Violence and Computer games: a response

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Saturday, February 11, 2006 Permalink

I am never want to start any sort of flame war, or create controversy. However, when I encountered this utterly myopic and ignorant piece on the role of games and violence (with references to learning), I thought a reply was in order.

I’m sure the authors are good folks, with the right intentions, and I thank them for this invitation to clarify the role of games and violence. 

This is an overly broad, inaccurate, and wholly incorrect portrait of the life of teens and tweens. Perhaps a brief stroll through Google scholar may prove helpful in disputing the idea teens/tweens are unfulfilled?

• Why have you equated video games with an unfulfilling life?
• What evidence do you have EVERY SINGLE teen/tween has an unfulfilling life?
• Why have games “claimed” leisure time? Why not “expanded, enhanced, broadened”  leisure time? What have they “claimed” leisure time from?

I also take exception to parental control being equated to a tedious thing.  I teach grade 3-8 (ages 9 to 14) and know many children who have vibrant, healthy, and satisfying relationships with their parents/primary caregiver. 

Sadly, you have no clue what you are talking about.

I offer hearty congratulations for clumping ALL teens/tweens in the same class as robbers, thugs and rapists (the boys in Clockwork orange were not normal chaps).  Again, overly broad, sweeping generalizations which don’t fit all teens. I think we’ll be seeing this theme resurfacing soon.

All games are rooted in the social pathology of ultra-violence and addictive behaviors?  Are you insane?

Here are some fantastic web-based games:

http://www.kidsdomain.com/games/online.html
http://www.kidscomjr.com/kcjr_home.html
http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/games/
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.funschool.com/
http://www.primarygames.com/
http://www.cogcon.com/gamegoo/gooey.html
http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/

Here are some wonderful console/PC/MAC based games:

Shrek 2
Spongebob Square Pants Movie Game
The Incredibles
The Polar Express
Learn to Play Chess with Fritz and Chesster
Crazy Machines: The Wacky Contraptions Game
The World of Harry Potter
Nancy Drew: Secret Of the Old Clock
Scooby-Doo Two: Monsters Unleashed
Finding Nemo: Nemo\‘s Underwater World of Fun

..there’s literally thousands of wonderful titles for kids.

As far as addictive behavior is concerned, does every person who drinks become an alcoholic? Where is your moderation? Where is your reasoned consideration of this issue?

What sociologist can’t refuse taking a cheap and easy shot at computer games?

“[D]emonic creatures as obstacles” aren’t the ONLY obstacle players encounter in RPG’s.  We also have logic puzzles, and a rich tapestry of Tolkien-inspired creatures. We also find classic monsters from Greek, Norse, Oriental, Native American, and Middle-Eastern mythologies.

So every kid who plays a Role Playing Game is going to be nourished into a thug or killer? How pessimistic!

Have you ever PLAYED an RPG? I would not call the combat in Neverwinter Nights ultra-violent. In fact, the only “ultra-violent” games I have ever seen is a small percentage of first person shooters, and a couple of grand-theft auto style-games. What computer games did you look at? Do you even play computer games?

We can change graphic settings to be less graphic. Quests usually involve some type of challenge, or dramatic tension, but so does EVERY literally device. Does watching a clockwork orange make kids susceptible to committing the acts portrayed therein?

What’s up with comparing a well known hyper-violent movie with computer games? I don’t see the connection.  It’s like you are only looking at one very small part of computer games, and comparing them to one very graphically violent movie.

Ah. of course. Let’s follow this thinking, shall we?

All games are violent => all players are effected by violence in the same way => all players learn violence is the answer to all problems all the time => all players then go out into the world, and act out the violence.

um, huh?

Again, you present this issue (games and violence) in overly broad, non-representational ways. You seem to make sweeping generalizations and sweeping conclusions. Your feet are firmly planted. In mid-air.

Some games portray this, I agree. But not all games, eh? Are teens able to discern and make sophisticated judgments about the difference between fantasy and reality?  Do you trust teenagers to make intelligent, moral decisions?

You know, I wasn’t going to reply to this story. I was going to simply ignore it, the way I ignore most stuff founded in uneducated and simplistic opinion.

But in invoking Columbine, and equating that to all computer games, you have unwittingly contributed to the real fuel of todays malaise. Fear. I see it as a duty for all educated people to fight ignorance and fear - two things this article offers in droves.

