Learning-by-Teaching in Educational Games (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: Learning-by-Teaching in Educational Games.

Abstract: This paper summarizes pedagogical design, product design and empirical evaluations of Learning Critters game series in terms of design study. The design phases as well as evaluation phases (N=2718) are done between years 2005 and 2007. The pedagogical idea of the Learning Critters is to put a learner into a role of a teacher in the virtual world. The evaluation phase showed that the main strengths of the learning-by-teaching types of games are good learning outcome and increased motivation towards information seeking.

This research project has relevance to teachable agents (TAs). Two groups of learners in Finland, one group made up of 6-year-olds and the other 12-year-olds, played a learning-by-teaching game called Animal Class. The former played a geometry game while the latter a mathematical game. The paper makes reference to TAs, including Betty’s Brain, but differentiates Animal Class as software better suited to a younger audience.

Twelve year old learners have to teach a bird about geography; as the bird learns its brain grows. Learners like competition so an online game feature was developed to pit two birds against each other. The bird that has been taught most correctly wins the game. Children aged 6-12 successfully played and enjoyed the game.

Learners played at school, but could continue to play afterwards if they had a PC and internet connection. Between 60-70% of learners carried on playing after hours. The authors observed that the children liked to discuss their actions with each other and so built a social networking feature into the game.

Pros of the learning-by-teaching approach:

More than half of the players demonstrated a positive learning outcome, due to meaningful activities that increased learning motivation
This motivation is attributed to the freedom to try, evaluate (reflectively) and try again — in other words, learning by doing

Cons of this approach:

Not all learners like games
A particular game might not be best suited to an individual’s optimal learning style

To note: The presence of friends, teachers and parents is important. The discussions about the game were extremely valuable in guiding the learnings of the learners. In fact, without this guidance there is a risk that players will actually learn the wrong information while playing educational games.

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Authors: Harri Ketamo, Tampere University of Technology, Finland; Marko Suominen, Tampere University of Technology, Finland

Designing Game Based Learning – a Participatory Approach (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: Designing Game Based Learning – a Participatory Approach.

Abstract: Game Based Learning seems to be an interesting new possibility of teaching and learning, but the effort spent on designing games and the possible positive outcomes have to be weighed carefully. The following paper describes the development process and the conceptual design of a simulation game on sustainability for teenagers. The design process is participatory in nature. Members of the future group of learners are involved in the design process at every stage. This involvement is especially important to overcome the contradiction between the goal of the game as such and the pedagogical goal of the designers.

Playing games is a natural form of learning. Advantages of games include motivation, interactivity (constructivist approach) and cooperation (MMOGs). In the digital game-based learning environment there are two problems that the authors wanted to try to address:

Problem 1: Contradiction between playing the game (making lots of money but not in a sustainable living way) and learning (making choices that demonstrate an understanding of sustainable living choices).
Problem 2: There can be too much interactivity with a game and not enough reflection. Thus is there a need for accompanying lectures/discussions — yes/no?

There is simply not enough research in this area.

Game that the researchers developed: Suli (Sustainable Living)

Target audience: students in secondary schools in Austria
Topic: sustainable living
Goal: raise awareness about sustainable product design
Method: game-based learning to motivate the learners to reflect about sustainability
Simulation: avatars as well as top-view of world with islands (each player gets an island)
8 rounds to play over 10 days

Participative design:

Students of a Viennese school helped design the game
Questionnaire given to students to define consumer behaviour
Core groups used in the three iterative development phases

Open questions:

In Suli, different strategies are possible: either earning money or supporting sustainable living. Earning money is more attractive to teens.
Accompanying lectures: Focus group with the teens after playing the game proved very valuable for the teens. They reflected and understood the complexities of sustainable living.

Initial results:

Methods used: focus groups, diaries, chat, questionnaire, log file analysis
Focus groups: students did understand that you cannot follow a dominantly economic and ecological approach simultaneously
Some students tried to cooperate to increase their success (buying each others products)
From the diaries it was clear that the students tried out different strategies to playing the game

Conclusion: The simulation approach is very positive for raising awareness, but the challenges above need to be addressed.

