- Digital Game Based Learning, Educational Research, Magic Bullet, Video Games, Systems Analysis, Instructional Design, and 19 moreGame Ethology, Interdisciplinary Teams, Simulation, Serious Games, Serious Games and Educational Simulations, Computer Science, Higher Education, Programming Languages, Game studies, Video Games and Learning, Computer Games Technology, Game Based Learning, Digital Games, Game/Simulation use in education, Simulation Games Serious-Games, Gamification, Teacher Education, E-learning, and Educational Technologyedit
- Consultant, Speaker, Systems Analyst, Instructional & Interactive Media Designer, Author, Educator, Software Etholog... moreConsultant, Speaker, Systems Analyst, Instructional & Interactive Media Designer, Author, Educator, Software Ethologist, Farmer
Specializing in Knowledge Translation (primarily in the STEM fields)edit
Walking Backwards in to the Future: Ensuring the Success of Games for Learning "Most of us prefer to walk backward into the future, a posture that may be uncomfortable but which at least allows us to keep on looking at familiar things... more
Walking Backwards in to the Future: Ensuring the Success of Games for Learning
"Most of us prefer to walk backward into the future, a posture that may be uncomfortable but which at least allows us to keep on looking at familiar things as long as we can." ~ Charles Handy
Formal education moves at geological speeds, and that's lucky for us, because games for learning really aren't ready for prime time, and it's not for the first time. During the 'Edutainment Era' of the late 1980's and early 1990’s computer games were proclaimed as the modern solution to all our educational ills. In order to take advantage of this great technology, all we needed to do was wrap a game around a lesson, and it would magically become fun. This, of course, is not true, and the resultant fall from grace left many educational game proponents reeling.
We now have a second chance, and we need to make sure we don't fall into the same trap again. The game evangelists are valuable to be sure, but we need to be realistic, and if we don't have enough games out there that live up to the hype, the idea of using games to teach will once again become a pariah, and the likelihood of a third chance is slim. This keynote will look at what went wrong last time around, where we are now, and what we need in design, research, and support to make sure that we have it right this time so we are ready when formal education catches up with us.
"Most of us prefer to walk backward into the future, a posture that may be uncomfortable but which at least allows us to keep on looking at familiar things as long as we can." ~ Charles Handy
Formal education moves at geological speeds, and that's lucky for us, because games for learning really aren't ready for prime time, and it's not for the first time. During the 'Edutainment Era' of the late 1980's and early 1990’s computer games were proclaimed as the modern solution to all our educational ills. In order to take advantage of this great technology, all we needed to do was wrap a game around a lesson, and it would magically become fun. This, of course, is not true, and the resultant fall from grace left many educational game proponents reeling.
We now have a second chance, and we need to make sure we don't fall into the same trap again. The game evangelists are valuable to be sure, but we need to be realistic, and if we don't have enough games out there that live up to the hype, the idea of using games to teach will once again become a pariah, and the likelihood of a third chance is slim. This keynote will look at what went wrong last time around, where we are now, and what we need in design, research, and support to make sure that we have it right this time so we are ready when formal education catches up with us.
Research Interests:
""There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915) In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you look... more
""There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915)
In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you look under the hood of a modern simulation or videogame, you see pretty much the same stuff. It hardly seems worth a second thought. We all know that simulation has been at the very core of computer development since the very beginning, and we’ve applied what we know to games for almost as long. Nevertheless, with a very few exceptions, what the rest of the world knows of simulations is very much like the elephant described by the famous blind monks. This was not a big handicap in the early days when simulations were primarily created for fairly specialized applications, but thanks to the Internet, videogames, and mobile technology, things have changed. One of the places where things have changed the most is in education and professional development (training of all sorts).
In education, simulations are said to be about real life systems, while games are about fantasy and often times educational simulations have nothing at all to do with computers. Educationists make sweeping assumptions about how simulations get used, including notions that fidelity and realism are requirements for effective learning, and that winning always takes precedence over exploration in games. These notions end up being more limiting than liberating. Clearly, recognizing that games are in fact merely a subset of a larger category of simulations affords opportunities for a fruitful exchange of knowledge, which includes the sharing of methodologies and tools.
Join me as we look at the claim that all games are simulations in more detail. We will examine the dichotomy between modern digital games and the more traditional view of simulations, and what implications this has for the design and development of both ‘pure’ simulations as well as games for learning."
In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you look under the hood of a modern simulation or videogame, you see pretty much the same stuff. It hardly seems worth a second thought. We all know that simulation has been at the very core of computer development since the very beginning, and we’ve applied what we know to games for almost as long. Nevertheless, with a very few exceptions, what the rest of the world knows of simulations is very much like the elephant described by the famous blind monks. This was not a big handicap in the early days when simulations were primarily created for fairly specialized applications, but thanks to the Internet, videogames, and mobile technology, things have changed. One of the places where things have changed the most is in education and professional development (training of all sorts).
In education, simulations are said to be about real life systems, while games are about fantasy and often times educational simulations have nothing at all to do with computers. Educationists make sweeping assumptions about how simulations get used, including notions that fidelity and realism are requirements for effective learning, and that winning always takes precedence over exploration in games. These notions end up being more limiting than liberating. Clearly, recognizing that games are in fact merely a subset of a larger category of simulations affords opportunities for a fruitful exchange of knowledge, which includes the sharing of methodologies and tools.
Join me as we look at the claim that all games are simulations in more detail. We will examine the dichotomy between modern digital games and the more traditional view of simulations, and what implications this has for the design and development of both ‘pure’ simulations as well as games for learning."
Research Interests:
This book is a 'no programming required' introduction to simulation. Most intro simulation books are written for people in CS. Our book offers technical details on what simulations are and how they are built that are written for someone... more
This book is a 'no programming required' introduction to simulation. Most intro simulation books are written for people in CS. Our book offers technical details on what simulations are and how they are built that are written for someone who is not (and may not want to become) a programmer, but who still needs or wants to know about the inner workings of a simulation. The focus will be on educational simulations (and games).
