Game and Learn: An Introduction to Educational Gaming

Videogames are becoming a progressively more important component of teaching today: they can provide learners with rich worlds and complex narratives that both enhance and transform their educational experience in previously unexplored ways. Because of this, I’m pleased to announce that, as part of a joint research project between the MLTI and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, I have created a 14-part podcast series on videogames in education. This mini-course, available now in its entirety from iTunes U, provides educators with the knowledge needed to successfully use educational gaming in their classroom. I’ll be supplementing this podcast series with ongoing posts and discussions, and more materials will be announced in the coming months — stay tuned.

Game and Learn: An Introduction to Educational Gaming
Podcast Title Resources Slides
1. What Is A Game?

Some Definitions:
Salen, K. and E. Zimmerman. Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals. The MIT Press. (2003)
Vygotsky, L. Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press. (1978)
Koerper, H.C. and N.A. Whitney-Desautels. “Astragalus Bones: Artifacts or Ecofacts?” Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, 35(2&3). (1999)
Puentedura, R.R. “Playing Games in Education – or, Thank You Mario… But Our Princess Is In Another University!”. NMC Summer Conference. (2005)

Photos:
Young Chimps Play, by Jonny White

Game Videos:
PacMan
Ico

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2. What Is A Good Game?

What Makes a Game Fun:
Koster, R. Theory of Fun for Game Design. Paraglyph. (2004)

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3. A Menagerie of Genres

Narrative Games:
Zork I
realMYST
Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time
Final Fantasy X
World of Warcraft
World Without Oil

Action Games:
R-Type
Super Mario World
Half-Life 2
Street Fighter II
Winning Eleven 10
Gran Turismo 4
Dance Dance Revolution

Simulation Games:
SimCity 2000
StarCraft
Empire: Total War
Europa Universalis III

Other Games:
Bookworm
Rybka 3
Settlers of Catan

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4. Games and Learning

Learning from Games:
Gee, J.P., What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Palgrave Macmillan. (2003)
Prensky, M. “Escape from Planet Jar-Gon Or, What Video Games Have to Teach Academics About Teaching and Writing.” On The Horizon, Volume 11, No. 3 (2003)

Game Videos:
Europa Universalis III
realMYST
Fable II
Super Mario Galaxy
SimCity 2000
Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time
Civilization Revolution
World of Warcraft

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5. Games and Education

Who Plays Games:
Entertainment Software Association — Industry Facts
Pew/Internet Report: Teens, Video Games, and Civics

The Educational Research:
Randel, J.M., B.A. Morris, C.D. Wetzel, and B.V. Whitehill. “The Effectiveness of Games for Educational Purposes: A Review of Recent Research.” Simulation & Gaming, Volume 23. (1992)
Fletcher, J.D. and S. Tobias. “Using Computer Games and Simulations for Instruction: A Research Review.” Proceedings of the Society for Advanced Learning Technology Meeting. (February 2006)
Mayo, M.J. “Video Games: A Route to Large-Scale STEM Education?” Science, Vol. 323, No. 5910 (2 January 2009)

The SAMR Model:
Puentedura, R.R. As We May Teach: Educational Technology, From Theory Into Practice. (2009)

Game Sources:
Dimenxian Evolver
River City

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6. Critical Gaming

Critical Gaming:
R. Puentedura, “I Taught It, Bought It at the Game Store: Repurposing Commercial Games for Education”. NMC Summer Conference Proceedings. (2007)

Game Sources:
Portal: The Flash Version (video) —
Micropolis (video)

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7. Games and Storytelling

The Characteristics of Game Stories:
Montfort, N. Twisty Little Passages : An Approach to Interactive Fiction. The MIT Press. (2003)
Jenkins, H. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture” – in Wardrip-Fruin, N. and P. Harrigan, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. The MIT Press. (2004)
Frasca, G. “Simulation versus Narrative: Introduction to Ludology” – in: Wolf, M.J.P. and B. Perron, The Video Game Theory Reader. Routledge. (2003)

