Nintendo of America recently demoed their game, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
Can brain games stave off senility? Hard to say, as little research exists as of yet. But it’s interesting to see games (and educational games) continue to reach a wider audience. Brain Age is a product of Touch Generations, makers of other educational games such as Big Brain Academy.
In a recent paper by University of Wisconsin academics David Shaffer, Kurt Squire, Richard Halverson, and Jim Gee, the authors argue that learning is most powerful when it is personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. Video games are “powerful contexts for learning because they make it possible to create virtual worlds, and because acting in such worlds makes it possible to develop the situated understandings, effective social practices, powerful identities, shared values, and ways of thinking of important communities of practice.”
The authors highlight commercially available games such as Rise of Nations and Civilization III as games that offer rich, interactive environments in which students can explore counterfactual historical claims. Railroad Tycoon and other games that urban planning are also discussed. Click here to read the full paper. In practice, how comfortable are teachers in using commercially available games for learning? How can teachers be provided with resources and appropriate training to what works in classrooms and what games are useful?
Kurt Squire recently published in a recent issue of Educational Researcher (November 2006) a paper entitled From Content to Context: Videogames as Designed Experience. Squire points out, “As research and development initiatives proliferate, educational researchers might benefit by developing more grounded theories about them. This article argues for framing game play as a designed experience. Players’ understandings are developed through cycles of performance within the gameworlds, which instantiate particular theories of the world (ideological worlds). Players develop new identities both
through game play and through the gaming communities in which these identities are enacted.”
The paper goes through several examples of recent games such as America’s Army and Full Spectrum Warrior that are both simulations and hypothetical worlds that offer desiged experiences. Education would be wise to investigate these games, as they naturally have characteristics fruitful for learning (e.g. learning by doing, experiences that enable students to develop “situated understandings”, immediate feedback and reinforcement, identity development as expert problem solvers, etc.).
We revisit Marc Prensky’s paper, Digital Game-Based Learning from the first issue of Computers in Entertainment (2003). Prensky discusses the importance of video and computer games for a new generation of learners.
Prensky writes: “What attracts and glues kids to today’s video and computer games, I believe, is neither the games’ violence, nor even their subject matter, but rather the learning the games provide. Kids like all humans love to learn when it isn’t forced upon them. Modern computer and video games provide learning opportunities every second, or fraction thereof. What kinds of learning? On the surface, game players learn to do things to fly airplanes, to drive fast cars, to be theme park operators, war fighters, civilization builders, and veterinarians. But on deeper levels they learn infinitely more: to take in information from many sources and make decisions quickly; to deduce a game’s rules from playing rather than by being told; to create strategies for overcoming obstacles; to understand complex systems through experimentation. And, increasingly, they learn to collaborate with others. Many adults are not aware that games have long ago passed out of the single-player isolation shell imposed by lack of networking, and have gone back to being the social medium they have always been on a worldwide scale. Massively multiplayer games such as EverQuest and Lineage now have hundreds of thousands of people playing simultaneously, collaborating daily and nightly in clans and guilds.”
Read the full paper here.
A new game by Konami for the portable Nintendo DS system teaches players the basics of stock training, using real Tokyo Stock Exchange market data from the past five years. For novices, the game has step-by-step lessons in stock-market transactions and trading, including a lecture mode and a story mode. Experts can also play an expert mode, which lets the game function as a market simulator.
Series creator Hideo Kojima (who has also created games like the Metal Gear series) seems to understand the increasing importance of games that move beyond entertainment. Kojima states: “Video games have been changing during the past one to two years. The recent trend is toward training software, which brings affluence to life rather than drama. Although we’ve been releasing games for the hardcore audiences up until now, we’re really about taking on new challenges.”
