Learning From Games

1. Learning From Games Based on the paper: Classifying Learning Objectives in Commercial Video Games This session focuses on games for learning, why they are a natural fit for learning*, and what we can learn from blockbusters. Katrin Becker University of Calgary July 2006 Prepared for the  GDER Summer Institute July 7-9 2006 *if not for education Learning from Games

2. Bit of a wild ride… So far • Kids today (sheesh) • Importance of play • (what makes us human) • New Ways (again) • Games (and learning) • The Masters (and learning from them) • Figuring it out: • Phase 1: Pedagogy (by way of superimposition) • Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering) Work in progress Learning from Games

3. Kids Today (sheesh) • "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato Learning from Games

4. “Kids Today” have been “Kids Today” for thousands of years,BUT… Learning from Games

5. Kids Today • Really Are different • Tech Savvy • yet • Still Naive • Digital Natives • Producers, not just Consumers Learning from Games

6. Kids Today • Are different • What do we do about it? • HELP THEM • Prepare them • Cure them? Their future or our past? • Geoff Southworth 2002 Learning from Games

7. We’ve come a long way, right? • “Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening...The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role." • - William Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1889 Vocational training is the training of animals or slaves. It fits them to become cogs in the industrial machine. Free men need liberal education to prepare them to make a good use of their freedom. -John Dewey, 1916 Learning from Games

8. Importance of play (it makes us human) • Games: • Joint attention • Imitation games precede language development • Mimetic games form culture… Knucklebones 3-400 BC http://www.attalus.org/info/howto.html Progress of hominid cognition // progress of game forms - Merlin Donald Mimesis: intentional non-linguistic representational or imitative acts [Janet Murray] 2500 BCE http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/romeball.html Learning from Games

9. Games are media of interpersonal communicationMarshall McLuhan Michael Tomasello Ur ~3000 BC Culture ratchets cognition – our brains and culture co-evolve. Senet ~3000 BC Learning from Games

10. Games are Natural Instructional Technologies • As old as mankind. Learning from Games

11. New Ways Learning from Games

12. New Methods for “New” Ways • “The invention of new methods • that are adequate to the new ways • in which problems are posed • requires far more than a simple modification • of previously accepted methods." • Vygotsky Learning from Games

13. New Ways (again) • Apprenticeship (PBL, case-based…) • Everything old is new again Learning from Games

14. New Ways (again) • Experiential Learning • Everything old is new again One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try. - Sophocles Learning from Games

15. New Ways (again) • Story-telling • Everything old is new again Learning from Games

16. New Ways (again) • Visual Culture • Everything old is new again Learning from Games

17. If Everything New is Old,Then What HAS Changed ? • Media -> Digital Games = New Method Learning from Games

18. Story-Telling One View of Communication Media through History Performing Arts Passive: watch, listen, read Print Media Broadcast Radio Cinema Television Active / Interactive: Do, Act, Contribute Multimedia Learning from Games

19. Games(and learning) Learning from Games

20. Digital Games • More than a simple modification of previously accepted methods… • Now what? Learning from Games

21. Digital Games • If we are to take advantage of the medium, • we must • Look at HOW… • Look at exemplars: • “Old Media” • New Media Learning from Games

22. The Masters (and learning from them) Learning from Games

23. Amos’n’Andy The West Wing Why are these such good teachers? Learning from Games

24. Are Games Good Teachers Too? Learning from Games

25. Figuring it out: • To find out how games should teach, first look at how games do teach. • Place in familiar context: • Learning & Instructional Theories • Find contact points. • Gagné / Reigeluth / Kolb / Keirsey / Gregorc / Felder • (This work has been done) Learning from Games

26. Phase 1: Pedagogy • Premise: Games already incorporate sound pedagogy – even if it was not deliberate. • Test: Can we superimpose accepted learning and instructional theories on existing games? Learning from Games

27. Answer: • Yes, if they are good games. • An example… Learning from Games

28. Learning Theories • Each of these elements can be seen as a tool that facilitates learning. How Do Games Teach? Levels Valorization Attract Mode Back Story P.O.V. / Perspective Point of View 2. Informing Learners of the Objective (Expectancy) Trailers 3. Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning (Retrieval) H.U.D. Heads Up Display 1. Gaining Attention (Reception) Click to progress through events Story Mode 4. Presenting the Stimulus (Selective Perception) Sandbox Mode Gagné’s Nine Events 9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer (Generalization) N.P.C. Non-Playable Characters Tutorial Mode 5. Providing Learning Guidance (Semantic Encoding) 8. Assessing Performance (Retrieval) Fan Sites & Game Communities Boss Challenges 6. Eliciting Performance (Responding) 7. Providing Feedback (Reinforcement) Cut- Scenes A.I. Artificial Intelligence Variable L.O.D. Level of Detail Transmediality Learning from Games

29. All good games incorporate: • Merrill’s First Principles • Engagement – Solving realistic (real-life) problems • Activation – Start Where the player/learner is. • Demonstration – Show them what we want them to learn – don’t just tell them. • Application – New knowledge must be applied to solve problems. • Integration – Motivate to apply what was learned Learning from Games

30. Figuring it out: Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering) • …the attempt to recapture the top level specification by analyzing the product - "attempt" because it is not possible in practice, or even in theory, to recover everything in the original specification purely by studying the product… • REVERSE ENGINEERING [DAVID C MUSKER] excerpt http://www.jenkins-ip.com/serv/serv_6.htm June 2 2006 Learning from Games

31. Figuring it out: Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering) Why not just ask the designers? Learning from Games

32. Figuring it out: Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering) • Examine COTS games as if they had been designed for learning. • Objectives exist. • (minus societal value, i.e. education) Learning from Games

33. Phase 2: Implementation • How can we know if games are effective? Learning from Games

34. Knowing why a game is good is not the same as knowing how to make a good game, but it is a necessary first step. Next Steps Learning from Games

35. Next Steps Instructional Games Design will require a thorough grounding in BOTH Instructional Design AND Games Design. Learning from Games

36. Thanks!! • Game Images courtesy of: • Official Game Sites • Fan Art Learning from Games

37. Word play (definitions) 1 Learning 3 Instruction Education 2 5 Objective Outcome 6 Aim 4 Learning from Games