Double Entry Journal/Gardens of Time #1
First off, let me just say that the article "Why Are Video Games Good for Learning?" confused me GREATLY. I don't think I understood half of what he talked, or rambled, about for 21 pages. I tried to understand it, and thought it would be interesting since I enjoy technology, and sometimes enjoy gaming, however, even as a grad student, I didn't understand it. However, I was able to fins three quotes that I found especially appealing throughout the research article, and also plan to use this article when I do my Action Research Project.
Gee, J. P. (n.d.). What
Are Video Games Good For Learning? Retrieved January 22, 2012, from http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf
"The player must discover what is possible and impossible (and in what ways) within the simulation in order to solve problems and carry out goals. Achieving these goals constitutes the win state for the player." (pg. 2) ... I find this quote to be interesting because it coincides directly with the game that we are playing. Actually, all three quotes that I chose relate to the game directly, however, this quote seems to lay the groundwork for what video games are precisely about, achieving the "win state." The "win state" generally marks the end of the game, where the plays has essentially won, or beaten all there is to beat, and can't proceed further. As gamers who play Gardens of Time, we must decide what is possible and impossible. In the game, it is possible to complete levels by playing repetitively to earn all four stars for that specifically level.
Like Gardens of Time, EnergyVille, is also a simulation. At least that's what I'm come to concluded. EnergyVille is a simulation game created by the gas company, Chevron, which is used in science classrooms to teach students about managing energy. "The game challenges players to power a virtual city through 2030 while keeping energy conservation and efficiency in mind in an effort to minimize the economic, environmental and security impacts for their virtual city. . . . It's great for students, teachers, or anyone who's interested in learning more about energy conservation, energy management and energy efficiency. EnergyVille also teaches the complexities of energy and how energy affects our cities and our lives. Here is the link to EnergyVille's website.
The main goal of the Gardens of Time is to complete various scenes throughout chapter to unlock "Wonders" that complete your garden. For each chapter you complete, you unlock a wonder. Chapter 1 unlocks Big Ben which can be placed in your garden, and adds "XP" points; and Chapter 2 unlocks Royal Albert Hall. Most scenes require 12 items to be found, but a few scenes require 6, and "Blitz Scenes" require 60-68 items to be found, possibly more depending on which scene you are required to blitz.
*This is the beginning of a scene in Chapter 3, Suzhou Gardens.
*Once you find all 12 objects in the Suzhou Garden scene, this appears.
*After completing enough rounds of Suzhou Gardens, you are awarded FOUR stars, and the scene is essentially complete. You can still play the scene, however there's really no potential benefit, and you just waste "Temporal Energy" on playing "completed" scenes.
"So the video games in which I am interested, the ones that I think are most interesting for learning, are digital simulations of worlds that are 'played' in the sense that a player has a surrogate or surrogates through which the player can act within and on the simulation and that have 'win states' (reachable goals that the player has discovered or formed through his or her surrogate)." (pg. 3) ... I will admit, this quote confused me, however, it does relate to the game. From the article, "Multi-User Virtual Environment" which is linked to below, I can't tell if there is a difference between a simulation and a video game, or if they're the same thing. The MUVE article appears to talk about them in two different forms. The article states, "Unlike much of the currently available educational multimedia, games and simulations are highly interactive, with many user-controlled features. Although similar in many ways, game differ from simulations by including a goal or challenge." ((MUVE) In this specific quote, they discuss games and simulations as two different things, however, they state that a simulation includes a goal or a challenge. the ultimate goal of Gardens of Time is to complete all the Chapters in the game, unlock all the "Wonders" and build your garden.
Gardens of Time has a surrogate, the user, or the person who goes into the different worlds and find the hidden objects. Gardens of Time is also a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE). "MUVEs designed for the educational community embed tasks or problems within a virtual environment or context. Users can explore the environment and examine digital objects. Typically, there is also a means to communicate with other users and online agents."
Center, C. R. (n.d.). Multi-User Virtual Environments for
Education. Retrieved January
23,
2012, from http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=159
Our game, Gardens of Time, allows students to come together to walk through a virtual world by finding hidden objects to complete scenes. With the completion of scenes and earning of "Experience Points," we can move through the game adding objects to our gardens as we complete levels. With each level completion comes a new level quest, and general quest to be completed for my "XP". Users of the game, or "Neighbors" can explore each others Gardens complete Blitz Levels, thus earning more "XP" and unlocking more artifacts and levels to be completed.
Center, C. R. (n.d.). Learning
with Computer Games and Simulations. Retrieved January 23, 2012, from http://www.cited.org/index.aspx?page_id=143
"Video games usually involve a visual and auditory world in which the player manipulates a virtual character (or characters). ... The player can make a new landscape, a new set of buildings, or new characters." (pg. 9) ... The whole purpose of the game, Gardens of Time, is to build your garden using artifacts, decorations, wonders, etc., from various times in history, or places. Artifacts in my garden are from places such as London (Big Ben, Royal Albert Hall, Tube Station, Phone Booth, Double Decker Bus), and then you can create spaces in your garden that don't relate to a city or specific time in history, such as my "park" where I have a bench, a koi pond, and some ducks; or there's the oasis which has palm trees, sand dunes, and patches of sand, along with two small bodies of water.
