Hugh O'Donnell : Weblog items tagged with IDGBL10

Week 10 - What do we learn at school?

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:13:16 GMT

What do we learn at school?

This was a question I posed to my S2 class shortly before giving then an end-of-term creativity exercise, whereupon they were to design their own game (individually or in groups not exceeding 4) based on the 'mapping learning objectives', Concept Specification and Functional Specification templates provided by Whitton.

As may be discerned, the overwhelming response focused not on a list of the subjects that they learned but the pupils invariably produced 'answers' which focused on the social aspects of school where "perceptions of the self and others are socially determined and constrained" (Lee and Hoadley, p.2). This fortnight, Weeks 10 & 11 the Readings on Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) explores the idea of virtual exploration of socialization as identity. This interaction and exploration is evident in the 'roles' identified by the S2 pupils, who themselves are equipped and expected to produce versions of themselves in talk and creative writing, "and learning takes place during this enactment" (ibid., p.5).

MMOs are more flexible, draw on more than two or more senses and still allow thinking "from an alternate point of view and experiencing events situated in context helps students maintain interest and facilitates learning while the student grows into the alternate identity [and when] when students have a direct investment in the learning experience, they will more readily embrace their new knowledge as a vital component of their own personal growth and development" (ibid., p.5).

References

Lee, J., and C. Hoadley. 2007. Leveraging identity to make learning fun: Possible selves and experiential learning in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Innovate 3 6).
http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=348 (accessed April 24, 2008).

Week 10

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:37:38 GMT

In Gee (Chapter 7: The Social Mind in What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy) he extends the learning through video-games from single-player to multi-player. As ever, he ends the chapter with a subset of the 36 Learning Principles (33-36) and these focus on the distributed nature of knowledge and the dispersal of this across 'affinity groups' - objects and systems as well as people - whereby he extends the notion of communities of practice and identity; all draw on traditional methods of storage and collation but importantly email, the internet, etc.

As with the classroom, players/participants work towards a common purpose, irrespective of race, class, gender, etc. This idea of common purpose and objective of all school pupils must be conveyed to pupils and allow them to acknowledge that it is their interest to work in partnership in order to support each other through their strengths and weaknesses (known as 'jigsaw method' defined by Brown & Campione (in Kate McQilly Ed. Classroom Lesson's: Integrating Cognitive Theory and Classroom Practice).

The idea of identity resurfaces, recalling the notion of 'multiple identity' whereby in such affinity groups "the norms and values of groups are contested and negotiated" (p. 184), bearing in mind that players - and us - modulate across a continuum of identity depending on context. He finishes noting that this 'identity' should not only be in control but one who can modify content and the process itself.

These ideas accord with my periphery readings of Richard Riding's School Learning and Cognitive Styles where learners are negotiated into two dimensions of 'learning style' - wholist-analytic & visual-verbal. In relation to the affinity group that Gee promotes, Riding suggests that they, the learners, can work in partnerships that take into account differences / discrepancies in different learner types. I think that this may have a significance in the successful presentation and reception of learning activities derived from digital games, and when you factor in collaborative learning I think that it is equally appropriate to look at compensatory pairing/grouping in addition.

http://www.encorewiki.org/display/~hnajafi/Communities+of+Learners

World of Warcraft - a 14 year-old's perspective

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:04:25 GMT

World of Warcraft

I spoke to one of my 14 year-old pupils about World of Warcraft...

He was quite excited to see me looking at the pdf instruction file

for World of Warcraft ("loads better than Everquest") and he talked

to me about the stand-alone campaigns, how it felt real when you played

it...

But the main thing for me was when I asked him about "being good"

as an alternative to killing and pillaging. He responded that the goal

was to achieve money - gold, he informed me, was also of value and could

also be stolen and traded - in order to buy swords and other forms of

weaponry.

You can trade animals and 'fall in love with some girls', but the biggest

draw is that it is fun and every level offers a greater challenge, and

that your character becomes stronger.

'Oblivion' was a game suggested by other pupils, who had picked up on our

little informal conversation during a reading period.

He seemed just so au fait with the game, its narrative and objectives - much

shared by the games mentioned by the other pupils.

I pressed him on some of the ideas from Gee and Brown - the distribution of

knowledge within community (this is something that I have picked up from my

S4 all boys class, discussing previous and future online missions, despite their

close physical proximity when at home) - and he remembers undertaking "six,

probably" missions or campaigns organised by a leader and how this led to achieving

an overall objective.

