Issues impacting games based learning in formal secondary education

Transcription

1 Issues impacting games based learning in formal secondary education Draft paper accepted by IJATL by Mary Ulicsak, Keri Facer, Richard Sandford January

2 ABSTRACT This paper proposes a model for analysing the ways in which teachers negotiate the tensions between games narratives and curriculum objectives in incorporating commercial off the shelf computer games into formal educational practice. The paper is based on the year long Teaching with Games project which comprised surveys of over 1,000 teachers and students, and 10 exploratory case studies of teachers use of COTS games in four schools with over 300 children. The games used in the study were The Sims 2, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and Knights of Honor. These were used in traditional lessons and in diverse competency and content based curricular environments. A key finding was that teachers focusing on encouraging competency skills such as teamwork and problem solving were more likely to maintain the overarching narrative of the game in lesson activities than teachers who were focusing on students acquisition of content knowledge. 1. INTRODUCTION In recent years we have witnessed a significant interest in the potential of commercial off theshelf (COTS) computer games to support learning in both formal and informal settings. Researchers from the fields of socio cultural psychology, literacy studies and cultural studies have all argued for a re evaluation of COTS computer games as powerful learning resources in young people s leisure lives [1 4]. They are seen to attract and engage young people to learning who otherwise are seen as disaffected and disinterested in formal education. This academic interest in COTS computer games in non school settings has led some policy makers (particularly in the UK) and industry groups to advocate using COTS computer games in schools [5]. Despite this, however, there have been relatively few studies of how teachers might incorporate such commercial games into the classroom; the factors which might impact on this process; and the types of games most likely to be amenable to this practice. These issues are distinct from 1) studies looking at the impact of edutainment and games designed for education, and 2) the learning achieved by using COTS computer games. This led to the Teaching with Games project, which focused on factors impacting on teachers incorporation of such games into their lessons. The wide range of influences found by the study included: the technical infrastructure and support available to teachers in schools; the professional culture of the school, including approaches to lesson planning, knowledge exchange and organisation of timetables; the expectations held by teachers of children s levels of games literacy and expertise. These themes are discussed more fully in [6]. This paper focuses specifically on one factor, namely the need for teachers to balance and negotiate the integrity of the game narrative against the demands of the curriculum being taught. 2. THE TEACHING WITH GAMES CASE STUDIES Given the setting in schools a formal experiment approach was inappropriate. Thus the case studies conducted consisted of a collaborative partnership between researchers and classroom teachers. The researchers supported the establishment of games workshops and discussion groups between teachers, provided limited technical advice and took responsibility for classroom data collection. Teachers chose one of three pre selected COTS computer games and were then responsible for determining exactly how, when, and which students would use the games, for planning schemes of work and assessment criteria and for managing all classroom activities. This approach was intended to remove certain obstacles likely to render the use of games impossible (such as the selection of unusable games for the classroom, or the presence of challenging technical issues) while at the same time allowing researchers to observe the range of factors shaping teachers incorporation of games into their practice. 1

3 Teachers were free at any time to change or stop using the game if they felt it was inappropriate for their teaching. Between June and August 2005 games and schools were selected and three teachers volunteered from each school. In September a one day workshop was held at which the teachers selected a game to use such that there were three games groups of four teachers from different schools; semi structured interviews were also conducted. Between October and December two workshops for each games group were held to discuss teachers experiences of games, and ideas for using the game for learning. Teachers also prepared lesson plans supported by e mail lists and a wiki. Technical issues were addressed by school technicians, teachers and researchers. Between January and March 2006 teachers implemented their lesson plans, of which researchers observed approximately two lessons per teacher and interviewed students. Student Research Groups in two schools also collected data. Finally, in April and May teachers reviewed and reported back on the implementation and use of games in schools by a written report and interview. The games selected were: The Sims 2 (Sims2), Knights of Honor (KoH) and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 (RCT3). In Sims2 players direct the journey of their Sims' lives as they grow from infancy to adulthood. The development of the Sims character is unique, based on the personality given (or inherited) and the player s choices. In KoH the player s aim is to accumulate sufficient political and military influence to be crowned ruler of Europe. This is achieved through arranging marriages to provide heirs, making trade agreements and military pacts with other nations, infiltrating other nations courts and waging war on enemies. Finally, in RCT3 players act as a theme park manager; they control elements with the aim of maximising profit. Interactions between variables lead to the emergence of complex situations (so, for example, placing a food stall next to a nausea inducing ride will lead to an increase in vomiting guests and a drop in general happiness and hence expenditure). All three COTS computer games are often referred to as god games, as the player controls the entire environment. They were chosen against the following criteria identified as significant in supporting learning [7]: the broad appropriateness of the titles for schools, the learning curve of a title, the opportunities for players to engage with authentic content and challenges, the degree of autonomy exercised by the player, the presence of clear causal relationships between game variables, the critical reception given to the game on release, previous academic research on learning with games and non duplication of existing school resources. Four secondary schools participated in the study representing a variety of student intakes and curricula, a diversity of both rural and urban settings, and private and state sectors. Two of the three state schools had adopted a skills competency curriculum for Years 7 (11 12 years old), and Years 7 and 8 (11 13 years old). Both these curricula are adaptations of the RSA s New Curriculum, often known as the Opening Minds curriculum (see The skills and competencies encouraged broadly address learning, citizenship, relating to people, managing situations and managing information. The third state school followed the more traditional information driven National Curriculum (see The private school, which catered for German speaking children, followed the Baden Württemberg curriculum. Three teachers volunteered from each school, and another two teachers assisted two of this original group and two had to drop out due to teaching constraints. The teachers are referred to by letter in the remainder of this report, ie Teachers A to N. Of the lessons that were taught in state schools the students taught were aged In the private school they were between 13 and 17. The curricula covered were: competency (3), French (2), English, Physics (2), Design and Technology and mathematics. The scheme of work lasted from two lessons (two hours) to 16 (totalling over 10 hours) with an average of six hours. The data gathered by researchers for the case studies comprises: the semi structured interviews conducted at the start and end concerning the teachers attitudes to and use of computer games personally, their reflections on their use of COTS games in their teaching; all 2