Both authors have many years of 'hard-core' technical expertise in simulations but there is a real need for a book on simulations that is accessible for people outside of computer science. Writing a book like this requires people with a deep technical understanding of simulations but also with the educational expertise to know what educators need to know. We have that.
Both authors have many years of 'hard-core' technical expertise in simulations but there is a real need for a book on simulations that is accessible for people outside of computer science. Writing a book like this requires people with a deep technical understanding of simulations but also with the educational expertise to know what educators need to know. We have that.
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Ultra-brief Summary (Single Sentence Summaries:) Introduction (area of study) In order to design educational games that remain effective as both games and as learning objects, it is necessary to understand how successful games teach.... more
Ultra-brief Summary
(Single Sentence Summaries:)
Introduction (area of study)
In order to design educational games that remain effective as both games and as learning objects, it is necessary to understand how successful games teach.
The problem (that I tackle)
However, the best games are designed for entertainment and not education, and while they teach effectively, their designs are not expressed in educational terms that could be used by designers of instructional games.
What the literature says about this problem
Although current literature often cites examples from COTS games to support claims about how games teach and there is a growing body of research on the use of games in formal learning situations, the main focus has been on the learners and there have been no comprehensive detailed examinations of how specific games teach.
How I tackle this problem
By treating the COTS game as though it had been deliberately created as an educational game, it becomes possible to identify the learning requirements for the game as well as the strategies used to support that learning in a form suitable for examination as instructional design.
How I implement my solution
Using methodology adapted from reverse engineering called 'instructional decomposition', both macro and micro design elements can be identified.
The result
This work will contribute to the body of knowledge on elements important in the design of educational games by identifying specific strategies employed in top-rated games to facilitate specific learning requirements.
(Single Sentence Summaries:)
Introduction (area of study)
In order to design educational games that remain effective as both games and as learning objects, it is necessary to understand how successful games teach.
The problem (that I tackle)
However, the best games are designed for entertainment and not education, and while they teach effectively, their designs are not expressed in educational terms that could be used by designers of instructional games.
What the literature says about this problem
Although current literature often cites examples from COTS games to support claims about how games teach and there is a growing body of research on the use of games in formal learning situations, the main focus has been on the learners and there have been no comprehensive detailed examinations of how specific games teach.
How I tackle this problem
By treating the COTS game as though it had been deliberately created as an educational game, it becomes possible to identify the learning requirements for the game as well as the strategies used to support that learning in a form suitable for examination as instructional design.
How I implement my solution
Using methodology adapted from reverse engineering called 'instructional decomposition', both macro and micro design elements can be identified.
The result
This work will contribute to the body of knowledge on elements important in the design of educational games by identifying specific strategies employed in top-rated games to facilitate specific learning requirements.
Research Interests:
Serious Games are digital games designed for purposes other than pure entertainment. This category includes educational games but it also includes a great deal more. A field that was unheard of until Ben Sawyer referred to it as Serious... more
Serious Games are digital games designed for purposes other than pure entertainment. This category includes educational games but it also includes a great deal more. A field that was unheard of until Ben Sawyer referred to it as Serious Games in late 2002 (Sawyer, 2003) has already grown so large that one can only hope to keep track of a very small part of it. The time is rapidly coming to an end when literature surveys of even one branch of Serious Games can be considered comprehensive. This chapter will examine the current state of the discipline of that part of serious games that intersects with formal education, with a particular focus on design. The work begins broadly by looking at games in order to define the term but then narrows to a specific focus on games for education. In this way, it provides an educational context for games as learning objects, distinguishes between traditional, (i.e. non-digital; Murray, 1998) and digital games, and classifies games for education as a subcategory of serious games while at the same time still being part of a larger group of interactive digital applications.
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This chapter provides an introduction to digital simulations for those interested in using or designing them for instructional purposes. There has been some disagreement in various circles about how to define simulations and digital... more
This chapter provides an introduction to digital simulations for those interested in using or designing them for instructional purposes. There has been some disagreement in various circles about how to define simulations and digital games and this issue is addressed. The two most common categories of simulation (discrete and continuous) are also described as well as their basic structure. Reasons to use simulations and how they may be used in educational applications are outlined. After having read this chapter, readers will have a clearer picture of what simulations are and how they can be used.
Research Interests:
Books, film, television, and indeed every other medium that came before them has been used and sometimes studied as media for the delivery of instruction. Outstanding examples of each medium have been applied to educative purposes with... more
Books, film, television, and indeed every other medium that came before them has been used and sometimes studied as media for the delivery of instruction. Outstanding examples of each medium have been applied to educative purposes with enduring results. Digital games are now also receiving attention in this context. A first step to gaining an understanding for just how a particular medium can be used in education is to study the outstanding examples, regardless of their original purpose. This chapter examines numerous well-known and commercially successful games through the lens of several known and accepted learning theories and styles, using the premise that “good” games already embody sound pedagogy in their designs even if the incorporation of those theories was not deliberate.
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Predicting the Future from Multiple Perspectives: Current Problems and Future. Potentials for Educational Games, (Ch. 9, pp 219-249), in Games: Their Purpose and Potential in Education edited by Christopher T. Miller,
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Before researchers can perform studies using commercial games, they must choose which game or games to study. The manner in which that choice is made and justified is the focus of this paper. Ideally, research informs pedagogy and when... more
Before researchers can perform studies using commercial games, they must choose which game or games to study. The manner in which that choice is made and justified is the focus of this paper. Ideally, research informs pedagogy and when looking at game education it is important to be able to justify and defend conclusions drawn from game studies so they can inform best practices in design and development. As the number and sophistication of titles released in a given year continues to rise, it becomes even more important to look more seriously at how we are choosing the games we study, the criteria we use for those studies, how we support our claims about the suitability of the game for our purposes, and how generalizations to other games should be limited or qualified. This paper is a report on a qualitative meta-analysis of the methods used in choosing games for study and the implications that holds for both researchers studying games and educators teaching about games and game development.
