Harnessing the Motivational Power of Games in Education
This entry was created by a student in Stanford's Rhetoric of Gaming class. For more about the class and the assignment, click here.
Most people remember playing Oregon Trail in elementary school. You would name a party of five settlers, choose which supplies to buy, and head out into the endless wilderness. Inevitably, your charges would die, mostly of dysentery. Dysentery is pretty much synonymous with the name Oregon Trail. As the leader of this group, I would play through many times attempting the trek to Oregon. (Here's a good description of the game that illustrates some of my later points: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GH0-hr1u_k)
In our writing class, we have been asked to select a research topic in the gaming world. Looking back on Oregon Trail, I marvel at its ability to involve me in a virtual world representing a historical event that would be unremarkable on the page of a textbook. But there was certainly something missing as well. The real historical concepts fell second to questions like "If I buy 900 bullets, can I get away with one change of clothes?" And a question formed: What makes an educational game successful? Can the motivation inherent in games persevere when applied to educational contexts? If so, how can games teach us more effectively than traditional forms of study? The answer, of course, lies in what games can do that a textbook or a lecture or even real life experiments cannot.
Scientists and education specialists have published a paper about a slightly different type of educational gaming experience that holds more promise than Oregon Trail ever did. (The usability of a commercial game physics engine to develop physics educational materials: An investigation By Colin B. Price) Recognizing that modern action games offer incredibly detailed physics engines, a physics department created a series of rooms using Unreal Tournament 2004 that each contain physics concepts. Students explore the rooms with an avatar and are able to adjust parameters to explore physics concepts qualitatively. In this respect, the game takes a radically different approach from traditional instruction, as the developers are quick to point out: "Physics theory produces mathematical formulas and equations that become the objects of learning and the subjects of investigation and reflection. Recently, many science educators have suggested that this correspondence may actually hinder learning, that physics is best learned not through mathematical formulas but by experiments that are fundamentally visual." They suggest that the best way to understand concepts initially is through experimentation. But remember experiments in high school? How many of them actually worked? In a game, students can pull off a complex, costly experiment with consistency. Also, the Unreal physics engine allows students to directly access the data generated in experiments to easily make the jump from qualitative to quantitative understanding.
Most importantly, the physics program allows students to shape the game world. After success in the first few rooms, they can create their own rooms to test new variables with new objects and interactions. The chosen layout of these rooms reflects their progression in mastery of physics concepts and the connections between them. Finally, the researchers tested student and teacher experience, in terms of engagement and mastery of the material, quantitatively, with positive results.
Through my research, I will explore the relationship between the motivating factors of games and the successful integration of concepts and material with gameplay. With any luck, this will lead to a definition of the educationally useful game, and an idea of gaming's potential in all levels of education.
Comments
I love this topic. I read a bit into the reading posted on the class website (You can't bring that game to high school) and it is exactly what you are looking for. You really need to read that if you haven't already. I think you will find a lot of good material for this topic because teachers and professors are really interested in the idea at the time.
Posted by: Mike | October 14, 2009 12:01 AM
This is quite an interesting topic, one that has some very important real world applications. I think that you have a lot of good questions that you want to answer, my only advice is that you try to form a good solid thesis from these questions. Before I forget, I think the bit about Oregon Trail is a perfect way to open up the paper. It's funny and engaging and will draw the reader right in. There's quite a bit of information about this topic so I don't think you'll have any trouble finding relevant studies, but just make sure you utilize the library resources.
Posted by: Matt Kandath | October 14, 2009 12:42 AM
I'm so interested in this topic -- and am curious about what direction you can take it. Right now, you seem to be moving toward a focus on game design, game play and educational outcomes, which is great. If you want, you might fold in some primary research -- not only experimentation with some of these games yourself, but also perhaps interviews with high school and middle school technology specialists, people who support those games in the classroom and also might in fact have a good sense of the variety of good (and bad) educational software that is out there.
To echo Mike, the Jenkins article sounds like a great fit for you. You might also look at the syllabus for this class - Video Games and Learning (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~fishman/games/). I know the professor and the lead TA for the course, so if you want to devise some focused interview questions, I could probably help you get a virtual interview with one or both of them.
Good luck with this project!
Posted by: Christine Alfano, Stanford | October 16, 2009 06:43 AM
I think you'll find that integrating gameplay into educational curricula is a brilliant idea. Games clearly have the capacity to hold the attention of today's young students; the very same students who are so famous for having "little to no attention span." If today's classroom content can be made as engaging as a video game, perhaps this generation of students will stop falling asleep in the back of the classroom.
You should look into the works of a good friend of mine, Marc Prensky. He is the CEO of a company called Games 2 Train, and also a well read writer on the subject of educational video games. He has created games to teach things as complex as new CAD programs, and as simple as basic physics. Across the board, Marc's games have shown hugely successful results, which has good implications for the use of games in education. He's written many a scholarly article, check him out at www.marcprensky.com. His book, "Don't Bother Me Mom, I'm Learning" may prove a valuable source in your research.
Russ
Posted by: Russell Phelan, CCNY | October 19, 2009 03:07 PM
Interesting proposal. How and who will help you develop the software for this game. You will definitely need to have a knowledgeable mind in physics. Is it going to be costly? If you are successful then you'll probably end up being rich from developing this game, so then the cost wouldn't matter too much. In this technological age the Internet certainly holds our interest, so no question there about it being able to hold our interest and teach us. Good luck with your research and don't give up or skim on materials.
Posted by: Sandra Gopaul-Igartua | October 19, 2009 05:17 PM
Lots of video games, especially role playing games have elaborate stories and worlds for players to immerse themselves in. Gamers willingly learn everything there is to know about these fictional worlds. Adapting these stories to reflect real historical events is one way to possibly use video games to help people learn. Many games also have players develop intricate strategies comparable to playing a game of chess. Many games also have players think about physics and forces them to think outside the box and come up with unique solutions to problems. This, along with the idea you brought up of using game engines to do experiments, illustrates the potential usefulness of video games in the world of education. However, the problem with most "educational" games up until now is that they lack the quality of their more entertainment-based counterparts and fail to catch on. If developers could create a game that was educational, but was as engrossing and well-made as other games on the market, it would be a helpful tool in making the education process fun and interactive. I agree that a more hands on approach to learning, especially with subjects like physics, would be more productive and rewarding for students, and that the use of video games towards this goal has great potential.
Posted by: Catherine Mika | October 19, 2009 09:45 PM