4 e mails between teachers and with researchers and all contributions to the wiki; all lesson plans, schemes of work and supporting material generated; the teachers final reports on activity; field notes from researchers of approximately two lessons per teacher; and interviews with students conducted by researchers and two Student Research Groups. It should be noted that 10 case studies is a limited sample size. However, it includes an array of subjects and settings and therefore can be used to indicate areas for further investigation. 3. GAME NARRATIVES IN TEACHING At this point, it is important to clarify what we mean by game narrative. In COTS computer games designed primarily for entertainment the game designer has a narrative (or overarching route) in mind for players to follow, explicitly or implicitly expressed through: the game mechanics (the affordances enjoyed by the player s avatar and the interaction of the different in game variables); the interface (through which relevant game metrics are revealed, such as the amount of money available to a ruler in KoH, or the particular aspirations and needs of a character in Sims2); and on screen instruction. Players are not forced to follow this narrative, of course, and in all games there is room for players to explore and to follow their own interests. In order to win a game, however, players have to follow the designer s narrative and pay attention to the routes and elements that the designer has implicitly said should matter. The following section provides an overview of the ways different teachers incorporated the games narrative into their teaching. In some circumstances we witnessed high commitment to the games narrative (by which we mean that students were encouraged to play the game in the way intended by the games designer and similar to the way students would play the game in a leisure context); in others we witnessed low commitment to the games narrative (by which we mean that teachers would separate out discrete elements of the game and encourage children to play these in a way determined primarily by the needs of the educational setting). In using the term commitment, we are not placing any value judgements on the teachers decisions, merely highlighting the degree of fidelity to original games design in the children s experience of using games in the different classrooms. What we are particularly interested in here, is the ways in which different curriculum contexts, subjects and computer games designs interacted to encourage teachers to use games in particular ways in their classrooms. We believe that the findings presented have implications for a number of longstanding assumptions about the potential of COTS computer games use in schools, namely, that the primary barrier to the use of games in schools is the curriculum and assessment context. These issues are discussed in the paper s final section. 4. TEACHERS, GAMES NARRATIVE AND CURRICULUM CONTEXTS Initially teachers working in tightly structured curriculum contexts with a heavy emphasis upon content acquisition (such as physics or French, for example) expressed significant doubts about the potential of incorporating games into their teaching. In contrast, those teachers working with a competency based curriculum were confident that they could use the games relatively easily within their teaching practice. They, and teachers focusing on softer skills such as speaking and listening, tended to work with the game in a way which demonstrated a high degree of fidelity to the original games narrative and played the whole game. In contrast, the teachers working in a content based curriculum environment tended to disaggregate elements of the game, using only parts of it for their teaching activity. As such, the game was now, to some extent, a different game from that which children would experience outside school and that which the game designer had originally conceived. To illustrate this in Table 1 we briefly describe the case studies of Teachers A, F and N. The former working with a 3

