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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 12 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">We often think about game-based learning as if video games can become robotic teachers. In the same way that software file systems have created more flexible and efficient file cabinets, we imagine that video games can make great instruction more scalable and accessible. In the same way that email, text messages, and social media have provided more efficient methods of communication, we imagine that digital analytic systems will streamline assessment. These things are true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36834\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36834\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/erinscott_-7085-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"Erin Scott\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Erin Scott\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While digital games will certainly never replace a great teacher, they are tools that can help teachers do their jobs more effectively. Just like a shovel works better than digging with only your hands, game-based teaching tools will enable teachers to reach students in ways we can only begin to imagine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But let's approach video games in a different way. What if teachers used video games as texts? Let's think about how we might teach kids to think critically about the underlying messages in commercial games and how we might leverage video games for their ability to engage students and provoke conversation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the moment, there's far too little critical examination of video games happening in school. We take it for granted that we should teach our students how to read books interpretively, how to analyze movies, and how to read the newspaper critically. But all too often we overlook video games as a meaningless triviality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the contrary, video games may be indicative of a shift in the way we construct narrative. A good argument could even be made that video games are the new mythology, a kind of non-linear interactive storytelling that shapes the conscious attitudes of today’s youth. Video games might even represent the modern examples of storytelling that will eventually become the classics of literature in hyper-connected centuries to come. After all, nobody could’ve imagined that the novel would be so important to the future of schooling when they read Miguel de Cervantes’ \u003cem>Don Quixote\u003c/em> in 1605.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If video games are shaping the conscious attitudes of an entire generation, we need to start asking difficult questions about the kinds of stories we want to tell. These video games are shaping the next generation. These video games are teaching our students how to think about the world, how to make meaning. And we’re letting it happen by accident. That’s crazy. We need help from Humanities teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How can we be more cognizant of the implicit messaging in video games? In my book, \u003cem>FREEPLAY\u003c/em>, I try to model a practice and a method of analyzing the underlying psychology of video game narrative. But we need more people to jump on that bandwagon. We need more video game studies departments that are not about game development and computer programming, but rather about critical thinking. Not video game classes that analyze game design and mechanics -- video game classes that are about analyzing the literature of gaming. We have film studies, now it's time for video game studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can start by adding a game to your curriculum. In my undergraduate college classroom, I sometimes require all of my students to play a popular game in the weeks immediately following a unit on Freud. I challenge them to analyze the game like a dream. I ask them to identify the latent content. We identify gender biases, the subtle differences between games aimed at boys and games aimed at girls. What skills are these games teaching? What conceptions of reality are they privileging?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are also many games that are intentionally created to provoke thought. Some games are designed so that they force us to ask questions. One good example is a game called \u003ca href=\"http://dukope.com/play.php?g=trt\" target=\"_blank\">\u003ci>Republia Times\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. In the game, you are editor-in-chief of the newspaper in “the free nation of Republia.” Your job is to use your influence to sway public opinion. How much space on the front page do you give to each article? Which items coming over the wire do you ignore? What and how do you deem things newsworthy? You must make quick decisions as stories come into the newsroom. How do the stories impact the readers’ loyalty to the government? You earn points by increasing readership and manufacturing more citizens that are loyal to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"5e388d2c9e3ce8b412ee666192b90c21\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a simple game that students can play for a few minutes. It's free and web-based, and works in any browser. You could assign it as homework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine how this game could fit into a social studies classroom. Imagine the discussion it could inspire about free speech, about how political conversations are framed, about media bias, about political agendas. This is a game that inspires critical thinking rather than rote memorization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many games like \u003ci>The Republia Times\u003c/i>, and they belong to a category that’s often called “Social Impact Games.” These are games designed as simulations of real life situations. The mechanics of the game are organized with images and stories in order to make the underlying patterns in our present culture more apparent. They are essentially interactive essays and social commentaries. Or, from a teacher's perspective, they are simply games that can be used as texts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The great thing about using video games as a text is that they help to make it clear that the reason I’m writing this series about bringing video games into the classroom is not because game-based learning is some amazing new technique or method for teaching. Instead, the reason we teach in the first place, and the reason to bring video games into the classroom is social impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We want to educate students into good citizens for a future world that’s better than the one we live in now. We do that by teaching students to think critically about the world. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the contrary, video games may be indicative of a shift in the way we construct narrative. A good argument could even be made that video games are the new mythology, a kind of non-linear interactive storytelling that shapes the conscious attitudes of today’s youth. Video games might even represent the modern examples of storytelling that will eventually become the classics of literature in hyper-connected centuries to come. 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"headTitle": "The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning | MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36789\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36789\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Argubot-640x327.jpg\" alt=\"Argubot Academy\" width=\"640\" height=\"327\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Argubot Academy\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 11 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Teachers have found many different ways of using digital games in the classroom. But what kind of games are these students playing? And how are teachers incorporating them in the classroom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year’s report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, “\u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/publication/games-for-a-digital-age/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Games For A Digital Age\u003c/a>,” made the distinction between “short-form” and “long-form” learning games. Short-form games are designed to be played during a single class period. “They focus on a particular concept of skill refinement, skills practice, memorization, or performing specific drills.” Long-form games “extend beyond a single class period” and sometimes gameplay can “spread over multiple sessions or even several weeks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often long-form games are comprehensively tied to a full curriculum. They can replace textbooks by offering an interactive experience that seamlessly blends content, practice, and assessment into a contextualized learning experience. While some programs like this already exist, it's difficult to implement well. For teachers who want to get started, short-term games can supplement their already established curricula with fresh and engaging activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Learning Games\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some games are designed to do just that. Consider \u003ca href=\"http://argubotacademy.org/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. \u003c/i>Designed by GlassLab, in collaboration with NASA, the game is aligned with Common Core ELA standards and infused with STEM content. It focuses on teaching argumentation, and in particular, it focuses on how to use evidence to support claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy \u003c/i>is a role playing game that combines a space-age storyline about building a Mars colony with great animations. It engages students in a topic that is often hard to contextualize. While we ordinarily demand that students demonstrate argumentation skills in expository writing, modern education practices rarely approach it in such an explicit way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By teaching ELA standards through a STEM-themed storyline, the game is fundamentally interdisciplinary in all the right ways,\" wrote Patricia Monticello Kievlan, a San Francisco classroom teacher who reviewed the game for \u003ca href=\"https://www.graphite.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Graphite.\u003c/a> \"Showing students how these skills bridge disciplines is a critical lesson, and that point is deftly delivered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci> Argubot Academy \u003c/i>is a great short-form tablet game that many teachers use to add contextualized interactive practice to your existing ELA curriculum (grades 6-8). John Paul Sellars, a fifth grade teacher who used the game during this past year at Red Bank Elementary School in Lexington, South Carolina, says his students “loved the ability to combine gaming with their learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Classroom Modifications\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Teachers are also using commercial games that have been modified for classroom use. Perhaps the most famous is \u003ca href=\"http://minecraftedu.com/\">\u003ci>MinecraftEDU\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. This classroom-ready modification of the popular sandbox game is not only less expensive than the commercial version, it also provides many tools that empower teachers with the ability to adapt gameplay to established class curricula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joel Levin, one of the creators of \u003ci>MinecraftEDU, \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mTf3j2koJA\">uses it with second graders\u003c/a>. But it works with students of any age. What makes \u003ci>MinecraftEDU\u003c/i> great for teachers is the same thing that makes it so popular among gamers: it is so open-ended that that the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Search the web and you’ll find thousands of examples of teachers using \u003ci>MinecraftEDU.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>MinecraftEDU \u003c/i>provides a virtual world where teachers and students can build simulations with unlimited resources. When I was a student, we held mini-Renaissance Faires and built toothpick bridges. We were always limited by time, space, and resources. In today’s \u003ci>Minecraft-\u003c/i>equipped classrooms, both teachers and students build entire multi-player worlds full of interactive scenarios. For example, when I visited the \u003ca href=\"q2l.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quest to Learn\u003c/a> school in NYC at the end of their school year, I saw final projects that used \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> in their presentations. One class used \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em>-polar-ice blocks to model the potential impact of global warming. Another demonstrated their understanding of urban water treatment and sewage engineering by building a working system out of pixelated blocks and then simulating rainfall and flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Commercial Games\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Most teachers and parents are on board with games that are manufactured or modified for educational purposes. But what about big, bloody, shoot-'em-up commercial games? Could they also be put to use in a classroom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider Norwegian high school teacher Tobias Staaby. He’s a relative newbie in the classroom. But it may actually be to his advantage that he’s only been teaching for two years; he doesn’t feel like he’s got it figured out yet. “I’m constantly searching for new ways to improve my classes, and to engage and motivate my students,” he says. One thing that has worked is using zombie-themed video games to teach moral philosophy and ethical theories. “I was looking for a way to make these concepts easier to understand without oversimplifying the material.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the hardest things about facilitating class discussions about ethics is presenting engaging dilemmas that they haven’t “necessarily thought or heard much about, thus making their arguments and decisions much more their own.” Staaby settled on using \u003ci>The Walking Dead\u003c/i> video game by Telltale Games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"b9d27906205c6796ab228e314a07ccd5\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loaded on his personal laptop and streamed through the classroom projector, Staaby boots up \u003ci>The Walking Dead \u003c/i>and hands the controller to a student. The rest of the class shouts commands at the player. Then, whenever the game presents an ethical dilemma, they “pause the game and discuss the next course of action using the ethical models and theories they had learned earlier that year -- relational ethics, consequential ethics, ethics of virtue, and ethics of duty -- as a basis for their arguments.” What started as Staaby’s spontaneous unplanned class exercise quickly evolved into a rigorous project. He now prepares short lectures and ties ethical theories to specific dilemmas within the game. (More about Staaby and his school in a soon-to-be-published MindShift article.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is research to support Staaby’s intuitive findings. A recent study out of the University at Buffalo Department of Communication, Michigan State University, and the University of Texas, Austin says that playing violent video games may increase moral awareness. \"Our findings suggest that emotional experiences evoked by media exposure can increase the intuitive foundations upon which human beings make moral judgments.\" Says Matthew Grizzard, one of the study’s authors. Imagine it like a low stakes practice run; simulated opportunities to practice moral and ethical decision making can teach individuals to iterate their initial reactions and make better choices in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Jerome and Donna Allender’s new book \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Young-Mind-Teachers-Adolescents/dp/1612056822/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404922459&sr=8-2&keywords=Donna+Allender\">\u003ci>Ethics for the Young Mind: A Guide for Teachers and Parents of Children Becoming Adolescents\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, they write about the importance and challenges involved in teaching ethics. Their work reminds us that it all comes down to considering “responses to otherness.” When the bell rings at the end of the day, isn’t this what school is all about? We not only want to raise caring individuals, but we also want to provide our students with the skills necessary to maintain fulfilled work-a-day lives. Becoming an ethical person requires “learning more about connecting with others in ways that satisfy our needs and wants while attending to those of others.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The common attribute of all effective learning games is that they simulate systems. They teach students how to understand academic concepts in relationship to the world around them. Certainly this increases engagement and retention, but what really matters is that it is about using knowledge in \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/how-games-based-learning-teaches-problem-solving-in-context/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an inter-disciplinary way\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Digital or analog, game-based or not, good teaching and learning is about building social awareness, considering the individual’s impact on a wider world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36789\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36789\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Argubot-640x327.jpg\" alt=\"Argubot Academy\" width=\"640\" height=\"327\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Argubot Academy\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 11 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Teachers have found many different ways of using digital games in the classroom. But what kind of games are these students playing? And how are teachers incorporating them in the classroom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year’s report from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, “\u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/publication/games-for-a-digital-age/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Games For A Digital Age\u003c/a>,” made the distinction between “short-form” and “long-form” learning games. Short-form games are designed to be played during a single class period. “They focus on a particular concept of skill refinement, skills practice, memorization, or performing specific drills.” Long-form games “extend beyond a single class period” and sometimes gameplay can “spread over multiple sessions or even several weeks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Often long-form games are comprehensively tied to a full curriculum. They can replace textbooks by offering an interactive experience that seamlessly blends content, practice, and assessment into a contextualized learning experience. While some programs like this already exist, it's difficult to implement well. For teachers who want to get started, short-term games can supplement their already established curricula with fresh and engaging activities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Learning Games\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some games are designed to do just that. Consider \u003ca href=\"http://argubotacademy.org/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>. \u003c/i>Designed by GlassLab, in collaboration with NASA, the game is aligned with Common Core ELA standards and infused with STEM content. It focuses on teaching argumentation, and in particular, it focuses on how to use evidence to support claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>Mars Generation One: Argubot Academy \u003c/i>is a role playing game that combines a space-age storyline about building a Mars colony with great animations. It engages students in a topic that is often hard to contextualize. While we ordinarily demand that students demonstrate argumentation skills in expository writing, modern education practices rarely approach it in such an explicit way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By teaching ELA standards through a STEM-themed storyline, the game is fundamentally interdisciplinary in all the right ways,\" wrote Patricia Monticello Kievlan, a San Francisco classroom teacher who reviewed the game for \u003ca href=\"https://www.graphite.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Graphite.\u003c/a> \"Showing students how these skills bridge disciplines is a critical lesson, and that point is deftly delivered.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci> Argubot Academy \u003c/i>is a great short-form tablet game that many teachers use to add contextualized interactive practice to your existing ELA curriculum (grades 6-8). John Paul Sellars, a fifth grade teacher who used the game during this past year at Red Bank Elementary School in Lexington, South Carolina, says his students “loved the ability to combine gaming with their learning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Classroom Modifications\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Teachers are also using commercial games that have been modified for classroom use. Perhaps the most famous is \u003ca href=\"http://minecraftedu.com/\">\u003ci>MinecraftEDU\u003c/i>\u003c/a>. This classroom-ready modification of the popular sandbox game is not only less expensive than the commercial version, it also provides many tools that empower teachers with the ability to adapt gameplay to established class curricula.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joel Levin, one of the creators of \u003ci>MinecraftEDU, \u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mTf3j2koJA\">uses it with second graders\u003c/a>. But it works with students of any age. What makes \u003ci>MinecraftEDU\u003c/i> great for teachers is the same thing that makes it so popular among gamers: it is so open-ended that that the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. Search the web and you’ll find thousands of examples of teachers using \u003ci>MinecraftEDU.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>MinecraftEDU \u003c/i>provides a virtual world where teachers and students can build simulations with unlimited resources. When I was a student, we held mini-Renaissance Faires and built toothpick bridges. We were always limited by time, space, and resources. In today’s \u003ci>Minecraft-\u003c/i>equipped classrooms, both teachers and students build entire multi-player worlds full of interactive scenarios. For example, when I visited the \u003ca href=\"q2l.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quest to Learn\u003c/a> school in NYC at the end of their school year, I saw final projects that used \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em> in their presentations. One class used \u003cem>Minecraft\u003c/em>-polar-ice blocks to model the potential impact of global warming. Another demonstrated their understanding of urban water treatment and sewage engineering by building a working system out of pixelated blocks and then simulating rainfall and flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cb>Commercial Games\u003c/b>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Most teachers and parents are on board with games that are manufactured or modified for educational purposes. But what about big, bloody, shoot-'em-up commercial games? Could they also be put to use in a classroom?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider Norwegian high school teacher Tobias Staaby. He’s a relative newbie in the classroom. But it may actually be to his advantage that he’s only been teaching for two years; he doesn’t feel like he’s got it figured out yet. “I’m constantly searching for new ways to improve my classes, and to engage and motivate my students,” he says. One thing that has worked is using zombie-themed video games to teach moral philosophy and ethical theories. “I was looking for a way to make these concepts easier to understand without oversimplifying the material.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the hardest things about facilitating class discussions about ethics is presenting engaging dilemmas that they haven’t “necessarily thought or heard much about, thus making their arguments and decisions much more their own.” Staaby settled on using \u003ci>The Walking Dead\u003c/i> video game by Telltale Games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loaded on his personal laptop and streamed through the classroom projector, Staaby boots up \u003ci>The Walking Dead \u003c/i>and hands the controller to a student. The rest of the class shouts commands at the player. Then, whenever the game presents an ethical dilemma, they “pause the game and discuss the next course of action using the ethical models and theories they had learned earlier that year -- relational ethics, consequential ethics, ethics of virtue, and ethics of duty -- as a basis for their arguments.” What started as Staaby’s spontaneous unplanned class exercise quickly evolved into a rigorous project. He now prepares short lectures and ties ethical theories to specific dilemmas within the game. (More about Staaby and his school in a soon-to-be-published MindShift article.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is research to support Staaby’s intuitive findings. A recent study out of the University at Buffalo Department of Communication, Michigan State University, and the University of Texas, Austin says that playing violent video games may increase moral awareness. \"Our findings suggest that emotional experiences evoked by media exposure can increase the intuitive foundations upon which human beings make moral judgments.\" Says Matthew Grizzard, one of the study’s authors. Imagine it like a low stakes practice run; simulated opportunities to practice moral and ethical decision making can teach individuals to iterate their initial reactions and make better choices in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Jerome and Donna Allender’s new book \u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Young-Mind-Teachers-Adolescents/dp/1612056822/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404922459&sr=8-2&keywords=Donna+Allender\">\u003ci>Ethics for the Young Mind: A Guide for Teachers and Parents of Children Becoming Adolescents\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, they write about the importance and challenges involved in teaching ethics. Their work reminds us that it all comes down to considering “responses to otherness.” When the bell rings at the end of the day, isn’t this what school is all about? We not only want to raise caring individuals, but we also want to provide our students with the skills necessary to maintain fulfilled work-a-day lives. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "A School That Ditches All the Rules, But Not the Rigor",
"title": "A School That Ditches All the Rules, But Not the Rigor",
