In April, shortly after the one year anniversary of Teen SL, a debate was held in-world. This ultimately led to a proposal to more clearly delinate adult-owned lands in Teen SL. When Linden actually modified the grid accordingly. Lane was quite pleased about the fact that he had contributed to changing SL - he commented that he was suprised that he had as much "power or voice" as he did - how much power a group of teens had when they got together to protest.
(the modified look of the Teen Grid displayed)Then Barry turned back to SL, joining Brooke Barmy, a well-known in-world furniture designer. Brooke described his involve in the Global Kids camp in SL. The camp adressed global issues (such as child sex trafficking) and leadership, but also allowed time for traditional camp activities such as in-world campfires. A brief video on YouTube explained more. The participants ultimately created a maze that mirrors the exprience of being drawn into the world of child sex trafficking). This maze was incredibly helpful not only in raising awareness about the image, but also in helping to raise funds to help combat the problem in-world.
Barry asked Brooke, why did you create a maze (a game) to raise awareness? Brooke's response: "in world, people don't just want to come and sit and hear someone speak. The maze, on the otherhand, is a physical activity that people can try their hand at." Barry then asked Brooke about the promotional strategies. Brooke explained that Linden put messages up on the welcome screen about the maze and a special teach-in event, and several in-world products were also created to promote awareness.
Q&A
What barriers do you see to doing something like this in your regular school experience?
J: the school officials would never agree to it - they are more concentrated on academics...they would see it as not good enough. Games are seen as a waste of time - they destroy your brain, or so they fear. In a very professional and adult manner he then cited a study done by a Harvard professor who did a study that showed students who played games went on to do better in school than peers in a control group that did not play games.
Once schools see what students learn, how can they deny the value of it?
B: its not always enough
I'm a teacher, one of the challenges I see is that everything takes time. How long did it take you to do this project and build this game?
A: it took us the whole school year. To make "A Child's War" it took 2-3 months and we didn't finish during the school year.
J: the computers were too slow at our school. We couldn't develop the games ourselves, we just came up with the idea and did the design. Barry explained the Digitial Refinery (headed by a home-schooled 15 year-old who started the first for-profit in-world development company) helped to actually make the game in-world.
Have you ever thought about taking this to libraries instead of schools? Would you go to this program if it was in a library?
J: a good idea
L: If you do libraries you get a much wider spectrum of teens, if you target one school at a time you aren't going to make much progress.
A: I go to a musuem, so why not a library.
B: GK was the second adult-owned island in teen SL - the first was owned by librarians.
Strictly virtual vs real-world? Benefits to doing it in person/in the real world?
J: shouldn't be strictly virtual - good to meet people. Instructors help you out - I didn't know much about it before, plus got to meet and socialize.
L: benefits to online - get lots more people involved, don't have to drive anywhere. But I also agree, if you don't meet in person you don't get the social element - good to have a balance.
A: Both, it is helpful to have somebody there to lead you but doing it in SL at the same time.
How important is your identity in SL:
J: I believe that the avatar enables kids to create an image that is more creative and lets you do things that you can't do in real life.
Resources:
The Program: http://Globalkids.org
The Blog: http://www.holymeatballs.org/
PS: it is _really_ hard to take notes in real time - but it was sure fun to give it a try.
Greetings from GLS
Sitting here in a beautiful spot overlooking lake Monona and listening to James Paul Gee deliver the opening Keynote address at the Games+Learning+Society. Its similar to past presentations I've heard him give, but interesting and thought-provoking none-the-less.
Golden nuggets thus far: He discussed the supposed education/learning gap that exists between rich and poor students - noting insightfully, that the poor tend to get bad grades for knowing nothing, but more disturbingly, the rich tend to get good grades for knowing nothing, i.e., they lack the ability to apply the things they've supposedly learned in any meaningful way.
He then went on to discuss the way that learning happens in games, pointing out along the way that dirty capitalists often trust our children and their capacity to learn and master information more than our schools. The gamer motto, according to Gee: "Fail early, fail often." Learning in gaming comes from failure and transgression and this flys in the face of the way things are done in most schools.
Some additional comments:
Playing games involves/evolves into building them. Gaming is about design.
Newbies and masters often play in the same space.
Race/gender and other factors that tend to define us in the "real world" can be used strategicially by players when, and if, they choose to divulge that information - they are not defined by who they are
There are many different routes to participation and status (not like middle school where there's only a few routes to status and stiff hierarchy thus results)
Now on to the next session!
Golden nuggets thus far: He discussed the supposed education/learning gap that exists between rich and poor students - noting insightfully, that the poor tend to get bad grades for knowing nothing, but more disturbingly, the rich tend to get good grades for knowing nothing, i.e., they lack the ability to apply the things they've supposedly learned in any meaningful way.
He then went on to discuss the way that learning happens in games, pointing out along the way that dirty capitalists often trust our children and their capacity to learn and master information more than our schools. The gamer motto, according to Gee: "Fail early, fail often." Learning in gaming comes from failure and transgression and this flys in the face of the way things are done in most schools.
Some additional comments:
Playing games involves/evolves into building them. Gaming is about design.
Newbies and masters often play in the same space.
