Bill MacKenty

Technology strengthens, deepens, and broadens our learning...

Goals for 2008 - 2009 school year

1. Provide consistent staff development through a variety of techniques and approaches
2. Encourage students to demonstrate learning through technology (multimedia, presentations, websites, podcasts)
3. Support and encourage the HCCS faculty to become more technologically self-sufficient
4. Finish and widely distribute HCCS technology handbook
5. Encourage and support teachers to use technology when they teach
6. Support the increasing use of blackboard - encourage hybrid structure
7. Publish and widely distribute “technology this month” newsletter
8. Identify and encourage low-technology teachers
9. Work towards director of technology - become involved in strategic decisions and meetings
10. Provide technology training to HCCS support staff

The Right Circumstances for Games to work in Education (1.8mb pdf file)

CNN is running a story about video games being educational (pdf here).

A quick note: there are different ways of understanding “learning” and “educational”.  I do believe that many video games improve and strengthen cognitive skills. I also see how video games can help students frame certain issues.

However, when I talk about video games and education, the type of learning I usually talk about is how teachers can use video games in the classroom effectively.

So - it’s not that I find this story incorrect or troubling in any way - I’m looking at video games in a slightly more structured manner (that is, inside the classroom).

I’ve used three different kinds of games in my classroom. The purpose of this blog post is to help teachers understand the differences, similarities, and characteristics of the three types of games.

COTS - Commercial, Off the Shelf game.

I’ve covered COTS games for a while. COTS games are designed for the mass market - they are designed for enjoyment, challenge, and fun. COTS games can often cost many millions of dollars to make, and a hit game (AAA title) can generate hundreds of millions of dollars. COTS games are increasingly being released for the personal computer and consoles.

COTS games offer:

1. High production value (very high quality graphics and sound)
2. Low technical problems and very strong technical support
3. Strong user communities (fan sites, active forums, etc...)
4. Often these games have very active modding communities
5. Work on a fairly new machines; older computers (more than 3 years) might have problems.
6. Run locally (from the internal hard disk)
7. Have exceptionally good gameplay
8. Very good tutorials, which check for understanding
9. Adjust difficulty based on the players skills
10. A game kids want to play at home

Edutaintenment

Many teachers are familiar with these titles - Millies Math House, Reader Rabbit, Sammy’s Science House The hallmark of these games are kid-friendly graphics with gameplay that follows a “solve these problems and get to the next fun thing to do”. Sometimes players are asked to do something like bowl for math problems. The general feel of the games is really fun math or reading worksheets.

These games are fun, and build basic skills. They are valuable and good learning tools. In my context of games in education, these games generally don’t fit well. They are a little to oriented to the drilling model (but who says drilling has to be no fun?).

Characteristics of edutainment titles:

1. Marketed exclusively for schools / education
2. Content-specific (titles focusing on math, reading, spelling, foreign language, etc)
3. Marketed for specific age or grade levels
4. ESRB ratings are often intended for general
5. The back-story of the game i
6. Gameplay is generally segmented and measured around learning objectives

Serious games

Serious games are a relatively new phenomena (although people have been seriously playing games for a long time). Here’s wikipedia’s view on the matter; I like what they say. I think of serious games a single-topic, highly specific semi-simulations.

Serious games have similar profiles:

1. They are usually web-based (flash or shockwave)
2. They usually have a very specific theme (peace in the mideast,
3. They are not meant to be in-depth simulations, they are meant to model the most important dynamics
4. They are short-term games
5. They are deliberately designed to teach, explain an issue, or clarify the dynamics of an issue
6. The point is to simplify complex issues

I’ll blog more about these types of games, and provide some examples of each game in action - in the classroom.

OS X HOWTO: Saving to a specific folder (doc)
OS X HOWTO: Saving to a specific folder (pdf)

I got this great question and thought I’d answer it here:

Wow, great site. I teach 8th graders and avidly incorporate games into my
classroom and in an after school strategy gaming club. We play Civ II,
Stronghold, and Medieval Total War II.

This year I will be teaching a class of 10th grade American History and am
excited to use the demo of Railroad Tycoon III (official site) with the students. Do you
know of any lesson plans or links to sites that give suggestions on how best to incorporate Rail Tycoon 3 into the classroom. Thanks so much.

First of all, my congratulations to you! It sounds like you are pretty advanced.  I applaud your efforts to use games in your classroom. I’m running an after-school program next year for text-based games - maybe we can compare notes. I suspect your strategy gaming club is more fun, though. I once ran a micro-armour club after-school club and the kids loved it (despite the complexity of a paper-and-pen rule set). 

First of all, some lessons on railroads and the Transcontinental Railway (via this google search) :

1. General lesson plans for the industrial revolution (but not directly tied into Rail Road Tycoon III)
2. PBS Railroad lesson plans
3. Discovery Railroad lesson plans
4. Edsite Transcontinental railroad lessons
5. Another decent looking lesson for railroads - with an emphasis on reading

The second part of your question, ”links to sites that give suggestions on how best to incorporate Rail Tycoon 3 into the classroom” can be answered here:

When I’m using games in the classroom, I don’t think “ I have a game, how can I use it to teach INSERT LESSON OBJECTIVE HERE ?”.  Instead, I think “I have to teach LESSON OBJECTIVE HERE, are games the best choice, and will they do the trick?”.  I’m sure you are using games wisely - but please read some basic criteria I’ve discussed before decided to use games in your classroom.  And please remember, the single most important part of using games in your teaching is instructional design. As I often say, if you stick a kid in front of a game for an hour, and expect something magical to happen, you are going to be disappointed.

You are teaching 10th grade American History, and I’m sure some part of that teaching will involve the transcontinental railroad. In New York State, there are plenty of standards you could use. The cool thing about Railroad Tycoon series is the simulation element - so you could ask your kids to set up some “what if” scenarios, and perhaps incorporate the game into a bigger role-play in your classroom.

You could also use Railroad Tycoon to talk about economic development during this period.  From wikipedia:

The objective of the game is to build and manage a railroad company by laying track, building stations, and buying and scheduling trains. The game models supply and demand of goods and passengers as well as a miniature stock market on which players can buy and sell stock of their own or competing companies.

I hope I’ve answered your question - again, I’d like to offer my congratulations to you, and I’m eager to hear how Railroad Tycoon works for you!