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.

A Useless Interactive Whiteboard

The use of interactive whiteboards is gaining increasing acceptance in schools, despite high price tags often pushing them up above the $3,000 mark. One of the things pounded into our heads as technology trainers is that technology is only as good as the user. This is particularly important with expensive technology, as it can quickly become a wasted resource in the wrong hands. Several books have been written by ed tech critics decrying wasteful spending in schools, and such criticism can pose formidable challenges to raising support for additional funding.

Last night on the SNL election special, I watched a hilarious example of the misuse of high-end technology. Fred Armisen used an electoral map to accomplish absolutely nothing of significance. The larger point of the skit probably revolved around the pointlessness of political analysis by the media, but using high tech to accomplish nothing provided a beautiful example of how not to use interactive whiteboards in the classroom.

A couple of funny moments: zooming in on Ohio for a “closer look,” only to stare at the rooftop of a warehouse; taking a look at Oregon by moving it out in the ocean; moving Minnesota over Virginia (“Imagine the sheer weight of it”).

Interactive whiteboards are one of the next big things for classroom gaming. We’ve seen efforts at creating them on the cheap using simple laser pointers and the Wiimote. A commenter to that post pointed out a new classroom MMO called Edusim3D, which is an open-source virtual world students access through whiteboards.

Anyway, take a look at Armisen’s skit here. You have to fast forward through a couple minutes of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers to get to Armisen’s bit. This skit would be good to play in training to make the point that technology empowers teachers, but only if it is used well. By itself, technology (even interactive gaming technology) is worthless.

Study: Scientific Method Best Taught in Video Games

Tom Hanson is editor of the highly regarded OpenEducation.net. We talked earlier via e-mail about an excellent post he has on empirical research by Constance Steinkuehler over at U. Wisconsin and doc student Sean Duncan. The title of their paper sums up nicely Steinkuehler’s and Duncan’s research: Scientific Habits of Mind Within Virtual Worlds, accepted for publication in the Journal of Science Education and Technology and due to appear in the Spring issue. They looked at online discussion forums for World of Warcraft, long the most popular MMORPG, and found the vast majority of the posts consisted of “social knowledge construction” rather then “social banter.” About 2,000 posts in 85 threads were examined.

Over half of the posts evidenced systems based reasoning, one in ten evidenced model-based reasoning, and 65% displayed an evaluative epistemology in which
knowledge is treated as an open-ended process of evaluation and argument.

Steinkuehler and Duncan suggest that scientific habits of mind, developing proper skills of inquiry and increasing students’ scientific literacy, are not effectively developed in traditional school environments. On the other hand, virtual worlds and online games like World of Warcraft do engage students and encourage them to use the scientific method, or at least certain elements of it, along with teamwork and persistence to solve problems.

Hanson notes a recent interview in Wired between Dr. Steinkuehler and Clive Thompson, in which she describes her epiphany regarding the potential of MMORPGs for instilling scientific habits of mind. It occurred during 12 hour stints in Lineage, playing mostly with young boys scattered across the four corners. She and the boys would construct a theoretical model on defeating a raid boss, try it and see what worked; modify accordingly and try again. She realized she was witnessing the scientific method put to work within an online gaming environment, often without the participants realizing it. Thompson states it thusly:

This led Steinkuehler to a fascinating and provocative conclusion: Videogames are becoming the new hotbed of scientific thinking for kids today.

Click on over to Tom Hanson’s summary. I think you’ll find that his OpenEducation.net is well worth visiting.

Study: Most Kids Play Video Games (Some Even for Educational Purposes)

Amanda Lenhart checked in recently to talk about the latest report released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. She was the lead investigator for the report, entitled “Teens, Video Games, and Civics.” Already it’s garnering considerable media and internet attention. Slashdot’s headline: “Study Finds Video Games Are Not Bad for Kids.” The results stem from a national telephone survey of 1,102 youths, ages 11-17, and their parents/guardians, that wrapped up in February of this year.

Several interesting findings came out of the research, including one that seems obvious but now has hard data backing it up: almost all children in the US play video games. Lenhart’s team broke down the data by gender, genre, game title, console, and more, ferreting out many interesting items. Here is a paragraph on gender:

The stereotype that only boys play video games is far from true in 2008, as girls constitute a large (if not equal) percentage of total gamers: 99% of boys play games, as do 94% of girls. While almost all girls as well as almost all boys play video games, boys typically play games with greater frequency and duration than girls. Boys are significantly more likely to play games daily than girls, with 39% of boys reporting daily game play and 22% of girls reporting the same. Boys are also more likely than girls to play games on any given day (60% of boys did, compared with 39% of girls), and when boys do play, they’re playing for longer periods of time.

