On Game Length

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On Game Length

[started Dec. 4 2006] http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061201/qotw_01.shtml Talks about the length of games.

This is of value to me because [I say] long games are ill-suited to school environments.
School learning comes in bite-sized chunks, single lessons; units that last a few weeks. Unless we begin to require dozens of hours in homework, there is no way for games to fit into formal school environments. It may be part of the reason why puzzle games predominate when it comes to school games. Their length is better suited to the environment than a game like Oblivion.

I think that many modern games are *not* suited for use in schools because of the time commitment required to play them vs. what we can get out of them in terms of meeting outcomes. That also means that the model provided by such games may not be especially useful for ed-games. A game that takes 100 hours to complete is just not going to work in school, whereas a 10-hour game might. Even if the 100-hour game were to match perfectly with a whole pile of general outcomes, it is still a huge time commitment. The amount of flexibility around the time commitment for any game is going to depend (at least in part) on what level of organization the ‘schedule’ is set at. In other words, if the province sets the amount of time available for something we have almost no hope of affecting that; if it is done at the board level the chances are better but the case still has to be made that this change will be good for all schools in the district. However, if the decision is school-based we have the greatest chance of influence.

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On Wasting Valuable Lesson Time

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On “wasting valuable lesson time”

We must.

When ‘content’ is stripped of its context, which MUST include those pesky extraneous details, it becomes disconnected.

No wonder learners can’t remember stuff. Virtually all of the memory tricks we use to help us remember things involve some way to attach the thing we are learning to something meaningful to us. If ‘we trim the fat’ from our lessons in an effort to make it more efficient (i.e. if we take away the bits that are not directly relevant to our ‘content’) we also remove the context which is so crucial for anchoring learning.

Case in point:

I find politics tedious. I especially find American politics tedious (I’m not American). However, I have come to really (I mean REALLY) like the television show West Wing. While watching, I have learned WAY more about American politics and their political system than I ever really wanted to. It makes watching the Bush and Cheney show quite frightening. http://www2.warnerbros.com/web/westwingtv/index.jsp?frompage=sitemap
http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing/index.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200276/quotes

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The Massively Multi-Player Online School

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A typical encounter at a yet-to-be built massively multiplayer online school:

Suddenly, Amy realized that unless they all worked together, they wouldn’t get out alive. She wiggles the fuzzy slippers dangling from her swinging feet and glances out the window as if looking for an answer.

She had miscalculated, and now they didn’t have enough fuel left to make it to the landing strip. After several abbreviated (cryptic) messages back and forth, all five members of the crew agreed that this would be as good a time as any to test whether or not the wing modifications they introduced yesterday would have the desired effect. Penny was in charge of gathering weather data – they needed to plot a new flight path that would take advantage of the winds and updrafts in light of their wing mods to save fuel. Kevin’s job was to locate alternate landing sites – they had to coordinate closely to make sure they found a place that would not only allow them to touch down without too much damage to the landing gear, but also take advantage of the winds currents. Each time they found another possible site, Mick and Krista would run several simulated landings to see what their chances for success were. Amy asks her mom if lunch will be ready soon – all this excitement is making her hungry.

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There are no wrong answers

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I was at a conference recently, at a workshop where we were given an exercise that included a brainstorming activity.

Among the guidelines was the now-all-too-common refrain: “There are NO wrong answers!”

Poppycock.

There are too wrong answers!

Plenty of them.

There are even dumb answers. BUT….

We should still be encouraged to try them out. How will we know they are wrong or dumb if we never give them voice? Claiming there are no wrong answers is one of those warm-and-fuzzy sophisms that, in the long run, causes more problems than it solves. In a subtle and subversive way it erodes our willingness to take risks by claiming there is no risk. Risk-taking is essential to learning.

What’s wrong with admitting that there really ARE wrong answers, but that it’s OK to state them???? After all, don’t we learn from mistakes? What’s so bad about making mistakes? If the study of digital games has taught me anything, it is that making mistakes in a safe environment is a great way to learn stuff.

So rather than misleading people by pretending “there are no wrong answers”, how about if we start to admit “It’s OK to be wrong here.”

Note: There are still some places where it’s really not OK to be wrong, like life-threatening emergencies. In most learning environments it IS OK to be wrong though – and the risk-taking that is associated with the possibility of being wrong should be both encouraged and supported.

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The ID / AI Connection

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I’ve noticed that quite a few big names in ID (Instructional Design: Papert, Schank, Merrill,..) have backgrounds in AI (Artificial Intelligence, rather than the other AI) I find this a little disconcerting.