The children who acted so terribly at Columbine were sick. They were sick. Sick. Games didn’t make them sick and games didn’t make them sicker. A very small percentage of people simply aren’t wired right. It’s been happening waaay before video games. 

Your entire article feeds the fear machine.

Now read this.  Some games are inappropriate (just likes some books) for kids. It’s a fact of life. But not all games are.  And not all people respond to all things in the same way. 

This is the key point:  there are to many variables involved to point to games and say, “this thing is singularly responsible for creating ultra-violent behavior”.

..and you’ll be releasing the “amount of time you should play games” guide shortly?  Is reading for hours at end not healthy? What about writing, or playing an instrument?

I think there were 3 reports of people playing until they died. That’s out of 100’s of millions of players.  It is inane of you to support your opinion with such shoddy statistics.  These players were predisposed to addiction!  Are you suggesting all players will become addicted? Are you suggesting there is no choice?  Playing a game equates with addiction?

Yes.  I watch kids dress up like book characters all the time. When a person starts to identify with a game character, this is when we see troubles emerge. But this happens when the underlying psychology of the player is way off base, right? Do all players dress up like game characters? No.

Where is your moderation? Where is the “some games and some kids, and some times, and some types of violence” don’t mix thinking?

How many of our youth academics have become emotionally stunted from years of seclusion, unable to relate in normal fashion to the demands of ordinary social relationships?

Yup. because when people play games, they are hopelessly tossed from their good-sense and life, only to be trapped in a fiery pit of utter damnation.

What? Educational games have been around for years!  I don’t think you’ve ever played games. Why are you writing about something you know nothing about?

If parents enforce rules that children should only play educational video games, we can mitigate the scourge of video ultraviolence. they will teach their kids to learn to hate a medium with revolutionary potential to change the way we learn and teach.

But parents are important to kids. What happens when kids don’t have parental guidance and support and clear. They suffer. But to say kids should only play educational games is myopic. What is an educational game, by the way?

Yup. There are tons of great games which do this. To bad you don’t know about them.  Ever heard of the Sims?  Civilization? Sim City?

Say, how about taking 5 minutes and thinking before you start writing. http://www.cmu.edu/PR/releases05/051027_peacemaker.html

GIYF

You have written a poorly researched, overly broad, general op-ed piece with little basis in reality.  You have no clear knowledge about computer games, and have even less about the effects of games and violence.

The issue of games and violence is important. SOME kids playing SOME games in SOME ways will SOMEtimes be effected in SOME ways by the violence in them. This article does nothing to further the intelligent discourse on games in education with the only exception to demonstrate how not to talk about games in education.

Criteria for evaluating games in education

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

Keeping in mind it’s the teaching that counts, this is a list of factors I use to evaluate educational potential in games:

1) The game has an educationally-accessible context (historical, contemporary, hard science-fiction)
2) Game play has genuinely educationally-accesible content
3) Success depends on intelligent choices and decisions
4) Failure exists and teaches when it happens. It is possible to lose
5) The tutorial is crystal clear, and checks for understanding
6) There are multiple victory conditions
7) The feedback model is short - students can quickly see how a decision effects a larger whole picture
8) The game becomes increasingly challenging and difficult

While the above points are important, it’s how teachers use a game which makes it educational.  A computer game is educational when teachers consistently probe for understanding.  Teachers who set up rubrics, or expectations, for understanding. Teachers who encourage students to share their understandings with their classmates.

Hold the bar higher

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

Our standard must be higher

Using games in education requires a higher standard of educational efficacy than other, more traditional forms of instruction.

Because it’s a game. 
Because games are thought of as strictly recreational tools. 
Because many people think “students spend to much time in front of games”.  Because we can’t stick a student in front of a game and expect miracles.
Because games are not thought of as educational.
Because public education is the last industry in the United States to still be debating the efficacy of technology as a whole.

Are we using civilization 3 to teach the relationship between science and civilization prosperity? Prove the understanding with authenitic, accesable assessment. Demonstrate the learning. 

We are teaching students to think about the game. To develop those higher order thinking skills. To evaluate and analyze subtle and complex interrelationships.  We need to be able to point at the game and say “See? It’s working!” 

