Teaching Teachers About Serious Games

1. Teaching Teachers About Serious Games Katrin Becker

2. Overview • What is DGBL? • Course Structure • What they learned. • What I learned. • The Projects.

3. My Background • 23 yrs higher ed (teaching - tech) • 18 years hatching program (teacher support) • PhD candidate • 3 kids Tomb Raider

4. What are new pressures on teacher education? • More choices than ever before for learners. • Adaptability. • Ideal vs. reality. • Our teachers were not that different from us – this is no longer true. Spore

5. What should teacher education look like? • “Technology” is a given, not an option. [more demanding than books] • Allow time for practice.  "Appropriate practice is the single most neglected aspect of effective instruction." (Merrill) – applies to teachers as much as students.

6. What kind of teacher should faculties of education be striving to nurture? • Life-long learners. • Tech-savvy vs. tech-phobic (appropriate technology) • Culturally aware (incl. pop-culture)

7. What is DGBL? • Digital Game Based Learning • Serious Games • The use of game technology to enhance/ support/ augment (and yes, sometimes provide) education and learning. • COTS & Custom Games & Sims • Some examples….. Syberia

8. Virtual U

9. Virtual Leader

10. Food Force

12. Replicate

13. Civilization

14. Nation States

15. Hundreds of years in the future, mankind and dolphins live peacefully together and share the earth. Dolphins, who are much more intelligent than they seem, act as the earth's caretakers, while dolphins and humans explore the galaxy. An alien force, known as the Foe, seeks to end this happy existence. The Foe damages the Earth's defense system, and alters history for the worse. One extraordinary dolphin, Ecco, must travel through time to set things right.Ecco is a 3d underwater adventure game (a “dolphin simulator”). There are more than 25 aquatic environments to explore. Ecco must communicate with other ocean creatures and learn to manipulate his environment if he is to succeed in defeating the Foe. http://www.mobygames.com/game/ps2/ecco-the-dolphin-defender-of-the-future

17. Course Structure • Seminar, readings, discussion, examples, projects • Themes: • The Current State of Games and Gamers; • Current state in Media Studies and Games Theory (including a discussion of violence in games); • Is Learning Fun? (Games and Pedagogy); • What Can Games Do? • How important are fidelity and validity? • Instructional Design for Games; • Making Games, and Resources for making games; • Assessing Games for Learning.

18. What they learned Don’t need to be a gamer. Games are technology. Media is not neutral. Media backlash is not new. Game-based learning is here. Game savvy is cachet.

19. What I learned. • Interest is high. • Teachers are willing. • Resources are scarce (equipment & information). • Technology integration still lags.

20. The Projects. • MunchLand • How to Get To Carnegie Hall • FIFA Soccer • Civ III • Food Force

21. unch and What is MunchLand? It is a fun way for elementary aged kids to learn about nutrition and exercise. In MunchLand Russ, Pat, and Bobby search through a house looking for food, but not just any food. They need to find the food that will fulfill the recommended food requirements in the Canada Food Guidelines.

22. How to Get To Carnegie Hall • You may choose your own adventure, as you make decisions which affect your career as a musician. • Your goal is to appear at Carnegie Hall.

23. FIFA Soccer for ESL

24. Civilization

25. Food Force

26. Questions? Note on images: Images used come from official game sites and user fan sites. The game is named on each slide. Images taken from game review sites (like ign.com, gamespot.com, etc. have the site logos left intact to identify the image source).