Transcript Game-Based Learning:A Different Perspective

Game-Based Learning:A Different
Perspective
Karl Royle
University of Wolverhampton
School of Education
Why games don’t fit
Caillois (2001) outlined six formal qualities of games:
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Freedom
Separateness (from events outside the rules)
Uncertainty of outcome
Non productiveness
Governed by rules
Make believe (not real)
Immersiveness
Indeterminate completion time
Tendency towards complexity
None of these features
appear to offer any compelling support
for the use of video games as educational tools.
Because games don’t fit we change them
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Edutainment
Serious games
COTS
Mods
Teacherization!
So what can we do to put education into games?
How can one build a game that both engages students
in relevant learning and entertains enough that
gamers want to play outside of school? Such a game
would combine sound pedagogy with superior
entertainment value, seamlessly integrating learning
into the world of the game.
Sound pedagogies…problem based, situated practice, social
constructivism…reflective practice…etc
Give players tools and information enough to make and execute a
plan in response to problems you set up. In the end, that's what
gaming is all about. Waqrren Spector (Saltzman 2000, 64)
Constituents of the killer application
Games engage players on three main fronts:
The structure of the game provides motivation and the urge to
solve problems for the problem's sake alone.
The backstory or narrative provides the believability or
authenticity of engagement.
Characterization makes the player's role in the narrative
believable so that the player can engage fully in the game.
Use Authentic Content in a Believable Setting
“The purpose of a video game is not to simulate real life,
but to offer the gift of playing a game” (Poole 2000, 214).
Puzzles or Obstacles and their Cheats Should Be Linked to
Authentic Content
Combination
inventory puzzles
Language based
puzzles
Environment
puzzles
Strategy based
puzzles
All need to provoke
a need for further
information
Different Ways of Presenting Information Should Be Used to
Maximize Literacy
Audio to text
Clues to problem
solve
Speech/text
Team selection
"Cheating" Should Be Both Intrinsic and Extrinsic to the Game
• Internal cheats
• External cheats and
independent learning
strategies
• Each problem or decision
point should come with
further knowledge offered
within a just-in-time
framework, thus mirroring
the world of project-based
work.
Opportunities to Promote Storytelling Should Be Maximized in the
Game Design
Post game storytelling can develop reflective practice, analysis, and
evaluation, all essential high-level skills in today's information-based
society.
Players Should Be Able to fully Customize their Characters
Guiding players through the principles of character
development can be a great learning tool that also adds
to gameplay.
A design brief for different characters specifying personality traits and
attributes such as voice, accent, catchphrase, appearance, motivation
habits, and other elements will help build believability, bringing the
game to life.
So what can we do?
Design the games- use mods and existing
engines.
So what else can we do?
Use game technology to produce ‘game like’
training/educational solutions.
What more?
Research into what games do in terms of thinking
skills and literacy development.
Vision: a taxonomy that can be used to rate video
games
And finally
Transfer
Thinking skills > Communities of practice> Authentic experience