OVERVIEW OF SERIOUS GAMES

The Questions

What do we learn from games?

What are serious games? Why are they important? Why do they work?

Games have ALWAYS been used to teach

What kinds of games do young children play? Role modeling!

How do young animals learn skills? Playing!

What do you learn from Hide and Seek? Hunting, tracking, hiding, observation

What can we learn from video games?

Visual selective attention: focus on what’s important

Situational awareness: absorb what’s happening around you

Are those contradictary? Mental mapping: create a mental picture of

what you have learned Inductive discovery: learn by trial and error Multitasking Collaborating

Marc Prensky

Driving: Visual Alertness

Improve visual attention Over space (useful field of view) Over time Number of objects

University of Rochester study of action games Unreal Tournament Medal of Honor Call of Duty

Gamification

What is it? What could it be?

“What we're currently terming gamification is in fact the process of taking the thing that is least essential to games and representing it as the core of the experience.”

Margaret Robertson

Educational Games

Evolution

Games to teach individual concepts Multiplayer classrooms Schools structured as games

Quest to Learn (NPR story)

Dimenxian First person shooter teaches algebra Average pre-test/post-test increase one

grade level (75 students) Underachieving students up to 3 grade

levels.

River City

Middle school students

Scientific inquiry 19th century illness

detectives Improved success of

lower achievers

What’s the idea?

Games engage people Engaged people work longer, learn better

Along with a learning curve, there is a forgetting curve People forget slower with games … because they learned it better?

But is there science behind this?

Learning Theory Support

Experiential learningInquiry-based learning

Authenticity Self-efficacyGoal-setting

Continual feedbackCooperation

Biology Support

Brain retains only the important Important = emotionally significant

Releases dopamine in amygdala Game playing increases dopamine

But what about studies?

University of Virginia Studies

Business

Economics

Management0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Means of Test Scores

Games or Multimedia?

Geology Explorer

Lecture baseline Web-based

presentation No significant

increase Virtual world game

15-40% increase

Virtual Cell

Lecture baseline Web-based

presentation 13-30% increase

Virtual world game 30-63% increase

North Dakota State University

New generation, New paradigms …

Digital Natives (vs Digital Immigrants)

Receive information rapidly Parallel process Multi-task Prefer graphics first Prefer random access Thrive on instant gratification and frequent

rewards Fundamentally think and process

information differently

Training

Military: Tactical Iraqi

Military Teach language

and culture In use for several

years Expanded to

additional languages

Skills: Jet Simulators

Training done on simulators

First time a pilot flies a Boeing 777 is WITH PASSENGERS

Microsoft Flight Simulator effective

Businesses

Cold Stone Creamery Hilton Gardens IBM

Population Changes

Boomer Gen X Gen Y

Training Too much and I’ll leave

Required to keep me

Continuous and expected

Learning Style Facilitated Independent Collaborative and networked

Problem solving

Structured Independent Collaborative

Feedback Once per year Weekly or daily

On demand

Task changing Slows me down

Necessary Part of my daily routine

Lancaster & Stillman