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Authors: Margit Pohl, Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Austria; Markus Rester, Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Austria; Peter Judmaier, Institute of Engineering Design and Logistics Engineering, Vienna University of Technology, Austria; Daniela Leopold, Department of Education and Human Development, University of Vienna, Austria

Keynote: Moving beyond the Plentitude: An Indian Fable (ED-MEDIA 2008)

Today’s keynote was presented by Geetha Narayanan (below), Founder and Director, Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology, India.

In today’s world the technology “push” is based on progress, newness, upgrades and the increasing of markets. Geetha asked us to reconsider technology and learning, that these should serve the needs of the human condition, prospect and spirit.

Geetha Narayanan, Founder and Director, Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology, India, giving her keynote address at ED-MEDIA 2008

She offered very interesting views on school reform. Most forms of contemporary schooling are based on fast knowledge and measurement. This is not enough. There needs to be pedagogy focussed on the slow — the deepening of the learning experience to incorporate mindfulness and a development of self. Further, schooling must nurture learning and not only focus on increasing employability. Contemporary forms of schooling do not sit comfortably with the affordances of new media — affordances such as play and experimentation.

What is slowness? In her view, it is more than just a reaction to technology, mobility and speed. It is a value that works at the level of culture and linguistics. Just as the slow food movement values tradition and culinary expertise, the slow school movement values opinion and wholeness. Slowness reconnects the psyche and the mind, it brings a moral dimension back into the process of learning. Geetha further contends that the small school movement is here to stay.

One focus of the Srishti school is on the urban poor children in India, getting girls away from housework and back to informal learning centres, getting boys who gamble off the streets. The play approach of Vygotsky, Piaget and Papert is successfully applied to homeless children. Instead of gambling, the boys grow food and trade, they put up images taken with camera phones on Ning (below) and are open to “bartering” those with anyone else. The activities are creative, positive and de-monetised.

Geetha does not believe in ICT in education. She does believe that new media art is one way of practicing critical pedagogy, something that is crucial to education. Education for the world’s urban poor should target three deficits: nature, food, and play and imagination. One approach is to have small community centres that focus on local knowledge, new science, new ideals and new media, and participatory projects with the kids.

She works with MIT’s Media Lab — in particular Prof Mitchel Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group. Using much of the software and hardware from MIT, she runs digital summer camps, supported by volunteers, where the kids create animations with Scratch, engage in transmedia storytelling using camera phones, laptops and physical objects, and other creative activities. Short movies are created and shared, along with the digital images, on the social networking site Ning. The approach is to allow the children to play, explore and experiment. The children loved it; they were engaged, motivated and more confident.

There are many similarities between the urban poor in India and those in South Africa, where literacy and numeracy is shockingly low. One response has been a call for a renewed instructionist effort, getting the kids “back to basics” through didactic teaching. Geetha’s approach is interesting because the focus is on learning theories of play (Vygotsky), constructivism (Piaget) and constructionism (Papert).

I asked Geetha about the “basics” — she said that the kids wrote when they scripted their stories, or when they were introduced to Ning, when they had to interact with others. It was first necessary to allow the kids to play, to imagine, in order to engender a curiosity about the world and a positive view towards learning.

And then there’s the question of scaling up. The approach will be to create a replicable model: Many small efforts springing up around the world, with corporate sponsorship for the hardware. She has been approached by the Mexican government to set up there.

The podcast of the keynote is available.

Virtual Worlds: Exploring Potential for Educational Interaction (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: Virtual Worlds: Exploring Potential for Educational Interaction.

Abstract: Interaction is widely accepted as essential for learning. The challenge of distance education is to overcome transactional distance through provision of appropriate opportunities for interaction. Asynchronous and synchronous computer-mediated communication via text, audio and video has done much to reduce transactional distance. 3D online spaces may offer further opportunities to reduce transactional distance but it will be necessary to identify the most appropriate forms of interaction to be included in learning environments using such spaces. As an aid to investigating possible applications of 3D online spaces in distance education some means of mapping out the territory to be explored is desirable. This paper proposes one such map and suggests examples of applications that might be explored in various areas of the map.

An excellent and very interesting presentation on the nature of distance education (DE). Apparently research that compares the quality of learning that happens through distance education vs face-to-face (F2F) shows no difference between the two.

The author considered the issue of transactional distance — e.g. the “space” (physical, psychological, etc.) between the learner and the teacher — which is often biggest in DE projects. However, there is also some transactional distance in F2F classrooms. How can technology, in particular virtual worlds, be used to reduce transactional distance on three levels of interaction:

Learner to content?
Learner to teacher?
Learner to peers?