Research Interests:
Several ways to address learning are: 1) through learning theories, 2) through learning styles (treated as distinct from learning theories here), and 3) through instructional design theories and models. This paper looks at the second... more
Several ways to address learning are: 1) through learning theories, 2) through learning styles (treated as distinct from learning theories here), and 3) through instructional design theories and models. This paper looks at the second approach to examine how modern games support various learning styles in their design and gameplay. Four well-known learning style models are examined in the context of computer game design. These are: the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, the Gregory Style
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An important step towards gaining an understanding of how a particular medium can be used most effectively in education is to study its outstanding examples, regardless of their original purpose. It is assumed that “good ” games already... more
An important step towards gaining an understanding of how a particular medium can be used most effectively in education is to study its outstanding examples, regardless of their original purpose. It is assumed that “good ” games already embody sound pedagogy in their designs even if that incorporation is not deliberate. The work described here is intended as a proof of concept for a larger study in progress. The following paragraphs will examine two games: one is commercial and a critical success, and the other is designed deliberately as an educational game. The commercial game will be viewed as though it had been designed as a learning object. Through this perspective, it is possible to identify and classify built-in learning objectives and from there to associate the mechanisms and strategies employed to teach them. A significant outcome of the final work will be to describe how the existing strategies used to promote “learning objectives ” in commercial video games can be used i...
Research Interests:
"""There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915) In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical.... more
"""There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915) In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you look under the hood of a modern simulation or videogame, you see pretty much the same stuff. It hardly seems worth a second thought. We all know that simulation has been at the very core of computer development since the very beginning, and we’ve applied what we know to games for almost as long. Nevertheless, with a very few exceptions, what the rest of the world knows of simulations is very much like the elephant described by the famous blind monks. This was not a big handicap in the early days when simulations were primarily created for fairly specialized applications, but thanks to the Internet, videogames, and mobile technology, things have changed. One of the places where things have changed the most is in education and professional development (training of all sorts). In education, simulations are said to be about real life systems, while games are about fantasy and often times educational simulations have nothing at all to do with computers. Educationists make sweeping assumptions about how simulations get used, including notions that fidelity and realism are requirements for effective learning, and that winning always takes precedence over exploration in games. These notions end up being more limiting than liberating. Clearly, recognizing that games are in fact merely a subset of a larger category of simulations affords opportunities for a fruitful exchange of knowledge, which includes the sharing of methodologies and tools. Join me as we look at the claim that all games are simulations in more detail. We will examine the dichotomy between modern digital games and the more traditional view of simulations, and what implications this has for the design and development of both ‘pure’ simulations as well as games for learning.""
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
All introductory programming students must learn the syntax of the language they are to use. The problems that students have learning syntax are described, and a teaching methodology is suggested. Two types of exercises are explained... more
All introductory programming students must learn the syntax of the language they are to use. The problems that students have learning syntax are described, and a teaching methodology is suggested. Two types of exercises are explained which will help the students learn syntax, and the reactions of the students who have used them are outlined.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Much attention has been paid in recent years to finding more flexible and less prescriptive approaches to the design of instruction than those put forward during the latter part of the twentieth century. A view of instruction as causal... more
Much attention has been paid in recent years to finding more flexible and less prescriptive approaches to the design of instruction than those put forward during the latter part of the twentieth century. A view of instruction as causal and largely behaviouristic has given way to one that is guided and primarily constructivist. In his current research, David Merrill outlines five fundamental principles of instruction which have broad implications for teaching computer science (CS). These five principles are: 1) solving real-world problems, 2) activating existing knowledge to build new knowledge, 3) demonstrating new knowledge to the learner, 4) allowing learners to apply new knowledge, and 5) integrating knowledge into the learner’s world. The following paper describes these principles and discusses how they related to instruction in CS. M. David Merrill’s career in instructional technology, with a career has spanned 40 years, and include numerous significant contributions to the fie...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This presentation is intended to fulfill two goals: 1. To show that many commercial games, the successful ones at least, already implement sound pedagogy when it comes to how they get players to learn the game and how they facilitate... more
This presentation is intended to fulfill two goals: 1. To show that many commercial games, the successful ones at least, already implement sound pedagogy when it comes to how they get players to learn the game and how they facilitate gameplay. 2. To encourage critical examination of successful video games, to learn how this has been done, so that we may use that information to build engaging educational games.Submitted by Rowena Wake (rwake@ucalgary.ca) on 2008-07-29T21:37:11Z No. of bitstreams: 2 On_the_pedagogy_2006.pps: 4780032 bytes, checksum: c871dd384c0b78966cc93f979c364061 (MD5) On_the_pedagogy_2006.pdf: 93764 bytes, checksum: 2919e98b16d3d2cf8d213a9af3b38b32 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2008-07-29T21:37:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 On_the_pedagogy_2006.pps: 4780032 bytes, checksum: c871dd384c0b78966cc93f979c364061 (MD5) On_the_pedagogy_2006.pdf: 93764 bytes, checksum: 2919e98b16d3d2cf8d213a9af3b38b32 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-24T22:40:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 5 On_the_pedagogy_2006.pps: 4780032 bytes, checksum: c871dd384c0b78966cc93f979c364061 (MD5) On_the_pedagogy_2006.pdf: 93764 bytes, checksum: 2919e98b16d3d2cf8d213a9af3b38b32 (MD5) license.txt: 1905 bytes, checksum: 60e80da0d55efaebf9bda73d61878f97 (MD5) On_the_pedagogy_2006.pdf.txt: 17671 bytes, checksum: b34c231603eeb7e26e3eb0289d3ce984 (MD5) On_the_pedagogy_2006.pps.txt: 6228 bytes, checksum: c3dfcdd08709d7b88cb3e112ae8d06c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006Katrin Becker, On The Pedagogy of Commercial Video Games, presentation, delivered at the IMAGINE Symposium, Banff Alberta, March 25-26, 2006 [a remix and expansion of the poster presented at the NMC online conference
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Jerome Bruner has helped to shape the notion of constructivism, which is of prime significance when looking at pedagogy in games and much of the learning that occurs in games is constructive. In one of his more recent works, “The Culture... more
Jerome Bruner has helped to shape the notion of constructivism, which is of prime significance when looking at pedagogy in games and much of the learning that occurs in games is constructive. In one of his more recent works, “The Culture of Education” (1996), he discusses the importance of nine tenets to the development and maintenance of culture. Many of these touch on recurring themes in many discussions of games (Beavis, 1999; Kafai, 2001; Wolf & Perron, 2003). Bruner believes that “education is not an island, but part of the continent of culture.” (1996, p11) The same can be said of games. Bruner’s tenets guide such a ‘psycho-cultural’ approach to education and this paper will examine these tenets through the lens of game design.