"headTitle": "MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36648\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-6.01.37-PM-640x321.png\" alt=\"PlayMaker School\" width=\"640\" height=\"321\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PlayMaker School\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How can we make school a joyful experience without sacrificing rigor? What's the best way to measure true learning? What's the purpose of school? The founders and teachers at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.playmaker.org/\" target=\"_blank\">PlayMaker School\u003c/a> (watch the \u003ca href=\"http://wp.me/p2io8W-9yz\" target=\"_blank\">PBS Newshour report by April Brown\u003c/a>), an all-game based school in Los Angeles, are asking those big, abstract questions that all teachers grapple with. And they're trying to find their own answers through their constantly morphing, complex experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are their thoughts about these issues, in their own words, from extended answers to the PBS NewsHour report. How can teachers, parents, and administrators these ideologies to existing public schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON RIGOR\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Tedd Wakeman/PlayMaker co-teacher\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve always defined, as an educational community, rigor as being a lot of hard drudgery, what we consider really hard work, taking engagement and interests completely out of the equation and saying, \"If we see kids who are sitting at their desks and they're just writing\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36639\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36639\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.56.10-PM-300x168.png\" alt=\"Tedd Wakeman\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tedd Wakeman\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>a ton or they're doing a bunch of research, if they just look kind of upset, if they look like they are not enjoying themselves, then there is rigorous things going on in that classroom.\" That’s a real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need to stop defining rigor as busywork, as kids knuckling down to the pressure and the drudgery of school. At the end of the year, there is this huge binder of notes and diagrams from PowerPoint exhibits, stuff that kids worked all year on. I’ve talked to kids here who have produced an artifact like that. To the outside community, even in many ways to the inside community, that looks rigorous because, look at what you produced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when we talk to those kids, when we ask, \"What are your retaining from this? What do you feel, what are some of the big concepts that you came away with, and how are you applying those in your life in your lives every day,\" they can’t tell you. They know that they did this thing and they got a good grade on it but they can’t tell you what they are going to do with that. And yet to the more traditional educational community, that’s viewed as rigor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We would much rather define rigor as the pursuit of solving a really difficult task that you care about solving. And that persistence can be taught in that way as opposed to, \"Yeah, let’s teach kids persistence by having them do this thing that they couldn’t care less about, but it’s really hard and just if you can survive it, that’s persistence.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Lucien Vattel, CEO and founder of Game Desk, and Playmaker\u003c/em> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think of rigor in a very hyper-dimensional way. It's not just acquisition, which is what a lot schools especially at the K-12 level focus on -- the ability to retain intellectual knowledge to be able to communicate that intellectual knowledge back. That works very well for the test-taking society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a highly knowledgeable and highly adaptive, self-driven, well-rounded human being. That is my definition of rigor. What we get at is the absolute best route to rigor because the information is not changing. We are not teaching less -- in many cases we are teaching more -- it’s \u003cem>how\u003c/em> we are teaching it and what kinds of additional knowledge skills and abilities are\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36646\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36646\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.51.55-PM-e1404351472647-300x181.png\" alt=\"Lucien Vattel \" width=\"300\" height=\"181\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lucien Vattel\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>enabled by engaging it in an interactive, authentic way that's more life reflective, that gets us to a person who can be driven by their own passions, who can understand things at a complex level to be able to engage in discourse at a complex level and to be able to negotiate that information and their emotions, and their interpersonal relationships, and inter-business relationships at a high level. So if you think about that level of rigor, all of those skills at that adaptive level lead to entrepreneurialism, lead to the ability to lead in a variety of contexts, take on very complex and deeply difficult situations, to be able to take on new situations and also be able to engage in what you’ve learned in a way that allows you to perfect your knowledge so that it never stops and that you are constantly driven to do. That, to me, that’s rigor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON HOW TO MEASURE LEARNING\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Tedd Wakeman/PlayMaker co-teacher\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are trying to prepare kids for a future where the problems are problems that we can’t really even imagine. That’s a really difficult task, and certainly isn’t going to be solved using the techniques that created those problems. It's certainly not going to be solved using the strategies and approaches to education that we employed in the 1950s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does sitting in desks, and an authoritarian teacher, kids in rows facing the chalkboard, regurgitating information, what does that produce? What do grades produce in kids? Do they produce kids that are curious and creative and want to take risks? Or do they produce kids who know how to get the A and are going to just to do that, and real self esteem issues for those kids who can’t get the As.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean when we try to define lifelong learning? We’re preparing kids to be lifelong learners, then we don’t prepare them for that by developing strategies that actually have them hate learning and equate hatred with school?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time they get out of 12\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> grade -- and granted there are people around the country that are doing good things, and there are memorable teachers along that path and memorable classes, certainly -- but as an educational community as a whole, why are kids surviving this? It’s happening \u003cem>to\u003c/em> them. So the reason that [PlayMaker School] works is because agency and value and relevance are things that we all value as adults. Why on earth would we not value them as kids?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36641\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36641\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.49.27-PM-640x323.png\" alt=\"PlayMaker\" width=\"640\" height=\"323\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PlayMaker School\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON REACHING TEACHERS' OWN DEFINED STANDARDS\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tedd Wakeman/PlayMaker co-teacher\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Developing those first principles [in our school] -- what are you trying to achieve -- and having some sort of set of beliefs, ideal things that you are not willing to budge on, for us that’s engagement. For us, that’s problem solving, creating meaning, making connections, and that’s all driven by a sense of curiosity, persistence and creativity. If you take those fundamental beliefs, and everything that you create, you hold them up to that and you say, \"Are we hitting this?\" Are we hitting this every day, and then taking a playful approach? Think about what’s engaging. Be willing to change it when it doesn’t work. Be willing to allow the kids to change it. Be willing to allow the kids to have agency in that process. Don’t make them passive members of this unit that you are hanging out with every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it is hard if you are bound by standards, if you are bound by test scores, if you are bound by all these things. I won’t dance around it… I will tell you, \"Stand up, it’s time to revolutionize this.\" There are people that are sort of enforcing these rules and regulations on education, the barnacles that have attached themselves to education. We’ve got to scrape those off. So question, question, question. And I think we can make a real change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOL\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Nolan Windham, 11 years old, 6\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> grade in Playmaker. \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nOne of the differences here is that knowledge and facts are not what everything is based around. Yeah, it can be interesting to know when Christopher Columbus settled America, but it’s not\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36643\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36643\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.48.10-PM-300x178.png\" alt=\"Nolan Windham\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Windham\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>really going to be that useful in those situations and there's something called Google that you can use to look that up anytime you want… I’m not saying that facts are not important. Those are definitely important, like your times tables, like basic facts and things that will actually be useful and are definitely important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the main things that we're doing this year is we’re figuring how to learn that, but also to think about what that means. We’re thinking about how when we take in information, how to process it and how to create information and how to create media, how to create different things, and that’s what you are doing in your adult life. You're taking in things, you're taking in information, you're taking in food, you're taking in money and you're giving out services, ideas like physical labor. Just all of those things you are giving and taking in, but here you are really learning the internal processing. How all these things work together and what they mean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If everyone could do [have self-directed learning], I think that there would be so many more people that actually like school. Like I remember there was one parent from last year, a lot of them were nervous even this year, [thinking] 'I’m not sure if this is going to work. I’m not sure, how are you guys just playing games all day? Are you guys just doing things for fun are you actually learning anything? And are you taking tests, are you looking at papers?'\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, we’re doing that but it doesn’t mean that we’re not learning. It’s just a different way. Just because we’re not using papers, just because it’s not traditional means that it doesn’t work. I mean change is necessary. This is really, this is really old type of learning. This was great for back in the 1900s when you needed a system of people that knew math and writing and all those basic things that you need, and it worked really well for that, but it never changed. We never evolved with the rest of the people on earth changing as well, and that’s what I think this is. I think this is really evolving with that. So when the year was over, the parent was so happy and they said, \"I’ve never seen my kid so excited to go to school.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Isaac \u003cstrong>Prevatt\u003c/strong>, 12 years old. \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing I really love, the thing where you are doing stuff that you love doing, at the end of the day, you're like, 'Oh my gosh I just learned so much stuff today,' but you didn’t feel like you were doing it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36644\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36644\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-6.02.53-PM-300x173.png\" alt=\"Isaac Prevatt \" width=\"300\" height=\"173\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isaac Prevatt\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So like the last couple of days we did the thing called Geo-Guesser. It teaches you to expand your mind to think about things differently. For instance, normally when I’m walking down the street, I see a sign and I don’t really care because I’m not driving. But when you play this game, you see a stop sign, let’s think about this. So it’s not written in English, let’s figure out what language this is. Put it in Google translate and figure it out. That’s one thing that they are really trying to incorporate this year, is thinking about things differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the electives I have is yearbook and I always go in there and talk to 7\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> and 8\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> graders, and they're like, 'Wow, are you seriously 12?' They really see a difference in me maturing, and I really feel a difference. I feel like it’s really being thoughtful, you're not just learning, you're really learning it in a different perspective than normally, and I feel like that’s really made a huge difference.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn more about the PlayMaker School, watch the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/07/at-this-school-its-all-about-play-game-based-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">PBS NewsHour report\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Image credit: Greg Waigand for top image; Mike Fritz for all other images.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "How can we make school a joyful experience without sacrificing rigor? What's the best way to measure true learning? What's the purpose of school? The founders and teachers at the PlayMaker School, an all-game based school in Los Angeles, are asking those big, hairy questions that all teachers grapple with. At the PlayMaker School, they're trying to find their own answers through their constantly morphing, complex experiment. Here are their thoughts about these issues, in their own words.",
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"description": "How can we make school a joyful experience without sacrificing rigor? What's the best way to measure true learning? What's the purpose of school? The founders and teachers at the PlayMaker School, an all-game based school in Los Angeles, are asking those big, hairy questions that all teachers grapple with. At the PlayMaker School, they're trying to find their own answers through their constantly morphing, complex experiment. Here are their thoughts about these issues, in their own words.",
"title": "A School That Ditches All the Rules, But Not the Rigor | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36648\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36648\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-6.01.37-PM-640x321.png\" alt=\"PlayMaker School\" width=\"640\" height=\"321\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PlayMaker School\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How can we make school a joyful experience without sacrificing rigor? What's the best way to measure true learning? What's the purpose of school? The founders and teachers at the \u003ca href=\"http://www.playmaker.org/\" target=\"_blank\">PlayMaker School\u003c/a> (watch the \u003ca href=\"http://wp.me/p2io8W-9yz\" target=\"_blank\">PBS Newshour report by April Brown\u003c/a>), an all-game based school in Los Angeles, are asking those big, abstract questions that all teachers grapple with. And they're trying to find their own answers through their constantly morphing, complex experiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are their thoughts about these issues, in their own words, from extended answers to the PBS NewsHour report. How can teachers, parents, and administrators these ideologies to existing public schools?\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON RIGOR\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Tedd Wakeman/PlayMaker co-teacher\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve always defined, as an educational community, rigor as being a lot of hard drudgery, what we consider really hard work, taking engagement and interests completely out of the equation and saying, \"If we see kids who are sitting at their desks and they're just writing\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36639\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36639\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.56.10-PM-300x168.png\" alt=\"Tedd Wakeman\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tedd Wakeman\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>a ton or they're doing a bunch of research, if they just look kind of upset, if they look like they are not enjoying themselves, then there is rigorous things going on in that classroom.\" That’s a real problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need to stop defining rigor as busywork, as kids knuckling down to the pressure and the drudgery of school. At the end of the year, there is this huge binder of notes and diagrams from PowerPoint exhibits, stuff that kids worked all year on. I’ve talked to kids here who have produced an artifact like that. To the outside community, even in many ways to the inside community, that looks rigorous because, look at what you produced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when we talk to those kids, when we ask, \"What are your retaining from this? What do you feel, what are some of the big concepts that you came away with, and how are you applying those in your life in your lives every day,\" they can’t tell you. They know that they did this thing and they got a good grade on it but they can’t tell you what they are going to do with that. And yet to the more traditional educational community, that’s viewed as rigor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We would much rather define rigor as the pursuit of solving a really difficult task that you care about solving. And that persistence can be taught in that way as opposed to, \"Yeah, let’s teach kids persistence by having them do this thing that they couldn’t care less about, but it’s really hard and just if you can survive it, that’s persistence.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Lucien Vattel, CEO and founder of Game Desk, and Playmaker\u003c/em> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think of rigor in a very hyper-dimensional way. It's not just acquisition, which is what a lot schools especially at the K-12 level focus on -- the ability to retain intellectual knowledge to be able to communicate that intellectual knowledge back. That works very well for the test-taking society.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a highly knowledgeable and highly adaptive, self-driven, well-rounded human being. That is my definition of rigor. What we get at is the absolute best route to rigor because the information is not changing. We are not teaching less -- in many cases we are teaching more -- it’s \u003cem>how\u003c/em> we are teaching it and what kinds of additional knowledge skills and abilities are\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36646\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36646\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.51.55-PM-e1404351472647-300x181.png\" alt=\"Lucien Vattel \" width=\"300\" height=\"181\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lucien Vattel\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>enabled by engaging it in an interactive, authentic way that's more life reflective, that gets us to a person who can be driven by their own passions, who can understand things at a complex level to be able to engage in discourse at a complex level and to be able to negotiate that information and their emotions, and their interpersonal relationships, and inter-business relationships at a high level. So if you think about that level of rigor, all of those skills at that adaptive level lead to entrepreneurialism, lead to the ability to lead in a variety of contexts, take on very complex and deeply difficult situations, to be able to take on new situations and also be able to engage in what you’ve learned in a way that allows you to perfect your knowledge so that it never stops and that you are constantly driven to do. That, to me, that’s rigor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON HOW TO MEASURE LEARNING\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Tedd Wakeman/PlayMaker co-teacher\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are trying to prepare kids for a future where the problems are problems that we can’t really even imagine. That’s a really difficult task, and certainly isn’t going to be solved using the techniques that created those problems. It's certainly not going to be solved using the strategies and approaches to education that we employed in the 1950s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does sitting in desks, and an authoritarian teacher, kids in rows facing the chalkboard, regurgitating information, what does that produce? What do grades produce in kids? Do they produce kids that are curious and creative and want to take risks? Or do they produce kids who know how to get the A and are going to just to do that, and real self esteem issues for those kids who can’t get the As.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean when we try to define lifelong learning? We’re preparing kids to be lifelong learners, then we don’t prepare them for that by developing strategies that actually have them hate learning and equate hatred with school?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time they get out of 12\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> grade -- and granted there are people around the country that are doing good things, and there are memorable teachers along that path and memorable classes, certainly -- but as an educational community as a whole, why are kids surviving this? It’s happening \u003cem>to\u003c/em> them. So the reason that [PlayMaker School] works is because agency and value and relevance are things that we all value as adults. Why on earth would we not value them as kids?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36641\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36641\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.49.27-PM-640x323.png\" alt=\"PlayMaker\" width=\"640\" height=\"323\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PlayMaker School\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON REACHING TEACHERS' OWN DEFINED STANDARDS\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tedd Wakeman/PlayMaker co-teacher\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Developing those first principles [in our school] -- what are you trying to achieve -- and having some sort of set of beliefs, ideal things that you are not willing to budge on, for us that’s engagement. For us, that’s problem solving, creating meaning, making connections, and that’s all driven by a sense of curiosity, persistence and creativity. If you take those fundamental beliefs, and everything that you create, you hold them up to that and you say, \"Are we hitting this?\" Are we hitting this every day, and then taking a playful approach? Think about what’s engaging. Be willing to change it when it doesn’t work. Be willing to allow the kids to change it. Be willing to allow the kids to have agency in that process. Don’t make them passive members of this unit that you are hanging out with every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it is hard if you are bound by standards, if you are bound by test scores, if you are bound by all these things. I won’t dance around it… I will tell you, \"Stand up, it’s time to revolutionize this.\" There are people that are sort of enforcing these rules and regulations on education, the barnacles that have attached themselves to education. We’ve got to scrape those off. So question, question, question. And I think we can make a real change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>ON THE PURPOSE OF SCHOOL\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Nolan Windham, 11 years old, 6\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> grade in Playmaker. \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nOne of the differences here is that knowledge and facts are not what everything is based around. Yeah, it can be interesting to know when Christopher Columbus settled America, but it’s not\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36643\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36643\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-5.48.10-PM-300x178.png\" alt=\"Nolan Windham\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Windham\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>really going to be that useful in those situations and there's something called Google that you can use to look that up anytime you want… I’m not saying that facts are not important. Those are definitely important, like your times tables, like basic facts and things that will actually be useful and are definitely important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the main things that we're doing this year is we’re figuring how to learn that, but also to think about what that means. We’re thinking about how when we take in information, how to process it and how to create information and how to create media, how to create different things, and that’s what you are doing in your adult life. You're taking in things, you're taking in information, you're taking in food, you're taking in money and you're giving out services, ideas like physical labor. Just all of those things you are giving and taking in, but here you are really learning the internal processing. How all these things work together and what they mean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If everyone could do [have self-directed learning], I think that there would be so many more people that actually like school. Like I remember there was one parent from last year, a lot of them were nervous even this year, [thinking] 'I’m not sure if this is going to work. I’m not sure, how are you guys just playing games all day? Are you guys just doing things for fun are you actually learning anything? And are you taking tests, are you looking at papers?'\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, we’re doing that but it doesn’t mean that we’re not learning. It’s just a different way. Just because we’re not using papers, just because it’s not traditional means that it doesn’t work. I mean change is necessary. This is really, this is really old type of learning. This was great for back in the 1900s when you needed a system of people that knew math and writing and all those basic things that you need, and it worked really well for that, but it never changed. We never evolved with the rest of the people on earth changing as well, and that’s what I think this is. I think this is really evolving with that. So when the year was over, the parent was so happy and they said, \"I’ve never seen my kid so excited to go to school.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Isaac \u003cstrong>Prevatt\u003c/strong>, 12 years old. \u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One thing I really love, the thing where you are doing stuff that you love doing, at the end of the day, you're like, 'Oh my gosh I just learned so much stuff today,' but you didn’t feel like you were doing it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36644\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36644\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-02-at-6.02.53-PM-300x173.png\" alt=\"Isaac Prevatt \" width=\"300\" height=\"173\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Isaac Prevatt\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So like the last couple of days we did the thing called Geo-Guesser. It teaches you to expand your mind to think about things differently. For instance, normally when I’m walking down the street, I see a sign and I don’t really care because I’m not driving. But when you play this game, you see a stop sign, let’s think about this. So it’s not written in English, let’s figure out what language this is. Put it in Google translate and figure it out. That’s one thing that they are really trying to incorporate this year, is thinking about things differently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the electives I have is yearbook and I always go in there and talk to 7\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> and 8\u003csup>th\u003c/sup> graders, and they're like, 'Wow, are you seriously 12?' They really see a difference in me maturing, and I really feel a difference. I feel like it’s really being thoughtful, you're not just learning, you're really learning it in a different perspective than normally, and I feel like that’s really made a huge difference.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn more about the PlayMaker School, watch the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/07/at-this-school-its-all-about-play-game-based-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">PBS NewsHour report\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Imagine a school where the students' day revolves around playing games, all day long. Video games, live action role-playing games, board games, building games. At the PlayMaker School in Los Angeles, the school day takes kids from one game activity to the next, as they explore any number of different subjects and ideas, from the physics of flight to ancient Mesopotamian culture. \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/6th-graders-develop-video-game-mini-businesses-class-project/\" target=\"_blank\">PBS NewsHour's April Brown\u003c/a> gives us a glimpse into this otherworldly school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003cbr>\n[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPhC2Fw4tTQ&w=640&h=360]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003cbr>\nThe students at the PlayMaker school don't just play games -- they design, code and market their own video games as part of a class project. The school is designed around all types of game play, including high-tech, low-tech and no-tech. Watch how and why this evolves within the school day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBq8B_ozWO4&w=640&h=360]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Imagine a school where the students' day revolves around playing games, all day long. Video games, live action role-playing games, board games, building games. At the PlayMaker School in Los Angeles, the school day takes kids from one game activity to the next, as they explore any number of different subjects and ideas, from the physics of flight to ancient Mesopotamian culture. \u003ca href=\"http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/6th-graders-develop-video-game-mini-businesses-class-project/\" target=\"_blank\">PBS NewsHour's April Brown\u003c/a> gives us a glimpse into this otherworldly school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/kPhC2Fw4tTQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/kPhC2Fw4tTQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003cbr>\nThe students at the PlayMaker school don't just play games -- they design, code and market their own video games as part of a class project. The school is designed around all types of game play, including high-tech, low-tech and no-tech. Watch how and why this evolves within the school day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/OBq8B_ozWO4'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/OBq8B_ozWO4'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Games Can Advance Education: A Conversation With James Paul Gee",
