1. Katrin Becker University of Calgary July 2006
Learning From Games
Based on the paper:
Classifying Learning Objectives in Commercial Video Games
This session focuses on games for learning, why they are a natural fit for learning*, and what we can learn from blockbusters.
Partly a report on a work in progress
Partly an introduction to a new discipline
Partly intended to provoke a reaction
Prepared for the 
GDER Summer Institute
July
*if not for education
Katrin Becker
University of Calgary
July 2006
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

2. Bit of a wild ride… Kids today (sheesh) Importance of play
(what makes us human)
New Ways (again)
Games (and learning)
The Masters (and learning from them)
Figuring it out:
Phase 1: Pedagogy (by way of superimposition)
Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering)
So far
Propose to take you on a short ride…
Please bear with me
Work in progress
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

3. Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato
Kids Today (sheesh)
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
Who said this?
Attributed to SOCRATES by Plato
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

4. “Kids Today” have been “Kids Today” for thousands of years, BUT…
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

5. Kids Today Really Are different Tech Savvy Still Naive Digital Natives
yet
Still Naive
Digital Natives
Producers, not just Consumers
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

6. Kids Today HELP THEM Prepare them Cure them? Their future or our past?
Are different
What do we do about it?
HELP THEM
Prepare them
Cure them? Their future or our past?
Geoff Southworth 2002
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

7. We’ve come a long way, right?
“Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening...The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role."
- William Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1889
Vocational training is the training of animals or slaves. It fits them to become cogs in the industrial machine. Free men need liberal education to prepare them to make a good use of their freedom.
-John Dewey, 1916
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

8. Importance of play (it makes us human)
Games:
Joint attention
Imitation games precede language development
Mimetic games form culture…
Knucklebones BC
Progress of hominid cognition // progress of game forms - Merlin Donald
Mimesis: intentional non-linguistic representational or imitative acts [Janet Murray]
2500 BCE
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

9. Culture ratchets cognition – our brains and culture co-evolve.
Games are media of interpersonal communication Marshall McLuhan
Ur ~3000 BC
Culture ratchets cognition – our brains and culture co-evolve.
Michael Tomasello
Senet ~3000 BC
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

10. Games are Natural Instructional Technologies
As old as mankind.
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

11. New Ways
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

12. New Methods for “New” Ways
“The invention of new methods
that are adequate to the new ways
in which problems are posed
requires far more than a simple modification
of previously accepted methods."
Vygotsky
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

13. New Ways (again) Apprenticeship (PBL, case-based…)
Everything old is new again
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

14. New Ways (again) Experiential Learning Everything old is new again
One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.
- Sophocles
Everything old is new again
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

15. Everything old is new again
New Ways (again)
Story-telling
Everything old is new again
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

16. Everything old is new again
New Ways (again)
Visual Culture
Everything old is new again
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

17. If Everything New is Old, Then What HAS Changed ?
Media -> Digital Games = New Method
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

18. One View of Communication Media through History
Story-Telling
Performing Arts
Passive:
watch,
listen, read
Print Media
Broadcast Radio
Cinema
Television
Active / Interactive:
Do, Act,
Contribute
Multimedia
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

19. Games (and learning) Learning from Games
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

20. Digital Games
More than a simple modification of previously accepted methods…
Now what?
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

21. If we are to take advantage of the medium,
Digital Games
If we are to take advantage of the medium,
we must
Look at HOW…
Look at exemplars:
“Old Media”
New Media
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

22. The Masters (and learning from them)
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

23. Why are these such good teachers?
Amos’n’Andy
The West Wing
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

24. Are Games Good Teachers Too?
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

25. Figuring it out:
To find out how games should teach, first look at how games do teach.
Place in familiar context:
Learning & Instructional Theories
Find contact points.
Gagné / Reigeluth / Kolb / Keirsey / Gregorc / Felder
(This work has been done)
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

26. Phase 1: Pedagogy
Premise: Games already incorporate sound pedagogy – even if it was not deliberate.
Test: Can we superimpose accepted learning and instructional theories on existing games?
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

27. Answer: Yes, if they are good games. An example… Learning from Games
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

28. How Do Games Teach? Learning Theories Gagné’s Nine Events Levels
Each of these elements can be seen as a tool that facilitates learning.
Levels
Valorization
Attract
Mode
Back
Story
P.O.V. /
Perspective
Point of View
Trailers
2. Informing Learners of the Objective (Expectancy)
3. Stimulating Recall of Prior Learning (Retrieval)
H.U.D.
Heads Up Display
1. Gaining Attention (Reception)
Click to
progress
through
events
Story
Mode
4. Presenting the Stimulus (Selective Perception)
Sandbox
Mode
Gagné’s Nine Events
9. Enhancing Retention and Transfer (Generalization)
N.P.C.
Non-Playable
Characters
Tutorial
Mode
5. Providing Learning Guidance (Semantic Encoding)
8. Assessing Performance (Retrieval)
Fan Sites
& Game
Communities
Boss
Challenges
7. Providing Feedback (Reinforcement)
6. Eliciting Performance (Responding)
Cut-
Scenes
A.I.
Artificial
Intelligence
Variable
L.O.D.
Level of Detail
Transmediality
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

29. All good games incorporate:
Merrill’s First Principles
Engagement – Solving realistic (real-life) problems
Activation – Start Where the player/learner is.
Demonstration – Show them what we want them to learn – don’t just tell them.
Application – New knowledge must be applied to solve problems.
Integration – Motivate to apply what was learned
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

30. Figuring it out: Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering)
…the attempt to recapture the top level specification by analyzing the product - "attempt" because it is not possible in practice, or even in theory, to recover everything in the original specification purely by studying the product…
REVERSE ENGINEERING [DAVID C MUSKER] excerpt June
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

31. Why not just ask the designers?
Figuring it out: Phase 2: Implementation
(by way of reverse engineering)
Why not just ask the designers?
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

32. Figuring it out: Phase 2: Implementation (by way of reverse engineering)
Examine COTS games as if they had been designed for learning.
Objectives exist.
(minus societal value, i.e. education)
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

33. Phase 2: Implementation
How can we know if games are effective?
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

34. Next Steps
Knowing why a game is good is not the same as knowing how to make a good game, but it is a necessary first step.
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

35. Instructional Games Design will require a thorough grounding in
Next Steps
Instructional Games Design
will require a thorough grounding in
BOTH
Instructional Design
AND
Games Design.
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

36. Thanks!! Official Game Sites Fan Art Game Images courtesy of:
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

37. Word play (definitions)1
Learning 3
Instruction
Education 2 5
Objective
Outcome 6
Aim 4
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

38. Education Done TO Initiation External Social
Education is the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior. (William James 1915, p15,
Dover Edition 2001)
Education
Done TO
Initiation
*E* given/offered
is not necessarily *E* received
push
External
Social
What we do (to induce/encourage learning) over and above that which is natural
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

39. Smaller in formal scope than Education
Learning
Acquisition
Happens ALL the time
Desirable result of education
Internal
Smaller in formal scope than Education
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

40. Teaching (more or less actively)
Instruction
Command
Intentional
Done TO
push
External
Teaching (more or less actively)
Subset of Education
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

41. Aim External Intent Target Deliberate WoW Learning from Games
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games
WoW

42. Objective
goal & objective are similar (each mentions the other in the dictionary)
both somewhat external
both having to do with intent
goal is more singular and objective emphasizes characteristics or features
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games

43. Outcome Outcome has to do with result Effect Consequence
K.Becker GDER Summer Institute ‘06
Learning from Games