Battleship game board

This is an online version of the classic board game.  We’re studying how to graph points in algebra class, so we played battleship!  To be honest, I picked the game because it’s online, it looks good, and it deals with plotting coordinates (in particular, this was a good game because the coordinates aren’t labeled, which lead to lots of confusion).

As I stood in class and watched my students play, I was amazed at how engaged they were.  These are kids that tell me everyday about their favorite game on their PSP.  Or how their arms are tired from playing Wii boxing all night.  Or better yet, how they couldn’t do their homework last night because they were up until 4am playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  I played the game with three different classes and nearly every student was engaged.  Not just looking up front and paying attention, but eager to help a fellow player or take their own turn at the board.  It was incredible.

What makes the game really fun are the aspects of control and curiosity.  Their really isn’t any chance or luck involved in the game.  The player decides where to place his or her ships and so takes ownership over them.  The player also gets to pick which space to shoot at.  Some players opt for haphazard guessing, while others use a more methodical approach.  The best moments came right after a player would pick a space to shoot at.  Then they had to wait to see if it was a hit.   In that split second, you could hear a pin drop.  This was usually followed by a rather loud response from the class if the turn resulted in a hit.

These aspects of the game are probably true for the classic board game version too.  However, the look and sound of the online version was also very motivating for my students.  Instead of hearing another player call out “miss,” or “hit,” the game shows a splash of water or a large explosion (realistic sound effects included).  Thirteen year-old students liked this.  It offered them a fresh look at an old game which was enough to keep them interested until the game really got going.

Many moons ago I worked as a Computer Lab Aide at an elementary school.  With an extremely limited budget (like, zero dollars), I searched for inexpensive ways to enhance students’ experiences when they eagerly walked into the computer lab for their short 30-minute slot each week.  While doing an online search for freeware, I came across a fabulous gem that teaches letters and numbers called Sebran (Zebra in Swedish).  I immediately downloaded the program after reading a brief synopsis and viewing some sample screenshots.  I figured I could uninstall the program if it sucked.  Although the game is geared towards primary grade students, I – along with every other adult (and student, of course) that sat down at a computer station in the lab fell in love with Sebran instantly.  Needless to say I threw a copy on all 40 workstations we had.  Maybe it’s the simplicity of it; maybe the fun imagery and sounds… most likely a combination of them all.  More importantly, it gave students the motivation to play – and learn while playing.  The school I worked for had a heavy ESL population, so I was able to take advantage of the Spanish setting that Sebran offers.

Sebran is also offered in these additional languages:

Afrikaans, Bahasa Indonesian, Breton, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Samoan, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish, Swahili, Swedish

Sebran takes full advantage of intrinsic motivations for learning (Malone and Lepper article) through sensory curiosity (sensory stimuli of the play environment through sound, images, movement), recognition (happy face or frown face), varying degrees of difficulty, explicit goals, and score keeping.

Here’s an overview of Sebran from the freeware website:

“It’s never too early for your child to become familiar with letters and numbers. Sebran’s ABC’s colorful pictures, pleasant music, and gentle games teach letters, numbers, simple math, and rudiments of reading.

-The six simpler exercises display four possible answers. Choose the right one and it becomes a smile; an error gets a frown and a chance to try again.

-The How Many? counting game introduces the numbers from 1 to 9. These are used in the Add, Subtract, and Multiply matching games, which each function at two levels of difficulty.

-In Pick A Picture, one of four pictures matches a word; First Letter offers four possible letters completing a word.

-Your child can employ the skills gained in these exercises to play Memory, Word Memory, or Hangman.

-Finally, the ABC Rain, Letter Rain, and 1+2 Rain games help train little fingers in using the keyboard.”

There is also a version for 2-6 years olds called Mini Sebran, along with a host of additional vocabulary training e-games available on the website: http://www.wartoft.nu/software/sebran/

PLEASE give it a try – it’s free, and I would love to hear your thoughts of the e-game, even if you’re not a primary grade teacher!

To begin preparing this month’s blog post, I started with a simple Google search of population simulation games and I happened across an interesting one, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004.  This simulation is one in which users (players) get to experience the thrill and technicality of true to life flight experience.  The game contains 3D interactive cockpits, specialized aircraft such as the Bombardier Learjet and a Cessna Skyhawk, among many others and many ways to create and select types of flights for the simulator.  As a bonus, the game also has contains a collection of articles on the history of flight. 

In reviewing this game, I began to realize how useful and relevant it is, or could be, to those who are interesting in flying, either as a hobby or as a profession.  Therefore, the learning theory that I believe explains a motivation to play it is the ARCS theory.  The ARCS theory involves motivation on 4 levels: Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction.  This game can provide motivation to play it on each of these levels.  First, the 3D graphics and interactivity make it an “attention getter”.  Second, the interactive cockpit and variety of flights to choose from make it very relevant to a “real world” flight experience.  Third, once the player has been through a variety of aircraft and simulations, they will most likely feel confident in their abilities to handle a similar flight experience in a real aircraft.  Lastly, I am sure that satisfaction will be the end product in realizing a goal that has been achieved. 

Even though I am not really interested in flying, I have to admit that this game is pretty cool and I would be very interested in playing it.  I guess you could say that it could “fuel” an interest in flying, if nothing else.

This is a free online educational game made by LearnDirect. It is mostly for children but is also to help parents brush up on their ‘maths’ and English skills to help their parents. This game has two players, you the parent, and your child. You put in both names at the beginning of the game. It seems to all be Flash based animation. I noticed right away it is not as fluid as the JumpStart 3D online world for kids. My 7 year old daughter loves the Jump Start world.

This online 3D world has all of these interesting imaginary creatures and a very interesting story line. You and your child are in the viewing position of looking out into the world rather than being slightly above and behind an avatar as in the JumpStart world. So you do not have an actual game character that you choose and can see and maneuver through the world.

The setting is on an island where you and your child travel along with various travel guides helping you get through the various tasks and puzzles. You are stopped frequently at different points and are faced with various spelling or math puzzles that have to be solved before being able to continue on with the journey. It is interesting because they will have a puzzle for both you: the “big one” and your child the “little one” to solve. Things like a word(s) being scrambled and you have to reorder them or the child having three numbers that have to come to a certain total through a combination of adding some and then subtracting that total to the remaining number.

There are also ‘just for fun’ terrain obstacle maneuvering mini-games where you guide one of the game’s characters to swim or fly through an obstacle course to retrieve and return certain items that are related to the overall goal in getting through the game.

I played this Lugula game with my seven year old daughter for a short time and didn’t get to finish it. She really wanted to finish it and seemed very engaged while playing.

The graphics have wonderful vibrant colors yet very slow animation as far as watching one of the story guide’s characters walk from one side of the screen and then start communicating with you. It’s fluid when you finished a puzzle and your view quickly travels along the path to the next place where you meet another guide. Again, I think it’s all flash based to allow for distributing it over the internet.

I will think about this game using some of the elements of Keller’s ARCS model:
The initial novelty of a different fantasy world, combined with various multimedia elements caught my daughter’s (and my) attention. The puzzles didn’t seem overwhelming to my daughter so she seemed to feel confident in trying to solve most of the puzzles. However, several times she chose to opt out of the puzzle where you could choose to “skip this puzzle” to move on through the game.

I can’t say there is any relevance for any learning goals I have or my daughter has that would relate to the game. So this was not a factor in maintaining our motivation. However, I’m sure it would align with some curriculum standards on her grade level.

The satisfaction seemed to be in the excitement of exploring the virtual world and after solving the puzzles. Another satisfaction was that I could also play along with my daughter and even had parts to play in the story as far as helping solve puzzles when it was ‘the big one’s’ turn.

Over all I would recommend this game for children and their parents to play. I can’t say what the age range is for since they didn’t say on their site. However, it seemed to be around the level of my daughter who is in second grade. So probably several grades like 2nd-4th I would say would be in the correct age level.

Remember SimCity?  SimSafari has a similar setup.  Here just like SimCity, you can build your safari from scratch.  Picking the map allows the player to control how much water and where it’s located.  You can start building your park with or without animals.  You can also play a mission or a saved park.    Once the game has started, you have complete control over how many animals you buy and what kind.  You’re given a census and graphs to help you determine whether or not certain populations are too low or high. A wildlife guidebook gives information about an animal’s food and possible predators.   Various people such as a wildlife ecologist and village elder are available for additional information.

This game is aimed at children ages 8 and older.  When I look at the California state standards, I see that there are two third grade science standards that this game teaches.  The first one is where students know examples of diverse life forms in different environments including deserts.  Another one is that students know that living things cause changes in the environment in which they live.   Sometimes the changes are detrimental; sometimes the changes are beneficial.  Using Keller’s ARCS model, this game is very relevant.  I see that there are 38 different mammals, birds, and reptiles.  There are also a variety of trees, shrubs, and grasses.  In the course of a game, the populations of different animals will fluctuate for different reasons.  To help players feel confident, there are two levels they can choose from – easy and hard.  They can also get advice from many different people throughout the park.

I recently came across an article called, “Games Evolve as Tools for Teaching Financial Literacy” and had to share it on this blog. For me, it is the perfect example of how engaging games can be used to improve knowledge in a certain field or subject.

I work in higher education and learned that a recent study found that 86% of undergraduates would like to have learned how to improve their financial literacy during college. There is a need for learning about budgeting, savings, dealing with loans, debt, etc… especially with this economy and I’m excited to see that there are games addressing this need. At my University, we have CashCourse, however, it is not very well received or utilized.

In the article, Jack A. Naglieri, a professor of psychology at George Mason University, explains how online educational games peek the interest of students who are growing up in the digital age. He states that the digital medium is perfect for reaching the younger generation.

I was thrilled to read all of the games available, and that the games are teaching more than just finances. Students who play the games improve their math skills as well. Check out the article if you get a chance!

Personally, I would love to develop games like these someday to teach students about music, art, science, social studies, and all of the other subjects that are being dropped off the radar in schools due to budget cuts and a strong focus on math/language test scores.

Like Shawn I’m a big fan of the electronic games that have come out that are based on a board game we grew up with. One of my favorite examples is Scrabble! I’ve always loved this game and nowadays there are many online alternatives for playing it.

The first online game I found 10 years ago was one called Literati by Yahoo Games.  Same board set up, with your double word squares, and your triple letter squares. You could play with just one other person, or even have games of multiple players going. Each player would play at their own pace and make their move the next time they logged in.  Alternatively, you could join a live game where it was timed and all players played online right then and there.

Another online Scrabble-like game is one of my current favorites: Lexulous! It was once called Scrabbulous, and it is available as a Facebook application.  Not only can you play games with the people in your “friends” list, but other Lexulous users around the world are available to you as well. One of my favorite things to do is play Lexulous Blitz, which is a 4 minute timed game that you play with multiple players in which all players try to put their words down to make the most possible points before those 4 minutes run out. No time to think, just put a word, ANY word down!

A few individual motivators that come into play for Scrabble include those of challenge and uncertain outcome. The goal of the game is to be the one and only winner, meaning you have created the words that garnered you the most points out of all players. Vocabulary skills, and strategy in terms of placement of your words are key here. Also, the fact that the outcome is uncertain provides an even bigger challenge. No matter how awesome you are with vocab, it is the uncertainty of the letters you draw that could cause you to, for example, end up with all vowels or something and then you are up a creek.