Race/gender and other factors that tend to define us in the "real world" can be used strategicially by players when, and if, they choose to divulge that information - they are not defined by who they are
There are many different routes to participation and status (not like middle school where there's only a few routes to status and stiff hierarchy thus results)
Now on to the next session!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Addicted to Games?
Addiction experts say video games not an addiction
From Yahoo News - experts are arguing over whether or not video game addiction should be considered an affliction on par with alcoholism or drug addiction. Video gaming produces very real physiological responses within players that could understandably become addictive much in the same way that a drug addict continues to seek highs from illegal substances...but does classifying game addiction open up a can of worms for classifying other media addictions as illnesses worthy of insurance support for treatment (e.g. television or internet addiction)? Are some people more wired to become addicted to games the same way there are people predisposed to become alcoholics or drug addicts? Is is the result of a generally addictive personality or are those who become addicted to games somehow different from those who become addicted to physical substances? Only time and research will tell.Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Pen-Based Computing Breakthroughs
From the New York Times: Take Note: Computing Takes Up Pen, Again
"An ambitious new type of pen-based computer system could bridge the gap between paper and the digital world."
"The Livescribe pen is a more advanced version of the LeapFrog Fly Pentop Computer, which itself has some impressive abilities, even if it is intended for children. Fly users can draw a calculator on paper and make it work by tapping the keys with the pen; a speaker in the pen plays back the results. Users can also draw a piano keyboard on a piece of paper and play a tune on it."
"An ambitious new type of pen-based computer system could bridge the gap between paper and the digital world."
"The Livescribe pen is a more advanced version of the LeapFrog Fly Pentop Computer, which itself has some impressive abilities, even if it is intended for children. Fly users can draw a calculator on paper and make it work by tapping the keys with the pen; a speaker in the pen plays back the results. Users can also draw a piano keyboard on a piece of paper and play a tune on it."
Conference: Call for Papers
First Call for Papers
3rd International Conference on
“Interactive Mobile and Computer aided Learning”
IMCL2008
Princess Sumaya University for Technology
Amman, Jordan,
16–80 April 2008
The conference aims to promote the development of eLearning and mLearning in the Middle East, provides a forum for education and knowledge transfer and encourages the implementation of mobile applications in teaching and learning. The conference is organized by Princess Sumaya University for Technology in collaboration with Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria and Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Sweden.
Topics of Interest
• Design and development of course content;
• M-learning emerging hardware and software;
• M-learning applications;
• Mobile technology support for educator and student;
• Mobile Web and video Conferencing;
• M-learning objects and development tools;
• Service providers for mobile networks;
• M-learning standards;
• Life-long m-learning;
• Impact of m-learning on social change;
• Future trends in m-learning;
• Web and Computer-based learning;
• Tools for interactive learning and teaching;
• Platforms and authoring tools;
• New learning models and applications;
• Applications of the Semantic Web;
• Adaptive learning environments;
• Methods of content adoption;
• Project-based learning;
• Virtual campus and e-learning;
• Remote and virtual laboratories;
• Remote measurement technologies;
• Concepts for remote engineering;
• Multimedia and virtual environments;
• Cost-effectiveness;
• Real world experiences;
• Pilot projects, products and applications.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Passing of a Science Icon
Many folks have been chiming in with kind words for the late Don Herbert, known to many as "Mr. Wizard."
Marty Kaplan wrote: "in Don Herbert's New York Times obituary it says that during the 1960s and '70s, "about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science." A National Science Foundation official quoted in his Los Angeles Times obituary said in 1989 that "Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country."
The impact of one person (and of the media in general) cannot be underestimated, and Mr. Wizard was a perfect example of that.
Marty Kaplan wrote: "in Don Herbert's New York Times obituary it says that during the 1960s and '70s, "about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science." A National Science Foundation official quoted in his Los Angeles Times obituary said in 1989 that "Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country."
The impact of one person (and of the media in general) cannot be underestimated, and Mr. Wizard was a perfect example of that.
Evaluating Ed Tech - Preliminary Results
From eSchool News: Ed tech is raising student achievement
Results of $15 million in evaluation grants due soon
"The nine states that have received $15 million in "Evaluating State Educational Technology Projects" grants from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) over the last three years are expected to submit their final reports from these studies to ED officials this fall--and an early look at their results suggests that technology is having a positive impact on student engagement and achievement."
Results of $15 million in evaluation grants due soon
"The nine states that have received $15 million in "Evaluating State Educational Technology Projects" grants from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) over the last three years are expected to submit their final reports from these studies to ED officials this fall--and an early look at their results suggests that technology is having a positive impact on student engagement and achievement."
Responding to criticisms of ed tech
From the k-12 computing blueprint:
Reacting to the New York Times
Read how bloggers, journalists, researchers and one-to-one educators are responding to a controversial article in the New York Times reporting on districts that have scrapped their laptop programs.
One-to-One Profiles from Technology & Learning
Read about laptop districts in the following states:
• California
Despite financial hurdles, one Fresno-area school district is partnering with parents to get laptops into students' hands.
• Alaska
In the remote Alaskan interior, students are reaping the benefits of laptop computing.
• Texas
Learn about Irving ISD's one-to-one program, which supports technology integration through extensive online resources, especially at the high school level.
