Transcript Document 7236417

Speak Up 2007 for Students, Teachers,
Parents & School Leaders
Selected National Findings - April 8,
2008
Participation Overview: Surveys submitted from schools in all 50
states, American DOD schools, Canada, Mexico and
Australia. Top participating states in 2007: TX, CA, AZ, IL, AL,
MD, NC, PA, FL, MI
319,223 K-12 students - 25,544 teachers 19726 parents - 3,263 school leaders
3,729 schools and 867 districts
About the 2007 Speak Up schools:
o 97% public schools – 3% private schools
o 32% Urban – 40% Suburban – 29% Rural
o 43% Title I eligible; 29% majority – minority student population
A growing body of research has
begun to reveal that video games
and computer games have
tremendous educational value.
Dr. Jim Gee’s book, What
Video Games Have to Teach
Us About Learning and
Literacy
James Paul Gee is the Tashia
Morgridge Professor of Reading at
the University of WisconsinMadison. He received his PhD in
linguistics in 1975 from Stanford
University and has published widely
in linguistics and education.
18 of 36 principles
Gaming, Cognition, and
Education
1.Video games are set up to
encourage active, not
passive, learning
All video games require participants to be actively
involved in their own learning. Gamers, particularly
those in role-playing games, rarely sit passively and
receive information. Instead they must actively
explore, hypothesize, experiment, reflect upon,
critique, move about, interact, etc. As children
navigate complex gaming spaces, they learn to
think of these gaming environments as spaces that
both manipulate them and can be manipulated by
them.
Gaming, Cognition, and Education
2. In video games, ‘learners can take
risks where real-world consequences
are lowered’
Video games provide places where participants
can safely take risks. When a gamer fails, at
worst she ‘loses a life’ or has to start over, often
not at the beginning but in a slightly reduced
state that allows her to retain nearly all of the
skills, knowledge, power, capabilities, progress,
etc. that she has gained thus far. This gaming
principle entices children to try, even if they
(rightly) believe that they will fail at first.
Gaming, Cognition, and Education
3. Gaming environments are compelling
to participants
The proof that gaming environments are
compelling to those playing them lies in the fact
that gamers are willing to play a game repeatedly
and often. Gamers put in a lot of effort as they try
different ways of doing things, try to get further
than they did before, explore new variations in
areas where they already have been successful,
etc. Gamers are mentally engaged - often quite
deeply - with the learning environment as they try,
fail, try again, fail again, try yet again, fail yet
again, and so on.
Gaming, Cognition, and Education
4. Video games give a lot of output for
just a little input
One of the key characteristics of video games is that they
operate according to what Gee calls the amplification of
input principle. In a video game, you can push a few
buttons here and there, or type a few words with your
keyboard, and an entire immersive environment springs
forth to engage you.
Amplification of input is a powerfully motivating feature of
video games because learners can put in just a little and
still get a lot back out. This encourages them to put in a
little more to see what else they might get.
5. In video games, learners get rewards from
the very beginning
Another significant feature of video games is that participants
get rewards from the very beginning. These rewards, both
intrinsic and extrinsic, send messages of success to learners
and encourage them to continue to play to gain additional
rewards.
Extrinsic rewards might include new character lives, greater
wealth, more points or coins, etc.
Examples of intrinsic rewards include satisfaction with
character progress or growth, expanded interconnection with
other characters, greater understanding and knowledge, and
so on.
Importantly, these rewards are individually customized to each
learner as he or she progresses further through the gaming
environment.
Gaming, Cognition, and Education
6. Gamers get lots of non-boring practice
As Gee notes, people “need to practice what they are learning a
good deal before they master it” (p. 68). Moreover, if they don’t
continue to practice, they lose much of their previously-acquired
skill and knowledge (e.g., how much do you remember about
sine, cosine, and tangent?).
Because they provide opportunities, for active, interactive
learning, video games do an excellent job of allowing learners to
practice skills and mentally ingrain existing knowledge in ways
that are engaging, not boring.
One of the keys to this is the fact that video games embed
learning within meaningful contexts rather than being
decontextualized like “drill and kill” worksheets or homework
problem sets. Video games also facilitate learners’ acquisition of
self-selected goals rather than goals that are externally imposed
by others.
Gaming, Cognition, and Education
7. Video game participants are constantly learning,
unlearning, and relearning
In most video games, particularly role-playing games, participants must
continually unpack prior learning and undo previously-routinized behaviors
in order to learn new skills that allow them to progress and be successful.
In other words, participants cannot function on 'autopilot' for long before
the video game requires them to do something different to reach a new
and higher level.
As Gee notes
Several educators have argued that this cycle of automatization of skills
through practice, rethinking this automatization when faced with new
conditions in order to learn new skills and transform old ones, and then
perfecting these new skills through further practice that once again leads
to automatization is the very foundation of intelligent practice in the world.
