Libraries, Literacy and Gaming:Manhattanville College Grant

May 7, 2010

Westchester Library Association

Kate Todd

Let’s Play a Game

http://www.quia.com/rr/613221.html

Psychology and Play

Two psychologists theorized that “play” is an essential part of learning

Jean PiagetSwitzerland1896 - 1980

Lev VygotskyRussia1896 - 1934

Education and Play

Maria Montessori designed materials that emphasized learning through play

Maria MontessoriItaly

1870 - 1952

Example

Teaches children:

• Conservation of Matter

• Manual dexterity• Eyes, hands

Has the digital revolution changed “play”?

If play has changed and education is linked to play, how does education need to change?

Video games and education

James Gee Marc Prensky

Why use educational video games?

1. Use action instead of explanation

2. Create personal motivation and satisfaction

3. Accommodate multiple learning styles and skills

4. Reinforce mastery skills

5. Provide interactive and decision making context

(Kebritchi & Hirumi, 2008)

Gaming and Information Literacy

Arizona State University

• Designed a board game: Information Pursuit

• Wanted to create digital version using Flash

• Difficulty working with programmers

• Student testers said “Too much text”

• Project was much larger than planners anticipated

University of Florida

• Bioactive• Programming with

Inform 7, interactive fiction software

• Screen shots not used because they get dated

• Link out to library resourceshttp://www.uflib.ufl.edu/games/bioactive/

University of North Carolina

• Information Literacy Game• Board game format• Written by a librarian• Used AJAX programming• Available to other libraries• Lessons learned:

– Keep it simple– Testing is critical

http://library.uncg.edu/game/

Trinity University

• Blood on the Stacks• Introduction to library

for Freshman• Residential school/

Used RAs• Positive feedback• Can it be re-used?

http://www.trinity.edu/jdonald/bloodonthestacks.html

Carnegie Mellon

• Grant: $50,000• Team of 8 librarians

and game design students

• Wanted to create 6 games

• Only completed 2:– Within Range– I’ll Get It http://search.library.cmu.edu/rooms/documents/

libraries-and-collections/Libraries/etc/index.html

http://mville.libguides.com/standards

Online Games Designed for Information Literacy

Created by United States colleges and universitiesarranged by ACRL standards

Examples

Industry Islands Citation Tic-Tac-Toe

Lesson created by Kate Todd.Citation Tic Tac Toe was designed by James Madison University.Quiz created using Quia.

Created by Kognito InteractiveFor Baruch College

Manhattanville College Gaming Grant

Student Created Games as a Tool for Academic Success

A Different Approach

• Provide students with an opportunity to create their own information literacy games

• Training includes both library skills and game design

• Students should then be able to share their products with other students

Grant implementation

Summer 2009

MAP program

17 students

Introduction to Scratch

5 LIS topics

1. Manhattanville Library web site

2. Assignment planning/time management

3. Asking questions of librarians

4. Finding books in the library

5. Using a database to find periodicals

5 lessons in Scratch

1. Moving sprites on the stage

2. Using multiple sprite costumes

3. Interaction of sprites

4. Using variables for scoring

5. Communication among sprites

• Students introduced to Scratch software

• Students divided into 5 groups to prepare games on LIS topics

Let’s look at student designed games

Group 1: Asking questions of librarians

• Estefany, Ivan, Jordan, Myosha• http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mvilletodd/661410• Librarian is a bat• Good conversation as example of asking

questions• Shows understanding of link of subject to LC

class to location on Tier 2• Wanted to change background—something I

had not taught them

Group 2: Using a database to find periodicals

• Edwin, Madison, Nicole, Vanessa• http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mvilletodd/661397• Misunderstood assignment• Used database to find this information• Not about how to use database• Drag and drop matching game about animal

babies—finished one animal pair• Understood use of variable for scoring

Group 3: Assignment planning/Time management

• Abdoul, Courtney, Jennifer• http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mvilletodd/661399• Walker was from first Scratch lesson—built on

what was learned in class• Little old lady stereotyped librarian• Again demonstrating link of subject to LC class

to location, plus importance of asking librarian• Does not seem to picked up theme of

assignment: time management

Group 4: Finding books in the library

• Alina, Elizabeth, J.R.• http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mvilletodd/661401• Breadth of role of book types and multiple uses

of library• Again wanted to change background—important

game element• Expanded beyond the basics of finding books

Group 5: Manhattanville Library web site

• Annesha, Avril, Max• http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/mvilletodd/661403• Identifies four key areas of the library web site• Uses quiz format• Only finished first question• Game building takes a long time• Used that little old lady stereotype again

What have we learned about gaming?

• Games do help maintain student attention

• Games are useful for student assessment

• Students do not understand how or what they learn from games

• Students who play games do not know how to create games

• Some students do not enjoy video games

What we have learned about LIS

• The importance of real library places in understanding virtual spaces

• LIS distinctions among topics is not intuitive to incoming students

• Incoming freshmen do not find meaning in an introduction to database searching

Next steps

• Online course for developing Quia games offered to librarians

• Offer complete LIS 2098, a course incorporating game design in Fall 2010

• Work with MAP students again this summer, saving some spaces in game design course

ReferencesAlvarado, R. C. (2008). Overcoming the fear of gaming: A strategy for incorporating games into

teaching and learning. EDUCAUSE Quarterly Magazine, 31(3). Retrieved April 5, 2010,

from

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/Ov

ercomingtheFearofGamingAStra/163094

Gee, J . P. (2007). What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy (Revised

and Updated Edition ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Harris, A., & Rice, S. E. (2008). Gaming in academic libraries : collections, marketing, and

information literacy. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.

Kebritchi, M., & Hirumi, A. (2008). Examining the pedagogical foundations of modern educational

computer games. Computers & Education, 51(4), 1729-1743.

doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2008.05.004

Malone, T. W. (1980). What makes things fun to learn? Heuristics for designing instructional

computer games. Symposium on Small Systems: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGSMALL

symposium and the first SIGPC symposium on Small systems, 162-169. doi:

10.1145/800088.802839

McCrea, B. (2010). Not J ust Fun and Games. Campus Technology. Retrieved May 05, 2010, from

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2010/03/03/not-just-fun-and-games.aspx

Prensky, M. (2007). Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: Paragon House.

Prensky, M. (2008). Students as designers and creators of educational computer games: Who

else? British J ournal of Educational Technology, 39(6), 1004-1019. doi:10.1111/j.1467-

8535.2008.00823_2.x

Robertson, M. J ., & J ones, J . G. (2009). Exploring academic library users' preferences of delivery

methods for library instruction. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 48(3), 259-269.

Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Find out more at guide prepared by Kate Todd:

Libraries, Literacy and Gaming

mville.libguides.com/games