(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.
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