Friday, May 25, 2007
New Act Helps US Schools with Enhancing Education Through Technology
From eSchool News: New bill would revamp ed-tech funding - 'ATTAIN Act' seeks to target funds more effectively for schools in need
A newly introduced bill seeks Achivement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) and hopes to do so, in part, by Enhancing Educational Through Technology (EETT). The legislation would increase the size of grants (in the form of state block grants - half competive and half based on formulas, geared, in part, toward funding schools with the greatest need). Professional development for teachers would also be a focus of the funding and students' attainment of technology literacy (by 8th grade) would be assessed.
According to the quotes from lawmakers and proponents of the bill - there are a high-hopes for long-term pay-offs:
"When schools are properly equipped to meet the technology needs of students, and when they have properly trained teachers, students are engaged, eager to learn, and are ultimately better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Lucille Roybal-Allard (D) California
"One of the most effective ways we can sharpen America's competitive edge is by investing in technology in the classroom...This bill will further the technological prowess of our nation's schools and students and ultimately will increase our economic prosperity and capacity for innovation." Ruben Hinojosa (D) Texas
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Learning from Leaders - The Game-Innovation cycle
Apple Computer co-creator, Steve Wozniak, speaks about the games he played, his involvement with the electronic gaming industry in the early days, and the influnce that his work in game design had on subsequent thoughts and ideas related to other inventions including the personal computer.
From Gamasutra: Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past
From Gamasutra: Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past
"Drawing past the Dots"
From TechLEARNING e-Newsletter (May 22nd):
"We've been reading about some wonderful examples of teachers implementing new tools in their classrooms - using blogs, wikis, podcasts, and video - to make a difference in how and what students learn. Yet, as always, the number of examples is pretty small. The vast majority of educators aren't there yet. In this week's collection of blogs, we have two entries that point out some of the problems. Steve Dembo in When Students Have to Take their Learning Underground shows us an example of students who were engaged in learning being barred from doing so by the school. And David Jakes in 9 Dots talks about educators' comfort zone actually getting smaller when it should be getting bigger."
The first article "When Students Have to Take their Learning Underground" highlighted some of the challenges of balancing the use of new social networking and online publishing resources with the growing number of privacy concerns. Parents worried about student's use of sites that allowed them to post their photos on maps or use social networking sites like MySpace, but students countered that they were advanced enough in their understanding of the Internet to avoid online predators or do things that jeopardized their safety. As is usually the case, both sides' concerns were probably warranted to some extent.
The second article, "9 Dots," suggests that few educators are reaching out to new technologies to provide engaging and innovative learning opportunities for today's uber-wired students. The article pokes fun at a group of educators who laughed in response to a question about whether or not they taught MySpace. "It’s time to teach kids how to contribute content the right way, but that’s outside of the reality of what we're supposed to teach, isn't it?"
This article doubles as a call-to-arms for educators to scramble to the frontlines and start using technology to truly create 21st Century learning environments and experiences.
"The gap widens, the disconnect between reality and what happens in our schools continues to grow. Meanwhile, politicians ask potential voters to post videos to YouTube about what they can do to change America. And we miss the moment by not having every kid studying history or civics rise to meet that challenge. Mainstream media recognizes that the the voice of the citizen journalist is a valid voice, and appropriately asks everyone, anyone, with the tools and capability, and with the desire to participate, to contribute news content. And we miss the moment again by banning those very tools from our hallways and classrooms. Progressive companies like Google enable their engineers to to spend 20% of their workweek on ideas and projects not related to their job description (via Graham Wegner). Instead of pondering and pursuing what could be, what should be, American teachers grade worksheets and prepare students for high-stakes tests."
"We've been reading about some wonderful examples of teachers implementing new tools in their classrooms - using blogs, wikis, podcasts, and video - to make a difference in how and what students learn. Yet, as always, the number of examples is pretty small. The vast majority of educators aren't there yet. In this week's collection of blogs, we have two entries that point out some of the problems. Steve Dembo in When Students Have to Take their Learning Underground shows us an example of students who were engaged in learning being barred from doing so by the school. And David Jakes in 9 Dots talks about educators' comfort zone actually getting smaller when it should be getting bigger."
The first article "When Students Have to Take their Learning Underground" highlighted some of the challenges of balancing the use of new social networking and online publishing resources with the growing number of privacy concerns. Parents worried about student's use of sites that allowed them to post their photos on maps or use social networking sites like MySpace, but students countered that they were advanced enough in their understanding of the Internet to avoid online predators or do things that jeopardized their safety. As is usually the case, both sides' concerns were probably warranted to some extent.
The second article, "9 Dots," suggests that few educators are reaching out to new technologies to provide engaging and innovative learning opportunities for today's uber-wired students. The article pokes fun at a group of educators who laughed in response to a question about whether or not they taught MySpace. "It’s time to teach kids how to contribute content the right way, but that’s outside of the reality of what we're supposed to teach, isn't it?"
This article doubles as a call-to-arms for educators to scramble to the frontlines and start using technology to truly create 21st Century learning environments and experiences.
"The gap widens, the disconnect between reality and what happens in our schools continues to grow. Meanwhile, politicians ask potential voters to post videos to YouTube about what they can do to change America. And we miss the moment by not having every kid studying history or civics rise to meet that challenge. Mainstream media recognizes that the the voice of the citizen journalist is a valid voice, and appropriately asks everyone, anyone, with the tools and capability, and with the desire to participate, to contribute news content. And we miss the moment again by banning those very tools from our hallways and classrooms. Progressive companies like Google enable their engineers to to spend 20% of their workweek on ideas and projects not related to their job description (via Graham Wegner). Instead of pondering and pursuing what could be, what should be, American teachers grade worksheets and prepare students for high-stakes tests."
