Monthly Archives: July 2012
Games are for learning – games are for life – games can change the world!
Jane McGonigal – Games For Change Keynote – 6/19/2012
Enjoy!
Jane McGonigal: Games can make a better world – TED talk.
Enjoy
More efficient learning with games
Ned Smith writes about how Course Hero makes a game of learning.
“Learning can be fun when you make a game out of it. That premise underlies the decision of an online learning platform to use game mechanics to engage college students. It works by motivating students to join, participate, contribute and share their successes.
Founded in 2007, Course Hero is an online learning tools resource designed to help college students discover a more efficient and productive learning experience. Gamification technology that uses badges, leaderboards that display rankings, social sharing and rewards is integrated throughout the site’s four core offerings: Courses, an extensive series of custom-designed lessons organized into three learning paths, entrepreneurship, business, and Web programming; Flashcards, interactive learning tools on a wide array of topics; Tutors, which connects students with experts on hundreds of subjects; and Study Documents, a library of study guides, lecture notes and practice problems.
“Gamified courses are the fastest growing part of our business,
“Learning can be fun when you make a game out of it. That premise underlies the decision of an online learning platform to use game mechanics to engage college students. It works by motivating students to join, participate, contribute and share their successes.
Founded in 2007, Course Hero is an online learning tools resource designed to help college students discover a more efficient and productive learning experience. Gamification technology that uses badges, leaderboards that display rankings, social sharing and rewards is integrated throughout the site’s four core offerings: Courses, an extensive series of custom-designed lessons organized into three learning paths, entrepreneurship, business, and Web programming; Flashcards, interactive learning tools on a wide array of topics; Tutors, which connects students with experts on hundreds of subjects; and Study Documents, a library of study guides, lecture notes and practice problems.”
– Ned Smith, BusinessNewsDaily Senior Writer
Gaming their way to learning
Pressley Baird writes about fun and learning with video games.
“Students can get immediate feedback from a video game, and whether that feedback indicates success or failure, it means something.
“If you get 59 percent on a test, you have failed. You start back from square one,” LaGarde said. “In a game, if you get 59 percent, that means I got 59 percent of that level right, and I start back at 60.”
Even small-scale video games, like an online program used in Brunswick County Schools called First in Math, serves as a motivator. First in Math gives students a way to practice basic math skills, said Lauren Harabin, who teaches second grade at Bolivia Elementary School. But it lets them do that by moving up to the next level and seeing how they rank against other students.”
On the importance of failing in educational games.
Nathaniel Dziomba remembers dieing on the Oregon Trail and writes about why failing in video games is so important.
“Part of the huge potential that games have as a teaching aid lies in their ability to allow people to learn things on their own. While there are plenty of games that beat the player over the head with questions and facts, few educational titles simply present a problem and task the users with solving it themselves.
You’re not going to be told how to play The Oregon Trail, you just have to learn. What pace do you go at? How often do you rest? How frequently do you go hunting? I can almost guarantee you’ll fail many, many times before you make it to Oregon, but that’s the idea. While you’re lamenting the death of little Bobbie Jo to dysentery, you’re actually learning about the real Oregon Trail in a way that’s impossible for a textbook to replicate.”
More students and teachers learn with the game Portal
Here are more videos on students learning through the video game Portal.
Enjoy!
I found these videos at one of my favorite places – The Singularity Hub.
Games are better than textbooks
NEWCASTLE, England, July 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —
An NHS mechanical hoist is one of the first pieces of medical machinery to have its traditional training manual converted into an immersive 3D smartphone training App. The change is part of an effort to improve the performance levels of staff by creating more engaging, mobile training games instead of textbooks.
A mechanical hoist widely used throughout the NHS to help lift disabled children onto their beds is the latest piece of medical machinery to undergo a major training operation. Great Ormond Street Hospital Online Learning & Development (GOLD) commissioned award-winning serious game developer, Caspian Learning, to help with the innovative project.
GOLD’s aim was to create a more engaging type of hoist operation training that could potentially replace existing textbook training. The new project has seen Caspian Learning successfully convert the contents of a Mechanical Hoist Operation Manual into an interactive 3D computer simulation.