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"headTitle": "The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning | MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36573\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36573\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654.jpg\" alt=\"Getty\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getty\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 10 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Most people involved with games and learning are familiar with the work of \u003ca href=\"http://www.jamespaulgee.com/\" target=\"_blank\">James Paul Gee\u003c/a>. A researcher in the field of theoretical linguistics, he argues for the consideration of multiple kinds of literacy. The notion of “New Literacies” expands the conception of literacy beyond books and reading to include visual symbols and other types of representation made possible through, among other things, current digital technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point in the evolution of education, it's critical that we expand our conception of literacy to include more than just words. In fact, we may need to reimagine how we nurture early literacy to make sure we provide a foundation not only for reading, but also for “New Literacies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gee is included in this series because outside of academic psycholinguistics circles, he's especially well known for his work on video games. He’s written and edited many books on game-based learning and education. He’s influenced countless game designers and educators. Some of his theories have provided the foundation for many of the ideas I’ve covered in this series, especially those having to do with systems thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following conversation with Gee, we discuss literacy, systems thinking, education, socio-economic inequality, and, of course, video games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jordan Shapiro: Your book, \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>, \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>is a classic in games and learning circles. It is rare that I meet a game developer who doesn’t mention it. Did you expect it to have such a big impact when you wrote it?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James Paul Gee:\u003c/b> No, I did not expect such a big impact. I wrote the book because my then six-year-old’s gaming turned me on to try an adult game. I had never played video games before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was, at first, truly amazed by how hard and long they were. To learn to play them well required a great deal of persistence past failure. Eventually, I loved playing games and realized that if I did not write about them I would not have an academic career anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: One of key concepts in the book is that literacy is about more than just reading words. I find that it is a bit of a leap for people who aren’t familiar with linguistics to grasp that idea. These days we talk about “digital literacy” and “financial literacy” as if it just means “competency.” But it is more complicated than that. Can you briefly explain how literacy and systems thinking are related?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"We cannot change our society in one fell swoop. Sneak in, move quietly, attack unseen, put away the suit—be a snake.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>The human brain devotes only one special function to reading (namely, decoding sounds into letters and vice-versa). Otherwise, all the mental capacities that we use to understand and give meaning to print are the very same ones we use to understand and give meaning to oral language and to the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Current work on the mind argues that words gain meaning from experiences we have had in the world. We use our previous experiences to build simulations (images and actions) that we attach to words to assign them contextually appropriate meanings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, then, video games are like an external version of the mind. When we understand things and plan actions we run game-like role-playing simulations in our heads. In a sense, our mind is a game engine. We can combine elements from disparate experiences and create fantasies and think through complex problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>System thinking involves being able to think in terms of complex interacting variables that make a system more than the sum of its parts. We most certainly want to see much of the social and natural world in these terms, since being stupid about systems (e.g., global warming) can lead to nasty unintended consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video games are complex systems composed of rules that interact. Gamers must think like a designer and form hypotheses about how the rules interact so they can accomplish goals and even bring about emergent results. Thinking like a designer in order to understand systems is a core 21st Century skill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Okay, so systems thinking is related to literacy, but certainly playing video games won’t teach kids how to read books, will it? In fact, the way you’re talking about literacy, it applies to more than just the language arts. And thinking in this way about literacy makes it easy to see that STEM and ELA are fundamentally both just semiotic systems. Why is this concept so important to the future of education? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>Understanding oral and written language involves essentially running video-game like simulations in our heads. We run problem-based simulations where we try out various actions in our heads (as ourselves or someone else) and gauge their possible consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A game manual is given meaning by the game world it is about, not by a dictionary. A physics textbook is a “game manual” for the actions, experiences, and problem solving that physicists engage in. The textbook, too, is given meaning by the “game” and the world it is played in (a somewhat different world than our everyday world, since physicists, thanks to their tools, can see things like electrons).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In school, we give people texts when they have not had enough experience in the worlds the texts are about, the experiences that give the texts meaning. It is as if we were to give kids game manuals without the games. It only works for kids who are getting a lot of experiences at home—backed up by lots of talk with adults about these experiences, talk which helps the kids learn to map language on to experience and vice-versa—but it is disastrous for less advantaged kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it is STEM or ELA, if we do not deliver the game, but only the text, we do not get problem solvers and system thinkers, we get, at best, paper-and-pencil test passers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Clearly, you’re not just proposing that we throw video games into the existing educational landscape willy nilly, are you? It is not that games are going to improve test scores or content retention. You’re suggesting we need to fundamentally change the way we think about learning--or at least the way we think about what and how we TEACH. Can you explain?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>Yes and Amen\u003cb>. \u003c/b>Games can be used—like any other technology—to instantiate the current paradigm of mindless testing, punitive accountability, and fact-based education untied to thinking or problem solving. However, this is like using a machine gun to kill an ant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Games and other related technologies—together of course with talk and texts—have the potential to radically change the paradigm and unless we do change the paradigm they will just be co-opted by the current grammar of schooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"52e2e87a7242e283de52ab5570606319\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schools today contribute to our massive inequality by providing (some of) the rich with a good education and the poor with test-prep to fit them for future service jobs. In the face of making profit and competing with near monopolies, it is easy to sell out and become part of the problem and not part of the solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a reason why the great game heroes we love (e.g., Solid Snake, Gordon Freeman, Lara Croft, Mario) don’t wear suits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: It seems to me, then, that your message is more about learning from games than it is about using games. Am I correct? Your (and my) vision of a utopian school doesn’t look like a video game convention full of kids clutching joysticks. So, if you had to pick one primary way of thinking about learning/teaching that our schools should appropriate from video game developers--the big soundbite takeaway--what would it be? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> I want to bring rich, well-mentored, well-designed learning systems to school. These systems would connect digital tools, other technologies, interactions, talk, and text (each being used for what they are best for) to marry experience and language in the name of problem-solving and design thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36569\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 254px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36569\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/gjames_l.jpg\" alt=\"James Paul Gee\" width=\"254\" height=\"237\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Paul Gee\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Still, video games can be one tool that’s used in the classroom, right? It is possible to design really impactful game-based learning platforms, isn’t it? In addition to the lessons we can learn about education from video games, do you think we should continue to integrate games into some parts of the school curricula? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>Of course. But I am against any one tool (think textbook) being used for everything. I want all the best tools we have used in concert with each other to create collective intelligence. I want tools to be recruited in a learning system to do the jobs for which they are best fitted (which might be different in differently designed learning systems).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, games are often good for preparation for future learning, motivation, and getting lots of practice in core skills and concepts at an experiential level. They can be good, as well, at helping learners to form non-cognitive skills like passion-fueled persistence past failure in the name of copious deliberate (thoughtful, strategic) practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: How about on a practical everyday level? Teachers are operating within an environment that you’ve called a “toxic mess.” They might change the way they think about education and literacy, but actually changing the way they teach is a much bigger challenge. Parents and politicians say they want to fix education, but they stubbornly resist anything that looks like a paradigm shift. Do you have any suggestions for how teachers might begin to make incremental changes within a maddening infrastructure?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> The goal is not to make the prison better, it is to let the prisoners (students and teachers) free. Our society today is a mess. We have the highest level of inequality we have ever had. We readily ignore and even disdain evidence (e.g., global warming, evolution). We have a casino capitalism unmoored from productivity or social good. School reform has very little to do with schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no other silver bullets. The problem of making school good for everyone is one of having the \u003ci>social will\u003c/i> to gain more equality in our society, to honor more than money and status, and to give everyone the right to be a producer and participant--not just a consumer and spectator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We keep talking about schools and teachers, because we do not want to talk about society, ourselves, and the craven way we have empowered the rich, corporations, and rampant social Darwinism. We cannot change our society in one fell swoop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sneak in, move quietly, attack unseen, put away the suit—be a snake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: In your most recent book, \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning, \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>you express a lot of concern about how technology is integrated into schools. What is it that worries you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>What worries me is the way in which we in the United States have enshrined human stupidity. In an age where interacting complex systems are killing us with the consequences of greed and stupidity, we regularly disdain evidence and honor ideology. Lots of Americans believe the Earth is about 6000 years old, do not believe in evolution, and think that Christianity was about wealth and a form of social Darwinism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For me, evidence means trying to do something in the world (as an everyday person or a scientist) and paying close and respectful attention to how the world responds to our “probe.” Is its response good for our goals or should we rethink and act again in a new way? When we disrespect the world, the world bites back and, boy, is it biting back now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our current situation is now too dire and the complexity of the world is now too great for us to any longer rely on traditional silo-based notions of expertise (look what Alan Greenspan did to the global economy).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need collective intelligence where we view humans, in mind and body, as plug and play devices that get smart only when they are plugged into good tools, good people, and good practices in the service of pooling knowledge and diversity to make the world a better place. Games like \u003ci>Foldit\u003c/i> or things like \u003ci>Galaxy Zoo\u003c/i> are already interesting beginnings here. Digital and social media can niche our silos into pure echo chambers or they can create worlds of new experiences and possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: What do parents and educators need to know about the future of education and the future of game-based learning? Some things about edtech are inevitable, are there places where we need to be especially mindful?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> When I say in talks that Armageddon is upon us, people laugh and dismiss the claim as far-fetched. But the reality is Armageddon has already come for untold millions of people in the world who are starving and dying as the consequences of global warming, the global economy, and conflicts over resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is clear from massive amounts of research that while we cannot predict what will happen in the future—because we have created a swarm of black swans due our greed and stupidity—we can say it will be a time of great change and transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People and institutions will have to be resilient and change with change. They will have to gain very real skills with critical thinking and complexity in order not to be dupes and victims of the rich, corporations, media, and governments. They must become activists, knowers, producers, and participants and plug into and play with right team of people and tools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This requires ethical thinking and a vision for a better world. People must become proactive, deliberate learners in and out of school and for their lifetimes. Good parents and good teachers must mentor them to be such deliberate, strategic, and ethical learners. Then people will face the future as gamers gaming systems to mod our world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Anything else you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> Don’t trust people in suits who don’t game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36573\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36573\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654.jpg\" alt=\"Getty\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/462354351-e1403928907654-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Getty\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 10 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Most people involved with games and learning are familiar with the work of \u003ca href=\"http://www.jamespaulgee.com/\" target=\"_blank\">James Paul Gee\u003c/a>. A researcher in the field of theoretical linguistics, he argues for the consideration of multiple kinds of literacy. The notion of “New Literacies” expands the conception of literacy beyond books and reading to include visual symbols and other types of representation made possible through, among other things, current digital technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point in the evolution of education, it's critical that we expand our conception of literacy to include more than just words. In fact, we may need to reimagine how we nurture early literacy to make sure we provide a foundation not only for reading, but also for “New Literacies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gee is included in this series because outside of academic psycholinguistics circles, he's especially well known for his work on video games. He’s written and edited many books on game-based learning and education. He’s influenced countless game designers and educators. Some of his theories have provided the foundation for many of the ideas I’ve covered in this series, especially those having to do with systems thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following conversation with Gee, we discuss literacy, systems thinking, education, socio-economic inequality, and, of course, video games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jordan Shapiro: Your book, \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>, \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>is a classic in games and learning circles. It is rare that I meet a game developer who doesn’t mention it. Did you expect it to have such a big impact when you wrote it?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>James Paul Gee:\u003c/b> No, I did not expect such a big impact. I wrote the book because my then six-year-old’s gaming turned me on to try an adult game. I had never played video games before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was, at first, truly amazed by how hard and long they were. To learn to play them well required a great deal of persistence past failure. Eventually, I loved playing games and realized that if I did not write about them I would not have an academic career anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: One of key concepts in the book is that literacy is about more than just reading words. I find that it is a bit of a leap for people who aren’t familiar with linguistics to grasp that idea. These days we talk about “digital literacy” and “financial literacy” as if it just means “competency.” But it is more complicated than that. Can you briefly explain how literacy and systems thinking are related?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"We cannot change our society in one fell swoop. Sneak in, move quietly, attack unseen, put away the suit—be a snake.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>The human brain devotes only one special function to reading (namely, decoding sounds into letters and vice-versa). Otherwise, all the mental capacities that we use to understand and give meaning to print are the very same ones we use to understand and give meaning to oral language and to the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Current work on the mind argues that words gain meaning from experiences we have had in the world. We use our previous experiences to build simulations (images and actions) that we attach to words to assign them contextually appropriate meanings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, then, video games are like an external version of the mind. When we understand things and plan actions we run game-like role-playing simulations in our heads. In a sense, our mind is a game engine. We can combine elements from disparate experiences and create fantasies and think through complex problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>System thinking involves being able to think in terms of complex interacting variables that make a system more than the sum of its parts. We most certainly want to see much of the social and natural world in these terms, since being stupid about systems (e.g., global warming) can lead to nasty unintended consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Video games are complex systems composed of rules that interact. Gamers must think like a designer and form hypotheses about how the rules interact so they can accomplish goals and even bring about emergent results. Thinking like a designer in order to understand systems is a core 21st Century skill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Okay, so systems thinking is related to literacy, but certainly playing video games won’t teach kids how to read books, will it? In fact, the way you’re talking about literacy, it applies to more than just the language arts. And thinking in this way about literacy makes it easy to see that STEM and ELA are fundamentally both just semiotic systems. Why is this concept so important to the future of education? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>Understanding oral and written language involves essentially running video-game like simulations in our heads. We run problem-based simulations where we try out various actions in our heads (as ourselves or someone else) and gauge their possible consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A game manual is given meaning by the game world it is about, not by a dictionary. A physics textbook is a “game manual” for the actions, experiences, and problem solving that physicists engage in. The textbook, too, is given meaning by the “game” and the world it is played in (a somewhat different world than our everyday world, since physicists, thanks to their tools, can see things like electrons).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In school, we give people texts when they have not had enough experience in the worlds the texts are about, the experiences that give the texts meaning. It is as if we were to give kids game manuals without the games. It only works for kids who are getting a lot of experiences at home—backed up by lots of talk with adults about these experiences, talk which helps the kids learn to map language on to experience and vice-versa—but it is disastrous for less advantaged kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether it is STEM or ELA, if we do not deliver the game, but only the text, we do not get problem solvers and system thinkers, we get, at best, paper-and-pencil test passers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Clearly, you’re not just proposing that we throw video games into the existing educational landscape willy nilly, are you? It is not that games are going to improve test scores or content retention. You’re suggesting we need to fundamentally change the way we think about learning--or at least the way we think about what and how we TEACH. Can you explain?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>Yes and Amen\u003cb>. \u003c/b>Games can be used—like any other technology—to instantiate the current paradigm of mindless testing, punitive accountability, and fact-based education untied to thinking or problem solving. However, this is like using a machine gun to kill an ant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Games and other related technologies—together of course with talk and texts—have the potential to radically change the paradigm and unless we do change the paradigm they will just be co-opted by the current grammar of schooling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schools today contribute to our massive inequality by providing (some of) the rich with a good education and the poor with test-prep to fit them for future service jobs. In the face of making profit and competing with near monopolies, it is easy to sell out and become part of the problem and not part of the solution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is a reason why the great game heroes we love (e.g., Solid Snake, Gordon Freeman, Lara Croft, Mario) don’t wear suits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: It seems to me, then, that your message is more about learning from games than it is about using games. Am I correct? Your (and my) vision of a utopian school doesn’t look like a video game convention full of kids clutching joysticks. So, if you had to pick one primary way of thinking about learning/teaching that our schools should appropriate from video game developers--the big soundbite takeaway--what would it be? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> I want to bring rich, well-mentored, well-designed learning systems to school. These systems would connect digital tools, other technologies, interactions, talk, and text (each being used for what they are best for) to marry experience and language in the name of problem-solving and design thinking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36569\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 254px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36569\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/gjames_l.jpg\" alt=\"James Paul Gee\" width=\"254\" height=\"237\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Paul Gee\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Still, video games can be one tool that’s used in the classroom, right? It is possible to design really impactful game-based learning platforms, isn’t it? In addition to the lessons we can learn about education from video games, do you think we should continue to integrate games into some parts of the school curricula? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>Of course. But I am against any one tool (think textbook) being used for everything. I want all the best tools we have used in concert with each other to create collective intelligence. I want tools to be recruited in a learning system to do the jobs for which they are best fitted (which might be different in differently designed learning systems).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, games are often good for preparation for future learning, motivation, and getting lots of practice in core skills and concepts at an experiential level. They can be good, as well, at helping learners to form non-cognitive skills like passion-fueled persistence past failure in the name of copious deliberate (thoughtful, strategic) practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: How about on a practical everyday level? Teachers are operating within an environment that you’ve called a “toxic mess.” They might change the way they think about education and literacy, but actually changing the way they teach is a much bigger challenge. Parents and politicians say they want to fix education, but they stubbornly resist anything that looks like a paradigm shift. Do you have any suggestions for how teachers might begin to make incremental changes within a maddening infrastructure?