I’ve been looking around at a lot of educational sites and I keep running into the same thing. Many of them LOOK nice – I mean: they have nice colours, cute or otherwise appealing characters and graphics; some of them even have good interface design. The problem is that in far too many of these sites the promise implied by the visual appeal is not fulfilled by the content.

These places are shallow and demonstrate what I have called “The Decorative Media Principle”.

The challenge of integrating learning objectives with the delivery medium is far from new. In some instances, it is easier than in others. We’ve been doing this sort of thing for decades, such as in worksheets for drill and practice. It is common to create a visually pleasing background connected with the current theme – especially in the lower elementary grades. I’ve done it myself: in my “Ducks in the Classroom” project I have vocabulary and word games that can be created on a pleasing backgrounds that connect with the words used in the exercise – a nest, words enclosed in images of eggs, duck footprints, etc. (Some worksheets are here, and decorations here) This idea of ‘decorating’ a worksheet works well for a great many themes, and can be applied quite effectively and generically. Need a worksheet related to Louis XIV? Add some pictures, maybe a few quotes, and if skillfully done, we have added value, fun, even connections for the learners to capitalize upon. So the serious part underlining this principle is that, at least sometimes, the ‘decorations’ can help learners form connections by giving them visual ‘tags’ upon which to hang ideas and facts. Adding to the visual appeal can boost the impact of what you’re trying to get across, and this sometimes works even if the connection between the decoration and the content is weak.

The same principle often works reasonably well for instruction delivered via a website – so long as the website is primarily organized as ‘print transferred online’. Taking online delivery a step further, the principle still largely holds, even when there are various interactive elements on the website or CD. The Hatching Project Candling Tutorial is a case in point. It includes many images, video, and self-tests, and it has received many positive reviews from all over the world, but aside from the non-linear interconnections, it is still many orders of magnitude less complex than a computer game.

Unfortunately, when applied to fully interactive media (specifically games), this ‘Decorative Media Principle’ does not translate well. It is simply not enough. The result is often a game that is little more than a wrapper for the instructional materials. Sometimes it doesn’t even have that – it’s just a wrapper. Ever get a bag of wrapped candy and find one that is just wrapper and no candy? THAT’s what I’m talking about.

Rather than incur the wrath of well-meaning, but misguided edutainment developers by giving specific examples, let me offer a purely hypothetical description. Imagine a game that starts off as many typical commercial games do, with cool images and some sort of backstory – you are the world’s last hope, and must use your superhuman powers to save mankind, and some sort of quest or challenge that must be overcome – defeat the enemy, or recover the lost treasure. But then, when the gameplay reaches a crucial moment, a new screen pops up showing what any child over 6 can identify as an “exercise”, and the world-saving task to be accomplished turns out to be solving a quadratic equation. The answer to this equation, for some thinly justified reason, is the key. Even though the resultant number has no connection to the rest of the story, it is some kind of magic number that defeats the enemy. Even worse, this ‘embedded worksheet’ looks nothing like the rest of the game – in fact, it looks suspiciously like the paper worksheet that was used in the same class the year before. This is what has become synonymous with ‘edutainment’, and it’s not good.

Chicktionary

To be fair, there are some wonderful examples of fun games that employ this principle effectively – to remain with the hatching theme, examine the kewlbox.com game called Chicktionary (formerly Fowl Words). This game is little more than an interactive worksheet, but the artwork, sounds, and design make it a great deal of fun. Part of what makes this particular game work is that it does not pretend to be more than the simple puzzle it is.

Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs

The other day I came across another example that offers a stark contrast, and I am ashamed to acknowledge that this is a Canadian production.  It is part of a website about internet security for kids called, Privacy Playground. Visually, it is quite nice and the cartoon characters are even sort of cute. We get the first hint that something may be amiss when we meet their main emissaries: the CyberPigs. My first reaction to this was, “You’re KIDDING me!” THIS is what they have decided to call the good guys? How stupid do they think kids are? Do they have any idea how much credibility they loose by showing how out of touch they are? Every kid I’ve showed this to thinks this is a joke. But OK. Let’s move on. This site advertises various games featuring these CyberPigs (they are kind of cute, but that does not make up for the deeply misguided choice of animal).

Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs

The “game” is a perfect example of my decorative media principle when it has utterly failed.  After sitting thorough numerous screens full of “lesson” set-up, we get the “game” part:  a yes-no question!! You CAN’T be serious! How dare they call this a game.

There are countless examples of the decorative media principle in action – some that have “games” and some that don’t. One of the conclusions I am coming to is that the mis-application of the decorative media principle is something that starts in early childhood. Here it comes from a pure and innocent desire to make things more attractive. There’s really nothing wrong with that, and this kind of experimentation and practice deserves to be encouraged. However, at some point we need to grow beyond in those situations where we actually want to communicate something.

At some point we need to help kids understand that it’s NOT OK to spend 95% of the time you spend working on a presentation trying out different fonts and backgrounds and hunting for clipart and only 5% of your time on content. At some point teachers need to be less impressed with how things look and pay more attention to what is actually communicated.

This applies to everyone else too. The medium is only PART of the message, folks.

Reference: Chicktionary: Farm Fresh Goodness [PC] (2003), Blockdot, Inc., (Developer), Kewlbox (Publisher) Game Site: http://www.kewlbox.com/games/gameDetail.aspx?gameID=117

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