Peter proposed a cube to visualise the interaction between learner and the three axes above. By conceptualising DE in this way it becomes easier to design DE environments (being able to actually design such spaces is a relatively new affordance; in the bad old days, DE projects relied on snail mail communication!)

If Kusasa, the Shuttleworth Foundation project, ever had to employ a virtual world for learner activity, it would be based in the cubic block that represents high learner-to-content, high learner-to-learner and low learner-to-teacher activity.

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Author: Peter Albion (above), University of Southern Queensland, Australia

ProBoPortable: Development of Cellular Phone Software to Prompt Learners to Monitor and Reorganize Division of Labor in Project-Based Learning (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: ProBoPortable: Development of Cellular Phone Software to Prompt Learners to Monitor and Reorganize Division of Labor in Project-Based Learning.

Abstract: The authors developed a cellular phone application which displays information regarding progress and achievement of the tasks and division of labor in project-based learning (PBL) in higher education. The ProBoPortable application works as wallpaper on the learner’s cellular phone screen, and cooperates with a Web-based groupware. When a learner activates his/her phone, ProBoPortable immediately retrieves the current status of the project from the groupware database and displays the status on the screen. Classroom evaluation was performed in an undergraduate course, which confirmed that ProBoPortable enhanced mutual awareness of the division of labor among learners, who modified their own tasks by monitoring the overall status of the PBL. The sense of learning community was increasingly generated by using ProBoPortable. Moreover, social facilitation encouraged the learners to proceed with their own task due to the presence of others who are mutually aware of each member’s status.

A sense of learning community is important to motivate and stimulate students’ learning in a distributed platform (Palloff & Pratt 1999). ProBoPortable increased this sense of learning community.

In SA, could this approach be used with a product such as MXit?

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Authors: Toshio Mochizuki, Senshu University, Japan; Hiroshi Kato, National Institute of Multimedia Education, Japan; Kazaru Yaegashi, Ritsumeikan University, Japan; Toshihisa Nishimori, The University of Tokyo, Japan; Yusuke Nagamori, University of Tsukuba, Japan; Shinobu Fujita, Spiceworks Corporation, Japan

Multimedia and multiliteracies in the early elementary years (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: Multimedia and multiliteracies in the early elementary years.

Abstract: The widening of the concept of literacy has many implications for teachers. In this paper three classroom activities will be discussed and linked to concepts of ICT literacy and to questions of pedagogy when language, media and computing combine in the classroom. The first activities were carried out by five and six year old students exploring computer graphics and text. The other activities were used with grade 3/4 students, and involved graphics, text and sound to illustrate or explain specific contexts or situations.

The author spoke about the need for children to reflect on their use of technology to really develop higher order thinking skills. In his examples, working with an inner-city primary school in Melbourne, the teacher would guide a class discussion during or after the learners used software to create digital artefacts. To back this up this approach he quoted the paper Literature Review in Thinking Skills, Technology and Learning.

The software the kids used was MicroWorlds — constructivist learning technology.

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Author: Anthony Jones, The University of Melbourne, Australia

Computer Based School System Monitoring with Feedback to Teachers (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: Computer Based School System Monitoring with Feedback to Teachers.

Abstract: Educational multimedia focuses traditionally on the design of computer aided learning environments. Evaluation has to be viewed as an essential part of the learning environment. Beyond opportunities provided by its computerization (behaviours tracking, richer interactions, etc.), Computer Based Assessment provides teachers a measurement instrument where their students are put together with larger groups of students on the same assessment scale, using a unique competency model. It provides feedback to teachers that enable them to early detect shortcomings of their courses, pedagogical approach. ICT provides in this case a flexible way for the results collection, feedback reporting raising strengths and weaknesses, assurance of anonymity, data privacy. Moreover, it would give decision makers of the educational system information on the educational system steering efficiency. This paper describes ongoing assessment based on the TAO platform with feedback to teachers done in Luxembourg.

TAO is a free and open-source platform for computer-based assessment at a school, district, national and international level. In Luxembourg, there is a national database of all learners that TAO connects with, thus teachers don’t have to create learner accounts.