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> The goal is not to make the prison better, it is to let the prisoners (students and teachers) free. Our society today is a mess. We have the highest level of inequality we have ever had. We readily ignore and even disdain evidence (e.g., global warming, evolution). We have a casino capitalism unmoored from productivity or social good. School reform has very little to do with schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are no other silver bullets. The problem of making school good for everyone is one of having the \u003ci>social will\u003c/i> to gain more equality in our society, to honor more than money and status, and to give everyone the right to be a producer and participant--not just a consumer and spectator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We keep talking about schools and teachers, because we do not want to talk about society, ourselves, and the craven way we have empowered the rich, corporations, and rampant social Darwinism. We cannot change our society in one fell swoop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sneak in, move quietly, attack unseen, put away the suit—be a snake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: In your most recent book, \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning, \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003cb>you express a lot of concern about how technology is integrated into schools. What is it that worries you?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JG: \u003c/b>What worries me is the way in which we in the United States have enshrined human stupidity. In an age where interacting complex systems are killing us with the consequences of greed and stupidity, we regularly disdain evidence and honor ideology. Lots of Americans believe the Earth is about 6000 years old, do not believe in evolution, and think that Christianity was about wealth and a form of social Darwinism.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For me, evidence means trying to do something in the world (as an everyday person or a scientist) and paying close and respectful attention to how the world responds to our “probe.” Is its response good for our goals or should we rethink and act again in a new way? When we disrespect the world, the world bites back and, boy, is it biting back now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our current situation is now too dire and the complexity of the world is now too great for us to any longer rely on traditional silo-based notions of expertise (look what Alan Greenspan did to the global economy).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We need collective intelligence where we view humans, in mind and body, as plug and play devices that get smart only when they are plugged into good tools, good people, and good practices in the service of pooling knowledge and diversity to make the world a better place. Games like \u003ci>Foldit\u003c/i> or things like \u003ci>Galaxy Zoo\u003c/i> are already interesting beginnings here. Digital and social media can niche our silos into pure echo chambers or they can create worlds of new experiences and possibilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: What do parents and educators need to know about the future of education and the future of game-based learning? Some things about edtech are inevitable, are there places where we need to be especially mindful?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> When I say in talks that Armageddon is upon us, people laugh and dismiss the claim as far-fetched. But the reality is Armageddon has already come for untold millions of people in the world who are starving and dying as the consequences of global warming, the global economy, and conflicts over resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is clear from massive amounts of research that while we cannot predict what will happen in the future—because we have created a swarm of black swans due our greed and stupidity—we can say it will be a time of great change and transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People and institutions will have to be resilient and change with change. They will have to gain very real skills with critical thinking and complexity in order not to be dupes and victims of the rich, corporations, media, and governments. They must become activists, knowers, producers, and participants and plug into and play with right team of people and tools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This requires ethical thinking and a vision for a better world. People must become proactive, deliberate learners in and out of school and for their lifetimes. Good parents and good teachers must mentor them to be such deliberate, strategic, and ethical learners. Then people will face the future as gamers gaming systems to mod our world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: Anything else you want to say that I haven’t asked you about?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>JG:\u003c/strong> Don’t trust people in suits who don’t game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36477\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/annie-b68349519cea2fb1e9fa145d56cb21ea5722f827.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36477\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/annie-b68349519cea2fb1e9fa145d56cb21ea5722f827-640x479.jpg\" alt=\"League of Legends is a video game with 70 million players a month. (Riot Games, Inc)\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">League of Legends is a video game with 70 million players a month. (Riot Games, Inc)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Imagine the lede in the campus newspaper:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Eagles swept to a win last night in 100 hours of tournament gameplay. Tabbz made the absolute best usage of the shields and heals that were available to him. Froggen went for utility and pushing power, while Nyph's black shields were near perfect, and he hit a bunch of bindings. Airwak's Lee Sin kick ended the encounter with a massive multicolor explosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday morning quarterbacking will never be the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A private university in Chicago has become the first in the country to make video games a varsity sport. Robert Morris University-Illinois says it will offer between 45 and 50 athletic scholarships to competitive gamers who play an online, multiplayer battle-arena video game called \u003ca href=\"http://na.leagueoflegends.com/\">League of Legends\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kurt Melcher, the associate athletic director, has been a gamer himself. He says that in addition to the scholarships, which are worth about $19,000 each, the school will also be looking to hire a video game coach. (Unlike other team coaches, whose job is to get players to practice more and harder, Melcher told \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/23/illinois-university-makes-league-legends-varsity-sport\">\u003cem>Inside Higher Ed\u003c/em> \u003c/a>that the job for a video game coach is to exhort the team to ease up on the all-night Red Bull marathons and actually include some balance in their lives.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why League of Legends? The game has 70 million players per month and was the most popular video game in the U.S. and Europe in 2012 in terms of hours played. It's a six-year-old descendant of the game Warcraft, featuring a loose medieval/fantasy/Asian theme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Players spent \u003ca href=\"http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/19/league-of-legends-is-now-a-college-sport-and-one-university-is-offering-scholarships-for-its-team/\">$624 million\u003c/a> last year on in-game purchases like \"skins\" to modify the look and powers of their \"champions.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"LoL,\" as it's called by fans, is designed for large-scale competition, with players combining into teams to do virtual battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways the move marks yet another step in the mainstreaming of video games, which in this context are also called e-sports, within education. There's already a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cstarleague.com/sc2/news\">Collegiate Star League\u003c/a> dedicated to video gaming, with teams at 100 universities including MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. At some schools these are official student clubs, while at others they are informal groups of gamers. The RMU Eagles will be part of this league.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They'll be competing in a \u003ca href=\"http://na.lolesports.com/articles/announcing-north-american-collegiate-championship\">North American Collegiate Championship\u003c/a> with $100,000 in scholarship prizes. The players are often drawn from a High School Star League, which includes 750 schools. And just as with other college sports, they will have a chance to join the major leagues--that is, Major League Gaming, which by coincidence, held its \u003ca href=\"http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/competitions/66\">national championships\u003c/a> in Anaheim, California this past weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The connection to traditional sports raises some interesting questions. \u003ca href=\"https://edpsych.education.wisc.edu/people/faculty-staff/david-shaffer\">David Williamson Shaffer, \u003c/a>a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in educational games, says this is a sign of games as a growing \"cultural phenomenon.\" He compares the move to what many high schools have done by turning debate into a letter 'sport.'\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems to me this fulfills the goals of the university as much as any varsity sport does,\" he said. \"It provides support for students who have a passion and want to develop it toward mastery and excellence. It attracts students with talent to the university, and promotes the university through the achievements of those students.\" The promotional angle is clear here--Robert Morris University-Illinois, a school of 7000 students, reports it has received 70 applications and over 500 email inquiries since the announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only qualm Shaffer has, he said, is the existence of varsity sports in the first place, and the millions of dollars spent on them by universities around the country. \"Whether it makes sense to award scholarships to an academic institution based on performance in a sport (whether electronic or not) is less clear.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, if giving kids money to hit buttons on a controller seems strange, so is rewarding kids who are good at putting a ball through a hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>This post originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/\" target=\"_blank\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36477\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/annie-b68349519cea2fb1e9fa145d56cb21ea5722f827.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-large wp-image-36477\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/annie-b68349519cea2fb1e9fa145d56cb21ea5722f827-640x479.jpg\" alt=\"League of Legends is a video game with 70 million players a month. (Riot Games, Inc)\" width=\"640\" height=\"479\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">League of Legends is a video game with 70 million players a month. (Riot Games, Inc)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Imagine the lede in the campus newspaper:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Eagles swept to a win last night in 100 hours of tournament gameplay. Tabbz made the absolute best usage of the shields and heals that were available to him. Froggen went for utility and pushing power, while Nyph's black shields were near perfect, and he hit a bunch of bindings. Airwak's Lee Sin kick ended the encounter with a massive multicolor explosion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monday morning quarterbacking will never be the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A private university in Chicago has become the first in the country to make video games a varsity sport. Robert Morris University-Illinois says it will offer between 45 and 50 athletic scholarships to competitive gamers who play an online, multiplayer battle-arena video game called \u003ca href=\"http://na.leagueoflegends.com/\">League of Legends\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kurt Melcher, the associate athletic director, has been a gamer himself. He says that in addition to the scholarships, which are worth about $19,000 each, the school will also be looking to hire a video game coach. (Unlike other team coaches, whose job is to get players to practice more and harder, Melcher told \u003ca href=\"http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/23/illinois-university-makes-league-legends-varsity-sport\">\u003cem>Inside Higher Ed\u003c/em> \u003c/a>that the job for a video game coach is to exhort the team to ease up on the all-night Red Bull marathons and actually include some balance in their lives.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why League of Legends? The game has 70 million players per month and was the most popular video game in the U.S. and Europe in 2012 in terms of hours played. It's a six-year-old descendant of the game Warcraft, featuring a loose medieval/fantasy/Asian theme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Players spent \u003ca href=\"http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/19/league-of-legends-is-now-a-college-sport-and-one-university-is-offering-scholarships-for-its-team/\">$624 million\u003c/a> last year on in-game purchases like \"skins\" to modify the look and powers of their \"champions.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"LoL,\" as it's called by fans, is designed for large-scale competition, with players combining into teams to do virtual battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways the move marks yet another step in the mainstreaming of video games, which in this context are also called e-sports, within education. There's already a \u003ca href=\"http://www.cstarleague.com/sc2/news\">Collegiate Star League\u003c/a> dedicated to video gaming, with teams at 100 universities including MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. At some schools these are official student clubs, while at others they are informal groups of gamers. The RMU Eagles will be part of this league.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They'll be competing in a \u003ca href=\"http://na.lolesports.com/articles/announcing-north-american-collegiate-championship\">North American Collegiate Championship\u003c/a> with $100,000 in scholarship prizes. The players are often drawn from a High School Star League, which includes 750 schools. And just as with other college sports, they will have a chance to join the major leagues--that is, Major League Gaming, which by coincidence, held its \u003ca href=\"http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/competitions/66\">national championships\u003c/a> in Anaheim, California this past weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The connection to traditional sports raises some interesting questions. \u003ca href=\"https://edpsych.education.wisc.edu/people/faculty-staff/david-shaffer\">David Williamson Shaffer, \u003c/a>a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in educational games, says this is a sign of games as a growing \"cultural phenomenon.\" He compares the move to what many high schools have done by turning debate into a letter 'sport.'\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems to me this fulfills the goals of the university as much as any varsity sport does,\" he said. \"It provides support for students who have a passion and want to develop it toward mastery and excellence. It attracts students with talent to the university, and promotes the university through the achievements of those students.\" The promotional angle is clear here--Robert Morris University-Illinois, a school of 7000 students, reports it has received 70 applications and over 500 email inquiries since the announcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only qualm Shaffer has, he said, is the existence of varsity sports in the first place, and the millions of dollars spent on them by universities around the country. \"Whether it makes sense to award scholarships to an academic institution based on performance in a sport (whether electronic or not) is less clear.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, if giving kids money to hit buttons on a controller seems strange, so is rewarding kids who are good at putting a ball through a hole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>This post originally appeared on \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/\" target=\"_blank\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Games In The Classroom: What the Research Says ",
"title": "Games In The Classroom: What the Research Says ",
"headTitle": "The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning | MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36532\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851.jpg\" alt=\"Brad Flickinger\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851-400x250.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851-320x200.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad Flickinger\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 9 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">The games-and-learning landscape is changing quickly. What's happening in classrooms now will look very different in a decade, so what really matters right now is how we frame the conversation. The way we understand the expectations and promises of today’s game-based approaches will have a long-term impact on how we imagine and implement them in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's critical that teachers, parents, and administrators understand not only the research, but also the way corporations, foundations, and research organizations are thinking about games and learning. There are big players involved in researching the benefits of game-based learning in schools. Companies and foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Pearson, Inc., Electronic Arts (EA), and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) are all involved. Each has a different role in the matter and teachers have different perceptions of what those roles are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a sense of what research says about the\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/benefits-of-gaming-what-research-shows/\"> general benefits of gaming\u003c/a>, so now we'll look at summarizing a bit of the scant research that’s specific to the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the most significant research on game-based learning is done by \u003ca href=\"http://glasslabgames.org/\" target=\"_blank\">GlassLab\u003c/a> (the Games and Learning Assessment Lab), which was established with a “significant investment” from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in cooperation with the MacArthur Foundation. GlassLab designs and implements game-based formative assessments which, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sri.com/work/projects/glasslab-research\" target=\"_blank\">according to SRI\u003c/a>, “are being developed in response to the climate of student disengagement that currently exists in many classrooms.” The concept is simple: kids like video games and the hope is that “by applying Evidence Centered Design (ECD), the game-based formative assessments address the needs of both students and teachers for reliable and valid real-time actionable data within a motivating learning environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The way students play and learn today is the way they will work tomorrow.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>So far, the research seems to be showing success. The 2013 study, which is the most significant to date, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/can-students-learn-better-with-digital-games/\" target=\"_blank\">found that \u003c/a>“when digital games were compared to other instruction conditions without digital games, there was a moderate to strong effect in favor of digital games in terms of broad cognitive competencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a student sitting in the median who doesn’t have a game, his or her learning achievement would have increased by 12 percent if he or she had that game,” said Ed Dieterle, Senior Program Officer for Research, Measurement, and Evaluation for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/can-students-learn-better-with-digital-games/\">in a MindShift article last year\u003c/a>. In the world of education achievement, 12 percent is significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the same study, SRI also looked at simulations, and in those studies, students improved by 25 percent. That’s huge. But how do they define a simulation? Think of something that’s more interactive than an animated anatomy lesson and less game-like than Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sri.com/sites/default/files/publications/simulations-for-stem-learning-executive-summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">SRI report describes it this way\u003c/a>: “A computer simulation is a tool used to explore a real-world or hypothetical phenomenon or system by approximating the behavior of the phenomenon or operation of the system.” According to the SRI study, a simulation differs from a game in that it does not employ a points or “currency” based reward system and it doesn’t have level based achievement goals. In addition, simulations have an “underlying model that is based on some real-world behavior.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"c6fda31c3c651ceecf3964b91c2485d6\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/04/tapping-into-the-potential-of-video-games-and-uninhibited-play-for-learning-education/\" target=\"_blank\">promise of game-based learning\u003c/a> lies in the premise that the technology provides an efficient and effective tool with which to replace a points-based extrinsic motivation system with a contextualized hands-on learning experience. Unlike this SRI study, which uses the word “simulation” to describe this kind of learning, I’ve made the distinction between “gamification” and “game-based learning.” As I've \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/03/forget-gold-coins-and-badges-the-real-value-of-video-games-for-learning/\"> argued before,\u003c/a> “we don’t need gamification if gamification is about competition and commodification of learning, there’s no need for more commodified motivation. We don’t need more gold coins or badges.” SRI’s findings provide evidence to support this claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The key point here is that games themselves are not necessarily competitive. Play is useful because it simulates real life experience -- physical, emotional, and/or intellectual -- in a safe, iterative and social environment, not because it has winners and losers. The achievement lies in the act of learning and understanding itself. Whether or not we make a distinction between “simulation” and “games” the SRI study shows that interactive digital tools can offer an efficient means to provide effective contextualized learning experiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some of us, these findings are hardly surprising. Many teachers have already intuited how beneficial game-based learning can be. According to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/surprising-insights-how-teachers-use-games-in-the-classroom/\">the recent teacher’s survey\u003c/a> undertaken by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a>, 55 percent of students play games at least weekly and 78 percent reported using games in the classroom at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These teachers are not newbies. The 694 K-8 teachers surveyed have an average of 14.5 years of experience in the classroom. And 30 percent of the teachers said the games are equally beneficial for all students. But there also seemed to be a trend that identified games as most beneficial for “low-performing students,” “students with emotional/behavioral issues,” “student with cognitive or developmental issues.” In other words, students who have been labeled and/or diagnosed because they struggle within the traditional school environment, benefit from game-based approaches. From the study: “65 percent of teachers note that lower-performing students show increased engagement with content, versus only 3 percent who show a decrease.” This is good news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, 53 percent of teachers find that video games foster positive collaboration between students. Anyone who has watched kids play video games together has seen this trend: They give each other tips and advice, they share tricks. They teach each other to understand the games’ systems. No wonder \u003ca href=\"http://online.wsj.com/articles/youtube-star-plays-videogames-earns-4-million-a-year-1402939896\">gameplay YouTube videos are so popular\u003c/a>. Gaming inherently involves systems-thinking which is best taught through collaborative learning. Still, 52 percent of teachers assign digital games as independent activities for students. Only about a third (34 percent) “assign digital games to groups of 3-5 students.” And only 29 percent “direct the whole classroom to use digital games together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What accounts for this preference toward independent gameplay among teachers? Perhaps it is leftover residue from an old paradigm that values individual achievement over collaboration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's becoming more apparent that teachers will need to do more than just embrace new technologies. They will also need to embrace the epistemological foundations of these technologies. There are connected, networked ways of knowing that will dominate the digital future. Sharing and collaboration go hand-in-hand with integrating non-competitive and non-commodified ways of playing. The way students play and learn today is the way they will work tomorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36532\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36532\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851.jpg\" alt=\"Brad Flickinger\" width=\"640\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851-400x250.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660098369_640ec3fb64_z-e1403817664851-320x200.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad Flickinger\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 9 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">The games-and-learning landscape is changing quickly. What's happening in classrooms now will look very different in a decade, so what really matters right now is how we frame the conversation. The way we understand the expectations and promises of today’s game-based approaches will have a long-term impact on how we imagine and implement them in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's critical that teachers, parents, and administrators understand not only the research, but also the way corporations, foundations, and research organizations are thinking about games and learning. There are big players involved in researching the benefits of game-based learning in schools. Companies and foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Pearson, Inc., Electronic Arts (EA), and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) are all involved. Each has a different role in the matter and teachers have different perceptions of what those roles are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a sense of what research says about the\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/benefits-of-gaming-what-research-shows/\"> general benefits of gaming\u003c/a>, so now we'll look at summarizing a bit of the scant research that’s specific to the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the most significant research on game-based learning is done by \u003ca href=\"http://glasslabgames.org/\" target=\"_blank\">GlassLab\u003c/a> (the Games and Learning Assessment Lab), which was established with a “significant investment” from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in cooperation with the MacArthur Foundation. GlassLab designs and implements game-based formative assessments which, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sri.com/work/projects/glasslab-research\" target=\"_blank\">according to SRI\u003c/a>, “are being developed in response to the climate of student disengagement that currently exists in many classrooms.” The concept is simple: kids like video games and the hope is that “by applying Evidence Centered Design (ECD), the game-based formative assessments address the needs of both students and teachers for reliable and valid real-time actionable data within a motivating learning environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The way students play and learn today is the way they will work tomorrow.