Educational games: Where are we going?

PhD Simon Egenfeldt-NielsenCEO Serious Games Interactive

23. May2008, Copenhagen

“…develop games which contain advanced content, operate according to sound pedagogical principles, enable classroom customisation, and create real excitement within the core game market”

- Henry Jenkins

Background and team

SGI was founded in 2006 in Copenhagen, Denmark

The company focuses on developing serious games for educational institutions

We develop high-quality games that contain an inseparable combination of “playing”, “learning” and “story-telling”.

This is done by a unique cross-disciplinary team with strong roots in research

SGI has been steadily growing and employs 10 people today (CEO, Commercial Director, Producer, Game Director, Lead Programmer, Programmer, Lead 3D animator, 3D artist, Character artist, Tester)

Our company

Background and team

Commercial titlesGlobal Conflicts: Palestine (complete)Global Conflicts: Latin America (concept)

Client projectsBolivia Brænder (complete)Mayas Eventyr (complete)Darwin (Prototype)

Our company

Board & ManagementOur company

Management group• CEO - Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen (PhD, Psychology)• Commercial Director - Mikkel Lucas Overby (PhD, Strategy & Economics)• Game Director - Nick Price (M.Sc. Information Technology)

Board• Chairman - Claus Due (Microsoft, previously EA)• Member - David Helgason (partner and CEO Unity Technologies)• Member - Michael Stadi (partner Precunia, previously Danske Bank)

Team

CEOCommercial directorKey account managerGame DirectorLead ProgrammerProgrammerLead 3D animator3D artist environment & props3D Character artistInternal testers

Our company

Team track record• Seed, RuneStone Game Development (2006)• Hitman 4: Blood Money, IO Interactive (2005)

Technology

We have a source code license for UNITY.

UNITY is specifically designed for speeding up development and catering to casual games developers.

We can develop games for Pc, Mac, Wii and Iphone by using Unity.

We have developed our own template on top of Unity for the last 2 years. The template saves tremendous amounts of work.

Our company

Technology

We have over time expanded our template so it includes (third iteration):• Path-finding & obstacle avoidance • Conversation system • Agent architecture (agent behaviour & camera controls • Extended editor (timeline for scripted behaviour, intro sequence & cut scenes)• Advanced animation controls (simple procedural speech & emotions)• Advanced GUI controls • Localization tools • Profile & save system• Key generator system

Our company

Technology

We use Wiki & FogBugz for tracking features & bugs & communication

Omniplan for project management

Work with Mayas, Zbrush & Photoshop for graphics

Use assets server from Unity for version control & assets

Our company

History of learning games...Educational Games

Educational media and computer-assisted-instruction shape edutainment.Simulations lives in its own niche.

The Oregon Trail (1973)Where in the world is Carmen San Diego (1985)Hidden Agenda (1987)Mathblaster (1985)Crystal Rain Forrest (1992)

Innovative titles lies some time back.

Current educational games

•Making History: The Calm & The Storm (WW2)•Global Conflicts: Palestine (Middle east conflict)•Food Force (World hunger & crisis)

Educational Games

There is a real need for titles with potential.

Making History Food Force Global Conflicts: Palestine

Trailer Latin

This is not about edutainmentLittle intrinsic motivation: Extrinsic motivation through rewards, rather than intrinsic motivation.

No integrated learning experience: Lacks integration of the learning experience with playing experience - learning subordinated play experience.

Drill-and-practice learning principles: Rely on drill-and-practice rather than understanding – training above learning.

No teacher presence: No demands on teachers or parents.

Simple gameplay: Built on a simple gameplay from classic titles.

Small budgets: Produced on limited budgets with limited technology.

Educational Games

Edutainment has problems

Most of what goes under the name "edutainment" reminds me of George Bernard Shaw's response to a famous beauty who speculated on the marvelous child they could have together: "With your brains and my looks ..." He retorted, "But what if the child had my looks and your brains?"

(Papert, 1998: 88)

Educational Games

Same topic different kind of game

French revolution

Quiz show: The player must get all the answers right and compete with other students.

Treasure hunt: The player must explore different web-sites and sources in competition with students to answer the most questions.

Virtual explorer: The player explores a virtual universe with different sources, people and methods for solving different missions by understanding what going on.

Edutainment

Next-gen(Serious Games)

Educational Games

What are we talking about...

”Educational games are fundamentally different than the prevalent instructional paradigm. They are based on challenge, reward, learning through doing and guided discovery, in contrast to ”tell and test” methods of traditional instruction.”

