Learning STEMs from McLarin’s Adventures in Oklahoma

Justin Bathon over at EdJurist sent a note the other day discussing McLarin’s Adventures. This is an interesting educational video game developed under the leadership of Scott Wilson, director of educational gaming initiatives at OU’s K20 Center. It follows sound 3D learning doctrine in order to achieve pedagogical objectives, placing students in a quest-based MMORPG to map an uncharted island. Teamwork is key as students work together on goals in the game.

Funding came through a US Dept. of Ed. STAR Schools Grant. The game is STEM-based, focused primarily on physics and the other sciences, with feedback for teachers to pinpoint needs for individual students. Here’s the introductory video:

For more technical details on how the game works in a school environment, take a look at the McLarin’s Adventures Task Manager below (no sound in this video). Note the objectives window and task manager window, and details for network managers:

It’s evident the team at OU has done a great job. An article in Oklahoma City’s The Journal Record reports student workers in various majors were contracted for programming, graphics, and voice dubbing. Sounds like a monumental coordinated effort that paid off with a premium product.

Finally, the project offers a teacher portal for stakeholder discussion and information dissemination, including calendars, shared docs, and a place to report bugs. All in all, the folks over at the K20 Center at OU have done an outstanding job in developing a functional, and by all accounts fun to play, pedagogical game.

References:
Brus, B. (2009, May 5). A gamer’s paradise found in Oklahoma’s classrooms. The Journal Record. [Online.] Retrieved January 13, 2010 from:  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20090505/ai_n31627592/

How to Design an Educational Video Game: Three Important Considerations

I’ve been talking with folks from the foundation affiliated with a Fortune 100 company recently about designing an educational game that would promote some of the foundation’s objectives. The project is in its infancy, so I’m withholding details. But the conversations we had led me to formulate some considerations for any company or individual to seriously consider before designing an educational game from the ground up. Three top considerations should guide the project from its beginnings all the way to the final product.

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1. Playing the game should be educational, rather than simply having educational content inserted into the gaming experience.

Students learn by playing. This is a critical component of good educational games. Allow me to illustrate with a basic example. Traditional dominoes is an excellent game for teaching math skills to children, especially for adding up fives. If a player can make the tail ends of the dominoes add to five or a number divisible by five, he scores points. If not, he may strategize to prevent his opponent from scoring. You can see children mentally adding while playing … three plus two equals five … four plus six equals ten … The game cannot be played without adding up the points on the table, so basic math is an integral part of the game.

Likewise, math, logic and strategy are integral to 42, a version of dominoes on steroids, a trick-taking game similar to hearts. A player must mentally calculate whether or not her hand is capable of winning a bid based on the potential points in her own hand, and a good guess as to the tricks her partner can take.

Rather than having a child solve math problems before advancing to the next level, a good game should simply integrate math within the game play. Considerable research backs up this approach.

Both traditional dominoes and 42 require basic math skills; 42 requires higher reasoning while dominoes requires simple addition. Because these elements are integral to the games, indeed a fundamental part of both games, they reinforce skills and hold high educational value for children. Likewise, a good educational video game should require the exercising of skills in order to successfully play the game.

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2. If looking to increase academic skills, reading and writing should probably be integral to game play.

A rising tide raises all ships, and the more reading and writing a student engages in, the higher his achievement scores potentially climb. Of course, information absorption is integral to any high end video game, especially 3D virtual interactive environments. But when students have to read and process specific information regarding game play, they’ll be absorbing the content you are interested in instilling.

On the other hand, if you are not interested in instilling academic content, say instead life skills or machinery operation, then reading and writing in the game are not as crucial. But if, for example, you are interested in increasing the understanding of Elizabethan English, then reading and writing will be very important.

Some common examples include history games and those in the Civilization series. Sometimes the reading takes place offline, for instance when a student peruses a history book to better understand strategies for winning in Civilization. Other times students read in-game for clues to solve mysteries and puzzles, such as in the old Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Sometimes, especially for the younger set, reading simply is the game. We find this in the old Living Books series, especially the one modeled on Dr. Seuss’ ABC.

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3. The game should be interesting, engaging, and generate excitement for the topic.

