Gaming & Pearson Education

Gaming Research & Development

• http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/mattarnetoj/502/conceptmap.html

• Gaming & Simulation Research has been in existence since the existence of formal education (Ruben, 1999)

• As drastic advancements have been made over the past 50 years the potential application of gaming & simulations have skyrocketed

• Gaming Industry Grew Separate of the education system

• The role of gaming in education was limited to practice of skills only

• Limited classroom technology made the development of educational games not financially beneficial for education publishers

Digital Gaming/Simulations in Education

Product Integration & Marketing

• http://elianealhadeff.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

Virtual Courses- Personal Avatars and a continual project theme are

used throughout the learning modules

NovaNET- pre and acquired knowledge assessed for modular

advancement; flags & stars awarded for results

WriteToLearn - provides color coded scoreboard to track the road to

mastery

*Watch

Learn

Practice

*Play/PerformELLIS follows the natural pattern of language acquisition

Observer Participant

ELLis Instructional Design

* Elements of Game Theory

Implementation• Centralized Diffusion

– Gaming alone does not meet the academic requirements of our customers.

– Centralized diffusion allows us to control the development and pedagogical foundation of the implemented games.

– This is essential for securing a broader acceptance level in the education market (Squire & Jenkins, 2003)

Why Advance our Efforts?

• Our Division Goal: To provide high quality and engaging digital curriculum to secondary educational institutions.– Engagement requires an inherent connection

with student learners. As the learners change are strategy must change to meet their needs (Squire, 2002).

– There is a growing demand for educational games that are content rich and pedagogically sound (Squire & Jenkins, 2003)

Key Players

• User Center Design (UCD) Committee– A UCD group that incorporates

representatives from our customer base, sales force and product development team is essential to the success of this project.

– Participants will be responsible for key aspects of the initiative and must be able to commit an adequate amount of time and resources as to complete their tasks.

Sales Force Responsibilities

• Help gauge the demand for additional gaming and simulation digital activities for current and future customers

• Identify potential participants for UCD

• Serve as a communication channel for specific requests from the potential and current customer base.

UCD Customer Participant Responsibilities

• Survey their students to identify their gaming habits, likes and dislikes and to gauge their interest in academic gaming scenarios. (This will help teachers and administrators understand the popularity of gaming among today’s youth)

• Identify potential student testers.

• Help committee identify which current courses/topics would best benefit from additional gaming and simulation activities.

• Provide presentation support and engage with other educators to explain the goals, benefits and implementation options of the gaming product

Product Development & Marketing Responsibilities

• Incorporate the academic needs into the gaming and simulation development process.

• Engage the UCD throughout the process to ensure the development progress is on course with meeting the needs of the customer base.

• Provide opportunities for student users to test the product and incorporate their suggestions in the review and update process.

• Provide Marketing materials to keep the customer base informed of progress and build anticipation of increased interactivity.