Some interpersonal motivators also draw players to play this game, including cooperation, competition, and recognition. In terms of recognition, online versions like Lexulous offer a player and their track record to be published for all to see. If you click on a player’s profile, you can see how many games they have won, what their best word was and how many points it gave them, etc. Sometimes it’s just that recognition motivator that will prompt someone to say hey, I want to play Lexulous today to increase my published word score!

Now if you’ll excuse me I must log into Facebook and make my next Lexulous moves.

The Exploratorium in San Francisco is a fantastic museum and the website is equally impressive. Sixth graders from my school enjoy a pilgrimage every spring and I prime them for the field trip by sending them to the website every chance I get.  Most of the material on the site would more accurately be described as “activity” rather than “game” … it is all educational and the kids love it!  Here is a link to a science how-to … dissect a cow’s eye …

http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/cow_eye/index.html

The designers get students’ ATTENTION with a pretty startling subject and video with excellent production values.

RELEVANCE is clear … this is a science museum and anatomy is science.

CONFIDENCE grows as students get blow-by-blow instructions for performing the dissection at home.

There is great SATISFACTION in having watched a fascinating science video with a big yuk factor … those geniuses at the Exploratorium know what kids like!

A Grade 5-8 Science e-game

Instructions are provided on the web site to guide teachers to use this game.  These include: (1) tips for using the game with students, (2) assessment criteria and discussion questions, (3) different design concepts catering to business people and middle school students, (4) research data supporting the effectiveness of using this game, and (5) standards the game aims to achieve for the students.

At the start of the game, students (individual or in team/group) are introduced to the idea of product design in an interactive and user-friendly interface.  They are guided through a systematic approach: (1) understand the various needs and considerations for designing cell phones for senior citizens, (2) design the cell phone by selecting from a range of parameters, and (3) evaluate the prototype by analyzing from different user perspectives simulated by the computer.  Depending on the outcome of the evaluation, students have the option to proceed to the production phase and market the cell phone or revise their designs.  When the students are ready to mass produce their cell phones, the computer will then simulate the market sales and the strength of their cell phone design will be based on the sales results.  Students can then print out the results and submit to the teacher for evaluation or grading.

Select the different parameters to meet the design goals

I find this game to be a quality class activity. It is meaningful and short enough (10-15 minutes) for the target student group (Grade 5-8) to complete within a standard class period.  Of significance, it exemplifies the the ARCS model in motivating learners:

• Attention:  The game contains colorful graphics and made use of both text and audio to engage both the visual and auditory sensors of the students.  It is suitable for hearing impaired students.
• Relevance:  The topic of interest (cell phone) is familiar to the students and they will find it easy to put the theories into practice.
• Confidence:  The game provides a scaffolding approach to build the knowledge on engineering design.  Students can learn on their own pace and has the control to revise any area they do not understand.
• Satisfaction:  The prototypes students designed are evaluated through a computer simulation and this provides instant feedback on their learning.  Subsequently, the sales report will inform the students whether their designs are marketable or require more work.  Students who understood the design process and cater to the needs of the target audience will then be rewarded with good sales results.

Check out my cell phone and the sales results!  It’s my first attempt and I think it can be better.  Do you think you can achieve a better result?  Start designing your cell phone now =)

Sales results based on my cell phone design

I came across simSchool this summer and believe it is a very useful simulation game for prospective teachers. It could be used both in teacher training programs and by experienced teachers. This is a classroom simulation program funded by the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Teach with Technology program of the U.S. Department of Education.

simSchool is an online simulated classroom experience with students from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of characteristics. The player with the role of a teacher in the game is supposed to make series of instructional decisions and needs to respond to students’ comments and questions. The player should also consider each student’s specific learning style, verbal and behavioral characteristics. In this game, player as a teacher can choose his classroom size (1, 5, or 18 students).  The difficulty level increases by number of students in the classroom. Players can choose the learning environments –urban, suburban or rural. Then they can see the students’ profiles, academic abilities, emotional characteristics and learning style. Students’ behaviors in this game are unpredictable as in the real classroom. So, player as a teacher should understand the students’ problem from his statement or posture and make decisions to help the students in that situation. Free trial (with a group of 5 students) is available on the game site. Also you can purchase this game for $12 yearly. 3000 written student profiles supported by many small performance differences between students and the tasks that teacher designs gives the players a relevant working environment.

If you want to read more about simSchool, visit:

http://innovateonline.info/pdf/vol1_issue6/simSchool_-__The_Game_of_Teaching.pdf

If you want to play simSchool, visit:

http://simschool.org/

The game Careers, was first introduced to me circa 1979.  Careers is a game where the players control their own victory conditions by setting up a formula for success in the areas of Fame, Happiness, Money, or a combination of all three. The objective was to accumulate a total number of points earned in all three (3) categories equaling 60. All paths have some prerequisite for entry, and benefits accrue from going through any of the paths more than once.  Within different occupations, the players were given the opportunity to earn points in those occupations.  For example, getting a raise in the job = Money points, starring in a movie role = fame points, while “Going to Sea” is good for happiness. The winner is the player who gets to their formula goal first.  The game has a fantasy feel to it by allowing the players an opportunity to immerse themselves in different career tasks as they move around the board.  I highly recommend playing this game with young kids.  Careers provides the opportunity for some good discussion amongst the players regarding the variety of regarding career choices and the intricacies that surround a particular type of job. A specific memory that I have while playing the game of Careers as a youngster, involved landing on a ‘Teacher Career’ space and words on the space read, “Increase tenure” were introduced to me for the first time.  Didn’t even think I would become a teacher way back when.

The problem I had with this assignment is that I am familiar with very few games, and even fewer educational ones. I tapped into the experiences of my family for this one, and was able to explore some kid’s games for the purpose of the blog. Kids learn by repetition, so most of the games were very simple and repetitive. This particular game, however, has multiple variations possible and seems to be a good product to last more years than the other games, due to its dynamic nature.

This is a simple game targeted to pre-schoolers, teaching Hebrew character recognition. The players draw cards and move their pawn to the corresponding space on the board. When a color card is drawn, the player moves to the next square of that color. When a letter card is drawn, the player moves to that letter no matter where he currently is on the board. Letter cards can thus move a player forward or backward. The target audience is age 3 and up; the players don’t need any knowledge to play. But knowing the names of the Hebrew letters on the board can enhance the education value of the game.

The game is good in that it teaches counting, matching, color recognition, letter recognition, and beginning reading skills to young children. It is also good in that a number of modifications can make the game more interesting and challenging for older players. For example, players might be required to say a word beginning with the character they land on, or name an object (in Hebrew) that is the color of the square they land on. The game can be applied to any foreign language, or even to English reading and language skills.

Graphically, the board is well designed with age-appropriate bright, primary colors. It is content appropriate with images consistent with Jewish culture, and items consistent with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet that are shown on the board.

Its about time!  

For far too long, the amateur ornithologist has been given the cold shoulder by the board game industry. They’ve been ignored and dismissed.  The everyday bird watcher has had nowhere to turn for good, wholesome, bird related gaming.  But not anymore!  At last, The Great North American Bird Watching Game has birders young and old alike chirping with joy!

Never heard of it?  This game description from amazon.com sums it up nicely:

Birders everywhere, it’s time to drop your binoculars and focus on a game that is sure to soar. The Great North American Bird Watching Trivia Game is the ultimate birding trivia game designed for those who want to test their knowledge on North American birds.

Who is the game for?

According to an advertisement, this game is made for the (supposedly) 64 million birdwatchers in the United States (Really? 1 out of every 5 people in this country is a bird watcher?).

Not sure how they calculated those numbers, but regardless, with over 2,000 questions in three levels of difficulty – beginner, intermediate, and expert – this game is suitable for bird watchers of all skills levels.

Content

Topics covered in the game, as you might expect, include habitats, mannerisms, field marks, diets, nomenclature, and more.

Gameplay

The gameplay is quite simple.  Players move around the board 1 space at a time, answering a question on each turn.  If the player answers the question correctly, the turn continues, and a new question is asked.  Players continue moving 1 space at a time, answering questions until a wrong answer is given.  The first player to make it around the entire board is the winner

Critique

Now, I’m not exactly sure what it was up against, but I should start by pointing out that The Great North American Bird Watching Trivia Game DID won a 2003 Product of the Year Award from Informal Education Products after being chosen by consumers as a superior educational product.

Am I really going to  argue with the Informal Education Products Award Committee?

Well, yes, I am.  I’m actually inclined to think the award has more to do with the game’s unique subject matter and niche market than its revolutionary gameplay.  Nothing about the actual game design suggests a particularly creative or interesting gaming experience – it really is as simple as answering questions off a card and moving along a linear path, 1 square at a time.

On the other hand, I guess if I’m looking to test my knowledge of birds in a competitive fashion, its not like I have many other choices to pick from.  That’s got to be worth something.

Citadels is a card game by Bruno Faidutti that revolves around competing cities. The game requires 2-7 players, recommended ages 10 and up.
The ultimate goal of Citadels is to build 8 districts within your city, and for them to be the most valuable.

citaels

The Components
•    There are 66 district cards that are nicely illustrated showing different locations in a city such as manors, cathedrals, taverns, and observatories. There’s a set of coin pictures running down the left side of the card showing the cost/value of the card (between 1-6).  These cards are also distinguished by color (yellow: noble, blue: religious, green: trade, red: military, and purple: special).
•    The 18 character cards are each labeled with a name like Assassin, Bishop, Magician, Warlord, etc. 7 of the cards are associated with special types of city cards and are marked with the corresponding color.
•    The gold coins are used to buy character and district cards
•    The crown and base are used to distinguish who is the “king” that round.
•    Victory point markers are used to help mark special conditions when players count up their cards at the end of the game.
•    Character markers are used to help everyone remember what characters are in the game.

The Game
Each player starts the game with 4 district cards and 2 gold coins. A player is chosen to be the king for the first round. The 8 character cards are shuffled and given to the king.

Basically, each round, players choose characters and take character turns.  The current king randomly places one of the character cards face-down. He then randomly places between zero and two character cards (depending on number of players) face up, leaving him with one more character card than the number of players in his hand. Then the king selects a character card of his choice, and the cards are passed clockwise around the table with each player choosing a character card. In the end the last player selects one of the final two cards and places the other facedown on the table. The end result is that each player has had some choice over the “special power” he gets to use during the current round, and in addition each player has some knowledge of what characters other players are using (but not total knowledge).

Taking Character Turns: After character selection is done, each player then gets to take his turn in the current round. This is done in the order of the character cards, so the player with the assassin goes first, the thief goes second, etc. At least a couple of characters will be out of play every round, and thus skipped.

Actions During a Turn. Each turn each player may decide to collect two new gold coins or else take two district cards and keep the best of the two. Then, he/she may build up to one district (by paying the appropriate number of gold coins).