Lenhart said I’d be interested in the findings on school gaming software, and she was absolutely correct. I suspect this might spur additional academic investigation, as a host of potential research questions come to mind from the findings on school games. This paragraph details the breakdown of students reporting school educational game use:

One-third (34%) of American teens have played a computer or console game at school as part of a school assignment. Lower-income teens (41%) and teens from homes with lower overall education levels (41%) are more likely than their counterparts (29%) to have played a game for school. Black teens (46%) are more likely that white teens (32%) to have played a game at school for educational purposes. Younger teens are also more likely to have played a game at school than older teens: 40% of teens ages 12-14 have played a game at school as part of a school assignment, while 29% of teens ages 15-17 have done so.

From there, researchers asked the students which games they played at school. Interestingly, here the answers got fuzzier:

When asked what games they played in school, many teens said they could not quite remember or that they played “math games” or “typing games.” Thus, we are not able to report on the most commonly played games with a degree of precision, and it was clear that no one game or one kind of game predominated. The games mentioned by five or more teens were: Oregon Trail, Fun Brain, Lemonade Stand, and Roller Coaster Tycoon.

I found it interesting that half those heavily mentioned titles stem from series started in the 1980s, which I blogged about recently here. It reminds me of some research a friend of mine once worked on in a third world country, focusing on non-governmental organizations. People working for the NGOs thought they were doing great, while the locals often held different opinions when answering the same survey questions. I suspect teachers using video games in the classroom could answer specific questions about them better than their students, but this probably holds true for other pedagogical activities as well. What kid remembers the name of any particular intervention? Without casting aspersions on either students, teachers, or the educational video games played, it was an intriguing tidbit.

In summary, this is an important dataset and report on teen gaming that other researchers will want to mine for details. There is something of interest here to anyone focusing on video games. I also liked the attention Lenhart’s team gave to social interaction in gaming, a facet so often overlooked by non-players. The main page for the report is here.

References:
Lenhart, A., Kahne J., Middaugh, E., Macgill, A. R., Evans, C., & Vitak, J. (2008, September 16). Teens, video games, and civics. Pew Internet & American Life Project. [Online]. Available: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/263/report_display.asp

Introducing Grockit, the SAT Study MMORPG

Jason Kincaid over on TechCrunch recently wrote about Grockit, a startup developing a MMORPG designed to help students study for high stakes tests like the SAT and GMAT. Grockit was a winner in the recent TechCrunch 50, a fact reportedly adding a huge boost to visitors over at grockit.com. Those of a certain age, or at least well versed in classic science fiction lit, will recognize the name as deriving from Robert Heinlein’s term for fully understanding something.

Kincaid says students can work together to tackle questions, and the Grockit team responded to TC50 judge Robert Scoble’s questions about ease of play and time commitments with assurances that students could get in, study together, and get out easily. Teamwork in MMORPGs is one of its most powerful lures, and the idea of repurposing it for studying high stakes exams is an intriguing one. So far, Kincaid says Grockit has garnered about $10 million in seed funding.

State of the Blog, September 2008

It’s time for some navel gazing as we take a look at who is taking a look here. I could tell school was back in session when the numbers started spiking in September. Judy Wilson and librarian Katy French over at Palomar College in San Marcos, California added an old post of mine to a list of web sites for students to examine in a course on website evaluation. Learning Family Values While Killing Monsters was written back in November last year, and discussed an article by Robin Torres over at WowInsider.com. I suspect it was included over at Palomar College not just for my excellent writing (haha), but also for the fact I referenced the source material. The instructor indicates sourcing of materials lends credibility to a post.

Those opinion-meisters at Reddit posted a link to my post from late July regarding the new ESA survey indicating females comprise 40% of the gaming audience. Discussion so far has centered around whether females truly comprise 40% of the audience for advanced MMORPGs and not just casual games. Read the profanity-laced conversation here.

Lee Wilson and Nicola Whitton, both of whose opinions I respect, linked to my post on Seven Questions to Ask Before Using a Video Game In the Classroom. Both disagreed with Question 7: Are the graphics and gaming quality on par with contemporary entertainment titles? Both seemed to suggest the graphics in casual titles may not compare with the newest $60 games for home consoles, but were adequate in relaying pedagogical content. I suppose I should have elaborated and indicated I was concerned with really basic graphics that are even below casual game standards. Probably I was thinking of the research outcomes from the old AQUAMoose project at Georgia Tech, where programming a game from scratch (not the programming language Scratch, but literally from scratch) led to some disappointing feedback from the target audience.