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>So far, the research seems to be showing success. The 2013 study, which is the most significant to date, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/can-students-learn-better-with-digital-games/\" target=\"_blank\">found that \u003c/a>“when digital games were compared to other instruction conditions without digital games, there was a moderate to strong effect in favor of digital games in terms of broad cognitive competencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a student sitting in the median who doesn’t have a game, his or her learning achievement would have increased by 12 percent if he or she had that game,” said Ed Dieterle, Senior Program Officer for Research, Measurement, and Evaluation for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/06/can-students-learn-better-with-digital-games/\">in a MindShift article last year\u003c/a>. In the world of education achievement, 12 percent is significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the same study, SRI also looked at simulations, and in those studies, students improved by 25 percent. That’s huge. But how do they define a simulation? Think of something that’s more interactive than an animated anatomy lesson and less game-like than Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://www.sri.com/sites/default/files/publications/simulations-for-stem-learning-executive-summary.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">SRI report describes it this way\u003c/a>: “A computer simulation is a tool used to explore a real-world or hypothetical phenomenon or system by approximating the behavior of the phenomenon or operation of the system.” According to the SRI study, a simulation differs from a game in that it does not employ a points or “currency” based reward system and it doesn’t have level based achievement goals. In addition, simulations have an “underlying model that is based on some real-world behavior.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/04/tapping-into-the-potential-of-video-games-and-uninhibited-play-for-learning-education/\" target=\"_blank\">promise of game-based learning\u003c/a> lies in the premise that the technology provides an efficient and effective tool with which to replace a points-based extrinsic motivation system with a contextualized hands-on learning experience. Unlike this SRI study, which uses the word “simulation” to describe this kind of learning, I’ve made the distinction between “gamification” and “game-based learning.” As I've \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/03/forget-gold-coins-and-badges-the-real-value-of-video-games-for-learning/\"> argued before,\u003c/a> “we don’t need gamification if gamification is about competition and commodification of learning, there’s no need for more commodified motivation. We don’t need more gold coins or badges.” SRI’s findings provide evidence to support this claim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The key point here is that games themselves are not necessarily competitive. Play is useful because it simulates real life experience -- physical, emotional, and/or intellectual -- in a safe, iterative and social environment, not because it has winners and losers. The achievement lies in the act of learning and understanding itself. Whether or not we make a distinction between “simulation” and “games” the SRI study shows that interactive digital tools can offer an efficient means to provide effective contextualized learning experiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some of us, these findings are hardly surprising. Many teachers have already intuited how beneficial game-based learning can be. According to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/surprising-insights-how-teachers-use-games-in-the-classroom/\">the recent teacher’s survey\u003c/a> undertaken by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a>, 55 percent of students play games at least weekly and 78 percent reported using games in the classroom at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These teachers are not newbies. The 694 K-8 teachers surveyed have an average of 14.5 years of experience in the classroom. And 30 percent of the teachers said the games are equally beneficial for all students. But there also seemed to be a trend that identified games as most beneficial for “low-performing students,” “students with emotional/behavioral issues,” “student with cognitive or developmental issues.” In other words, students who have been labeled and/or diagnosed because they struggle within the traditional school environment, benefit from game-based approaches. From the study: “65 percent of teachers note that lower-performing students show increased engagement with content, versus only 3 percent who show a decrease.” This is good news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, 53 percent of teachers find that video games foster positive collaboration between students. Anyone who has watched kids play video games together has seen this trend: They give each other tips and advice, they share tricks. They teach each other to understand the games’ systems. No wonder \u003ca href=\"http://online.wsj.com/articles/youtube-star-plays-videogames-earns-4-million-a-year-1402939896\">gameplay YouTube videos are so popular\u003c/a>. Gaming inherently involves systems-thinking which is best taught through collaborative learning. Still, 52 percent of teachers assign digital games as independent activities for students. Only about a third (34 percent) “assign digital games to groups of 3-5 students.” And only 29 percent “direct the whole classroom to use digital games together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What accounts for this preference toward independent gameplay among teachers? Perhaps it is leftover residue from an old paradigm that values individual achievement over collaboration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's becoming more apparent that teachers will need to do more than just embrace new technologies. They will also need to embrace the epistemological foundations of these technologies. There are connected, networked ways of knowing that will dominate the digital future. Sharing and collaboration go hand-in-hand with integrating non-competitive and non-commodified ways of playing. The way students play and learn today is the way they will work tomorrow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Digital Games and the Future of Math Class: A Conversation With Keith Devlin",
"title": "Digital Games and the Future of Math Class: A Conversation With Keith Devlin",
"headTitle": "The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning | MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36356\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 559px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36356\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM.png\" alt=\"Keith Devlin\" width=\"559\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM.png 559w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM-400x184.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM-320x147.png 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keith Devlin\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 8 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">\u003ca href=\"http://profkeithdevlin.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Keith Devlin\u003c/a> is a well-known mathematician and the author of many popular math books. He is co-founder and Executive Director of Stanford University’s Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute and is well known as the “\u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2014/04/12/302166509/martin-gardner-a-genius-of-recreational-mathematics\" target=\"_blank\">NPR Math Guy\u003c/a>.” He’s also a big fan of using video games as a teaching tool and the founder of an education technology company called BrainQuake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Devlin believes the future demands a substantial change in the way we think about math education. “So many people in the U.S. have never experienced good mathematics teaching. They have a totally false impression of what mathematics is,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this conversation, he explains why we now need different mathematical skills than we once did, and points out that the math curriculum of the 20th century did not equip today’s adults to mentor children in the math skills of the 21st century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Devlin argues that video games are the perfect tool for teaching math. He also sheds some light on those Common Core math problems that are so controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jordan Shapiro: In 2011, you published a book entitled \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Education-New-Era-Learning/dp/1568814313\" target=\"_blank\">Mathematics Education For A New Era: Video Games As A Medium For Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/i> W\u003c/b>\u003cb>hat inspired you to write that book? Do you play video games?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Keith Devlin: \u003c/b>I not only play video games, I actually wrote one, way back in the early 1980s when personal home computers were just starting to appear. I wrote a math game where you use trigonometry to find buried pirates’ treasure on a desert island. I did it for use in the math class at the local elementary school my daughters attended. When I saw how my daughters were totally engaged by video games (professional ones, much better than mine!), I recognized at once their potential in mathematics education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wrote the book to try to give teachers some sense of what it would take to build a good video game for mathematics learning and to explain to game designers what it would take to embed \u003ci>good\u003c/i> mathematics learning into a game. I was not thinking about building a video game myself (back then).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: In the book, you argue that video games are the best way to teach math to middle school kids. We’ve spoken about this before and you’ve talked about the importance of learning through doing. Why is context so important? And how can thinking of video games as math simulations help to move the typical math class from an product based pedagogy to a process based pedagogy?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Video games are an ideal medium for developing mathematical thinking. It’s a classic case where a technology that renders old skills less relevant actually provides their replacement. Many people outside of the worlds of mathematics (particularly math as used in the world) and mathematics education are simply not aware of the dramatic shift that both disciplines have undergone as a result of digital technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When today’s parents were going through schools, the main focus in mathematics was on mastery of a collection of standard procedures for solving well-defined problems that have unique right answers. If you did well at that, you were pretty well guaranteed a good job. Learning mathematics had been that way for several thousand years. Math textbooks were essentially recipe books.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"The problems we need mathematics for today come in a messy, real-world context, and part of making progress is to figure out just what you need from that context.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But now all those math recipes have been coded into devices, some of which we carry round in our pockets. Suddenly, in a single generation, mastery of the procedural math skills that had ruled supreme for three thousand years has become largely irrelevant. In my book, I used the term “mathematical thinking” to distinguish the kind of math that is relevant today from the (procedural) “mathematics” most people are familiar with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The skill that is in great demand today, and will continue to grow, is the ability to take a novel problem, possibly not well-defined, and likely not having a single “right” answer, and make progress on it, in some cases (but not all!) “solving” it (whatever that turns out to mean). The problems we need mathematics for today come in a messy, real-world context, and part of making progress is to figure out just what you need from that context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"8e0286063995d3d5540997f09b77cdea\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Books and lectures (in a room or on a screen) are useful \u003ci>resources\u003c/i> for mathematical thinking, but they are no longer at the heart of math learning. The only way to acquire mathematical thinking ability is by a process of exploration – lots of trial-and-error and reflection. This is exactly what video games can deliver. They can provide small scale simulations of the kinds of open-ended, context-influenced, project-based, problem solving that is at such a premium in today’s world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: I wrote about your game Wuzzit Trouble \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/how-games-based-learning-teaches-problem-solving-in-context/\">\u003cb>earlier in this series\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. I also sometimes show it when I’m doing workshops or public speaking. I’ve used your metaphor often: learning games should work like musical instruments. What does it mean to create a mathematical instrument? Can we do the equivalent for other subjects?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Yes, it’s fortunate that the word “play” applies both to musical instruments and video games. Everyone knows that the best way to learn an instrument is to start to play it. We don’t ask someone to learn to read music before they sit at a piano or pick up a guitar. But that’s exactly what we do in mathematics! The reason we do is that through most of its history, mathematics did not have any instruments. Video games can provide math instruments you can use to learn mathematics. Take a look at the \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/89583763\">twenty-minute video\u003c/a> of the talk I gave recently. In it, I use \u003ci>Wuzzit Troubl\u003c/i>e to explain how this can be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can do the same kind of thing in other subjects, but many of them already have instruments (e.g. laboratory equipment in the natural sciences). Before video game technologies, however, all we had for math were paper and pencil, augmented with ruler and compass for geometry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: So, are you saying that kids don’t need to learn how to scribble numbers and equations on paper? Does that mean the symbolic Hindu-Arabic representation of mathematics is obsolete? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Keith: \u003c/b>No, kids need to master Hindu-Arithmetic \u003ci>representation\u003c/i> of numbers far more today than in the past. What they don’t need to do – and I think this is what you’re getting at with your question – is train themselves to do long computations, as was necessary when I was a child. No one calculates that way any more! What they (we) need in today’s world is a deeper understanding of how and why Hindu-Arabic arithmetic works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all four offerings of \u003ca href=\"https://www.coursera.org/course/maththink\">my mathematical thinking MOOC\u003c/a> to date, I have had as students, engineers with years of experience who suddenly found themselves out of a job when their employers replaced them with software systems (or sometimes overseas outsource services). Those engineers are now having to retool to learn this other skill of creative problem solving – \u003ci>mathematical thinking\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Incidentally, the Common Core State Standards that are so much in the news were designed to guide the shift to this new kind of mathematics, as \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-keith-devlin/common-core-math-standards_b_5369939.html\">I’ve tried to explain before\u003c/a>. Many of the parents who object to the basic goal of Common Core appear do so because they too have not realized how much the world has changed in its demands for mathematical skills. (There is a lot to argue about when it comes to the implementation of the Core, but that’s a separate issue.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignleft\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: In the past, you and I have discussed the “Symbol Barrier.” Now I think I misunderstood the concept. I always thought you meant that Hindu-Arabic representation was an obstacle to mathematical thinking. But clearly that’s not what you meant. Explain the “Symbol Barrier” and how video games can help to circumvent it.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Keith: \u003c/b>The Symbol Barrier is the name I gave to a phenomenon first noticed in the early 1990s. If people need to use basic computational mathematics in their everyday lives or careers, they quickly pick it up and are able to perform at a 98 percent accuracy level. That’s not just some people, it’s ALL people (apart from around 3 percent who have a brain condition called dyscalculia). But if you ask those same people to solve the same math problems presented in a traditional, school, paper-and-pencil test format, their performance levels drops from 98 percent accuracy to a mere 37 percent correct. Those people (all of us) don’t have an inherent math problem, they (we) have a language problem! That’s the Symbol Barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Symbol Barrier is a problem – i.e. a barrier to entry into mathematical thinking – because at the moment, learning mathematics and being tested in mathematics is all done by way of the symbolic representation! It’s as if we taught and tested people’s musical ability by instructing them in musical notation and testing how well they could write music using that notation. We don’t do that. We ask them to sit down and play an instrument!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Same with driving. Would you prefer to be driven by someone who had just passed the written part of the driving test, or would you want to know they had passed the road test?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or an airline pilot. Which gives you more confidence, someone who has flown successfully in a simulator or a trainee pilot who has just passed a written test on how to fly a plane?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Likewise for mathematics. I would feel much more confident in the arithmetical ability of someone who had scored highly on my own game \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i> than someone who had simply learned how to line up numbers in columns and apply the standard algorithms of arithmetic. The latter just requires rule following, the former makes you \u003ci>think\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: What other types of learning products are you working on at your company, BrainQuake? Which mathematical concepts are you trying to tackle? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Our basic platform is mobile games, though we intend to bring out Web-based PC versions for classroom use. The user data we obtained from the release of \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i>, last fall was as good, if not better, than we had hoped. We were ranked highly in many general game categories, not just educational games, and we were appealing to people of all ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once we knew \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i> was succeeding as a general category video game, it made sense to develop that side more, so as to appeal to the widest possible audience. So we have been focusing on embedding that basic gears mechanic into a richer video game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, to be honest, \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i> is barely classified as a game. I would (and did) call it an entertaining and engaging math-based mobile app. To reach a much wider audience, we need to incorporate more of the elements of the highly successful video games that attract tens of millions of players. Teaming up with John Romero (the legendary creator of \u003ci>Doom\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Quake\u003c/i>) as our chief Game designer provided us an exciting opportunity to go after that elusive big audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are also developing the assessment side. Students, parents, and teachers – and adult player-learners – want to know how well they are progressing in terms of math learning. Video-game learning provides extremely powerful mechanisms to track learning – potentially far better than the existing methods used in standardized tests. Doing that requires the development of powerful algorithms that take the raw player data (which goes right down to individual finger actions on the screen) and use it to infer the player’s thought processes behind those actions, so we can see \u003ci>how\u003c/i> a player is trying to solve the problem. This will take the old idea of “show your working” to a whole different level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: This sounds great. Should we be trying to do this for every part of the mathematics curriculum? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>BrainQuake is absolutely \u003cem>not\u003c/em> obsessed with trying to achieve “full curriculum coverage,” whatever that might mean. To my mind it makes no sense to try to use video games to provide learning for parts of mathematics where an alternative, interactive representation does not add anything significantly new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, I think it will always be largely up to a good teacher to help learners master the symbolic approach necessary for more advanced mathematics. I think that people who see technology as a way to eliminate the need for good classroom teachers fundamentally misunderstand what it takes to help someone learn how to think a different way – in my case the mathematical way. Technology can help. It can help in significant ways. But it cannot replace a good teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: What do teachers and parents need to know about the future of game-based learning, the future of pedagogy, and the future of education in general?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Game-based learning \u003ci>is\u003c/i> the future. Games are just simulators with an internal incentive structure (often dopamine based). That means they tap into the way humans, and all living creatures, are hard-wired to learn: \u003ci>by doing\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But people are not machines. We are social creatures. If you want a child to develop into a useful citizen who can have a good life and contribute to society, you need to develop that child fully as a human being. That requires good parenting and great teaching. Doing it right requires close integration of the technologies with the human interactions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36356\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 559px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36356\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM.png\" alt=\"Keith Devlin\" width=\"559\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM.png 559w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM-400x184.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-17-at-9.39.33-AM-320x147.png 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Keith Devlin\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 8 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift's Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">\u003ca href=\"http://profkeithdevlin.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Keith Devlin\u003c/a> is a well-known mathematician and the author of many popular math books. He is co-founder and Executive Director of Stanford University’s Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute and is well known as the “\u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/2014/04/12/302166509/martin-gardner-a-genius-of-recreational-mathematics\" target=\"_blank\">NPR Math Guy\u003c/a>.” He’s also a big fan of using video games as a teaching tool and the founder of an education technology company called BrainQuake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Devlin believes the future demands a substantial change in the way we think about math education. “So many people in the U.S. have never experienced good mathematics teaching. They have a totally false impression of what mathematics is,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this conversation, he explains why we now need different mathematical skills than we once did, and points out that the math curriculum of the 20th century did not equip today’s adults to mentor children in the math skills of the 21st century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Devlin argues that video games are the perfect tool for teaching math. He also sheds some light on those Common Core math problems that are so controversial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jordan Shapiro: In 2011, you published a book entitled \u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003ci>\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Education-New-Era-Learning/dp/1568814313\" target=\"_blank\">Mathematics Education For A New Era: Video Games As A Medium For Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/i> W\u003c/b>\u003cb>hat inspired you to write that book? Do you play video games?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Keith Devlin: \u003c/b>I not only play video games, I actually wrote one, way back in the early 1980s when personal home computers were just starting to appear. I wrote a math game where you use trigonometry to find buried pirates’ treasure on a desert island. I did it for use in the math class at the local elementary school my daughters attended. When I saw how my daughters were totally engaged by video games (professional ones, much better than mine!), I recognized at once their potential in mathematics education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I wrote the book to try to give teachers some sense of what it would take to build a good video game for mathematics learning and to explain to game designers what it would take to embed \u003ci>good\u003c/i> mathematics learning into a game. I was not thinking about building a video game myself (back then).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: In the book, you argue that video games are the best way to teach math to middle school kids. We’ve spoken about this before and you’ve talked about the importance of learning through doing. Why is context so important? And how can thinking of video games as math simulations help to move the typical math class from an product based pedagogy to a process based pedagogy?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Video games are an ideal medium for developing mathematical thinking. It’s a classic case where a technology that renders old skills less relevant actually provides their replacement. Many people outside of the worlds of mathematics (particularly math as used in the world) and mathematics education are simply not aware of the dramatic shift that both disciplines have undergone as a result of digital technologies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When today’s parents were going through schools, the main focus in mathematics was on mastery of a collection of standard procedures for solving well-defined problems that have unique right answers. If you did well at that, you were pretty well guaranteed a good job. Learning mathematics had been that way for several thousand years. Math textbooks were essentially recipe books.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">\"The problems we need mathematics for today come in a messy, real-world context, and part of making progress is to figure out just what you need from that context.