schliz writes “Like in World of Warcraft, students of Indiana University’s game design classes start as Level 1 avatars with 0 XP, and progress by completing quests solo, as guilds, or in ‘pick up groups.’ Course coordinator Lee Sheldon says students are responding with ‘far greater enthusiasm,’ and many specifics of game design could also be directly applied to the workforce. These included: clearly defining goals for workers; providing incremental rewards; and balancing effort and reward.”
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dcollins writes “Researchers at Denison University in Ohio have shown that giving PlayStations to young boys leads to slower progress in reading and writing skills. Quoting: ‘The study is the first controlled trial to look at the effects of playing video games on learning in young boys. That is to say, the findings aren’t based on survey data of kids’ game habits, but instead on a specific group of children that were randomly assigned to receive a PlayStation or not … Those with PlayStations also spent less time engaged in educational activities after school and showed less advancement in their reading and writing skills over time than the control group, according to tests taken by the kids. While the game-system owners didn’t show significant behavioral problems, their teachers did report delays in learning academic skills, including writing and spelling.’”
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kdawson on
Mar 12, 2010
krou writes “The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story about how the University of Wyoming’s English Department is helping fund a collective called the Learning Games Initiative to study video games. Jason Thompson, an assistant professor at UW who is part of the group, explains that ‘it’s a group of people [who] do research on games, do development on games, and keep an archive of games printed matter such as manuals, … systems, all of it. We really look at games as cultural artifacts; things that reveal theology, things that reveal power. Things that should be studied in the academy.’ The English Department has been very open-minded with the project, because they understand that gaming can educate people, and that ‘we can expand our notion of what text and study is; the idea that it might be fun doesn’t necessarily preclude its study.’ Thompson believes that it’s important for academia to study gaming, because games could be used in the future as a type of textbook: ‘if games can teach, then as teachers shouldn’t we understand what kind of teaching’s going on?’”
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A piece up at Mashable explores how some schools and universities are finding success at integrating social gaming into their education curriculum. Various game-related programs are getting assistance these days from sources like the government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“For the less well-to-do educator, the Federation of American Scientists has developed a first-person shooter-inspired cellular biology curriculum. Gamers explore the fully-interactive 3D world of an ill patient and assist the immune system in fighting back a bacterial infection. Dr. Melanie Ann Stegman has been evaluating the educational impacts of the game and is optimistic about her preliminary findings. ‘The amount of detail about proteins, chemical signals and gene regulation that these 15-year-olds were devouring was amazing. Their questions were insightful. I felt like I was having a discussion with scientist colleagues,’ said Stegman. Perhaps more importantly, the video game excites students about science. Motivating more youngsters to adopt a science-related career track has became a major education initiative of the Obama administration. So desperate to find a solution that motivates students to become scientists, the government has even enlisted Darpa, the Department of Defense’s ‘mad scientist’ research organization, to figure out a solution.”
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ub3r n3u7r4l1st sends along this snippet from Science Daily:
“Computer games have a broad appeal that transcends gender, culture, age and socio-economic status. Now, computer scientists in the US think that creating computer games, rather than just playing them, could boost students’ critical and creative thinking skills as well as broaden their participation in computing. … ‘Worldwide, there is increasing recognition of a digital divide, a troubling gap between groups that use information and communication technologies widely and those that do not,’ the team explains. ‘The digital divide refers not only to unequal access to computing resources between groups of people but also to inequalities in their ability to use information technology fully.’ There are many causes and proposed solutions to bridging this divide, but applying them at the educational and computer literacy level in an entertaining and productive way might be one of the more successful. The team adds that teaching people how to use off-the-shelf tools to quickly build a computer game might allow anyone to learn new thinking and computing skills.”
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Whoever it was at Sony HQ that decided to pursue “military contracts” as a revenue source, kudos! Mere days after the US Air Force expressed interest in expanding its PS3 supercomputer, we’re hearing glorious Britannia’s Royal Navy has conscripted 230 PSPs into duty as revision aids for its trainee sailors. Loaded with maths and physics materials, the PSPs can be used in a bunk, have familiar controls for the young and mostly male recruits, and are considered pretty tough to break. The underlying reason for this move though is cost cutting: by making the training course more intensive, the Navy is saving on teaching time. Given that the UMD drive won’t come disabled — which is hoped to encourage the sailors to take better care of the device — the future this paints is of marines who’ve spent more time with a freebie handheld console than with a pro instructor. At least they’ll have a great stable of captured monsters to show for it.
[Thanks, pankomputerek]
Sony PSPs enlisted as study aids by the Royal Navy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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drroman22 writes “Schools are working to put real-world relevance into computer science education by integrating video game development into traditional CS courses. Quoting: ‘Many CS educators recognized and took advantage of younger generations’ familiarity and interests for computer video games and integrate related contents into their introductory programming courses. Because these are the first courses students encounter, they build excitement and enthusiasm for our discipline. … Much of this work reported resounding successes with drastically increased enrollments and student successes. Based on these results, it is well recognized that integrating computer gaming into CS1 and CS2 (CS1/2) courses, the first programming courses students encounter, is a promising strategy for recruiting and retaining potential students.” While a focus on games may help stir interest, it seems as though game development studios are as yet unimpressed by most game-related college courses. To those who have taken such courses or considered hiring those who have: what has your experience been?
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