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Research Interests:
This chapter describes my magic bullet model for analyzing the learning in a game. It diagrams the learning balance and with it we can conceptualize how the balance of the various parts can affect the game’s potential for use in a... more
This chapter describes my magic bullet model for analyzing the learning in a game. It diagrams the learning balance and with it we can conceptualize how the balance of the various parts can affect the game’s potential for use in a learning context. I first outline the ideal, and then go on to explain how to assess a game that deviates from the ideal.
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Communication skills are often cited as among the most important skills for Computer Science (CS) professionals [1, 2], so it may seem somewhat incongruous that other than writing code and associated program documents, CS students are... more
Communication skills are often cited as among the most important skills for Computer Science (CS) professionals [1, 2], so it may seem somewhat incongruous that other than writing code and associated program documents, CS students are rarely given writing tasks in their CS courses. This paper will examine some possible reasons for why that might be, and what benefits could be realized through providing students with opportunities for more and varied forms of writing. A brief review of strategies used at various institutions is outlined, and a new strategy that has been implemented twice at the author's former institution is described, where students are asked to produce short, 250-500 word "reading responses" to various assigned readings. The details of the assignment, as well as the intended outcomes will be outlined. The concept proposed in this paper was implemented in two semesters of the same course, and some initial student reactions are outlined with suggestions...
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Before researchers can perform studies using commercial games, they must choose which game or games to study. The manner in which that choice is made and justified is the focus of this paper. Ideally, research informs pedagogy and when... more
Before researchers can perform studies using commercial games, they must choose which game or games to study. The manner in which that choice is made and justified is the focus of this paper. Ideally, research informs pedagogy and when looking at game education it is important to be able to justify and defend conclusions drawn from game studies so they can inform best practices in design and development. As the number and sophistication of titles released in a given year continues to rise, it becomes even more important to look more seriously at how we are choosing the games we study, the criteria we use for those studies, how we support our claims about the suitability of the game for our purposes, and how generalizations to other games should be limited or qualified. This paper is a report on a qualitative meta-analysis of the methods used in choosing games for study and the implications that holds for both researchers studying games and educators teaching about games and game dev...
Research Interests:
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used to evaluate and design educational digital games. It also facilitates the formulation of strategies for using existing games in learning contexts. The model categorizes... more
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used to evaluate and design educational digital games. It also facilitates the formulation of strategies for using existing games in learning contexts. The model categorizes game goals and learning objectives into one or more of four possible categories. An overview of the model is provided and the four categories are defined. The model is used to analyze several games. The implications that this model has for the design and use of games as instructional technologies are then described.
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used to evaluate and design educational digital games. It also facilitates the formulation of strategies for using existing games in learning contexts. The model categorizes... more
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used to evaluate and design educational digital games. It also facilitates the formulation of strategies for using existing games in learning contexts. The model categorizes game goals and learning objectives into one or more of four possible categories. An overview of the model is provided and the four categories are defined. The model is used to analyze several games. The implications that this model has for the design and use of games as instructional technologies are then described.
Research Interests:
Books, film, television, and indeed every other medium that came before them has been used and sometimes studied as media for the delivery of instruction. Outstanding examples of each medium have been applied to educative purposes with... more
Books, film, television, and indeed every other medium that came before them has been used and sometimes studied as media for the delivery of instruction. Outstanding examples of each medium have been applied to educative purposes with enduring results. Digital games are now also receiving attention in this context. A first step to gaining an understanding for just how a particular medium can be used in education is to study the outstanding examples, regardless of their original purpose. This chapter examines numerous well-known and commercially successful games through the lens of several known and accepted learning theories and styles, using the premise that “good” games already embody sound pedagogy in their designs even if the incorporation of those theories was not deliberate.
Research Interests:
This presentation reports on the early results of a study of a novel card game used to teach concepts of Mendelian genetics and inheritance in a biology class. The card game being tested is currently in the prototype stage, and the... more
This presentation reports on the early results of a study of a novel card game used to teach concepts of Mendelian genetics and inheritance in a biology class. The card game being tested is currently in the prototype stage, and the current study seeks to determine if the design of the cards, game rules, and support material are appropriate to meet the intended objectives. The game, which uses domestic rabbit coat colours as the theme has both a novice and a standard variant, both of which will be described. Gameplay is patterned after the popular genre of rummy card games where players must match cards in sets according to specified criteria, in this case the genotypes of the rabbits featured on the cards. Through playing the game and matching phenotypes w/ genotypes as well as determining what can be produced given a specific phenotype and underlying genotype, players will learn basic principles of genetics, including familiarity with standard notation, terminology, and concepts su...
