Over the weekend, I had a challenging conversation with a elementary school librarian. He's plays video games with his children at home and likes the idea of gaming in libraries, but is struggle to see how it fits in at the elementary level. We talked about the challenges he sees with bringing gaming into their curriculum.

Our conversation was cut short, as our kids debated who was controlling who was controlling who in Mario Party 8. But I was able to bring up the excellent work that librarians are doing bringing in a variety of game experiences into their libraries. The work done by Chris Harris and Brian Mayer mapping board games to AASL Standards. The work of others holding Alternative Reality Games (ARGs) focused around classroom content. Made for good talking points.

I did give him the link to a good K-12 online presentation on educational gaming that could help support his points when talking with his teachers:

Games in Education: Myths, Realities, and Promise by Sylvia Martinez

While much of it is review for those engaged in the dialogue of games and education, it provides a good entry point for those in K-12 education. She brought up many good points including how traditional edutainment games fail:

“These games fail as authentic learning experiences and do nothing to change the way students learn.”

Martinez also spent time talking about how games in education cannot be isolated just to the game, but need to flow over into peer and classroom discussion:

“As you can see, the role of the teacher is extremely important in balancing gameplay with reflection on the experience.”

“As with many games, the playing is not the power, the learning happens as you analyze mistakes either alone or with friends.”

Martinez treats video games in education like any other instructional technology. Application and reflection are equally important parts of the learning experience. But she points out the same challenges that arose in my conversation with the school librarian:

“The question is: Are games useful in learning or are games useful in school? Right now, unfortunately, these are not the same thing.”

Finding ways to fit games with content and experiences with the existing curriculum as Harris, Mayer, and others are doing is the first step in a long process.

I'm thankful for the challenging conversation about gaming in school libraries. After spending most of my time talking about the educational benefits of gaming, being confronted with the challenging realities of school district pressures, curriculum conflicts, and tight budgets is good. I'm looking forward to continuing our conversation, bringing in other area school librarians, and hopefully (eventually) making some applications for gaming in their libraries.

Martinez's closing thoughts provide words of encouragement for my continued conversation with my discouraged school librarian friend:

“Games are a way to bring joy and excitement into learning, but they need adequate time, matching assessment strategies, and reflective extension activities to make them really worth it.”

Today I had my first Info Lit class of my new job, and it was great to be back in front of students. My energy and job fulfillment come from my interaction with students and getting back teaching breathed life back into me after doing more librarian focused duties for the past few weeks.

I've wrestled with the label of "librarian" for a long time. Am I a librarian who teaches or a teacher who's a librarian? I've struggled with this concept over the last year, trying to determine what choosing one over the other meant for my career. And while there is a clear answer for me based on how I came where I am today, the answer may not be clear for others. But the question is, should it?

At LOEX of the West back in June, Lisa Hinchliffe and Merinda Kaye Hensley spoke about teacher self identity. They described how they were helping create and foster it both in Library Science grad students and in current library faculty. At the beginning of their session, they brought up the concept of "seeing yourself as a teacher, not just assigned teaching duties." This really hit home for me. I am accoustomed to seeing myself as a teacher and sometimes take it for granted that others do.













Off of Lisa's reccomendation during their presentation, I've started reading Parker Palmers' "The Courage to Teach" and read through Scott Walter's "Librarians as Teachers: A Qualitative Inquiry into Professional Identity" article out of College and Research Libraries Janurary issue.

The attendees at the LOEX of the West session brained stormed ideas about "what they wished we known." A partical list is below and it's a great start to reflection over the summer.

• How to "stand" like a teacher
• Creating learning outcomes
• Problems with routine/burnout
• Handling change as teachable moments
• Adapting to learning styles
• Teaching different levels and generations
• How to focus content
• Personal control over content
• Creating collaborations
• Classroom management
• Teaching strategies for engagement and active learning
• Respecting the students and their lives

Where do you fall with the issues? What questions do you have?
We can use the summer not only to get our libraries ready for students in the fall, but ourselves as well.

The ACRL IS section sponsored a session with Jeffrey Liles as the speaker at the ALA conference. Dr. Liles spoke about learning theory and how that can and should translate into the classroom. His theory to practice worksheet can be found on his website along with the conference presentation slides and a host of other resources. His education and learning assumptions (as shown in the slides) are great for any teacher to keep in mind. Some of them fit right into good gaming and good educational pedagogy:

• Less is more
• Student in control of their learning
• Learning is not linear

These assumptions and their connections to learning theory were are great reminder and grounding to start fresh in a new semester and a new classroom.

In my new position I'm spending a lot of time thinking about these teaching issues. I'm working on communicating these ideas and pedagogies to the librarians around me, while still valuing their experience and knowledge. Everyone has something to learn and something to teach. I look forward to experiencing both as a Teacher-Librarian.

Now since this blog focuses on videogames, information literacy, and gaming strategies for pedagogy, teaching philosophy discussions won't happen very often. And just to tie this post back to gaming, here's another example from Teach42's post on creative answers...

From a gamers vocabulary that is a correct answer: "pro" is the opposite of "noob." As teachers, we may never be pros. I'm fine with that. The continued learning and honing of skills is a good thing in the classroom and in any game. While our students may or may not be "noobs" they will grow in their skills as long as we don't consider ourselves too good of "pros" to stop learning and practicing.

