Thursday, 9 May 2013

CS: BA6 Essay



Final Adjustments

Over the course of the projects final two weeks I undertook a series of drastic changes to my essay. I had a number of problems with what I was actually writing about. First I was talking about how only video games could replace teaching, and then replaced that with John Hunter's Study with the World Peace Game. I was going to compare his study to how current educational games teach children. I wasn't convinced that I could pull off 2000 words with a subject lacking in key fiber.

Instead I decided to compare two theories to how a child's mind grows and develops, and compare the theories to John Hunters study. After a grueling typing session I finished the essay, with an ample amount of research, quotations and findings that I was very happy with to submit.

Here is my finished essay:


BA 6 Contextual studies: Advanced Game Studies and Research
Education in Games: Can Games be an Effective, Sustainable Educational Tool?

gadyear2.blogspot.co.uk

Liam Gallagher-Vaes
5/9/2013
Word Count: 2,110


[Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document. Type the abstract of the document here. The abstract is typically a short summary of the contents of the document.]





Digital games come in a variety of genres. They are created to entertain, educate and influence in similar ways to a film or television program, which contain influential characters, immersive storylines and stunning special effects. Games have become such a successful form of storytelling; however the boundaries have not been pushed as far as they can go. The use of games for education has always been influential in the modern classroom, although they have not reached their full potential in terms of successful teaching. If games companies studied the use of games as a learning tool, could games be the future in education? I will be discussing how games have the potential to become an effective educational tool and how they can create a new learning environment for people of all ages.  I will carry out my study from a theoretical point of view, using Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky’s theories in child psychology, and link their theories to John Hunter’s practical classroom study of ‘The World Peace Game’.

Educational games come in two main formats. Games that teaches the player directly, challenging them with different puzzles, covering school subjects such as Maths and English. Or there are edutainment games, which teach the player without them even knowing through procedural rhetoric. ‘Edutainment is a broad term which covers the combination of educational and entertainment use on a variety of media platforms including computer games’ (Buckingham & Scanlon, 2002; Konzack, 2003) Games such as ‘Portal’ (PC and consoles 2008), are a prime example as they inadvertently teach the player about Maths and Physics. Even adventure games, like ‘Uncharted’ (PS3, 2007), and ‘Tomb Raider’ (Xbox and PS3, 2013) teaches the player using problem solving and puzzles to engage the players mind. Games that use procedural rhetoric use problem solving puzzles to get bonuses in the game or travel from A to B. The idea is to get the player thinking about how they can progress, with the puzzle ahead of them, and solving it with only the tools at their disposal. In 1986, a video games developer called Johnny Durango released the first educational game called ‘Jumpstart’. The game recreated a young children’s classroom, where the player could explore the classroom by clicking on different objects in the room, activating all sorts of activities, like counting games, learning the alphabet and constructing sentences.
The target of educational games is to create activities that are not tedious, repetitive and include exciting features that appeal to their audience. ‘Jumpstart’ was able to make their school activities appeal strongly to their young audience. Learning the alphabet was conducted through playing a catchy melody, enticing the child to remember the melody and recite it through song. The counting exercise was another engaging activity for children. On the screen was a grid, and each square was filled with a selected number of different things, ranging from animals, toys and food. The AI (artificial intelligence) teacher would say a number, and it was the child’s goal to find the square with the spoken matching number of items in. The child would then be praised for getting it right. Through primary research, in playing this game, I found that nearly all of the activities educated their players through images, allowing the player to learn words by matching them with the picture on the screen (see You Tube gameplay video). This was especially effective in the sentence building exercise. The classrooms blackboard had a variety of images, which matched the adjective in the sentence. The teacher spoke out the sentence, and the child had to select the image that met the description from the teacher and build the sentence.
To ensure the activities were not tedious or repetitive, the matter of the activity stayed the same, but the numbers or sentences in the activities mentioned were always different.  Looking closely at reviews from parents and teachers the overall feedback was positive, (Amazon, 2013).

