Making Educational Games That Add Up

AnnMaria De Mars, Ph.D. 7 Generation Games

It happened in a moment of weakness …

Hey! Let’s apply for this award to go to Washington, D.C. and analyze the National Indian Education Study

Grade 8 Math Scores by Mother’s Education

Used multiple regression analysis

Culture score was significant but NOTE !! – it is coded so that lower scores mean less cultural activities, .e.g. “Do you speak your language at home?” 1= Yes 2 =No

Mother’s education was significant

School climate was significant

Student absenteeism was significant

Not willing to choose between culture and academic achievementWe submitted a proposal to USDA to develop a computer game to teach language, culture and mathematics

Questions to answer

What makes a game “educational” ?

What makes something a game ?

How do you select the right game for your students?

How do you know

Level of mathematics (or any subject) where a student should begin?

If students learned something?

If your game was the cause?

Problem

Bad Math Bad Game

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Is he really learning?

What you don’t know about educational games can hurt you

Educational game design

Common Core aligned

Research-based Scaffolding Individualized instruction

Data Driven Test Track

Educational game effect

High degree of time on task

Shows improvement from pretest to posttestEven better if the

improvement is higher than the control group

IS IT REALLY COMMON CORE ALIGNED ?

Why Common Core?

What students are learning in a game is the same as what they are learning in the classroom,

Game strengthens and supplements the work of teachers.

Focus on student needs

Common Core Helps

What math standards describe what your students need to learn next? “Understand a fraction as 1/b when a

whole is divided into b parts” “Add fractions with like denominators”

The Goldilocks Effect :

For both mathematics and gaming, the best level of difficulty is just right, not too hard so as to be frustrated and not so easy as to be bored.

You have been warned

Grade level is far less obvious than it seems

How we do it

Start with the state standards

Write math challenge, instructional activities and assessment

STANDARD

Express whole numbers as fractions, and recognize fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers. Examples: Express 3 in the form 3 = 3/1; recognize that 6/1 = 6

What fraction of the cart is full when you have 6 baskets?

For an explanation of how to solve this problem, click the EXPLAIN IT button below

What’s this doing here?

Effective teachers

“Just-in-time” individualized feedback.

 Zone of Proximal Development

Scaffolding

Three ways to solve the problemWhen you add one basket to the cart, the fraction you have filled is

Ensure help is available when needed

Feedback is timely, specific and learner-controlled

Highly effective teachers of disadvantaged

students…

teach specific procedures and factsin hands-on or “real-life” activities

Game Example

Build a model movie: Teaches concept

Good education

Game Example

Build a model movie: Teaches concept

Good for LEP because language is Repeated In context Visual cues

Software can be

Bad education and a bad game

Good education but a bad game

Good game but bad education

Good game and good education for some students

Bad EducationBad game

Contrast this game …

Problems

Non-verbal doesn’t teach math terms, or any language

It’s unclear who is winning or even which player you are (bad game)

Not so good

Feedback is not specific

Good education

Common core aligned

Direct instruction of English

Good graphics

Good for learning English

Not much of a game

Explanation is both written AND spoken

Good game ?: Example 2

Good points

Common Core aligned with mathematics

Good sound

Good graphics

Game testers were engaged

Data Driven

Multi-method

Continuous quantitative data collection Duration, frequency, interval of sessions Item-level performance data

Multi-method

Qualitative data Observation Interviews

No number of interns = actual children

Did you think, “Hey, I’d like to ride on that deer?

Good games

“Achievement principle ... there are intrinsic rewards from the beginning, customized to each learner’s level, effort and growing mastery and signaling the learner’s ongoing achievements.”

In other words, our second game was …

Game was too hard to play and students “died” so often they did not get to many math problems

“Too many damn snakes!”

Good games

“Learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered.”

“If you have 8 people sick and you need 3 herbs for each person to make medicine, how many do you need?”

Why do the same students who give up when math is too hard play games where every level gets more difficult?

What I learned from a fourth-grader

“I don’t pay attention in math.”

Let the education stand on its own

We couldn’t disagree more!

AND …..

CHARACTERS STORY

What I really learned

Adding the juice

Music

Sound effects

Fail in interesting ways

Easter eggs

Lots and lots of Easter eggs

EDUCATIONAL Easter eggs

Trip on a rock and a video clip plays with the legend of Standing Rock

How can a game keep being new?

2-D to 3-D and back again

First person to third person

Location

Time period

Characters

Games within games

We are experiencing technical difficultiesHardware and software requirements

How individuality ruins my life …

If everyone was the same, it would just be SO much easier

Problems we run into

1. Wrong hardware – only runs on Mac, Windows, iPad, Android

2. Wrong software – won’t run on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Mac OS X Lion etc.

If you already know this next point, feel free to sleep

You have been warned ..

There are a lot of older computers out there

Windows XP is 12 years old and 13% of U.S. computers still run it

About 20% of Macs run Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6), which is five years old

Students are more likely to have older operating systems

What gaming companies know ….

Children are more likely to have older computers because they often get mom’s or dad’s old one

No, there is NOT an app for that

Because of the processing power required, iPad and other tablet games tend to be simpler – in graphics, in design

Problems we run into

3. Requires Internet connection that is blocked by school security

4. Requires faster Internet connection than is available

Security requirements vary

NEVER plan a lesson using a game you haven’t tested in that school

Test in the school before you plan to use in your classroom

Have a back-up plan

Sum up

Educational Research

+ Data

+ Game design

+ Technology

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