The Golden Age of Entrepreneurship
Has technology helped to create the "Golden Age of Entrepreneurship" for today's youth?
From CNet: Teenager today, tech exec tomorrow
The successes of several young entrepreneurs are highlighted in this short article. It provides a nice balance to all the media accounts of how lazy and undriven today's youth are - and does a good job of quickly pointing out that today's youth have all the tools needed to start successful businesses in today's high tech world - and they know how to use those tools a lot better than most adults.
"A handful of enterprising teens have a message for parents and the media: the Net is not all MySpace or Facebook horror stories."
From CNet: Teenager today, tech exec tomorrow
The successes of several young entrepreneurs are highlighted in this short article. It provides a nice balance to all the media accounts of how lazy and undriven today's youth are - and does a good job of quickly pointing out that today's youth have all the tools needed to start successful businesses in today's high tech world - and they know how to use those tools a lot better than most adults.
"A handful of enterprising teens have a message for parents and the media: the Net is not all MySpace or Facebook horror stories."
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Innovative ways to find and use video for instructional purposes
This past year I worked on study of teachers' use of video for instructional purposes and we found many teachers in the study using video in very conventional ways - teachers were still inclined to show entire programs (sometimes up to two hour feature-length movies) even when a short clip would suffice to address the intended learning objectives. As part of our study we provided a DVD set for the program we were studying along with a complete index that provided descriptions of each program segment and how to jump right to those segments. There were also several teachers in the study who had access to streaming video services that offered shorter clips as well as full length programs. Access to, and use of these digital resources seemed to support teachers using video in new ways (e.g. a short clip-based approach rather than screening an entire program). It therefore stands to reason that teachers could capitalize on a site like YouTube that offers a wide variety of video programming.
The following article comes to many of the same conclusions about good and poor uses of video for instructional purposes - and specifically talks about using YouTube to provide unique and quality learning experiences.
From Education World/Brenda's Blog: Using YouTube in the Classroom
"Herding a class of students down to the computer lab to watch a few catchy videos has no more learning benefit than turning a class of students onto the Internet for a half hour of random surfing. The power of YouTube only is activated when the teacher has a clear idea of how a specific video clip can be used to introduce a concept or theme, instigate a discussion, or serve as a writing prompt."
The following article comes to many of the same conclusions about good and poor uses of video for instructional purposes - and specifically talks about using YouTube to provide unique and quality learning experiences.
From Education World/Brenda's Blog: Using YouTube in the Classroom
"Herding a class of students down to the computer lab to watch a few catchy videos has no more learning benefit than turning a class of students onto the Internet for a half hour of random surfing. The power of YouTube only is activated when the teacher has a clear idea of how a specific video clip can be used to introduce a concept or theme, instigate a discussion, or serve as a writing prompt."
Video Game helps ADHD children with attentional skills
From the Chiago Tribune: Giving a child a better mind Published May 22, 2007
"A home-based computer program is helping children with attention deficits sharpen their working memory, thereby improving problem-solving skills and academic performance...Cogmed Working Memory Training, developed by Swedish brain researcher Dr. Torkel Klingberg, features video game software on an engaging robot interface. The research-validated program has been successful in Europe, and now is being offered in the United States."
"A home-based computer program is helping children with attention deficits sharpen their working memory, thereby improving problem-solving skills and academic performance...Cogmed Working Memory Training, developed by Swedish brain researcher Dr. Torkel Klingberg, features video game software on an engaging robot interface. The research-validated program has been successful in Europe, and now is being offered in the United States."
The program trains children 30-45 minutes a day, five days a week for five weeks. Parents or personal coaches provide encouragement and help to implement a reward system. "The computer exercises involve recalling number and letter patterns. For example, on the robot's chest may be a grid of 25 red lights. The lights blink in a certain order. The child has to replicate the order, with the number of lights blinking increasing over time."
The findings are impressive - though the exact meaning of "significant improvement" is not defined in this article: "More than 1,400 children and adults have completed the training in Europe, with 80 percent achieving significant improvement in attention, impulse control, problem-solving skills and academic performance."
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Proving that educational technology works...or at least trying to
A great collection of resources and articles that suggest the power of technology to positively influence learning:
From eSchool News: eSchools Work! - Discovering the positive power of educational technology
From eSchool News: eSchools Work! - Discovering the positive power of educational technology
Delivering an authentic 21st century learning experience
From the Boston Globe: Contest helps boost math, science skills
As part of "GlobalChallenge, a Vermont-based contest aimed at improving American high school students' math and science skills...58 teams of American students coupled with students from China, India and Japan tackled technological solutions to global warming. They chatted online, divided jobs based on skill, consulted with advisers, and in the final grueling weeks, wrote a professional business plan."
Students learned the challenges associated with collaborating across distances - but also seemed to benefit from opportunities to work collectively to generate creative solutions to scientific and mathematics problems.
