Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Funds Wii-hab Research

Susan Jenks at Florida Today reports the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $2 million in research grants to 12 teams in order to study the benefits of videogames for health.

At the University of Central Florida, for example, researchers will receive $200,000 over the next two years to develop a role-playing game for individuals diagnosed with alcohol abuse or dependence to allow them to practice skills in a virtual setting that might help prevent real-world relapses … University of Florida researchers in the College of Public Health and Health Professionals will test the impact of Sony Playstation2 game “Crazy Taxi” on the visual attention skills of the elderly, using a $100,000 grant.

Researchers mentioned in the article include Patricia Belchoir, a postdoc at UF; psychiatrist Marcia Verduin affiliated with UCF; and Clint Bowers, a psychology professor at UCF.

References:
Jenks, S. (2008, July 2). Video games used as therapy. Florida Today. [Online]. Retrieved July 2, 2008 from http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080702/BUSINESS/807020316/1006/news01

Academic Achievement Through Game Development

I’m on THE Journal’s mailing list, and I noticed a new article today on videogame development for educational purposes. I decided to check it out later and perhaps post about it. Imagine my curiosity when I saw hits coming into this blog from the very same article. It turns out authors Richard Ferdig and Jeff Boyer over at U. Florida listed this blog as a resource in the article.

Dr. Ferdig published a paper of mine in a special edition of the Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia on educational videogames, which he edited. I’m honored that the authors included this blog in their article for THE Journal.

The article, entitled, “Getting Started with Videogame Development,” continues a series the duo started last week. Previously they wrote an article addressing the question of academic achievement through developing videogames. That article, entitled “Can Game Development Impact Academic Achievement?” offers an introduction to theory underlying the notion of using videogame development as a learning tool, and examines some of the research behind the idea.

It’s important to make a distinction between playing a game, which is what most people think of when discussing educational gaming, versus leading students in designing and developing videogames. Developing a videogame is a whole other apple cart, requiring programming skills, logical thinking, and a big dollop of creativity. Fortunately, a variety of tools are available that allow an easy entry point to game development. Like so many other things, while the entry points may be easy, students must still work to produce quality products, and here is where good teaching can flesh out useful pedagogical chunks.

Today’s article continues the series, and the authors point out a variety of tools available that allow teachers to take videogame pedagogy into the classroom. These include such things as Scratch from MIT, Gamemaker from YoYo Games, and RPG Maker XP. They also note that Microsoft has released the XNA Developer Center, offering tools to individuals for creating games that play on the Xbox.

The authors conclude by throwing out a ton of highly useful links for teachers interested in game development as a pedagogical tool. Journals, sites, and software suggestions round out the list of resources. THE Journal has always been one of the highest read and highest quality practitioner periodicals out there, and this article adds to a long history of useful columns.

References
Ferdig, R. E., & Boyer, J. (2007, November 1). Getting started with videogame development. T.H.E. Journal. [Online]. Available: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21510

Ferdig, R. E., & Boyer, J. (2007, October 25). Can game development impact academic achievement? T.H.E. Journal. [Online]. Available: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21483