Each player also gets to use his/her character power sometime during his turn. So the assassin might collect a couple of cards, play a new district, and then kill some other character, the exact fate of which isn’t revealed until that character’s turn. The bishop might collect some gold, then collect some more gold for his blue districts, then build something expensive.

Ending a Round: Eventually after the warlord (#8) has gone, the character cards are all recovered, shuffled, and a new round begins. The new king (#4) gets to begin card selection in the new round.

Ending the Game: The game ends at the end of a round when someone builds their 8th district. Everyone then counts up the value of all their districts and adds any bonuses

Why this Game Works
Competitive:
This is a very competitive game because players are trying to build up their districts and gold reserves faster than the other players.  Sometimes, if there is one player that is doing particularly well, other players will team up against that player to keep them from gaining more districts and gold.

Mysterious:
You don’t know what cards the other players have, but you can attempt to calculate and guess. This adds an element of excitement and mystery.

Easy:
It’s not terribly difficult to learn and catch on. After watching a round or two of your friends play, a person of average intelligence should be able to pick the game right up.

Complexity:
The intricate descriptions of characters and districts are complex and vivid, often appealing to a sophisticated audience much along the lines of “Risk” or “The Settlers of Catan.”

Portability:
This game and all its pieces fit into a very small travel-size box. It’s very easy to pick up and go with this game to a friend’s house.

Critique of Design
Citadels is a very fun game to play and is designed really well. Regarding the sheer number of different cards, district cards and character cards, a small “cheat sheet” with these names listed would be very helpful for reference by the king.

So I was looking for a game that was fun and educational and I stumbled upon the game PayDay.  Who doesn’t want to go through the end of the month and have money leftover (especially in these economic times). 

So what you do is simply go through the month and get paid and pay your bills.  No…it is really not that simple.  You have mail that you collect which may include a bill, a postcard, or Moneygrams (someone needs money from you).  Get extra income by winning the lottery, selling a business, win a radio contest, or even a sweepstake.  Maybe you have the opportunity to go into business for yourself, but you may need a loan to get started.  You can get a loan and go completely into debt. 

This sounds like an awesome game in which you can really see how the real world works, by borrowing money to get ahead or find out that it was a poor decision in the process.  It seems apporpriate with these economic times to teach the concept of good economic decisions and not to be too far in debt at any one time.

The game however needs to be updated.  I do not know of too many people who get Moneygrams anymore, or win sweepstakes.  I think it would be great if there were more Internet based items on the gameboard to make it more like the 21st Century.  Although the principles are still the same in the economy.

The recent event of the stock market spinning out of control wasn’t fun, and many experienced huge losses.  However Donald and Betty Lee Deitch, who were in that precarious boat that ended up sinking, decided to shed light on the situation by creating an environment that would allow people to experience the Wall Street game without losing a penny.

The Wall Street Spin®, the first game in a series of FunSpin™ board games, was developed to accomplish just that.  The game is suitable for adult players and provides a satirical atmosphere of fun and challenge.  However several testimonials note that it’s a great way for parents to introduce their children to the realm of money and the stock market, helping to bridge the generation gap.  It also provides a parallel between something that in reality is a sore subject, taking those aspects and turning them into educational entertainment.  Although it won’t win me real money {and I won’t lose real money either, unless I play it in Vegas } it has peaked my interest enough that I will probably buy it to play!  Here’s the scoop:

• Simulates ups and downs of the market, without complex math.
• Can affect all players even when it’s not your turn, which keeps players interested in the game.
• Encourages social and negotiation skills in players.
• Fun way to learn stock terms. Hostile Takeover allows you to take another player’s stock at 1/2 price, and change the game’s dynamics. This makes the game more exciting.
• “Play” the market without risk! Novices gain confidence, while experts enjoy this Game of Strategy.
• Great as party or travel game.
• The game packaging is quite appealing, with a chic carrying case and patented spinner.  An Oscar-winning animation director collaborated with designers to coin quirky stock names.

Here’s how to play:

Set out the game board with the spinner in the middle.  Break apart 24 color stock certificates.  It’s fun, because this game has varying prices. “Play” the market without risk!

1. The object of the game is to get as much stocks and cash in 1 hr. or set time.  The player who has the most is the winner!  Set out money, cards.  Begin at “Market Opens.”

Strategy: Try to get 3 stocks in a color group, it pays more dividends.  When you own all 3 stocks, you can buy a Blue chip marker for $4k, which increases the values of all stocks in that group!  You can buy or sell with other players for 2 mins. before your turn.

2. When you land on an unowned stock, you can buy it.  If you land on someone else’s

stock, you have to pay Dividends to the owner.  The amount you pay depends on what you spin again, for example, 300 X spin (1) = $300.  Or 300 X spin (8) = $2,400!  Ouch.

3. The spinner has 3 functions:  1) Move tokens without dice.  2)  Blue Chip Spin refers to the 8 stocks in the middle. 3)  Market Spin refers to the navy blue edge, which could be good and bad spins, that affect you or all players, such as “Market Boom.” (Please refer to Rules booklet for specific instances).

4. Bull/Bear news cards bring good or bad news.  Players don’t need to know stock terms to play, just collect from the Broker, or pay penalties into the Windfall profits corner.

The best card is “Hostile Takeover” when you can force sale of a stock at ½ price!

5. Whoever lands on Windfall Profits collects $$ from the penalties!  Fortunes can quickly change.  Broker puts in $1,000 each time
after it’s collected.  Broker also gives players $1,000 when they pass “Market Opens.”

To learn more, visit http://www.funspin.com/index.html

Long Shot - It's fun to race horses!

Are ready for a HORSE race?! Long shot is the latest board game from Z-Man Games offering you a fun and interesting way to learn about horse racing.

Target audience: Caters to ages 10 and up and good for 3-8 players.

What is it about? It’s a horse racing game. Players get to own and place bets on horses. Winner is the the player that owns the winning horse or the one who has the most amount of money at the end of the game. Takes about 30 minutes for one game.

Game mechanic:
1. On each turn, a player throws two types of die. 1st die has numbers 1-10 and it represents the horse chosen to move along the board. 2nd die has numbers 0-3 and represents the number of moves the chosen horse can move.

2. After completing the move, player will take any one of these actions: (1) play a card, (2) buy an unowned horse, (3) place a $5 bet on any horse, and (4) exchange 2 cards for $5.

• Play a card: Information on the card helps the player strategize the game. It acts like a “chance” card. If players do not want to utilize the cards, they can discard them for money.
• Buy an unowned horse: Each horse is represented by a card and costs between $10-$20. No players start with a horse. Each player starts game with $25 and can buy horses on their turns. Other information on the card include the odds pay-out for coming in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the race; additional chances to move the horse; and special abilities that have either positive or negative impact to the game play. In essence, the more expensive the horse, the higher chance it gets to move along the board.
• Place $5 bet on any horse: Players can only do that within the “Bet” zone on the board. Once a horse moves into the “No bets” zone, no bets can be placed on it.

3. Upon completing the selected action, players draw 1 card and pass the dice.

4. Special play: Every player has a re-roll token that can be used only once on any player’s turn to re-roll the horse die.

Strengths:
Educational value: Application of math skills such as calculating probability and ratio.
Attractive aesthetics: The game board is a miniature race course and player pawn is a miniature race horse complete with the jockey.
Rules are simple: A terse overview of what happens at each turn is shown in one corner of the game board.
Involves strategies: To win, a player can choose to spread the investment by betting multiple horses and leverage “chance” cards to improve their positions. Or, own horses and bet big on them in the hope that they win the race. Players can influence one another to create opportunities to improve any horse’s position.
Presents different vantage points: Players can be horse owners or free agents that bet only different horses.
Fast-paced: Game ends when a race is over. Players can then decide if they want to carry on with more races.
It’s engaging: The game involves all players at every turn. A player’s decision at every turn affects another’s strategy.

Drawback: It may mislead the young and promote gambling.

Conclusion: This game is a keeper. Teaches you how to take risks and invest smartly in a safe and fun environment.

One of my favorite games is called Blokus. It can be played by 2-4 players, and is branded as an “Educational Insights” and “StrataGems Brain-Building Games”. It is similar to tetris in that you have pieces of varying shapes made of small squares. Each of the 21 pieces in Blokus is different, ranging from one square to five, put together to make different shapes. Each player has the same set of pieces. You begin by placing one piece on the board, and each turn you have, you add another of your pieces so that a corner of an existing piece touches a corner of the new piece. You cannot have flat sides touching of your own pieces, but you can touch any part of the other player’s pieces. Since you must connect to your own piece by a corner, the opposing player can “Block” you from areas on the board to move. The player with the least number (or no) blocks left wins.

I find this game interesting because it is a combination of spacial understanding, strategy, cutthroat playing, and luck. Each player remains engaged (a key learning point in the past few weeks of game design) while it is another’s turn by watching what other people are doing and strategizing where to play next, how to block other players and what their own options are. The more players, the more difficult it is to play as the variables (other pieces and strategies) increase.

My mom’s in town, so we just played a few games…and its always fun to see how some people move pieces around to try and imagine how they fit, or put pieces on the board that in no way fit, while others can “see” how a piece would work without even moving it. I compare this to those who are more structural, architectural, etc vice those who are not. I for one am addicted to this game.

After spending about an hour browsing a variety of educational board games, I decided to post about this game because of it’s title and the very entertaining  family photo on the box (it reminds me of our family picture circa the mid 80′s).  “Mind Your Manners” is something that my grandmother would constantly say to my brother and I growing up (of course we would never listen). 

This game is intended for players 4 years and up.  The objective of the game is to, “teach the basic rules of etiquette and to have fun”.  Etiquette AND fun?  Sorrty, but I am unable to see the connection between learning etiquette and having fun.  In this game there are 100 picture cards that guide the movement of the player’s pawns.   This is a linear game with a start and finish line, but other game details are unclear from the description.  The game creators claim that “your child may soon find themselves with improved manners that make it a pleasure for others to be with”.  I am not sure that playing a game will encourage my children to have good manners, in fact, if I were required to play this game as a kid, I am sure I would purposely demonstrate bad manners in protest of playing a game with such a lame premise.  

Learning good manners is something that is taught by example and needs to be practiced over time to master.  After reviewing this game, I think it would fall under the category of  “interestingly bad”.

To learn more about this game, visit:

http://www.educationallearninggames.com/mind-your-manners-game.asp

Watch a video review of Tara, Ireland’s Royal Board Game
on Holly’s Hits.

Once Upon a Castle is a game designed for children ages 4+. The game teaches children to recognize shapes and pictures as well as allowing them to creatively put pieces together to create their own castle. The premise of the game is that a knight and a princess want each want to build castles, but only one can be build in the kingdom. Meanwhile, an ogre doesn’t want either to build a castle and plays the game trying to stop them. The game consists of a main game board, plus two castle building boards. Each player starts off with two plastic castle pieces, which the goal is to add to. As the players move around the board, each space shows a picture of one of three castle pieces. The player picks up a cardboard piece that matches the one shown on the board. If the piece has a picture of one of the player’s markers, they get to add the piece to the castle. If they roll an ogre, they have to give a piece back. Whoever builds a castle with five pieces first wins.