The burden of proof is on us, and we must deliver.

Assess, assess, assess

Simple understandings are simply measured.  Complex understandings are not.

How do we know a student knows?  Are there different levels of knowing something?  Surely simple memorization is different than analyzing, evaluating and synthesizing.  Computer games (and technology in general) confers a deeper lever of knoweldge than simple drill and recall learning activities.  Therefore, we must use correct assessment tools. 

Portfolio assessment, ipsative assessment, authentic assessment, and standardized assessment all offer meaningful ways to measure student understandings. Computer games (and technology in general) impart sophisticated levels of knowledge.  Playing Sim City allows players to test and simulate urban, suburban, exurban, and rural city designs.  Does a true/false test measure this understanding? Does multiple choice measure this understanding?  The answer is yes, it does, but it isn’t optimal.  A better assessment tool might be an oral report, or perhaps a movie of successful city growth vs unsuccessful growth with an analysis of what factors contributed to the success and failure.

We have an old saying in the educational field, fetch and wretch (as opposed to the much older drill and kill).  We send students to an internet site with 15 questions on a piece of paper, and they throw up the answers on the paper.  We then enthusiastically wave the paper in front of our bulding principal and prove our children are learning. Um, no.

Finally, assessment should be connected to the content classroom.  If a student is using computer games to strengthen understanding around persuasive writing, the student should recieve credit in their English language arts class.

Instructional Design and games in education

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

Instructional Design

When this lesson is over, what is the learning going to look like?  What is going to be different?  What lasting understandings will the students be able to demonstrate? The best place to start planning a lesson is at the end.

Using computer games in education is more than sticking a student in front of Civilization 3 and hoping for the best.  Very specific learning objectives, accurate assessment, consistent feedback, and an engagement in the learning process are critical for the successful implementation of computer games in education.

It’s really no different from any instructional activity.  Well organized lessons and instructional activities make for a more successful learning experience.

It is important to include as many national, state, and local state standards as you are able.  Make sure the standards are truly linked to learning activities, and not added as an afterthought.  You should be able to clearly point to something a student is doing and connect it with a state standard.

Take into consideration different learning styles, different ways of using the game to illustrate understandings.  For example, could a student take a series of screen captures in Sim City, and create a large artistic collage in the hallway to show the growth of an urban and suburban areas?  Could another student interview a mayor of sim city, with a decidely cynical slant, and post the interview online?  How is our lesson plan addressing different intelligences and learning styles?

At the end of the day, well planned, well organized lesson plans will define the success of computer games in education. The more specific our objectives, the better we will be able use computer games to teach.

Helping teachers use games

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

The real value of technology is when it is integrated into primary learning activities. As an instructional tool, technology really has no peers. of course, I know this, but many teachers raise a (healthy) skeptical eyebrow.    Moreover, many teachers have had less-than positive experiences using technology.

Apple Computer has some nice stages of technology use by educators.  I’ve found it to be a good framework for thinking about how teachers use technology.

Even with very tech savvy teachers, using games as instructional tools is a bit of a jump.  How then, can we encourage, engage, and excite teachers to use games to teach? (It should be noted we very rarely have a problem encouraging kids to use games to learn).

The relationship

The teacher’s relationship to the technology is important.  Every interaction a teacher has with technology should be viewed as a potential opportunity to evangelize technology.

How do we help strengthen a teacher’s relationship with technology?

1) Prompt and courteous technical support
2) Excellent professional development with hands-on, time saving strategies
3) Simple kindness
4) Sensitivity to a teachers need/style

I could write 2 or 3 pages about each one of these points…but let’s move on

Using the structural dysfunction of technology in schools

In many schools, the computer room is separate and divorced from classroom teaching.  Many teachers use computer time as planning period. This isn’t a pejorative thing, it’s just a simple fact.  If we accept technology works best when it is in the classroom, we begin to see a real disconnect in technology use in many schools. 

The advantage to a system like this becomes apparent quickly.  If the social studies teacher is teaching the 7th grade all about Europe, we can dedicate our computer time to targeting specific learning objectives.  We can use games to teach the nuances of 13th century Europe. We can use games to help the science teacher better explain cells or DNA. We can use games to strengthen Spanish skills. Good games, games that don’t stink…meaningful learning.

Relevant and real connections between content and the game

This has happened to me on many occasions.

