Game+Based+Learning+-+Gee

=** "Game like Learning" - James Paul Gee - Team R&R **= By, Joshua Chao, Jen Greeley, Anoush Khojikian, and Sarah Lindsay



Table of Contents:
Intro of Article Boxer & DiSessa Supercharged! Full Spectrum Warrior Implications

__ Summary of Article: __
__**Intro of Article:**__

The Problem in today's schools is that learning and teaching is content based. This means that teachers, who are specialists in their content, try to load up students with knowledge of their subject area. Front-loading students does not work. Neither does the no need for teachers concept. Learner's are novices, they need guidance.

Gee believes that to properly teach today's students you need to combine learner activities and environments with guidance, and one of the best ways to do this is video games.

__**General vs. Situated Understandings:**__

Situated understanding - "implies the ability to use the word or understand the concept in ways that are customizable to different specific situations of use."(p.3) - Situated is learning from experience. (ex. burnt popcorn, next time put it in the microwave less time)

General/verbal understanding - "implies an ability to explicate one's understanding in terms of other worlds or general principles, but not necessarily an ability to apply this knowledge to actual situations." (p.3) - General understanding means a student may be able to talk about an idea or concept, but not use it in practice.

This Article proposes the idea of teaching in situational learning environments before facts, statistics, etc. are learned.


 * Game-Like Learning: Andy diSessa **



The creator of the Boxer Computer Environmental Project, aka the “Boxer program,” is Andy DiSessa, a professor at the Graduate School of Education (Cognition and Mathematics) at UC Berkeley. He graduated from Princeton with a BA in Physics (suma cum laude) and MIT with a PHD in Physics. His current work focuses on student ideas concerning "patterns of behavior and control" and the development of the concept of force. His 2000 work in science education to teach situated understandings has many similarities to game-like learning. Although DiSessa does not consider the Boxer program to be “game-like learning” some people in the field have been inspired by his project which allows non-experts to “turn analysis into experience and allows a connection between analytic forms and their experiential implications that algebra and even calculus can’t touch.” (p.7)
 * Boxer Computer Environment Project: **

 **1. Intentions and Background of Boxer Computer Environment Project:** Boxer is the first example of a "computational medium" for real people -- not just for computer experts. Boxer is based on a literacy model. That is, we want computational media to be useful to everyone, as text is, except we want to extend from a static and linear tradition to a new, dynamic and interactive medium. Students, teachers and materials developers should all be able to use, create, combine and modify computational forms of unprecedented expressiveness and flexibility. Boxer's literacy model is aimed at life-long learning and use: Learn it once; use it forever. Boxer contains a completely integrated set of facilities for the broadest possible range of human intellectual activities. Facilities include:

 As a project, we are dedicated to the proposition that "ordinary folks" deserve the best, most flexible computational tools possible, and that such tools can liberate human intelligence. Boxer is designed to support and encourage open development of resources and tools. We want to empower educators at any level of technical expertise to modify, extend, or build from scratch. To this end, we very much want to see wide-spread grassroots creation of "materials the live and grow" as they are improved, extended and adapted to local circumstances. As a matter of principle, all materials developed at UC Berkeley are completely open and free of copyright restrictions. We encourage other developers not only to follow this principle, but also to anticipate re-use and extension by making materials (1) that are simple to understand and modify, (2) that are well-documented, and (3) that are openly available.
 * Text and hypertext processing
 * Dynamic and interactive graphics; Video
 * Personal data management, including e-mail and networking
 * Programming

**A. Uniform Motion Model: **  The first direction students write may tell the computer to set the speed of the ball at one meter per second, while the second direction tells it to move the ball. The third may be to do the second step repeatedly, so the ball keeps moving across the screen one meter per second continually, as they specified, “a form of uniform motion.”(p.5)

 **B. Acceleration Model: **  Students have completed the steps above but write a fourth direction into the computer: add value “a” to the speed of the moving object after each movement the object has taken (for example, “a” adds one more meter per second at each step). Once the ball has reached the speed of one meter per second, the computer will add one more meter to reach the speed of two meters per second and so on. This simulates the process of acceleration. The student can always tell the computer to stop repeating movements or even set the value of “a” to a negative number.

 **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> C. Significance: ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> The Boxer program is set to the students’ pace so they can see and understand what happens at each step and with each scientific concept. They create the motion by writing directions into the computer, directions that are “less abstract than algebra or calculus” (p.6) but which really produce movement in a virtual world. Mathematical formulas used by Galileo are symbols that do not directly connect to actions in the real world of students; to them algebraic expressions may all look alike. Galileo and other experts can understand the formulas only because they have already experienced their application in the material world. Students need this opportunity as well in order to not only understand, but to “master it in an active and critical way.” (p.7) <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">3.Further Work with The Boxer Group: ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> For over two decades the Boxer Group has been working with teachers in K-12 schools to create materials and prototype "future oriented" learning environments, mainly in mathematics and science. They research, investigate, and take on collaborative projects with schools nation-wide. Another "Patterns Project" concerns learning about the some of the most general and powerful scientific patterns – such as equilibration, oscillation, and threshold – which cross cut domains like physics, biology, ecology, and even psychology and sociology.

=__//SUPERCHARGED!//__= <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> //Supercharged!// is a computer game that challenges players to navigate a maze by utilizing electromagnetic charge. The game was developed by MIT physicist John Belcher by the Games-to-Teach project at MIT (run by Henry Jenkins, see [|www.educationarcade.org]).

