EdGames
Musings and findings about teaching with games. Created by the learning community of EDTEC 670 at San Diego State University.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Creative Writing Game on Shakespeare
I’m putting myself in the funny position of writing a review of a game that does not yet exist. Yet, this Kickstarter website promises that it soon will: funding targets have been met and it is currently in production and set for limited release in 2012. It’s based on this design document, which was downloaded from here.
The Play’s the Thing is a storytelling board game based on Shakespeare’s plays. Players are actors rehearsing various scenes from Shakespeare, and must try to alter the original in order to “improve” it. Hamlet could be recreated with Ophelia as the main character for example, or The Tempest might take place on the island of the Lost TV show.
I find the concept of the game excellent and an intriguing addition to a book club or a high school English Class. But how it would actually work is a little baffling to me. The design document doesn’t describe the win state clearly, but the game plays off of the struggle of wills between actors and directors in the theater world. If I understand it correctly, the players representing actors are struggling to impose their visions on changes that should be made to the play’s plot, characters, or setting. They do this somehow by earning and then spending points. Dice are also involved. I wish the video provided on the Kickstarter site had focused more on gameplay.
This is how I see the ARCS model working here:
Attention:
If you are a fan of Shakespeare, you are told that you have an opportunity to play around with his work. If you don’t like Shakespeare, you are given the opportunity to take his work and make it better.
Relevance:
This would be high if used in an appropriate setting. In a high school English class, it could be an opportunity to discuss how certain elements of the plays “work” and offer students the chance to probe for deeper understanding. How would Hamlet’s internal conflict change for example, if Claudius were not his uncle? Or if Claudius had not married his mother? Would Hamlet then be much more likely to seek revenge sooner?
In a creative writing situation the game could serve as a useful springboard as well.
Confidence:
To those players who may not be comfortable sharing their creative ideas and exposing them to criticism, the fact that each player is representing an actor with an agenda neatly subverts that. Here is a sample actor role description:
The Ingenue: Virginal and naive, you have the unforced heart of a child. Others wish to
shield you from the world, but know that your innocence is fleeting.
Onstage - The Ingenue knows how to win hearts. You may spend a story point
to reroll a failed Pathos roll.
Offstage - The Ingenue can inspire greatness. You may spend a story point to
allow another character to reroll a failed Logos roll.
Direction - At the Playwright's request, The Ingenue must place herself in
danger.
Therefore, the player is working to make story edits that fit the “actors” role, and may be less self conscious about being judged on the quality of his/her ideas.
Satisfaction:
The opportunity to come up with your own storytelling vision, and then being able to convince others to accept it would create satisfaction I think. In addition, starting with already established plays and then tweaking them could make the creative storytelling process easier for players who struggle with creative writing.
UPDATE: There is an older vintage game of the same name which is also based on Shakespeare. But this one is a different game.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Future Possiblities with User-generated Content
Monday, December 12, 2011
Kongregate Multitasking Game - How Well Do You Multitask?
I recently discovered a free online game from Kongregate that tests one’s ability to multitask. I decided to try it. Well on two tries, I did not make it past the first level. I finally did on my third try because I knew what to expect, but I couldn't get any further. This is a site that I think would be fun to share with all self-proclaimed multitaskers. Check it out and see how well you do. If you do better than the second level, you can exercise your bragging rights.
Goodwill Community Foundation: Free Online Learning Resources
I discovered this educational resource when surfing through the On Demand channel offerings. Just out of curiosity, I decided to check out some of the offerings. One lesson I remember was on the basics of fractions. The lesson was presented in a very tastefully designed, well-narrated Flash file that I could tell was created with Articulate Presenter because of the look and feel of the screen. The content was very basic, but was well suited to an elementary school child or to anyone for that matter who needs a refresher on adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. The training was quite short too. It provided just a good bite size amount of content.
About two weeks later, I looked for those courses on cable again and they had been removed. What I did discover is that everyone can access GCF’s free training on the GCF Learn Free.org Web site. Did I say it was free? Let me state that again: The training is FREE. There are a plethora of topics to explore. You learn at your own pace with over 750 lessons and over 250 videos. You can take computer-related classes, classes pertaining to money management, other classes pertaining to everyday life, and so on. It is definitely worth checking out.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Steve Jobs Book
Friday, November 11, 2011
Learning Latin through a role playing game.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Designer Board Games
Monday, October 03, 2011
Scout Game
CrossFit St. Pete
The site is hosted by a CrossFit gym in St. Petersburg, FL. It's designed to supplement the training conducted at the gym and to be a place where members can connect with trainers, coaches and other gym members to ask questions, compare results and give advice. The site goes further to provide training and nutrition tips, a meal planning tool, work out descriptions and a fitness blog hosted by the head trainer.
ATTENTION: Right out of the gates the site grabs your attention with a loud, scrolling title banner advertising the gym with pictures of the members during workouts. If you happened to be a member it's not unlikely that upon landing on the site you'd find yourself plastered at the top of the page (kind of motivational). Further, the site pairs each daily workout post with a picture, fitness focused that but not in the traditional sense. Usually, the pictures have no obvious connection to the daily post and often incite you to wonder what the author is going for with the picture. The workouts are also named, often after a military, police or fire fighter that gave their life in the line of duty. For most, well for me anyway, this leaves you to wonder and probably research who the person is behind the workout. Learning the bio, the contributions and the sacrifice tends to be a significant motivator to get involved with the workout.
RELEVANCE: The You wouldn't be logged in if you weren't focused on fitness or aspiring to develop it, so the site has a decent head start in the relevance department. Taking nothing for granted though, the site authors do a nice job of promoting the relevance of their content every Saturday with the weekly post by the head trainer. In each of the posts the author tackles a different aspect of fitness, nutrition, physiology, etc by convincing us we've got it all wrong. The posts then go on to show us the right way, usually with an anthropology and kinesiology lesson and pictures with links to the literature (not what you'd expect at a workout blog) to back it up. For those of us on the extreme high side of perceived relevance, the posts erase anxiety by giving us the coaching we need to improve. For those on the low side the combination of pictures, literature, examples and discussion do a great job of erasing indifference.
CONFIDENCE: The CrossFit blog handles the confidence issue with a parallel "work out of the day" blog by gym members. Participants share work out results, tips, feelings, goals and failures. The sense of community created by this level of sharing can be motivating and inspire personal accountability.
SATISFACTION: The "work out of the day" forum is a major part of the satisfaction piece of ARCS as well. In this case, comparing results can be a huge motivator both when your performance exceeds someone else's and even more so when it falls short.
Take a look if you get a shot.
http://www.stpetecrossfit.com/
Carmen Sandiego
Edtec670 Post #1
Creative Cow is a multimedia tutorial website that gives students and hobbyists alike lessons and tips on using several multimedia programs such as Adobe Premiere,
Flash and Final Cut Pro. The way the site is presented and used fits nicely with the ARCS Model..
The layout of the site grabs your attention by listing several tutorials and how they can improve your current skills.
Once a tutorial is started by a learner,relevance occurs when prior learning with a given software must be recalled to complete a tutorial.
Once a tutorial is completed successfully the learner's confidence and motivation to learn more goes up. If the tutorial proves to be a challenge the learner can return to it until they get it right.
When tutorials are completed and applied in the learner's own work..Their satisfaction with learning the new skills will be higher.
Interactive Geography Games
Raz-Kids for K-6 literacy imporvement
Our school first started using Raz-Kids last school year. The first time I saw this program, I thought the upper elementary students would lack the motivation and determination to use this program. I was proved wrong, as over the course of the school year, my fourth graders improved their reading skills and comprehension skills using this program. I can definately say that the ARCS model is embedded in this website and program.
Attention- For the students, their attention is grabbed right away when they have options in reading through the books. They can read through it at their own pace or have the book read to them by the program. Their attention is kept through each book by not having too much information on every page. The books are also illustrated to keep the students attention. The students know that they will be taking a comprehension quiz after the book, so their attention and focus must stay consistent.
Relevance- Each book is made relevant to the student's individual reading skill and level. The students read books that are not too easy or too hard for them. They are also allowed to go into the book store and look for other interesting and relevant books. The students know that with each book and quiz they complete, they are becoming a better reader.
Confidence- As the students complete books and take the quizzes, they earn stickers and awards. Once they get so many stickers and awards, they move up to the next reading level. Teachers at my school also offered rewards in class when the students moved up to the next reading level. Their confidence grows as they read through the many different books.
Satisfaction- Students are instantly satisified when they read through the books on their own or with the added voice. They get to take the quiz, and retake it if they do not do well. They are satisfied when they see their rewards and stickers. They can track their progress to the next level too. Teachers see improved student satisfaction for personal growth. The students strive to do better and know that they are improving their reading skills and levels.
Attention- what first stimulates the curiosity of the learners is the concept of the game. Most of us remember as a child trying to start our own lemonade stand one summer afternoon with our friends. Here, they are curious how they can replicate that same experience in an online format. Once the learners begin playing the game however, their attention is maintained by the variability in function. Each “day” you sell lemonade, the forecast in the weather is different. Therefore, it is a different experience each time you play.
Relevance- This game might be more relevant for business students, or for those who are curious about the field, but there are certainly factors in the game that make it relevant to all users. One of the main points of relevancy for this game is the fact that most people have attempted to start a lemonade stand at least at one point in their life. This game makes them aware of factors such as customer service, pricing control, and inventory control that they might not have seen as relevant before. Also, because the game allows the players to see the immediate results of each“ day” from these factors, they are able to see the relevance behind their decisions.
Confidence- The Lemonade stand game allows for players to build their confidence by providing many opportunities for players to reach the goal. Unlike other games where if you lose a level, you start back from the beginning, Lemonade Stand gives you 30 “days” or tries to change factors, such as pricing and inventory, in order to increase profits. Also, the fact that the game gives player’s personal responsibility, or control over their decisions, is motivating for the players to continue reaching towards their goal.
Satisfaction- Lemonade Stand uses both positive reinforcement and operant conditioning to keep users motivated to play the game. If you earned more money at the end of one “day” more than the day before, you will be positively reinforced to continue playing. On the other hand, because the weather, pricing, inventory, changes everyday, some days the results will not always be positive, which keeps the learner engaged.
Spent
I came across a web site that intrigued me, even though I am not a K-12 classroom teacher. Their concept of Project Based Learning as a motivational construct is something that may have possibilities in the corporate world where I develop training.
At first blush, I thought that the author had read Keller or was familiar with the ARCS model but after having read their section on Student Motivation, it became clear that they had developed their model based on other research. They began their description of how PBL could increase student motivation by identifying how students’ attention would be heightened in the process of choosing different strategies and approaches to their learning. They established relevance in their summation at the bottom of the first web page. “Learners who can see the connection between a project based task and the real world will be more motivated to understand and solve the problem at hand.” I don’t know if Keller would have stated it any differently. Stating that students gain a “sense of ownership and control over their own learning” pretty clearly show how their confidence is enhanced through this learning process. Finally, the process encouraged teachers to provide a self-evaluation tool that would give the students an opportunity to reflect on their accomplishment and instill an intrinsic responsibility for their own learning. This capped the model and identified the satisfaction factor.
Without one reference to Keller, they built a pretty good defense of the ARCS model and clearly showed how it could apply to the PBL process they linked it to.
The Gardening Guide
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Engineering Energy Efficiency
Attention: This module immediately gets a student's attention as it is a real-world problem that has no absolute solution. Students are able to use their skills to solve something meaningful. The interactions are real, using interactive tools the replicate what professionals use. Students use computers to solve problems which often gets their attention.
Relevance: This simulation is directly relevant to a real-world problem. With all of the emphasis on green technologies, there is a need to learn how to build energy efficient housing. The project uses the skills students have in math, science, and engineering
Confidence: There are many steps the students go though in building their models. Students are guided through each step, gradually building their skills need for the project. This gradual build-up of their skills and working towards the final product should give the students the confidence they need to be successful.
Satisfaction: There is satisfaction in completing a project with an unique solution and being able to present that solution to peers. If the student goes thorough all of the steps, they should design a final product they are proud of and can demonstrate a meaningful answer to a real problem they could face as adults.
Lumosity reclaim your brain, motivating learning site
How the ARCS Model is Applied in the Lumosity Bird Watcher Game
Attention - Lumosity Bird Watcher Game for exercising attention in the brain uses some of the following techniques for gaining and sustaining attention including:
Perceptual Arousal: – What playing the bird watching game, a bird flashes very briefly in a certain location on the screen and at the same time a certain letter of the alphabet which is part of a bird’s name of the bird flashes also appears briefly. The learner clicks the screen to the location where the learner thinks the bird flashed on the screen and remember the character that flashed on the screen.
Inquiry Arousal: - Learner can choose a game that appeal to their interests. With the bird watcher game, learners are presented with a scenario to choose the correct characters that represent a bird’s name. These visual aids for choosing the correct characters methods are used to increase the learner participation.
Variability: Vary the layout and style throughout the bird watching games. After completing each game the learner is presented with a different background and a different bird scenario. After the learner has completed the bird watching scenario, a screen appears which allows the learner to guess the name of the bird to complete the game.
Relevance To establish Relevance the Lumosity Bird Watcher games appears to increase the learner’s motivation to learn by connecting and building bridges between what the learner currently knows and to succeed in the game that improves attention and move to games that improves memory and speed.Goal Orientation: the Learner is presented with goals for achievement for improving the brain with basic training for attention, memory and speed. The learner is presented with the goal for successfully achieving points in the Bird Watcher before moving on to the next two basic training games for memory and speed.
Motive Matching: One of the learners motives for achieving success in the Bird Watcher game is to determine how well the learner’s brain will respond to success based on the effort they give to play the games.
Familiarity – The Lumosity Bird Watcher game ties learners’ previous knowledge of birds, and experience of spelling and recognizing birds.
Confidence- The learner is given the opportunity to succeed in interactive games for training the brain that starts with basic games for memory, speed and attention. The Lumosity Bird Watcher game is one of the basic training games that build the learner’s confidence on how well the brain responses to exercises for the attention aspects of the brain.
Learning requirements: Lumosity encourages learners to finish each of the games in each training session (i.e., memory, attention and speed) to maximize the effectiveness of your training program.
Success Opportunities: After completing each game, score cards are presented to build the students confidence and to show success in the games and offers course progress levels.
Personal Control: as a basic game, the Bird Watcher game can start with low-level difficulty that gives the learners a feeling of confidence in being successful in the game or start with a more difficult game as a paid subscriber.
Satisfaction: Lumosity gives feedback and reinforcement during the Bird Watcher game which appears to be used to provide learner satisfaction through a sense of achievement. Learners are given immediate visual feedback when they click the screen at the location where they believe the bird appeared. Positive reinforcement occurs when the learner clicks the correct location, because the learner is then given the opportunity to guess what letter from the alphabet appeared when the bird appeared. However, negative reinforcement occurs if the learner clicks the incorrect location, because then, the learner is presented with an error message and the learner is not given an opportunity to guess the letter. The learner is given an opportunity to appreciate the results to evaluate their success in the game.
Achieve 3000
Achieve 3000 is a new program we're using at school that our English department really pushed for because of the motivating, educational features that help enhance reading and reading comprehension. Since I work at a middle school, we use teenbiz3000.com which is directed towards a teen audience. This isn't a free resource, but I highly recommend this program if you or your school is looking for a motivating resource that helps improve reading and comprehension. Students take a lexile/level set test at the beginning to determine reading levels and then daily, students are sent high interest articles tailored to their individual reading levels. Students then complete activities involved with the text in order to practice reading skills. Seemingly, this seems like a dull resource, but the cool thing about Achieve 3000 is that students have avatars, earn points, and can collect achievements that boost their daily point totals. It's a highly competitive program.
Attention: Students instantly attach to this program because of the attention grabbing headlines they are sent in their mailboxes. Each day teenbiz sends all students enrolled in the program a high interest article with attention grabbing pictures to student teenbiz mailboxes. Students actually get excit ed to read because the articles are interesting and they continue to read because they are at a reading level they can comprehend. Not to mention, the minute students take their initial placement assessment to determine reading levels, students have the opportunity to set up their profile with an avatar of their choice. The avatar really grabs students attention because it makes the program seem more game like.
Relevance: The program aligns with English standards due to the reading and writing activities shown in the program. The articles reaffirm relevance because they are usually based on current events so students relate the content to the world around them...they see the information as useful outside of the classroom. Lastly, a really incredible feature on achieve3000 is the ability to search and assign articles to your students. So if we're studying something in English I can look for an article that relates to what we're studying on achieve 3000 and assign it to my students. This means that students make better content to life connections inside and outside of the classroom.
Confidence: Achieve 3000 definitely builds confidence to to the point system and achievement system the program uses. Each activity gives students points. There are also achievements students can earn based on exceptional work. Teachers can also assign some of the achievements available. So, as students progress through the program they gain confidence because they get instant feedback on their activities, earn points, and earn achievements. Another confidence builder is feature that students can be featured as the "daily high score" for the school. So all students are striving to get the daily high score. Not to mention, as students progress through articles and activities they learn better reading strategies and that starts reflecting in their scores therefore giving them confidence.
Satisfaction: The more points students earn the more satisfaction they feel with the program. Achieve 3000 doesn't just track daily points but also keeps record of the cumulative value. Students feel satisfied when their points are high because they know they are mastering language arts skills. Students feel satisfied as they earn achievements for showing their skills. Students feel satisfied when I get to enable the "game" features when they show successful achieve 3000 use because they know they get to play the games when they've accomplished a task with success.
Free Baseball Instruction for Coaches
Third Grade Resource
This summer I found myself browsing websites for some fresh teaching ideas. How could I make the old new again? While searching, I stumbled across a website by another third grade teacher, Beth Newingham. This year, her classroom website takes on the name, Studio 13 and is full of glitz and glamour.
Attention: When I started browsing her website, the first thing that grabbed my attention were all of her examples. She explained how she set up her binders and ideas, but also included concrete examples of the ideas. There were lots of pictures to click on, so that you could understand her ideas. Along with pictures, she also provides videos of these ideas in action.
Relevance: Because I am a classroom teacher, the material that Beth presents in her website and blog is extremely relevant to me. The curriculum and the way the instruction is delivered, via reader’s and writer’s workshop, is identical to our district’s standards. In her blog, you can ask her questions about her ideas and she responds back with a personal answer. The website is also set up, so you can pick and choose what you want to implement. You do not have to do it all!
Confidence and Satisfaction: Because Beth includes so many visuals and step by step instructions, it is easy to become successful with implementing her projects. As a teacher using her website to learn and implement new ideas in my classroom, I can select what I want to use and what I do not want to use. I have already implemented many of her strategies in my own classroom and keep coming back for more.