The child I played with was probably a little older than the target audience of the game. He’s had it for a while and it’s one of his favorite games. When I asked him why, he said it was fun and he often won. He also really likes to build things, so being able to put the pieces together in anyway he wants really appeals to him. I think that the game is a good starting game for kids. It’s easy to learn how to play and something happens on each role. Also, they get to interact with the game on many levels and learn basic shape and pattern matching. In my opinion, for a four year old, it’s not a bad educational game.

Manila Board Game

Browsing through hundreds of board games I stumbled upon a product that caught my eye due to the title’s reference to my native homeland the Philippines.   The game is categorized as a strategy game with a Nautical, Transportation, Trading theme that is designed for 3-5 players.  The theme is based on Filipino history during the Spanish Colonial occupation in the year 1821.  Players assume the role as black market merchants trying to smuggle precious goods into the Philippines without being detected by the Spanish armada or attacked by pirates.  Players must rely on skill and luck in order to succeed in the game.

The game design belongs to Franz-Benno Delonge and is produced by Rio Grande Games.  After reading the synopsis of the game I realized that my initial idea for a Pirate board game was eerily similar to the Manila game.  The game seems to be quite popular because most of the sites I browsed were out of stock.  I was surprised that I had never heard of the game until recently and that it’s not being used by the larger Filipino community for educational and entertainment purposes.  Maybe one day when I am at a family party this game will be a standard activity with everyone participating.  That would be interesting!

Operation is one of the, funnest “hybrid” board/electronic games of my childhood.  Fairly simply designed, it only required two AA batteries connected to a pair of surgical tweezers and a simple board layout featuring an (almost) anatomically correct caricature of a male surgical patient “Cavity Sam” (“Sam”)

Sam from waist up

laid-out on the operating table with a dozen or so clever twists on medical ailments inlaid throughout his body.  The object is to remove the ailment without “zapping”  the outlying area of the condition, thus setting off a buzzing red-nose on the apparently unanesthetized Sam — the poor sap’s eyes remain wide open throughout!   (Unconfirmed rumors suggest Milton Bradley opted to forgo the licensed anesthesiologist to keep “operational costs” at a minimum, major malpractice action notwithstanding.)

Operation was always a lot of fun to play — and technically an anatomical educational learning tool, albeit featuring clever colloquialistic ailments like,  ‘Water on the knee’ – remove a bucket from the knee; ‘Writer’s Cramp’ – take out a pencil from the forearm;  and of course, the infamous ‘Wrenched Ankle’ – you guessed it, someone crammed a monkey wrench in poor Sam’s ankle.

The full board and pieces

Hasbro  have since spun-off a variety of versions of Operation over the past four decades, including brand-specific (Homer Simpson and The Incredible Hulk as patients), computer based and online versions of the game, as well as a modernized version, featuring patients suffering from more appropriate 21st century ailments, such as ‘SMS Thumb’, ‘Rusted Hip Joints’ and “Data-Miner’s Lung’. Another big brake through in the game, came when Hasbro (who acquired MB in the 80s) held an online contest to add a new ailment to the original version of the game. Since 2003, Sam has added to his suffering a 13th operable ailment – “Brain Freeze” (as in the ice-cream related kind). Beyond the anatomy element of the game, players rely heavily on hand-eye coordination skills (it can be really tricky removing some of those objects) Players are also designated as “Specialists” and can make extra cash performing surgeries their feeble-fingered peers failed to pull of safely This adds an informal lesson in the medical profession’s impressive Specialization fields, shedding some insight into all the cash prospective med students will make by sticking it out an extra couple of years in residency.

Forty some-odd years since it was first introduced to the market, Operation has stayed true to the simple premise yet also proven the concept has, and likely will continue to, stand the test of time in the gaming world

While researching games to see what our Save the Planet board game would be competing against, I came across Earthopoly at the bookstore at UCSD (where I work). The physical make up of this game lives up to its title – it is made from a combination of 100% recycled materials, soy ink, and a few other rare earthy materials, such as stones from Botswana. This game is designed by Late for the Sky and is for 2-6 players ages 8 and older. The object of the game is to collect carbon credits and trade them in for fresh healthy air. However, individuals can end up in the “dump” and have to recover from there.

The game looks interesting and definitely caught my eye in the bookstore. One person commented that she couldn’t get her 12 year old to stop playing and that she loved playing it with her family (“it’s like monopoly but without all the greed”). Many reviewers were excited about how fun (and eco-friendly) an educational game could be.

To learn more about the game, visit: http://www.lateforthesky.com/Content/Product-30-1-239.htm?CategoryName=Specialty&CategoryID=6

Pretty Pretty Princess is one of the first board games I played as a very young girl, not because I enjoyed a good game of competition, but because I wanted to dress-up and be a “pretty pretty princess.” Talk about social constructivism at its best!

In the middle of the whimsical and feminine game board decorated with fairytale images sits a gem encrusted jewelry box housing 4 sets of colored plastic jewelry. There is a mirror on one side of the jewelry box lid so “she can gaze at her royal self” and a spinner on the other, and the coveted crown sits around the box.  Players accumulate a set of jewelry as they spin and move linearly around the circular board in any direction. The winner is the first player who collects all their colored jewelry (necklace, earrings, ring and bracelet) and then the crown. However, a player cannot win if in possession of the black ring. There are spots on the game board with commands, such as “Give one back”, for non-readers this message can be interpreted by the accompanying image. Although there is no educational component to this game, “It’s good practice for kids in taking turns, as well as in handling emotions when someone takes their crown away!” Some may argue that the game promotes negatives social undertones, such as winners equal princess and to be the best is to have material object.

Although there is not much depth to the overall board game, Pretty Pretty Princess exemplifies the elegance technique of gaining prizes, or jewelry.  The most challenging obstacle to overcome is possession of the black ring, which can be returned in numerous ways.  And although the spinner lends itself to probability, the randomness is not that tricky considering the player can move any direction and there are only about twenty spaced to land on before repeating.

I can’t believe I forgot all about this game!  Green globs was my favorite game in middle school.  I used to borrow my teacher’s college textbooks to look up different equations outside my math knowledge just so I could score more points each time I played.

For those of you that have never heard of this game before, here’s a blurb about how to play.  The object of the game is to hit as many green globs as possible using one equation.  You get a few tries to clear the entire graph of green globs before moving on to different levels, but the fun of it is messing with the equation parameters and visually, instantly, seeing the results.  I believe it’s this game that really helped me to develop my graphical sense, and I’ve carried the experience with me to this day!

Check it out http://www.greenglobs.net/

As a 5th grade teacher I am always looking for ways to expose students to curriculum. Spill your guts is a game of human anatomy, that I bought on a whim. This game has quickly become a faviorite  rainy day recess activity. The title of the game is enough to get my fifth graders interested. The game is designed ages 8+, 2-4 players, but when more want to play I break them into 2-4 teams. Players aka “surgeons” need to assemble a patient’s organs, surgeons are asked various true/false questions about human body organ systems. For each correct answer they keep the question card and get an organ to place in the patient. For each incorrect answer the guts get spilled (and they start all over). The surgeon (or team of surgeons) with the most correct answer cards wins.

Last year I needed to implement a schedule for this game, because of it’s high interest. Students love the idea of becoming surgeons, getting a chance to piece a human back together. Aesthetically, this game has a high interest level for most students, they are always interested in human anatomy–although I think some are disappointed to learn patient is androgynous. It is a great way for students to get familiar with the shape of organs and their locations. It is a game that always generates interesting conversation, unfortunately the game itself teaches little, but the conversations it starts can be great learning opportunities.

Their are a few problems I’ve found with the game. It is manufactured for home play, notfor the classroom, the patient is flimsy and was broken quickly. The organ systems are also very difficult to put together-even for an adult. The organs never seem to fit right, which makes students think they have put the patient together wrong. The intended audience (kids 8+ years old) have difficultly with the questions. But with only a true/false answers students have a 50/50 shot at getting it right-encouraging guessing. Younger students also find it frustrating that when an incorrect answer is given all the organs are spilled. I have to monitor the conversations that take place while students are playing Spill Your Guts, conversations can detour into sex ed topics-which at my ultra conservative school will upset parents.

Spill Your Guts is great when used as supplemental tool.

I’m someone who likes a lot of options and variety in my games. Scene It? is a favorite of mine as it can easily be modified to fit the players’ needs, and has the addition of a DVD that provides a plethora of visual cues to keep you interested and having fun. It also comes in many themes these days in addition to the general movie trivia version, such as Disney Scene It? and Harry Potter Scene It?.

Scene It? is a linear game of movie trivia in which players travel around the board with the hopes of being the first to reach the end, or as they call it the “inner circle”, and then be able to answer the final trivia questions. It is a die game but incorporates two types of dice, one is numbered to determine how many spaces you move, and the other has various symbols to denote what your challenge will be for that move. You could answer one of 3 types of trivia card questions, or you could use the DVD to answer a question for you, or compete against ALL players. If you answer a question correctly, you keep rolling and moving until you get an incorrect answer and then play goes to the next player. Once you reach the end, the inner circle, you have to answer a set of 3 questions in order to win the game. If you get one incorrect you have to wait there until your next turn, which allows another player to possibly reach the inner circle and answer all 3 questions correctly.

Critique:

As I mentioned before, I really like the amount of variety in this game. Not only is it based on the board itself and the trivia cards on it, but you also have the element of the DVD, from which you can watch clips of movies, answer more trivia questions in a visual format, etc. In addition, for each move you make you might have the possibility that the question you get will be ONLY for you, or it might be available for everyone playing which adds that element of elegance that we discussed in class where there should be roadblocks of sorts during game play.  Also, with the large amount of material you can store on the DVD it takes a while before you see any “repeats”, which if you only had a stack of cards would happen much sooner. Like other games that provide “refills” so you have more questions, you can also get a refill DVD to obtain even more movie clips so the fun is endless!

Another feature the DVD  offers is the option of “Party Play”. Haven’t you ever played a game and bended the rules a bit so that it wouldn’t last nearly as long? The Party Play is that option of playing a game in a quicker way, but still getting the fun out of it. Instead of using the board to roll and move, the Party Play just plays trivia questions and movie clips on the screen one after the other so you and the other players can just keep answering questions and not have to get bored while waiting for someone else to have their own turn.

For more information and to see the latest varieties of the Scene It? game visit http://www.screenlifegames.com/

Math Scrabble

Scrabble®, for as long as I can remember, has been one of my favorite board games.  Readers of any age can play, creating a fun family atmosphere in households across the US.  Being a math teacher, I’m always looking for games that remind me of the ones I grew up with, the ones I love, and that involve higher level math.  Although Scrabble® involves adding and multiplying once you’ve placed the tiles for each word, it’s not at a high enough level mathematically for me to justify its use in the high school math class.  While searching particularly for educational games, I found a game called Equate that claims to be “A Math Version of Scrabble® Turns Young Minds on to Algebra!”  I am pleasantly surprised!