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Authors: Patrick Plichart, Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor, Luxembourg; Gilbert Busana, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Romain Martin, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Thibaud Latour, Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor, Luxembourg

The affordances and limitations of computers for play in early childhood (ED-MEDIA 2008)

ED-MEDIA 2008 paper: The affordances and limitations of computers for play in early childhood

Abstract: The widespread proliferation of computer games for children as young as 6 months of age, merits a re-examination of their manner of use and their facility to provide opportunities for developmental play. This paper describes a research study conducted to explore the use of computer games by young children, specifically to investigate the affordances and limitations of such games and the features of children’s traditional play that can be supported and further enhanced by different kinds of computer play. Computer games were classified and selected according to game characteristics that support higher order thinking. Children aged 5 and 7 were observed playing the games, and a preliminary analysis of findings is given, together with suggestions for further research.

In early childhood development (ECD), spontaneous play is very important. Currently, EC software can be too game-based or too educational.

For ECD, play is a part of socio-emotional and cognitive development. Pretend play lays the foundation for abstract thinking (Vygotsky). It is an early version of role playing.

Children’s play, especially in its make believe or pretending game forms, is a critical precursor to a major feature of our adult narrative consciousness (Singer & Singer 2005)

In the context of play, digital game-based research seriously considers the benefits for teenagers and adults. Not much research has been done on digital games for ECD, hence this study.

Games used in the study included puzzle games (At the Vet’s and At the Doctor’s), an adventure action game (Pajama Sam), and simulation games (Dogz and Sim City). Only two participants (siblings aged 5 and 7); the chief data collector was their mother.

Findings: digital games do support and stimulate pretend play in children. Open-ended games such as simulations, e.g. Dogz, really promoted pretend play. Conclusion: Opportunities for engagement and developmental play exists in the playing of computer games by young children.

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Authors: Irina Verenikina, University of Wollongong, Australia; Jan Herrington, University of Wollongong, Australia; Rob Peterson, University of Wollongong, Australia; Jessica Mantei, University of Wollongong, Australia

Keynote: Playing Games: Hegemony as Enemy (ED-MEDIA 2008)

In the first keynote of ED-MEDIA 2008, Alan Amory, Professor of Education at the University of Johannesburg spoke on Playing Games: Hegemony as Enemy. The talk was deliberately provocative, with a number of game and movie trailers with nudity and profanity — part of the goal “to make the audience uncomfortable”.

He showed the trailer to Memento, a neo-noir crime thriller where viewers need to piece together the story in a detective-like fashion. The film is about memory, masculinity and violence, where maleness is constantly asserted as hegemonic.

He then discussed globalisation and how free trade agreements are really tools for more powerful Western governments to dominate markets that involve weaker countries. How behind the diplomacy, and stock market deals, and oil trades that affect the world, usually are men — power hungry men.

The highest grossing video game of 2007, Halo 3, is essentially about the Rapture, as celebrated by Christian Fundamentalism. The game is riddled with classic Christian good vs evil rhetoric (“judgement”, “fire”, “demons”, “Lords”, “the prophet”, “instrument of God”, etc.) Another hugely successful game is BioShock, set in a city called Rapture. The game is about fascism and anti-Science. The designer of the game is deeply concerned about stem cell research and utopias/dystopias as portrayed by Ayn Rand.

Then, Eyes Wide Shut, a film about a man in crisis. An example of sex as portrayed by men in Hollywood: stylised and essentially without depth.

The overall message is how media, including digital games that are today a key aspect of popular culture, are still male-dominated and based on power and economic models from seventeenth century Europe. Media is a vehicle for propaganda, increasingly embellished with violence, nudity, profanity and religious overtones. Do the games that we play, encourage and design re-enforce these stereotypes? And even educational technology, does that reproduce ideological imbalances?

I enjoyed the presentation. Alan took a risk to present in this way and his message asked interesting questions, which will frame my research on games and educational technology going forward.

A snippet of the presentation is on Qik, the new micro-vlogging service where users can upload/stream video taken by their mobile phones (as opposed to the text-based micro-blogging service, Twitter). The podcast of the keynote is also available.

ED-MEDIA 2008 kicks off

Today the 20th annual ED-MEDIA 2008 conference kicks off at the University of Technology in beautiful Vienna. The official focus areas are educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications. The conference is a truly big affair — Just deciding on which sessions to attend has taken 3 hours of reading. I’ll be presenting a paper on Kusasa on Friday.

The twitterfeed is at twemes.com/edmedia08.