The simulation in its new form can be played anywhere in the world via the internet or downloaded as an app for smartphones. A free demo of the mechanical hoist safety simulation is available to download from the Google Play Marketplace.
Major benefits of the conversion include cost-saving without reduction in output, wider distribution possibilities and improved learner engagement.
Lee Rushworth, a Caspian Learning spokesperson said that “converting a textbook into an interactive, immersive 3D simulation that could be an app for an iPhone or Android device like GOLD have done here opens up so many new possibilities for us. For example, with this app, GOLD could potentially train an entire course remotely, saving an enormous amount of money on logistics in the process.”
“If this could be achieved with a mechanical safety hoist, imagine what else could benefit from this kind of ‘immersion conversion?'”
Caspian Learning developed the entire simulation in their Thinking Worlds software, which is available to download for free here.
About Caspian Learning
Caspian Learning are a multi award-winning serious games technology and design company. Formed in 2002, they are the developer of the acclaimed Thinking Worlds, whose globally unique technology allows instructional designers to create fully immersive 3D sims & games at costs previously restricted to 2D development. They are the global leader in the use of 3D games and simulations technology for performance improvement, having developed over 100 sims or games for clients all over the world including IBM, BBC, QinetiQ, Accenture, Volvo, the Ministry of Defence and the European Union among others.
Contact Details:
Lee Rushworth
Caspian Learning
Tel: +44(0)191-5561043
Email: lee.rushworth@caspianlearning.co.uk
SOURCE Caspian Learning
PR Newswire$100,000 awarded for best STEM games – Winners include students and educators
2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge Winners AnnouncementNATIONAL STEM VIDEO GAME CHALLENGE WINNERS ANNOUNCED
More Than $100,000 Awarded to Students and Educators by The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media
Washington, DC, May 22, 2012 –The winners of the National STEM Video Game Challenge (www.STEMchallenge.org) a competition to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by learning, playing and making video games, were announced today at The Atlantic’s Technologies in Education Forum in Washington, DC. Twenty-eight middle school and high school students from across the U.S. were selected as winners for their original game designs. In addition, two winners were awarded in the Collegiate category and three in the Educator category.
The youth winners were also honored at an event sponsored by Microsoft on May 21at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The Middle School and High School category winners will each receive AMD-based laptops, game design software packages and other tools to support their skill development. Each winner’s youth sponsoring organization will receive cash prizes and educational software. A total of $80,000 in prizes was awarded to the winners and their sponsoring organizations.
In the Collegiate category, Speedy MathTrain, developed by Levi Miller, Stephen Shaefer, Alex Kampf, and Stephen Zabrecky, a team from Purdue University, won the prize for the PBS KIDS stream that challenged participants to develop educational games for children ages 4-8 that focus on specific math skills. Cosmic Chain the Math Game, created by Ryan Wehnau from the College of the Redwoods received the prize for the Middle School stream of the category. Each winner is receiving $10,000 and on- going guidance from the challenge partners and sponsors for their winning game.
For the Educator category, the PBS KIDS stream prize went to Addition Blocks, created by a Martin Esterman, a teacher from Marietta, Georgia. The Middle School prize was awarded to Mark Supal, an educator from Warren, Michigan, for his game Energy
Tycoon. Kevin Scirtchfield, a teacher in Fresno, California, was named the winner of the High School prize for his game Alge-Bingo. The Educator category invited professional educators to design games for youth (grades pre-K through 12) that teach key STEM concepts and/or foster an interest in STEM subject areas. The winners of the Educator category are each receiving $10,000 and guidance in the ongoing development of their games.
“Well-designed video games can help students excel in STEM and have fun doing it,” said Tom Kalil, Deputy Director for Policy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “I want to thank the sponsors of the National STEM Video Game Challenge, and congratulate the students and teachers for the remarkable games they have developed.”
A video featuring a look at the youth competition over the last two years is available at http://youtu.be/3m9nMSJGpDQ . Game highlights for each of the youth, collegiate, and educator winners can be found at http://bitly.com/youth_stem12 and http://bitly.com/adults_stem12 .