When I’m using games in class, students really get into it.  They are eager to share their knowledge and understanding with anyone (gasp…even an adult). When a student hears their History teacher discussing the Dark Ages, hands fly into the air as student seek to share their knowledge.  The really cool part of this is when students self-identify with the content!  “My castle doesn’t have enough food”  or perhaps “my kingdom isn’t strong enough” or “these droughts are killin’ me”. 

Teachers GET this. They actually tend to get it REALLY quickly.  When a student is excited and motivated about something they need to know on some Standardized Test, the teacher “gets it”.

When I approach a teacher, and ask how I can help their students, I usually hear about a particular topic the kids are really struggling with.

COTS game design that works

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

How COTS games can work.

Leave it to Firaxis to articulate some great design points in Games in Education.

From the horses mouth:

Design Value:  Rewards: Early and Often
Player Impact:  Feel smart and believe you can succeed and achieve!

Design Value:  Immersive Flow
Player Impact:  Forget time and place. Get lost in an engaging process!

Design Value:  Progression
Player Impact:  This is all leading somewhere…just one more turn!

Design Value:  Surprise
Player Impact:  Expect the unexpected and learning is even more fun!

Design Value:  Re-Playability
Player Impact:  Try again. Just one more turn. New surprises.

Design Value:  Stealthy Education
Player Impact:  The more you know, the better the flow

I think one of the most interesting quotes from this site: Again, it cannot be overstated that Firaxis has never set out to make an educational game, however, it turns out that the company’s basic design tenets tend to create games that work quite well for these purposes.

Integrating technology in public schools: part 1

Posted by Bill in Educational Tech on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

This is a 3 part guide for Instructional Technology Specialists.

Technology works when it’s integrated

Many schools have a computer lab…it makes economic sense…the most number of students have access to technology.  Most of the time, classes meet for an hour a week to learn spreadsheets, internet safety, keyboarding, databases, and word processing.

Sadly, this makes very little pedagogical sense. Most students are adept in basic technology skills, and meeting for an hour a week doesn’t make for lasting understandings.

The real problem, though is technology is divorced from regular classroom learning.  While students might be exposed to integrated lessons about European Expansionism in math, science, and history, technology is often seen as a “special” class - in the same class as gym, art, shop, music and even Spanish in some schools! Technology is thought of as a seperate class.  Many teachers (understandably) like the free time computer class affords them. When the students are in a special class, the teachers have planning time. 

For years, people have been working hard to integrate technology into classroom learning.  When used appropriately, technology can strengthen, deepen, and broaden learning. It can extend and enhance learning. How much more could a unit on European Expansionism be with Flash, a web page, podcasted, blogged, thrown into an iMovie, or even made into a brochure?

Evaluting educational potential in a COTS game

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Friday, February 10, 2006 Permalink

Things that make a game educational

It’s important to note the word educational. A game has to be good before it can be a good educational game…(please see games that don’t stink, below).

That being said, what is it that makes a game educational?

1) The game has an educationally-accessible context (historical, contemporary, hard science-fiction)
2) Game play has genuinely educationally-accesible content (Age of Empires has a great educational context, but lousy educational gameplay)
3) Success depends on intelligent choices and decisions (not twitch)
4) Failure exists and teaches when it happens. It is possible to lose
5) The tutorial is crystal clear, and checks for understanding
6) There are multiple victory conditions
7) The feedback model is short - students can quickly see how a decision effects a larger whole picture
8) The game becomes increasingly challenging and difficult

Remember, it’s the teacher who ultimately defines the educational efficacy of any learning activity. So while the above points are important, it’s how teachers use a game which makes it educational.  A computer game is educational when teachers consistently probe for understanding.  Teachers who set up rubrics, or expectations, for understanding. Teachers who encourage students to share their understandings with their classmates.

Games that don’t stink

You have to get four things right when you make a computer game.

It has to work right and well.  Technical problems are disastrous in games in education. Short classes and limited technical support make technical problems a serious issue. 

It has to be fun. It doesn’t get boring.  A guiding mantra should be “if it’s not fun, why do it?”.  This is why we always think about the game first and then educational potential.

It has to be challenging at different levels of abilities.  Some students are naturally interested in technology and games, others are not.  As much as something which is very difficult can cause problems, so can something which is very easy.  Levels of difficulty help alleviate this situation.

