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Educational games share certain challenges with all serious games. A successful educational game needs to be both a good game and educational. Obvious, but many teams focus on one aspect and include either the game developer or educator as an after-thought. The result is either games that don’t teach or games that children won’t play. How do you determine at what level of mathematics (or any subject) a student should begin? How do you know if students learned something and how do you prove that your game was the cause? The educational component must target, teach, test and track. Is a game where the novelty effect never wears off an oxymoron? These questions will be answered, based on both the research literature, as well as our own data, from the first two years of research on using games to raise mathematics scores of students attending schools on American Indian reservations.
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Making Educational Games That Add Up
AnnMaria De Mars, Ph.D. 7 Generation Games
It happened in a moment of weakness …
Hey! Let’s apply for this award to go to Washington, D.C. and analyze the National Indian Education Study
Grade 8 Math Scores by Mother’s Education
Used multiple regression analysis
Culture score was significant but NOTE !! – it is coded so that lower scores mean less cultural activities, .e.g. “Do you speak your language at home?” 1= Yes 2 =No
Mother’s education was significant
School climate was significant
Student absenteeism was significant
Not willing to choose between culture and academic achievementWe submitted a proposal to USDA to develop a computer game to teach language, culture and mathematics
Questions to answer
What makes a game “educational” ?
What makes something a game ?
How do you select the right game for your students?
How do you know
Level of mathematics (or any subject) where a student should begin?
If students learned something?
If your game was the cause?
Problem
Bad Math Bad Game
46
Is he really learning?
What you don’t know about educational games can hurt you
Educational game design
Common Core aligned
Research-based Scaffolding Individualized instruction
Data Driven Test Track
Educational game effect
High degree of time on task
Shows improvement from pretest to posttestEven better if the
improvement is higher than the control group
IS IT REALLY COMMON CORE ALIGNED ?
Why Common Core?
What students are learning in a game is the same as what they are learning in the classroom,
Game strengthens and supplements the work of teachers.
Focus on student needs
Common Core Helps
What math standards describe what your students need to learn next? “Understand a fraction as 1/b when a
whole is divided into b parts” “Add fractions with like denominators”
The Goldilocks Effect :
For both mathematics and gaming, the best level of difficulty is just right, not too hard so as to be frustrated and not so easy as to be bored.
You have been warned
Grade level is far less obvious than it seems
How we do it
Start with the state standards
Write math challenge, instructional activities and assessment
STANDARD
Express whole numbers as fractions, and recognize fractions that are equivalent to whole numbers. Examples: Express 3 in the form 3 = 3/1; recognize that 6/1 = 6
What fraction of the cart is full when you have 6 baskets?
For an explanation of how to solve this problem, click the EXPLAIN IT button below
What’s this doing here?
Effective teachers
“Just-in-time” individualized feedback.
Zone of Proximal Development
Scaffolding
Three ways to solve the problemWhen you add one basket to the cart, the fraction you have filled is
Ensure help is available when needed
Feedback is timely, specific and learner-controlled
Highly effective teachers of disadvantaged
students…
teach specific procedures and factsin hands-on or “real-life” activities
Game Example
Build a model movie: Teaches concept
Good education
Game Example
Build a model movie: Teaches concept
Good for LEP because language is Repeated In context Visual cues
Software can be
Bad education and a bad game
Good education but a bad game
Good game but bad education
Good game and good education for some students
Bad EducationBad game
Contrast this game …
Problems
Non-verbal doesn’t teach math terms, or any language
It’s unclear who is winning or even which player you are (bad game)
Not so good
Feedback is not specific
Good education
Common core aligned
Direct instruction of English
Good graphics
Good for learning English
Not much of a game
Explanation is both written AND spoken
Good game ?: Example 2
Good points
Common Core aligned with mathematics
Good sound
Good graphics
Game testers were engaged
Data Driven
Multi-method
Continuous quantitative data collection Duration, frequency, interval of sessions Item-level performance data
Multi-method
Qualitative data Observation Interviews
No number of interns = actual children
Did you think, “Hey, I’d like to ride on that deer?
Good games
“Achievement principle ... there are intrinsic rewards from the beginning, customized to each learner’s level, effort and growing mastery and signaling the learner’s ongoing achievements.”
In other words, our second game was …
Game was too hard to play and students “died” so often they did not get to many math problems
“Too many damn snakes!”
Good games
“Learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered.”
“If you have 8 people sick and you need 3 herbs for each person to make medicine, how many do you need?”
Why do the same students who give up when math is too hard play games where every level gets more difficult?
What I learned from a fourth-grader
“I don’t pay attention in math.”
Let the education stand on its own
We couldn’t disagree more!
AND …..
CHARACTERS STORY
What I really learned
Adding the juice
Music
Sound effects
Fail in interesting ways
Easter eggs
Lots and lots of Easter eggs
EDUCATIONAL Easter eggs
Trip on a rock and a video clip plays with the legend of Standing Rock
How can a game keep being new?
2-D to 3-D and back again
First person to third person
Location
Time period
Characters
Games within games
We are experiencing technical difficultiesHardware and software requirements
How individuality ruins my life …
If everyone was the same, it would just be SO much easier
Problems we run into
1. Wrong hardware – only runs on Mac, Windows, iPad, Android
2. Wrong software – won’t run on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Mac OS X Lion etc.
If you already know this next point, feel free to sleep
You have been warned ..
There are a lot of older computers out there
Windows XP is 12 years old and 13% of U.S. computers still run it
About 20% of Macs run Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6), which is five years old
Students are more likely to have older operating systems
What gaming companies know ….
Children are more likely to have older computers because they often get mom’s or dad’s old one
No, there is NOT an app for that
Because of the processing power required, iPad and other tablet games tend to be simpler – in graphics, in design
Problems we run into
3. Requires Internet connection that is blocked by school security
4. Requires faster Internet connection than is available
Security requirements vary
NEVER plan a lesson using a game you haven’t tested in that school
Test in the school before you plan to use in your classroom
Have a back-up plan
Sum up
Educational Research
+ Data
+ Game design
+ Technology
OR