MAKING HISTORY GAMES Not talking about: apps, PC games, online games, games FROM history

WHY MAKE GAMES?

WHY MAKE GAMES? too much school is too serious for kids good first step – ‘playing around’ to create engagement students are willing to take risks in games students more willing to accept negative feedback in a game situation motivation – students are more likely to learn something in order to win a game than because some curriculum document said they had do

WHY MAKE GAMES? a specific reason that will improve learning develop 21st century skills, specifically: creative thinking critical thinking / problem solving collaboration not just to make things fun not because they’re easy to make not because of ‘stealth learning’

GAMES? GAMIFICATION? SIMULATION?

GAMES feedback rules challenge give the player information about their performance rules challenge gets harder chunking sequencing scaffolding

GAMES fantasy challenge curiosity games don’t have to be realistic safe testing of new skill or knowledge episodic memory – you remember better because its part of a fun and engaging activity challenge curiosity fuelled by fantasy because the game isn’t real

GAMIFICATION Using game-based mechanics to promote learning structural gamification e.g. getting points for watching videos like the Khan Academy content gamification e.g. adding story elements to content (e.g. my learning adventures) story, challenge, curiosity, character, interactivity, feedback, freedom to fail stop cheating by playtesting “It’s impossible to cheat in this game!”

SIMULATION realistic controlled risk a chance to practice behaviours experience the results of decisions best for applying learning

PRINCIPLES OF GAME MAKING

TYPES OF GAME ACTIVITIES Testing game vs. teaching game To use a testing game to teach, add lots of repetition E.g. duolingo Matching – e.g. trivia, hangman Collecting / capturing games e.g. pacman, go fish Allocating resources e.g. SimCity Strategising (allocating resources, but against others) e.g. chess, Risk

TYPES OF GAME ACTIVITIES Building – e.g. Jenga, MineCraft Puzzle solving – e.g. Cluedo Exploring (looking for items of value) – e.g. Myst, Riven Helping e.g. Lemmings Roleplaying e.g. Dungeons and Dragons

LEARNING TAXONOMIES AND GAMES Bloom’s level Possible type of game Create Building Evaluate Strategy Analyse Allocating resources Apply Role playing Understand Puzzle solving, exploring Remember Matching, collecting

Jesse schell – the art of game designing Theme Repetition Player’s mind Story World Characters Aesthetics Team Documents

GENERATING IDEAS

GENERATING IDEAS Play games! Simple question games Board games Video games Mobile games but study them as you play them Simple question games One lesson mini-games Change an existing game

GENERATING IDEAS So if you want to… Try a… Teach new content Content gamification Motive students to work through a curriculum independently Structural gamification Teach learners to remember content knowledge Game: matching / collecting Teach students to construct meaning from sources Game: puzzle solving / exploring

MAKING LEARNING CENTRAL

MAKING LEARNING CENTRAL Pre and post test students to see that the game is helping students to learn E.g. using Google Docs and ‘flubaroo’ script that automatically marks them

EXAMPLES

PUBLISHED GAMES Timeline: historical events Axis and Allies (WWI, WWII) Civilisation PC game Stone Age

My inventions HistorySmash: Greece Simulations: History Guess Who? EarthCraft Planetology Geography games Greenville Imperium Mining Wars MegaBoss Population game Economics game ASX20 Sharemarket game

RESOURCES

RESOURCES The gamification of learning and instruction fieldbook – K. Kapp, L. Blair, R. Mesch The art of game design (a book of lenses) – J. Schell And the free app “The Art of Game Design: A Deck of Lenses” Play – Stuart Brown This presentation: http://lawlesslearning.com/makinghistorygames/ With documents for the other games referred to Links to pages about history games My email: benlawless8@gmail.com