There have been studies where academics spent lots of time, money, and effort creating video games that were absolutely educational by every measure. Yet, when kids finally were allowed to sit down and play the games, they found them … boring. These studies are valuable to educational game designers, and their lessons need to be heeded when starting from scratch.

What do players enjoy about games? They like to explore, socialize, rack up achievements and do stuff (mainly killing things, according to Richard Bartle, but the doing stuff can be other things besides killing in an educational game, provided it’s richly interactive). The game needs to be robust enough and engaging enough to meet the needs of its players. Keeping that in mind while designing and producing an educational video game will lead to a satisfying product that students will enjoy playing, and hopefully learn desired content along the way.

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These were the first three things springing to mind when discussing the genesis of a new educational gaming product. If I missed a crucial component in your opinion, drop me a line.

Educational Game Developers Can Track Steam Reports for Latest Trends

Steam is sort of like iTunes for video games. Once players buy a game, they can download and play it on any computer. Consequently, it is a major force in PC gaming.

A nice feature of serving gamers online is Steam’s ability to garner data from each player’s PC. Since most indy games and many educational games are introduced on the PC platform, statistics on the platform are welcome.

Head over to Steam’s Game Stats section for details on various top game achievements and content server data. Most interesting of all is the Steam Hardware Survey. Here we find such interesting nuggets as the majority of PC gamers in December 2009 were Windows XP 32 bit users, running at least 2 gigs of RAM on a motherboard with an Intel chip 2.3 gigs Mhz or higher in speed. More users had graphics cards made by Nvidia than ATI, and RealTek led the installed audio devices base. Other info on hard drive size, broadband speed, and available processing and graphics RAM might provide game makers valuable insight into typical user specs when developing products.

Astronomical Science Learning Through WJU’s Selene Videogame

I’ve had a pleasant e-mail conversation with Dr. Debbie Denise Reese over at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia concerning the Selene Project, a multi-million dollar NASA and National Science Foundation funded learning project designed to teach students lunar science through a remarkable videogame.

Dr. Reese is the senior educational researcher at the Center for Educational Technologies at WJU, which started CyGaMEs, or Cyberlearning through Game-based Metaphor Enhanced Learning Objects, in 2006. Selene is a CyGaMEs videogame seeking to instruct students through the construction of virtual moons, learning a number of science-based standards and a few things about making videogames along the way.

The amazing work on Selene includes ample classroom materials. It is clear education was the primary focus of the videogame, and federal standards as well as state standards for Texas and Illinois are included in the accompanying online materials. The STEM focus is strong, and data points collected from embedded assessments allow for promising research material to be expounded upon in future papers.

The main Selene site is here, the CyGaMEs site is here, and the Center for Educational Technologies site is here. A recent radio feature and news article from West Virginia Public Broadcasting on the Selene Project is here.

References
Brown, K. (2009, November 27). Videogame research at WJU brings lunar science to life. [Online.] Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=12175

Introducing Astropolis: The Video Game Suite Designed to Help Study Autism

Matthew Belmonte over at Cornell is leading a team that has designed a suite of video games specifically to study autism. The game suite, called Astropolis, has all the adventure and science fiction elements so popular with young boys. It was developed and research is ongoing thanks to funding in part by the National Science Foundation, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and Autism Speaks.

Aimed at children ages 10-15 diagnosed autistic, the games contain activities allowing researchers to test differing hypotheses within the framework of autism research. A past problem with autism research is that it often takes place strictly in lab environments, outside of natural settings for the subjects. Belmonte hopes these video games will provide immersive environments that will yield richer information than traditional lab settings.

Another benefit promoting natural environments: the games capture information while the subjects play that can be retrieved later. Thus, subjects can install the game suite on laptops taken home and played in familiar surroundings, and info can be retrieved when the laptops return to the lab.

Belmonte also uses EEG measurements in lab settings with the subjects, a technique popularized by Mark Klinger at U. Alabama. (MRI scans are also popular measurement techniques to use on video game players.)

So far, Dr. Belmonte has released two research abstracts at conferences of the International Society of Autism Research, here and here. No doubt journal published, peer reviewed research is forthcoming.

Read the press release from Cornell here for much more information. Check out the Autism Collaborative Wiki here for notes on development and other background information.

Finally, since the software was developed with public grants, it is freely available as a download at AutismCollaborative.org.

