Games and Learning

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING

Games and Learning Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate gamebased learning in the teaching-learning process.

Justifying your choices and proposals.

Josmar Borg Tutor: Dr. Bonanno

EDU5646: Games and Learning

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Lightbot................................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Students as Designers of Games ................................................................................................................................. 5 Scratch................................................................................................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................................... 10

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

1

EDU5646: Games and Learning

INTRODUCTION According to the Concise Encyclopaedia, learning is defined as the “Process of acquiring modifications in existing knowledge, skills, habits, or tendencies through experience, practice, or exercise…”.While reflecting on this definition, three words struck my attention: EXPERIENCE, PRACTICE and EXERCISE. What I questioned myself was about how does traditional practice of teaching is including such common, yet important, three terms into the students’ learning experience. A teacher cantered approach of teaching omits students from learning through their own experience, through exposing their creativity and through exercising their norms for a more balanced, effective and smooth learning process. With norms I mean the lifestyle they live outside schools, that is the accessibility and the extensive use of technology. Even though one should pay attention to say that our students are Digital Natives and even though that some critiques do exist, yet in reality most of the new generation students are living surrounded by, not only different innovative technologies, but also by the exponential rise of Internet use. Even more prominent is the rise of Web 2.0 that has made it easier to students to produce the work of until a few years ago was only possible by IT technical and skilled people.

This has made learning more effective and achievable because students can autonomously learn through easier methods of researching, more opportunity for self discovery of knowledge and skills and better ways to creatively present their work. This phenomenon has struck the attention of many educational researchers to study different and innovative ways for designing educational curricula and engage in different teaching practices that, after all, hold the principle of students being active participants in the whole learning environment.

Theories such as: online problem based learning; online collaborative learning, learning by discovery, Knowledge Based Learning and others are extensions of the fundamental concept of the constructivist approach to learning and Game Based Learning (GBL) is not an exception.

Prensky, M. (2001) referred to gaming as “...something one chooses to do as a source of pleasure, which is intensely and utterly absorbing and promotes the formation of social groupings.” Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., and Salen, K. (2003) has pointed out “the child at play is exercising freedom along five distinct axes: 1. freedom to fail; 2. freedom to experiment; 3. freedom to fashion identities; 4. freedom of effort; and 5. freedom of interpretation.” This ‘freedom’ increases the level of motivation and attention span, nevertheless it is somehow impeded in schools environment (due to a lot of factors) and so the students cannot blend their own methods of learning with what is expected at school. This is why it is viable to design and reform new curricula to promote and utilize GBL, among other teaching methods, which will ultimately merge formal with informal education. There is substantial literature promoting this interpretation, while emphasising that learning can occur through gaming and that this is one way how to engage the students to participate, get involved, and gain motivation to learn in their own pace and ability. Moreover, other researchers have studied the student’s ability to create games and its benefits in the redesigning of educational curricula.

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

2

EDU5646: Games and Learning

However, for the sake of this assignment, the following sections does not focus on the various theories that imply the pros and cons of GBL but instead it focuses on how GBL can be introduced in the curriculum, propose plans and strategies to make GBL a successful supplementation to the educational system, and different aspects of gaming to be employed in the teaching process. Consequently, while considering that I am a Computer Studies teacher in a boys’ secondary school, therefore I want to focus the following sections on how to integrate games in the teaching of Computer Studies as an optional subject for the MATSEC Examination.

My first example of GBL is by introducing an online game named LIGHTBOT as a teaching aid to cover the chapter ‘Problem Analysis and Algorithm Design’ to form 3 students before they can actually start mastering their programming skills by coding programs on JAVA (during form 4).

Afterwards, I will proceed by stating the importance of game creation, indicating the benefits brought up when students create games themselves. For this reason, SCRATCH is then proposed as a tool to elicit and mature the students’ programming concepts and practical skills.

LIGHTBOT LightBot 1 is an online game and its main purpose is purely educational. According to the creators (Addicting Games) “Artificial intelligence is hard to program. Not every bot ever created can manoeuvre and function on its own. Rather, some bots run along a path that the programmer presents for them for various situations.