Images from Steve Dembo at Teach42 post full of funny test answers from students

It's another week and while Library Voice and I are a little late to the table (finals week and all) we are back with another Vs. Mode. Chad starts off with a post on video games, mastery, and education. He raises questions about if games teach by repetition (die & try) or through practice (replay)? I'll first touch upon how games teach through each strategy and then move the discussion to what we can and should do about it.

“Try and Die”

As Chad talks about the try and die gameplay mechanic, “Typically, if you get beaten by a level boss, you have to fight him again and again until you defeat him. Once you get enough practice by getting beaten over and over again, you eventually (hopefully) develop enough skills or learn more about the boss to defeat him.” This is video games version of teaching to the test. Granted this is a gameplay mechanic originally applied due to the quarter eating economics of arcades, then to AI limitations, and eventually it simply became a video game tradition. There is most certainly skill here is the successful completion of a mission or a boss fight. But it is the same type of skill developed in schools to pass and perform well on skill and drill tests.

Gameplay teaches to the test be allowing players to practice a specific skill in the level that will be used against a boss battle. Anyone who’s played a Zelda game will understand the logic of, “If I just got bombs in this boss dungeon, then I must use bombs against the boss.” Now granted there is something to be said for the “just in time,” as Gee describes it, delivery of information that makes the information relevant and important to the user/gamer. But the method of gameplay, or teaching for that matter, that focuses on just passing the boss or the assignment is simply an extension of skill and drill educational practices. A class is passed, a mission is completed, period. Under this method the grade or the amount of health left doesn’t make a difference. One life bar or ten, the battle is over… move on.

Now I’m not the first to use gaming analogies to criticize some traditional educational methods. Others have done it before and done it better. I was rereading an article from Kurt Squire last week from Innovate (2005) and he leveled criticism at skill and drill assessment and traditional curriculum. What is important in this discussion is not the limitations of “teaching to the gameplay test” but how to get beyond it to the mastery level of skill.

Mastery through Play

Chad’s idea of mastery through play really boils down to “good enough” not being “good enough.” Game players may pass a level, but will they return to it again for a better rating/score or to unlock some additional material. While the player was “good enough” to move beyond the level there is often some incentive, either intrinsic or extrinsic, for them to come back. Chad’s question is about how we can create this incentive to come back and continue searching with our students.

Before we try to answer that question, let’s look a little bit more a some examples from games to gain a better understanding of what creates this incentive. Chad uses the example of Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror for the PSP (and ported to PS2). Dark Mirror uses both narrative and gameplay incentives to elicit mastery from players. Each level contains hidden folders that provide additional information about the larger story and conspiracy that occurs throughout the game. This is an embedded narrative device to motivate players to explore more even after they were “good enough” to pass the level. The gameplay incentive is tied to gaining a better rating or score for completing the level, similar to what Chad described.

[It is useful to know the distinction between these motivations because it speaks to games recognizing different learning styles. What connects with some players/learners will not connect with others, so building both styles into the gameplay creates an appeal to a larger audience. It may not immediately seem relevant to talk about video games teaching to different learning styles, but the consideration is there (but that is a discussion for another Vs. Mode).]

I’ve recently played Syphon Filter for the PSP as well, but I’ve been playing the online game Combat Ops. The online multiplayer version encourages mastery through play at the gameplay level. While a player may be good enough to help his team win a match, there is always room to improve. The improvement is encouraged as a player can play similar maps again and again against the same or different opponents. Even though I know I’m not even close to the mastery level in the game, I still continue to return, practice, and hopefully improve. Most online multiplayer games encourage mastery through play, since there is never a next level. Players continue to play matches with and against each other not for the story, but the gameplay. Multiplayer games add a social dimension to mastery, a player’s skills also increases their perceived valued in an online community.

Puzzle and racing games apply the concept of mastery through play as well. A player may pass an individual puzzle or track but there is always the incentive to come back for a higher score or faster time. Most non-story based games use mastery through play as a motivating concept to keep players coming back to the game. This week’s release of Boom Blox for the Nintendo Wii is a great example of this. As you can see from the gameplay trailer below, it is a puzzle game based around the basic idea of building up blocks and knocking them over. There are single player missions where good enough can get a player by. But the majority of the gameplay centers on getting a better rating/score for a level. Players return because the game is enjoyable and there is both an intrinsic and extrinsic desire to do better. The extrinsic reward is the better score or unlocking new content. But the intrinsic reward of having fun or a sense of accomplishment, will always be a more powerful reason to draw players back into games.

Now let’s look again at Chad’s question:

My question is this: 1) Does real learning occur in video games with these methods? 2) Can these teaching methods be replicated outside of the video game world? 3) Which method (if any) should educators and librarians employ when teaching our students? 4) Finally, can we do this without making it too dorky for our students?

1) Yes real learning does occur in both of these methods. But as discussed above, the “teaching to the test” mentality of Mastery of “try and die” is a short term skill. A player who’s barely passed a level once is not guaranteed to pass during another try, if they are not keeping their skill set up. “Mastery through practice” creates long term learning (of gameplay mechanics at least) through practice and continued use. This learning and retention of skill sets falls neatly into place with our experiences in educational environments.