References:
Professor uses video games to explore facets of autism. (October 13, 2009). [Online.] Available: http://www.physorg.com/news174650438.html

CNNMoney on Retailing Educational Video Games

This blog got some nice publicity recently when CNNMoney posted an article offering advice to entrepreneurs on entering the educational video game market. Kathleen Ryan O’Connor interviewed me a while back on the industry, and I was quoted in her piece with a link to this blog. The article is loaded with good advice for the one person shop just starting out.

What Can We Learn from The Settlers of Catan?

I’ve been catching up with my paper copy of the April issue of Wired, and came across a great article by Andrew Curry on what is widely considered the world’s greatest board game: Die Siedler von Catan, or in English, The Settlers of Catan.

The story Curry weaves is fascinating. Germany is the world’s epicenter for boardgames, selling hundreds of thousands every year and drawing fierce competition for the annual Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year), the Pulitzer Prize of German boardgaming.

Master gamesmith Klaus Teuber spent four years perfecting Settlers, running beta versions past his family and tweaking the competitive elements. Released at the Essen Game Convention in 1995, it was an instant hit, and has gone on to sell over 15 million copies in 30 languages.

Derk Solko of Boardgamegeek.com and Jesper Juul both have nice quotes. Pete Fenlon of Mayfair Games, the company distributing English versions of Settlers, helps to fill in details regarding its popularity:

“When a lot of us saw it, we thought this was the definition of a great game … In every turn you’re engaged, and even better, you’re engaged in other people’s turns. There are lots of little victories—as opposed to defeats—and perpetual hope. Settlers is one of those perfect storms.”

A hint at the educational potential of the game could be found in a comment by Russ Roberts, an economist over at George Mason, who indicated Settlers was perfect for teaching the free market system to his children. Settling the game’s island requires the administration and trading of resources. Different resources become scarce or plentiful and require skills to manage and barter.

The next frontier the game has to conquer is the American marketplace, where traditional titles hold sway. Herr Tauber indicates the plan is to introduce video game versions for the Xbox and PC. The hope is this will provide the boardgame version of The Settlers of Catan a stronger foothold in the American marketplace (nearly a quarter million copies have sold in North America since last January).

German boardgames in general are showing impressive gains in popularity over here. Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games estimated his company sold a half million licensed copies of German games for American markets last year. Meanwhile, Herr Tauber has launched PlayCatan.com to introduce the game to audiences online.

References:
Curry, A. (2009, April). Monopoly killer: Perfect German board game redefines genre. Wired, 17(4). 60-72.

Study: Action Adventure Games Best for Online Education

In one of the more interesting studies to cross the transom lately, researchers indicated action adventure games are best for educational purposes thanks to their flexibility. A number of subjects can be presented in the genre, and a wide variety of educational activities can occur. The story lines in these games present multiple opportunities for teachable moments. Here is the abstract:

The use of educational games in learning environments is an increasingly relevant trend. The motivational and immersive traits of game-based learning have been deeply studied in the literature, but the systematic design and implementation of educational games remain an elusive topic. In this study some relevant requirements for the design of educational games in online education are analyzed, and a general game design method that includes adaptation and assessment features is proposed. Finally, a particular implementation of that design is described in light of its applicability to other implementations and environments.

The study was led by Pablo Moreno-Ger, over at U. Complutense de Madrid in Spain. Alas, the article is behind a pay-per-view firewall. ACM Portal has the abstract and references here. A nice write-up can be found at ScienceDaily here. Another paper by the Moreno-Ger team was published last month entitled Model Checking for Adventure Games.

References:
Moreno-Ger, P., Burgos, D., Martínez-Ortiz, I., Sierra, J. L., & Fernández-Manjón, B. (2008, September). Educational game design for online education. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(6). 2530-2540.

Update: Dr. Moreno-Ger pointed out in the comments the paper’s final draft is online at their university here.

Interactive Technologies At the T+L Conference

The folks over at the Educational Technology by IQity blog are at the T+L Conference in Seattle. They’re doing a bang-up job of reporting on presentations and workshops, which are leaning heavily on the interactive, high-tech approach.