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But now all those math recipes have been coded into devices, some of which we carry round in our pockets. Suddenly, in a single generation, mastery of the procedural math skills that had ruled supreme for three thousand years has become largely irrelevant. In my book, I used the term “mathematical thinking” to distinguish the kind of math that is relevant today from the (procedural) “mathematics” most people are familiar with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The skill that is in great demand today, and will continue to grow, is the ability to take a novel problem, possibly not well-defined, and likely not having a single “right” answer, and make progress on it, in some cases (but not all!) “solving” it (whatever that turns out to mean). The problems we need mathematics for today come in a messy, real-world context, and part of making progress is to figure out just what you need from that context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Books and lectures (in a room or on a screen) are useful \u003ci>resources\u003c/i> for mathematical thinking, but they are no longer at the heart of math learning. The only way to acquire mathematical thinking ability is by a process of exploration – lots of trial-and-error and reflection. This is exactly what video games can deliver. They can provide small scale simulations of the kinds of open-ended, context-influenced, project-based, problem solving that is at such a premium in today’s world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: I wrote about your game Wuzzit Trouble \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/how-games-based-learning-teaches-problem-solving-in-context/\">\u003cb>earlier in this series\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003cb>. I also sometimes show it when I’m doing workshops or public speaking. I’ve used your metaphor often: learning games should work like musical instruments. What does it mean to create a mathematical instrument? Can we do the equivalent for other subjects?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Yes, it’s fortunate that the word “play” applies both to musical instruments and video games. Everyone knows that the best way to learn an instrument is to start to play it. We don’t ask someone to learn to read music before they sit at a piano or pick up a guitar. But that’s exactly what we do in mathematics! The reason we do is that through most of its history, mathematics did not have any instruments. Video games can provide math instruments you can use to learn mathematics. Take a look at the \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/89583763\">twenty-minute video\u003c/a> of the talk I gave recently. In it, I use \u003ci>Wuzzit Troubl\u003c/i>e to explain how this can be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We can do the same kind of thing in other subjects, but many of them already have instruments (e.g. laboratory equipment in the natural sciences). Before video game technologies, however, all we had for math were paper and pencil, augmented with ruler and compass for geometry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: So, are you saying that kids don’t need to learn how to scribble numbers and equations on paper? Does that mean the symbolic Hindu-Arabic representation of mathematics is obsolete? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Keith: \u003c/b>No, kids need to master Hindu-Arithmetic \u003ci>representation\u003c/i> of numbers far more today than in the past. What they don’t need to do – and I think this is what you’re getting at with your question – is train themselves to do long computations, as was necessary when I was a child. No one calculates that way any more! What they (we) need in today’s world is a deeper understanding of how and why Hindu-Arabic arithmetic works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all four offerings of \u003ca href=\"https://www.coursera.org/course/maththink\">my mathematical thinking MOOC\u003c/a> to date, I have had as students, engineers with years of experience who suddenly found themselves out of a job when their employers replaced them with software systems (or sometimes overseas outsource services). Those engineers are now having to retool to learn this other skill of creative problem solving – \u003ci>mathematical thinking\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Incidentally, the Common Core State Standards that are so much in the news were designed to guide the shift to this new kind of mathematics, as \u003ca href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-keith-devlin/common-core-math-standards_b_5369939.html\">I’ve tried to explain before\u003c/a>. Many of the parents who object to the basic goal of Common Core appear do so because they too have not realized how much the world has changed in its demands for mathematical skills. (There is a lot to argue about when it comes to the implementation of the Core, but that’s a separate issue.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignleft\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: In the past, you and I have discussed the “Symbol Barrier.” Now I think I misunderstood the concept. I always thought you meant that Hindu-Arabic representation was an obstacle to mathematical thinking. But clearly that’s not what you meant. Explain the “Symbol Barrier” and how video games can help to circumvent it.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Keith: \u003c/b>The Symbol Barrier is the name I gave to a phenomenon first noticed in the early 1990s. If people need to use basic computational mathematics in their everyday lives or careers, they quickly pick it up and are able to perform at a 98 percent accuracy level. That’s not just some people, it’s ALL people (apart from around 3 percent who have a brain condition called dyscalculia). But if you ask those same people to solve the same math problems presented in a traditional, school, paper-and-pencil test format, their performance levels drops from 98 percent accuracy to a mere 37 percent correct. Those people (all of us) don’t have an inherent math problem, they (we) have a language problem! That’s the Symbol Barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Symbol Barrier is a problem – i.e. a barrier to entry into mathematical thinking – because at the moment, learning mathematics and being tested in mathematics is all done by way of the symbolic representation! It’s as if we taught and tested people’s musical ability by instructing them in musical notation and testing how well they could write music using that notation. We don’t do that. We ask them to sit down and play an instrument!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Same with driving. Would you prefer to be driven by someone who had just passed the written part of the driving test, or would you want to know they had passed the road test?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or an airline pilot. Which gives you more confidence, someone who has flown successfully in a simulator or a trainee pilot who has just passed a written test on how to fly a plane?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Likewise for mathematics. I would feel much more confident in the arithmetical ability of someone who had scored highly on my own game \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i> than someone who had simply learned how to line up numbers in columns and apply the standard algorithms of arithmetic. The latter just requires rule following, the former makes you \u003ci>think\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: What other types of learning products are you working on at your company, BrainQuake? Which mathematical concepts are you trying to tackle? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Our basic platform is mobile games, though we intend to bring out Web-based PC versions for classroom use. The user data we obtained from the release of \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i>, last fall was as good, if not better, than we had hoped. We were ranked highly in many general game categories, not just educational games, and we were appealing to people of all ages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once we knew \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i> was succeeding as a general category video game, it made sense to develop that side more, so as to appeal to the widest possible audience. So we have been focusing on embedding that basic gears mechanic into a richer video game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, to be honest, \u003ci>Wuzzit Trouble\u003c/i> is barely classified as a game. I would (and did) call it an entertaining and engaging math-based mobile app. To reach a much wider audience, we need to incorporate more of the elements of the highly successful video games that attract tens of millions of players. Teaming up with John Romero (the legendary creator of \u003ci>Doom\u003c/i> and \u003ci>Quake\u003c/i>) as our chief Game designer provided us an exciting opportunity to go after that elusive big audience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We are also developing the assessment side. Students, parents, and teachers – and adult player-learners – want to know how well they are progressing in terms of math learning. Video-game learning provides extremely powerful mechanisms to track learning – potentially far better than the existing methods used in standardized tests. Doing that requires the development of powerful algorithms that take the raw player data (which goes right down to individual finger actions on the screen) and use it to infer the player’s thought processes behind those actions, so we can see \u003ci>how\u003c/i> a player is trying to solve the problem. This will take the old idea of “show your working” to a whole different level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: This sounds great. Should we be trying to do this for every part of the mathematics curriculum? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>BrainQuake is absolutely \u003cem>not\u003c/em> obsessed with trying to achieve “full curriculum coverage,” whatever that might mean. To my mind it makes no sense to try to use video games to provide learning for parts of mathematics where an alternative, interactive representation does not add anything significantly new.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, I think it will always be largely up to a good teacher to help learners master the symbolic approach necessary for more advanced mathematics. I think that people who see technology as a way to eliminate the need for good classroom teachers fundamentally misunderstand what it takes to help someone learn how to think a different way – in my case the mathematical way. Technology can help. It can help in significant ways. But it cannot replace a good teacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JS: What do teachers and parents need to know about the future of game-based learning, the future of pedagogy, and the future of education in general?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KD: \u003c/b>Game-based learning \u003ci>is\u003c/i> the future. Games are just simulators with an internal incentive structure (often dopamine based). That means they tap into the way humans, and all living creatures, are hard-wired to learn: \u003ci>by doing\u003c/i>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But people are not machines. We are social creatures. If you want a child to develop into a useful citizen who can have a good life and contribute to society, you need to develop that child fully as a human being. That requires good parenting and great teaching. Doing it right requires close integration of the technologies with the human interactions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Benefits of Gaming: What Research Shows",
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"headTitle": "The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning | MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36273\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36273\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428.jpg\" alt=\"Doug Kline\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug Kline\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 7 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Games and learning advocates often come up against the video game stigma. Despite the fact that we’ve now seen decades of game play, and that \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2014/02/05/how-video-games-nurtured-a-generation-of-entrepreneurs/\" target=\"_blank\">a generation of gamers\u003c/a> has grown up without a civilization collapsing, the bad reputation persists -- and it's mostly based around fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News stories abound: games make kids hyper, violent, stupid, anti-social. It's not only that people are generally wary of the unfamiliar, we also live in a culture of heroism and progress that casts every innovation as a revolution. Rather than celebrating modification and iteration, we divide the world into what’s cutting-edge and what’s obsolete. We’re always afraid that the new school will completely displace an old school that we’re not quite ready to abandon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the introduction of video games in the classroom does not need to mean the end of books. Blended learning will not necessarily replace the lecture. Games, however, can supplement time-tested pedagogical practices with new technological solutions to long-term problems. We can have the best of both the new and the old. Other posts in this series have already discussed the way games can help educators answer the ongoing \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/can-games-make-high-stakes-tests-obsolete/\">assessment\u003c/a> question, the way games can help develop kid’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/social-and-emotional-benefits-of-video-games-metacognition-and-relationships/\">metacognitive skills and empathy\u003c/a>, and the way they can help to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/\">break down the boundaries between academic subjects\u003c/a>. Still, not everyone’s convinced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, researchers have begun to look at the positive impact of games both in a general way and for learning in particular. The data is still sparse, but there are already some important takeaways. Here, I’ll summarize some of the general research on the positive impact of gameplay. In a future post, I’ll look at the research specific to games in school, education, and learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"6c41feb69d0a4029c27f00ab9f8bef8e\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The\u003ca href=\"http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf\"> recent APA (American Psychological Association) article\u003c/a> entitled, “The Benefits of Playing Video Games” by authors Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels surveyed the landscape of video games. They identified four types of positive impact that video games have on the kids who play them: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gameplay has cognitive benefit because games have been shown to improve attention, focus, and reaction time. Games have motivational benefit because they encourage an \u003ci>incremental\u003c/i>, rather than an \u003ci>entity\u003c/i> theory of intelligence. Games have emotional benefit because they induce positive mood states; in addition, there is speculative evidence that games may help kids develop adaptive emotion regulation. Games have social benefit because gamers are able to translate the prosocial skills that they learn from co-playing or multiplayer gameplay to “peer and family relations outside the gaming environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thinking about cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social skills reminds us that educators are not just responsible for the transmission of content and facts. Of course, this is one of the reasons that there is so much controversy over testing. Standardized tests measure only quantifiable outcomes. Educators, however, are also responsible for the non-quantifiable well-being of our students. Some of these skills are taken into account in some schools when folks talk about “character education.” But mostly, there is little curricular systematization in these areas. Still, teachers are accountable for conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills. Video games can help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A survey done in Ireland\u003ca href=\"http://www.integrationcentre.ie/getattachment/3728d764-143f-4ece-bf9a-a0134ceda102/Online-Gaming-and-Youth-Cultural-Perceptions.aspx\">, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"http://www.integrationcentre.ie/getattachment/3728d764-143f-4ece-bf9a-a0134ceda102/Online-Gaming-and-Youth-Cultural-Perceptions.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Online Gaming and Youth Cultural Perceptions\u003c/a> by Killian Forde and Catherine Kenny, suggests that kids who play multi-player games online are more likely to have a positive attitude toward people from another country: 62 percent of online gamers hold a favorable view of people from different cultures compared to 50 percent of non-gamers. Unlike school, where the diversity of the institution is rarely reflected by individuals’ peer groups, interactive online gaming correlates with a more diverse group of friends. Might the same principle be applied to the classroom? Could multi-player learning games help eliminate bullying and build camaraderie among classmates?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies like these are generally held at face value, but critics of games are quick to point out that the violent ones are morally reprehensible. Though I’m not a fan of violent video games, studies have shown that there are even positive benefits from playing these types of games. One study, published \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v12/n5/full/nn0509-527.html\">in \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, \u003c/i>showed that playing fast-paced “action based” video games improves “attentional processing” and also “induces long-lasting improvements in contrast sensitivity, a basic visual function that commonly deteriorates with age.” Of course, the violent narrative content is not likely responsible for these benefits. It seems more likely that it has something to do with the fast pace which demands quick reflexes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most convincing neurological \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v19/n2/full/mp2013120a.html\">research shows\u003c/a> that video games contribute to neural plasticity because games provide “a multitude of complex motor and cognitive demands.” In this study, players played platformers such as \u003ci>Super Mario Brothers \u003c/i>for at least 30 minutes a day for 2 months. They showed \"significant gray matter (GM) increase in right hippocampal formation (HC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral cerebellum.” These are the areas of the brain “crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>DIFFERENT GAMES FOR DIFFERENT GOALS\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's a little disingenuous to say that games are “good for kids.” Games are not like vegetables. Don’t imagine them as if they were packed with vitamins and nutrients that help kids grow into healthy adults. Like all forms of media, it depends on the particular games and how they are used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One can no more say what the effects of video games are, than one can say what the effects of food are. There are millions of individual games, hundreds of distinct genres and sub-genres, and they can be played on computers, consoles, hand-held devices and cell phones. Simply put, if one wants to know what the effects of video games are, the devil is in the details.” Say Daphne Bavelier & C. Shawn Green, in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v12/n12/full/nrn3135.html\">\u003ci>Nature Reviews Neuroscience.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details include, among other things, the narrative content: the story of the game. Games with very similar mechanics could have drastically different stories. For example, replace PacMan and the Space-Ghosts with Theseus and the Minotaur and it is a very different game. I can imagine a game called \u003ci>Steve the Fracker\u003c/i> that might look very similar to Minecraft, but the implications are altogether different. Understanding how shifting the narrative can change the game gives developers a clue about how they might build learning games and also helps teachers imagine how they might use existing commercial games to reinforce learning outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine if we could build learning games that provided the same kinds of complex motor and cognitive demands as fast paced action games while featuring narrative content that was curricularly relevant. Games all feature stories laid atop interactive mechanics. One approach to learning games might be to build narratives that reinforce educational content while employing the same familiar game mechanics. Teachers could also have students imagine how existing commercial game narratives might be retold to be relevant to class content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The studies summarized here identify some of the ways that games, considered in a general way, can have positive impact on the people that play them. To get the most out of games, however, the facilitation and mentoring that adults can provide children is absolutely essential. Teachers should design curriculum that not only uses game-based instruction, but also makes kids aware of the way games are designed. Parents should play games with their kids at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36273\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36273\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428.jpg\" alt=\"Doug Kline\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/4975313325_1168f12b5b_z-e1402670196428-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Doug Kline\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 7 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">Games and learning advocates often come up against the video game stigma. Despite the fact that we’ve now seen decades of game play, and that \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2014/02/05/how-video-games-nurtured-a-generation-of-entrepreneurs/\" target=\"_blank\">a generation of gamers\u003c/a> has grown up without a civilization collapsing, the bad reputation persists -- and it's mostly based around fear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News stories abound: games make kids hyper, violent, stupid, anti-social. It's not only that people are generally wary of the unfamiliar, we also live in a culture of heroism and progress that casts every innovation as a revolution. Rather than celebrating modification and iteration, we divide the world into what’s cutting-edge and what’s obsolete. We’re always afraid that the new school will completely displace an old school that we’re not quite ready to abandon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the introduction of video games in the classroom does not need to mean the end of books. Blended learning will not necessarily replace the lecture. Games, however, can supplement time-tested pedagogical practices with new technological solutions to long-term problems. We can have the best of both the new and the old. Other posts in this series have already discussed the way games can help educators answer the ongoing \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/can-games-make-high-stakes-tests-obsolete/\">assessment\u003c/a> question, the way games can help develop kid’s \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/social-and-emotional-benefits-of-video-games-metacognition-and-relationships/\">metacognitive skills and empathy\u003c/a>, and the way they can help to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/\">break down the boundaries between academic subjects\u003c/a>. Still, not everyone’s convinced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, researchers have begun to look at the positive impact of games both in a general way and for learning in particular. The data is still sparse, but there are already some important takeaways. Here, I’ll summarize some of the general research on the positive impact of gameplay. In a future post, I’ll look at the research specific to games in school, education, and learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The\u003ca href=\"http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf\"> recent APA (American Psychological Association) article\u003c/a> entitled, “The Benefits of Playing Video Games” by authors Isabela Granic, Adam Lobel, and Rutger C. M. E. Engels surveyed the landscape of video games. They identified four types of positive impact that video games have on the kids who play them: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gameplay has cognitive benefit because games have been shown to improve attention, focus, and reaction time. Games have motivational benefit because they encourage an \u003ci>incremental\u003c/i>, rather than an \u003ci>entity\u003c/i> theory of intelligence. Games have emotional benefit because they induce positive mood states; in addition, there is speculative evidence that games may help kids develop adaptive emotion regulation. Games have social benefit because gamers are able to translate the prosocial skills that they learn from co-playing or multiplayer gameplay to “peer and family relations outside the gaming environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thinking about cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social skills reminds us that educators are not just responsible for the transmission of content and facts. Of course, this is one of the reasons that there is so much controversy over testing. Standardized tests measure only quantifiable outcomes. Educators, however, are also responsible for the non-quantifiable well-being of our students. Some of these skills are taken into account in some schools when folks talk about “character education.” But mostly, there is little curricular systematization in these areas. Still, teachers are accountable for conflict resolution and other interpersonal skills. Video games can help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A survey done in Ireland\u003ca href=\"http://www.integrationcentre.ie/getattachment/3728d764-143f-4ece-bf9a-a0134ceda102/Online-Gaming-and-Youth-Cultural-Perceptions.aspx\">, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"http://www.integrationcentre.ie/getattachment/3728d764-143f-4ece-bf9a-a0134ceda102/Online-Gaming-and-Youth-Cultural-Perceptions.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Online Gaming and Youth Cultural Perceptions\u003c/a> by Killian Forde and Catherine Kenny, suggests that kids who play multi-player games online are more likely to have a positive attitude toward people from another country: 62 percent of online gamers hold a favorable view of people from different cultures compared to 50 percent of non-gamers. Unlike school, where the diversity of the institution is rarely reflected by individuals’ peer groups, interactive online gaming correlates with a more diverse group of friends. Might the same principle be applied to the classroom? Could multi-player learning games help eliminate bullying and build camaraderie among classmates?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Studies like these are generally held at face value, but critics of games are quick to point out that the violent ones are morally reprehensible. Though I’m not a fan of violent video games, studies have shown that there are even positive benefits from playing these types of games. One study, published \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v12/n5/full/nn0509-527.html\">in \u003ci>Nature\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>, \u003c/i>showed that playing fast-paced “action based” video games improves “attentional processing” and also “induces long-lasting improvements in contrast sensitivity, a basic visual function that commonly deteriorates with age.” Of course, the violent narrative content is not likely responsible for these benefits. It seems more likely that it has something to do with the fast pace which demands quick reflexes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most convincing neurological \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v19/n2/full/mp2013120a.html\">research shows\u003c/a> that video games contribute to neural plasticity because games provide “a multitude of complex motor and cognitive demands.” In this study, players played platformers such as \u003ci>Super Mario Brothers \u003c/i>for at least 30 minutes a day for 2 months. They showed \"significant gray matter (GM) increase in right hippocampal formation (HC), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and bilateral cerebellum.” These are the areas of the brain “crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>DIFFERENT GAMES FOR DIFFERENT GOALS\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's a little disingenuous to say that games are “good for kids.” Games are not like vegetables. Don’t imagine them as if they were packed with vitamins and nutrients that help kids grow into healthy adults. Like all forms of media, it depends on the particular games and how they are used.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One can no more say what the effects of video games are, than one can say what the effects of food are. There are millions of individual games, hundreds of distinct genres and sub-genres, and they can be played on computers, consoles, hand-held devices and cell phones. Simply put, if one wants to know what the effects of video games are, the devil is in the details.” Say Daphne Bavelier & C. Shawn Green, in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v12/n12/full/nrn3135.html\">\u003ci>Nature Reviews Neuroscience.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details include, among other things, the narrative content: the story of the game. Games with very similar mechanics could have drastically different stories. For example, replace PacMan and the Space-Ghosts with Theseus and the Minotaur and it is a very different game. I can imagine a game called \u003ci>Steve the Fracker\u003c/i> that might look very similar to Minecraft, but the implications are altogether different. Understanding how shifting the narrative can change the game gives developers a clue about how they might build learning games and also helps teachers imagine how they might use existing commercial games to reinforce learning outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine if we could build learning games that provided the same kinds of complex motor and cognitive demands as fast paced action games while featuring narrative content that was curricularly relevant. Games all feature stories laid atop interactive mechanics. One approach to learning games might be to build narratives that reinforce educational content while employing the same familiar game mechanics. Teachers could also have students imagine how existing commercial game narratives might be retold to be relevant to class content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The studies summarized here identify some of the ways that games, considered in a general way, can have positive impact on the people that play them. To get the most out of games, however, the facilitation and mentoring that adults can provide children is absolutely essential. Teachers should design curriculum that not only uses game-based instruction, but also makes kids aware of the way games are designed. Parents should play games with their kids at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Surprising Insights: How Teachers Use Games in the Classroom",