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TV Talk show discussing issues that matter to Calgarians. Join us live every Thursday at 7PM. Join the discussion by leaving a comment here. Description Some of the best conversations come from sitting around throwing out ideas, so... more
TV Talk show discussing issues that matter to Calgarians. Join us live every Thursday at 7PM. Join the discussion by leaving a comment here. Description Some of the best conversations come from sitting around throwing out ideas, so let's get talking. We're wanting to shed light on issues that affect Calgarians and get conversations started amongst our communities. Share you opinions and views with us to be apart of the show. Each topic will be determined by your comments and posts, we want to know what is important to you.
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used as a tool to evaluate and design digital games for learning, and to help in the formulation of strategies for the use of pre-existing games in learning contexts. To get to... more
This paper outlines a simple and effective model that can be used as a tool to evaluate and design digital games for learning, and to help in the formulation of strategies for the use of pre-existing games in learning contexts. To get to the end of a videogame, players must always LEARN something: facts, skills, strategies, attitudes, etc., and that is the perspective that is the focus of the Magic Bullet model. Since players must always learn something to get to the end of the game, it follows that all games contain learning elements, and this learning can be grouped into four broad categories (MUST learn, CAN learn, collateral learning, and external learning), which will be explained. Together these four categories can be visualized using an infographic (the Magic Bullet) that shows how all the learning elements are balanced within the game. Examining this balance and its implications for learning value and for gameplay reveals much about the game’s potential. This model can be us...
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SoTL research is often instigated and directed by the instructors or facilitators who are responsible for a given course, program, seminar, or workshop. The facilitators, or sometimes an outside person is the researcher, while the... more
SoTL research is often instigated and directed by the instructors or facilitators who are responsible for a given course, program, seminar, or workshop. The facilitators, or sometimes an outside person is the researcher, while the students are the subjects. Even in participatory action research, the learners are still primarily treated as subjects. Recently, the author designed and delivered a graduate level course where the entire course design became the subject of a co-operative inquiry. In co-operative inquiry, “members of the group contribute both to the ideas that go into their work together, and also are part of the activity that is being researched. Everyone has a say in deciding what questions are to be addressed and what ideas may be of help; everyone contributes to thinking about how to explore the questions; everyone gets involved in the activity that is being researched; and finally everybody has a say in whatever conclusions the co-operative inquiry group may reach. So...
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Research Interests:
This chapter will discuss the growing importance of applying considered rationales to which games are chosen for study, whether it be for ethnography, classroom use, or anything else. A brief overview of how games are currently being... more
This chapter will discuss the growing importance of applying considered rationales to which games are chosen for study, whether it be for ethnography, classroom use, or anything else. A brief overview of how games are currently being chosen for study is presented through a meta analysis of studies with games that were published between 2003 and 2006 in order to demonstrate that most published games studies do not include a supported rationale for the games chosen. The chapter will then present various ways that game choices can be justified, and propose and explain a data fusion technique that can be applied to game reviews and other lists in order to facilitate representative and defensible game choices.
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Games use the same base technology and design strategy as do simulations, but add a few items to the mixture. Understanding this gives ‘new’ (read borrowed) tools for game creation and testing. The idea that simulations are... more
Games use the same base technology and design strategy as do simulations, but add a few items to the mixture. Understanding this gives ‘new’ (read borrowed) tools for game creation and testing. The idea that simulations are implementations of a model, for instance, leads to a focus on the model rather than the code when designing a game. Similarly, the verification/validation pair used in simulations can be extended by adding playtesting for games, thus giving an educational game (for example) viable, demonstrable educational characteristics as well as playable (and thus engaging and motivating) characteristics. Productive work on improving games for specific purposes (serious games) can be advanced if the authors can agree on a common terminology and concept set (Shaw & Gaines, 1989), and if games can be seen as a valuable extension of a simulation that has specific characteristics that make them useful in specific circumstances. The idea of ‘fun’ is often thought of as the enemy o...
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Research Interests:
This paper is about the collective experiences of a graduate level education course that had been partially gamified. A common model for graduate level Education courses uses a seminar approach where participants complete various readings... more
This paper is about the collective experiences of a graduate level education course that had been partially gamified. A common model for graduate level Education courses uses a seminar approach where participants complete various readings and then respond to them in short editorials or blogs. This course gamified that component by requiring students to complete numerous small to medium sized activities that included these typical ones in order to accumulate points. These points contributed to their final grade. Students gave feedback on their experience with gamification throughout the course which included increased ownership and control of learning and grades, as well as unwanted competition, and onerous marking for the instructor. The paper concludes with suggestions for meaningful gamification in future courses.
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1. To show that many commercial games, the successful ones at least, already implement sound pedagogy when it comes to how they get players to learn the game and how they facilitate gameplay. 2. To encourage critical examination of successful video games, to learn how this has been done, so that ...more
Some years ago as part of the author’s doctoral work a survey with public school teachers <http://minkhollow.ca/becker/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=papers:digra-05-study-paper.pdf> was conducted to see if they were using games in school,... more
Some years ago as part of the author’s doctoral work a survey with public school teachers <http://minkhollow.ca/becker/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=papers:digra-05-study-paper.pdf> was conducted to see if they were using games in school, and if not, why not. Some of the obvious and significant barriers were highlighted: lack of admin support, lack of resources, lack of time to learn, etc. There was room for comments at the end of the survey. The comment that still resonates today is this one: As a parent I object to having my child “play” on the computer when he has completed some piece of work. I want my kids working at school. I can use computer games at home for there (sic.) entertainment. I also think that “edutainment” as a name is attempting to give computer games some degree of educational value. My students come to school to learn not to be entertained. Would you want your university profs. entertaining you? While the pressure on teachers to not “waste” time is understandab...
