Monday, April 11, 2011

(S9) Educational Gaming

1. What qualifies a video or computer game as educational? 

2. What do some experts say about gaming in education?   Cite some specific commentary from one of these links.  Don't duplicate any answers before you.





3. What makes a game fun?  What compels you to keep playing?

13 comments:

  1. 1) An educational game is a game that ether teaches concepts through the format of a game, like a math game that has levels that one must progress through, directly or passively or inspires the gamer to look up additional information in their free time. Immune Attack would be a directly educational game that teaches concepts through gameplay. A game like Civilization or Age of Empires is a passive game that gives the player an outline of a certain time period, concept, or group of people and through engaging game play that does not shove factual data down their throats, builds an enthusiasm for the concept. This sort of interaction then leads to the gamer seeking out additional information on the subject matter on their own time.

    2) People feel that games can be used to promote higher education learning and concepts. If you can learn how to integrate important world issues into video games you can teach kids how to handle emerging problems. They can be used to test ideas and brainstorm how to find solutions in a closed environment.

    3) Games with reward systems or leveling trees make games fun because it gives you a goal to reach. As each level is achieved a new one is put within our reach. As we reach to get new upgrades and advancements we continue to play. Also, compition between one or more people makes the person want do better and beat their opponents. The hard the opponent the more the player wants to better themselves so they can win. And winning makes it fun.

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  2. 1. It can be classified as educational if you learn something that is applicable to standards and future career goals.

    2. Increases learning through authentic and engaging play. http://www.educationarcade.org/

    3. A game thay is fun to me has has an adapting or extremely difficult objective. Generally a fps with lots of explosions. What keeps me playing is if I can't beat it or incentives.

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  3. 1) Gaming is NOT educational. Certain games that address a specific set of problems CAN be educational if created in a specific way that forces learning in a fun way. However, that is very difficult to do and most games like that are not fun.

    2) New York City has created a Quest To Learn School that focuses on learning and education in a fun way. It was founded by Katie Salen of the New School’s Parson School of Design and aims to make games and entertainment educational.

    3) Possible challenges in the game can be fun, but also frustrating. Each player must find some aspects of the game that they enjoy and focus on them to enjoy it. When a player notices that they are having information shoved down their throats and the game is obviously made to SEEM fun, interest is lost. Gaming for many is just an escape to something else, and possible life lessons may be learned indirectly, but when the aim of a game is to teach a specific lesson, it no longer becomes fun.

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  4. 1. educational games are games that have been specifically designed to teach people about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they play.

    2. The experts at the summit on Educational Gaming say that team building is important. "Recognizing the need for teamwork skills in the workplace, some schools
    are adopting more group project-based learning. Games and simulations could
    offer the ability to develop team-building and collaborative skills through
    virtual experiences." - Summit on Educational Gaming

    3. Games are fun for me are business simulations like Rollercoaster tycoon and Tropico 3.Something that make games fun is the ability to do things that would be impossible in the real world. Like in Tropico 3 you rule (as a dictator) a small island in the Caribbean in the cold war and can be friends with the ussr or usa. You can also decide to make your palace huge and have all your people live in shacks. The thing that compels me to keep playing is the different way to achieve the same goal. An example would be in NHL11 you could score alot of goals to win, and not play defense, or you could score 1 or 2 and play a defensive style.

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  5. 1. I think what qualifies a game to be educational is that it requires different parts of the brain to work that normally wouldn't be with a simple game. For example, the game makes us use our cerebrum, the part of the brain used for higher level thinking. And after we have finished the game we can apply what we learned to our life and we didn't learn nothing or wasted our time.

    2. According to Henry Kelly, “If games are so great, the ideas so powerful that they can transform the educational landscape, why isn’t it happening?" And I respond to this by wondering the same thing because I don't think education has done it yet.

    3. A game is fun when it doesn't require thinking, problem solving thinking, the thinking just comes natural. Plus I like games that I can beat and be done with, I can just take out the game and switch it, unlike school work. I keep playing because I know there's a surprise, it's not boring to me due to the fact that I can quit at any time but I don't want to!