Your job is to light up all the blue tiles in the factory by the commands that you issue to the light bot”.

This game is ideal for form 3 Computing students. Unlike how humans think and act, this game requires that the students think in a sequential way without taking for granted any steps needed to guide the robot to the blue tiles and light the bulb, hence win the level. This being a fundamental concept of programming, so the game play helps the students to learn how to analyse a problem and create solution to it in a visual way, unlike traditional methods whereby the whole process was somehow abstract to the students. With Lightbot, while the students are entertaining themselves, they are automatically learning the necessary skills.

At this point the students are left alone to play this game and the teacher stays monitoring at the background without promoting the students and without giving them specific tasks. Once they start responding well to the gameplay and the teachers acknowledges that the students are getting used to think sequentially to successfully give precise instructions to the robot, then the teacher introduces the fact that their algorithms can be represented by using simple diagrams (flowcharts) in order for other users to understand the solution that they developed to solve the problem at hand.

LightBot1: http://www.addictinggames.com/puzzle-games/lightbot.jsp, LightBot2: http://armorgames.com/play/6061/light-bot-20 1

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

3

EDU5646: Games and Learning

Lightbot gives the teachers differrent ways of how to teach flowcharts representation. This can also be a fun way to the students who are provded certain tasks to work out while they are playing the game. I found out that most of these tasks should be done in classroom where the students are grouped in groups of three students each and a quiz is organised. The students are shown the Lightbot situation on the interactive whiteboard and they (as a group) have to figure out a flowchart with the algorithm they think will guide the robot successfully to light the bulb on the blue tile. The group who presents the most effective solution gets a point until all tasks are presented and finally a winner is declared. From my experience, I found out that using this approach decreases the learning time needed and even more satisfiying was that students started questioning several questions that where above syllabus level.

At home the students are given the freedom to play this game as Homework and report which level they have reached during the next lesson by taking printscreen shots of the levels reached.

The gameplay is so motivational and challenging that the students would fully engage themselves to successfully win as much levels as possible. According to Lin, C. P. (2008), "Players may then develop an emotional attachment to the character within the space and become more engaged in the task�. This is one of the factors why students reported that they spend hours of playing this game because the engagement is so profound that the students makes all the effort to autonomously, acquire knowledge and learn new skills in order to achieve the goal expected. Moreover, I noticed that the students did more effort than usual because they create a competition among themselves to see who reaches the most advanced levels. This healthy competition enhance their motivation and the whole learning process.

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

4

EDU5646: Games and Learning

STUDENTS AS DESIGNERS OF GAMES While discussing digital games with a particular class, students were overwhelmed to notice that I am promoting games and so there interest and participation increased drastically. With reference to an example, when I asked them if it would be of interest for them to play Age of Empires to learn certain aspects of history, a student went over this idea by mentioning that he likes the modding of this same game named Napoleonic Era. His mum is French and so he was so deeply into the discussion that he emailed his Dad to provide me with the link (http://www.moddb.com/mods/napoleonic-era) from where I can download this Mod (patch).

He was so fascinated that, together with his dad, they noticed that their French vocabulary was enhanced and they also learned various aspects of the French history. While reflecting about this scenario, I was led to the fact that games can be altered to meet our own needs. Thus, how about students being creators of games themselves which reflect their own trends and needs?

At a Computing institute where I lecture certain advanced Computing credits, it was noticed that the credit involving Game Development using MAJA and UNITY is the course most sought over by the students, already established designers and programmers. Most of them have autonomously learned how to mod certain open source games or games that provide built-in editors. In fact, most of these students shows more enthusiasm when modding and creating games over playing readymade games. Prensky, M. (2007), indicated several successful games created by the students such as Waste of Space, Revolution for US History, Eyewitness for Chinese History, Peacemaker Game and more. This is in fact very interesting because if the next generation of educational games will be developed from the students’ way of thinking, as a result the students will relate to these games differently from what is currently happening.