As part of "GlobalChallenge, a Vermont-based contest aimed at improving American high school students' math and science skills...58 teams of American students coupled with students from China, India and Japan tackled technological solutions to global warming. They chatted online, divided jobs based on skill, consulted with advisers, and in the final grueling weeks, wrote a professional business plan."
Students learned the challenges associated with collaborating across distances - but also seemed to benefit from opportunities to work collectively to generate creative solutions to scientific and mathematics problems.
Scientists on-board with game-based instruction
"Yes" according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) (based on a one-year study of whether video games might improve education in the nation’s schools). Among the reasons given rae the appeal of repeatable and student-paced lessons, compelling visual elements, engaging/complex plot structures. According to the report these elements help to "engage the player in strategic thinking, multitasking, and problem-solving. These skills are not only desired by U.S. employers, but are crucial in a global workforce."
Further supporting their claim, the NAS gives the following real-world example: "in a study consisting of 12 surgeons and 21 surgical residents, Dr. James Rosser, Jr., and colleagues at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York correlated video game skill with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed during a simulated surgery skills course. 'Surgeons who had played video games in the past for more than three hours per week made 37% fewer errors during the assessment, were 27% faster, and scored 42% better overall than surgeons who never played video games,' the study’s authors said. Research has also shown that playing video games can improve eye-hand coordination and visual attention."
The following links are also included in the NSTA article:
More Video Games, Fewer Books at Schools?
Reuters
Federation of American Scientists Supports “Edu-Gaming” in Schools
NSTA Reports
Study: Video Game Skills May Help Surgeons
Science Daily
Action-Packed Video Games a Site for Sore Eyes
Scientific American
Opinion: Why Moms Give in to Video Games
Christian Science Monitor
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
What you can't live without...
From Techlearning: Here is an offer you can't refuse
In a techlearning blog post by Cheryl Oakes, re: technologies that people (in this specific instance, education doctoral students) can't live without:
"All of the doctoral students mentioned that they could not live without blogs, podcasts, wikis, chat, and that these technologies opened the doors to conversations with others teaching similar topics, in their own fields, somewhere outside of their buildings.I asked them what they struggled with while learning all about these new tools. All mentioned the following as adversities: never enough time to do it all, kids noticing and asking for more, a steep learning curve, maintaining a level of confidence while all this new learning takes place. But the following advantages really pushed the educators to continue, librarians who have been helpful, talking to other teachers outside of their buildings, the biggest advantage was that by taking a look at the outside world and finally by focusing on what kids need to be productive citizens in the 21st Century makes all the learning worthwhile."
In a techlearning blog post by Cheryl Oakes, re: technologies that people (in this specific instance, education doctoral students) can't live without:
"All of the doctoral students mentioned that they could not live without blogs, podcasts, wikis, chat, and that these technologies opened the doors to conversations with others teaching similar topics, in their own fields, somewhere outside of their buildings.I asked them what they struggled with while learning all about these new tools. All mentioned the following as adversities: never enough time to do it all, kids noticing and asking for more, a steep learning curve, maintaining a level of confidence while all this new learning takes place. But the following advantages really pushed the educators to continue, librarians who have been helpful, talking to other teachers outside of their buildings, the biggest advantage was that by taking a look at the outside world and finally by focusing on what kids need to be productive citizens in the 21st Century makes all the learning worthwhile."
Evaluation reform on the horizon for federally funded Math and Science programs?
When I saw this article I couldn't help but wonder what it might mean in terms of programatic reform - esp. where evaluation was concerned. Being an evaluator (past, present, and hopefully future) of several NSF grants I was particularly interested...
From Education Week:Few Federal Math and Science Programs Deemed Effective
"The report does not single out weak programs that should be carved out of the federal budget. The goal was to study how such programs are being evaluated and to recommend a better process"
...
"Federal programs place too little emphasis, the report says, on outcomes, or measurable results, from math and science spending. Improved test scores in math and science under the No Child Left Behind Act is a clearer method for judging results, it argues.
From Education Week:Few Federal Math and Science Programs Deemed Effective
"The report does not single out weak programs that should be carved out of the federal budget. The goal was to study how such programs are being evaluated and to recommend a better process"
...
"Federal programs place too little emphasis, the report says, on outcomes, or measurable results, from math and science spending. Improved test scores in math and science under the No Child Left Behind Act is a clearer method for judging results, it argues.
The council recommends that agencies establish a way of conducting “rigorous, independent” evaluations of programs, and make funding for them contingent on those reviews."
Webconferencing
Sure these links will come in handy...
I'm a big fan of Videoconferencing/Video Chat (iChat and Skype, to a more limited extent) but there is lots of functionality made possible by the Internet beyond merely talking...
From Technology and Learning's "IT Guy": Webconferencing
Text Clip - just in case the link goes away:
"The most well-known system is WebEx, which has been around a number of years. It uses phone conferencing for the audio. A newer system is Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, which features voice and video built in. An education-specific system is Elluminate, which has a free system for hosting up to four people at a time called vRoom. (Their goal is to get you hooked so you'll buy the full system!) They have voice included.
I'm a big fan of Videoconferencing/Video Chat (iChat and Skype, to a more limited extent) but there is lots of functionality made possible by the Internet beyond merely talking...