ViPER is a game developed to teach concepts in machine learning to middle school students. This is a challenging task, because machine learning involves a good deal of advanced mathematics and computer science. It was decided to have the... more
ViPER is a game developed to teach concepts in machine learning to middle school students. This is a challenging task, because machine learning involves a good deal of advanced mathematics and computer science. It was decided to have the students themselves go through the machine learning process in the way a computer would in order to demonstrate the basic concepts. A programmable robot was used as the medium.
Design is an applied endeavor: to design something one must have extensive knowledge of the thing being designed. Design is also a complex activity and while each design discipline shares some aspect with most other design disciplines,... more
Design is an applied endeavor: to design something one must have extensive knowledge of the thing being designed. Design is also a complex activity and while each design discipline shares some aspect with most other design disciplines, each also has important distinctions. It is simply not possible to be an expert designer in the general sense. Knowing how to design children’s clothing or buildings does not qualify one to design theater sets or costumes, although that knowledge may well help in some situations. While digital games arguably share elements with other kinds of digital objects as well as with traditional games (such as board and card games), neither software designers nor traditional game designers are necessarily equipped to design digital games, although, just as in the previous example, that knowledge may well help.
‘Gamification’ - the use of game elements in non-game contexts - has rapidly become one of the current hottest trends. This presentation presents an overview of what gamification is and isn’t, and reports on the author’s experiences using... more
‘Gamification’ - the use of game elements in non-game contexts - has rapidly become one of the current hottest trends. This presentation presents an overview of what gamification is and isn’t, and reports on the author’s experiences using this approach in a graduate level education class as well as the early results of a comparison between gamified and non-gamified sections of a freshman introduction to computers course. In the current course, the non-gamified sections employ a fairly standard structure that includes various assignments spread out throughout the term, various in-class activities, and both a midterm and final exam. The gamified section organizes all student work into various quests worth from 10 to 200 ‘experience points’ (XP), most of which have no set deadlines. While the quests are effectively equivalent in grade weight to the assignments of the more traditional sections, students in the gamified section start off with a score of zero (0) and every quest they subm...
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Many people struggle with the fundamental concepts underlying Mendelian genetics. As soon as we involve more than two traits things get complicated. The classic examples are fine, but additional resources can be helpful. Besides, playing... more
Many people struggle with the fundamental concepts underlying Mendelian genetics. As soon as we involve more than two traits things get complicated. The classic examples are fine, but additional resources can be helpful. Besides, playing with blood isn't all it's cracked up to be, and rabbits are cuter. Here's a visual way to learn the jargon and the basic principles of Mendelian inheritance while playing a fast-paced card game using rabbit coat color genetics. Coat color in rabbits demonstrates dominance/recessive traits, differences in pheno- vs genotypes, epistasis, and multiple alleles - all of which blend together to form the color we see. Gene Rummy is a variation of Gin Rummy, one of the most popular games of the mid-20th century, and still popular today. We think you will enjoy our colorful take on this classic card game, and invite you to learn more about the principles of Mendelian Genetics and Inheritance along the way. Players can try their hand at breeding r...
In many educational circles, people have said that games and simulations are not the same. We disagree. This discussion paper will examine these claims in more detail and will look at the implications such positions have for the design,... more
In many educational circles, people have said that games and simulations are not the same. We disagree. This discussion paper will examine these claims in more detail and will look at the implications such positions have for the design, development, and use of simulations and games for learning.
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915) In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you... more
"There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." Willa Cather (1915) In this community, the claim that all games are simulations, but not all simulations are games does not seem especially radical. When you look under the hood of a modern simulation or videogame, you see pretty much the same stuff. It hardly seems worth a second thought. We all know that simulation has been at the very core of computer development since the very beginning, and we’ve applied what we know to games for almost as long. Nevertheless, with a very few exceptions, what the rest of the world knows of simulations is very much like the elephant described by the famous blind monks. This was not a big handicap in the early days when simulations were primarily created for fairly specialized applications, but thanks to the Internet, videogames, and mobile technology, things have changed. One of the places where things have changed the most is in education and professional development (t...
Make no mistake, first impressions are important. They often establish imply innovation. But first impressions are not enough. To be effective, learning applications must also have depth and substance. The Decorative Media Principle... more
Make no mistake, first impressions are important. They often establish imply innovation. But first impressions are not enough. To be effective, learning applications must also have depth and substance. The Decorative Media Principle involves the creation of a visually pleasing background and decorations for a worksheet, website, etc. that is thematically connected with the instruction. For example, in the work the author does with the “Ducks in the Classroom” project, printable vocabulary and word games are created on a themed background – possibly a nest, words enclosed in images of eggs, duck footprints, etc. The principle is that the decoration supports learning and retention by increasing interest as well as the conceptual coherence of the learning object.
However, when the visual design is the most significant feature of the object users of this object risk falling into the ‘decorative media trap’, which is the assumption that a pleasing, or impressive appearance implies that the artifact is well designed. From the design perspective, people fall into this trap when they believe that appearances are either sufficient or, even worse, that they can compensate for a poor or mediocre design. The challenge of integrating learning objectives with the delivery medium is far from new. The medium is more than a vehicle for delivery and it is essential for designers to understand their tools thoroughly.
The benefits underlining this principle are that, done well, the ‘decorations’ can help learners form connections by giving them visual ‘tags’ upon which to hang ideas and facts. Adding to the visual appeal can also boost the impact of what you’re trying to get across, and this sometimes works even if the connection between the decoration and the content is weak.
With the help of examples, both good and bad, this paper will discuss this principle in more depth.
Link to slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/becker/the-decorative-media-trap
However, when the visual design is the most significant feature of the object users of this object risk falling into the ‘decorative media trap’, which is the assumption that a pleasing, or impressive appearance implies that the artifact is well designed. From the design perspective, people fall into this trap when they believe that appearances are either sufficient or, even worse, that they can compensate for a poor or mediocre design. The challenge of integrating learning objectives with the delivery medium is far from new. The medium is more than a vehicle for delivery and it is essential for designers to understand their tools thoroughly.