The National STEM Video Game Challenge is organized by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media in partnership with sponsors the Entertainment Software Association, AMD Foundation, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/ PBS KIDS Ready To Learn Initiative.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop (www.cooneycenter.org) is an independent, non-profit research center that is fostering innovation in children’s learning through digital media. The Cooney Center conducts and supports research, creates educational models and interactive media properties and builds cross-sector partnerships. The Cooney Center is named for Sesame Workshop’s founder, who revolutionized television with the creation of Sesame Street. Core funding is provided by the generous support of Peter G. Peterson, Genius Products, Mattel, Inc. and Sesame Workshop.
E-Line Media is a publisher of game-based learning products and services that engage educate and empower, helping to prepare youth for lives and careers in the 21st Century. E-Line works with leading foundations, academics, non-profits and government agencies to harness the power of games for learning, health, and social impact. Find out more at http://www.elinemedia.com.
2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge Youth Prize – Key Points and Winner Information
About the Challenge
The National STEM Video Game Challenge aims to engage middle school students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), 21st Century Literacy Skills and Systems Thinking by challenging them to design original video games. Designing a video game involves systems thinking, problem solving, iterative design, creativity, collaboration, communication and computational thinking: all critical skills for pursuing successful 21st Century STEM careers.
Second year of the Challenge and Youth Prize
Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign and announced by President Obama at the White
House.
First year of the Challenge was open to Middle
School students In year one, there were 12 national youth winners. One third of the winners were girls and 40% came from Title I schools. Two youth winners invited to participate in the White House Science Fair.
This year, the Youth Prize expanded to include both Middle and High School students and more prize streams for teams and individuals including the PBS KIDS Ready to Learn Prizes that challenged kids to make original early learning games.
Students could create a written game design document or a playable game using creation tools like Gamestar Mechanic, Scratch, Kodu and Gamemaker.
Student winners receive a laptop, educational software and game design tools.
Student winners also earn a grant of $2,000 for their school or a non-‐profit organization of their choice.
Sponsors: AMD Foundation, Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Microsoft and CPB/PBS KIDS Ready to Learn.
Implementing Partners: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-‐Line Media.
Founding Outreach Partners: American Library
Association (ALA), American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Boys & Girls Clubs of America, BrainPOP and the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
New Outreach Partners: Girl Scouts of the USA, One Economy and Edutopia
• CPB/PBS generously sponsored a series of workshops through PBS’ affiliates around the country, reaching thousands of youth with hands-‐ on game design programs
• Over 3,700 original youth game designs submitted this year – 7X increase over the 500 from last year.
• 28 individual student winners representing 11 different states and the District of Columbia.
Seventeen games created by individuals and teams of students, in eight subcategories, were selected as winners of the Middle School and High School categories from a group of more than 3700 entries. The winners are:
Middle School (grades 5-8)
Category/Platform
Playable Game – Teams
CPB/PBS KIDS Ready to Learn Initiative
Scratch &
Playable Game Incorporating STEM Themes
Kodu
CPB/PBS KIDS Ready to Learn Initiative
Written Game Design
Gamemaker
Written Game Design Incorporating STEM Themes
Name
Campbell Kriess Connor Schexnaildre Justin Bicehouse Drew McCarron
Chloe Mario Madeleine Lapuerta Emma Froehlich
Cooper Kelley
Gustavo Zacarias
Julia Weingaertner Sarah Lippman
Kirk Lindsay
Kristian Windsor
Sam Blazes
Title
Archers vs. Aliens
