1 / 16

Blackwood Simulation: Balancing Pedagogy with Play

Experience educational role-playing games where learning-by-doing is key. Solve problems, apply scientific methods, and develop mature thinking in a spatially-oriented virtual world set in the Old West. Engage in practical planning, decision-making, and strategic gameplay. Harness the power of games to illustrate real-world content and promote learning principles. Collaborate with other users, interact with virtual artifacts, and engage in multi-user simulations. Immerse yourself in the immersive, goal-driven, and interactive environment of Blackwood. Dive into a unique retailing simulation that teaches microeconomic principles through managing a store within a simulated economy.

shakti
Download Presentation

Blackwood Simulation: Balancing Pedagogy with Play

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Rushing Headlong into the Past: the Blackwood Simulation Brian M. Slator, NDSU Computer Science and the members of CSCI345

  2. Educational Role-playing Games“Learning-by-doing” Experiences • MultiUser • Exploration • Spatially-oriented virtual worlds • Practical planning and decision making

  3. Educational Role-playing Games“Learning-by-doing” Experiences • Problem solving • Scientific method • Real-world content • Mature thinking

  4. Balancing Pedagogy with Play Games have the capacity to engage! • Powerful mechanisms for instruction • Illustrate real-world content and structure • Promote strategic maturity (“learning not the law, but learning to think like a lawyer”)

  5. Teaching Principles • Game-like • Spatially oriented • Goal-orientated • Immersive • Role-based • Exploratory • Interactive • Multi-user • Learn-by-doing

  6. Advantages of Virtual Worlds • Collapse virtual time and distance • Allow physical or practical impossibilities • Participate from anywhere • Interact with other users, virtual artifacts, and software agents • Multi-user collaborations and competitive play

  7. Blackwood: Background • Retailing Simulation • Set in the “Old West” (1880-1886) • Mythical Town, with “authentic timeline” • Players “inherit” a store (and a role) • Managing the “store” within the simulated economy teaches microeconomic principles

  8. Agent-based Simulation • Economy and “society” simulated agents: • Atmosphere Agents: lend “color” to the environment (buffalo hunters, fur trappers) • Infrastructure Agents: Customers, Merchants, Employees, Bankers, Teamsters • Newspaper frames historical events • Economic Trends modeled by population(s)

  9. Agent-based Simulation • Player roles (and Merchant types): Blacksmiths, Cartwrights, Wheelwrights, Tailors, Leather Makers, +3 more • Customer Agents are from 30+ consumer groups, and also “mark time”. • Employee agents do the actual “work”, while players manage

  10. Technical Approach • Networked, internet based, client-server simulation • UNIX-based MOO (Multi-User Dungeon, Object Oriented) • Java-based clients (text version - telnet based; graphical versions)

  11. Project Planning • Design the town and create its history • Design the Geography • Decide on Merchant types, Product types • Create implementation plan • Organize into groups • Pick leadership • Arrange training

  12. Retailing in the Old West

  13. 1869 Town of Blackwood established. • 1880 Spring: begin historical simulation. • 1881 Fall: Railroad Arrives. • 1882 Silver is discovered in the hills. • 1885 Nov-Dec: the Great White Ruin begins. • 1886 Spring: Flood, Blackwood simulation ends.

  14. Group Efforts • HTML Team • Graphics Team • Java Team • Server Team • Scribes • Group Leaders • Resumes and Elections

  15. Work in Progress

  16. To visit WWWIC Projects: www.ndsu.edu/wwwic Choose the project you want to view from the list at the left

More Related