Learning with Games: Making Learning Irresistible

Cathie Howe

Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre

What should learning look like?

What should learning look like?

• higher levels of thinking

• creative /critical /divergent thinking

• open-endedness

• group interaction

• variable pacing

• variety of learning

• debriefing

• freedom of choice

• real problems

• real audiences

• real deadlines

• transformations (rather than regurgitation)

• Appropriate evaluation

• abstractness

• complexity (inter relationships)

• variety

• study of people

• study of methods of inquiry

• Student centred

• Independence valued

• Agile

• open & accepting

• complex (rich variety of resources, media, ideas, methods, tasks)

• Physical/virtual Learning Environ-

ment Where

students learn

Content What students

learn

Process Thinking

processes used to learn

Product Result of learning

Maker Model

Imagine

Imagine having our students being so engaged

in a complex, goal orientated activity, that self-

consciousness disappears and time becomes

distorted and they do it, not for external rewards

but simply for the exhilaration of doing!

Video Game Facts

In Australia:

• 92% households have a gaming device

• 95% homes with children < 18 have a

gaming device

• 47% of gamers are female

• Average age of video game players is 32

• 57% of gamers play every day

• 88% of parents who play games, play with

their children

Key Findings DA12

Bond University/iGEA

Chris Swain, Associate Research Professor

Video games are

increasingly

recognised as

becoming the

literacy of the 21st

Century

Positive Emotions

Relationships

Meaning

Accomplishment

P.E.R.M.A

What players attain through video games?

Dr. Martin Seligman

What do we learn when we play, design and build games?

Problem solving skills

& negotiation

Judgement, analysis & strategic thinking

Communic-ation skills & networking

Narrative skills &

transmedia navigation

Non – linear thinking patterns

Improved attention, vision &

cognition

Games and Learning

• Game Based Learning:

- Applying the core

mechanics of games to

other contexts

- Using games as a stimulus to

frame learning activities

• Game Design

Games and Learning

What if schools implement a learning model that

uses the intrinsic qualities of game design and play,

to reimagine what learning might look?

Would we harness greater human potential in creativity, participation and effort?

Reimagining learning through games?

Core principles of how games work that can transform learning. They:

1. Create a need to know organising learning around solving complex

problems set in engaging contexts.

2. Offer a space of possibility through the design of rules for learners to

tinker, explore, hypothesise and test assumptions.

3. Build opportunities for authority and expertise to be shared and

distributed, i.e. learning is reciprocal among learners, mentors and

teachers.

4. Support multiple overlapping pathways towards mastery

Professor Katie Salen

Do games have the power to solve the world’s problems?

active, self-directed, goal orientated, authentic, interest driven, just-in-time

What if we immersed

our students in

designing games to

tackle the world’s most

urgent problems?

What would learning

look like?

Photo by xJason.Rogersx’s

Do Games have the Power to Solve the World’s Problems?

Foldit Solve puzzles for science through folding proteins

Foldit gamers solve AIDS puzzle that baffled scientists for a decade. http://techland.time.com/2011/09/19/foldit-gamers-

solve-aids-puzzle-that-baffled-scientists-for-decade/

Game Design Curriculum and QTF Links

English

Science & technology

PDHPE

Metalanguage

Student direction

Explicit quality criteria

Reviewing games

English

Science & technology

Maths

PDHPE

Deep understanding

Higher order thinking

Metalanguage

Substantive communication

Engagement

Student self-regulation

Student direction

Social Support

Knowledge integration

Connectedness

Building games

English

Science $ Technology

Maths

PDHPE

Deep Understanding

Higher order thinking

Substantive communication

Metalanguage

Engagement

Student direction

Background knowledge

Knowledge integration

Designing games

English

Science & technology

Deep understanding

Engagement

Higher order thinking

Metalanguage

Deconstructing games

English

Metalanguage

Student direction

Crafting a backstory

Pedagogical Implications: Inquiry Learning

Students:

• Pose own questions

• Explore answers

• Solve problems

• Jointly construct and

share knowledge

• Collaborate e.g. design

Inquiry learning allows students

the opportunity to develop

creative solutions to open

ended challenges, problems

and questions.

A model of delivery: Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning (PBL) as a teaching and learning model:

• creates the need to know critical content

• based on authentic learning activities • starts with a driving question, problem or challenge - key to

arousing curiosity • engages and empowers students

• work autonomously (usually in

groups)

• construct their own learning, • culminates in realistic, student

created products

Game Based Learning example: MacICT’s Games and Learning with Little Space Heroes

http://web2.macquarieict.schools.nsw.edu.au/blog/2012/03/17/games-and-learning-with-little-space-heroes/

“What will it take to move classroom literacy practices

and instruction into the 21st century?

It will take teachers who are skilled, excited, passionate about the effective use

of ICT or teaching and learning.

It will take a curriculum that integrates new, exciting literacies and instruction.

It will take courageous and bold initiatives that include yet unimagined

information and communication technologies

and these will result in the development of unimagined new literacies.”

Associate Professor Kaye Lowe

Game Design example: MacICT’s Level Up! Good Game Design

Bootcamp and Masterclass

Learning how to use technology is not enough; the heart of 21st century learning

is about becoming a proficient and independent lifelong learner.

Game design offers a unique platform to address essential skills for learning:

• creativity and innovation

• critical thinking,

• iterative problem solving

• communication, collaboration

• information, media and ICT literacy

Shift thinking from that of

a player to a designer.

Boot Camp and Masterclass information

Applying Game Mechanics to teach Game Design:

Invasion of the Shadow Plague

A narrative based metagame centred in a Wordpress blog teaching

students to design and build using Microsoft Kodu Game Lab

WILL YOU SAVE US?

Example: Google Maps + Edmodo = Game

Learning through Design

GeoQuest with Google Maps

• How do you like to learn?

• Decide on learning outcomes of GeoQuest (clear goal)

• Edmodo group code, create badge

• Create backstory

• Design challenges – answer gives one part of Edmodo group code

Divide Map

Work in pairs

• Build Map

― One Gmail account

MyMaps in Google Maps

Export (KML)

Import into one map

Summary: What learning should look like?

• Active

• Self-directed

• Goal orientated

• Authentic

• Interest driven

• Just-in-time

• be interactive

• provide ongoing feedback

• grab and sustain attention

Summary: What should learning environments look like?

• have appropriate and adaptive levels of challenge

• Multiple pathways to success

• be agile

Contact Details

catherine.howe@det.nsw.edu.au

http://au.linkedin.com/pub/cathie_howe/12/852/760

@cathie_h

Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre. Building C5B Macquarie University

macictsupport@det.nsw.edu.au 02 9850 4310

Twitter: @macict