The game need to be accessible for different types of players (ala Bartle player types). Explorers, achievers, griefers, and socializers.  There should be something in the game for everyone.

Welcome to the new site!

Posted by Bill in News on Sunday, February 05, 2006 Permalink

I am happy to present my new site layout.  The template is courtesy of Andreas Viklund, who was nice enough to post this template on open source web design.  The backend is still run by Expression Engine.  Far from a mere redesign, the organization of the information on this blog has changed as well.  Entries are split into summary and extended versions (more in line with classic blog organization), the forum has been re-themed, comments have a new look, I have a new image gallery up, I’ve retooled the Star Trek freighter section, and changed the categories.

The RSS has been upgraded to ATOM, and the podcast feed is working now. The site checks out as valid CSS, and I believe the new design is much cleaner.  I am, of course, very interested in what you think. Please feel free to contact me with your thoughts.

Getting to Z: part 2

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Thursday, February 02, 2006 Permalink

This is the formal lesson plan I submitted to my administrator. It’s probably worth noting I’ve spoken at length with our math teacher, who is very curious about this. I’ve also connected with parents and gotten their permission.

The conversation and issues raised with the wizcore on the MUSH is worth an entry of it’s own!

[Title]

Getting to Z. Text-based multiplayer games and the 3-dimensional cartesian coordinate plane.

[Grade]

This lesson is designed for grades 7 and 8 (ages 13 and 14). This lesson is currently designed for small groups (no more than 5 students).

[Length]

This lesson is designed to last 2 months, meeting once a week for about 40 minutes.

[Standards]

ISTE Tech Standards

Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.

Students use productivity tools to collaborate in constructing technology-enhanced models, prepare publications, and produce other creative works.

Students use telecommunications to collaborate, publish, and interact with peers, experts, and other audiences.

Students employ technology in the development of strategies for solving problems in the real world

National (NCTM) and Massachusetts State Mathematics Standards

Using ordered pairs of whole numbers (including zero), graph, locate, and identify points, and describe paths on the Cartesian coordinate plane

Specify locations and describe spatial relationships using coordinate geometry and other representational systems

Analyze properties and determine attributes of two- and three-dimensional objects

Use Cartesian coordinates and other coordinate systems, such as navigational, polar, or spherical systems, to analyze geometric situations

Investigate conjectures and solve problems involving two- and three-dimensional objects represented with Cartesian coordinates

Draw and construct representations of two- and three-dimensional geometric objects using a variety of tools

Visualize three-dimensional objects and spaces from different perspectives and analyze their cross sections

[Author]

Bill MacKenty, M.Ed. Edgartown School

[Overview]

Students will play an online text-based multiplayer game. They will create a character in this game world, and take on the role of captaining a ship. In this context, as the captain of a starship in the Star Trek universe, the players will navigate through a text-based, 3-dimensional universe. For the curious, they will be using a derivative a-space system called ParadoxSpace.

There are no graphics, sounds, or graphical-user-interface. The entire lens through which students experience this game world will be textual.

It is in this interesting milieu students will understand and play inside the coordinate plane. They will successfully pilot a ship through the X Y and Z plane, dock with planets and starbases, avoid obstacles, and perhaps even engage an opponent! They will not be able to succeed in these tasks unless they understand X Y and Z.

[Major Understandings]

Students should learn:

To articulate the position of X Y and Z on a cartesian coordinate plane.

To plot a line from one area on a cartesian coordinate plane to another area, considering potential obstacles.

To apply knowledge of 3D cartesian coordinate plane to a theoretical/imaginary space and maneuver in this space.

[Essential questions]

What does XY and Z describe on a cartesian coordinate plane?

Apply your knowledge of XY and Z to our text based multiplayer game. How is knowing about XYZ helpful?

What jobs might require a good knowledge of X,Y and Z? How?

[Assessment Evidence]

What is the evidence that students have learned the standard?

1. Self-assessment. Students will rate their understanding.
2. Pre/post test in X,Y and Z.
3. Successfully navigate and engage an opponent in 3D cartesian space

[Learning Activities]

Teaching and learning experiences to develop and demonstrate desired understandings.

The majority of this activity will involve playing in a text-based multiplayer game.