"title": "Surprising Insights: How Teachers Use Games in the Classroom",
"headTitle": "MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36165\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588.jpg\" alt=\"6660134265_88e8afab92_z\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">More teachers are using digital games in the classroom, and they're using them more frequently, according to a new teacher survey just released by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a>. But more surprisingly, the study reveals that teachers are finding that one of the most impactful use of games is for motivating and rewarding students, specifically those who are low-performing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The survey, which interviewed 694 K-8 teachers with an average of 14.5 years of teaching experience, aims to understand how and why teachers are using digital games in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than three-quarters of teachers surveyed -- 78 percent -- report using digital games in class, and that's up from 50 percent who \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/05/new-survey-half-of-teachers-use-digital-games-in-class/\">reported using them in a different survey\u003c/a> two years ago. “Teachers say they want to use digital games to deliver standards-based content and assess student knowledge and skills,” said Cooney Center’s Senior Director and Research Scientist (and survey designer) Lori Takeuchi. “But they're mixed on how effective games have been in doing these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of those who do use games in the classroom, 53 percent said they use video game devices to motivate and reward students, and 41 percent said they use non-digital games for that same reason. Teachers also said they offer games to their students as a way of giving them a break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost half the teachers surveyed -- 47 percent -- said low-performing students who've been struggling in traditional school settings\u003ca href=\"http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2014/06/09/teachers-on-using-games-in-class/\" target=\"_blank\"> benefited the most from using games.\u003c/a> Conversely, only 15 percent of teachers said that high-performing students benefited from playing games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of those who use games in the classroom, more teachers (41 percent) are using them to cover content mandated by state or national standards than for formative assessment (29 percent).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With more findings to be released in a later report, it’s still too soon to find an overarching theme other than the fact that games are becoming more commonplace in classrooms, Takeuchi said. Yet the first half of the survey released Monday does include important information about the future of digital gaming in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers report the greatest barriers to using more digital games in the classroom to be time (45 percent) and cost (44 percent), but researchers found that teachers who play digital games themselves are less likely to be unsure of how to integrate games into the classroom (20 percent) as compared to teachers who don’t play digital games outside the classroom (29 percent).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most surprising is the strong use of non-digital games, more than video games, to connect students to one another: 41 percent of teachers use non-digital games to practice material already learned, 41 percent for motivation and reward, and 26 percent use them to “connect students to one another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36168\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36168\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-09-at-8.02.30-AM-300x300.png\" alt=\"Gamesandlearning.org\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gamesandlearning.org\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What is it about a game of Scrabble or Sorry that fosters connection? Takeuchi said that it’s more than just the individual nature of digital games -- in fact, the survey suggests that most digital game-playing students play in twos or small groups. “What's interesting about the board game findings is that they're still being used quite a lot - more than video games,” said Takeuchi. “And there is something about the face-to-face orientation of board game play, and the fact that you have to play board games with other people that make ‘connection’ a frequent purpose of this medium in K-8 classrooms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release of the Gates Foundation-funded survey is seen as a timely conversation due to a convergence of factors surrounding games in the classroom. “There are demographic, policy, and empirical circumstances that make this survey particularly timely,” Takeuchi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, 91 percent of 2–17-year-olds play video games (NPD, 2013), and 58 percent of American adults also play, according to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2013 estimates. \"And since teachers are adults, it stands to reason that today’s teachers would be more open to the notion of using games to teach,” Takeuchi said. In addition, the Common Core implementation has teachers searching for ways to deliver content set by the new standards, and two recent meta-analyses published by \u003ca href=\"http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/glasslab/\">GlassLab\u003c/a>, according to Takeuchi, “have unequivocally ruled in DGBL’s (Digital Game-Based Learning’s) favor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>DIFFERENT DEVICES\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As expected, teachers are using tech in the classroom regularly: 81 percent of teachers report using laptops and desktops on a weekly basis. The technology teachers rely on most to deliver new material to students are projectors (72 percent) and digital white boards (73 percent). While this conjures the image of a traditional lecture model on nothing more than fancier devices, Takeuchi said that digital white boards and projectors offer much more: both can be used for multiple purposes, including group digital game play. When it comes to assessment, teachers appear to be split, but most do not currently use technology to assess students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About half of teachers (55 percent) report using digital games in classrooms, most commonly on Mac or PC desktops and laptops, on a weekly basis -- though Takeuchi said they defined “digital games” for the survey quite broadly.* With thousands of games to choose from, finding the most appropriate ones for their class is teachers' biggest complaint, according to the study. For the most part, teachers choose which games to use by talking with other teachers, playing with the games themselves, and asking students their opinions about the games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"5577d573453aa6096f94ba5c1e933d9b\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other factors in drawing teachers toward games include whether they track students' performance (43 percent) and whether they find evidence that the game is effective (37 percent). Perhaps surprisingly, only 15 percent of teachers noted the reviews the game received and only a quarter cited the cost of the games as factors that influenced their decisions to use a game in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of video gaming devices in particular in classrooms remains low. Nearly 80 percent of teachers report they “never” use video gaming devices in the classroom, and only 13 percent report use these devices to cover new material. But when it comes to motivating or rewarding students for a job well done, 53 percent of teachers allow students to play video games on gaming devices as motivation or reward. (Nearly half of teachers surveyed use TV, DVDs and DVR for the same purpose.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More information on teachers and games, including gaming teacher profiles and the kinds of students who seem to benefit most from digital games, is coming when the second half of the survey is released in the fall of 2014. At that time, researches will get a more complete view of where classrooms are when it comes to game-based learning, and how far they have to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>* Update June 10, 2014: This version of the article reflects the removal of a reference to games that were not part of the initial release of the study.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "More teachers are using digital games in the classroom, and they're using them more frequently, according to a new teacher survey just released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. But more surprisingly, the study reveals that teachers are finding that one of the most impactful use of games is for motivating and rewarding students, specifically those who are low-performing.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-36165\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588.jpg\" alt=\"6660134265_88e8afab92_z\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588.jpg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588-400x225.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/6660134265_88e8afab92_z-e1402325724588-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">More teachers are using digital games in the classroom, and they're using them more frequently, according to a new teacher survey just released by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a>. But more surprisingly, the study reveals that teachers are finding that one of the most impactful use of games is for motivating and rewarding students, specifically those who are low-performing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The survey, which interviewed 694 K-8 teachers with an average of 14.5 years of teaching experience, aims to understand how and why teachers are using digital games in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than three-quarters of teachers surveyed -- 78 percent -- report using digital games in class, and that's up from 50 percent who \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/05/new-survey-half-of-teachers-use-digital-games-in-class/\">reported using them in a different survey\u003c/a> two years ago. “Teachers say they want to use digital games to deliver standards-based content and assess student knowledge and skills,” said Cooney Center’s Senior Director and Research Scientist (and survey designer) Lori Takeuchi. “But they're mixed on how effective games have been in doing these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of those who do use games in the classroom, 53 percent said they use video game devices to motivate and reward students, and 41 percent said they use non-digital games for that same reason. Teachers also said they offer games to their students as a way of giving them a break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost half the teachers surveyed -- 47 percent -- said low-performing students who've been struggling in traditional school settings\u003ca href=\"http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2014/06/09/teachers-on-using-games-in-class/\" target=\"_blank\"> benefited the most from using games.\u003c/a> Conversely, only 15 percent of teachers said that high-performing students benefited from playing games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of those who use games in the classroom, more teachers (41 percent) are using them to cover content mandated by state or national standards than for formative assessment (29 percent).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With more findings to be released in a later report, it’s still too soon to find an overarching theme other than the fact that games are becoming more commonplace in classrooms, Takeuchi said. Yet the first half of the survey released Monday does include important information about the future of digital gaming in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers report the greatest barriers to using more digital games in the classroom to be time (45 percent) and cost (44 percent), but researchers found that teachers who play digital games themselves are less likely to be unsure of how to integrate games into the classroom (20 percent) as compared to teachers who don’t play digital games outside the classroom (29 percent).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most surprising is the strong use of non-digital games, more than video games, to connect students to one another: 41 percent of teachers use non-digital games to practice material already learned, 41 percent for motivation and reward, and 26 percent use them to “connect students to one another.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36168\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-36168\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-09-at-8.02.30-AM-300x300.png\" alt=\"Gamesandlearning.org\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gamesandlearning.org\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What is it about a game of Scrabble or Sorry that fosters connection? Takeuchi said that it’s more than just the individual nature of digital games -- in fact, the survey suggests that most digital game-playing students play in twos or small groups. “What's interesting about the board game findings is that they're still being used quite a lot - more than video games,” said Takeuchi. “And there is something about the face-to-face orientation of board game play, and the fact that you have to play board games with other people that make ‘connection’ a frequent purpose of this medium in K-8 classrooms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The release of the Gates Foundation-funded survey is seen as a timely conversation due to a convergence of factors surrounding games in the classroom. “There are demographic, policy, and empirical circumstances that make this survey particularly timely,” Takeuchi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2014, 91 percent of 2–17-year-olds play video games (NPD, 2013), and 58 percent of American adults also play, according to the Entertainment Software Association’s 2013 estimates. \"And since teachers are adults, it stands to reason that today’s teachers would be more open to the notion of using games to teach,” Takeuchi said. In addition, the Common Core implementation has teachers searching for ways to deliver content set by the new standards, and two recent meta-analyses published by \u003ca href=\"http://www.instituteofplay.org/work/projects/glasslab/\">GlassLab\u003c/a>, according to Takeuchi, “have unequivocally ruled in DGBL’s (Digital Game-Based Learning’s) favor.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>DIFFERENT DEVICES\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As expected, teachers are using tech in the classroom regularly: 81 percent of teachers report using laptops and desktops on a weekly basis. The technology teachers rely on most to deliver new material to students are projectors (72 percent) and digital white boards (73 percent). While this conjures the image of a traditional lecture model on nothing more than fancier devices, Takeuchi said that digital white boards and projectors offer much more: both can be used for multiple purposes, including group digital game play. When it comes to assessment, teachers appear to be split, but most do not currently use technology to assess students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About half of teachers (55 percent) report using digital games in classrooms, most commonly on Mac or PC desktops and laptops, on a weekly basis -- though Takeuchi said they defined “digital games” for the survey quite broadly.* With thousands of games to choose from, finding the most appropriate ones for their class is teachers' biggest complaint, according to the study. For the most part, teachers choose which games to use by talking with other teachers, playing with the games themselves, and asking students their opinions about the games.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other factors in drawing teachers toward games include whether they track students' performance (43 percent) and whether they find evidence that the game is effective (37 percent). Perhaps surprisingly, only 15 percent of teachers noted the reviews the game received and only a quarter cited the cost of the games as factors that influenced their decisions to use a game in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of video gaming devices in particular in classrooms remains low. Nearly 80 percent of teachers report they “never” use video gaming devices in the classroom, and only 13 percent report use these devices to cover new material. But when it comes to motivating or rewarding students for a job well done, 53 percent of teachers allow students to play video games on gaming devices as motivation or reward. (Nearly half of teachers surveyed use TV, DVDs and DVR for the same purpose.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More information on teachers and games, including gaming teacher profiles and the kinds of students who seem to benefit most from digital games, is coming when the second half of the survey is released in the fall of 2014. At that time, researches will get a more complete view of where classrooms are when it comes to game-based learning, and how far they have to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>* Update June 10, 2014: This version of the article reflects the removal of a reference to games that were not part of the initial release of the study.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Making Games: The Ultimate Project-Based Learning",
"title": "Making Games: The Ultimate Project-Based Learning",
"headTitle": "The MindShift Guide to Digital Games and Learning | MindShift | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36118\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36118\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517.png\" alt=\"Gamestar Mechanic\" width=\"640\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517.png 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517-400x212.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517-320x170.png 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gamestar Mechanic\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 6 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">As game-based learning increases in popularity, it's easy to get pigeon-holed into one particular way of thinking about it or one way of employing it. This is true regardless of how teachers feel about gaming in the classroom, whether they’re for or against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One common objection to game-based learning is that students will sit in front of screens being taught \u003ci>at. \u003c/i>Sure, games are interactive, but on some level, don’t they still just replace the sage on the stage with the sage on the screen? Does a joystick really change the nature of pedagogy?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In previous posts in this series, I’ve argued that because games involve systems thinking, they \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/how-games-based-learning-teaches-problem-solving-in-context/\" target=\"_blank\">contextualize learning\u003c/a>. Game-based learning could bring us a step closer to John Dewey’s call for “learning by doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>“\u003c/b>Games are just simulators with an internal incentive structure (often dopamine based). That means they tap into the way humans, and all living creatures, are hard-wired to learn: \u003ci>by doing,\u003c/i>” says Keith Devlin, author of \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Education-New-Era-Learning/dp/1568814313\" target=\"_blank\">Mathematics Education For A New Era: Video Games As A Medium For Learning.\u003c/a> \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, virtual simulations of hands-on experience are not the same as tangibly engaging with the world. Simulating doing is, by definition, not the real thing. Plus, some of game-based learning’s strengths can also be seen as weaknesses. Games provide sequenced instruction blended with practice, feedback, and assessment. But even adaptive games have a finite number of sequential variations. Structures, and therefore, frameworks and perspectives, all remain fixed in a game. Certainly it is part of an educator’s job to frame content, but we don’t want to do it in a way that prevents students from figuring out their own way to make meaning out of the material. In order to model a respect for diverse perspectives, we need to employ a variety of teaching methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, few people are calling for games to replace school as we know it. Kids shouldn’t sit in front of screens all day. Games are just one of the many tools that teachers can use in the classroom. In addition, there is more than one way to teach using games. It's not just about playing the games, it's also about \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/three-awesome-apps-that-help-kids-make-games/\" target=\"_blank\">making them\u003c/a>. Game making is one way to create a space where students are empowered to freely experiment with their own way of framing ideas and choosing perspectives. In this way, game making is tantamount to project-based learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as there are many apps and platforms designed to teach kids coding, there are also many apps and platforms that make it easy for kids to design their own games. \u003ca href=\"https://gamestarmechanic.com/\">Gamestar Mechanic\u003c/a> is one of the better examples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Created by \u003ca href=\"http://elinemedia.com/\">E-Line Media\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.instituteofplay.org/\">Institute of Play\u003c/a>, with initial funding from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.macfound.org/\">MacArthur Foundation\u003c/a>, Gamestar Mechanic is currently used in more than 7,000 schools, with over 600,000 youth-created games published and played over 20 million times in 100+ countries. It was created, the company states, “with the understanding that game design is an activity that allows learners to build technical, technological, artistic, cognitive, social, and linguistic skills suitable for our current and future world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gamestar Mechanic is a web-based software platform with a drag and drop interface that makes it simple for kids to make their own games. Successfully manipulating Gamestar Mechanic requires that students learn pretty sophisticated “systems thinking,” or systems-based problem solving. “Game mechanics” learn to adjust settings and manipulate the relationship between components within a particular framework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brian Alspach, Executive Vice President at E-Line Media, explains that “a game is a system designed to create a fun, challenging experience for the player. Within the systems they design, kids get to set how things work, and their rules can be very different from the real world. Kids have to understand how all the pieces of the system they design will fit together. This system based thinking -- which can let you create a really fun, well-designed and unique game -- is also vital in understanding how systems in the real world work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just fiddling with Gamestar Mechanic, or some other game design platform is a great way to get students thinking about how separate components relate to one another within a fixed system. On a general level, it might serve as a way to convey the nature of bio-systems or economic systems. By constructing their own games, students get a tangible project-based introduction to the big abstract concept of systems thinking. But there’s no reason to be so philosophical. It can also be concrete. Teachers have also created \u003ca href=\"https://gamestarmechanic.com/teachers/sample_lesson_petty\">game-making exercises\u003c/a> that “provide reinforcement and review of concepts related to ratios, proportions and percents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, game design \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/02/18/how-game-based-learning-can-save-the-humanities/\">is one way\u003c/a> that the arts and humanities can benefit from game-based learning. In a world of non-linear networked communication, modes of self-expression take on new forms. The personal essay, the autobiography, and the self-portrait are no longer sufficient by themselves. Intelligent educational models need to consider how to provide meaningful creative and interpretive skills that embrace interactive social technologies. Forward thinking teachers in so-called “soft” subjects might begin to see video games as a new narrative genre. Perhaps we can reimagine some of our creative writing assignments so that students design games, exploring nonlinear narrative conventions in addition to linear ones. Both are forms of self-expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://scratch.mit.edu/\">Scratch\u003c/a>, from MIT media lab, is another simple platform that allows students to build their own “interactive stories, games, and animations.” Based on basic coding, or algorithmic thinking, “Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.” Scratch emphasizes the way coding can break down the boundary between STEM and ELA education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"78ed92004d34abc748ace644abc35c55\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although coding, as a skill, is usually classified as a STEM subject, game design shows kids that it is ultimately a semiotic system. That is, it is about language. Through design-thinking, coding allows folks to put together specific metaphors, signs, and systems in ways that enable the articulation of experiences through a shared system of meaning-making. Whether they belong to STEM or ELA, metaphors are all we have. We represent the universe through analogies that make social, technological, and medical accomplishments possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The great thing about any kind of project based learning -- whether it involves game design or not -- is that when students make meaning through creative articulations, they have to make active and intentional choices. Just as students need to choose paint colors or media in a fine arts class, they need to choose components in order to make a game. While these might seems like simple aesthetic choices, the right mentoring can show students how they are constructing their framework, how constructing a system is like constructing a viewpoint. When we challenge students to consider and explain why they make each choice, a sophisticated lesson in perspective is learned in a fun, engaging, hands-on way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve written a lot about \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/social-and-emotional-benefits-of-video-games-metacognition-and-relationships/\">metacognition\u003c/a> in this series, emphasizing the importance of teaching kids to think about their own thinking. With game design students take metacognition to the next level, learning that ideas are \u003ci>constructed\u003c/i>. They understand that knowledge is always framed from a particular perspective, with a particular kind of intention. The benefits of this kind of reflexive consideration are intellectual, social, and emotional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Intellectually, students learn that all information is presented in \u003ci>some\u003c/i> way -- a lesson in methodology and epistemology. Socially, they become cognizant of the ways in which others construct knowledge -- a lesson in tolerance and empathy. Emotionally, they understand that feelings are part of a complex meaning system within which individuals are empowered to make their own decisions -- they have emotions rather than emotions having them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine a classroom where you swap back and forth between books, essays, lectures, and games. Imagine if your students sometimes demonstrated understanding and retention by expressing themselves using game design platforms. Students might even begin to design their own learning games, constructing game-based curriculum for other students. Every teacher knows that the best way to learn is to teach. If an individual can create a game that delivers the content, you can be pretty sure that he or she understands it in a comprehensive way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36118\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36118\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517.png\" alt=\"Gamestar Mechanic\" width=\"640\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517.png 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517-400x212.