This game offers numbers (including fractions), arithmetic symbols, and equals signs to its players for making horizontal or vertical equations.  The scoring is per tile and has multipliers on the playing board, just like Scrabble®.  I think use of this game in 6th-8th grade could be very beneficial to students going into Algebra 1.  Although the tiles are not “Algebra” tiles, the concept of the game requires higher order thinking skills, using Algebra without students realizing it.  I might buy this game

http://www.conceptualmathmedia.com/equate/

As I was preparing for this blog post I was also researching video game consoles for my family. My wife wants to purchase a Nintendo Wii and I want a Xbox 360. I figured what better way to hot two birds with one stone so I decided to look for educational uses for the Wii. I was taken back by the creative and interesting way that teacher have been using the Wii in their classroom. My original idea of teachers using the Wii was using the sports games for Physical Education. An article I stumbled upon while looking for information really imporessed me with the creative uses and application of math and reasoning. Edutopia did a great job of also adressing some of the down sides of using the Wii in the classroom as an engagment tool to teach academic content.

After all of the great information I was able to find I am sold on the idea of using Video games to engage students but am not sure that it is the best way all the time. I really think that using a tool like the Wii to reenforce concepts that have been taught previously might be the best use and application.

The other problem that I still struggle with is “How is my adminstratior going to feel if he walks in and sees students playing video games?” I am not sure that adminstratiors are going to be quick to buy into the idea of using video game systems in student learing. I think that some adminstrators are very focused on test scores and if there is no research of proof that this will raise student score this would be a no go.

On a side note the Wii has receantly droped in price and there are some great deals on amazon.com you can get a 25 dollar gift card with the purchace of a Wii. Dell is also offering a deal of free shipping and a 25.00 discount on the Wii.

Price reduction and a gift card time to buy a Wii

During my research about famous or relatively famous educational game designers I never imagined I would come across an article about former Supreme Court Justic Sandra Day O’Connor in this field. The original article, published in June 2008 discusses O’Connor’s role as a key note speaker at the annual Games for Change conferance at Parsons The New School for Design. She and James Paul Gee, a Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison professor, teamed up to developed Our Courts which was expected to be rolled out September 2009.
I then did a quick search for the site, and found it at www.ourcourts.org. In addition to the great factual information you find on the site, there are indeed a couple of games to play www.ourcourts.org/play-games I quickly played the Supreme Court Decision game. I thought it was great, easy to follow along with, engaging and something kids could really understand.

The location of the original article I found online is

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/06/justice-oconnor/

Video Game Designer, Critic, and Researcher: Ian Bogost

Ian Bogost

http://www.bogost.com/games/

I came across this site created by Dr. Ian Bogost, who is a videogame designer, critic, and researcher. He is Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Founding Partner at Persuasive Games LLC. His research and writing considers videogames as an expressive medium, and his creative practice focuses on games about social and political issues.

Bogost is author of Unit Operations: An Approach to Videogame Criticism, listed among “50 books for everyone in the game industry,” of Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, and co-author of Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. He is a popular writer and speaker and widely considered an influential thinker and doer in the videogame industry and research community.

Bogost’s videogames about social and political issues cover topics as varied as airport security, consumer debt, disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands, pandemic flu, and tort reform. His games have been played by millions of people and exhibited internationally at venues including Laboral Centro de Arte (Madrid), Fournos Centre for Digital Culture (Athens), Eyebeam Center (New York), Slamdance Guerilla Game Festival (Park City), the Israeli Center for Digital Art (Holon) and The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Melbourne).

Bogost holds a Bachelors degree in Philosophy and Comparative Literature from the University of Southern California, and a Masters and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UCLA. He lives in Atlanta.

Although his works and critiques do not involve boardgames, I would recommend you check out this site to see a wide variety of interactive games created for the purpose of educating people about a particular topic. It may lead to some interesting ideas. Check out the Water Cooler Games archive, in particular.

Story-Telling and Educational Games Workshop 2009

Story-telling and Educational Games Workshop

http://www.prolearn-academy.org/Events/steg09

I came across this workshop when researching this month’s blog post assignment, and it jumped out at me because of it’s focus on the importance of “the story.” Recently, I’ve had the most fun learning about a topic when there’s a story involved. I never was one for RPGs, but I find them fascinating now because you delve into an entire new world with different culture and rules.  To understand these alternate worlds, the story teller sets the premise, explains the history, and how things came to be the way they are now. I then become invested emotionally in this “story.” I care about what I’m learning.

Even the gentleman I interview for the LMF project described a learning experience that was from a book, purely narrative form. Granted, this wasn’t an RPG book, but it just goes to show that we shouldn’t underestimate the power of the author voice, which sets the tone, context, and ultimately drives the point of the learning home.  Stories have the potential to stick with us forever, to touch us deeply. This workshop on Story-telling and Educational Games seems really interesting because it attempts to synthesize these two mediums that at first seem like totally contradictory approaches. I’ve included a description of the premise of the workshop from the website below. Check it out and share what experiences you’ve had with story-telling and educational games.

Workshop Premise:

The main difference between educational games and story-telling lies in the user’s motivational point of view. Story-telling aims at reliving real life tasks and capturing previous experiences in problem-solving for reuse, while educational games reproduce real life tasks in a virtual world in an (ideally) engaging and attractive process. Nevertheless, educational games require highly specialized technical and pedagogical skills and learning processes to cover the topics in sufficient depth and breadth. Imbalance between depth and breadth of study can lead to producing trivial games, which in turn can lead to de-motivating the learner.

While the integration of learning and gaming provides a great opportunity, several motivational challenges (particularly in vocational training) must also be addressed to ensure successful realization. Non-linear digital stories are an ideal starting point for the creation of educational games, since each story addresses a certain problem, so that the story recipient can gain benefit from other users’ experiences. This leads to the development of more realistic stories, which then provide the kernel for developing non-trivial educational videogames. These stories can cover the instructional portion of an educational game, while the game would add the motivation and engagement part.

In summary, this workshop aims at bringing together researchers, experts and practitioners from the domains of non-linear digital interactive story-telling and educational gaming to share ideas and knowledge. There is a great amount of separate research in these two fields and the celebration of this workshop will allow the participants to discover and leverage potential synergies.

Workshop topics

• Story-telling and game theories
• Story and game design paradigms for Web-based Learning
• Augmented story-telling and gaming
• Story-telling and educational gaming with social software
• Story-telling and educational gaming with mobile technologies
• Cross-media/transmedia story-telling and gaming
• Computer gaming for story-telling (Game design for narrative architectures)
• Multimedia story and game authoring
• Story-telling and educational gaming applications

borrowed from www.gamecareerguide.com

Am I on the right track? Like many of my colleagues in this class, I had very little previous knowledge about game design and the people behind it. In researching information for this blog post I went on a long (I guess “relatively long” is more appropriate) search for educational game designers and their organizations. Instead of focusing on a person I thought for this post I’d focus on a website called Serious Games Source.

I found this quote from the site especially interesting:

“website specifically for the ‘serious games’ market (games created for training, health, government, military, educational and other uses)”

I guess we’re all SERIOUS game designers then (said with a scowl). Doesn’t seem all that fun to me. But as I read the descriptions I decided to check out the different links that were affiliated with the website. They are actually part of the Think Services Game Group who, besides providing that banner up top,

“offers market-defining content, and drives community through the Game Developers Conference, GDC Europe, the Serious Games Summit D.C. and GDC, GDC Mobile, Game Developer magazine, Gamasutra.com, the Independent Games Festival, GDCTV, and the Game Developers Choice Awards.”

Also, they are all a part of United Business Media, a global news and media provider worth more than $2.5 billion! I kept thinking of those stories about the people who got a bunch of money from designing games for the iPhone, but it really seems like the game designer is so far away from the top of the food chain. I suppose it’s like that in almost any job though. Still, betcha they make more than a teacher!

I was searching for information about the Barnum Software Company, and found more links about the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus than about the educational software company responsible for countless school-related materials.   This does not mean that the company is necessarily on the small side, but I found it interesting what the search engine provided.

The Barnum Software Company publishes material and/or games for home schooling teachers, parents & students.  Much of the software includes math topics covering K through Pre-Algebra, especially the company’s number top-selling game, The Quarter Mile Math. This game is said to be used with one of the leading companies in tutoring students outside of school, The Sylvan Learning Centers.  To have such an endorsement is a huge deal, and it promotes the use of the software to all math teachers because of the credentials it holds outside the public education system.  The publishers have also put the time and effort in to correlate each state’s mathematic standards to its published materials: a bare necessity for teachers when using any outside material(s).

After exploring the works created by this company, I’ve found more resources for myself and for my students, even at the high school level.

www.barnumsoftware.com

I came across an interesting article by game designer Tim Lang, which I soon found was only one of his many blog posts offering tips on how to succeed in the game design industry.  This particular post was about “5 Ways Game Designers Communicate.”  Here’s a little background on Tim:

Tim Lang has been on the game design scene since 1997, and has worked on the Might and Magic series of games, as well as the Medal of Honor series.  Currently working as the Lead Game Designer for Spin Master Studio, Tim also provides his professional, insider insight by contributing posts to game design websites such as www.gamasutra.com, it’s sister site www.gamecareerguide.com, and many others.

What I found inviting about Tim’s numerous posts, including “5 Ways Game Designers Communicate,” is that you can tell he generally cares about the development of the game design community.  He shares his professional advice to other designers, particularly newcomers to the industry, based on his professional experience.

In his October 2008 blog, Tim starts by stating “great ideas are useless without great communication.”  In other words, great ideas are plentiful- it’s how the idea is executed that really matters.  Successful execution is obtained through good communication between designers and development team members; and ultimately, to the audience.  Here are Tim’s five ways game designers communicate:

1. Conversation
2. Writing
3. Pictures
4. Design Animatics (storyboards that move)
5. Prototypes

As you probably noticed, the five items above start with the most commonly used and easily accessible communication tool, and move towards the most intricate and specific tool that takes specific skills.  Each steps moves the designer and development team closer to making a concept “come to life”.  I think Tim has a lot of good insight that will help me in 670 and beyond.

The full article can be found at http://gamecareerguide.com/features/634/5_ways_game_designers_.php

Like much of Euprope, the Prussians spent a large portion of the early 19^th century getting their butts kicked by Napoleon and his French Armies.  The Prussian-Franco war of 1870, however, yielded a much different result.  The Prussian Army handedly defeated the French Army, marking the downfall of the second French Empire and the creation of a unified Germany under King Wilhelm I of Prussia.

I know we lost the war, but can we get a copy of that game?

What contributed to this dramatic turn of events? How did the Prussians finally defeat the French?  True, the Prussian Army had been growing in size throughout the middle portion of the 19^th century, but the French still had a clear advantage in weaponry.  The answer lies in the strategic planning implemented by each army.  The Prussians deployed a variety of creative tactics and strategies.  The French strategic planning was clumsy and inflexible – and virtually non-existent.

So why was it that the Prussian Army was so much better prepared?

They played games, of course.

In 1824, Lieutenant von Reisswetx of the Prussian Army, building on the earlier works of his father, published Anleitung zur Darstelling militarische manuver mit dem apparat des Kriegsspiels (Instructions for the Representation of Tactical Maneuvers under the Guise of a Wargame).   These rules outlined a game that simulated various tactical scenarios that the Prussian Army of that time period might face.