Consumers spent $3.7 billion on video game software and hardware during the month of December, up 28 percent. Sony Corp. plagued by supply issues, sold 490,700 PlayStation 3 game consoles in the United States according to NPD Group. That means Sony sold about 687,700 PS3s from the Nov. 17 U.S. launch to the end of the year. Microsoft Corp. sold 1.1 million Xbox 360 consoles in December, while Nintendo Co. sold 604,200 units of its new Wii system. Sony sold 1.4 million units of its older, cheaper PS2. The most popular game sold was Microsoft’s Gears of War.
Yasmin Kafai in UCLA discusses a difference in philosophy between instructionists and constructionists regarding educational video games. Instructionists have typically tried to “embed” learning into games (using “games to teach”), while constructionists have students construct new knowledge while building or creating new things (using “games to learn”). She argues that “constructionist approaches have received far less attention than their instructionist counterparts, but it is conceivable that they hold far more potential for engaging childrens’ enthusiasm for games in the service of learning.” Click here to read Kafai’s paper (2001).
Ravi Purushotma at MIT is interested in how learning can foster learning and help dispel global barriers. In a recent paper in Language Learning and Technology, Purushotma discusses how games originally designed for entertainment purposes can be modified to provide natural and context rich language learning environments, without sacrificing its entertainment value. Purushotma’s study takes a game like the Sims and turns it into a valuable teaching environment. His findings suggest that the game does a better job of teaching vocabulary and grammar than traditional methods, partly because of teaching things in context. The actions of each Sims character, the dialogue, and how they interact with their world often helps makes the meanings clear. For example, if a player did not really understand what “energie” meant, the actions of a tired Sim, stumbling then falling asleep, would help illustrate the meaning.
As more teachers and researchers find themselves using off-the-shelf entertainment to see if they can provide engaging, interactive education, hopefully commercial game developers will start to make customization options more flexible.
According to the American Association of University Women’s Educational Foundation Commision on Technology, current estimates suggest that by 2010, one fourth of all new jobs will be technologically oriented. The challenge is paramount for the poor, minorities, and women, as these are the groups who tend to have less access to computers and technology. According to a NSF report, nearly 50% of White families in the US own a PC, but fewer than 25% of Black families own one. The divide is all too evident.
In the past, video games have been seen as a “boy’s toy”, with many games reinforcing stereotypes (”please rescue the helpless princess!”) Recent shifts have seen stronger female characters and more women playing games in general — 43% of all gamers today are women, but most of these women are over the age of 18 (Entertainment Software Association, 2005). Popular titles include massively multiplayer online games and gender neutral software and gaming titles such as EA’s The Sims. How can we prevent girls from forming negative stereotypes about computers and technology, particularly in the thinking that only males are capable of succeeding in such careers? The responsibility for closing the gender gap isn’t just with software and game developers, but also with the educational system and families. Teachers must ensure that both girls and boys have at least equal exposure to computers, and that stereotypes are not further reinforced. Slowly, some steps can be taken to move things towards greater equity, as far as career opportunities are concerned.
Now that all three major next-generation consoles have arrived (the new Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3), an important question is to consider which one carries the best learning potential. A comparison of all three next gen systems leads us to believe that the Nintendo Wii system seems to be best suited for educational game development, with its intuitive remote control interface and lower price tag ($250). Recent Nintendo systems have emphasized gameplay and novel interaction rather than the latest high-definition graphics, which is fine for edutainment since most educational game developers have limited budgets anyway. Developers can focus on the learning instead.
Nintendo’s portable DS Lite system (now about $129 MSRP) also has high potential for collaborative activities in classrooms, as it offers both a local and global wireless internet interface (known as Wifi Connect) built in. This opens up possibilities for in-class group activities and also international communication. The DS Lite features a stylus and touch screen for innovative interaction and gameplay. Trauma Center: Under the Knife is an example of a game in which players become an aspiring young surgeon who must apply antibiotic gel, use scalpels and forceps to treat patients. While its primary purpose is entertainment, it serves as an example of educational possibilities new systems can provide.
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