John Hunter, a fourth grade teacher in America came up with a new practical classroom study. He revealed it to the public in a TED talk in 2011 (refer You Tube link) for children to engage with in the classroom.  It was called the ‘World Peace Game’. The original design was made in 1987, and consisted of a board, mapping a variety of different countries/territories, each with their own economic, natural or military advantages. The aim of the game was to give the children the opportunity to engage and negotiate with each other to fix underlining problems with our society that were taking place. ‘I have learnt to cede control of the classroom to the students over time’ (Hunter, 2011).
He believes that ‘Their collective wisdom is much greater than mine, and I admit it to them openly’ (Hunter, 2011). The modern version of the game consists of many levels; underwater, land, air and space. Each new level includes crises that the children are responsible to fix.
Hunter’s study was successful in concluding that even children of a young age can problem solve and work together through the use of play. The use of play in the classroom is aimed at being engaging and immersive for the children, focusing their attention, making learning fun and enjoyable for the child.
In relation to digital games, as they are an individual activity they can be seen as less successful in a learning environment. However, with development by games companies, they could design a local multiplayer game that all children could engage with as a productive team.
Going back to ‘Jumpstart’, the ‘World Peace Game’ is also set in the classroom. Hunter wanted to prove that he could come up with an engaging, interactive activity that created procedural rhetoric that the children could partake in. The key areas of procedural rhetoric in this game were politics, strategy and communication skills.

To better understand how children can learn from digital games, we first must understand how the mind of a child works, through real life experiences and social interaction. There are a number of different theories that state that children grow and develop their skills through stages of mental immersion to their surroundings. (Piaget). Another theory is that children are dependant on their parents and others to help them learn and develop new skills (Vygotsky).
Jean Piaget (1986-1980) ‘was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development’ (Mcleod, 2009). Piaget believed that there were ‘important differences between the thinking of adults and children’ (Mcleod, 2009). To further expand on his theory, he structured the stages of a child’s mental development into four key areas, from birth to ages of eleven and above. Piaget’s first theoretical stage of development is the ‘Sensori-motor’ (birth – 2 years), which is the child recognising that they are not the only life in the universe and notices that things continue to exist even when they are not about. The second stage is the ‘Pre-operational’ (2 – 7 years) is when a key change happens in a child’s development, as they are learning to use words, and learn to represent objects, naming or describing them through images and words. Also, objects that are of one particular colour or shape. They would group them together and classify them as one single feature. Stage three is the ‘Concrete Operational (7 – 11 years), and is all about the child being able to clearly uphold a conversation with someone. This allows them to logically be able to think about objects and events, and to further narrow down the ordering or arrangement of objects in accordance to dimensions, and any physical imagery the object may with hold. The fourth and final stage in Piaget’s stages of a child’s development is ‘Formal operational’ (11 years and up). At this stage the child is able to think outside the box, meaning they become more hypothetical about the future and ideological problems.
If Piaget was right about the stage concept, then young children should not show any signs of cognitive abilities that are not appropriate for their stage of development’ (Segall, 1990). Piget’s theory is floored, as one cannot enslave a child’s mind into a linear state of mental development in exact accordance to his theory. He has been able to create a world in which every child’s mind grows and develops in the same way, meaning that if Piaget’s theory is true, then every child would be as smart as the next. Although Piaget’s theory is very linear it ‘does correctly identify the order of passage through the milestones of cognitive development’ (Segall, 1990).
Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist (1896-1934). He believed that a child’s mind was strongly affected by the influence of other people. He referred to such people as ‘MKO’s’, which means ‘more knowledgeable other’. ‘MKO’s can be parents, adults, teachers, coaches, experts/professionals – but also things you might not first expect, such as children, friends…’ (S. James, 2010). To support his theory of children learning through secondary sources (MKO’s) he describes something know as ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD). Vygotsky divided this theory into two sections of attainment, with the ZPD being in between the two. Level one is known as the ‘present level of development’, meaning that the child has the ability to learn, without the help of others by interacting with objects and their surroundings. Level two is the ‘potential level of development’, which is the possibility of the child learning from others, or ‘teachers’.
Going back to Vygotsky’s theory regarding MKO’s, he concludes that in order for a child to gain sustainable knowledge in their upbringing, earning teaching through independence is just as important as being taught by a secondary source (MKO). If a child can be dependant upon himself or herself, they wouldn’t have the practical social skills to engage with others. But then on the other hand, if a child were fully dependant on learning from others, they wouldn’t be able to handle life on their own in their future, especially when encountering personal decision-making.
‘Another important feature of this theory is scaffolding’ (S. James, 2010). The ‘scaffolding’ is how the parent raises the child to learn for themselves and from others. ‘When an adult provides support for a child, they will adjust the amount of help they give depending on their progress. For example, a child learning to walk might at first have both their hands held and pulled upwards’. (S. James, 2010). It is important for the parent to understand how much information they need to give their child, before letting them learn for themselves.
In 1975, ‘Wood and Middleton’ conducted a study towards a group of four years olds. The aim of the study was for the group of children to assemble a 3D model, consisting of blocks and pegs. The model was too complex for the four year olds to handle independently, so the children’s mothers were included in the study to assist. ‘Wood and Middleton’ monitored how the mothers interacted with their children, assisting them and giving them a sense of independency in trying to learn how to build the model on their own. The type’s of support the parents provided towards their children was: ‘General encouragement e.g. ‘now you have a go.’ Specific instructions e.g. ‘get four big blocks.’ Direct demonstration e.g. showing the child how to place one block on another’. (Mcleod, 2010). Strategizing the combination of ZPD was the key to helping the children progress. Mothers whose assistance was most effective were those who varied their strategy according to how the child was doing’. (Mcleod, 2010).