Prince Wilhelm (soon to be King Wilhelm) caught wind of the game and invited Reisswitz to his castle in Berlin for a demonstration.  The prince was so impressed with the game that he decided to present it to the Chief of the Prussian Staff, General Von Muffling.

As the story goes, Von Muffling, a career military man, at first remained skeptical of the game.  But as the simulation unfolded, he could not contain his enthusiasm, exclaiming, “This is not a game, this is a war exercise! I must recommend it to the whole army!”

Sure enough, within months, every brigade in the Prussian Army had their own copy of the game.

The game was very detailed and complex,and  much bigger than the board games of today. The early versions shipped to the various Prussian armies consisted of:

“…six feet square table open at the top and filled with 4 inch square terrain pieces made in plaster and carefully painted to show roads, rivers, villages etc, and interchangeable to give a variety of terrain. The troop pieces were made in porcelain. There were dividers for measuring distances, rulers, small boxes for placing over hidden troops (they were allowed to make surprise attacks) and a set of written rules.”

With the distribution of the game came an increased emphasis on education within the Prussian Armies. Kriegsspiel (German for wargame) allowed officers and troops to practice tactical maneuvers, develop and implement strategies, adopt to unforeseen circumstances, and increase their overall operational readiness.  The game was intricate enough that Prussian officers could acquire familiarity with all aspects of their profession without having to learn in the “heat of battle”. Kriegsspeil also insured a trained reserve of enlisted personnel were ready at a moments notice.

Of course, today, simulations are used by militaries all over the globe as a tool to educate and prepare officers for the battle – but it was Kriegsspeil that first showed the benefits of such simulations.  And Kriegsspeil is still being played today, both in its original form and in updated versions.  To learn more about the game, its origins, and where/how it is being played today, visit the Kriegsspiel News website here.

GAME ON!
USING COMPUTER GAMES TO TEACH WRITING

Hayo Reinders
University of Groningen, the Netherlands

This short article looks at ways of using computer games to teach different aspects of writing in the foreign language classroom. It offers a number of practical tips for use in the language classroom and beyond.

Why games for the teaching of writing?

Most written communication now takes place electronically. This is having a significant effect on the types of writing our students produce. Prensky (2003) estimates that by the age of 21, learners have sent 250.000 instant messages and emails. Clearly, our students love to communicate through writing! Of course, our job is to improve the quality of that writing and to expand their written communication to include different text types. To me, one obvious starting point is the writing my students do for fun and to build on that in class. For this reason I have used text messaging and Facebook to encourage social writing. Especially videogames also offer a lot of potential to motivate students to write a wide range of text types. Considering that by Prensky’s estimates, by the age of 21, the average student has spent about 10,000 hours playing videogames, there is ample opportunity for teachers to link classroom learning with out-of-class activities.

Recent years have seen a growing interest in the pedagogical benefits of computer games. James Paul Gee, for example, has identified 36 learning principles that he found to be present in many of the games he investigated. To give just two examples of these, take the ‘Active, Critical Learning Principle’. This stipulates that ‘All aspects of the learning environment (including the ways in which the semiotic domain is designed and presented) are set up to encourage active and critical, not passive, learning.’ (Gee, 2003). In other words, computer games engage learners and get them involved in the tasks at hand. A second principle is the ‘Regime of Competence Principle’ where ‘the learner gets ample opportunity to operate within, but at the outer edge of, his or her resources, so that at those points things are felt as challenging but not “undoable.” (idem). You may recognise this as being similar to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. If you have ever played a computer game yourself you will have noticed that if you fail a task, the game adapts to your level until you do succeed. Similarly, if you succeed too quickly or too easily, new challenges appear. Computers are good at providing this type of adaptive environment. Surely these are principles many of us strive to implement ourselves in the classroom.

Games in general also have a number of characteristics that make them potentially useful for the teaching of writing. According to Prensky (2001) games share:

1) rules
2) goals and objectives
3) outcome and feedback
4) conflict, competition, challenge, and opposition
5) interaction
6) the representation of a story.

These elements are similar to those in the writing process where the interaction is usually defined by shared rules and where successful writers have clear goals in the communication they engage in. The representation of a story or the resolution of a conflict generally results in some type of response; a form of feedback. Teachers can use these parallels to draw on in the teaching of writing.

Practical ideas
Below I will briefly discuss seven ideas for the teaching of writing using the computer. Most of these do not require more than basic computer skills on your and your students’ part.

Use games to investigate characters and story lines
One of the easiest options is to ask students to investigate the characters in the games they play and to identify the story lines in them. Many games have extremely extensive plots and subplots. Johnson (2005) discusses how in recent years popular media has become more complex and gives examples such as TV programmes and also computer games where multiple characters and storylines intertwine, in some cases running to 200 pages or more when written up. Clearly, there is a lot to say about computer games. Here is an example of the plot of one, now older, game (description taken from Wikipedia):

‘I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream’ is a computer adventure game based upon Harlan Ellison’s short story of the same name. It is about an evil computer named AM that has destroyed all of humanity except for five people he has been keeping alive and torturing for the past 109 years. Each survivor has a fatal flaw in his or her character, and in an attempt to crush their spirits, AM has constructed a metaphorical adventure for each that preys upon their weaknesses. To succeed in the game, the player must make ethical choices to prove to the evil computer that humans are better than machines, because they have the ability to redeem themselves.

Asking students to identify how such a story unfolds, who the characters are and how they relate to other characters and develop in the story, is a good way to focus their attention on the underlying principles both writers and game developers use to develop their stories. You will probably find that your learners have a lot to tell about the games they play!

Using your learners’ online characters
Another option involving little or no technical skills on your part is to ask students to describe their online characters; most games, and especially online environments like Second Life (which has the advantage that its basic membership is free), let you ‘create’ your own character. This involves choosing your gender, race, fashion, but also your behaviour (will you play the good or the bad character?). Ask your students to read the descriptions of each others’ characters or let students show the characters in class using projector or on a prinout and then ask them to discuss their choices. A fun activity could be to shuffle the printouts of the different characters and hand them out. Students then have to guess which character belongs to whom (but be careful this doesn’t get out of hand as it can get very personal). In the example in the previous section, you could ask the students to explain their ‘ethical choices’. Why did they do what they did? How did this affect the other characters in the game? With hindsight, would they have done things differently? Similarly, you could ask students to discuss the right or wrong of violent computer games and the characters’ actions in them. A popular game such as Grand Theft Auto IV would be a good candidate for this.

Another good game to use for this purpose is the world’s most popular game, The Sims (www.thesims.com), but unlike Second Life, this is not free. An alternative to Second Life is Active Worlds (www.activeworlds.com), which offers lower prices for eductional institutions through its ‘Active Worlds Educational Universe’ or Moove, which is free (www.moove.com).

Use screenshots for discussion.
A screenshot is simply a picture of whatever is showing on your computer screen. Every computer keyboard has a key labelled ‘Prt Sc’, usually near the top right-hand side of the keyboard. Press this and then open a word processor. Right-click and choose ‘paste’. You will now see your screenshot. You can use such screenshots as a starting point for a discussion in class. An ambiguous image is best (is the character trying to help the victim or will he abandon him?). If you do not have access to games yourself, ask your students to bring their own screenshots. Then ask your students to describe the scene and predict what will happen next and why. You could ask them to write out a possible dialogue. Another use for screenshots is to ask students to summarise a computer game with the help of a number of screenshots from key moments in the game. I have found that especially with reluctant writers the use of the visuals makes it easier for them to get started.

Get playing!
Some games are more language-rich than others. Educational games are specifically designed for use in the classroom but often students do not find them as interesting as non-educational games. Some non-educational games are particularly suited to language learning. An interesting example is Ace Attorney (cf. Stanly and Mawer 2008). This is about a young lawyer who investigates crime and prosecutes offenders. Successful players build a strong case and strategise to find and then deliver the strongest arguments. Students could play this game and write out their choices, their arguments and eventually the whole case. Different teams could play each other, both on the computer and offline, in writing. Social games like Second Life and The Sims mentioned above also involve a lot of opportunities for communication. Numerous smaller games exist that can be useful too. An example is ‘Mystery of Time and Space’ (http://www.albartus.com/motas/) in which ‘the adventurer has to solve riddles and puzzles, find and use objects, escape from locked rooms, find hidden passages and be a detective and examine everything to unlock the doors of the mystery of time and space’. Some other games can be found here: www.languagegames.org

Encourage communication in online role-playing games
The term ‘MMORPG’ stands for ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing game’. These games are played by hundreds and sometimes up to hundreds of thousands of people online. They often involve fantasy worlds and elaborate character development. Success in playing the game depends on participants’ ability to plan ahead and to use strategies, – crucially-, with the help of others. This involves communication via chat (frequently written but also spoken) and thus offers an opportunity to practise quite extensive forms of transactional writing which is highly ‘situated’; where the communication is related to the participants’ here and now and is authentic in that context. Many students play these games in their first language but are quite happy to play in English and are often thankful for help as it will allow them to play with more people. As the teacher you could ask students to print out their chat conversations which you can then use in class to focus on the language used. Alternatively you could participate in the game yourself and join in the chat communication and perhaps help scaffold the conversations. This can also help you identify difficulties your students are having. The most popular MMORPG is World of Warcraft, which has been around for years and is extremely extensive in its plot. A free alternative, albeit more suitable for younger learners, is Disney’s Toon Town (http://play.toontown.com). This has the advantage that it was designed with children and families in mind and is thus more likely to be free of unwanted language. The description from its website reads:

In Toontown, players, as Toons, join forces to save the world from the invading robot Cogs – humorless business robots who are attempting to turn the colorful, happy world of Toontown into a corporate metropolis. Because Cogs can’t take a joke, Toons use cartoon gags to crack them up!

Provide language support around games
Another, relatively straightforward option, is to create help around the games that students play. One interesting project was carried out at King Mongkut University in Thailand. Teachers there found that many students played the game Football Championship Manager. They also found that many students had difficulty understanding the vocabulary in the game. They decided to create a simple support website where students can look up the words, read English descriptions, Thai descriptions and see a picture. Simple, yet effective! You could, of course, choose to focus on any aspect of the language. For example, students may want help with more communicative aspects of games, such as addressing strangers through chat, or the language for planning and strategising (excellent for practising the future tense, conditionals, etc) in MMORPGs.

You or the students create games
This sounds more daunting than it really is. A number of programmes have been written that allow students to create computer games themselves. One interesting project is ‘Scratch’ (http://scratch.mit.edu/), designed at MIT for children eight years and older. This free software lets students create environments, characters, and animations, using a simplified programming language. There are templates that students can start with and adapt, and students can also create things from scratch (no pun intended). The main aims of Scratch are to help students develop thinking skills, the ability to use technology productively and to learn to develop and follow through a plan, but Scratch can also be integrated into the language classroom. For example, you can ask students to write summaries of their games, or a manual with information on how to use it, or encourage them to create ads to promote their games. You will probably also find that creating the games in class will give ample opportunity for spoken interaction of quite a complex nature, and thus provide an excellent opportunity for language practice. An alternative to Scratch is www.stagecast.com.