Math Racing Mania
Mechanical Dragon
TheDarkLabyrinth
Animal Inequalities
Dr. Phy in the Six Kingdoms of Life
Team Block
Battle of the Bugs: Genes Rule
City, State
Cranberry Twp, PA Evans City, PA Evans City, PA Cranerry Twp, PA
Princeton, NJ Skillman, NJ Skillman, NJ
Cambridge, MA
San Antonio, TX
Princeton Junction, NJ
Pennington, NJ
Carrollton, VA
San Martin, CA
Bethesda, MD
Gamestar Mechanic Shashank Mahesh
High School (grades 9-12)
Mission 17639: Planetcorp
Title
Earth 2112
ViViD ABYSS
New World
Electrobob
Bottle Quest
Tales of Encephalia
Pathogen Wars
Darwin’s Finches
Gibsonton, FL
City, State
Sioux City, IA
Riverview, FL
Vancouver, WA
Washington, DC
Saugerties, NY
Redwood City, CA
Santa Monica, CA
Waterford, VA
Category/Platform
Gamestar Mechanic
Scratch
Gamemaker
Playable Game – Teams
Playable Game – Teams
Written Game Design & Written Game Design Incorporating STEM Themes
Playable Game Incorporating STEM Themes
Open Platform
Name
Carter Gerritson
Daniel Gasiorek
Eli Aldinger
Golden Rockefeller Wilfried Hounyo Endre Osborne
Ian Tomasch Alec Tomasch Jake Swarthout Thomas Crowley
Michael Feng
Owen Leddy
Steven Stulga
Middle School Winners
Kristian Windsor
San Martin, CA
Kristian, a home-‐schooled student who lives on a small farm in California, combined elements of platformers and puzzlers to create his Team Block, which won the Gamemaker category. An avid Minecraft player, Kristian is currently teaching himself to program in Java.
Shashank Mahesh
Gibsonton, FL
Shashank’s Mission 17639: Planetcorp challenges the player to explore the Solar System with levels inspired by the real characteristics of the planets. His game won both the Gamestar Mechanic category and the Playable Game Incorporating STEM Themes category.
Gustavo Zacarias
San Antonio, TX
In Gustavo’s The Dark Labyrinth, players must navigate through a maze while avoiding obstacles and solving multiplication problems. Gustavo, who has been playing games since he was four and aspires to be professional game designer, was the winner of Kodu category.
Cooper Kelley
Cambridge, MA
Cooper started his career as a game designer by making physical games using his LEGO blocks. He’s transitioned to digital game design, and his Mechanical Dragon was the winner of the Scratch category thanks in part to great playtesting feedback from his teacher and family.
Sam Blazes
Bethesda, MD
Battle of the Bugs: Genes Rule! explores themes of genetics, natural selection and the effects of invasive species on ecosystems. Sam’s design won him the prize for Written Game Design Incorporating STEM Themes. Sam enjoys judo, lacrosse and chess and is considering a career as a computer programmer, engineer or theoretical physicist.
Kirk Lindsay
Carrollton, VA
Kirk is an avid kayaker and a huge fan of open world and sandbox games and learned of the STEM Challenge through a workshop supported by PBS Station WHRO. His design, Dr. Phy in the Six Kingdoms of Life, won the Written Game Design category and blends levels of different styles and genres as the player goes on a quest to recover vital information about Earth’s lost life forms.
Campbell Kriess, Connor Schexnaildre, Justin Bicehouse, Drew McCarron
Cranberry Township, PA
Archers vs. Aliens by this team from Western Pennsylvania tests the player’s math skills as they help defend their castle against an alien attack. Campbell, Connor, Justin and Drew learned about the STEM Challenge by participating in the Mini Global Game Jam at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in partnership with PBS station WQED. They are the winners of the Playable Game – Teams category.
High School Winners
Eli Aldinger
Vancouver, WA
In designing New World, Eli challenged himself to combine elements of his two favorite game genres: platformers and RPGs. His efforts earned him top honors in the Gamemaker category, which should serve him well as he prepares for a future career in the game industry.
Carter Gerritson
Sioux City, IA
Players of Carter’s Earth 2112 follow a riveting storyline as they investigate the disappearance of the human race in a post-‐apocalyptic future. Carter’s efforts won him the prize in the Gamestar Mechanic category.
Steven Stulga
Waterford, VA
Darwin’s Finches takes players to the Galapagos Islands where they learn about natural selection by playing as bird species with different adaptations for their environment. Steven’s work won the prize in the Open Platform category.