There will be 4 major stages of instruction:

1) Introduction to text-based games, connecting, moving, talking, posing. Rules.
2) Connection to the MUSH and engaging in character generation
3) Introduction to aspace (this will be a major component of instruction)
4) Continuing familiarity with aspace concluding with the mother of all space battles!

Games and assessment: a closer look

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Thursday, February 02, 2006 Permalink

Assessment is critical. It’s one thing to ask a few questions, or just trust that “they’re learning” but it’s another to really measure enduring understandings.  With the rise of No Child Left Behind, and state standardized testing, this becomes even more important.

Of course, it’s slightly more complicated than this. If we want basic understandings, we use basic assessments. If we are aiming for deeper understandings, we use more complex instruments.

Again, we return to our learning objectives.

Are we looking for simple understandings? Use a simple quiz, true/false, multiple choice, etc…

Are we looking for complex understandings? How about machinima, or an interactive website? Perhaps a documentary project? Maybe a presentation to some younger students? An art project? Perhaps they could put on a small play, dressing up as different pieces of cargo which travel around the world (if we stick with our example)? 

Getting to Z: part 1

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Permalink

part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6

For a few years, I have been increasingly interested in how COTS (commercial, off the shelf games) can be successfully used in the education space.

For a basic introduction to games and education please click here. This covers a teachers perspective of the games in education movement.

As a long time fan of text-based games, bringing a MUSH into my classroom seems a logical and natural progression of my interest in games in education.

This is an introduction to a multi-part series in which I hope to detail my successes and challenges using a Star Trek MUSH to help 8th graders (14 years old) understand XY and Z on a cartesian coordinate plane.

Most of my entries here will be cross-posted from my blog, http://www.mackenty.org. However, I’m sure some mush-specific material will emerge as we explore this exciting new instructional strategy, which I will post here.

How do we know if it’s true?

Posted by Bill in Educational Tech on Wednesday, February 01, 2006 Permalink

This conversations stems from an email exchange with a group of librarians who circulated a story about wikipedia having some inaccuracies. I indicated some concerns about the email (what is authoritative, anyway?), and they were nice enough to reply. 

In using internet sources, I teach my students to evaluate the “Authority” of the information—who is the author and what are the credentials? My reluctance to use Wikipedia centers on this issue.  Please explain how Wikipedia ranks.

Ah.

I use a different criteria to evaluate the authenticity of a website.

In my humble opinion, truth is gleaned from visiting multiple sources, rather than trusting one authoritative site.  Let’s poke at some examples: 

Example 1:

I note the CIA, an eminently authoritative source, got it Really Wrong.  If we used the multiple source strategy, though, we saw tremendous disagreement amongst several high-profile sources.

Example 2:

In the specific case of Wikipedia, I invite you to look at this list of journaled encyclopedia articles:

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/multimedia/438900a_m1.html

It certainly shows there are errors in Britannica as well as Wikipedia…so how do we know what is true? I think only by identifying and visiting multiple sources.  I think Wikipedia, Britannica, Encarta, and perhaps some other sites can be used as resources (I teach my kids .gov and .edu sites can be generally trusted without much digging, but .com and .org sites should be investigated). I think this whole issue is about multiple sources, and evaluating information.

Example 3:This site is slightly disturbing, so please visit it carefully.

www (dot) martinlutherking (dot) org (simply replace the (dots) with .‘s - I don’t want to add to the google rank of this page). 

It looks like a legitimate site, but a brief scroll through the articles shows the page is actually hosted and run by a hateful white-supremacist group! A search for Martin Luther King on google, or ask jeeves, will certainly paint a very different picture of MLK.  It is up to our kids to evaluate the information they see. I think this is an important life-skill for our students in 2005.

Example 4:

These are two famous internet hoax sites.  I use them to teach my kids how to evaluate a website.

http://descy.50megs.com/descy/webcred/webcred/dhmo.html
http://www.dhmo.org/

(Dihydrogen Monoxide is another name for water).

I also use this site to evaluate websites (it’s a hoax):

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

The only possible way kids can know if one of these sites are legitimate is to visit other sites, and consider other sources of information.  Then make up their minds based on the evidence at hand.

I think evaluating information holds a higher priority than an authoritative source.  It’s an uncomfortable gray area, I think…the truth is not always clear, and it’s up to us as educators to teach kids to “separate the froth from the foam” (as Dewey says).