From Technology and Learning's "IT Guy": Webconferencing
Text Clip - just in case the link goes away:
"The most well-known system is WebEx, which has been around a number of years. It uses phone conferencing for the audio. A newer system is Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, which features voice and video built in. An education-specific system is Elluminate, which has a free system for hosting up to four people at a time called vRoom. (Their goal is to get you hooked so you'll buy the full system!) They have voice included.
The main drawback of most of these systems is that they are very costly. I have been using a service called GoToMeeting which is the most affordable I've seen yet. I actually did a presentation last year when a family emergency prevented me from traveling to the conference. I sat in my office and shared my PowerPoint remotely through GoToMeeting, using Skype to narrate the slides. It was easy, and I received many positive comments from the participants!"
a persuasive argument for hands-on learning
Milton Chen shares an example from Roger Nichols about trying to learn to play basketball with a textbook - it is quite humorous to imagine children trying to learn to play a new sport merely by reading, but it is also quite sad to think that many hands-on opportunities are going the way of the dodo in today's schools due to budget cuts and safety/liability concerns related to off-site travel.
From Edutopia: A Modest Curriculum Proposal
From Edutopia: A Modest Curriculum Proposal
Evaluating Second Life as and Educational Environment
In a post made on 5/14/07 at: http://clarkaldrich.blogspot.com the author talks about some of the shortcomings of Second Life from an educational point of view (especially with regards to educational simulations). Admittedly, I'm probalby not as "up" on the concepts and terms related to educational simulation...but the critiques seem pretty straight forward. Later comments suggest that it was his goal to seek out information from those with differing opinions so that he could come to better understand the strengths of Second Life as an educational environment.
It seems that the absence of AI or those with designated instructional or mentoring/supportive roles are among the highlighed problems along with a need for more refined/functional tasks and activities - but these things seem easy enough to fix (albeit - they'll never likely be part of the environment itself, but rather something that specific players bring to the environment if they so desire). The beauty of Second Life, in my opinion is the fact that it provides an opportunity for people to come together from remote locations and interact in much the same way they'd be able to interact in the real world - with a virtual-(physical) presence, with words or voice, and with an ability to act/behave in specific ways (even if they aren't infinte, we've already seen Second Life residents demonstrate their ability to act in creative ways).
It seems that the absence of AI or those with designated instructional or mentoring/supportive roles are among the highlighed problems along with a need for more refined/functional tasks and activities - but these things seem easy enough to fix (albeit - they'll never likely be part of the environment itself, but rather something that specific players bring to the environment if they so desire). The beauty of Second Life, in my opinion is the fact that it provides an opportunity for people to come together from remote locations and interact in much the same way they'd be able to interact in the real world - with a virtual-(physical) presence, with words or voice, and with an ability to act/behave in specific ways (even if they aren't infinte, we've already seen Second Life residents demonstrate their ability to act in creative ways).
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Lights, Camera, Action!
This is a great example of a school that is doing extraordinary things with ordinary tools and a wonderful reminder that 21st century learning isn't all about the gizmos and gadgets, but rather, its about problem solving, creativity, and innovation - i.e., learning styles and strategies more so than specific learning tools.
From eSchool News: 21st-century school represents 'the will to change'
How one district turned an ordinary building into an extraordinary opportunity for students
From eSchool News: 21st-century school represents 'the will to change'
How one district turned an ordinary building into an extraordinary opportunity for students
New ARG - World Without Oil
I got a note that said this game had launched earlier this week and took a quick peek but still haven't had time to look around in more detail. I attended a GDC presentation given by Jane McGonigal, one of the game's creators and an ARG scholar. She announced that the WWO game would be forth-coming and also talked about her work on the I Love Bees ARG for Halo 2 ...and it turns out that she was a former Conference Associate.
Anyway - it was picked as today's cool site of the day, here's the blurb:
"Everyone knows that 'some day' the world may face an oil shortage.
What if that day was sooner than you thought? How would your life
change? Well, 'some day' is now. You are invited to enter a month-long
alternate reality game at: www.worldwithoutoil.org where an oil shock
is going on. Go to worldwithoutoil.org each day to see the latest
developments in the crisis. Take a moment to seriously imagine how
these developments impact you and then tell us. You can send e-mail,
link to your blog post, or call our 800-number and leave a message.
Tell your story by uploading video and photos of the crisis. Each
story is a bit of evidence that this issue is real. Become a Netizen
Hero. Play it � before you live it."
Anyway - it was picked as today's cool site of the day, here's the blurb:
"Everyone knows that 'some day' the world may face an oil shortage.
What if that day was sooner than you thought? How would your life
change? Well, 'some day' is now. You are invited to enter a month-long
alternate reality game at: www.worldwithoutoil.org where an oil shock
is going on. Go to worldwithoutoil.org each day to see the latest
developments in the crisis. Take a moment to seriously imagine how
these developments impact you and then tell us. You can send e-mail,
link to your blog post, or call our 800-number and leave a message.
Tell your story by uploading video and photos of the crisis. Each
story is a bit of evidence that this issue is real. Become a Netizen
Hero. Play it � before you live it."
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Dialing dilemmas
Educators in FL are looking for ways to block cell phone usage in schools but that made me wonder if there might be more potential educational applications of cell phone usage that are going untapped. If students can use cell phones to cheat, they could certainly use them to collaborate. If they can use them to capture and post video they could certainly use them to enhance their reporting or data gathering efforts. It seems sad to me that some schools might be squashing something merely because its easier to get rid of rather than studying and harnessing it for more productive purposes.