2) The intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that the games mentioned above can be created in our classrooms. Teachers attempt to incorporate these various incentives and learning styles on a regular basis. The challenge is not only in creating these methods in the classroom but retaining them. For librarians how do we get past the “good enough” mentality of students searching for results and doing research? Creating experiences that get beyond “passing the level” is something we continue to struggle with. The hardest question is not if they can, it is how can they?

3) I sure hope that I’ve answered this question above… Mastery through play is a wonderful application when we can achieve it.

4) Ah, the “dorky” librarian question. I believe the answer to avoiding the “dorky” factor as Chad put it, is not to try to shoehorn our instruction into a game mentality. Yes, sometimes games are appropriate but not everything needs to be a game. A classroom setting can be just as engaging through gaming strategies and other teaching strategies without having to play a “game” with our students.

Creating a game sets a pretty high bar of expectations for students. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying and investing in projects and grants to create games. [Those are important and should continue] But it does mean it is not the only path. We can and should be using video games and gaming strategies to inform our teaching, not just simply to do our teaching.

So Chad if we agree that “mastery through play” is an ideal application of helping students move past the “good enough” mentality of the first 3 results in Google or the first page in EBSCO – how do we create it?

What steps can we start taking now to foster this mentality?

Can we ever foster it?

I’m already starting a response to my own question… I believe the answer lies in a combination of new gaming strategies and traditional education pedagogy. How about you?

This week I am starting an ongoing series of weekly posts and discussions with Chad Boeninger, from Library Voice, on the education value of a new game on sale that week or related game series. Chad is an excellent librarian and he and I engage in frequent gaming discussions. This series is an attempt to formalize some of those discussions and share them with the larger library community. We are modeling the format after what Stephen Totilo has done with his Vs. Modes over at the MTV Multiplayer.

This series is designed as a way to offer various viewpoints on new games and their related series as well as creating talking points for those who are looking to advocate for video game not simply as a service to our patrons, but as a way to enhance and improve video game’s application in education. It is our hope that the dialog will be interesting and helpful for librarians interested in video games, learning, and libraries.

And so without further ado, Grand Theft Auto IV…

With news stories in the NY Times and NPR over the last 24 hours on the release of Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA4) and the months of building media by gaming outlets, it will be almost impossible for any another other game this year to match the hype and sales (and probably the controversy as well). While some may look at the game and worry for the future of our children, I look at the game and I’m thankful for the practical problem solving and critical thinking it requires.

Back at the beginning of April, Chad picked up a post by Wired’s Game|Life Chris Kohler about his experience playing GTA for the first time. Chad quoted Kohler and wrote:

• Kohler:You have to park the car perfectly. On my second try, I got the car back with time to spare, but pulled it in the wrong way. The game told me I had to park correctly, so I tried to, but the car I’d originally arrived in was blocking the way and I couldn’t get it right. Then, while trying to adjust the car’s position, I slammed it into the wall and now it was busted up. Mission failed. What did this teach me? The next time I did this mission, I parked the first car way outside the lot, thus leaving myself a clean path to pull the bomb-car in next time.

Once you successfully make it out of this mission, you’ll have learned a great deal about the rules of the game. As such, accomplishing all of this was a great feeling.

Boeninger: Yes, while the Grand Theft Auto series is controversial and a bit violent, this excerpt is a prime example the learning process in video games.

Now I do not disagree that the GTA series has some educational value, it is not in the trail and error method that Kohler described. Grand Theft Auto III series of games were not good teachers. Sure the games provided the player with an opportunity to try a new skill, in Kohler's example driving without crashing, but the game left it up to you to lean the skills. While the player's actions certainly had consequences (scratched car = failed mission) there was not a supporting structure their to practice the skill. Unlike a game like God of War were skills are slowing doled out with directions and practice or Zelda Twilight Princess that sets you on a ranch to practice and learn your skills.

Grand Theft Auto is the teacher who asks the question and when the wrong answer is given, quietly sits and waits for the right answer to appear. Giving the student / player the space and allowing them to make their own connections.

That space is where GTA succeeds in educational value. Every corner is filled with potential problems or fun events and it is necessary to think critically about a range of possible solutions to any given problem. GTA allows the player space to apply critical thinking skills to the world and seek out any number of possible solutions to a problem.

This problem solving creativity was highlighted by Kohler, Jeremy Parish, and others on this past week's Retronauts video game podcast. They describe parking cars at the exist before starting a mission to prevent the character from escaping. This open ended and forward thinking problem solving exists in most missions allowing the player to create their own game based on preferences but also live with the consequences.

GTA series does have educational value, but it is not a good teacher. It creates a world of possibilities and asks the player to think of creative solutions and how those choices affect the world around the character.

Chad is GTA a teacher or is it a classroom waiting to students to explore?

GTA Box art from Global Nerdy

After a busy week of teaching and shoveling out of more Midwest ice & snow, I'm finally catching up on my RSS feeds covering the GDC conference. I wrote earlier in the week on a couple educational focused sessions and some coverage on Nora Paul's mod of NeverWinter Nights. Some of the mainstream video game press covered the session about the University of Minnesota's journalism game.

Kotaku's Brain Crecente (who the game is named after) had a detailed write-up of the session and some more background of the game's history:

"The idea was to develop a game that would reinforce good reporting practices."

