1. The Promise of Dragons – Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

2. Presentation Goals Discuss a common instructional challenge and explore a hypothesis for meeting this challenge Contextualize games in learning theory Discuss link between memory, motivation, and emotion Deconstruct a sample game Review my mini “study” Create a strategy for creating and leveraging games Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

3. The Challenge How to teach (and motivate) when appeal to reason fails. Hypothesis: games have the potential to teach and change behavior where traditional teaching methods sometimes struggle. Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

4. A Theoretical Backdrop Games can… – Act as or support the “More Knowledgeable Other” – Construct “scaffolding” in the “Zone of Proximal Development” Lev Vygotsky Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

5. Application to Games Structured Activity (Game as MKO) Social discovery of successful tactics (construct scaffolding) Debrief and Reflect (reinforce scaffolding) Transition (apply scaffolding) ZPD Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

6. The Importance of Emotional Connection Dr. Art Kohn PhD in cognitive psychology Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

7. The Importance of Emotional Connection What makes a game a game? What is the difference between an activity and a game? Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

8. The Importance of Emotional Connection Timer CompetitionScore Tension! Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

9. Summary: The Power of Games Provide emotional context, enhancing the opportunity for memory encoding Act as the More Knowledgeable Other or as a support for the MKO Create meaningful scaffolding within the Zone of Proximal Development Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

10. Example: Clash of Clans Construct a village Create an army Upgrade your defenses Upgrade your army Invest in resources Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

11. This is me, showing off… Gold mine Elixir extractor Dark elixir drill Army Resource storage Defenses Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

12. Developing Resources Troops Defense Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

13. When things go well… Approach: balanced and patient Long-range planning Clear success and broader opportunity! Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

14. When things go… poorly… Approach: immediate gratification Lack of balance and patience Limited opportunity Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

15. My “Test Subject” This screen will contain a video example of the application of these techniques. The video will be available in the live session. Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

16. Adam’s Village Then… Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

17. Adam’s Village Now! Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

18. Debriefing the Interview Adam has been playing for 10 months. Adam prioritizes his choices based on long and short-term success. Adam is “proud” of his village Adam engages in socialization in playing and learning the game. Adam is beginning to articulate basic concepts, such as ROI and investment. Adam’s favorite troop: the dragon (he’s named his first dragon “Sparky”) Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

19. Strategy Construct scaffolding with appropriate game elements, within the student’s zone of proximal development Play the game and instill basic behaviors Debrief positive and negative results Transition from scaffolding to target subject matter Continue to draw parallels to game Buy Now Save High School Diploma College Degree Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

20. Building a Game Engine Consider your Target Behaviors Leverage Common Game Elements – Time – Points – Level Up – Achievements/Badges – Chance – Costs Create an experience which encourages your target behaviors without an explicit conceptual overlay. Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

21. Discuss! Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Concerns? Played any good games lately? Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction

22. Thank you for your attendance and contributions! Totherow, Session 302 - The Promise of Dragons - Strategies for Leveraging Games for Instruction ©2013, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis The opinions expressed in this presentation are the speaker’s views, are intended only for information purposes, and are not formal opinions of, nor binding on, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Systems. Joe Totherow joseph.c.totherow@stls.frb.org