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  6. 1) An educational game is one that conveys some sort of...well education. If you get smarter by playing it, then it's an educational game.

    2) "Many video games require players to master skills in demand by today’s
    employers."
    "a contextual bridging (i.e., closing the gap between what is learned in theory and its use); a high time-on-task; a motivation and goal orientation, even after failure; a providing learners with cues, hints, and partial solutions to keep them progressing through learning; personalization of learning; and infinite patience."

    3) Games are fun because you can choose which you want to play, who you play with, and what you do. Imagine class, but instead of math, you get to choose your subject, choose your classmates, and stay as long as you want. and change anything, anytime.

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  7. 1. It has to make someone understand a topic they would otherwise learn in a classroom setting.

    2. "The notion of using video games for learning causes some to cringe, others to leap for joy, and many to ask questions about this learning medium. These questions often come from people and organizations that are considering delving into the world of learning games but don’t know if this is advisable or don’t know where to start. "

    3. It has to be interactive and find the fun in a specific topic or mode of gameplay. Many games cause us to learn and adapt, but educational games often simply add interactivity to education without any fun at all.

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  8. 1) I consider an educational game to teach me something but also be awesome to play it. For example COD some what teaches u a little back round of history but hardly any though. I think an educational game should be pretty close to that though because its actually fun.

    2) Experts say that making a good game can really bring out a students intelligence. The stagey of the game is suppose to make the student think. Personally i do not think there could be a game that students would to play because most students are lazy to think nowadays.

    3) A stagey game really keeps me playing because it makes me addicted to it to figure the puzzle or mission. What really goes through my head is that i must be an expert at this game and i wont quit until i do which can a long time sometimes but its usually not that difficult.

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  9. 1. I believe that a game is educational when it incorporates a concept that is commonly taught in school, but is in game format. This could be anything from math to writing. Some common examples are games where ships are flying at you and you must type something to destroy them, or solve a math problem to blow them up.

    2. Most educators believe that gaming is a future where people will work harder. Since people work so hard on games, they believe that incorporating games with real world problems will get people to work harder on the solutions.

    3. I find that fun games are the ones that involve strategy. Ones where you can place troops and see what the outcome will be, in a turn by turn basis. Rpg's can also be fun because YOU are the one that gets to be your character, and pretend that you are the one doing stuff in the game world.

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  10. 1. If you learn from it I believe that it is educational for anyone! If it somehow is going to help you in any way or if you had fun acomplishing something it helps.

    2. Educational gaming is best done through learning and fun!

    "Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. TEA’s research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players."

    3. If it is entertaining and i like to play it I will! The best thing about games that keep me interested is FPS games because you can never get bored being always active!

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  11. 1.What qualifies a game as educational is if it teaches you real life skills. Not just reaction time and puzzle solving like most games, but actually teaches you about real life concepts like math or history.

    2.The MacArthur Foundation feel that gaming is the "future" of education and that education as a whole will become more "interactive and hands on"

    3. A game has to be rewarding, entertaining, and immersive. Those are the basic principles of a fun game.

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  12. Question number one, What qualifies as a game, and how can we make it educational?

    1. You have to remember what a game is, I think most of you guys, keep thing of Counter strike and World of warcraft as the only type of games, don't forget about Scrabble and Monopoly. Games allow for controlled competition, were you can win and lose.

    2. They say, that educational gaming could bet the right way to go as long as we know what we mean by educational gaming.

    3. Just like stated in answer one, we need to control the competition, we need kids to win and lose, we need to create a drive to learn. If we can have games, were you want to win, if we had immediate rewards, but not in a childish way, then the gaming can be fun.

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  13. 1: Both can be educational. For example Call Of Duty teaches you all about warfare. Also national Geographic teaches you about the earth and life on it.

    2: The say that gaming does make you think and strategize all these tatics and educational gaming must have an outcome of you learning something. So all in all games are educational everyone in my opinion

    3: The rewards in games allways keeps people playing.. If you want a messi in fifa 11 then u continue to play the game until you earn enough coins to purchase him.. So just the rewards and gameplay keep me playing

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