Prensky, M. (2007), continued explaining that the enthusiasm for students to create education games comes from the fact that educational games created by the teachers are more of a simulation of the text books and resources used in a school environment. Students want

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

5

EDU5646: Games and Learning

otherwise, they want a new generation of games and not the so called 'edutainment' that is perceived as beneficial to the adult but boring to the student.

SCRATCH After covering the chapter about Problem Analysis and Algorithm Design, then Form 3 students can start acquiring their first programming skills. I prefer to classify this section into two distinct parts.

1. At school students are introduced to LEGO Mindstroms, in order to construct these robots and program them to do something. For instance, the robot can be programmed to act as an intruder alarm, or as an applaud meter or as mine detector and the list goes on and on. The students are divided into groups of three students each and finally each group should produce their coursework as part of the Computing syllabus. Their coursework include that the students should creatively construct and program the robot as per their design as long as it satisfies a set of assessment criteria.

During the whole process they should take photographs and videos of the construction methods and the final product working as planned. This will then serve to develop the documentation of their final product. Unlike the construction and programming of the robot, the documentation part should be done on an individual basis so that everyone will reflect on what has been done and then create the documentation in any presentational form they desire. Online tools such as Glogster, Prezi, Jux.com, Wix.com and others are promoted so that each student would have a vast array of tools to choose from in order to innovatively develop their documentation. This is exceptionally interesting and beneficial to the students as this gives room to stretch their creativity to produce something original with the robot they have at hand. However, students cannot continue the work at home as they do not have access to these robots outside school. Very few students buy these robots since these are a bit expensive and so as a teacher, I had to think of something innovative in order to continue the work build-up from school to home.

2. At this point, I thought of using SCRATCH2. Scratch is a freeware and is, basically, a programming language that makes it easy to create interactive art, stories, simulations, and games and then share those creations online. Apart from this, teachers can also register to ScratchED3 as a supporting online community for teachers to share ideas, exchange resources, ask questions and find people who share a common interest.

2 3

http://scratch.mit.edu/ http://scratched.media.mit.edu/

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

6

EDU5646: Games and Learning

This is a very interesting aspect as students are given the tools to build their own games, rather than only playing readymade ones. Nevertheless, even though Scratch is reviewed as an easy tool to build online games; however, it should be noted that necessary preparation is needed prior students can actually start using Scratch: 

The students should first gain experience in programming skills with the use of Lego Mindstorms during school time. This requires a minimum of four double lessons so as the students can practice all the concepts gained during the Problem Analysis and Algorithm Design, as mentioned above.



Extra lessons should be dedicated to:

o

Carry out research about Scratch and review other games created with Scratch.

o

Explain how to use the programming skills gained when using the Lego Mindstorms into Scratch. A simple game scenario is explained and the students follow an online tutorial to see how to go around Scratch, the algorithm developed and the programming build-up needed to create this game.

o

Students are then given three simple tasks (game scenarios) to choose from and in groups of three they should come up with a solution. This time the groups are reshuffled to form different groups than those working on the Lego Mindstrom coursework. At this point, the teacher should monitor and guide the students to come up with a solution and create the game. Even though the students are prompted frequently, but their creativity will remain untouched in terms of what graphics and sounds to use for their game play and also to design the proper algorithm.

o

Students are then given three themes such as Sports, Arcade and RPG and the students need to think of a game plot, and the resources needed. This will be discussed with the teacher to guide them and adjust only where necessary in order to balance their idea with their programming abilities. From this point onwards the students will continue to develop this game at home while working on the Robotic coursework at school. As to enhance group work, tools such Skype, Emails, Facebook, personal blogs and other online tools are to be used for further collaboration. Eventually, the students should present a personal brief self evaluation report stating their role and their contribution in the group.