From the Lakeland FL Ledger: Student Cell Phones Ring in Debate in FL
From the Lakeland FL Ledger: Student Cell Phones Ring in Debate in FL
Dance Dance Education
It makes complete sense that schools would turn to Dance Dance Revolution to spice up their PE programs. Many groups and organizations have already touted its ability to promote fitness and weight loss - and most students would readily agree that it is fun. That's a win, win for schools and kids.
From the NY Times: P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs
(post scripts: More than 10 years ago a good friend of mine was trying to think up games that promoted physical movement and subsequently physical fitness, I suspect that he'd be very proud of having that idea long before DDR took off...but probably also bummed that he didn't beat them to the punch. ...In another post script, students in another friend's grad class recently designed two games - both for the wii platform I believe - that promoted various forms of health and physical fitness. Having played a fair amount of wii now, and always being amazed at how realistic and active the games are, I suspect schools might soon be looking to expand their video game offerings to promote fitness.)
From the NY Times: P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs
(post scripts: More than 10 years ago a good friend of mine was trying to think up games that promoted physical movement and subsequently physical fitness, I suspect that he'd be very proud of having that idea long before DDR took off...but probably also bummed that he didn't beat them to the punch. ...In another post script, students in another friend's grad class recently designed two games - both for the wii platform I believe - that promoted various forms of health and physical fitness. Having played a fair amount of wii now, and always being amazed at how realistic and active the games are, I suspect schools might soon be looking to expand their video game offerings to promote fitness.)
Its a small world afterall
New technology makes it quite possible for Chinese language tutors to work with students around the world from the comfort of the homes in China - for a relatively low cost (and the satisfaction of a stress-free/commute-less work-place):
From Infoworld: Skype your way to learning Chinese technology brings tutors and students face to face, even halfway around the world
This kind of makes me want to take Chinese lessons. (So I can better understand episodes of Firefly, of course).
From Infoworld: Skype your way to learning Chinese
This kind of makes me want to take Chinese lessons. (So I can better understand episodes of Firefly, of course).
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Making Education Hip (and Hop)
An augmented reality game being developed by a group at the University of Wisconsin (Local Games Lab) invites students to conduct research centered around the task of creating a hip hop store at a local mall. Using a theme to organize the research and data analysis tasks, especially one that so many student are familiar with and enthralled by, seems to be just the spoonful of sugar needed to help the medicine go down.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: Rapped attention
Hip-hop game puts students' math, business skills to the test
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: Rapped attention
Hip-hop game puts students' math, business skills to the test
Monday, April 23, 2007
Anytime and literally anywhere
There's a push to provide internet connectivity to students on school buses. I'd seen a presentation at a tablet pc conference last year about groups of educators creating mobile hot spots for students to use in their vans on long field trips and many cities have recently looked at this type of service as a way to entice commuters so it only makes sense that educators consider this a viable way to enhance students' ability to learn beyond the walls of the school. Like this article suggests - there are particular advantages to students in rural areas who often have extremely long bus rides:
From eSchoool News: Emerging Trend - Bus-based Connectivity
From eSchoool News: Emerging Trend - Bus-based Connectivity
Monday, April 9, 2007
The world as hightech gameboard?
From CNet: HP has gaming Handheld in the works
Hmm...a new technology to bridge gameplay between the virtual and physical world. Catchy name: mscape, short for mediascapes (even though it seems to be in use by some other groups as well), but will it catch on? Is gaming a guilty pleasure best enjoyed on an oversized sofa in the comfort of one's home or are new generations of gamers willing to hit the pavement in search of the next great gaming adventure?
Related articles on Mscape: from Joystique: Hands-on HP's mscape and an HP blurb about a demo at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona.
Hmm...a new technology to bridge gameplay between the virtual and physical world. Catchy name: mscape, short for mediascapes (even though it seems to be in use by some other groups as well), but will it catch on? Is gaming a guilty pleasure best enjoyed on an oversized sofa in the comfort of one's home or are new generations of gamers willing to hit the pavement in search of the next great gaming adventure?
Related articles on Mscape: from Joystique: Hands-on HP's mscape and an HP blurb about a demo at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona.
Smart Stuff
I'd be the first to admit that I'm biased in terms of believing the educational benefit of SMART Boards as an educational tool. I had my first experience using a SMARTBoard more than a decade ago and I immediately appreciated the fact that a simple teaching tool had been transformed into a powerful resource - capable of making the learning experience more interactive, more transportable/transferable and more transparent for learners.
From eSchool News: Study Links Interactive Whiteboards to Improved Student Performance
The link to the report in the article above is broken. Here is the correct link: http://insight.eun.org/shared/data/pdf/impact_study.pdf.
More on what was said above - esp. since the article seems to focus more on engagement and motivational benefits associated with usage (at least from the brief bit that I've had time to read). Clearly the two aforementioned items (i.e. engagement and motivation) are byproducts of most interactive learning experiences. Another obvious advantage of interactive whiteboards is the ability to simplify content retention, sharing and future modification through content-storage features (thus saving time and effort which can in turn be focused on other more meaningful educational endeavors - and allowing further reflection and discussion that might otherwise be challenging or impossible for logistical reasons). Finally, in terms of transparency - by enabling students to see everything that is going on and potentially replay entire processes at a later point in time, specific procedures as well as more general lifelong learning processes can be more effectively modeled in instructional settings. Being able to see process in addition to outcome/output makes for a powerful learning experience. In sum - it comes as no surprise that they found evidence to support the benefit of using interactive whiteboard technology as an instructional tool - and I suspect that future studies will identify additional benefits.