To sum up, I’m still here and posting, and thanks for the feedback. The old goal of one post each weekday has been suffering of late, but I should manage to get something of interest up on a regular basis. As always, shoot me an e-mail if you’d like to call my attention to something.

The Art of Marriage Proposals Through Gaming

We Aggies know a thing or two about proposing to our beloved, especially if she is an Aggie too. (Alas, my wife is from Louisiana, where everybody professes loyalty to LSU, whether they attended that fine school or not.) There is one tree on the A&M campus in particular, the Century Tree, that has a tradition of serving as a pop-the-question spot for thousands of couples. Here’s a YouTube video of one such marriage proposal. (If a woman is lucky enough to be or snag a member of the Corps of Cadets, as in this video, she gets quite a bit of extra pomp and ceremony throughout the entire wedding process than the average Aggie these days. The Corps has dwindled from comprising the entire student body back in the day to a couple thousand or so students now.)

There have been many other creative proposals at TAMU over the years (probably mostly by guys who weren’t in the Corps (see parenthetical above)). During my graduation ceremony, for instance, an Aggie awaited his beloved to descend from the podium, her diploma in hand, before going down on one knee. The MC had been briefed ahead of time and paused in calling out names to wish them well, and everybody in the coliseum whooped and hollered for the couple.

Another story that comes to mind dates back to when a thriving hot air balloon business existed in College Station, and Kyle Field was left unlocked and accessible most of the time. The fellow had friends buy hundreds of paper plates, and had them spell out the Marry me? question on the bleachers so she could read it as they floated over in the balloon.

So, Aggies know a thing or two about proposing to their sweethearts. But there are lots of neat stories about guys finding creative ways to pop the question. I recall one fellow hiding the ring in a box of Cracker Jacks and setting up a picnic for his girlfriend on a cliff overlooking the ocean. After the couple finished off the meal, for desert he handed over the box, and waited nervously for her to open the “toy surprise.” She reared back her arm to toss the packet over the cliff, willing to carelessly toss away what was usually a cheap trinket. He went ballistic, grabbing her arm and yelling, “Wait!” She opened it, and was surprised, but it was a close call and he almost lost an expensive diamond engagement ring.

Guys dating women who like games seem to consistently hit upon the idea of sneaking marriage proposals into the game. Several men over the years have popped the question through crossword puzzles, convincing complicit editors to run rigged games. Here’s one example.

But finally, we have a real gaming geek story. This fellow re-programmed his girlfriend’s game so a ring and wedding cake appeared upon reaching a certain score. Bernie Peng ported over a copy of Bejeweled to the Nintendo DS, and gave it as a present to his girlfriend. There is no official version of Bejeweled for the DS, you see, so this was something special for her. Ordinarily such shenanigans might be frowned upon by corporate, but PopCap Games (owner of Bejeweled and other popular casual titles) turned it into a publicity event.

There have been marriages in virtual worlds, notably in Second Life and World of Warcraft. Somehow, cheating in marriage garners more publicity. But electronic marriage is old news, since any enhancement to communication leads inevitably to more social interaction. The book, The Victorian Internet, detailed a legal marriage performed at a distance via telegraph and Morse Code. But as video games continue to gain a stronghold in the public psyche, look for more social interactions like marriage, and social research, online.

Seven Questions to Ask Before Using a Video Game In the Classroom

Today is the first day of school for most public districts in Texas. With that in mind, I’d like to offer seven important questions teachers should ask before using any videogame in the classroom. This list is based in part on a paper I delivered to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), 2005 Convention.