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

7

EDU5646: Games and Learning

o

Students are then introduced to another online programming tool. This time videos and reviews about KODU 4 are shown in class and the students are challenged to use this tool to create any game they want during their summer holidays. As a teacher, I was very satisfied with the students’ response to such an intentioned challenge. The majority of the students’ feedback was that through the programming experience they gained from school and from their own research and guidance from online tutorials they worked around KODU and created games on their own. Some mentioned that they registered to specific forums and posted their queries when they got stuck and couldn’t continue developing the game or part of the game. Others did their utmost to produce the game since they could share it with their peers and also because they could play it on their XBOX. This is a perfect example of how GBL can be of great benefit to the students. The learning process gets not only motivational and challenging, but it instils a sense of appreciation.

CONCLUSION Personally, GBL enhanced my students’ learning experience; however, to plan a successful GBL scenario, the educator must plan ahead, especially if it is his/her first experience. Sandford, R. et al… (2007), gives a whole set of questions that one ought to consider:  Why do you want to use a game - to motivate your students, teach something complex, because you like playing games, or you think the visual aspect would be fun?  What learning goals might be achieved and how might the use of computer games address these better than other methods?  Is the game you’re considering suitable in terms of the ability and age of your students?  Do you have the desire and the time to explore a game and identifying how it can fit into your lessons?  Does this game help you to achieve your learning objectives?  How will you ensure that your learning goals are achieved while using the game in the classroom and/or at home?

4

http://www.kodugamelab.com/

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

8

EDU5646: Games and Learning

 Is there a back-up plan in case of technological faults?  Have you considered different methods of assessing your students, such as observations, self evaluation reports, or plan assessment criteria?

Besides, I noticed that whatever time you plan, it always ends up consuming more time than expected. During an interview conducted in the study by Sandford, R. et al… (2007), a teacher stated that “I doubled the time it took me to do [an activity in the game] as I thought it’s going to take them twice as long – but instead it took them four times as long.” Another teacher said “It took two lessons more that I actually planned but I did expect that a bit.”

Through my experience, I noticed that students can guide themselves through the game, but they need guiding through the learning. In my case, even though the game play was automatically leading the students to achieve the objectives that I planned, yet I needed to provide the students with scaffolding tasks which helped them reflect on the game play and the educational values extracted from it. This applies even more in case of using a commercial off the shelf game where the game does not directly reflect the objectives planned by the teacher.

In Sandford, R. et al… (2007) study, teachers said that “It’s very hard for the students to reflect on what they have done, because the game leads them to play, play, play...”. “You need to guide the students to think”. “The students were asked to say whatever they liked – they couldn’t be wrong... I think that’s quite a useful kind of experience for a child to discover that their opinions are totally valid whatever they are.”

Finally, one should not forget about certain technical problems such as: having Computers with sufficient specifications; if the school or the institution can afford the game licences; if the game can be installed on the school computers; if the game can run over the network; and if the game is accessible to the students if the intention is to let the students to play the game at home.

I trust this document provides a sound foundation for those interested in using GBL in their teaching profession. Whatever the tool is, the role of the teacher should always remain pertinent in the learning and teaching approach. Thus, teachers should identify such alternatives to fine tune, or better redesign the learning packages to suit the kind of learning process expected by ‘net generation’ students. GBL is an excellent supplement to education in order to prepare the students facing modern economic, business, working and social trends.

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

9

EDU5646: Games and Learning

BIBLIOGRAPHY Consice Encyclopeadia. Online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learning Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., and Salen, K. (2003). Moving Learning Games Forward: The education arcade. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Lin, C. P. (2008). Spirit of the game: Empowering students as designers in schools? British Journal of Educational Technology, 39/ (6), 996-1003.

Prensky, Mark (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. From On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, and October 2001) Online: http://www.marcprensky.com/ writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20%20Part1.pdf Prensky, Mark (2007). Students as Designers and Creators of Educational Computer Games. Who else?

Online: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/PrenskyStudents_as_Game_Creators-.pdf Richard Sandford, Mary Ulicsak, Keri Facer and Tim Rudd (2007). Teaching with games: Guidance for Educators.

Online: http://linked.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id= 17303&folderId=16936&name=DLFE-306.pdf

GBL Assignment: Referring to specific game titles or gaming environments discuss how you can integrate game-based learning in the teaching-learning process. Justifying your choices and proposals.

10