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">

Game Content:
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> The objective of //Supercharged!// is to navigate a ship through an electromagnetic maze by manipulating the charge along the maze. The ship responds to positive and negative charges which are placed in the form of charged particles. Players play the game in two phases: Planning and Playing. The game is divided into a set of levels of varying difficulty which serve as puzzles that players must overcome. Before beginning each level, the player is given a limited number of charged particles during the planning phase which he or she must place along the level to navigate their ship through the maze. Different levels introduce obstacles as well which complicate the process. Some of these obstacles include points of charge, planes of charge, magnetic planes, solid magnets, and electric currents. During the Playing stage, the player watches as their ship moves through along the maze.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> As //Supercharged!// follows the laws of electromagnetics, the gameplay contains an educational element. Players learn through trial and error and intuition the laws of electromagnetism and must demonstrate this understanding in order to successfully pass each level. This was the basis for the study conducted by Kurt Squire et al. (2004) on the pedagogical value of //Supercharged!//.

Kurt Squire et al. Study:
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Supercharged! was the basis of a study conducted by Kurt Squire and his colleagues (Squire, Barnett, Grant, & Higginbotham 2004) to determine how effective the game was in helping students to learn physics. Squire et al. conducted their study as part of a larger design experiment on three urban middle school science classrooms. They found that students that worked with //Supercharged//! performed higher on common assessments with students that were part of a control group. Though both groups showed understanding of the content matter, students who were part of the //Supercharged//! group showed qualitative differences in their answers related to describing electrical fields. For example, both students were asked to describe what an electric field looks like. Students who had participated in the //Supercharged!// group were more likely to include references to the challenges that they faced in-game in their description of the electric field. On the other hand, students who were part of the control group, while equally able to describe the field, often recited facts that they had memorized from the teacher. This showed that the students playing //Supercharged!// were transferring information that they had learned through experiences which was evidence of deeper learning. Squire et al. thus concluded that the primary pedagogical benefit to playing //Supercharged!// was its ability to have students rethink misconceptions about electrical fields and the provide a context for thinking through problems.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> In evaluating the results of the study, Squire et al. found that most of the students in the study who played //Supercharged!// were playing without much reflection of what they were doing. To counter this, they created logs and built in opportunities for students to observe patterns that occurred in their gameplay. They also built in more structured opportunities for the class to walk through levels of the game as a whole class to further get the students to reflect upon their thought processes.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Squire et al. found that //Supercharged!// proved a good example of how games can be a learner resource for teachers to incorporate into their lessons. They noted that it is not the game itself that makes a well-designed lesson, but its incorporation into a system of learning which includes experience (having the students immerse themselves in the learning game), scaffolding (the game as a learning resource), and guidance (the teacher using the game to teach a broader concept).

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">__**Full Spectrum Warrior:**__ <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Full Spectrum Warrior is long complex and hard real-time tactics video game. The game is about war, warfare, terrorism, cultural differences, the US military and its role in the modern world. <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Gee feels that game designers have a similar job to teachers; to get people to learn something, learn it well and enjoy learning it regardless of its difficulty. For Gee it is not about facts and information but about the experience and activity in order to learn a concept. The facts then can turn into plans, goals and purposes.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Gee feels the game is a particular way of learning about how to think and act as a soldier in order to "win" and use professional practice of modern soldiers and commanding an infantry squad. The player uses the controllers to give orders to soldiers as well as looking at the GPS device and radio to communicate with the command center. Certain knowledge and skill is built into the virtual characters and this can only be put to use when the real player and the virtual players share the knowledge that they can be successful in playing the game. This is very realistic when looking at the way the US army operates. Therefore the real player needs to use critical thinking skills to use the virtual players, weapons, equipments and environments as tools/resources. The learning and process is scaffolded by these devices and instruction that is given to them right when they need it in action and it is through these experiences that they understand the instruction and uses.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Authentic professionals have special knowledge and skills through effort and experience and see it as valuable and significant and innovate in their domains. Gee continues to go on and compare how other video games do something similar to Full Spectrum Warrior such as "Tony Hawk's Underground" where the player takes on the professional identity of a skateboarder. It shows that there is no real learning without the adopting of authentic values and world views from these authentic professionals and/or concepts/categories. The goal being that school exposes students to as many of these in a critically thoughtful way.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> Ultimately through the scaffolded activity students are able to learn facts and information through a game, not from rote drill or memorization. It is through an activity that is accomplished and experienced. Others can use this game model to build their own domain of authentic professionalism, select skills and knowledge wished to be mastered and create a value system and instructions for success.

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> __**Implications:**__

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Game-like learning, as a situated learning strategy offers students an advantage on tests or assessments that evaluate conceptual knowledge and how students can apply their learning in specific contexts. From this position of learning, students can “eventually generalize their knowledge without losing the grounding of that knowledge in specific applications.” (p.19) Even if students never “master” certain aims they will understand why certain kinds of technical knowledge is important, how that knowledge can be applied, and have a sense of their own capability in grasping and utilizing that knowledge. If instructors choose to evaluate only verbal or rote skills (of memory) then students may still be able to do well, but some argue that these facts “come free” in the situated learning environment. This factual kind of information is better retained because students have to use it to advance in the game. Game-like learning gives students motivation and autonomy. However, we should consider that technology and thus game-like learning may be more prevalent in privileged homes, schools, and communities, which may further widen the achievement gap.



__Media:__
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> media type="youtube" key="JnEN2Sm4IIQ?rel=0" height="270" width="480"

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> __**Assessment:**__

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTE0MDg5MDc3NDk

<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> __**Citations:**__