In the game, the players take on the role of a reporter (no, not me) who is covering an accident in which a train carrying anhydrous ammonia hits a truck and derails, forcing the evacuation of the surrounding neighborhood.

"We had to create the city...22 different characters," she said.

Students had to figure out what story angle they wanted to take, covering the health, public safety, transportation safety or environmental issues, before getting started. Once they figured that out that have to identify the important questions, collect the necessary background information, find the right sources and interview them, keep notes, and eventually return to the newsroom to write and file a story to the paper's website.

Christ Baker over at WIRED's Game|Life had another write-up, including some personal observations:

Paul says that they were pleased with the result, though there were some bugs and bad design choices. Students didn't like that their avatar didn't have a cell phone, and needed to go back to the office every time they wanted to call a source and set up an interview. The sword and sorcery trappings of NWN were minimized, but still present. For instance, the editor character is built off an ogre-like NWN character type. (Some reporters who consulted on the game said that seemed entirely appropriate to them.)

Due to a programming bug, the ogre/editor will block the virtual Crecente's exit from the newspaper office, and the only way to leave is to do battle hand let him kill you.

It looks kludgey and low tech, which Paul freely cops to. The team at the University of Minnesota are reworking the game on a newer engine. Still, the game seems like it has the potential to be a useful teaching tool.

I look forward to reading more about the experience of creating the game and how the application works out. Last year, presentation slides and other materials were posted about a few weeks after the conference. So I'm hopeful that the session's slides will appear sometime in March.


Photo by Kotaku

On Thursday, I posted Anne Marie Gruber's feedback on using the Library Dusk lesson as a review. I am very pleased with her experience with the lesson and I'm thankful that she was willing to share about it.

It is in that same spirit of sharing that I want highlight Anne Marie's commitment to her profession and her students. Anne Marie started at the University of Dubuque in January of 2006, as the Reference and Instruction Librarian for the First Year Experience. In her 2 years, the position has morphed as she and the library have grown professionally. Anne Marie is the library liaison for the nursing program, natural sciences, and computer graphics. She has led the way at the University of Dubuque in collaboration and outreach to her liaison departments creating newsletters and blogs for her faculty. Her CGInspiration blog is used as a resource by both faculty and students.

In addition to her commitment to the University of Dubuque, she has authored articles including one we co-authored with the Library Director. She also serves as the Secretary / Treasurer for the Iowa Library Association - ACRL.

It is my pleasure and fortune to work with Anne Marie. Her willingness to continue to innovate and standardize our information literacy program is a great asset to the library and our students. In addition to applying and refining gaming strategies in information literacy, Anne Marie is always willing to play some DDR at the library's finals week study breaks...



Thank you.

I want to congratulate Mark Wagner and his wife Eva on their new son Clark. Mark is one of the people I've met through my work on Research Quest. Mark's been Twittering about his experiences during the pregnancy, in additional to whole variety of other issues. While I'm not the most active Twitter user (twitter ID: researchquest) as a husband and father I could relate.

Not only is Mark an active Twitter user, but he is an researcher and advocate of video games and education. I've followed Mark's work through his Educational Technology and Life blog for a while. His mBlogger: Research Quest - Create Postost recent post is a great resource for video games and education. The post discusses a conversation he had with a school superintendent, gamer, and father.

Ultimately, he’s sees the dynamic, social, and global nature of his gaming community as a positive alternative to the often “flat” culture of classrooms. (In this sense he doesn’t mean “flat” as in Freidman’s “the world is flat” or Davis and Lindsey’s “flat classroom.” He means it is static and boring as opposed to dynamic and exciting.)

Mark provides a number of resource links to his work including:
Books on Educational Gaming
Educational Gaming Issue Summaries
Chapters from his dissertation on video games & education

If you haven't read any of Mark's work, this post is a great place to start.

Congratulations to Mark, Eva, their new son Clark!

At the LOEX 2007 conference in San Diego, Fred Roecker and members of the design team spoke about the process and challenges of their orientation game project. Their power point presentation and handout can be found here under “A Game Based Approach to Library Orientation.” The design team consisted of Roecker, Nancy O’Hanlon, Karen Diaz, Tingting Lu, and Jim Muir. Since I introduced the game yesterday, I want to take some time to provide more background on how it was developed. The following is a write up my notes from OSU's LOEX presentation.

Groundwork for Game

The game was created around a desire to reach each of the approximately 6,000 incoming students at OSU. In years past, OSU had a 1 credit orientation but even then the library component was optional. But that course was no longer offered. As of 2006, there was not a library orientation and this game was designed to fill that gap.

With data that showed students decided about staying in college within the first six weeks of a semester. , the team wanted to create a positive library experience. The design team benefited from administrative support to create some type of orientation that both parents and students could be involved in. This opportunity and support lead to the initial planning of an orientation game back in May of 2006.

Initially the team surveyed students to find out some specific needs that the orientation could address. Of the students surveyed, 60% had visited one of the libraries but only 29% had some library introduction. Students also didn’t know what the library offered for resources and didn’t know where to find the different libraries around campus.

Initial Game Design

Based on these student responses the team started planning for a game that would include a series of quests that the student would complete to find out information. The information would be disseminated through digital stories, games, puzzles, and video clips. The concept for the game included students guiding an avatar through the quests, interacting with non-playable characters who helped advance the narrative, and answering questions after each quest.

After some initial feedback, the team realized that this linear design approached the game more like an assignment than a game. In addition to the linear initial design, the game was envisioned as a CD based game but student feedback suggested that incoming students would not use a disc based orientation experience. The original designed included many diverse learning objectives which were ultimately pared down to create a more focused experience.

Once again and from the top – Successful Revision

Realizing the flaws in their initial design, the team scrapped their concepts and started fresh. The design team began using Marc Prensky’s work and others that discuss game based learning. The team wanted to incorporate those principles into their development. They focused on opening up the structure, removing the linear nature, reducing the number of learning objectives. The concept of “Head Hunt” emerged out of these discussions.

“Head Hunt” used a simplified story, centered around campus as the narrative. The game design became nonlinear as clues and games were located at each of the libraries locations on the game map. The design required games to be completed successfully to solve the larger mystery of the missing head. While games were required to advance, the order was left to the student. In addition, not all games needed to be completed to solve the puzzle.

The design team used Google Maps as a base for navigation. Hot Potatoes was used to create the minigames (matching, crossword, and others). Adobe Captivate was used for screen shots within the games. The entire game was designed to be completed in 30 minutes or so. The web based game allowed the team to track what students logged in, how long they played for, how many times they played, and if they completed the puzzle of the missing head. In addition to the usage statistics, the game included an evaluation at the end.

The team spent a lot of time and effort creating, applying, and analyzing their game based orientation. If you haven’t tried it yet, please do so here and leave the team your thoughts and feedback.

During the fall of 2007, Ohio State University implemented a new library orientation game for incoming students. The game was developed as a new way to introduce new students to the variety of services and materials offered by the many libraries at OSU. The design team consisted of Fred Roecker, Nancy O'Halon, Karen Diaz, Tingting Lu, and Jim Muir. The game is an interesting way to reach out to a large number students and provide students with a reason / goal to keep exploring the different library sites. Fred Roecker described the game as:

The goal of the game is to discover the location of the head of Brutus Buckeye (the OSU mascot). There are five short films and eight casual games to give players an overview of our library facilities, resources, procedures, and people. Successful completion of a game awards the player with one clue letter. Collect them all and unscramble these letters to reveal the library location of Brutus' head. There is a comment form for players to give their impressions of the game as well.

The game uses a map of the OSU campus along with Google Maps to provide the game board for players to navigate around the campus. Clicking on each library location will either bring up a short video or a simple minigame both of which provide more detail on the library shown on the map. The games include call number matching, multiple choice questions about library services, matching databases to their content, crossword puzzles, and others. One game requires students to click on a screenshot of the OSU libraries webpage to answer different questions. The game provides an interactive tour of the Library's webpage and services available through it. Upon completion of each minigame the student is given a letter that helps unlock where the mascot's head is hidden.

During an mail conversation from October 2007, Fred Roecker discussed the progress of the game and student use:

The Head Hunt library orientation game has gone very well. We placed teaser flyers in all freshmen packets which were distributed during their on-campus orientations during the summer. In September, each student received an email notification about the game, a listing of the prizes in the drawing for those who successfully complete the game, and the URL to begin playing.

There was a follow up reminder email as well as a note sent to the families of the new students inviting them to play along with their students to learn about the
libraries. We also contacted all the dorm Resident Advisors to let
them publicize the game in their dorms since we have a new graph that
displays numbers of students playing the game by dorm and also by
college.

As of mid-October, they had around 800 students play the game and about 100 guests. After mid-October and the window of new student orientation passed, the librarians administered a "Student Perceptions" survey to about 1,000 students. This survey focused on how and if students are using the libraries and their resources. Since the library had data on which students played the game, they are planning to analyze the surveys to see difference in those who had and had not played. Also since the same survey was given in 2006, the librarians planned to compare the results this year to the previous one.

Before the classes ended in December, I had a follow-up conversation with Fred where he had this to say on the student feedback:

The first quarter freshmen student players gave us very positive feedback on the experience and the information they found in the game. A drawing for prizes was used as an incentive. Information about the development of the game can be found in the "About Head Hunt" link on the opening screen.

I encourage everyone to go and try out OSU's Head Hunt. The game may not actively engage them like "I'll Get It," but it does introduce a lot of library content in a more active way than OSU had traditionally done. The games are not a deep, meaningful experience, but they were not designed to be. The larger narrative of finding the "head" gives students a reason to continue playing and the games offer enough variety to keep students wanting to see what game comes next.

Head Hunt works for what it is - a creative and engaging interactive tour of the OSU libraries and services.

Over the semester break I spent many hours wrapped up in the world of Sid Meir’s Pirates for the PSP. The game puts the player in the role of young man in the 1600 who turns to piracy to rescue his family from an evil baron. The player can choose to align with the English, French, Dutch, or Spanish at the start of the game, but after that the world is wide open. Like any good game, Pirates drew me into it’s world and made me want to clear the seas of other pirates, claim ports for my nation, and win the heart of a governor’s daughter. While playing though, I’m learning through procedural literacy. I’m learning about a variety of ships and sailing requirements during that timeframe. I’m learning about the simplified political dynamics of the exploration and settlement of the “new world.” While the game is male centric (no female pirates and an overemphasis on bar maids) it is an engaging and thought provoking experience.

Thanks to Sid Mier’s and Civilization, I’ve played educational video games for the last 15 years. One of my high school history teachers was using video games to teach with the first Civilization. As a freshmen and sophomore in high school, I didn’t see the value in using it to teach. Friends at school talked about how great the class was because all you did was play the game. And that was and still is my concern with games that teach… the need for reflection and discussion. While my friends were excited to just play the game, the teacher did incorporate discussions about strategy, tactics, technology, and civilization building into class. Combing the game with discussion and historical lectures and readings created a much deeper understanding than just traditional textbook based teaching.

Not only was the game useful within the classroom, it also created enough investment and excitement that students went to the library during study halls and lunch hours to keep playing. The game was an experience that grew outside of class. And this is still a strength and a goal of educational games today – players that keep playing & learning long after the class period is over. As a testament to my learning (or loneliness) there were many Saturday nights during high school that I spent playing and replaying historical maps and writing new histories with Civilization.

I returned to the Civilization series in 2003 while I was student teaching. I spent many long nights preparing lesson plans and playing Civilization II. I was the one now teaching freshmen in high school about world history. But I missed the opportunity to learn from my own experiences. Playing Civilization created a deeper meaning for me in high school, but I didn’t bring that into my student teaching. While I was playing and creating histories at night on my computer, I didn’t bring the game into the classroom. Looking back on it now, I wish I had.

The procedural literacy that students build through games is important for making a subject feel more alive and developing a deeper understanding. While I brought other technologies (laptops and palm pilots) into the classroom I didn’t bring video games. I played things conservatively and stuck with the status quo. I missed my chance in a high school classroom, but I’m working to create those opportunities within college classrooms. I hope that the continued discussion, research, and experiments will encourage others to take advantage of opportunities to enhance our students learning and understanding through games.

Thank you Sid Meirs’ for creating games that helped me learn and encouraged me to explore. Video games create a deeper understanding through procedural literacy… as long as we as educators are willing to apply them.

Images of Sid Mier's Pirates from Gamespot
Images of Civilization from Wikipedia
Images of Cilvilzation II from Gamespot

One week into our second semester and our information literacy program has already taught 24 sessions. Not a bad start to what should be a record setting year for the number of information literacy sessions taught. With all these sessions, the four librarians are finding ways to keep video game strategies part of out planning discussions and classroom sessions. We are doing so, not by “forcing the fun.” Video game strategies do not need a lesson plan that includes a game to work. The strategies stand on their own and work well integrated into existing classes.

During the fall semester, our instruction program came up with a few creative ways to integrate gaming strategies (the APA Stump the Expert session is one example). But more than focus be creative in the classroom, gaming strategies shaped the way we talked about classroom instruction. Regardless of what class we met about, or what assignment we brainstormed on, the strategies below always factored into our instruction design.

As the Spring 2008 semester begins at colleges and universities around the country, I encourage everyone reading to keep these teaching strategies in mind when creating instruction sessions. The list is simple, and while not as detailed as Gee’s work or the analysis of others, it’s a place to start.

For librarians wanting to try these, but face reluctance and skepticism over “video games” – shhh – don’t tell anyone this are video game strategies. Remember games work because all of these strategies are going on during gameplay. Do not limit instruction design to only one or two of these. Apply the strategies together.

For those interested in getting started, do not force the fun. Creativity will come.

The process of playing a game creates a learning experience beyond the content communicated on screen. Videogames create opportunities for players to understand and empathize with real-world situations. Games help players learn through doing. Bogost describes this learning experience is described as procedural literacy. Videogame players learn by actively taking part in a process. Players make decisions based on information, experience the results of those decisions, and adjust future strategies based on those results. Videogames are an active learning experience.

Looking back on what I wrote about the top 10 list of educational games that John Rice created, almost all of the games teach through procedural literacy:

Revolution – puts the player into the world of colonial America and requires them to make decisions and adjust to the decisions of others. It teaches, not through cut scenes but through conversations. Players learn naturally through the very act of playing.

River City – players explore and use the scientific method to solve the problem plaguing the city.

Arden – encourages players to explore the world during Shakespeare’s time, learning about the content and people through interactions

The History of Canada uses the Civilization III engine allowing players to player through historic events.

America’s Army puts players into the roles of different military positions; a recent story shows the power of procedural literacy when a man responded to a crash and dressed the wounds based on his training in the game

Sim City is, well Sim City. Enough said.

The majority of the titles on Rice’s list use procedural literacy to teach and help players learn.

What other games use procedural literacy well?

Since it's the end of the year and I'm in the process of tying up unfinished posts from the fall. Here's a post from Educational Technology and Life that's worth bringing back up to highlight. Mark Wagner’s work is usually excellent and worth discussing. Back in October, Mark posted his NECC 2008 proposals, including one on learning and school classrooms as MMORPG.

Mark provided an overview of his proposal, but the more interesting information is included in his complete NECC submission including:

Purpose:

The goal of this study is to identify potential applications of massively multiplayer online role-playing games as constructivist learning environments in the context of formal K12 education. The purpose is to identify the potential benefits and drawbacks of such applications and to recommend courses of action for future research by academics, future game development by industry professionals, and future instructional decisions made by public educators.

Questions Posed:

- What are the potential benefits of using MMORPGs as constructivist learning environments in formal K12 education?

- What are the potential problems related to using MMORPGs as constructivist learning environments in formal K12 education?

Additionally, based on the literature review the following six research questions will be used to focus the study:

- Engagement and motivation: How might MMORPGs be used to motivate and engage students, and what problems might be associated with using MMORPGs for this purpose?

- Context: How might MMORPGs be used to provide a context for student learning, and what problems might be associated with using MMORPGs for this purpose?

- Inquiry: How might MMORPGs be used to provide students with opportunities for inquiry-based learning, and what problems might be associated with using MMORPGs for this purpose?

- Social Negotiation: How might MMORPGs be used to support social negotiation of meaning (including facilitated collaboration, cooperation, and competition), and what problems might be associated with using MMORPGs for this purpose?

- Reflection: How might MMORPGs be used to encourage student reflection and metacognition, and what problems might be associated with using MMORPGs for this purpose?

- Social Change: How might MMORPGs used in formal K12 education be used to effect positive social change?

Mark's blog is an excellent resource for these questions and discussion around them. Much of Mark's thesis content and research is contained within Educational Technology and Life. Thank you Mark for sharing your work.

Over at Educational Games Research, John Rice, provide an excellent year end "top 10 list" of free educational video games. I've tried most of these, but if you haven't here's a great chance to catch up.

John's list includes a number of games that I've talked about over the past year including Food Force (students' reactions) and Revolution (including my three part interview with co-creator Matthew Weise pts:1, 2, 3).

John's list also includes Arden, which while I was excited to see how it turned out the results were not as exciting as planned. But Arden's creators have opened it up to everyone and there is some real future potential for creating learning communities there, even without a driving narrative experience. MIT's Technology Review has a good overview article on Arden as well.

John Rice's blog is consistently a good read for anyone interested in applying video games in education. Thank you for the list John.

At Games, Learning, and Libraries Symposium last week, Dr. Henry Jenkins identified four sets of skills that students today need. Jenkins stated that, we as librarians and educators, can address these literacy skills. We can help supply these needs and deal with these problems through the following 11 skills:

• Play: Having the capacity to experiment and problem solve is at the core of research. Whenever I sit down to do a search, I’m experimenting with terms and strategies. I’m testing hypothesizes on where to look and what to look for. Searching is the scientific process. Testing the search hypothesis, analyzing the results, and drawing conclusions about how to search based on the results. If this searching process fits Jenkins’ explanation of play, why do our students see it as work? Why not emphasis this experimenting as play? Try it, doesn’t work, tinker and test, and then try again. Do students see searching as work because there is an assignment attached or because they have little motivational incentive test and play around? What if we make their initial searches cooperative or competitive? I am teaching a research writing library session on the second day of class this fall. The students have very little context for their geographic based research topics. I hope to tap into this concept by structuring their initial searches as a playful experiment, where we don’t know the right answers but digging around for topics (good or bad topics) gives us a place to start.
• Simulation: If we want to structure some of our sessions a playful experimenting, we still want students to interpret dynamic models of real world processes and understand the impacts of changing variables. This could be as basic as changing search parameters to see how the results react. But it could be carried out through giving students real world research questions and having them make decisions and draw conclusions based on them, making sure to include time for reflection and discussion.

Project NML helped develop the withpaper on these problems and potential solutions; resources available at projectnml.org

Due to the length of my final reflections, I've split them into 4 sections

At Games, Learning, and Libraries Symposium last week, Dr. Henry Jenkins identified four sets of skills that students today need. Jenkins stated that, we as librarians and educators, can address these literacy skills. We can help supply these needs and deal with these problems through the following 11 skills:

• Performance: The idea of “simulation” ties nicely into Jenkins’ description of performance. We can create situations where our students are not simply just spitting back facts or grabbing quotes from sources as the extent of their application. Regardless if our sessions are one-shots or multiple times, we, as librarians, have the ability to create a learning environment that asks our students to step in and assume a different role (often a fictional one). This role-playing can create more engaging experience for the student and give us a chance to explain how the literacy skills we teach play out in the world outside our educational establishments.
• Appropriation: Now if Jenkins’ describes this skill as the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content, do we see this as the perfect spot to drag out our plagiarism and copyright content and lesions? Don’t our students sample and remix content for almost every research based assignment? If so, the question is do they do it meaningfully? I would safely assume that every educator can think of examples on both sides of this argument. Part of the students ability to meaningfully mix content when trying to inform their peers comes from the need to show support for their argument. Many of our students’ are media literate enough to know that they should question material (whether or not they do is another discussion). I was talking with a student today that didn’t believe 9/11 happened as reported because he couldn’t see all the evidence to support it. The connection is easy – if they don’t trust someone else’s information without sources and support, why should someone trust them?
• Multitasking: I’m guilty of not trusting this. We use software in our teaching lab to lock down the student computers. While our staff mainly use it to improve our pedagogy by involving the students more, we have all slipped into the idea of “locking” down their computers and pushing out our content. All in the hopes that they will not be distracted. What I realized last spring is that pushing it out is all the more distracting. Not allowing the students to multitask actually made them pay less attention. While multitasking the needed to stay cognitively engaged in both their own work and the content from the class in order to keep up. So while some students may seem distracted, their ability to scan the classroom and screen and focus onto salient details is an asset not a drawback. Our job is to play to this multitasking, encourage it, and have it meaningfully shape the session. The student multitasking while I’m speaking could be directed to seek out additional facts about the topic and then share those findings with the class.

Due to the length of my final reflections, I've split them into 4 sections

At Games, Learning, and Libraries Symposium last week, Dr. Henry Jenkins identified four sets of skills that students today need. Jenkins stated that, we as librarians and educators, can address these literacy skills. We can help supply these needs and deal with these problems through the following 11 skills:

• Distributed Cognition: Videogames are tools that we, as players, interact with to expand our mental capacities. Granted players may not sit down to play with that goal, but the result of playing and learning still nets that result. Now how do we translate that to our classrooms? William Shaffer's epistemic games seek to teach some of this meaning. Our educational institutions are intended and hopefully designed to create this meaning and expand students’ mental capacities. But because of the lack of some of these former skills (play, performance) our students are not invested or engaged enough to reach this outcome.
• Collective Intelligence: Knowledge and learning is not (and should not be) an isolated process. The ability for our students to pool their knowledge and compare notes with each other to reach a common goal should not be discouraged. Players working cooperatively either in person or online pool their resources and knowledge to succeed. Students working together can do the same, whether in class or online through social software. Educators promoted and advocated this group learning atmosphere for years, but as I mentioned before this meaning should be positioned beyond the students’ assignments. Connecting students to a larger world and showing their worth in that world is important in cultivating that strength of collective intelligence.
• Judgment = ACRL definition of Information Literacy (find, evaluate, & use)

Due to the length of my final reflections, I've split them into 4 sections

At Games, Learning, and Libraries Symposium last week, Dr. Henry Jenkins identified four sets of skills that students today need:

• traditional print literacy
• research skills / information literacy
• technical skills
• media literacy

Jenkins stated that, we as librarians and educators, can address these literacy skills. We can help supply these needs and deal with these problems through the following 11 skills:

• Transmedia Navigation: For Jenkins this is the ability to deal with flow of stories and information across multiple modalities. Can we as educators use these multiple modalities through cross-curricular assignments and research? We need to find ways to take our assignments beyond their classroom context and apply them and the knowledge they bring elsewhere. Our students are prepared to do this, are we?
• Networking: On its’ surface networking includes the information literacy skills of searching, synthesizing, and disseminating information. But taken to a deeper level (as Jenkins’ example of the internet community’s mapping of Lost’s Darma Project), this synthesis and sharing of information expands well beyond our classrooms. It includes connecting our students with our faculty and helping them share information. It includes connecting our students to researchers in the field or topic of their study/assignment. It includes tapping into a larger community of learners, students, advocates, and researchers for our students to not only see the meaning of their work, but for their work to contribute meaning to others.
• Negotiation: Tapping in and taking part in the networking described above helps our students enter into diverse communities. The next step is to help them navigate those communities by respecting multiple and not just respecting diversity but valuing it. While our might often act as they are in control and in charge, placing them into a larger learning community may put them in a minority (age) and help them understand the need to value diversity opinions, regardless of race, age, gender, or experience.

Project NML helped develop the withpaper on these problems and potential solutions; resources available at projectnml.org

Edit: Sorry if a shortened version of this post hit your RSS reader... my error in mixing Blogger shortcut keys

The concept of Participatory Culture that Jenkins describes helps strengthen critical media consumption and creation:

• Low barriers to expression and engagement: not having a penalty (whether real or imagined) for expressing answers – both the right & wrong answers; these barriers in our classrooms need to be implicit and explicit, our students need to feel comfortable and welcome to engage but we need to be clear that those expressions will not only be welcomed, but encouraged; as librarians and educators we inherently know this, but do our students?
• Kind of informal mentorship: Can we create these between librarians, tutors, and peers? In a class by class setup, these informal mentorships can be constructed. But maintaining them over the length of a semester is more of a challenge. This is where the application of social software strengthens the mentoring roles. Students do not need to physically interact with their mentor in order to gain the benefits of the relationship. The challenge I see here is finding ways for students to want to engage in these relationships. Do not limit the potential mentors to those only on your campuses. I want to try this mentorship with an upper division class, by having my students email the author/faculty member from one of their research articles. This could provide them with an opportunity to expand their understanding of the material and also feel that…
• Members feel that contributions matter: I hope we are already making our students feel this way in our classrooms. But this concept is larger than the classroom. The concept means that our students’ contributions are applied to a larger whole, the campus, discipline, or the general internet. Is anyone having their students edit Wikipedia pages? At LOEX this May, one librarian was discussing making editing & improving or creating a Wikipedia page as an assignment.
  
• Degree of social connection between members: How often do we take a social connection for granted because of the natural dynamics of schools and colleges? Many of the recent web 2.0 applications libraries are using attempt to maintain this interaction and connection outside of the classroom.
  

Tomorrow, I'll finish my reflections on Jenkins' keynote looking at the 11 ways that Jenkins suggested that we can help close the various literacy skills our students need.