A similar option, and one very popular with teenagers, is a form of storytelling called Machinima. A contraction of machine and cinema, Machinima is the telling of a story based on games graphics. So, for example, if a student likes a particular game they can use the characters and scenes from those games to ‘mod’ (modify) them in order to tell their own story. Modding involves taking an existing game or aspect of a game (such as a character) and using software to change it in some way. A word of warning: just as some games can be violent so can the graphics students derive from those games be unsuitable for use in class. You will probably have to set some clear boundaries here.

A final suggestion is to use Gamics (www.gamics.com). A contraction of games and comics, Gamics are similar to Machinima, except they involve still images. Students use images from their favourite cartoons to create their own.

Final thoughts
There are a number of drawbacks to using computer games. One is that not everyone in class may be used to playing games and some students may not have access to computers or game consoles. Perhaps you can ask your system administrator to make one of the (free) online games mentioned above available on one or more of the workstations in your school (perhaps at restricted times).

Another potential pitfall is that playing games can be exciting but entertainment in itself does not necessarily lead to learning or to learning in the most effective way. You will have to set clear goals for yourself and articulate these to your learners so they know what is expected of them. Similarly, you will have to set rules for what games can be played and when. Some games may not be suitable for use in class. This will also be a concern for parents and administrators. Talk to them and explain what you aim to do and what the intended learning outcomes are. Explain how you will protect the students from inappropriate content.

A practical issue is the cost associated with computer games. Most schools now have computer facilities available for students so the main cost will be for software. Above I have tried to recommend several free programmes. Many students also have access to computer games at home and you could ask them to use those (and perhaps to share them with students who do not), for example by bringing screenshots back to class (see second idea above). Of course, many of the ideas suggested here do not necessarily require the use of a computer. Various forms of role play and traditional games for example offer opportunities for practice similar to that of computer games. However, with the many free computer games available nowadays and the advantages they offer, it may be worthwhile to experiment.

At times exasperating, at times exhilarating, computer games are almost never boring. You are likely to see strong student involvement. Your challenge will be to channel that involvement in ways that actually benefit the development of writing skills. Oh, and to have as much fun in the process as possible. Game on!

References
Gee, J. P. 2003. What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Johnson, S. 2005. Everything bad is good for you: how today’s popular culture
is actually making us smarter. New York: Riverhead Books.

Prensky, M. 2001. Digital game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Prenky, M. 2003. Keynote presentation delivered at the Distance Learning Conference,
Madison. Available from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing

Stanley, G. and Mawer, K. 2008. Language Learners & Computer Games: From Space
Invaders to Second Life. TESL-EJ 11(4).

The Handheld Learning Conference will take place October 5-7 in London.  According to the website, the Handheld Learning Conference, now in its fifth year,  “is the world’s leading event about learning using mobile and inexpensive access technologies, attended by more than 1,500 international delegates.”  This year’s theme is “Creativity, Innovation, Inclusion and Transformation.”  Of interest to gamers (which I am not) and students of educational technology (which I am) is the fact that for the third year in a row, Nintendo will support a Games for Learning workshop at the event, at which education professionals will demonstrate how modern gaming technologies are currently being used in and out of the classroom.  This news was reported today by Kath Brice, a blogger for gamesindustry.biz.

“We’re delighted to once more be supporting this important conference that has become the de-facto meeting place for the convergence of education, entertainment and consumer electronics,” commented David Yarnton, Nintendo UK’s general manager.  “We have been consistently impressed and surprised at how leading educationalists have been adapting off the shelf videogames to engage their students in rich learning experiences.”

Apparently the event’s first day is free for anyone interested in how current technologies can be used for learning and teaching.  That would be me, but I guess the airline ticket to London would set me back a little bit.

Designer

A famous and very recognizable name in the computer gaming industry since the beginning is Sid Meier. He almost always places his name in front of his game titles. If you’ve ever played any of the Civilization series then you’ve dabbled in some of Sid’s creations. Meier became the second person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences hall of fame in 1999. The first was Shigeru Miyamoto the creator of Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda.  In 2008 he was given the life time achievement award at the Game Developers Conference also a major recognition in the gaming industry. The importance of his accomplishments are in the strategy game genre. His Civilization games play like modern day games of Risk. They include history, adventure and critical thinking. Users are immersed in famous world battles and try so solve scenarios by developing various units of war or signing treaties with others. Although not an educational game directory I think that Civilization is a great tool for teaching History to students.

Educational review sites

Many computer game review sites such as IGN or Gamespot don’t include educational games. Looking around I found two additional sites focusing on reviewing educational software. Although their website design and content isn’t as massive at the more main stream sites, I think they do a pretty good job at informing people into the educational computer realm. The first site is edutaining kids a small site with mini reviews on many many products. Although the website isn’t as attractive as the review sites, the amount of content that has been review makes up for it.  Another educational review site I found was Childrens Technology Review . Unfortunantly this is a pay site but seems to include alot of reviews for $30 for a pdf subscription, $54 for a pdf subscription and admission to the library of past issues and $108 for paperback, pdf and libary access. This is an online educational journal that might interest researchers, teachers and parents about the upcoming games and technology.  You can read a copy of a past issue here : May 09 Childrens Technology Review.

Game Development

Last year I was introduced to a program called Scratch by Bernie Dodge in an Edtec 700 class. This program allows students to apply game development and coding into one fun activity.  Instead of taching a child about how to code a game, there are various puzzle pieces that fit together to create various motions.  You can make a cat meow, walk around the screen or even disappear. This program being the fun factor in teaching kids how to develop games at an early age.

Daniel also posted a great article about the Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology that also looks on a research organization that focuses in game design.

Conferences

On the subject of Carnegie Mellon, the Game Education Summit is a conference on the topic of educational gaming.  This two day conference gives various presentations from various developers in education and the game industry. This conference is young and only in its second year of hosting. “The Game Education Summit is the only conference where the video game industry and academics from around the world can come together to have meaningful conversations about the future of game development” (GES, 2009).  This might become the go to conference for anyone in the development of educational game design. I read previous articles about incorporating educational games at E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo but it was never a popular subject due to the more mainstream games. The GES conference might allow developers usually busy with promoting other products at E3 to really sit down and think about educational gaming.

Miscellaneous

My first article seemed to contain too much technology and not enough educational based information to fulfill the assignment. If you are interested in the future of optical head tracking, please go read my other article.

My Learning Assistant

I’m only distorting the facts a little. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) was formed in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project and the FAS does have a keen interest in educational games, including video games. In fact, Learning Technologies is one of the three primary programs listed on the FAS home page with a link to Games and Simulations listed below it. “Games are the Future of Education Says E.O. Wilson” was one of the lead stories on the day I visited the site.

On the Learning Technologies Projects page, FAS explains its interest in games. “In order to help advance our research, as well as promote our vision of what we feel should be the future of learning, FAS has opted for more than a mere academic involvement in the creation of a new model for learning. We are actively involved in the creation of games and simulations that we feel represent some of the best ideas for such models.”

I was particularly impressed with a project called My Learning Assistant, which is a tool for game developers that allows them to spend more of their time developing games and less time programming software.

My favorite game of all time?? SET. Definitely SET. And, in all my 15+ years of playing it, not once did I think about the person behind it. Recent research revealed, drum roll please, . . . Cambridge University population geneticist Marsha Jean Falco.

Here’s the story, in her own words, about SET’s creation:

I am constantly asked, “How did you think of it?” The story goes like this. In 1974 I was living and working in Cambridge, England. One part of my job as a Population Geneticist was to try to understand if German Shepherds who get epilepsy inherit it. Geneticists, as you may know, try to connect the traits that plants, animals and people have to the genes and chromosomes in their cells. To help me understand what I was looking at, I wrote information about each dog on file cards. Because blocks of the information were the same on each file card, rather than writing the data, I drew a symbol to represent a block of data. I used symbols with different Properties to indicate different gene combinations. The veterinarians working with me would look over my shoulder at the cards spread out on the table. As I tried to explain to them what to look for, the idea came to me that I could have some fun with this. At home with my husband and friends I worked out the game which we now call SET®. Years later, my daughter and son, who enjoyed playing it so much, urged me to put the game in stores. Since then the SET® Game has become very popular.

This lead me to these questions for y’all. How many of our favorite games are the a result of someone’s personal amusement? How many are the products of professional game designers?

For more information:

http://www.setgame.com/set/history.htm

http://www.setgame.com/set/article5.htm

Who remembers Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde?  Maybe you don’t remember them by name, but they are the blinking ghosts in Pac-Man.  I thought back to the arcade game that stood out to me the most as a kid and came up with Pac-Man.  I spent countless hours chasing dots as a child.  I looked forward to going to Round Table Pizza because they were one of the few establishments that housed the sit-down model of Pac-Man.

On May 22, 1980, Namco  introduced the world to one of the most popular arcade games.  Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani game up with the idea for a game called “Puck-Man” which was first released in Japan.  The game manufacturer Midway bought the United States rights for the game the same year, but because they feared that kids might deface a Puck-Man cabinet by changing the P to an F, the United States released the game as Pac-Man.

Pac-man became an iconic social phenomenon during the 1980s, and I can’t imagine anyone who couldn’t recognize Pac-Man if shown in a line-up. Almost 30 years later my husband and I were shopping for Christmas gifts and came across a Pac-Man game that you connect to your television through video inputs.  I’ve introduced my nieces, five and seven, to the game that was a mainstay in my house for many years, and they don’t seem to like the game as much.  The concept of a joy-stick  was semi-foreign to them, and they are also used to more fast-moving, developed characters.  The dotted maze just doesn’t excite them. 

Iwatani created a few other games for Namco, but none had the level of success that Pac-Man did and he ended up leaving Namco in March 2007 to become a full-time lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University where he teaches character design studies.

Scrape, Scuff, Scour and “Scrabble”!!

– Information about a (relatively) famous educational game designer, or researcher.

In the midst of the Great Depression of 1930′s, he attempted to create a game that would use both “chance and skill”. He had a degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He frequently did painstaking calculations of letters.  He was also an amateur artist. Who is he? He is Alfred Mosher Butts (April 13, 1899 – April 4, 1993) —The man who invented SCRABBLE, the Brand Crossword game and a classic example of innovation and perseverance in the midst of crises. No doubt this game is educational and one of the most successful board games of the twentieth century till date. The game is sold in 121 countries in 29 different language versions.

It was Butts’s curiosity to analyze words and frequency of letters  in a word that helped him to conceive the game. Butt’s invention raised worldwide  attention. It is interesting to note that; today there are various Scrabble tournaments (both at national and international level). In U.S. the first officially sanctioned Scrabble tournaments were organized and run by Joel Skolnick in the mid-1970s. Today, the  National Scrabble Championship is the largest Scrabble competition in the United States and the event is held every one or two years. There are also World Scrabble Championship, World Youth Scrabble Championships, Canadian Scrabble Championship, National School Scrabble Championship, Extreme Scrabble, which involves playing the game in the scariest places on and above the earth. Attention Scrabble fans!! The 2010 and 2011 National Scrabble Championship will be held in Dallas, Texas.

To know more about almost 366 game and game designers, please visit this link.