*This is the complete of my "garden" thus far in the game. I have unlocked two wonder by completing Chapters and has a hodge-podge of other stuff lying among the wonders and other main buildings in the garden.
According to Video Games Lead to Faster Decision that are No Less Accurate, "People make decisions based on probabilities that they are constantly calculating and refining in their heads, Bavelier explains. The process is called probabilistic inference. The brain continuously accumulates small pieces of visual or auditory information as a person surveys a scene, eventually gathering enough for the person to make what they perceive to be an accurate decision." The study conducted found that study participants who played the action game were 25% faster at coming to a conclusion, and answered the questions correctly as the study participants that played the strategy game.
Blank, A. (2010, September 13). Video Games Lead to
Faster Decision that are No Less
Accurate. Retrieved January 23, 2012, from University of Rochester:
All in all, I think video games can be used for educational purposes, as is noted on MUVE's website. "Educational MUVEs are designed to support inquiry-based learning and conceptual understanding. Usually there is no one "right" way to perform the task or solve the problem. Instead, several solution are justified, although, as in real life, some solution may be better than others. Important is placed on the logic of students' reasoning. Unlike MUVEs designed purely for entertainment, students using educational MUVEs often must gather information offline, and usually there is a final product that they must submit, such as a report or a video diary of their experience." ... Gardens of Time does not have one right way to play the game. There are no directions that say all FOUR stars must be achieved at each consecutive level before moving on, and there are no directions that say you have to get all 24 stars from each Chapter before moving onto another Chapter. There are no set directions, except that the player must find hidden objects in levels to advance through the game. Our game that we are playing is an Educational MUVE, simply because we to individually blog about our experiences with the games.
Bibliography
Blank, A. (2010,
September 13). Video Games Lead to Faster Decision that are No Less Accurate.
Retrieved January 23, 2012, from University of Rochester:
Center, C. R. (n.d.). Learning
with Computer Games and Simulations. Retrieved January 23, 2012, from
Center, C. R. (n.d.). Multi-User
Virtual Environment for Education. Retrieved January 23, 2012, from
Chevron. (n.d.). EnergyVille.
Retrieved January 23, 2012, from
Gee, J. P. (n.d.). What
Are Video Games Good For Learning? Retrieved January 22, 2012, from http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf
I also struggled a lot with comprehending what the author was saying in this article. There were numerous times when I just couldn't make a connection between his theories and how they related to the usefulness of video games and the learning processes. I think this was because some of the details of his research were related to the topic on a more in depth scientific level. I did manage to understand enough to find several quotes that peeked my interests.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with the relation of your third quote, about manipulating characters and creating virtual worlds, to the game Garden of Time that we are currently playing.
I enjoyed your link to information regarding the Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE). These types of games are very useful to the educational processes, especially for focusing on cultural and community based learning aspects. However, with my field of study being English, games that are NOT based upon virtual environments are much more resourceful, practical, and beneficial to my content area.
I agree that I had to read the article twice to understand all of the authors points. I like that you related the quotes you choose to the game we are currently playing. I also was glad that you gave an example of a game that is used to teach energy conservation. I believe that we will see companies producing more games such as the energy game as industry see technology being used more in the classroom. In FACS as you know we teach decision making, resource conservation, being responsible for choices and working with others and I can see using games like Gardens Of Time to reinforce these concepts. I also like the idea of students being able to work toward a goal and have the ability to achieve success which can help build confidence. I can see that certain games can be use in the classroom and think we will see more games being developed for that purpose. Thanks for sharing the link for the Chervon energy game.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I had to read carefully to understand the article. However, the author summarized 8 ideas about how simulation games can be beneficial to the learning process. I like the fact that the article related to the game we are currently playing together. By playing the game and analyzing the game, we as teachers are able to pick the right game to teach the concept we are currently teaching.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the article we had to read was geared more as a compare and contrast article, than a pure research article. The author tried to compare games, such as MMORPG's to scientific simulations to convince readers that there are inherent attributes to gaming to the education world. From what I could gather from the article, there were three main ideas. First was relevance to education. In the attempt to compare Simulated Gaming environments and scientific silmulations, he, in my opinion, was trying to display gaming as a viable option to eduction. THe second idea was the concepts that students can take from games. A large portion of this article was dedicated to convincing the readers that not only might the content of games be important, but the skills utilized in the game are important. THe third idea presented was the door that games can open in education. He discussed different games, and their different styles. Not only hitting upon MMORPG's but single player simulations such as strategy games like Civilization. In this section he tried to display the versatility of gaming to education, that it can have many different applications for different situations. If nothing else, he was big on "situations" in this article, stating that in many games such as MMORPG's each student will grasp different knowledge and concepts based upon their situation at that specific time.
ReplyDeleteWow Katie and the rest! I also thought the article was hard to understand but the author is a pioneer in the field of video games and learning and the points he makes about their learning benefits are powerful! Katie, I was having trouble seeing how Gardens of Time reflected some of the characteristics for good games as describe by Gee but you gave outstanding examples of these attributes! Well done! John, you are correct that the article was not research based but a theoretical piece which has spawned a great deal of actual research on the benefits of video games for learning!
ReplyDeleteGreat discussion everyone!