The Promise of Dragons – Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction.

The Promise of Dragons – Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

Presentation Goals

• Discuss a common instructional challenge and explore a hypothesis for meeting this challenge

• Contextualize games in learning theory• Discuss link between memory, motivation, and

emotion• Deconstruct a sample game• Review my mini “study”• Create a strategy for creating and leveraging

gamesTotherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

The Challenge

How to teach (and motivate) when appeal to reason fails.

Hypothesis: games have the potential to teach and change behavior where traditional teaching methods sometimes struggle.

Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEMbWn6ClxM&feature=youtu.be&t=2m8s

A Theoretical Backdrop

• Games can…– Act as or support the

“More Knowledgeable Other”– Construct “scaffolding” in the

“Zone of Proximal Development”

Lev Vygotsky


Application to Games

Structured Activity

(Game as MKO)

Social discovery of successful

tactics (construct

scaffolding)

Debrief and Reflect

(reinforce scaffolding)

Transition (apply

scaffolding)

ZPD


The Importance of Emotional Connection

Dr. Art KohnPhD in cognitive psychology



What makes a game a game?

What is the difference between an activity and a game?



Timer

CompetitionScore

Tension!


Summary: The Power of Games

• Provide emotional context, enhancing the opportunity for memory encoding

• Act as the More Knowledgeable Other or as a support for the MKO

• Create meaningful scaffolding within the Zone of Proximal Development


Example: Clash of Clans

• Construct a village• Create an army• Upgrade your

defenses• Upgrade your army• Invest in resources


This is me, showing off…

Gold mine

Elixir extractor

Dark elixir drill

Army

Resource storage

Defenses


Developing Resources

TroopsDefense


When things go well…

• Approach: balanced and patient

• Long-range planning• Clear success and broader

opportunity!


When things go… poorly…

• Approach: immediate gratification

• Lack of balance and patience

• Limited opportunity


My “Test Subject”

This screen will contain a video example of the application of these techniques. The video will be available in the live session.


Adam’s Village Then…


Adam’s Village Now!


Debriefing the Interview

• Adam has been playing for 10 months.• Adam prioritizes his choices based on long and short-term

success.• Adam is “proud” of his village• Adam engages in socialization in playing and learning the

game.• Adam is beginning to articulate basic concepts, such as ROI

and investment.• Adam’s favorite troop: the dragon (he’s named his first dragon

“Sparky”)


Strategy

• Construct scaffolding with appropriate game elements, within the student’s zone of proximal development

• Play the game and instill basic behaviors

• Debrief positive and negative results

• Transition from scaffolding to target subject matter

• Continue to draw parallels to game

Buy Now

Save

High School

Diploma

College Degree


Building a Game Engine

• Consider your Target Behaviors• Leverage Common Game Elements

– Time– Points– Level Up– Achievements/Badges– Chance– Costs

• Create an experience which encourages your target behaviors without an explicit conceptual overlay.


Discuss!

• Thoughts?• Ideas?• Questions?• Concerns?• Played any good games lately?


Thank you for your attendance and contributions!


©2013, Federal Reserve Bank of St. LouisThe opinions expressed in this presentation are the speaker’s views, are intended only for information purposes, and are not formal opinions of, nor binding on, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems. Joe [email protected]

The Promise of Dragons – Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction.

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Transcript of The Promise of Dragons – Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction.