Earth Contest

Games and geography... two of my favorite things are combined in Earth Contest.

"A new online reality game where players face extreme challenges and face their worst fears all while trying to beat the GameMaster. Using Google Earth placemarks and web pages, we've created the world's biggest interactive game.

In order to beat the GameMaster, you must follow the clues and utilize the Checkpoint feature to move ahead. Once you've beaten the first GameMaster, you'll advance to the BIG GAME of EARTH CONTEST where you'll compete with other self proclaimed super sleuths for BIG REWARDS!"

Google Earth, you probably already know, is the coolest new application to arrive in a long time. Once they release a Mac version, I expect to be losing a lot of time there exploring the globe and probably playing EARTH CONTEST.

The Online Guide to Traditional Games

This week while you're getting your game ready for playtesting, take a break and scan The Online Guide to Traditional Games. It's a nice overview of the oldest board games and their variants. Might give you some fresh ideas.

My favorite image comes from this description of Pachisi.

"The Indian Emperor Akbar I of the 16th century Mogul Empire, apparently played Chaupar on great courts constructed of inlaid marble. He would sit on a Dias four feet high in the centre of the court and throw the cowry shells. On the red and white squares around him, 16 beautiful women from the harem, appropriately coloured, would move around according to his directions. Remains of these boards can be seen today in Agra and Allahabad."

Imagine that.

COTS Games in Education

Here's an interesting email just posted to one of the lists I'm on:

From: John Kirriemuir

Hello,

My first posting, so a short bit about myself. I am an independent
researcher, who is also part of GERN (Games and Education Research Network) at the University of Bristol in the UK:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/gern/

I study the use of COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) games in education, learning and teaching.

The use of COTS games in curriculum-based education is a subject that's increasingly arisen in the games and education research overlap in the last few years. By COTS games, we mean those that you get from a computer and video game shop, and are designed purely for fun/entertainment - not for learning.

The most popular types of these games, being used in education, seem to be:

• Business and economic simulations, such as Sim City, Zoo Tycoon, and RollerCoaster Tycoon. Some of these have a cross-curricular role; for example, Zoo Tycoon encourages economic skill development, while at the same time educating about animals and their habitat.
• Dance mat-based games, used in physical education.
• Historical re-enactment games, such as the Civilization and Age of Empires series.

There is a small blog that points to some examples here:

http://silversprite.blogspot.com/

More detailed examples, with descriptions from teachers of how the games were used, are available in this 4Mb Powerpoint presentation:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/education/research/networks/gern/gdc05.ppt

It's a fluid and fast-moving field, with a number of game developers and publishers looking to see if they can use their products "out of the tin", or whether modification and substantial teacher support materials are required. Various hook-ups between the games sector, academic research sector, and education sector, are popping up. For example, NESTA FutureLab (a UK research unit) and EA games are collaborating to find ways in which games can be used effectively in the classroom:

http://www.nestafuturelab.org/about_us/press_releases/pr8.htm

Do EDTECH mailing list subscribers use such games (or different "pure" computer games), and if so how do you use them to assist in delivering curriculum-based education? Or, would you consider using such games, but don't due to some impediment?

John Kirriemuir

survey05@silversprite.com

University of Bristol / Silversprite

eschools News Online article on game design major/minor

Here is a recent article on new gaming curricula. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offers a minor in game design and will be soon offering it as a major. Apparently, there are about 50 institutions that offer gaming curricula. I am sure that number will be exploding within a short amount of time.

The Buttkicker

The Buttkicker is a computer gaming add-on designed to add more realism to video games. It's a metal device that attaches to office-type chairs and rumbles when a game emits low bass frequencies.

At first glance it doesn't seem to have much relation to the world of education, but if we remember that training simulations are usually better to the extent that they can mimick real world situations, this device may have a place.

I remember watching a video about flying airplanes where there was a similar set up. The seats actually shook a bit in coordination with appropriate moments in the movie, and it did add to the experience.

MSNBC has a report on the Buttkicker here.

ROP readings

The authors talk about the three types of rules:

Operational: Rules of Play

Constituative: Rules that exist below the surface (logical and mathematical)

Implicit: Unwritten rules (etiquette, good sportsmanship, etc.)

In Stephen Sniderman's article titled "Unwritten Rules", he makes interesting analogies about games and the "real world". He talks about the unwritten (implicit) rules that underlie the written rules that tend to be dependent on culture. Probably the biggest unstatable rule that is universal is being a good sport and having good etiquette. This would be a good example of one of his statements, which is "the most powerful rules, the ones least likely to be violated, are those that are not stated explicitly, those that people have to infer or intuit. To state a rule is to invite players to break it, but to leave a rule unstated is to make its violation almost literally "unthinkable.

In conclusion, he makes the case that games serve one very important social function, which is as abstractions of "real-world" situations. The article is here.

don'tclickit

This was interesting. Although they said that the interface was different, to me, it is still a navigational structure where you make the decisions on what part of the site you want to check out. You just aren't clicking. It is a more elegant design, however.

Something that was said in class the other night make me think of an idea which may already exist. What if (in a game or a website), instead of the player navigating around the board or website, the board moves around you. I'm not sure if the player would have control within the game or be at the mercy of everything moving around them. Does anyone know if there is anything like this?

Games Help Kids Pay Attention

Here's an interesting article about a scientific study evaluating the use of a computer game to help 4-6 year-old-children focus their attention: Computer games help train kids to pay attention

Although the article says that the study is inconclusive (what scientific study isn't?), initial indications seem to be that the game did help the children pay better attention and ignore distractions.

The game involved is described as follows:

For five days, the youngsters progressed from a game that moved a cat in and out of grass to more complex tasks, such as choosing the largest number amid deliberate distractions.

Blast off to the Planet Power!

Gee I was trying to teach kids the food pyramid with a low tech card game! My humble efforts have been totally eclipsed by the mighty United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Check out the “My Pyramid Blast Off” interactive game available free from the USDA. It is designed to inform 6-11 year olds about the government’s new guide to eating right called the food pyramid for kids. The game premise is that players must load a rocket ship with the right combination of healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, low fat milk, whole grains, etc., to serve as fuel for the ship. If the ship is loaded with too much fuel or the wrong mix of fuel, it will be unable to blast off to Planet Power. It will be interesting to find out how effective this approach turns out to be. I am trying to imagine a 6 year old demanding broccoli for his or her rocket ship!

Games and Federal & State Agencies

Do you work for an organization or agency that's just a bit hesitant to use games in training? If so, you might benefit from the following URL put out by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.
Titled "Public Involvement Techniques For Transportation Decision-Making", this page lists several valid reasons why games-based training makes good sense. Real-life examples in transportation, mediation and business back up major points.
This is a clear, easy read and might just help you "sell" your educational game idea to a reluctant employer.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/pittd/games.htm

Csikszentmihalyi is Coming to Town!

The Learning Annex is offering Finding Flow with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the evening of November 15. You'll be reading about his flow theory in a few weeks, so this is extremely relevant. Thanks to 670 alum Jolie Kennedy for letting us know.

Shadows Over Camelot

Someone in class asked whether a game always had to have a winner. Coincidentally, today I ran across this review of a cooperative game, Shadows Over Camelot, written by the always witty defective yeti. Players compete agains the game itself. Either they all win or they all lose. Check it out!

Taking Fun Seriously

You can tell that people are taking something seriously when they start holding conferences in Washington, D.C., and charging hundreds of dollars to attend.

There is an upcoming conference there on October 31 and November 1 called the Serious Games Summit. Early birds can attend for $595 plus travel expenses. They have quite a lineup of speakers.

It's interesting to note the various tracks that you can go to. One of the tracks is Learning and Instructional Theory, which they highlight as follows:

At the heart of any serious game is a combination of exciting new ideas about learning and well-defined existing instructional methodologies. This track illustrates how the worlds of cognitive science, instructional design, and game development can work in unison to build better learning environments, applications, and methods. It also analyzes the inherent learning in games and the many metagame aspects to learning that inhabit the field.

Virtual Soldiering

This is a link to an article from Computer Edge magazine titled “Virtual Soldiering: Training, Recruiting, and Entertainment.” The article describes that the U.S. Army has created a free downloadable game called “America’s Army,” that has nearly 6 million registered players. The game takes players through boot camp, and then on to Ranger and Airborne training.

The game is described as being realistic in terms of weapons, tactics, rules of engagement, laws of war, lifesaving, and Army values.

This quote from the article got me thinking. “While war is violent, America’s Army provides entertainment and information without resorting to graphic violence and gore.” If the Army, who is in the business of war, can provide a war game without graphic violence, why don’t game designers for consumers follow the Army's lead?

After reading this article, my mind rapidly shifted to thinking about the possibilities of how many resources, in terms of dollars and lives, could be saved and repurposed if those who are compelled to engage in war could do so virtually through a game, rather than physically.

Can Bad be Good and The Free Multiplayer Online Games

Regarding Everything Bad is Good for You, I think the author is correct. I think my son's education has been greatly enhanced by the computer games and simulations that he has been exposed to since being a young child. A much richer educational experience than I had growing up, for sure.

My son and I visited a few of the games this weekend on the The Free Multiplayer Online Games site. The first one I looked at reminded me of the global use of some of these games. Air Attack, a flight simulator game, was only in the Korean language and we had to download a data file to convert it to English. This game included a forum for participant communication. Apparently many games have these forums for getting feedback about the quality, strategies, etc. of the games. As most of you probably know, simulations have become an extremely important and necessary instructional tools for learning skills whereby making mistakes can cause injury, death, and other catastrophes.

Get Tiffany was another game I looked at. Its the one about the four "dudes" trying to pick up a hot "chick" named Tiffany. This game uses Shockwave and you can make certain selections about how the guys look (hair color, eye color, clothing, shoes, etc) but they all had the same angry face! Maybe they could never get the girl! The mojo point cards were clever. This game only offered two choices for installation, AOL and Linux. Not sure why.

We played around with Sims2 as well. That is a pretty interesting game. I like the way you can create your environment and select moods, attitudes, etc.

We also looked at one of the recent Mario Brothers games. My son has been playing this game for years, so they must be doing a good job enhancing the game and creating more challenging levels to keep the kids interested over such a long time period.

We talked a little about Role Playing Games (RPG's) and tried to load the TerraWorld Online but we weren't successful.

With constantly advancing technology, there seems no end to the opportunities for online learning through games.

Can Bad Be Good?

When people of my generation see kids glued to the tube or attached like an umbilical cord to their Sony PS2s, we assume that IQs are dropping and neurons are stopping.

Not so, argues Steven Johnson in Everything Bad Is Good for You. Here's a quote from the dust jacket:
A video game will never be a book--nor should it aspire to be--and in fact, video games from Tetris to the Sims to Grand Theft Auto have been shown to raise IQ scores and develop cognitive abilities that can't be learned from books.

Here's a quote from p. 117-118:

The rise of the Internet has challenged our minds in three fundamental and related ways: by virtue of being participatory, by forcing users to learn new interfaces, and by creating new channels for social interaction.

This is an interesting book and an easy read.

Need help from my son

I am asking (making!) my son (who is an avid gamer) go through some of these online games with me this weekend. I am pretty game deficient and need help navigating. I'll report back after I try a few. I did look at Professor Fizwizzle. Really cute but I still didn't know what to do. It looks a lot like the Mario Brothers games.

College majors in game design

Here's an interesting article on how more colleges and universities are offering minors and even majors in computer games: More colleges offering game theory courses, from the MSNBC web site.

Courses have titles such as Animation 1 and Cognition and Gaming.

The article compares the computer gaming world of today to the rock world of yesterday. Yesterday everyone wanted to be a rock star. Today everyone wants to be a game developer.

Logic Puzzle Learning Fun

Some of the best fun I've ever had learning a subject was with the books of Raymond Smullyan. He uses puzzles to make learning logic fun. He starts with puzzles about knights that always tell the truth and knaves that always lie and then leads you to puzzles with combinatory logic and even to puzzles that give you an idea of what Godel's incompleteness theorem is all about.

To give you an idea of the fun this can be, one of his books has the title,
What is the Name of This Book?

Here's an example puzzle. There are two rooms, each with one door. The doors are labeled:

1. In this room there is a lady, and in the other room there is a tiger.
2. In one of these rooms there is a lady, and in one of these rooms there is a tiger.

If one sign is true, and the other false, which door should you pick (assuming you want the lady and not the tiger)?

I'll let you ponder that.

Good Experience Games

Seeing Bernie's post reminded me about a site I came across this last summer that features online games (mostly Flash-based) that center around a good user experience.

Good Experience Games - it has an RSS feed, too.

I think you'll find some inspiration there as you work on your projects this semester. Have fun - I'm sure you'll get as much out of it as I did.

Robin Martin (Class of '04)

Free Multiplayer Online Games

The course hasn't really heated up yet, so you probably have lots of spare time on your hands. The Free Multiplayer Online Games site might provide an excellent way to blot up those pesky extra minutes in your day. And because they're multiplayer games, you can drag your friends and family down the road of non-productivity along with you.

Check it out and let the rest of us know which ones are good.

Interesting Online Board Game Site

Hello all,

I just came across this site which is a repository of all things related to board games. The URL is http://www.boardgamegeek.com/

Enjoy!

KartOO site

Thanks Paul.

This KartOO site is pretty incredible. I did a search on Dressage and got this map of sites from all over the world. Its amazing how they link the various categories together. The little genie that pops up is cute.

SagePage

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogging.

I was introduced to blogging when I joined the EdGames blog two years ago. It remains on my blogger dashboard along with 3 other blogs I've started. Even though my class ended two years ago, I still enjoy reading the EdGames posts for the class.

I enjoy it so much that I'm copying the same format for a SAGE blog that I call the SagePage.

Good luck and enjoy 670,
Karl Richter

Visual Search Engine

The discussion yesterday on branches in the path, and choices and decisions as they relate to board game content and structures got me thinking about a meta search engine called KartOO that uses a visual display interface. Search queries are sent to a set of search engines; gathered results are compiled and represented by KartOO as a series of interactive maps.

The visual map display shows several different results represented as page icons. By highlighting or moving your mouse over one of the page icons, the different relationships between the various search results will be shown. In addition to the visual map display, there is always a hierarchical outline displayed that is interactive with the map display.

As I tend to be a highly visual person, I find this type of display useful. This is especially so when I am not familiar with how some content or information new to me relates to content with which I am more familiar. Possibly this search tool might be useful for identifying the content structure relationships in terms of branches and obstacles for reality based board games. Examples might be how to fill out a tax form, or how to remodel a home.

New to Blogging sites but gotta share the sunset!

This post is related to the class only because I was leaving the building after today's class to find the sky populated with clouds and the nicest red-hued sunset I've seen in a while. Bursting upward, over the tops of the nearby buildings, the rays of the setting sun brightly tinted the closest clouds. As I prepared to cross the street, being the cautious person I am, I looked to the right and found a rainbow arching over the parking structure. The rainbow also sported the red hues to their fullest extent, overshadowing the others still there but unable to match the exuberance of the reds. WOW.

We're Baaaaaaack!

The EdGames blog goes dormant from December to September in between class offerings. But now it's yawning, stretching, scratching the crud out of its eyes and getting ready to be a useful source of information sharing for this class and others.

It's good to be back.

You Think EDTEC 670 is Tough?

Imagine this: the Experimental Gameplay Project at Carnegie Mellon aims to create 50 to 100 games in one semester.

• each game must be made in less than 7 days
  
• each game must be made by one person, including all art, sound, and programming
  
• each game must be based around a certain "toy" ie. "gravity", "vegetation", "swarm behavior", etc.
  

Worth a look, if only to help you count your blessings.

Wikipedia:Wiki Game

Here's something vaguely akin to the Glass Bead Game:

"The Wiki Game is a hypertextual game designed to work specifically with Wikipedia. It was first conceived by a collection of avid Wikipedia enthusiasts at Amherst College in Massachusetts. The Wiki Game requires no purchase of product, just a web browser and a time-keeping device (optional).

The Rules

To begin, a random page on the Wikipedia database is loaded (Random page link in the left navigation menu). The player is then given twenty seconds to orient him/herself to the subject matter on that first website (called the 'Homing Page'). Once this 'Reading Period' is up, the player is then transported to completely different topic page after a series of hypertextual selections ('clicks'). More specifically, this displacement is caused by first selecting a random link on the Homing Page and then on ten subsequent pages.

ex. The Homing Page is Quentin Tarantino. On this page, a random link would be 1993. From there, the next selection could be Bill Clinton, followed by free trade, etc. One could theoretically end up at collective farming; that's the surreal beauty of it!

After arriving at the final page in the randomized succession, the player must reorient him/herself and begin playing the actual game. It is the object of the game to find one's way back to the Homing Page using as few clicks as possible. The player can use any wiki-link inside the contents of any entry page they come across. These links can appear as either images or words."

Something to try now that the Break has broken.

socialstudygames.com

Ultralab has just published a survey of literature related to the use of computer games (or video games; the report treats both) for learning. According to Stephen Downes (www.oldaily.com) the survey is a comprehensive look at the field over the last few years.
http://www.lsda.org.uk/files/PDF/1529.pdf

Hello my name is Kat, and I'm NPR addict...

Okay, so this is my second NPR-related post to this blog. But I just hear these things on NPR, and I can't help but share.

The other day on "These Days" (a locally produced show), the topic was video games. The host talked to Sheldon Brown, a Professor of Visual Arts and director of the Experimental Game Lab at the Center for Research on Computing and the Arts at UCSD; Derek Burrill, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at UC Riverside; and Pete Metzger, Video Game Critic for the Los Angeles Times.

The show starts out with your basic holiday guide to video games, including a description of Grand Theft Auto and Halo 2. Soon after, though, the discussion turns slightly more academic and gets into virtual reality, military applications for games, and video game evaluation.

To check it out, go to the These Days website. Scroll down to Wednesday, December 8, 2004 and then click on "Hour One." The video game discussion starts about 15 minutes into the program.

Have a wiki on the sidebar

I’ve subscribed to wwwtools for education for 3 or 4 or so years now. About a year ago, they adopted a policy of asking politely for donations to support the work, but allowing subscribers who chose not to donate. That policy continues. A donation allows access to a more extensive library of past newsletters. When I have or take time to pursue the links included in the newsletters, they are often fascinating and give an amazing view of the vastness of educational resources only a hyperlink away. But wwwtools isn’t the primary reason for this note. The latest issue of wwwtools has a fascinating link to what is described as an extension for the Mozilla Firefox browser “that puts a wiki (an editable web page) into the sidebar of the Firefox browser, indexed off the url of the current page...could be described as a wiki-margin for the internet. Possible suggested uses are: See Also references; commentary and discussion; notetaking; a roaming blog.” I’ve installed the extension and there it is on my Firefox sidebar though I haven’t figured out how I’ll use it yet.
Subscribe to wwwtools.
Check out the wiki extension for Firefox.

Technology Review: Chasing Bees, Without the Hive Mind

From Technology Review: Technology Review: Chasing Bees, Without the Hive Mind
"Alternative reality gaming immerses players in a place somewhere between the real world and cyberspace. What they learn about communication is already translating into collaborate, problem-solving communities."

Interesting stuff. You'll be hearing more about ARGs in the coming years, I think.

Everybody Wins

Interesting article in the New York Times about the ascendance of games "where no one loses." The article focuses on the creators of Cranium, as an example of a highly successful independent game in which social cohesion and fun are more important than having one player defeat the others. However, the author notes that some competition is essential for a game to be interesting; there must be a delicate balance between competition and letting everyone have a moment to "shine."

This piece also touches on the importance of user testing in game design. The money quote: "there is no way to know if a game idea you have sketched on paper is going to work ... the only thing to do is endlessly play-test it, scrutinizing your players with anthropological intensity for signs of distraction or ennui."

In addition, the article mentions something for another Edgames wiki article: the card game Apples for Apples, which I hadn't heard of before. It's a word game in which there are no "correct" answers; instead, the aim of the game is to stimulate friendly, intelligent debate about vocabulary. The game has sold over a million copies in three years, and was designed by an independent designer, not a big game company. There is hope for us all!

Read the whole thing - it's well worth it.

Enlightenment for Christmas

What greater gift could one ask for than an elevated state of consciousness? In these cantankerous time, who wouldn't want a dose of transcendental bliss? Since no one has time for a stint in a Tibetan monastery while holding down a job, the marketplace has responded with The Journey to Wild Divine: "the first 'inner-active' computer adventure that combines ancient breathing and meditation with modern biofeedback technology for total mind-body awareness".

It's a combination of a game, some finger sensors, and a bit of tutoring by media darling Deepak Chopra, all for $160.

It reminds me of a day around 8 years ago when we spotted Deepak Chopra in a coffee shop in La Jolla. He was walking at a stately pace towards the men's room at just the moment that my 8 year old son announced that he had to go. Right now. And he zipped to the one-person-at-a-time bathroom just steps ahead of Deepak, who then had to stand around looking uncomfortable while Alex took his sweet time in there. No doubt Dr. Chopra was just fine, though. Having mastered his bladder chakra he was able to channel the pressure to a higher plane.

This actually sounds interesting. If you were wondering what to get me for Christmas, now you know.

Self-esteem Games

Here's a game that is harder than it looks. My score was 5.4 seconds. I don't know what that means, but I'm feeling sorta good about it.

There's an explanation, and a research paper.

Gaming Industry Hell

Isn't designing an egame fun? Well, if not, it will be in a week or two. Do you think you'd like to do it for a living? You might want to read the inside dope published here, and in the blogs she links to.

Serious Games on NPR

Serious Games is a project that explores uses for games and simulations for the managers and leaders who face challenges in the public sector. Their initiative addresses training issues in a wide variety of fields, such as education, law, the military, health, and public policy.

The Serious Games Summit was held last month in Washington, DC, and NPR was there. If you're interested, take a listen to their story, Gamers Make Serious Work of Computer Games.

uDevGames Official Website

Would you like to watch the process of game development unfold in real time? Visit the uDevGames Official Website, where voting by the public begins today. There are 32 entries this year, all for Mac, and the site links to blogs maintained by the developers themselves.

Among the entries:

• ShineBug! - Collect bubbles of moonshine to keep your buzz!
  
• Feathered Soccer - 3D arcade soccer game
  
• Okugai - Outdoors, FPS-style 3D game
  
• Nanocrisis - Zelda-esque 3d action-adventure game
  

And there are 28 more ready to download. The next Snood could be gestating somewhere on the list.

Hello Kitty Online World

Well, here's a pretty good depiction of my idea of Hell:

"Hello Kitty World will allow thousands of players to live and participate in Hello Kitty's magical and cute online world. You will be able to roam the streets of Kitty Kingdom, XO Federation, and Melody-land. Enjoy the beautiful landscape and architecture of Puroland or Badtzcity and participate in numerous puzzles, story lines, or adventures lead by the worldwide community of Hello Kitty World subscribers. You can even have a successful career, open different shops, earn and spend Sanrio Dollars in your bank, buy a house, and trade with other players around the vast game world."

Performance Strategy

There are some questions that came up at work regarding the best strategy to use to remember a performance. My department researches and writes training courses and maintenance manuals for our company. In the process of speaking with a SME, a couple of co-workers were told of a better strategy to remember what was inspected and when. My co-workers asked some of us if we would participate in the research to collect more information before we implement this new strategy into our training manuals. I am posing the question in this forum to see if any of you have had any experience or done any research yourself on the topic.

The performance in question regards inspecting machinery or equipment before putting it to use. The question is, "Is there a difference in recall when a person goes around the equipment and visually inspects versus visually inspecting and touching the equipment at the same time? Here is the scenario.

When Steve (a SME) was learning how to fly, his instructor told him to touch each gauge or part he was inspecting during pre-flight procedures. Steve's instructor told him that if he only completed his pre-flight checks visually and someone asked him 30 minutes later if he checked a gauge, his degree of certainty would decrease. Steve might start to doubt he had checked the gauge. Someone else might even be able to convince him that he had not checked it at all.

One pre-flight procedure is to inspect the wings of the plane. This inspection involved 12 different points on each wing. If you only visually inspect the wing, you are likely to gloss over the inspection and miss one or more of the 12 inspection points. Steve was instructed to touch each of the 12 inspection points as followed the written pre-flight checklist.

The lesson is that when performing a visual inspection, touching the part you are inspecting helps you focus your attention on the task. The focus combined with the tactile sense then embeds the action into your memory.

Do you agree, disagree, or have any comment to the theory that by physically performing an inspection, you are more likely to recall the event than if you just looked at the items and marked them off on your list?

Negative vs. Positive

An interesting debate come up during the development of my team's board game this past week that I wanted to post in this forum. It has to do with the new wave of thinking that involves removing all negativity and competitiveness from lessons to create this utopian environment that is supposed to encourage learning. I don't have an issue with this per se, I just think it is getting out of hand.

The idea that we came up with in my group for our board game involved creating some chance cards, much like the ones in Monopoly. We had some positive and some negative cards. The negative cards told the player to go back a couple of spaces. The positive cards gave the player an opportunity to move ahead a few spaces if he/she answered the question correctly. We felt that adding a few negative cards would stimulate the game and simulate real life.

Life is not rosy. Everything we do does not end up with a positive outcome, no matter how hard we may try. We all know this so why do we strive so much to coddle our students? Why do we insist that they get stars on their papers just for turning them in to boost their egos and their self esteem? Aren't we developing children who think that they deserve to win or deserve the "A" even when they've put in no effort? Big egos really don't seem to be lacking in this country. I hardly think we need to encourage their growth through false means.

I agree that we need to give both children and adults more encouragement as they learn. I agree that we need to not set people up to fail. I agree that we need to create a challenging learning environment where students can thrive, but I don't think that means taking out all the negativity. The world can be very harsh and very unfair. Aren't we doing our students a disservice by not making our lessons realistic? We build our self esteem by handling negative situations. Sometimes we miss the bus, or get laid off, or discover that our favorite item at the store is being discontinued. Having to go back a couple of spaces on the game board resembles these types of situations. I believe it's important to keep them in the game because the students will learn how to overcome them. They will have to develop more strategies or alter their plans. This is the kind of environment in which they can learn transferable skills.

The feedback from the class was to take out the negative chance cards and make them all positive. Well, then it isn't a chance anymore, is it?

EdGames Wiki

edwiki.org/edgames is the location of the Edgames wiki. For some reason I posted it yesterday on the Q&A forum under the title Q&A. Hope this is easier to find than that.

I enjoyed working with you on it Monday Night. Nice to see you all wiki-ing so quickly.

-Karl