He agreed - after thinking about it - that he was in some way learning - about

friendships, tactics - and that when people overstepped the mark they would suffer

a consequence for repeated offences. "Learning to Be" as Brown would suggest,

'construction' via a digital medium that facilitated the accretion of knowledge

and understanding across a community of practice existing in disparate times and space.

The Grand Transition - 'learning to be' - that is the 'demand-pull' model of learning.

And, this pupil is one of many who invest considerable amounts of time and

credence to the tasks entailed in successful participation of games like WOW.

Week 9 - ARGs & uLearning

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 20:10:02 GMT

uLearning (ubiquitous and context-specific) and Alternative Reality Games (ARGs)

The binding medium is generally the Internet, drawing on other forms of media.

My understanding is that it is an inversion of the classic computer gaming paradigm, whereby the real-world characters are controlled or undertake a computer-generated narrative.

Where I think uLearning is interesting within this particular genre of gaming is that a context-aware environment can play along/maintain this invention of reality in supporting the narrative, therefore removing itself from the players’ physical domain and merely adopting symbols or metaphorical representations from of this narrative.

uLearning “enables users to interact and learn with sensors and radio frequency identiﬁcation (RFID) embedded objects in their surroundings… As a student moves around the learning area, the system can detect their location by reading and analysing the data from the nearest RFID tag. Consequently, assessment can be conducted to evaluate the learning performance of the student in the realworld” (Liu et Hwang, 2009b, p. 1 & 4)

References

Liu and Hwang. (2009). A key step to understanding paradigm shifts in e-learning: towards context-aware ubiquitous learning. British Journal of Educational Technology (2009) doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00976.x

Liu and Hwang. (2009). Learning spaces, learning environments and the dis‘placement’ of learning. British Journal of Educational Technology (2009) doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00974.x

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Ubiquitous_learning
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubiquitous_learning

Week 9

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:33:22 GMT

Chapter 7
The Impact of Digital Games on Learning
I found this an interesting read, especially in accordance with my own reflection upon the three classes currently using or having used digital games in order to complement some aspect of learning or having “the ability to make mistakes in a safe environment and and learn from them [which] is one of the key benefits of game-based learning” (Whitton, 2010, p. 104).
Commandos

On the 15th of March, the S3 pupils at Dunoon Grammar School sat their S3 exam ('mocks'). In order to foster relationships - a recurring factor in much of the material being amassed as part of my studies of the MEd in Education on The University of the West of Scotland's Chartered Teacher Pathway programme - I decided to look at the interaction within and between groups of 14 year-old boys, with each group taking part in the playing of the game projected onto a large classroom display. Each of the 6 groups would control the mouse, direct commands and filter comments and suggestions from the other groups. The pupils are about to conduct research on a topic from which they will develop and deliver a solo talk presentation to the whole class, which will be summatively assessed in accordance with SQA Standard Grade Arrangements. I am attempting to remove and existing barriers amongst pupils and to continue fostering the supportive and actively collaborative climate necessary in a single gender (all male) class. These are noted as “unintended learning objectives” (Whitton, 2010, p. 108) and include: “Valuable transferable skills, such as problem solving, teamwork or negotiation” (ibid.).

I was not to be disappointed.

Initial uptake was slow: I put this down to the audience and 'public performance' factor. There were instances of bravado and a carefree, less-than-interested approach. One particular academic/quiet pupil made significant progress - suggestions as to having played before (private interview afterwards).

I then released the 'walkthrough' now that they had mastered basic navigation. Still, there were small isolated pockets of resistance: disengagement - post and pre-play.

However, there was plenty of humour - pupil-teacher humour and a fair amount of camaraderie/praise.

Sherlock Holmes

Whitton’s provision of examples whereby games can be justified as applicable within a learning environment lend to specific areas within which I have used this game:
Narratives associated with the action in the game (e.g. characterizations, back stories, future scenarios);
Reflective accounts of actions taken in the game and the learning acquired from it;
(Whitton, 2010, p. 105).
It is important to note Whitton’s view that adults require close connections to be made between game-based activities and learning outcomes and benefits. With the S1 pupils, merely adopting the game as an adjunct to a piece of study and utilizing it for a generic lesson opening activity has been enough; whilst formative assessment of daily journals helps to deliver feedback about their writing attainment. This is certainly a justification to anyone seeking educational merit!