The benefits underlining this principle are that, done well, the ‘decorations’ can help learners form connections by giving them visual ‘tags’ upon which to hang ideas and facts. Adding to the visual appeal can also boost the impact of what you’re trying to get across, and this sometimes works even if the connection between the decoration and the content is weak.
With the help of examples, both good and bad, this paper will discuss this principle in more depth.
Link to slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/becker/the-decorative-media-trap
Research Interests:
This presentation reports on the early results of a study of a novel card game used to teach concepts of Mendelian genetics and inheritance in a biology class. The card game being tested is currently in the prototype stage, and the... more
This presentation reports on the early results of a study of a novel card game used to teach concepts of Mendelian genetics and inheritance in a biology class. The card game being tested is currently in the prototype stage, and the current study seeks to determine if the design of the cards, game rules, and support material are appropriate to meet the intended objectives. The game, which uses domestic rabbit coat colours as the theme has both a novice and a standard variant, both of which will be described. Gameplay is patterned after the popular genre of rummy card games where players must match cards in sets according to specified criteria, in this case the genotypes of the rabbits featured on the cards. Through playing the game and matching phenotypes w/ genotypes as well as determining what can be produced given a specific phenotype and underlying genotype, players will learn basic principles of genetics, including familiarity with standard notation, terminology, and concepts such as genotype vs. phenotype. The game has been tested in several other venues and the results of those playtests will be summarized along with the early results from the current study which is the first test of the game in a biology class. Students were invited to play the game, and reflect on their experience through a survey that includes standard playtesting methodologies. Preliminary results will be presented along with a plan for the next steps.
Research Interests:
‘Gamification’ - the use of game elements in non-game contexts - has rapidly become one of the current hottest trends. This presentation presents an overview of what gamification is and isn’t, and reports on the author’s experiences using... more
‘Gamification’ - the use of game elements in non-game contexts - has rapidly become one of the current hottest trends. This presentation presents an overview of what gamification is and isn’t, and reports on the author’s experiences using this approach in a graduate level education class as well as the early results of a comparison between gamified and non-gamified sections of a freshman introduction to computers course. In the current course, the non-gamified sections employ a fairly standard structure that includes various assignments spread out throughout the term, various in-class activities, and both a midterm and final exam. The gamified section organizes all student work into various quests worth from 10 to 200 ‘experience points’ (XP), most of which have no set deadlines. While the quests are effectively equivalent in grade weight to the assignments of the more traditional sections, students in the gamified section start off with a score of zero (0) and every quest they submit contributes to their final grade cumulatively. A final score of 1000 is equivalent to 100%, but the total number of possible XP is 1435. All quests were made available to students at the beginning of term; some could be repeated for XP and included a variety of ‘guild’ (group) quests and ‘solo’ quests; and many quests could be repeated to earn additional XP. The presentation will provide some background on gamification, detail the course structure, highlight early successes and failures, and conclude with strategies for incorporating meaningful gamification in other courses.
Research Interests:
Typical research methodologies in SoTL include many of the traditional educational research methodologies, yet there are methodologies in other disciplines and industries that can provide fresh perspectives. One of these industries is the... more
Typical research methodologies in SoTL include many of the traditional educational research methodologies, yet there are methodologies in other disciplines and industries that can provide fresh perspectives. One of these industries is the videogame industry. While there are fundamental differences such as the fact that one seeks primarily to entertain and the other to enlighten or educate, the practices, processes, and theories behind playtesting games can be used to inform aspects of pedagogy that relate to engagement. The primary focus in game design is on the experience and there has been considerable research into ways to assess and measure the player experience through playtesting. Playtesting is concerned with such things as whether or not the game is fun, which parts are too easy or hard, whether and when people become bored, and with the player’s progression through the to the end. All of these properties have relevance to teaching and learning even though they may not appear to be directly connected with whether or not the learning objectives were met. Rather, playtesting is concerned with the motivation of the player/student to continue the particular course of learning, which speaks to the success of the methodology in capturing the student's imagination. Sometimes, simply taking a novel approach to evaluation can yield insights that were not uncovered by more common approaches. This presentation will provide a brief overview of formal playtesting procedures and highlight ways these approaches could be used in the classroom as well as how this could inform pedagogy.
Research Interests:
SoTL research is often instigated and directed by the instructors or facilitators who are responsible for a given course, program, seminar, or workshop. The facilitators, or sometimes an outside person is the researcher, while the... more
SoTL research is often instigated and directed by the instructors or facilitators who are responsible for a given course, program, seminar, or workshop. The facilitators, or sometimes an outside person is the researcher, while the students are the subjects. Even in participatory action research, the learners are still primarily treated as subjects. Recently, the author designed and delivered a graduate level course where the entire course design became the subject of a co-operative inquiry. In co-operative inquiry, “members of the group contribute both to the ideas that go into their work together, and also are part of the activity that is being researched. Everyone has a say in deciding what questions are to be addressed and what ideas may be of help; everyone contributes to thinking about how to explore the questions; everyone gets involved in the activity that is being researched; and finally everybody has a say in whatever conclusions the co-operative inquiry group may reach. So in co-operative inquiry the split between 'researcher' and 'subjects' is done away with, and all those involved act together as 'co-researchers' and as 'co-subjects'. “(Heron, 1992).In other words the learners are also the researchers alongside the instructor. This presentation is intended to outline the methodology known as co-operative inquiry, to briefly report on the author’s experiences with this approach in a graduate level Education class, and to solicit collaborators in pursuing possible opportunities to explore this approach further in undergraduate courses.