. . . A cycle of automatization, adaptation, new learning, and new
automatization is a sine qua non of learning for those who want to survive
as active thinkers and actors in a fast changing world. (pp. 69-70)
8. Video games continually and appropriately
challenge learners
Video games are structured so that learners constantly operate at
the outer edge of their competence. Participants are continually
challenged but the challenges are not so difficult that learners
believe they are undoable. Gee refers to this as the regime of
competence principle.
Lev Vygotsky, a famous developmental psychologist, called this
concept the zone of proximal development - the area in which
students are ready to grow. Video games are similar to teachers in
that they take the role of what Vygotsky called the 'more
knowledgeable other,' the entity that helps students bridge the gap
between their current ability and new capabilities.
In education, we often call this scaffolding - the idea that learners
can progress to new skill levels with structured, individualized, justin-time assistance. Video games are very adept at scaffolding
participants' learning. One of the reasons that video games are so
compelling / engaging / 'addictive' is that participants are continually
faced with new challenges that are neither too easy nor too difficult.
This motivates them to move forward because the next step is
always in sight and is perceived as being achievable.
9. Video games foster active, reflective
investigation
Gee points out that most good video games require learners to
probe the virtual world by exploring, looking around, moving items,
clicking on something, etc.; form a hypothesis about what something in
the game might mean based on reflection while probing and afterward;
reprobe the world with that hypothesis in mind to see what effect
occurs; and treat this effect as feedback from the world and accept or
rethink the original hypothesis. (p. 90)
These four stages reflect how expert scientists approach their tasks
and embody the process by which children and adults learn when
they're not in school. In other words, this probe-hypothesis-reproberethink process is "central to how humans learn things" (p. 91).
This model of learning is underutilized in schools, however, as curricula
and other pressures often result in a focus on memorization of facts
rather than on teaching students how to discover, decode, and test
patterns of thinking and meaning. The latter, of course, is an essential
skill for individuals living in an everchanging global society.
10. Video games allow learners to follow
their own paths
There is more than one path to success in most
role-playing video games. The path that some
players follow, or the choices that they make, can
be different than the paths and choices of others
and yet still lead to the next level.
Those paths may take longer, or some choices may
be better, but eventually each player gets to the
next stage. By playing and replaying levels
repeatedly in ways that are not boring, players can
revise and refine their paths to success.
Video games allow for individualized learning
toward common outcomes.
11. Gamers make meaning within
embodied experiences
Because video games have the capacity to create complex,
experiential simulations, participants’ learning is situated
within learning environments that are fairly authentic, at
least within the paradigm of the game framework. In other
words, learning is not decontextualized, like a multiple
choice item or writing prompt might be, but instead is rooted
within the ongoing development of the skills, knowledge,
and behaviors necessary to be successful in the game
environment.
For example, instead of reading about a blacksmith or
watching a video about a blacksmith, gamers learn by
actually being blacksmiths. Participants’ understanding is
thus deeper because it is embodied within simulated (and
often very real) experiences.
12. Learning in video games is
multimodal
Most educators know about the theories of multiple intelligences and
learning styles. The basic idea is that students learn differently and
have different strengths.
Teachers thus should try to facilitate multiple paths to learning and
attempt to create different ways for students to show their mastery of
content material. Most video games seamlessly integrate three of
our five senses: sight, sound, and touch - participants also may
experience different smells while gaming.
Because they can simultaneously utilize images, text, sound,
interactions, abstract design, and so on (Gee, 2003, p. 210), video
games are better able to simulate real-life experiences than can
printed text, audio, or video.
This makes learning more authentic, more engaging, and more
compelling.
13. Video games can create subsets of a domain
One of the most powerful features of video games is their ability to
simulate worlds: past, present, or future; real or fictional. The multimodal
capabilities of video games allow participants to be immersed in rich,
deep learning contexts.
For example, instead of reading about the Civil War, learners can take
the role of soldier, general, medic, battlefield photographer, news
correspondent, and the like.
At the same time, however, dropping a new learner into a complex world
can be disorienting and discouraging. Video games can create a
simplified subset of the real domain, a starting place where participants
can safely become oriented to the new world before being exposed to the
entire learning environment. The value of this cannot be understated.
Imagine if you were an English-speaking American who was about to be
dropped into the middle of South Korea. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a
chance for some safe and structured, but authentic, practice first? Gee
(2003) sums this up nicely:
Learning is not started in a separate place (e.g., a classroom or textbook)
outside the domain in which the learning is going to operate. At the same
time, the learner is not thrown into the “real” thing - the full game - and
left to swim or drown. (p. 122)
14. Video games effectively facilitate “bottom up”
learning of basic skills
In early stages of video games, learners are exposed to critical
fundamental skills that allow them to gradually engage in more
complex actions.
As Gee (2003) notes,
early situations and problems [are designed] in a quite sophisticated
way to lead to fruitful learning. When later the player is confronted
by harder situations and problems, he or she has just the right basis
on which to make fruitful guesses about what to do. (p. 135)
These basic skills are learned in a “bottom up” fashion - by playing
the game, not through decontextualized exercises. Indeed, the
structured learning environments of video games typically are
designed so effectively that
by the time new players are aware of what are basic skills . . . the
basic elements that are used repeatedly and combined and often
concentrated in the earlier episodes . . . they have already mastered
them. (Gee, 2003, p. 136)
15. Video games facilitate “just in time” learning
The artificial intelligences that reside in video games can be
structured to respond in different ways to participant activity.
