Why digital gaming and simulations?
Simply
put, these technologies afford us the ability to convey concepts in new ways
that would otherwise not be possible, efficient, or effective with other
instructional methods. These technologies don’t just help us teach the old
stuff in new ways, they can also help us teach new stuff in new ways. An
activity that is categorized as a game includes tasks that provide an element
of engagement, decision making, and knowledge acquisition from a new
perspective (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011). Digital games, whether computer,
game console, or handheld-based, are characterized by rules, goals &
objectives, outcomes & feedback, conflict/competition/challenge/opposition,
interaction, and representation of story or more simply, “Purposeful,
goal-oriented, rule-based activity that the players perceive as fun” (Klopfer,
2008).
Although
analogous to digital games and often included in the gaming spectrum,
simulations explore and replicate real-life situations (Conrad & Donaldson,
2011). One essential aspect that separates digital games from simulations is
the lack of game dynamics or the “win state” that exists in digital games. The
beauty of simulations is that they create learning opportunities and
experiences that might otherwise never be able to be created in the traditional
classroom---learning experiences that are authentic models of real world
situations, allowing for strong transfer of understanding to real world
situations. Shaffer (2006) explains, “computers…let us work with simulations of
the world around us…and these simulations let us play with reality by creating
imaginary worlds where we can do things that we otherwise couldn’t do at all”.
Not only is this highly motivating and engaging for students, it allows
students to retain, connect and transfer learning from these experiences to
future learning and experiences.
SimSchool (http://www.simschool.org) is a classroom simulation that supports the rapid
accumulation of a teacher's experience in analyzing student differences,
adapting instruction to individual learner needs, gathering data about the
impacts of instruction, and seeing the results of their teaching. SimSchool is
like a "flight simulator" for educators - a place where instructors
can explore instructional strategies, examine classroom management techniques,
and practice building relationships with students that will translate into
increased learning.
By creating and playing in virtual
classrooms using interactive features and game-like tools, users can explore
two of the most important questions in effective instruction: How do you learn
to be a teacher? How do you do the processes of planning, thinking and seeing
what students are like before they enter the classroom by reading student
records, understanding some things about their personalities, their
capabilities and their learning styles.
Users can
also experience and practice working with ethnically diverse virtual students,
students with an extensive range of special needs, and students at all levels
of language proficiency. By adjusting the emotional variables openness,
conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism and visual,
auditory, and kinesthetic capacities, SimSchool can generate nearly 1 billion
different student profiles. The intelligence and emotional models that underpin
SimSchool are valid for approximately age five through adulthood.
From this
resource I learned that there can be a significant positive impact in
experiences for teachers to help them become more effective leaders in their
classrooms and learning communities. This resource can also improve pre-service
teachers’ performance in teacher preparation courses and attitudes toward
inclusion of special needs students.
GAPS
(Games and
Professional Simulations)
is a
cooperative group comprised of six research groups across the country
headquartered by the Epistemic Games Group at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison,
home of the Pandora Project.
Pandora Project
(http://edgaps.org/gaps/projects/past-projects/pandora-project/)
is an epistemic game developed by David Williamson Shaffer and a team of
researchers at Harvard University. In the game, players become high-powered
negotiators, deciding the fate of a real medical controversy: the ethics of
transplanting organs from animals into humans. Along the way, they learn about
biology, international relations, and mediation.
X-Gen is a
leading global pharmaceutical company with world headquarters in the Republic
of Swindonia. Researchers at the company have been working for over a decade to
make it possible to transplant organs from one species to another, a technique
known as xenotransplantation. Yesterday, X-Gen’s scientists announced that they
are ready to begin clinical trials on humans at their research center in the
capital city of Hoggopolis.
Their
announcement created a firestorm within the scientific and medical community.
Proponents argue that xenotransplantation might end the shortage of organs for
patients suffering from late-stage organ failure who need transplants to
survive. Opponents say there are too many potential problems associated with
taking organs from one species, X-Gen plans to use pigs, and transplanting them
into humans. A virus that flourishes in pigs could infect the human recipient
and be transmitted from that patient to the general public, causing an
epidemic. It is clear to the scientific community that this is a possible risk.
Thus begins The Pandora Project. The scientists of Swindonia aren’t sure how
likely the dire scenario of global pandemic from xenotransplantation might be,
and neither are scientists in the real world. X-Gen and Swindonia don’t exist,
but the organ donor shortage and the risk of diseases that migrate from one
species to another are all too real.
The game
begins with a multimedia introduction to the issues of xenotransplantation: a
cut-scene that gives an overview of the game to come. Players take on
stakeholder roles in groups of three and spend several class periods conducting
a conflict assessment, using internet links in the game to research their
positions on xenotransplantation and the positions of the other stakeholders.
They gather information on genetics, epidemiology, and cell biology they need
to argue for their position. Based on their research, each stakeholder group
prioritizes the issues in the dispute and the various options for each one.
Using these priorities, players divide into groups, with each player
representing a stakeholder in one of three separate negotiations. The
negotiations take place over several hours, and the game ends with the same
kind of debriefing that takes place in a negotiation practicum.
This
learning resource truly creates authentic learning experiences that has meaning
and relates to the real world because it is modeled on the systems of the real
world.
The one
concern I have as an educator incorporating these resources into online
learning experiences involve development costs. Games and simulations that
incorporate artificial intelligence or other advanced features can require a significant
amount of development work which means spending more money than an institution
is willing or budgeted to spend.
References
Conrad,
R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities
and resources for creative instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Klopfer,
E. (2008). Augmented learning: Research and design of mobile educational games.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Shaffer, D.
(2006). How computer games help children learn. New York, NY: Palgrave
Macmillan.
