Bill MacKenty

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

I hate link rot.  I had all these great games in education research links, and now 90% are defunct.  Whenever I can, I upolad the PDF’s directly to my server so the information can be easily found. 

I’m now re-writing my research in games in education list. Everything will be stored locally - with links back to the source, of course.  If I am breaking some obligation or license agreement, please contact me and I will be happy to remove the offending PDF or change the link so it complies with your license agreement.

That being said, here’s my current list of great research in games in education:

Why Are Video Games Good For Learning?
Changing the Game:
What Happens When Video Games Enter the Classroom?
Epistemic frames for epistemic games
Video games and the future of learning
What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming?

Games Development

Kirriemuir on games

Turkish Prospective Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding the Use of Computer Games with Educational Features
Women and games
Prospective Teachers
Interaction

Summit on Educational Games
Games, Cookies, and the Future of Education

I swear, I did not make this up. Here’s an email I got from an ex co-worker of mine:

Nedine writes:

Question for you: I have been reading about Second Life being used in education and wondered what your thoughts were on the matter and if you have any examples of how it is used in a school setting (I have only read about college uses).

Thank you!
Nedine

Hey Ned!!

It’s nice to hear from you! 

I installed second life on some of the computers in the lab last year....it’s really great fun.

Here are my “thoughts on the matter”:

1) 2nd life would be a kick-butt teaching tool with the following understandings:

...you must have razor-sharp teaching objectives - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - you need to be able to say, without any hesitation, exactly what these kids are going to be getting from this teaching unit (tie it in to state learning objectives, blah blah blah).

...it will take a bit longer than traditional teaching strategies (lecturing)

...2nd life has a special “place” for education activities...you should contact 2nd life about setting up an island (think about safety)

...you are not alone! there are other educators who are using Second Life.

...you are conscious of in-game communication between students....you want the in-world experience to be different than their normal world-experience. Throw them into different-ability different clique groups. Be wary of cyber-bullying - many kids don’t “get” what they say online impact real life.  I always told kids “follow the same rules online as you do in school”. 

...you get technical issues out of the way...Second life works on OS X, just make sure all the techie stuff is handled before you start.

2) There are reasons we use computer games to teach, Nedine. The major point is motivation. Your kids will be incredibly motivated as they interact with this game in this lesson. Pay special attention to those students who don’t normally participate in class or participate at the margins of class. They will be involved!  This is also why your lesson must be clear - you are harnessing powerful energy.

3) The other unique aspect of computer games is the whole “other self” thing.  David Williamson Shaffer talks about this eloquently, but here’s the gist: when a learner can imagine themselves as someone else they understand the world and the context in a totally new way.  For example, we can talk about life in ancient greece, but if we play it as a citizen of this world, we understand it differently. If we take on the role of person, and face the decisions and challenges they had to face, we understand it. Playing the “role” of a doctor informs a student what life is (and will be) like for that doctor. 

4) What could you not teach in second life? Throw some lesson objectives (give me your most difficult subject-area) and we’ll come up with some cool lesson plans.

5) Let them play.  Just them them fly (you can fly in second life) and let them explore.  It’s a fascinating world.

6) Have a grading rubric, again, with clear objectives and measures. 

Please visit the research section in my games in education section on my blog. I’m updating it with some very hands-on and friendly ideas.

Um, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m blogging this. It’s way to cool not to share with other people.

Thanks to the good folks across the pond at BECTA for releasing another thoughtful, insightful, concise, and high-quality report on the role of technology in education.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU READ THIS REPORT.  The link to the report is here and I’ve uploaded the report here (1.3MB PDF).

I suppose there might be some variance in the findings due to cultural differences (they are English, after all) but I suspect the reports findings are relevant and applicable to the US educational system.

Our art department wants to scan about 1500 35mm slides.  We’ll be scanning at fairly high resolution, so each file will be around 5MB.  We are looking for a digital image library - web-based - which will let us upload and categorize our pictures. We would like something like Flickr or Picassa.

We’d like casual user management (single login for the whole school, and a teacher login to edit / change upload slides). Availability is important, as is optimization. We would like to be able to download original file size (like Xanga) or a derivative thereof.

We’re a school, so inexpensive == good.  As this collection of 35mm slides represents the heart of our art department, we are interested in data integrity, and long-term storage.

Please contact me here with any suggestions.

Thank you! 

Mark Prensky talks about digital natives and digital immigrants.  The basic idea is people who have grown up with computers are natively entwined in them, thus “native"users.  Immigrants, on the other hand, face the same sorts of challenges that real-world immigrants do; the language, the culture, the way of thinking...are all very different for them. There is a constant adjustment and awkwardness in a digital immigrants life. There is an assumption digital immigrants “dont get it” and digital natives “get it”.

But after reading a story where an non-digital-native was hooking up an Xbox 360 controller to her laptop so she could learn C# and XNA...and reflecting on my own experience, I think the digital native / digital immigrant thinking might be a little to simple.

I’ve seen plenty of older teachers embrace technology...I’m talking about the 4th grade teacher who has been in the classroom for 15 years, and the 45 year old kindergarten teacher, who makes iMovies of her class trips to show parents.  Similarly, I’ve seen young people who simply have no interest, aptitude, and skill in technology at all! I’m sure if we look at aggregates we’ll see that most young people are more tech-saavy and most older folks aren’t...but I’ve seen enough exceptions to this rule to think a little more about it…

So what is it then?

I think it might be a combination of curiosity, perceived benefit of change, and peer use of technology.

So when a teacher sees they can benefit from technology, and that potential benefit outweighs the risk, they start learning and experimenting. I’m sure some economist has written a formula for this. But more often than not, a teacher has to know

When a teacher is naturally curious about new technologies, they also “take the plunge”. I’ve seen plenty of teachers who, out of sheer curiosity, try something new. Perhaps it has to do more with not being afraid of trying something new...but I think underneath an explorer is someone who has an insatiable curiosity about the world.

Finally, I’ve seen teachers reach out to technology when they see or hear their peers experiencing success with technology. It’s a wonderful moment to experience, and I’m sure it comes slowly, as much change does.