From eSchool News: Study Links Interactive Whiteboards to Improved Student Performance
The link to the report in the article above is broken. Here is the correct link: http://insight.eun.org/shared/data/pdf/impact_study.pdf.
More on what was said above - esp. since the article seems to focus more on engagement and motivational benefits associated with usage (at least from the brief bit that I've had time to read). Clearly the two aforementioned items (i.e. engagement and motivation) are byproducts of most interactive learning experiences. Another obvious advantage of interactive whiteboards is the ability to simplify content retention, sharing and future modification through content-storage features (thus saving time and effort which can in turn be focused on other more meaningful educational endeavors - and allowing further reflection and discussion that might otherwise be challenging or impossible for logistical reasons). Finally, in terms of transparency - by enabling students to see everything that is going on and potentially replay entire processes at a later point in time, specific procedures as well as more general lifelong learning processes can be more effectively modeled in instructional settings. Being able to see process in addition to outcome/output makes for a powerful learning experience. In sum - it comes as no surprise that they found evidence to support the benefit of using interactive whiteboard technology as an instructional tool - and I suspect that future studies will identify additional benefits.
Right on Target
The only thing that I'd remotely disagree with (and only as a technicality) is that we needed to be doing all these things 10 to 20 years ago rather than starting now, but later is better than never. Much of the United States has been way too inwardly focused for the past decade(s) - and it seems that the most inwardly focused/domestically-centric sections of our population/economy are the ones that are most ripe for feeling the pinches ultimately caused by growing globalization. History drills in the point that "once great"- doesn't ensure "always great" - the world keeps changing and citizens that want to stay competitive keep adapting. Survival in this era is guaranteed only to the fittest (globally speaking).
From the ASCD: Becoming Citizens of the World
From the ASCD: Becoming Citizens of the World
laptops in class: learning tool or distracting toy?
From the Washington Post: Laptop vs. Learning.
The author points out the distracting potential of laptops used by students to take notes. There's interesting opportunity for more elaborate study here I suspect. ...are there different outcomes in students' level of engagement or academic success if they take traditional notes via pen and paper vs. the more transcript-like style of notes most common among their laptop-using peers? What about students using pen-enabled technology devices such as tablet pcs - perhaps they'd have the best of both worlds - the ability to jot with a pen, but have the option to type longer sections of text when necessary - and call up/manipulate notes more easily during follow-up study sessions.
The author points out the distracting potential of laptops used by students to take notes. There's interesting opportunity for more elaborate study here I suspect. ...are there different outcomes in students' level of engagement or academic success if they take traditional notes via pen and paper vs. the more transcript-like style of notes most common among their laptop-using peers? What about students using pen-enabled technology devices such as tablet pcs - perhaps they'd have the best of both worlds - the ability to jot with a pen, but have the option to type longer sections of text when necessary - and call up/manipulate notes more easily during follow-up study sessions.
Friday, April 6, 2007
fond memories...and flops
Thought this was a rather interesting article because it brought back some good and funny memories of technology fads gone by (who could forget the pets.com sock puppet, the Apple Newton...and from the comments section: Y2K bug), but also because it did a good job reflecting on and dissecting the reasons for why these technologies failed to live up to the hype around them. In many cases it came down to poor design, but for each ill-concieved or poorly developed product there was an equal number that suffered from poor timing or inadequate marketing.
Without further ado - here's to the 21 biggest technology flops! From Computerworld: Don't Believe the Hype: The 21 Biggest Technology Flops
Without further ado - here's to the 21 biggest technology flops! From Computerworld: Don't Believe the Hype: The 21 Biggest Technology Flops
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Eggstraordinary Use of GPS
Teachers used GPS technology to stage a modern version of a more traditional Easter Egg Hunt for their elementary school students in a North Carolina school - putting a high-tech twist on an old tradition. From the News&Observer (North Carolina) : Egg hunt helps teach technology
Monday, April 2, 2007
Not just for kids...
I saw this article in this weekend's New York Times (reading the Times isn't something that I usually do - and I found it to be a surprisingly messy endeavor - esp. given that I was sitting in the middle seat of a totally packed airplane for most of my reading experience). I trust that the digital version will result in less black smudges on people's computers ;)
From the NYTimes: Video Games Conquer Retirees
I especially liked the part about the Wii Senior Bowling league. With more inclusion of different types of gamers I suspect that there are opportunities for new diversity and innovation in game-making. Gaming fun doesn't have to stop when people hit puberty - and its inspiring to see how games are able to help conquer technology phobias that folks who didn't grow up with computers often have.
From the NYTimes: Video Games Conquer Retirees
I especially liked the part about the Wii Senior Bowling league. With more inclusion of different types of gamers I suspect that there are opportunities for new diversity and innovation in game-making. Gaming fun doesn't have to stop when people hit puberty - and its inspiring to see how games are able to help conquer technology phobias that folks who didn't grow up with computers often have.
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