Myst
After a single period of this game – used with an extremely able s2 class (aged circa 13) – I observed and detected disengagements that hadn’t been noticed before from the S1 class. On the 16/03/2010 I passed around a Pros/Cons sheet and asked for at least one entry from each pupil.
‘Bad graphics’ featured once, but interestingly the cons noted that it was “hard”, “no one can use it” and that it was “confusing” (no context or background is provided). What also featured was the looseness of the lesson structure and that “we all shout out at once”.

It would be interesting to allow the pupils themselves to structure a ‘best practice’ approach…

On the plus, the idea was “fun” and that some enjoyed “puzzles” and the “mystery”, “scenes” and “setting” were positively remarked upon. Whitton offers a more fine-grained ‘Engagement Questionnaire’ that could be used in future.

Overall, I was curious about the following:

“higher levels of engagement with a learning activity are indicative of increased learning from it” (Jacques et al. (1995) cited in Whitton, 2010, p. 110).
But that it “is possible to be engaged while not actually in a state of flow” (Whitton, 2010, p. 110).
“Lepper and Malone (1987) provide evidence that there is a link between intrinsic motivation to learn, engagement and instructional effectiveness” (Whitton, 2010, p. 110).

I shall conclude these musings AFTER I have watched the Youtube clip on ‘flow’.

Week 7 & Week 8

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:43:02 GMT

Papert confirms that most pupils find school boring - not necessarily hard. He suggests that children must be able to practice their learning, be in control of their own learning. He posists three suggestions for leveraging games:

that they should discuss their learning with adults, which aims to develop
a learning vocabulary;
encourage children to become game designers themselves;
game designers should not underestimate their contribution to the learning
development of their young audience.

I asked 2 sets of junior pupils: 2 of the 40 claimed that school was hard.

Myst

After scouring the web for technical assistance (something that still prevents me progressing with Neverwinter Nights) I have finally managed to run 'Myst' (Masterpiece Edition on my desktop PC at work.

I plan to adopt the same strategy of play as I have been doing with my S1 class,

except that in this case the game derives from no existence canon of literature. I have two concerns:

Technically/Aesthetically - is it 'up to it' and will the stage 'point and click'method of navigation not appear too staggered and not flow as contemporary digital first-person games.
Narratively - will the pupils feel 'at sea', too unfamiliar...

Academically very able, the chosen group collaborate very well and there is a very supportive climate.

Commandos - Boys, History & Immersion

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:18:55 GMT

Commandos is a real-time point and click strategy game, drawing on historical

events/missions from the Second World War.

Missions involve one or more soldier avatar each of which carries certain physical/

other characteristics and a player(s) use their combined efforts in order to solve

stealth-oriented missions.

Donald Norman's ideas - which draw on Brenda Laurel's ideas of immersion and first-person

engagement with a task - could support the use of this game with an all-boys S3 class. I envisage:

engagement in critical thinking and reflection tasks before the beginning/at the end of a lesson
intra-/inter-group engagement
first-person involvement
cross-curricular learning (History, e.g.)
the provision of 'rich tasks', whereby pupils can produce non-fiction investigations, engage with World War poetry
group collaboration and competition (Whitton)
used a source for personal journal writing

This would ultimately appeal to boys (note: I wonder how girls would react and perform !?) and I would allow for 5 minutes of game engagement followed by 5 minutes of reflection/journalling, both of which could draw on a specific writing task for that period. This type of engagement and critical thinking could 'warm the muscle' required for the remainder of the period...

Week 5 - Whitton 8, & Gee 5

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:15:50 GMT

I have enjoyed both readings..

Whitton - Using existing commercial games

Myst and Wolfenstein have taken my interest, especially the former re pupils and narrative creation activities.

Gee - Chapter 5

"often stays at the edge of the player's regime of competence" (p. 121). This is the idea whereby - as Gee states early and further on in this chapter - manage overt information but also require the presence of the teacher, or learning mediator.

Overt Telling versus Immersion in Practice.

This schism should not exist - and can be resolved, "The learner adapts and transforms the earlier experience to be transferred to the new problem through creativity and innovation."

"The learner remains flexible, adapting performance in action." - 29. The Transfer Principle

This is key to effective learning and teaching.