Research Interests:
Katrin Becker (2006) Teaching with Games, Once Removed, International Conference on Teacher Education, November 2-4, 2006, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Katrin Becker (2009) Yet Another Magic Bullet: A Tool for Assessing and Evaluating Learning Potential In Games, Future Play 2009 @ GDC Canada Vancouver, BC May 12-13, 2009 slides on slideshare This paper will outline a simple, yet... more
Katrin Becker (2009) Yet Another Magic Bullet: A Tool for Assessing and Evaluating Learning Potential In Games, Future Play 2009 @ GDC Canada Vancouver, BC May 12-13, 2009 slides on slideshare
This paper will outline a simple, yet effective model that can be used to help in the design of games for educational purposes, as well as in evaluating existing games for their learning potential. Further, this model can help educators formulate strategies for using an existing game within a learning context. The model will be presented along with a few examples of assessments produced using it.
This paper will outline a simple, yet effective model that can be used to help in the design of games for educational purposes, as well as in evaluating existing games for their learning potential. Further, this model can help educators formulate strategies for using an existing game within a learning context. The model will be presented along with a few examples of assessments produced using it.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
"Video games are now being seen as a media form rather than mere toys and the body of research on their use as pedagogical tools is growing. However, the majority of studies on the use of games for teaching involve student perception.... more
"Video games are now being seen as a media form rather than mere toys and the body of research on their use as pedagogical tools is growing. However, the majority of studies on the use of games for teaching involve student perception. Studies that seek to measure actual learning are still uncommon. Part of the reason is the inherent difficulty in setting up such 'experiments' in the first place and any of us who have tried can attest to the extreme challenges faced when trying to isolate variables for analysis. When teaching programming however, we have access to an approach that can measure the complexity of the solution itself and thereby render an objective measure of student learning.
This presentation will describe an analysis that was undertaken when a rare opportunity presented itself to study two sizable sections of the same introductory programming course in the same semester. Each section was given different assignments of equivalent difficulty - one section was given several game assignments and the other section was given more traditional problems to solve. The resultant student submissions were then analyzed using well-accepted, standard software engineering metrics and the results clearly indicated that students working on games created longer, and more complex solutions than those working on the more typical problems. Given that producing more complex programs is harder to do, it is reasonable to infer that the students who wrote games
This new approach to the assessment of student learning has exciting possibilities and deserves further attention.
"
This presentation will describe an analysis that was undertaken when a rare opportunity presented itself to study two sizable sections of the same introductory programming course in the same semester. Each section was given different assignments of equivalent difficulty - one section was given several game assignments and the other section was given more traditional problems to solve. The resultant student submissions were then analyzed using well-accepted, standard software engineering metrics and the results clearly indicated that students working on games created longer, and more complex solutions than those working on the more typical problems. Given that producing more complex programs is harder to do, it is reasonable to infer that the students who wrote games
This new approach to the assessment of student learning has exciting possibilities and deserves further attention.
"
Research Interests:
Collaborative activity has always been at the foundation of engineering activity and although group work has typically been recognized as important in engineering education, helping students learn how to work in groups has not always gone... more
Collaborative activity has always been at the foundation of engineering activity and although group work has typically been recognized as important in engineering education, helping students learn how to work in groups has not always gone as smoothly as one might hope. Student claims of imbalance in workloads and conflicts among group members can be hugely time consuming, and are often a real challenge to resolve. With the advent of Web 2.0 tools and cloud computing we have entered a new era of technology supported collaborative work, which includes new ways to facilitate, monitor, and assess student group work. However, adding to the workloads of already busy faculty by asking them to learn and incorporate these new tools into their courses is difficult. One way to raise the profile of the use of technological tools is to be able to show the benefits through empirical studies.
This presentation outlines the preliminary findings of a team of engineering faculty using Google Docs to support collaborative document creation and group project work in a first year engineering design and communications course that consisted of five sections and a total of just over one hundred students. Each of these findings should be examined further to determine what impact collaborative tools like Google Docs could have on project work and to begin to formulate best practices. To that end, we invite collaborators and challenge others to develop this work further.
This presentation outlines the preliminary findings of a team of engineering faculty using Google Docs to support collaborative document creation and group project work in a first year engineering design and communications course that consisted of five sections and a total of just over one hundred students. Each of these findings should be examined further to determine what impact collaborative tools like Google Docs could have on project work and to begin to formulate best practices. To that end, we invite collaborators and challenge others to develop this work further.
Research Interests:
Katrin Becker & J.R.Parker (2006) Digital Games vs Simulations, presented at the 2006 SCS International Conference on Modeling and Simulation - Methodology, Tools, Software Applications (M&S-MTSA'06) July 31 - Aug. 6, 2006
In his landmark paper describing what the new post-industrial paradigm of instruction should look like, C.M.Reigeluth outlines 8 core ideas: 1. Learning-focused vs. sorting focused. 2. Learner-centered vs. teacher-centered instruction. 3.... more
In his landmark paper describing what the new post-industrial paradigm of instruction should look like, C.M.Reigeluth outlines 8 core ideas: 1. Learning-focused vs. sorting focused. 2. Learner-centered vs. teacher-centered instruction. 3. Learning by doing vs. teacher presenting. 4. Attainment-based vs. time-based progress. 5. Customized vs. standardized instruction. 6. Criterion-referenced vs. norm-referenced testing. 7. Collaborative vs. individual. 8. Enjoyable vs. unpleasant. [1] Most of us would acknowledge that people learn at different rates and have different learning needs, but most of our courses continue to enforce a lock-step progression of topics and assignments that is much better suited to an industrial style of teaching and learning than a 21st century one. Reigeluth's new paradigm calls for radical transformation and while that may well be justified, radical change to our institutional structures is unlikely to happen, at least not in the near future. What then can we do in the meantime? Gamification is a pedagogy that can be implemented without the need for institutional systemic change. This paper examines Reigluth's core ideas and proposes a variety of changes that can easily be implemented in the classroom to address them. It then presents an instructional design model that can be used to guide the design and development of a gamified course.