-Report of the Federation of American Scientiest, ”Educational Games 2006”

Educational Games

Our design philosophyEducational Games

•Innovative gameplay•Feels & plays like a game •Integrated game and learning experience•Meaningful & relevant learning experiences•Games part of larger learning context

”I learned more history from this game in one day than I have learned from the teaching the last 6 months”

Oliver Hansen, Student, 16 years

Primary target group

Subjects:

What is the product

Danish 8th graders using the game early 2006.

Global Conflicts: Palestine target students of 13-19 years

Primary: Citizensship & History Secondary: Media, religion, ethics,

geography & communication

(Small TV2 movie)

Seconday target groupWhat is the product

Serious gamers taking on the challenge.

Global Conflicts: Palestine target mature people with an

interest and engagement in current issues

• Watch documentaries & debate programs• Consider themselves knowledgable• Often females above 30 years• Have an above average education• Have an above average income• Use IT but not necessarily gamers

f

Welcome to the reality

Material from Global Conflicts: Palestine online learning resource.

Welcome to Global Conflicts: Palestine

In-game shots from the game Global Conflicts: Palestine

Checkpoint!

Feel and understand the tense atmosphere and problems of the conflict of Palestine

Students explore and learn from detailed and scary environment - they see the inside of the conflict

Trailer Palestine

Freelance journalist

Get the best article

Find informants

Gain their trust

Get their story

Dig out best quotes

Put together article

Highest journalist level

GameplayWhat is Global Conflicts: Palestine

You

Goal

Means

Winning

Teaching form

Teacher talks

Play Game

PlenumGroup

discussions

Read topic overview Overview of theme

Teacher’s manual Topics overview Curriculum mapping

Explore perspectives Experience issues Mission sheets

Discuss experiences Write article Worksheets Online companion

Debriefing Evaluation

What is the product

http://learning.seriousgames.dk/

Educational layers

Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Content): Experience everyday life in the conflict through real personal accounts on the conflic’ts core issues.

Human rights, terrorism & media’s role (Themes): In the game there will be regular references to human rights, terrorism, and the media.

Source criticism & writing article (Skills/Methods): Students have to be aware of the right angle, the agenda of sources, and article writing.

Perspective-taking, critical thinking & bias awareness (Competences): A variety of perspectives on the same events and issues, which force students to shift between perspectives while thinking critically of bias.

Empirical study

Blended learning experience

Experiential: The games provides a virtual tour to the

conflict with concrete experiences that provide a strong

starting point for learning about the topic. Learning styles: Dynamic feedback, interaction that

makes a difference, multimodal encoding, mistakes are

safe to make & you are presented with challneges.

What is Global Conflicts: Palestine

Different rooms for learning styles

Group work

Reflectiveobservation

Activeexperimentation

GC: Palestine

Lecture Abstractconcepts

Concreteexperiences

•Kolb’s cycle covered with different teaching forms in the course.

• The teacher is crucial to facilitate a full learning experience.

Empirical study

Qualitative feedback

“Global Conflicts: Palestine is a fun and different way to receive learning” (Female student, 18 years)

“You had a greater desire to learn about the topic from Global Conflicts: Palestine” (Male student, 16 years)

”You learn a lot about how Israelis and Palestinians respectively look at the conflict, because you talk to

different persons... I think it is good that the stories derive from reality, providing the stories with a realistic tone.”

(Female student, 18 years)

Empirical study

Students want more...Empirical study

90% students find it to be an interesting course

88% students find it to be an interesting educational material

59 % students find they learned more

90% students wants to try a similar course again

Sample: 51 Danish High school low-middle class students after a one-week course (similar results for 8th graders).

Release September 2008

OverviewWhat is Global Conflicts: Latin America

Framework from GC: P. Same didactic approach & support material.

Target group: Students aged 13-19 years

Subjects: Citizenship, geography, media, language & ethics

Languages: English, Spanish & Danish (planned).

Themes: Unstable democracies, border trouble, pollution, exploitation, ethnic differences, debt slavery, developing countries & immigration

Freelance journalist

Get the best final interview for your article

1. Find informants

2. Select strong line of inquiry

3. Get good statements

4. Build arguments

5. Use arguments to get expose interview

Most revealing story

Gameplay

You

Goal

Means

Winning

What is Global Conflicts: Latin America

ImprovementsWhat is Global Conflicts: Latin America

• More engaging game play

• Expanded save-system

• Browser-based for optimal online & network use

• Window-mode for shifting between game & other applications

• Better graphics & interface

• Less travel time & better navigation

• Easier for teachers to track student progress & facilitate debriefing

• Even better performance low-end hardware

“Explore the forgotten continent of Latin America with all its rotten politics, economy & violence.”

Contact details

Follow our progress & buy our games Company: www.seriousgames.dkGame: www.globalconflicts.eu

E-mail: info@seriousgames.dk