In some sense the application of concepts from artificial intelligence to human intelligence and learning is rather circular. Artificial intelligence begins with theories about how humans think, and builds machine systems that model this. Implementations of these models are of necessity distorted by the nature of the machine’s logic and circuitry – there is no reason to believe that humans process or store information in a manner anything like that required by a computer. If we then take these models of machine learning and intelligence, and reapply them to human learning, as has been done, for example, in Merrill’s Instructional Transaction Theory (Simon, 1973), we have created a circular application whose validity depends primarily on how accurate our initial AI assumptions are to reality. In other words, we create ID theories based on models of machine learning, which in turn are based on machine implementations of theories of mind. The soundness of this last connection remains an unresolved debate, as various and sometimes contrasting perspectives on theories of mind remain plausible, from theories of “mind-as-machine” through cultural evolution, the theory of extelligence, and beyond (Merrill, 1999) The notion that we can design models of human learning based on the idea that our minds are like the computers we have invented seems peculiar to this author.

Merrill, M. D. (1999). Instructional Transaction Theory (ITT): Instructional Design Based on Knowledge Objects. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional-design theories and models : vol. 2, a new paradigm of instructional theory (pp. 397 – 424). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Simon, H. A. (1973). The Structure of Ill Structured Problems. Artificial Intelligence, 4(3), 181-201.

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Great Simulations and a Kitten

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Do Animals Play Games?

I guess it is always possible to discuss definitions, but if one is willing to accept a common-sense definition of play, then animals absolutely play.

Kittens (and almost all adult cats) often ‘play’ when alone, which sort of eliminates the notion of led training. Watching animals is one of my favorite pastimes, and there is no doubt in my mind that they are sometimes playing. There are characteristic postures that differentiate play from other behaviours in any animal I have observed. A watchful eye can also detect when play turns into something else, which it occasionally does.

Cats, dogs, and most predator species play (I don’t think anyone can convince me that otters don’t play). Some prey animals play also, although to a lesser extent, it seems. Horses, donkeys and goats play all throughout their lives; sheep and cows, not so much. I’m not sure I would call what baby ducks and geese do ‘play’, and I don’t think adult ducks play at all (I wouldn’t call enjoying a great bath ‘play’) – on the other hand I’d have trouble calling some of what parrots do anything *but* play.

Some gorillas and elephants like to paint. There’s even one gorilla (http://www.solcomhouse.com/Michael.htm) who named his paintings.

I’ve been living and working with animals all my life, and have learned that what makes me happy does not necessarily make them happy – nor do my needs or feelings necessarily translate to theirs. My donkey and horse react and behave quite differently – and they require different approaches in handling and training. That’s even true with different breeds of dog. I don’t think that’s anthropomorphising.

Knowing that there are distinct differences between ‘us’ and ‘them’ doesn’t necessarily preclude some remarkable similarities.

The view of cats (and other animals) teaching through simulation touches on a number of things here – from what level of fidelity is necessary (and how it might need to change as experience/learning does) – to ‘constrained reality’ – to how deeply some of this may be rooted in what appear to be natural behaviours.

Cats seem to like teaching – Continue reading →

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Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction

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I have seriously misjudged M. David Merrill.

His Component Display Theory was very computer sciencey, and unwieldy, and really turned me off; but First Principles is *really* good. Thank you Gail for pointing me at it!

I’ve had this notion for a while: that the process of becoming an expert is a very long one (with the exception of the occasional aberrational protégé). Eventually, along the path to becoming a ‘master of your craft’, most people seem to discover the big picture (perspective), which seems invisible to beginners. Beginners concern themselves with lots of details (and with exhaustive inventories, catalogues, prescriptions for how-to, etc.); masters concern themselves with first principles (the essence).

After reading this, I want to ask, “What more do I need?” This seems to say it all. (and how come nobody put this under my nose before?) http://id2.usu.edu/Papers/5FirstPrinciples.PDF

I agree with almost every claim he makes (although I think that fantasy problems can be just as compelling and facilitating as real-world problems), and, even better,… good games are already designed to meet all of these First Principles: Continue reading →

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Immersive Education and Virtual Learning Environments

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This looks like this might be worth a bit of time to investigate: http://immersiveeducation.org/It came across the game_edu list this morning.

Media Grid call for participation: Immersive Education and Virtual Learning Environments

High quality PDF and Web versions: http://MediaGrid.org/#NEWS

BOSTON, MA – June 04, 2007 – MediaGrid.org launches Immersive Education initiative with an open call to educators, students, and professionals who have experience using virtual learning environments or video game technologies (such as Second Life, Croquet, Extensible 3D [X3D], Panda3D, Quake, Unreal, Torque Game Engine, and so forth). Individuals and organizations can visit ImmersiveEducation.org to select the next-generation Immersive Education platform, contribute to best practices, and establish standards for virtual learning environments and game-based learning platforms.

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