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Monday, January 02, 2006 Permalink

This is copied and pasted from http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

Henry Jenkins
MIT Professor

A large gap exists between the public’s perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.

1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.
According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It’s true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General’s report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.

2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.
Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, “media effects.” This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds. In these studies, media images are removed from any narrative context. Subjects are asked to engage with content that they would not normally consume and may not understand. Finally, the laboratory context is radically different from the environments where games would normally be played. Most studies found a correlation, not a causal relationship, which means the research could simply show that aggressive people like aggressive entertainment. That’s why the vague term “links” is used here. If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences — which can contribute to anti-social behavior. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.

3. Children are the primary market for video games.
While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together.

4. Almost no girls play computer games.
Historically, the video game market has been predominantly male. However, the percentage of women playing games has steadily increased over the past decade. Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games. Spurred by the belief that games were an important gateway into other kinds of digital literacy, efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls. More recent games such as The Sims were huge crossover successes that attracted many women who had never played games before. Given the historic imbalance in the game market (and among people working inside the game industry), the presence of sexist stereotyping in games is hardly surprising. Yet it’s also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent. In his book Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones argues that young girls often build upon these representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives.

5. Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.
Former military psychologist and moral reformer David Grossman argues that because the military uses games in training (including, he claims, training soldiers to shoot and kill), the generation of young people who play such games are similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions.

Grossman’s model only works if:

  * we remove training and education from a meaningful cultural context.
  * we assume learners have no conscious goals and that they show no resistance to what they are being taught.
  * we assume that they unwittingly apply what they learn in a fantasy environment to real world spaces.

The military uses games as part of a specific curriculum, with clearly defined goals, in a context where students actively want to learn and have a need for the information being transmitted. There are consequences for not mastering those skills. That being said, a growing body of research does suggest that games can enhance learning. In his recent book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Gee describes game players as active problem solvers who do not see mistakes as errors, but as opportunities for improvement. Players search for newer, better solutions to problems and challenges, he says. And they are encouraged to constantly form and test hypotheses. This research points to a fundamentally different model of how and what players learn from games.

6. Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.
On April 19, 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that video games do not convey ideas and thus enjoy no constitutional protection. As evidence, Saint Louis County presented the judge with videotaped excerpts from four games, all within a narrow range of genres, and all the subject of previous controversy. Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: “Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware.” Posner adds, “To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.” Many early games were little more than shooting galleries where players were encouraged to blast everything that moved. Many current games are designed to be ethical testing grounds. They allow players to navigate an expansive and open-ended world, make their own choices and witness their consequences. The Sims designer Will Wright argues that games are perhaps the only medium that allows us to experience guilt over the actions of fictional characters. In a movie, one can always pull back and condemn the character or the artist when they cross certain social boundaries. But in playing a game, we choose what happens to the characters. In the right circumstances, we can be encouraged to examine our own values by seeing how we behave within virtual space.

7. Video game play is socially isolating.
Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players — for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players. Sociologist Talmadge Wright has logged many hours observing online communities interact with and react to violent video games, concluding that meta-gaming (conversation about game content) provides a context for thinking about rules and rule-breaking. In this way there are really two games taking place simultaneously: one, the explicit conflict and combat on the screen; the other, the implicit cooperation and comradeship between the players. Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen.

8. Video game play is desensitizing.
Classic studies of play behavior among primates suggest that apes make basic distinctions between play fighting and actual combat. In some circumstances, they seem to take pleasure wrestling and tousling with each other. In others, they might rip each other apart in mortal combat. Game designer and play theorist Eric Zimmerman describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the “magic circle.” The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions. Media reformers argue that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims. Yet, a child who responds to a video game the same way he or she responds to a real-world tragedy could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed. Here’s where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the “magic circle” of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play.

Henry Jenkins is the director of comparative studies at MIT.