-  Some of the Institutions that train game designers:

• The New Career Guide Digital Magazine, Game Career Guide.

• Link of top five video game design schools and colleges offered across the US, Canada and online.
• The School of Interactive Media at Collins College is designed for students who want to pursue a degree in Game Design.
• Westwood college offers degrees in Animation, Computer-Aided Design / Architectural Drafting, Game Art, Graphic Design & Multimedia, Interior Design, Visual Communications, Web Design & Multimedia.
• Academy of Art University provides both undergraduate and graduate Degree Program  in Video Game Design, Prototyping, Level Design, Visual Development, Game Art, Effects Animation, Character Design, 3D Modeling, Prop Modeling and many more.
• List of Game Design colleges worldwide.

- Attention Game Designers…2010 is Calling…Do Not Miss!!
Some of key and up-coming professional conferences for people in the world   of Educational Gaming and Simulations:

• The 2010 Game Developers Conference, Moscone, San Francisco (GMC), March 9-13, 2010.
• The 2010 Game Developers Conference, Austin October 5 – 8, 2010.
• The 2010 Game Developers Conference, Vancouver, Canada, May 6-7, 2010.
• The 2010 Game Developers Conference, Cologne Congress Center East, Germany, Europe, August 16-18, 2010.
• The famous Game Design Expo 2010.

So keep track of the up-coming events!! =)

Professor Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins, a Professor for Communications and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, advocates for the “YouTube Generation” and is a proponent of utilizing technology in and outside of the classroom to enhance learning. Specific to educational game design, Jenkins has regularly collaborated with game designers and fellow scholars to push initiatives that encourage multi-media teaching methods.

Jenkins believes video games have “evolved from black-and-white blips” into a complex industry that holds a great deal of potential for education. Furthermore, Jenkins feels teachers and students are being done a disservice by school boards that restrict video games (as well as online communities like Facebook) from the classroom.

Prior to USC, Jenkins started and served as Director for the Graduate program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT. While at MIT, Jenkins worked on iCampus, a collaborative project with Microsoft which sought to “revolutionize the practice of higher education with the tools of informational technology.”

Jenkins worked with Kurt Squire, Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsion and Director for Games+Learning+Society, on the Games to Teach project which sought to develop systems, prototypes and business models to help advance the use of educational games. Games to Teach developed games such as Supercharged!, an interactive racing game that helped teach electromagnetics, and Environmental Detectives, an environmental-based simulation game. The iCampus grants ceased in 2007, but Jenkins and Squire continue to collaborate on articles for Computer Games Online.

Further Reading:
• Kurt Squire & Games + Learning + Society: http://www.gameslearningsociety.org
• Jenkins @ USC: http://annenberg.usc.edu
• iCampus MIT Project: http://icampus.mit.edu/icampus/

The Games for Health project is a community of researchers and developers of games created for education in health care.  The project was created out of the Serious Games Initiative, an effort by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar, which was developed to link the game industry with the education, training, and public health.  The Games for Health project is headed by David Rajeski and Ben Sawyer. 

One of the games created by the Games for Health project is “Foldit”, in which average people can participate in folding proteins into the smallest shape to help in scientific research. The Games for Health Project also holds Conferences for Game Design for health education.

You can read more about Games for Health at the following:

http://gamesforhealth.org/aboutus.html

You can read more about the Serious Games Initiative at the following:

http://www.experientia.com/blog/the-serious-games-initiative/

You can play “Foldit” at the following:

http://fold.it/portal/

"Too much of e-learning produced today is just pushing out knowledge, leaving learners bored to death or too overwhelmed to have any impact on business outcomes." - Michael Allen

A few years ago, a coworker got us all reading this book – Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning. Does anyone remember Authorware?  Michael Allen was the creator of this flowchart-based authoring tool still (but not for much longer) available from Adobe.  These days, in addition to writing, consulting and speaking on e-learning, Dr. Allen runs a company called Allen Interactions Inc. which is one of the leading providers of custom e-learning solutions for workforce training and performance improvement. The company is especially known for designing highly effective simulations and games. Even programs that could not really be defined as games, feel game-like in that they are fun, interactive and engaging.

According to his book, a key strategy used by Allen Interactions is the use of design teams that include the instructional designer, SME and/or client, artist and programmer. Instead of having an instructional designer conduct analysis, then work in a vacuum to create design specs for artists and programmers to follow, the process is collaborative from start to finish. The team uses a process called “successive approximation” which is a micro-cycled version of ADDIE. Beginning with a very rough prototype, the team creates several iterations of the program – allowing the design to unfold and improve with each version. All members of the design team need to be intimately involved throughout the entire life of the project for this to work.

I’ve found at my workplace, it is very difficult to work in this way (although we’ve tried). I think this is due to the fact that we have several Instructional Designers and only a few multimedia team members, who are simply spread to thin to be truly involved in the design process.  I’m excited to have the opportunity to work in this way on our projects for this class, and am interested to hear if others have experienced this type of process on the job.

New School of Design from New York

I read a small article published on the use of video games to teach content. At Parsons, The New School for Design, in New York, they use video games to teach English and social studies, math and science, game design and digital literacy. The content is divided in domains. After the completion of each domain, after two weeks, students receive an examination. One example provided is that students take on the role of an ancient Spartan who has to assess Athenian strengths and recommend a course of action. Students learn history, geography and public policy. The intention of the school is to have students enter at 12 years old and stay until they are 18.

I imagine they consider these ages to be appropriate for students to devote themselves to video gaming. I worked at Johnson Elementary School, in El Cajon, I was one of the persons in charge of directing students to play video games to their following consecutive level. The subjects available were English and Math. Some of the students really just wanted to achieve the next level without really completing all activities, but a few worked thoroughly on each game. I imagine age had to do with it. The older kids are, the more engaged they might become.

The article mentions James Gee, who in 2003 published a book called “What video Games Have to Teach us About learning and Literacy.” Some of the advantages identified as a result of playing the video games, are to develop a sense of identity, grasp meaning, learn to follow commands and pick role models. They affirm that it encourages pupil collaboration.

The author concludes that it is not enough to apply new technologies to existing processes-rather, for maximum effect we have to apply innovative technologies in new and imaginative ways.

We’re going to court.

My husband is an artist. A graphic artist to be exact. This summer he had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with a client who thought he could trademark a piece of commissioned character art without having to pay for it. Now that the client has breached our signed contract, and put a stop payment on a deposited check, we’re taking the guy to small claims court. We know we have a strong case, but it’s still a bit uneasy to go into court by ourselves, knowing that we aren’t lawyers. Wouldn’t it be so great to have an educational video game to make the law so much clearer?

How timely it was for me to stumble upon exactly that! An unlikely game designer, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has recently released not one, but two interactive online games designed to help middle-schoolers understand the U.S. Constitution. I took the time to play one of them called “Do You Have a Right?”  produced by non-profit OurCourts.org. Surprisingly, I found the fast-paced Flash-based laywer-simulation to be addicting (with catchy music, I might add!).  Justice O’Connor was quoted last year as saying,

“Only one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, but two-thirds can name a judge on American Idol. You’re going to have greater success if you teach it in ways that [students] like to use. They spend 40 hours a week, on average, in front of some type of screen.”

It appears OurCourts.org has a strong foundation for bringing civics education into the 21^st century. Major partners include Arizona State University , Georgetown Law ,  and educational development companies, Filament Games and Cabengo LLC . Considering that teachers are often searching for free, web-based curriculum, OurCourts.org is just one of numerous non-profit organizations attempting to transform how students learn social issues of the day.

Sandra Day O’Connor promoted her games with Games For Change (G4C) last year. According to their website, Games for Change , is a community which acts as  “a knowledge base and resource hub to help organizations network and develop video game projects beyond their traditional expertise…”. Participating groups include government, journalism, academia, industry and the arts. Their impressive web site provides subject matter game channels to test out the latest educational games – human rights, economics, poverty, environment as just a few – from a large variety of developers.  G4C has also hosted an annual conference for the last six years. Touted as “the Sundance of video games” the Games for Change Festival combines leading game designers, Pulitzer Prize winning keynote speakers, and workshops aimed at addressing important social issues.

I’m excited to know that there are, indeed, consortiums making a concerted effort to engage students in topics that may not seem as appealing in a traditional classroom. I look forward to seeing what Game For Change, OurCourt.org and others will bring to the mainstream for teachers and parents in the future.

Educational Gaming Commons Logo

So for this assignment I searched Google for Educational Gaming.  I didn’t have to search through too many links and posts until I stumbled across this fascinating, and it appears fairly new, organization focussed on educational gaming at Penn State University called Educational Gaming Commons.  The main site is located at http://gaming.psu.edu.

Penn State’s Educational Gaming Commons is both a virtual (online) and physical place for a great look at educational gaming.  It looks like they just opened a physical center/lab (just this month) at Penn State which features all of the popular video game systems and computer games for both fun and research.  They also talk about certain events they’re recently sponsored including what looked like a creative augmented reality game highlighting the Penn State Library’s open house.  They posted an intro video on vimeo.  I was impressed not only with their creativity, but it looks they have a fun HD video camera to play with, which made me a little jealous since I work as a video producer and I don’t have a camera that nice.  :)

In addition to their new physical space, their online presence is top notch.  It features a blog, similar to this one, but also has several sections dedicated to all things educational gaming related — and it looks like they’re studying everything including Second Life, World of Warcraft, virtual worlds, simple flash games — the works.  They have a projects section that talks about some games that are currently being designed in their lab.  One of their projects looks like an interesting exploration of the periodic table of elements.  They’re also working on a free online library of educational games from developers around the world for educators to access.  There are already some pretty impressive games on there — quite inspiring actually.

I encourage everyone to go check out this site.  Who knows, there might even be some networking to be had between our two programs in the future.  Anyway, I’m going back to play around with it some more right now.  Enjoy!

James Gee

In his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Revised and updated edition, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). James Gee, a well-known educator and linguist, discusses how video games can offer models for improved instructional design in the classroom.  Gee began playing video games with his son, where he discovered that the games provided “a new form of learning and thinking that was both frustrating and life enhancing”:

“I have wanted to argue that good video games build into their very designs good learning principles and that we should use these principles, with or without games, in schools, workplaces and other learning sites.  Second, I have wanted to argue that when young people are interacting with video games–and with other popular cultural practices–they are learning, and learning in deep ways.”  (p. 215)

Gee doesn’t advocate using World of Warcraft in the classroom, however.  He identifies 36 learning principles from his observations on video game design that can be extrapolated from the game world to instructional design.  These principles include active, critical learning, practice, ongoing learning, achievement, bottom-up basic skills (“Basic skills are not learned in isolation or out of context”), and the discovery principle (“Overt telling is kept to a well-thought-out minimum.”), etc.

Gee puts a different spin on the relationship between games and education.  In contrast to “chocolate-covered broccoli,” he believes:  “Through good game design we can leverage deeper and deeper learning as a form of pleasure in people’s everyday lives, without any hint of school or schooling.” (p. 215)

For more information on James Paul Gee:

http://www.gameslearningsociety.org/people_geej.php

http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/public_profile/11/James_Paul_Gee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGd1URORsoE&feature=related