Gaming for Knowledge: The Education Arcade

You may have noticed from previous posts that I’m a big fan of video games that are fun and educational. These types of games make learning almost subliminal because the educational aspects are so closely tied to the game play that you almost don’t notice that you’re learning- it just feels like part of the game. That engagement in the material is what can make video and computer games educational both in and out of the classroom, an idea studied by The Education Arcade.

The Education Arcade is a research partnership between MIT and Microsoft that studies how games can be designed, used, and assessed for use as serious learning tools. Some degree of learning happens in causal game-play, where as a different level of learning occurs in games that are designed for specific content, and video games in general have become so ubiquitous that their social and cultural significance are also becoming more apparent. The Education Arcade is studying all these aspects of gaming, and has also developed several prototypes of games designed to engage players in rich context-based learning experiences.

The Education Arcade website could use a little more description about their projects, visions, and goals, but their Research section does have a lot of links to some very interesting papers and articles.

A Question of Excitment for Education

Usually my posts are about cool web links, but this week is Vacation icamp, and I’ve been working with campers to help develop and make their own creative projects as they use and learn different types of technology. The only thing more rewarding than helping young people learn something new for themselves is to see their excitement when they use their new knowledge to create something. That excitement is about more than the product of their creation; it’s about the fact that they made it. It’s their work and concentration that put the pieces of the video game together to make a playable game; it’s their creativity and patience that made their movie story come to life. Kids come to icamp so energized and eager to work- they have to be practically dragged away from their projects for group breaks or when it’s time to go home. They don’t see their work as work- they see it as fun.

But do they bring that excitement and energy to their everyday school? Does classroom teaching inspire kids to want to learn? Most of the kids I talk to, especially the older ones, think of school like most adults think about work: I go because I have to, I do my time, then I go home and try to think about something totally different. Maybe it’s because so many adults think of work as a paycheck and don’t get anything more personally rewarding out of it that as adults we’ve created a system for our children that treats their education like we treat our jobs, and we transfer that mentality.

But maybe I’m getting narrow sample of input. I would be very interested to hear from teachers about how they perceive their students’ engagement in the classroom- got any great activities, projects or lessons that the kids get really in to? I would also love to hear from parents about how they perceive their child’s school education and experience. Anyone?

Short Movies, Big Ideas

With a slogan of “connecting learning to the real world” and goals that include “providing a context and purpose for what students are learning, allowing them to envision their own successful futures,” it’s no surprise that The Futures Channel has made it onto my list of bookmarked websites. The site is filled with mini-documentaries and interviews averaging about 3 minutes each on everything from the use of geometry in professional dancing and how guitars are made, to the math concepts used to design Mattel’s Hot Wheels and the factors NASA engineers consider when building robots for space missions. Movies are organized into 7 categories including Art & Music, Design & Architecture, and Science & Technology.

The site also has a Teaching & Learning section that pairs movies with activities for specific lessons, such as a weatherman presentation in which students describe how hurricanes develop by giving detailed weather report to the class. It would be helpful if these activity plans started with a general summary before the process, but perhaps they are best used as a springboard for a teacher’s (or parent’s!) own activity ideas.

But however you decide to use or not use the activity section, be sure to check out some real world movies. In 20 minutes I learned how electronics are recycled, about the challenges of making an aircraft fly in Mars, how zoos balance diets for their animals, how giant aquarium tanks are built, AND why cell-phone are designed in specific ways. These mini-movies are short and informative- and are much more interesting for your internet video entertainment needs than watching cute kitten clips on You Tube!

Inchworm, Inchworm...

Needham Times visited one of the Children's Technology Workshop Robotics classes last week.

Inchworm, inchworm from Steve Bagley on Vimeo.

Book for Parents - Raising a Digital Child

This book caught my attention, because I often hear a comment from parents that they have no clue how to keep pace with their kids' technological adventures, and therefore - quite reasonably - feel that the only option is to be overprotective. I have not read this book yet, and I receive no proceeds from the sale of this book. Please post a comment with your review if you have read it.

Raising a Digital Child: A Digital Citizenship Handbook for Parents
By Mike Ribble
168 pp. 7" x 9¼" :: b/w illustrations :: ISBN: 978-1-56484-250-3
Available from International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
$24.95 for non-members

Publisher's description:
As a parent, do you ever wonder how you can possibly keep up with all the new technologies your children take for granted? Cell phones, online games, instant messaging, social networking, and other technologies have all become so important in the daily lives of young people, and they seem to take them up at younger and younger ages all the time. The kids view this new digital culture as a normal way of life, even though as parents you may feel overwhelmed by all the unfamiliar challenges. Cyberbullies, stalkers, identity theft, intellectual property theft—it’s hard to know just what you can do to confront the risks.

You want your children to enjoy all the benefits a technological society has to offer, but at the same time, you want them to stay safe and act as responsible members of society. Raising a Digital Child is your guide. Inside, you will learn about many of the newest and most popular technologies, in parent-friendly language, along with discussions of the risks each might harbor and the types of behaviors that every child should learn in order to become a good citizen in this new digital world.

Phun with Physics

What started as summer project for a 25 year-old game designer grew to a 20 month project resulting in Crayon Physics Deluxe, a playful physics game inspired by the children’s book"Harold and the Purple Crayon."

The demo version really doesn’t have much information on how to play or what’s going on in the game, but the idea is to roll a red circle over to touch the yellow star by drawing simple shapes that fall and move according to the laws of physics. The first 2 levels of the game seemed pretty pointless because when you click on the circle to push it, it just rolls over some pre-made shapes to the star without you having to draw anything. But stick with it, because by level 4 you really do have to draw shapes to make the circle move, and it gets a lot more challenging.

As the game gets harder it can get a little frustrating, because your drawings are subject to the laws of physics, and there are unexpected consequences in the way pieces and shapes react to each other. But that’s also what makes it satisfying, because as you see how shapes move you modify your drawings and are pleasantly pleased with yourself when you finally do get that little red circle to touch the star. There’s also no one right solution to a level, so you can play it over and over trying different drawings.

The simple visuals that look like crayon drawings on paper are a nice change from the complex graphics of most games, and although the demo version doesn’t give much in the way of instructions, it does give you a whole lot to play with, including a level editor that lets you design your own level to play. I don’t know that I’ll actually pay $20 to buy the full version (…because I’m cheap), but the free demo is definitely worth the download.

Creator Petri Purho talked about his game in a recent NPR interview.