Week 5

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:43:10 GMT

Whitton (Chapter 6)

This chapter has introduced a framework on which I shall pin my research into the development of an educational game, and undertake an evaluation of an existing one - two of the three assignments.

Whitton highlight, many times, the need for game design to incorporate the social constructivist element of collaboration; this should be included when considering the desired learning outcomes. For this, she has provided an excellent 'Mapping of Learning Objectives to Game Activity' table for use in game design, which I will use in conjunction with the 'Concept Specification' table.

Starting with the learning objectives is of paramount importance; they underpin any (digital or games-based) learning activity. She also treats the 'game' holistically, packaged with reflection activities - discussion, journaling etc. This accords with Kolb's experiential learning cycle and allows for in- and out-of game activities, all of which are equitable.

She discusses some sources of games - adoption, modification, bespoke creation, etc. and their financial and developmental pros and cons.

Six guidelines are given (which I will use) for Effective Game Design:

- active learning

- engagement & goal-oriented

- appropriately contextualised

- reflective opportunities

- equitable experience

- ongoing support

Collaborative Learning underpins every aspect.

Week 4 - Pedagogy and Design

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:34:04 GMT

Pedagogy & Design

Motivation (Whitton, 2010)

On a personal level, I value my free time – what little time is afforded to a secondary school teacher with a young family and who is undertaking two separate course of study at postgraduate level – any of which tries to contain elements of newspaper and short story/poetry reading. I would categorise myself as one who would need to see an educational purpose or that the completion of domestic and academic activities on the peripherary were not being undermined by spending time at a console or PC playing a game.

According to Whitton (p. 37) motivation and purpose are paramount to digital games-based learning; users need to be in control, and for games in learning, users will accept them if they are the most effective way of learning – this is the most important aspect (p. 40-41). Games have the ability to engage but must have sound educational principles in order that the play does not obfuscate the learning outcome(s).

Achieving the necessary immersion – whereby players (learners) are fascinated and increasingly challenged – relies on the authenticity of and identification with a particular context for a user. This leads to the experience of ‘flow’ (as defined by Csikszentmihalyi) whereupon the player enters into the optimal state of learning, and is in complete control of this experience. But motivation is seen as a complex process. Students’ intrinsic motivations for school decline grades 3 to 9, as a result of extrinsic motivations – grades, expectations, etc. Fun, joy, meaning, challenge have been stripped out. So what are the differences between this traditional school-based learning and digitial games-based engagement?

Malone & Lepper developed a taxonomy of four factors in intrinsic motivators when playing games: game challenge, curiosity, control and fantasy, with ten additional factors being defined by Tuzun (2004): identity presentation, social relations, playing, learning, achievement, helping, rewards, immersion, uniqueness and creativity.

Relating to the idea of the expectations place on appropriateness of a learning activity or game, the greatest potential is in developing high-level, transferable skills: autonomy, analysis, critical evaluation and team working. Experience, discussion and application is the constructivist approach, a theory deployed by Vygotsky. In order to support this optimized state of ‘active learning’ constructivism suggests:

- Situated cognition
- Cognitive Puzzlement
- Social Collaboration

and I would suggest that many digitial games – specifically designed for learning or otherwise - offer such a constructivist learning environment: "a place where learners may work together and support each other as they use a variety of tools and information resources in their guided pursuit of learning goals and problem-solving activities."

Honebein (cited in Whitton, 2010) presents 7 pedagogic goals of the design of constructivist learning environments:

·          Responsibility for how/what they learn
·          Multiple viewpoints
·          Ownership of learning process
·          Authentic and relevant
·          Real-life activities
·          Support social learning
·          Multiple modes of learning

Additionally, game play must be offered in conjunction with periods of structured reflection, whereby the player can reflect on the activities just taken place with a view to tuning and restructuring their schematic models for use in further play or in transferable application.

At the heart is the learner or the player – the teacher acts merely as a learning facilitator, with opportunities for communities of practice (both bodied and disembodied) delivering additional critical support. This ‘experiential learning’ (Kolb) requires feedback being given to the user in a timely and relevant format in order for the user to check their progress.

So, digital games can support the main educational theories of learning: active learning and constructivism, experiential learning, collaborative learning and problem-based learning.

What succeeds is academic learning disguised as contextualized with important social issues, aesthetically-rich dramatic play.