5 competency based curriculum had a high commitment to games narrative, while the others focused on discrete elements to achieve specific educational goals. Teacher A F N Game KoH Sims2 RCT3 Subject Competency curriculum French Physics No of lessons 16*40 minutes 2*60 minutes 3*90 minutes Goal Competencies improved: finding & using information, team work, communication Improved French vocabulary through using in meaningful environment Deducing the formula for kinetic energy Age and group size years working in self selecting teams of 4 to years working as a class (though planned as individual activity) 17 years working in pairs and one 3 Key points from scheme of work Students should take turns at distinct roles, eg leader, driver (controlling the computer), scribe or timekeeper. Plenary sessions planned at lesson ends to reflect on competencies. Game used (and evaluated against books + internet) as resource on life in medieval times for presentation Research issues of French geography and culture (ie what makes up a typical French landscape, house and family). Learn simple vocabulary from context (eg infer chargement means loading ) and having to recognise known vocabulary, such as cooker, when building a home Introduction of game, followed by drawing students attention to the factors that impacted performance, eg friction, launch speed and height. Graphs and class discussions enabled them to work out relationships between these factors Issues Students took significantly longer to develop competency than planned, this led to time constraints Software would not install in French across the network Students ignored manuals created and some reported using sandbox meant game element was removed Assessment of scheme of work Planned reflection stages often missed. Reported high levels of engagement and motivation. Believed could compensate for time issues and ensure reflection and critical analysis occurred in future The use of vocabulary in context was felt to be more memorable than a list of words, and the students were motivated and enjoyed the experience (supported by Student Research Group findings) Comparison of pre and post assessment of students physics comprehension indicated improvement. High levels of concentration and motivation displayed, eg working through breaks. Teacher spent more time with individuals as others were content to work in their teams Table 1: Overview of three case studies 4

6 This discussion and these case studies would suggest that curriculum determines the ways teachers incorporate games into teaching practice. This, however, is misleading (or at least over states the dominance of this factor). Instead, the 10 case studies also suggest that the design of the different games themselves played a role in determining the extent to which games narratives would be followed. For example, although it was possible to uncouple elements from all three games titles, they varied in the ease with which this could be achieved. In the course of the project, teachers identified the following elements that could be separated out for use in a discrete fashion outside the overarching games narrative: Sims2: the ability to export still or moving images using the movie creator for use in other contexts (such as providing scripts in drama or a description in French); for class discussion, eg as an illustration of daily tasks or representing aspirations and social needs. KoH: using the game as a resource for a presentation on medieval life, eg asking the students to consider the costumes, or the type of weapons that were used. RCT3: using the coaster cam to illustrate the impact of forces (for example, students acting out which direction they would be swung going round a corner); testing your rollercoaster in the sandbox; or identifying the constituents of a theme park (and receiving user feedback from visitors) in order to help with understanding design processes. The case studies suggest that RCT3 was most easily disaggregated; that disaggregation was possible to a limited extent with Sims2 (for example, using the images on screen as a topic for descriptive writing); in KoH, however, the various game elements (battles, diplomatic contact with other states, resource management) were sufficiently tightly interwoven that all used the whole game in class activities, with only Teacher A attempting to extract discrete elements. Teachers disaggregation of different elements of the game was, moreover, dependent not only upon the technical design of the game (the ease with which different elements could be accessed separately) but also depended upon teachers views of the veracity of the underlying games mechanics and world models. For example, teachers who felt that the game could offer a sufficiently realistic model of real life were confident offering the games narrative for exploration in lessons. Teacher B and K s lesson plans were premised, for example, upon Sims2 offering a sufficiently realistic model of real life to be of benefit in discussions. Teacher A viewed KoH as sufficiently accurate in its representation of historical artefacts to be useful as a research tool when used in conjunction with books and the internet. RCT3 was assumed to have a sufficiently accurate model of the factors contributing to a theme park s success by Teacher G that it could be used as a reference when implementing a design process. In contrast, the validity of RCT3 s representation of physics and forces was questioned by the science teachers. Thus lesson plans had to make explicit the limitations of the underlying model so that Teacher N s students would not take whatever the computer says as being true. In this context, the games narrative was to be protected against rather than promoted in the lesson. What we saw in teachers incorporation of games into lessons, then, was a complex balancing of three factors: (1) the extent to which elements of the game could be separated out from the whole game narrative and appropriated for specific use by teachers; (2) the extent to which the game was conceived as offering authentic and reliable models of the real world; and (3) the extent to which the game play experience was seen to map on to the demands of the teachers curriculum. Figure 1 provides an overview of the ways in which the different teachers in the Teaching with Games study appropriated games in their teaching practice. It maps the degree to which each teacher was committed to the game narrative and to their curriculum objectives; it also identifies the learning objectives and the particular game used. 5