Sources

Entertainment Software Association. “Top Ten Industry Facts.” 2003. http://www.theesa.com/pressroom.html

Gee, James. What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Grossman, David. “Teaching Kids to Kill.” Phi Kappa Phi National Forum 2000. http://www.killology.org/article_teachkid.htm

Heins, Marjorie. Brief Amica Curiae of Thirty Media Scholars, submitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Eight Circuit, Interactive Digital Software Association et al vs. St. Louis County et al. 2002. http://www.fepproject.org/courtbriefs/stlouissummary.html

Jenkins, Henry. “Coming Up Next: Ambushed on ‘Donahue’.” Salon 2002. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/

Jenkins, Henry. “Lessons From Littleton: What Congress Doesn’t Want to Hear About Youth and Media.” Independent Schools 2002. http://www.nais.org/pubs/ismag.cfm?file_id=537&ismag_id=14

Jones, Gerard. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-believe Violence. New York: Basic, 2002.

Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.

Sternheimer, Karen. It’s Not the Media: The Truth About Popular Culture’s Influence on Children. New York: Westview, 2003.

Wright, Talmadge.“Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike.” Game Studies Dec. 2002. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/

Crossing the line and blogging. What crosses the line?

Posted by Bill in Blogging on Thursday, December 01, 2005 Permalink

Edited December 8 2005: 

As with most things like this in middle school, there are 2 sides to every story. I spoke with all the girls teachers, and learned this is only one side of the story.  So now we find ourselves in the curious situation that everyone finds themselves in 2005. Evaluating and assessing information is as much of a skill as finding and creating information.

I had such an interesting incident which happened this morning in computer class.  This entry is largely taken from an email I sent to our assistant principal, principal, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers.

1) We have just finished our blogging lessons. A blog is a “web-log” in which students can post an idea or opinion about a topic.  We have several blogs, you can find them by clicking on this address: http://www.edgartown.mv.k12.ma.us/index.php/teachers/bmackenty/

2) One of the students wrote the following blog post on the “Girls Sports Blog”. She wrote it about a week ago.

I was going to do basketball because I really like basketball but…. I couldn’t because i have some other responsibilities and the coach wouldn’t compromise!

Then when we got into the season she kicked me off the team because I bring this little boy home everyday. She wouldn’t compromise and it got me really annoyed because I was doing what she said and I brought him home. Then when I reminded her that he can stay there whiles I was there she still wouldn’t compromise that is very unfair. Something needs to change.

3) Later in the week, 2 other girls deleted her post. They openly acknowledged they had done this.  I learned of this from the girl who wrote the post, who informed me during class today.

4) This incident brought forth an utterly fascinating conversation about opinions, slander, censorship, and rudeness.

5) Here is what I told the girls who deleted the post:

• What you did was wrong. You are not in trouble, but we should never disallow someone to share their opinion or idea just because we don’t like it. You removed the other girls voice, which is not ok.
• You acted with noble and honorable intentions. You like your coach, and didn’t want to see some unpleasant things written about her.  You should be proud of your loyalty.
• Another way we could of dealt with this is by leaving an appropriate comment on the post.  Challenge the idea, not the person.  This is the very nature of intelligent discourse

6) The girls who deleted the post heard me, and seemed to be ok for the remainder of class (they were motivated and interested in the lesson which followed).

7) The entire class discussed this incident. Many questions were raised about what is rude, and what constitutes slander and innapropriate activity.  There seemed to be general agreement about what was ok and not ok, although there was some “gray area” discussion.

8) I gave permission to the girl to re-write her post, and post it on the Girls Sports Blog.  I am utterly fascinated to see what happens next.  I think we have a genuine learning opportunity here.  We can teach these kids to disagree and even argue with other without being rude or spiteful.

9) I am especially aware of cyber-bullying.  I will be keeping my eye on this.

10) Of course, the most important issue is what should the girl do about her basketball coach?

A new year and some new games

Posted by Bill in Games in education on Thursday, September 01, 2005 Permalink

We’ve just finished installing three new games on the computers in the computer lab.  Zoo Tycoon, The Sims 2 and Never Winter nights.  These games join our other games, Civilization 3, Age of Empires 2 and Sim City 4 (there are others, of course, but these are mainstream, AAA titles).

I think the easiest game to target learning objectives will be Zoo Tycoon.  I’ll be using the Revolution modification for NeverWinter nights…as far as the Sims2, I can’t wait to speak with our health and relationships teacher.  I think this game is perfect for kids to understand relationships and lifestyle choices.

Of course the really fun part of this is playing all these games so I can teach them to the kids. very cool stuff.