Computer-mediated learning environments thus can be designed
to provide information “just in time” or on demand. There is a
great deal power associated with just-in-time learning or resource
acquisition.
For example, in manufacturing and industry, the concept of just-intime manufacturing allows companies to reduce inventory and cut
costs, making them more efficient and effective. Similarly, just-intime learning environments allow participants to acquire skills or
knowledge when they need them and not before.
This facilitates greater concentration in earlier stages on things
that are important (rather than extraneous or unneeded); allows
for greater individualization and customization; makes learning
more fluid; and leads to more active, engaged, motivated
learners.
16. Gamers are discovery learners
Virtually every role-playing game requires participants to
actively investigate the learning environment. As noted
previously, this active learning aspect replicates real-life
learning contexts and deepens overall knowledge and
proficiency.
Unlike many K-12 classrooms, video games rarely tell
learners anything overtly. If games do, it’s usually planful
and related to something small. All of the big discoveries
- the conceptual breakthroughs - are left for the learner to
discover in a structured, scaffolded way.
Educators have long recognized the value of guided,
inquiry-based learning methods, particularly for problemsolving, even if they have rarely implemented such
methods on a large scale.
17. Gamers have many opportunities for
learning transfer
One of the key outcomes that educators try to achieve with
students is the transfer of learning from one context to another. In
rapidly-changing societies such as ours, the ability to transfer
and/or adapt existing knowledge and skills to new situations is an
essential requirement for life success.
Video games give participants many opportunities to practice
already-acquired skills and to transfer their learning to new and
different challenges. To succeed in video games, learners must
not only exhibit near transfer (i.e., replication of prior learning to
new, fairly similar, situations) but also far transfer (i.e., adaptation
and modification of prior learning to substantively different
contexts).
18. Gamers are producers and insiders, not just
consumers
Like other modern technology tools (e.g., digital cameras and
camcorders, podcasts, blogs, wikis), many video games allow
learners to be producers of original content, not just consumers
of pre-packaged material.
Some of the most popular role-playing games (e.g., Second Life,
EverQuest) have very sophisticated economies built upon usercreated content. These video games have tools that allow for
rich, individualized customization of the learning environment by
participants. This stands in sharp contrast to the “one size fits
all” instructional model that we see in many schools and
classrooms, where teachers and textbooks are the insiders and
“the learners are outsiders who must take what they are given as
mere consumers” (Gee, 2003, p. 194)
Control of the learning path, and perhaps the learning
environment itself, can be powerfully motivating and engaging
for learners.
Questions of the day
Are our K-12 classrooms set up . . . to encourage
active rather than passive learning? to be places
where students can safely take risks? to be mentallyengaging and -compelling learning environments
where students will try repeatedly despite possible
and/or actual failure?
Are our K-12 classrooms set up . . . to give students
a lot of output for just a little input? to provide, from the
very beginning, both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for
learning? to allow students opportunities for non-boring
practice within meaningful contexts and on selfselected learning goals?
Questions of the Day
Are our K-12 classrooms set up . . . to allow
students to continually learn, unlearn, and
relearn at higher levels? to have students work at
their own pace and individualized levels of
challenge? to foster active, reflective
investigation?
Are our K-12 classrooms set up . . . to allow
students to travel their individualized and unique
learning paths? to create embodied, authentic
learning experiences that are not
decontextualized or overgeneralized? to facilitate
multimodal learning as the dominant pedagogical
model?
Questions of the Day
Are our K-12 classrooms set up . . . to create
safe but authentic subsets of real learning
domains? to help students invisibly learn
important skills from the “bottom up?” to allow
students to gain information only when they
need it (i.e., when it can best be understood
and put into practice)?
Are our K-12 classrooms set up . . . to
facilitate discovery learning? to facilitate
learning transfer, both near and far? to allow
students to be producers and insiders, not just
consumers?
Let’s Explore
http://21stcenturylearning.typepad.com
World of Warcraft enables
thousands of players to come
together online and battle
against the world and each
other.
Players come from across the
globe and leave the world
behind and undertake grand
quests and heroic exploits in a
land of fantastic adventure.
World of Warcraft
Tens of millions of people are
honing their leadership skills in
multiplayer online games. The
tools and techniques they’re using
will change how leaders function
tomorrow—and could make them
more effective today.
Harvard Business Review
WoW Stats
10 million players
$15 per mo
22 hours per week
Avg age 27
85% Men
Organization Strategies Used in WoW
• IDing and
• Recruiting
capitalizing on
organizational
• Assessing
advantage
• Motivating
• Analyzing multiple
streams of data to
• Rewarding
make quick
• Retaining talented decisions that have
and culturally
wide-ranging and
diverse team
sometimes long
members
lasting effects
Demo of WoW- Noah Beach