7 Figure 1: Teachers lessons taught using games The top right hand quadrant shows those teachers who incorporated the game in a manner close to that intended by the game designer in a way which enabled the achievement of their curriculum goals. In this quadrant we see a close congruence between original game design and educational objectives. For example, Teacher J was using KoH with the goal of developing speaking and listening skills within his students. The bottom right hand quadrant shows those teachers who incorporated elements of the game in order to achieve their curriculum goals. Teacher G, for example, used RCT3 as a prompt for her students to design and build their own theme parks taking into account factors such as facilities required, what leads to customer satisfaction, as well as rides. In this quadrant we see that only certain elements of games have close congruence with educational objectives this raises the question of whether it is appropriate for educators to use or buy full and complex games to achieve sometimes limited educational goals. Possibly edutainment, simulations or educational games would be more appropriate. The bottom left hand quadrant shows those teachers who saw the game as playing only a marginal role in the achievement of their curriculum goals. For example, Teacher K used Sims2 as the starting point for discussions in French. This was done via conversation and written work in French. The game was used as a stimulus rather than being played in the more traditional sense. Again, this raises the question of whether it is appropriate for educators to use or buy complex games to achieve this purpose. The top left hand quadrant shows those teachers who used the game in its intended manner, but who did not in this way achieve their original educational goals. In this category, for example, we include Teachers L and M who allowed their mathematics students to play KoH to practice team skills, which were not part of their maths curriculum. In this quadrant, it is debatable whether the games have any formal educational purpose. 6

8 5. DISCUSSION From this mapping exercise an overarching framework was generated which we used to reflect upon the process of incorporating games into teaching practice; this is shown in Figure 2. While based on a small sample we believe this framework raises a number of questions of relevance to the future use of COTS games for education. First, it suggests that for many teachers, the incorporation of games into their existing curricular contexts will require using games in different ways from those perceived by the game designer. It suggests that in future, for games to be used easily in educational settings it would be helpful to develop modular, adaptable games resources in which elements can be easily extracted for educational use. Figure 2: Hypothetical approaches to balancing curriculum relevance and games narrative Second, where previous studies have suggested that games need to offer a fully accurate underlying model to be of benefit for formal education, this study suggests that for the game to be of benefit to teachers for the purposes of stimulating debate and discussion, it need only be accurate to a certain degree: there may be wider inaccuracies within the game model, but these do not necessarily preclude the game from being used meaningfully in a lesson. Third, the ways in which the teachers in our case studies were distributed across the framework suggest that it is only on rare occasions that games narrative and curiculum relevance are congruent. Instead, we frequently see teachers required to extract elements of games to meet their educational needs, or reconfigure their educational objectives in order to enable games fidelity. This raises the question of whether, in our current educational climate and curricular and assessment contexts, the incorporation of COTS games for learning (rather than the design of bespoke and appropriate games) makes either economic or educational sense for the majority of teachers. What remains to be seen, however, is whether this sort of distribution of practice changes over time as teachers become more familiar with both the games themselves and the pedagogy 7

9 required for their use. Indeed, while the year long study of Teaching with Games has served to identify the factors which inform how teachers first use games for teaching, there is further longitudinal research required into the ways such teachers use these games after the initial cultural, technical and pedagogic challenges have been overcome. This suggests that further work be done not only in verifying the model through analysing COTS computer game use in other classroom settings, but looking at whether there are changes over time as teachers become more confident in their use of such games. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Our thanks go to all the schools, students and technical support staff who participated. Special thanks to Electronic Arts, ISFE, Take 2 and Microsoft who funded the schools and teachers participation, the Advisory Board and Futures Group who provided valuable additional support and advice, and to Atari who allowed us to use RCT3. REFERENCES 1. JP Gee (2003). What Video Games have to teach us about Learning and Literacy. New York & London: Palgrave Macmillan 2. A McFarlane, A Sparrowhawk and Y Heald (2002). Report on the Educational Use of Games: an Exploration by TEEM of the Contribution Which Games Can Make to the Education Process. Department for Education and Skills 3. MD Dickey (2006). Girl gamers: the controversy of girl games and the relevance of female oriented game design for instructional design. British Journal of Educational Technology, 37(5), 2006, J Kirriemuir and A McFarlane (2003). Computer Games and Learning: Futurelab Literature Review. Futurelab 5. H Ellis, S Heppell, J Kirriemuir, A Krotoski and A McFarlane (2006). Unlimited Learning: The role of computer and video games in the learning landscape. ELSPA: Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association 6. R Sandford, M Ulicsak, K Facer and T Rudd (2006). Teaching with Games: Using commercial off the shelf computer games in formal education. Futurelab 7. R Sandford and B Williamson (2005). Games and learning. Futurelab 8