1. Is the game’s cognitive load appropriate for your students? Many simple edutainment titles are aimed at younger audiences. Consequently, these titles are often inappropriate for older students, who will find them less of a challenge and potentially insulting to their intelligence. Conversely, modifications of such titles as those in the Neverwinter Nights series, or the Civilization series, might be beyond the abilities of younger audiences.
2. Is the game easily modifiable? Many educational games on the market offer no capabilities for modification, giving teachers a “what you see is what you get” approach. Some games might have a higher level of adaptability for classroom use. For instance, a foreign language teacher can run a copy of The Sims 2 on her classroom computer and simply change the operating language, offering an instant immersive language environment for her students. Ideally, however, a game can be easily modified by the teacher, so that he can insert whatever objectives are needed into the gaming environment. Such modifications are more difficult and time consuming but doable, as seen in several examples for the Neverwinter Nights engine and Second Life.
3. Does the game align with your standards (local, state, national)? Fortunately this question is increasingly being addressed by educational video game companies, as they realize that the purchasing of their titles in large quantities by schools largely hinges on this question. Look at the excellent job Tabula Digita is doing making sure their math games are aligned with state and national standards. Hopefully the company selling the product has already done the alignment for you, however your job as a teacher will be to make sure you know where the product lines up with the standards you are responsible for teaching. If nobody has done that previously, chance are good you will have to do it yourself if you need to justify using the game in your classroom to parents and administrators.
4. Can the game present useful outcomes within a short time period? Class periods are generally short. Time spent on any lesson is perforce brief. Many excellent video games with learning potential are hugely complex and take hours to complete. However, you have just minutes in your class to drive home a point or two. Therefore you will need to eschew games that take an inordinate amount of time to develop their pedagogical points. Also, setting up a game and getting students going takes additional time, whether in a lab, on laptops, or on classroom computers. Setup and shutdown times will decrease the available minutes students can spend on the game and its learning objectives.
5. Does the game train or teach? This is a critical difference classroom teachers need to fully understand. Most “serious games,” as they are commonly called, train players in something. This training may involve safety practices, industrial techniques, machinery operation, or a host of other skills. Academic games aligned to state standards will focus on testable outcomes and high stakes exams. Most teachers will not want to deviate from the standards they are required to teach, or at least have a ready explanation as to how the game is germane to their subject matter. For instance, a geometry teacher could certainly justify using a game that involves creating floor plans; a history teacher can find plenty of justification for the many Civilization mods out there; and a language arts teacher can justify the typing and reading involved in most any higher level game. Regardless, if a game actively seeks to teach academic content, its appropriateness for the classroom will naturally rise above a rival game designed more for work skill enhancement.
6. Does the game track player progress? Videogames that keep track of the progress your students make will lift that burden off your shoulders. Ideally the game will offer reporting functions on each student so you can easily track their progress, and perhaps suggest remedial actions or advanced activities if a student is behind or ahead of the norm.
7. Are the graphics and gaming quality on par with contemporary entertainment titles? It is certainly possible to buy educational games which fall far below the expectations of students used to higher quality offerings. Since studies show that nearly two-thirds of all households play videogames, it behooves us to use quality games in the classroom since our students will likely be used to high standards. It’s always good to pilot test any particular title with students you trust. If they like the game, it’s probably worth the investment to outfit a school computer lab or buy a site license. Dr. Brian Woodfield over at BYU noted how a teacher set up Virtual ChemLab on one machine in the back of her classroom, which eventually led to the school purchasing a site license. I do mini-studies with my own kids from time to time. Also, my paper on assessing higher order thinking in videogames might help pinpoint the pedagogical potential of games with which you are unfamiliar.

In conclusion, any classroom intervention is worth serious consideration beforehand. Hopefully, these seven questions will help steer you toward quality products. Educational videogames are strong tools for teaching in the classroom. Judicious selection of appropriate titles may result in many positive results.

References:
Rice, J. (2005). Evaluating the suitability of video games for k-12 instruction. Paper presented to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), 2005 International Convention, Orlando, FL.

Weight Watchers, the Video Game

Here’s an interesting article from Clive Thompson over at Wired comparing Weight Watchers Online to MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. There are many similarities, Thompson notes, including leveling and rewards. He’s got a great point. I noticed the same thing about my kids’ tae kwon do classes. Of course the idea of designing work teams modeled after WoW guilds is not new, either. Here’s a closer look at the idea of “Corporate Warcraft.”

Beck and Wade pointed out, and are echoed by people like Karl Kapp, that young workers often approach work in a gaming framing of mind. Work objectives become “quests,” paychecks bring in “gold,” promotions equate to “leveling up,” and their bosses either become “guild leaders,” or “dungeon bosses,” depending on whether they help or hinder the employees (“players”) in attaining their quests.

So the idea of making other life goals into games, such as placing diet and fitness within a MMORPG framework, makes good sense. I agree with Thompson. Weight Watchers has something going there.

Study: World of Warcraft Eases Stress

Alas, this research isn’t published yet, but it was presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in April. Jane Barnett over at Middlesex University spearheaded the effort. Here is a paragraph from a write up in Edge:

The psychologists studied 292 male and female online gamers playing World of Warcraft. They found that overall the gamers, aged between 12 and 83, were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing, although there were differences depending on sex, age and personality.

So far, the findings seem to be interpreted by the press as making a generalizing statement that feelings of relaxation tend to be experienced by violent videogame players. However, it appears this is foundational research in an effort to come up with a predictive instrument to measure proclivities toward real world violence among players. Barnett indicated the findings will help her team develop a more nuanced questionnaire for future efforts in an attempt to ferret out which players may exhibit a tendency to transfer virtual aggression to the real world.

References:
Study: Violent games relax players. (2008, April 2). [Online]. Available: http://www.edge-online.com/news/study-violent-games-relax-players