Videos

Games as Design Language for Teaching and Learning, by Willem Jan Renger

Willem Jan Renger talks about his initial experiment with replacing a lecture with a game and how it changed his perspective on teaching. He emphasizes interactivity and notes how it has changed with generations as kids grow up with electronic devices at their fingertips. He argues for students have responsibility and control over their learning.  (Listen for the “chocolate covered broccoli” analogy.)

Classroom Game Design by Paul Anderson

Paul Anderson talks about reinventing class as a game. He discusses the compelling elements of gaming, such as leveling up, and using them in the classroom, citing the work of Lee Sheldon at the University of Indiana. He states that his classroom is a learning classroom – the kids solve challenges and apply their learned skills to new problems. Great footage of students learning when they are left alone with a challenge.

The Future of Creativity and Innovation is Gamification, by Gabe Zichermann

Gabe Zichermann talks about how the perception of a creative person has changed over time, and how now it is different and more democratic. Solutions for new problems require innovation on a mass scale and games are powerful teaching devices using “intrinsic reinforcement.” This is the phenomenon where a learner is challenged, achieves a solution, and is reward by feeling good about their accomplishment. In this positive reinforcement loop the more you succeed the more you want to succeed. In today’s world thanks to technology we have a large number of people who can be creative. One of the main powers of games is to stimulate creativity. Mr. Zichermann cites several real world examples such as Eterna, a game people play to discover new structures in RNA, and Phylo, a game that uncovers the structure of DNA. He states that easy failure is important since one can learn from failures, but our educational system is not structured that way. Additionally he emphasises that perseverance is key and the number one predictor of success. Games encourage this. Constraints, speed and pressure help stimulate creativity and fast decision making which makes people happier and some for kinds of decisions has been shown to improve outcomes. He also cits the Depart of Work and Pensions  in the United Kingdom having a virtual stock market of ideas, and how this innovation improved the organization’s productivity. There is also a really great story at the beginning involving Mario Kart.

Gamification in Higher Education, by Christopher See

Christopher See discusses his experience with integrating games into a medical school teaching environment to teach critical medical information. He stress there is a structural overlap between games and learning and that 95% of the work is coming up with the right puzzles to stimulate student thinking.. He advises that one should “settle on content first. Fun is  thin layer of icing on the top”. He also stresses that the outcome after failure was better than with a traditional test. With games a student will usually attempt to solve the puzzle again rather than just guess. Here students are motivated to do the work themselves (even though the learning is hard). His work generated a lot of great publicity and interest.

[Video Games & Learning] Week 1. Video 6/8

James Paul  Gee is a professor at Arizona State University and a thought leader in game based learning. This is the first in a series of videos on games and learning and gives a quick overview of what will follow. He has a lot of great insights so explore more of his videos if you are interested.

Meaningful Play: Getting Gamification Right

In this video Sebastian Deterding gives an invited Google Tech Talk. He discusses gamification in a variety of non-school contexts. Known as a critic he talks mostly about what can be done right with gamification. He reminds the audience of the creativity of childhood then moves on to current examples. He stress meaning, mastery, and autonomy. For meaning he emphasizes having  personal goals, a community of interest, and a visually supported story in a platform. For mastery he stresses having clear, varied goals and good feedback. Finally for autonomy he believes it is important to make the play voluntary with unexpected rewards hidden in it. The player needs a strong sense of freedom while he or she plays and learns.

The Ward Game by Paul Darvasi

Paul Darvasi developed a very involved curriculum for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey The Ward Game is a fully integrated game template used as a vehicle to involve the students not just in the text of the novel, but to also gain a deeper understanding of the characters within. In this video, the teacher has taken on the persona of Nurse Ratched. This video is the video created by Davarsi to introduce the students to the role they would be playing in the journey through the novel. Throughout the activities, the students gain points for completing different tasks, for snitching on the “other residents” or for their responses to messages sent via multiple resources.