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/Screen-Shot-2014-06-06-at-9.30.59-AM-e1402072334517-320x170.png 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gamestar Mechanic\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Part 6 of \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift’s Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"dropcap-serif\">As game-based learning increases in popularity, it's easy to get pigeon-holed into one particular way of thinking about it or one way of employing it. This is true regardless of how teachers feel about gaming in the classroom, whether they’re for or against it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One common objection to game-based learning is that students will sit in front of screens being taught \u003ci>at. \u003c/i>Sure, games are interactive, but on some level, don’t they still just replace the sage on the stage with the sage on the screen? Does a joystick really change the nature of pedagogy?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In previous posts in this series, I’ve argued that because games involve systems thinking, they \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/how-games-based-learning-teaches-problem-solving-in-context/\" target=\"_blank\">contextualize learning\u003c/a>. Game-based learning could bring us a step closer to John Dewey’s call for “learning by doing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>“\u003c/b>Games are just simulators with an internal incentive structure (often dopamine based). That means they tap into the way humans, and all living creatures, are hard-wired to learn: \u003ci>by doing,\u003c/i>” says Keith Devlin, author of \u003ci>\u003ca href=\"http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Education-New-Era-Learning/dp/1568814313\" target=\"_blank\">Mathematics Education For A New Era: Video Games As A Medium For Learning.\u003c/a> \u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, virtual simulations of hands-on experience are not the same as tangibly engaging with the world. Simulating doing is, by definition, not the real thing. Plus, some of game-based learning’s strengths can also be seen as weaknesses. Games provide sequenced instruction blended with practice, feedback, and assessment. But even adaptive games have a finite number of sequential variations. Structures, and therefore, frameworks and perspectives, all remain fixed in a game. Certainly it is part of an educator’s job to frame content, but we don’t want to do it in a way that prevents students from figuring out their own way to make meaning out of the material. In order to model a respect for diverse perspectives, we need to employ a variety of teaching methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, few people are calling for games to replace school as we know it. Kids shouldn’t sit in front of screens all day. Games are just one of the many tools that teachers can use in the classroom. In addition, there is more than one way to teach using games. It's not just about playing the games, it's also about \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/three-awesome-apps-that-help-kids-make-games/\" target=\"_blank\">making them\u003c/a>. Game making is one way to create a space where students are empowered to freely experiment with their own way of framing ideas and choosing perspectives. In this way, game making is tantamount to project-based learning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as there are many apps and platforms designed to teach kids coding, there are also many apps and platforms that make it easy for kids to design their own games. \u003ca href=\"https://gamestarmechanic.com/\">Gamestar Mechanic\u003c/a> is one of the better examples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Created by \u003ca href=\"http://elinemedia.com/\">E-Line Media\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.instituteofplay.org/\">Institute of Play\u003c/a>, with initial funding from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.macfound.org/\">MacArthur Foundation\u003c/a>, Gamestar Mechanic is currently used in more than 7,000 schools, with over 600,000 youth-created games published and played over 20 million times in 100+ countries. It was created, the company states, “with the understanding that game design is an activity that allows learners to build technical, technological, artistic, cognitive, social, and linguistic skills suitable for our current and future world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gamestar Mechanic is a web-based software platform with a drag and drop interface that makes it simple for kids to make their own games. Successfully manipulating Gamestar Mechanic requires that students learn pretty sophisticated “systems thinking,” or systems-based problem solving. “Game mechanics” learn to adjust settings and manipulate the relationship between components within a particular framework.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-35200 alignright\" style=\"border: 0\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/04/MindShiftGames-140x140.png\" alt=\"MindShiftGames\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brian Alspach, Executive Vice President at E-Line Media, explains that “a game is a system designed to create a fun, challenging experience for the player. Within the systems they design, kids get to set how things work, and their rules can be very different from the real world. Kids have to understand how all the pieces of the system they design will fit together. This system based thinking -- which can let you create a really fun, well-designed and unique game -- is also vital in understanding how systems in the real world work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just fiddling with Gamestar Mechanic, or some other game design platform is a great way to get students thinking about how separate components relate to one another within a fixed system. On a general level, it might serve as a way to convey the nature of bio-systems or economic systems. By constructing their own games, students get a tangible project-based introduction to the big abstract concept of systems thinking. But there’s no reason to be so philosophical. It can also be concrete. Teachers have also created \u003ca href=\"https://gamestarmechanic.com/teachers/sample_lesson_petty\">game-making exercises\u003c/a> that “provide reinforcement and review of concepts related to ratios, proportions and percents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, game design \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2013/02/18/how-game-based-learning-can-save-the-humanities/\">is one way\u003c/a> that the arts and humanities can benefit from game-based learning. In a world of non-linear networked communication, modes of self-expression take on new forms. The personal essay, the autobiography, and the self-portrait are no longer sufficient by themselves. Intelligent educational models need to consider how to provide meaningful creative and interpretive skills that embrace interactive social technologies. Forward thinking teachers in so-called “soft” subjects might begin to see video games as a new narrative genre. Perhaps we can reimagine some of our creative writing assignments so that students design games, exploring nonlinear narrative conventions in addition to linear ones. Both are forms of self-expression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://scratch.mit.edu/\">Scratch\u003c/a>, from MIT media lab, is another simple platform that allows students to build their own “interactive stories, games, and animations.” Based on basic coding, or algorithmic thinking, “Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century.” Scratch emphasizes the way coding can break down the boundary between STEM and ELA education.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although coding, as a skill, is usually classified as a STEM subject, game design shows kids that it is ultimately a semiotic system. That is, it is about language. Through design-thinking, coding allows folks to put together specific metaphors, signs, and systems in ways that enable the articulation of experiences through a shared system of meaning-making. Whether they belong to STEM or ELA, metaphors are all we have. We represent the universe through analogies that make social, technological, and medical accomplishments possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The great thing about any kind of project based learning -- whether it involves game design or not -- is that when students make meaning through creative articulations, they have to make active and intentional choices. Just as students need to choose paint colors or media in a fine arts class, they need to choose components in order to make a game. While these might seems like simple aesthetic choices, the right mentoring can show students how they are constructing their framework, how constructing a system is like constructing a viewpoint. When we challenge students to consider and explain why they make each choice, a sophisticated lesson in perspective is learned in a fun, engaging, hands-on way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve written a lot about \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/social-and-emotional-benefits-of-video-games-metacognition-and-relationships/\">metacognition\u003c/a> in this series, emphasizing the importance of teaching kids to think about their own thinking. With game design students take metacognition to the next level, learning that ideas are \u003ci>constructed\u003c/i>. They understand that knowledge is always framed from a particular perspective, with a particular kind of intention. The benefits of this kind of reflexive consideration are intellectual, social, and emotional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Intellectually, students learn that all information is presented in \u003ci>some\u003c/i> way -- a lesson in methodology and epistemology. Socially, they become cognizant of the ways in which others construct knowledge -- a lesson in tolerance and empathy. Emotionally, they understand that feelings are part of a complex meaning system within which individuals are empowered to make their own decisions -- they have emotions rather than emotions having them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine a classroom where you swap back and forth between books, essays, lectures, and games. Imagine if your students sometimes demonstrated understanding and retention by expressing themselves using game design platforms. Students might even begin to design their own learning games, constructing game-based curriculum for other students. Every teacher knows that the best way to learn is to teach. If an individual can create a game that delivers the content, you can be pretty sure that he or she understands it in a comprehensive way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/series/guide-to-games-and-learning/\" target=\"_blank\">MindShift Guide to Games and Learning\u003c/a> is made possible through the generous support of the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/05/math-science-history-games-break-boundaries-between-subjects-interdisciplinary-learning/www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Ganz Cooney Center\u003c/a> and is a project of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/initiative/games-and-learning-publishing-council-analyzing-a-rising-sector/\" target=\"_blank\">Games and Learning Publishing Council\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003ch5>By Tanner Higgin, \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org\">Graphite\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003cp>Some of the best games for learning aren't developed with schools in mind. But these more commercial games can be tough to wedge into a classroom. Even the most motivated teachers have to sideline these games because of scarce technology, budget, and/or time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer break presents the perfect opportunity for students to dig into games and build skills that'll reap huge rewards when they return in the fall. Game making can be one of the best ways to get students thinking creatively while cultivating useful technical literacies, and there's a ton of absorbing tools that students won't tire of over the long break. Here are three options to choose from depending on the type of technology students have at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://littlebigplanet.playstation.com/en/games/littlebigplanet-2\" target=\"_blank\">1. LittleBigPlanet 2\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>LittleBigPlanet 2 (\u003c/em>PlayStation 3) on the one hand, is a side-scrolling platformer in the \u003cem>Super Mario Bros.\u003c/em> mold. On the other hand, it's an accessible but complex tool for making a variety of games just like the ones featured in the game. This second feature-set is where it really excels; the developers basically hand over the keys to the workshop and let players run wild. The DIY, handmade aesthetic appeals to students of any age, and the supportive and vibrant community encourages players to play and critique each other's levels constructively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 497px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36073\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/LittleBigPlanet-e1401842506361.jpg\" alt=\"LittleBigPlanet\" width=\"497\" height=\"290\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LittleBigPlanet\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>2. \u003ca href=\"http://projectpixelpress.com/floors/\" target=\"_blank\">Pixel Press Floors\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For those students that love games but are a bit intimidated by the technological chops it takes to make one, \u003cem>Pixel Press Floors \u003c/em>(iPad) is perfect. Users hand draw their levels using a pencil, grid paper, and specific markings called \"glyphs,\" and then \u003cem>Pixel Press\u003c/em> transforms that schematic into a modifiable, playable, and sharable digital version. As Graphite reviewer and arts educator Megan Leppla puts it, \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org/app/pixel-press-floors\">the whole physical to digital transformation is \"pretty magical\"\u003c/a> and opens doorways to game making for kids more analogically inclined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36074\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646.jpeg\" alt=\"PixelPressFloors\" width=\"480\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646.jpeg 480w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646-400x252.jpeg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646-320x201.jpeg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PixelPressFloors\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>3. \u003ca href=\"https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Portal_2_Puzzle_Maker\" target=\"_blank\">Portal 2 Puzzle Maker\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Many students will likely be familiar with \u003cem>Portal 2 \u003c/em>(PC and Mac), a joke-filled, brain-breaking physics puzzler that has sold millions of copies. What students might not know is that there's a tool bundled with the game that lets players build levels (or, as they're called in-game, \"test chambers\"). Be aware though that the intellectual challenge of making a properly puzzling \u003cem>Portal 2\u003c/em> level is best tackled by middle and high school students. And while it'll likely appeal to students who already love math and science, level building might be a means for students who struggle in STEM subjects to build confidence and ignite interest. In fact, JK Sooja, who reviewed this tool for Graphite, thinks \u003cem>Portal 2 Puzzle Maker\u003c/em> covers \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org/game/portal-2-puzzle-maker\">\"just about every introductory [physics] concept,\"\u003c/a> making it a great option for students ready to tackle upper level science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36075\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 476px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36075\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990.jpg\" alt=\"Portal2Puzzlemaker\" width=\"476\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990.jpg 476w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990-400x229.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990-320x183.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 476px) 100vw, 476px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portal2Puzzlemaker\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What's particularly great about all of these tools is that they achieve something that's hard to do: connecting the classroom to the home. Ideally, we'd like learning to extend out from the classroom, adapting to students' different contexts as they move from school to home to wherever. Unfortunately, a lot of what students are doing in school or for homework just doesn't make sense when not tied to a desk, and can't compete with other things like, well, games. When students ditch class or ignore homework, it's tools like the ones listed above that they tinker with for hours on end. So this summer let's try something out; let's encourage students to forget about school, slack off, make some games, and learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tanner Higgin is Senior Manager, Education Content, at \u003ca href=\"http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators\">Common Sense Media\u003c/a>, creator of \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org\">Graphite ™\u003c/a>, a free service for educators in search of the best apps, games, and websites rated for learning. This post is one in a series collaboration. Games included here have received high ratings on Graphite by educators and by the editorial staff at Common Sense Media. Go to \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org\">Graphite\u003c/a> to read full reviews of games and how teachers use them for learning in class.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/04/Podcast-Square-e1463002696628.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1078765985\">Subscribe in iTunes\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Don't miss an episode of \u003cem>Stories Teachers Share\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also available via \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/category/stories-teachers-share/feed/\">RSS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Summer break presents the perfect opportunity for students to dig into games and build skills that'll reap huge rewards when they return in the fall. Game making can be one of the best ways to get students thinking creatively while cultivating useful technical literacies, and there's a ton of absorbing tools that students won't tire of over the long break. Here are three options to choose from depending on the type of technology students have at home.",
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"description": "Summer break presents the perfect opportunity for students to dig into games and build skills that'll reap huge rewards when they return in the fall. Game making can be one of the best ways to get students thinking creatively while cultivating useful technical literacies, and there's a ton of absorbing tools that students won't tire of over the long break. Here are three options to choose from depending on the type of technology students have at home.",
"title": "Three Awesome Video Games That Help Kids Make Their Own Games | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch5>By Tanner Higgin, \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org\">Graphite\u003c/a>\u003c/h5>\n\u003cp>Some of the best games for learning aren't developed with schools in mind. But these more commercial games can be tough to wedge into a classroom. Even the most motivated teachers have to sideline these games because of scarce technology, budget, and/or time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Summer break presents the perfect opportunity for students to dig into games and build skills that'll reap huge rewards when they return in the fall. Game making can be one of the best ways to get students thinking creatively while cultivating useful technical literacies, and there's a ton of absorbing tools that students won't tire of over the long break. Here are three options to choose from depending on the type of technology students have at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"http://littlebigplanet.playstation.com/en/games/littlebigplanet-2\" target=\"_blank\">1. LittleBigPlanet 2\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>LittleBigPlanet 2 (\u003c/em>PlayStation 3) on the one hand, is a side-scrolling platformer in the \u003cem>Super Mario Bros.\u003c/em> mold. On the other hand, it's an accessible but complex tool for making a variety of games just like the ones featured in the game. This second feature-set is where it really excels; the developers basically hand over the keys to the workshop and let players run wild. The DIY, handmade aesthetic appeals to students of any age, and the supportive and vibrant community encourages players to play and critique each other's levels constructively.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 497px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36073\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/LittleBigPlanet-e1401842506361.jpg\" alt=\"LittleBigPlanet\" width=\"497\" height=\"290\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LittleBigPlanet\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>2. \u003ca href=\"http://projectpixelpress.com/floors/\" target=\"_blank\">Pixel Press Floors\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>For those students that love games but are a bit intimidated by the technological chops it takes to make one, \u003cem>Pixel Press Floors \u003c/em>(iPad) is perfect. Users hand draw their levels using a pencil, grid paper, and specific markings called \"glyphs,\" and then \u003cem>Pixel Press\u003c/em> transforms that schematic into a modifiable, playable, and sharable digital version. As Graphite reviewer and arts educator Megan Leppla puts it, \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org/app/pixel-press-floors\">the whole physical to digital transformation is \"pretty magical\"\u003c/a> and opens doorways to game making for kids more analogically inclined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 480px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36074\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646.jpeg\" alt=\"PixelPressFloors\" width=\"480\" height=\"302\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646.jpeg 480w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646-400x252.jpeg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/PixelPressFloors-e1401842581646-320x201.jpeg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PixelPressFloors\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>3. \u003ca href=\"https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Portal_2_Puzzle_Maker\" target=\"_blank\">Portal 2 Puzzle Maker\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Many students will likely be familiar with \u003cem>Portal 2 \u003c/em>(PC and Mac), a joke-filled, brain-breaking physics puzzler that has sold millions of copies. What students might not know is that there's a tool bundled with the game that lets players build levels (or, as they're called in-game, \"test chambers\"). Be aware though that the intellectual challenge of making a properly puzzling \u003cem>Portal 2\u003c/em> level is best tackled by middle and high school students. And while it'll likely appeal to students who already love math and science, level building might be a means for students who struggle in STEM subjects to build confidence and ignite interest. In fact, JK Sooja, who reviewed this tool for Graphite, thinks \u003cem>Portal 2 Puzzle Maker\u003c/em> covers \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org/game/portal-2-puzzle-maker\">\"just about every introductory [physics] concept,\"\u003c/a> making it a great option for students ready to tackle upper level science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_36075\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 476px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-36075\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990.jpg\" alt=\"Portal2Puzzlemaker\" width=\"476\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990.jpg 476w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990-400x229.jpg 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/23/2014/06/portal2puzzlemaker-e1401842623990-320x183.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 476px) 100vw, 476px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portal2Puzzlemaker\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What's particularly great about all of these tools is that they achieve something that's hard to do: connecting the classroom to the home. Ideally, we'd like learning to extend out from the classroom, adapting to students' different contexts as they move from school to home to wherever. Unfortunately, a lot of what students are doing in school or for homework just doesn't make sense when not tied to a desk, and can't compete with other things like, well, games. When students ditch class or ignore homework, it's tools like the ones listed above that they tinker with for hours on end. So this summer let's try something out; let's encourage students to forget about school, slack off, make some games, and learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tanner Higgin is Senior Manager, Education Content, at \u003ca href=\"http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators\">Common Sense Media\u003c/a>, creator of \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org\">Graphite ™\u003c/a>, a free service for educators in search of the best apps, games, and websites rated for learning. This post is one in a series collaboration. Games included here have received high ratings on Graphite by educators and by the editorial staff at Common Sense Media. Go to \u003ca href=\"http://www.graphite.org\">Graphite\u003c/a> to read full reviews of games and how teachers use them for learning in class.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2016/04/Podcast-Square-e1463002696628.jpg\" alt=\"\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1078765985\">Subscribe in iTunes\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Don't miss an episode of \u003cem>Stories Teachers Share\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also available via \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/category/stories-teachers-share/feed/\">RSS\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"perspectives": {
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
"airtime": "SUN 12am-1am, SAT 2pm-3pm",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/reveal300px.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 16
},
"link": "/podcasts/rightnowish",
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