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is presenting the conference. The folks at IQity noted the NSBA’s top 3 educational trends were: Online learning opportunities; Access to school related software and projects anywhere on the network tied with unlimited Internet access; and Online communication tools, notably global social networks. There has long been a convergence of social sites with gaming. Many social sites offer games which members can play together with friends. Meanwhile, many online games serve the same functions as social sites, allowing friends to play together while socializing. A lot of interest is percolating around the idea of harnessing social networks for education, as we saw recently with the development news of a MMORPG for SAT studies.

Another interesting post at the IQity blog centered on virtual science lab software from Toolworks. Virtualizing lab experiments has always been a good idea, and I was impressed by a presentation on Virtual Chemlab earlier this year at FETC. It’s heartening to see the concept produced by a variety of companies aiming at the whole of spectrum of age and grade groups.

You can keep up with all the great posts over at the IQity blog by checking in on their October archive here. I’ve also added them to the blog roll.

State of the Blog, October 2008: Ed Games from the 1980s Brings in New Visitors

10,000. That’s about the number of new visitors coming to this blog in a single day to read The Top 10 Most Influential Educational Games of the 1980s in the last part of September. It started when Simon Carless over at GameSetWatch linked to the article in a GameSetLinks post. Then GoNintendo listed the post as did LinkFilter. The most traffic came in after Maggie Greene at über-gaming site Kotaku mentioned it. Kotaku also garnered the most comments, four pages worth. Here’s a sampling:

where are the new Carmen Sandiego games?With the technology of today they could make an awsomely fun and educational game. With Blu ray you don’t have to just look at pictures , you can see video of the place and interact with the surroundings and have the cartoon overlays run around the city. It would be great! And all in High Def!

Several thousand more visitors came over once the post made the front page of Propeller.com. I even got 50 Diggs, a personal record. Many other sites picked up the story, including Aeropause and The Gadgets Page. And for a couple days, Educational Games Research made the top 100 Wordpress blogs. Briefly it was mentioned on the homepage of Wordpress.com, bringing in more visitors.

Several bloggers linked to the post, including Karl Kapp and Interesting Pile. Benny over at 4 color rebellion had some nice words for the list (“one of the best (if not THE best) gaming top 10 lists I’ve ever read”). Thorien at Epic Coalition had a flashback to his phone phreaking days. A commenter over at The Geek Show Podcast contributed some nice words:

Mavis taught me to type. Oregon Trail taught me to leave as early as possible and be as rich as possible. Math Blaster taught me that number punching means blowing cr*p up. I learned most of my American History, Geography, World History, and deductive skills through the chasing of that elusive Carmen Sandiego.

I really did like these educational games growing up. It’s really sad to see that there aren’t a lot of these kinds of games anymore.

phaesty over at Propeller.com had some additional nice comments:

Seeing the screen shots for NumberMunchers and the classic Oregon Trail just made me screech “OMG! I remember that!” in my office. I’d forgotten about NumberMunchers. Gosh, I loved those old educational games I used to pay in the MacLab at my elementary school. Nostalgia overload.

Lots of commenters injected some levity into the discussion. One over at Kotaku said:

It’s all fun and games until Carmen Sandiego munched some numbers and died from dysentery.

Another over at Propeller.com said:

The 5th grader in me always got a little bit of joy when the school bully died from Dysentery .

Feelings were mixed over the inclusion of Zork and Windows Solitaire. Some commenters felt one or the other should not have been included, while others expressed enthusiasm with the last two choices. Several games I failed to mention were brought up, as to be expected with any top 10 list. The best and those consistently clamored for, mainly M.U.L.E. and Rocky’s Boots, I added to an honorable mention category. Others were good educational games for their time, but never gained the popularity or influence of those in the top 10. A few were not worthy of consideration. For instance, Custer’s Revenge would fit better in The Top 5 Most Offensive Video Games, at least if anyone still played it.

Finally, errors and clarifications were caught by the multitude of readers, and thanks to the power of blogs I was able to quickly correct mistakes. Thus, the time I noted MECC stood for the Michigan Educational Computing Consortium instead of the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium was quickly noted, especially by residents of Minnesota. (In my defense, I’d recently watched the Wolverines play football, so the State of Michigan was on my mind.)

All told, it was a fun and exciting month for this little ol’ blogger. Who knew old educational games could garner so much attention?