Constructing the Story:
Campbell, J. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton Univ. Press. (1972)
“Monomyth.” in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (accessed June 23, 2009)
Propp,V. Morphology of the Folktale. Univ. of Texas Press. (1968)
Proppian Folktale Outline Generator v1.0.
Field, S. Screenplay – The Foundations of Screenwriting, Third Edition. Dell Publishing. (1994)
Sheldon, L. Character Development and Storytelling for Games. Thomson Course Technology PTR. (2004)

Game Videos:
Portal
La Pucelle Tactics
Grim Fandango
Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Far Cry 2

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8. Games and Players

Emotion and the Fun of Games:
Lazzaro, N. Why We Play Games: Four Keys to More Emotion Without Story. (2004)

What Types of Games Do Players Like?
Bateman, C. and R. Boon. 21st Century Game Design. Charles River Media. (2006)
Bateman, C. Designing for Different Play Styles: Demographic Game Design. (2004)

How Do Players Interact Within Games?
Bartle, R. Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders Games. (2003)
Bartle, R. Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs. (1996)
Puentedura, R.R. “Beyond World of Warcraft: the Universe of MMOGs”. NMC Summer Conference Proceedings. (2007)

MMORPG Sites:
World of Warcraft
Eve Online
City of Heroes
A Tale in the Desert

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9. Games and Assessment

The Assessment Tools:
Anderson, L.W. and D.R. Krathwohl, eds. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Complete Edition.  Longman. (2000)

Correcting for Expectation Effects:
Draper, S.W. The Hawthorne Effect.
Rosenthal, R. and R.L. Rosnow. Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis – Second Edition. McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1991) (See esp. Chapter 6)
Rosenthal, R. Experimenter Effects in Behavioral Research – Enlarged Edition. Irvington Publishers, Inc. (1976) (See esp. Chapters 19-24)
Rosenthal, R. and L. Jacobson. Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. (1968) (See esp. Chapter 11)

Checking for Effect Size:
Coe, R. “It’s the Effect Size, Stupid: What effect size is and why it is important.” Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association. (2002)
Cohen, J. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Academic Press. (1969) (See esp. Chapter 2)

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10. The Design Perspective

Design Patterns:
Alexander, C. et al. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press. (1977)
Björk, S. and J. Holopainen. Patterns in Game Design. Charles River Media. (2005) — Patterns wiki

The Process:
Rollings, A. and E. Adams. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design. New Riders Publishing. (2003), or:
Adams, E. and A. Rollings. Fundamentals of Game Design. Prentice Hall. (2006) — Online materials

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11. Case Study: Scratch

Scratch:
Scratch

Scratch Tutorials:
Scratch Website
LearnScratch Group
Ford, J.L. Scratch Programming for Teens. Course Technology. (2009)

Game Video:
Breakout

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12. Case Study: Inform 7

Playing Interactive Fiction:
Zoom (Mac OS X)
Gargoyle (MS Windows)
Bronze, by Emily Short.

Inform 7:
Inform 7

Inform 7 Tutorials:
Granade, S. Write a Text Adventure With Inform 7.
The Foyer is a Room
McCall, J. Designing Computer Sims with Inform 7.

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13. Serious Games

The Community:
The Serious Games Networking Portal
Serious Games Source

Five Samples:
Ships (video) —
At-Risk
PeaceMaker (video) —
Passage (video) —
Year Zero

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14. TPCK, SAMR, and Games

The Models:
The TPCK Model:
   TPCK – Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
   AACTE (Eds.) The Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Educators. Routledge. (2008)
The SAMR Model:
   Puentedura, R.R. Transformation, Technology, and Education. (2006)
Integrating TPCK and SAMR:
   Puentedura, R.R. As We May Teach: Educational Technology, From Theory Into Practice. (2009)

TPCK and Educational Games:
CK: The Ludologist
PCK: Learning Games Network
PK: MacArthur Digital Media & Learning Initiative
TPK: Alice
TK: GameDev.net
TCK: Gamasutra
TPCK: Squire, K., M. Barnett, J.M. Grant, T. Higginbotham. “Electromagnetism Supercharged! Learning Physics with Digital Simulation Games” in Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Learning Sciences. (2004)

SAMR and Educational Games:
Substitution: DimensionM
Augmentation: Immune Attack (video)
Modification: Industry Giant 2 (video)
Redefinition: Lure of the Labyrinth

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