Daniel Gasiorek
Riverview, FL
A user of the Scratch creation platform since its first release, Daniel’s design won that competition category. Designed to reinforce math skills for young learners, Vivid Abyss demonstrates a combination of storytelling, art and programming skill that will serve him well in his plans to be an entrepreneur running his own game studio.
Owen Leddy
Santa Monica, CA
Owen combined his interests in game design and microbiology in Pathogen Wars, a 3D game that takes the player on a voyage through the human body and immune system. Owen had already been hard at work on Pathogen Wars, which won the Playable Game Incorporating STEM Themes category, when he learned about the STEM Challenge from his school librarian.
Michael Feng
Redwood City, CA
Michael’s design for Tales of Encephalia incorporates an original storyline in which the player investigates mysterious phenomenon and learns scientific concepts in the process. Michael decided to submit his ambitious design as a written entry and won the Written Game Design and Written Game Design Incorporating STEM Themes categories, but he still plans on making a playable version of his written design in the future.
Golden Rockefeller, Wilfried Hounyo, Endre Osborne
Washington, DC
These three young men from McKinley Technology High School set out to design an educational game. Inspired by their work in physics, chemistry and robotics, they developed Electrobob, which teaches players about the fundamental nature of electrons. In the process, the achieved co-‐winner honors in the Playable Game – Teams category.
Ian Tomasch, Alec Tomasch, Jake Swarthout, Thomas Crowley
Saugerties, NY
Bottle Quest, an educational platformer about recycling, earned this team from Ulster County, NY co-‐winner honors in the Playable Game – Teams category. The diverse interests of the team members – ranging from game design to filmmaking to writing – are evident in the wit and polish of their game design.
PBS KIDS Ready to Learn Prize
Winners
Math Racing Mania
Chloe Mario, Madeleine Lapuerta, Emma Froehlich Princeton, NJ
Animal Inequalities
Sarah Lippman, Julia Weingaertner Princeton, NJ
Based on the quality of these outstanding designs, PBS elected to award two prizes for outstanding early learning games at the Middle School level. Though the judges didn’t know it at the time, both submissions came from all-‐girl teams hailing from the Computer Programming classroom of educator Alicia Testa at the Stuart School in Princeton, NJ.
You can also visit http://www.stemchallenge.org for information, resources and video of the winners.
Collegiate & Educator
Prizes – Competition and Winner Information
The Collegiate Winners
PBS KIDS Prize
Levi Miller, Stephen Shaefer, Alex Kampf, Stephen Zabrecky
Purdue University
Speedy Math Train was created to inspire students in pre-‐K-‐4 grades to help them learn and practice basic arithmetic. This interactive app makes memorizing multiplication and division tables an animated game. This team from Purdue University used math famework created by PBS KIDS’ Ready to Learn Initiative when develpoing the curriculum for this game.
Middle School Prize
Ryan Wehnau
College of the Redwoods
Cosmic Chain the Math Game is an aesthetic math-‐ puzzler, designed to strengthen the player’s mathematical intelligence, skills, and confidence. Players link values together to build chains and crunch numbers.
The Educator Winners
PBS KIDS Prize
Martin Esterman
Marietta Middle School
AdditionBlocks is a simple, fun, and challenging digital-‐learning game that reinforces basic addition skills to improve recall speed and accuracy.
Middle School Prize
Mark Supal
Warren Consolidated School District
Energy Tycoon incorporates scientific and engineering practices from the physical, earth/space and engineering fields. The game challenges players to create energy with renewable technologies in an efficient and cost effective manner in order to power homes and create a sustainable community.
High School Prize
Kevin Scritchfield
Sierra High School, Sierra Unified School District Alge-‐Bingo is targeted specifically at developing a student’s algebra equation-‐solving skills, using the concept of the game Bingo.
About the Collegiate & Educator
Prizes
The Video Game Challenge invites emerging and experienced game developers to design STEM-‐based video games for young children (grades pre-‐K through 12) that teach key STEM concepts and foster an interest in STEM subject areas
First year of the Educator Prize, open to
Open to US residents over the age of 18.
Two categories with a total of $50,000 awarded
over 5 prize streams:
Sponsored by the AMD Foundation, the
Entertainment Software Association (ESA), Microsoft Xbox360, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting PBS KIDS Ready to Learn.
In partnership with The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-‐Line Media.
Outreach partners included the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Boys & Girls Clubs of America, BrainPOP, Edutopia, Girl Scouts of the USA, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), and One Economy.
Press Information
For more information visit http://www.STEMChallenge.org or to arrange interviews with the Collegiate and Educator Prize Winners, please contact:
Jodi Lefkowitz
Jodi.Lefkowitz@sesame.org
212-‐875-‐6497
Professionals with an active pre-‐K-‐12 teaching certification or professionals currently teaching or engaging children through a youth-‐serving
non-‐profit.
Youth compilation video
Youth Winners: Middle School
Team Block
Kristian Windsor
San Martin, CA
Mission 17639: Planetcorp
Shashank Mahesh
Gibsonton, FL
TheDarkLabyrinth
Gustavo Zacarias
San Antonio, TX
Mechanical Dragon
Cooper Kelley
Cambridge, MA
Archers vs. Aliens
Campbell Kriess
Connor Schexnaildre
Justin Bicehouse
Drew McCarron
Cranberry Twp/Evans City, PA
Math Racing Mania
Chloe Mario Madeleine Lapuerta Emma Froehlich Princeton/Skillman, NJ
Animal Inequalities
2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge Winners: Video Links
Julia Weingartner
Sarah Lippman
Princeton Junction/Pennington, NJ
Youth Winners: High School
New World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7eoTn_WD3E Eli Aldinger
Vancouver, WA
Earth 2112
Carter Gerritson
Sioux City, IA
Darwin’s Finches
Steven Stulga
Waterford, VA
ViViD ABYSS
Daniel Gasiorek
Riverview, FL
Pathogen Wars
Owen Leddy
Santa Monica, CA
Electrobob
Golden Rockefeller Wilfried Hounyo Endre Osborne Washington, DC
Bottle Quest
Ian Tomasch Alec Tomasch Jake Swarthout Thomas Crowley Saugerties, NY
Adult Winners: Collegiate
Speedy Math Train
Levi Miller Stephen Shaefer Alex Kampf Stephen Zabrecky Purdue University
Cosmic Chain the Math Game
Ryan Wehnau
College of the Redwoods
Adult Winners: Educator
Addition Blocks
Martin Esterman
Marietta, GA
Energy Tycoon
Mark Supal
Warren, MI
Alge-‐Bingo
Kevin Scirtchfield
Fresno, CA
Gates Foundation sponsors game-based learning
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/game-based-learning-1478744.html
“Game-based learning is one of the priorities of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a nonprofit founded by the Microsoft creator. . . .Two years ago, the nonprofit brought together 20 of the country’s best assessment designers with 20 of the world’s best game designers to discuss creating games that engage kids more deeply, said Vicki Phillips, director of the college ready strategy for the Gates Foundation. Now the foundation is working with the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington on a free, online game called Refraction. As students play, their progress is visible to the teacher on his or her computer, allowing the educator to see instantly what concepts students understand.” – Jamie Sarrio
Games promote higher order thinking skills (Don’t tell the Texas GOP)
Konstantin Mitgutsch, MIT, co-editor and co-author of Exploring the Edges of Gaming (2010), defends the idea that games promote higher order thinking. His presentation was recorded at the JogNog Games for Learning Conference on June 28, 2011. This is a clear, insightful, and research based presentation with several good examples of students learning higher order thinking skills while playing digital games. Enjoy!
In other news, The Republican Party in the state of Texas declared their opposition to teaching Higher order thinking skills in public schools. Here is what they had to say in their 2012 platform:
“Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.” (page 12 of The 2012 Republican party platform for the State of Texas).
Let’s hope that the Republicans of Texas do not discover the link between higher order thinking skills and digital games – least they attempt to banish games as well.
Gaming and Education 