Conducting a physical and theoretical study, I have revealed that in order for a child to gain a better education through games, the game must be accessible to multiple users. This would allow children to interact with eachother, and if needs be, gain assistance from their parents/teacher. This is proven in John Hunter’s physical study, playing the ‘World Peace Game’. The board game taught children valuable skills in strategy, politics and communication.  Where as the theoretical side of educating a child (Piaget, Vygotsky), is through understanding how a child’s mind works and develops, as they get older (Piaget). This allows the parents to understand their child’s potential, through the process of ZPD (Vygotsky). From my personal analysis of both Vygotsky and Piaget, their theories fit in perfect correlation with Hunter’s study. His methods revealed a way for children to learn valuable lessons in life through communicating and interacting with each other, all within the confines of the classroom. ‘Children NEED social interaction to gain influence from others and gain ideas from their parents as well as peers’ (Bogost, 2008).

Harvard Referencing

Format of Source of Information
Harvard Reference
Citation in Text
E-Book
Bogost, Ian, 2008
The Rhetoric of Video Games, Edited by Salen Katie.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning
6/5/13
(Bogost, 2008)
Live Talk
Hunter, John: TED talk 2011
9/05/13
(Refer to YouTube link)
(Hunter, 2011)
Websites
James, Eddy, Samuel, 2010
9/5/13

(S. James, 2010)

Mcleon, Saul, First published 2009, updated 2012

Jean Piaget

(Mcleod, 2009)

Mcleon, Saul, First published 2010, updated 2012

Zone of Proximal Development

7/5/13
(Mcleod, 2010)
E-Book
Nielsen, EgenfeldT [SIC] Simon, 2007
Third Generation Educational Use of Computer Games, IT University of Copenhagen
Denmark
1/5/13
(Buckingham & Scanlon, 2002; Konzack, 2003)
Websites
Piaget's Stages Reconsidered, 2013
8/5/13
(Segall, 1990)
Video Games
User: S. SP, 2012
9/5/13
Refer to YouTube link)

Bibliography
All information on reference material and further research can also be found on my Blog.

Reason For Referring
Link
Date Looked At
Studying Piaget’s theories

9/5/13
Customer product reviews
7/5/13
Customer product reviews
7/5/13
Piaget 4 stages

9/5/13
Vygotsky overview of theories

9/5/13
Further supporting Vygotsky theories

8/5/13
Additional source for Piaget’s theory

9/5/13
Additional information on Vygotsky theories

8/5/13
About John Hunter and the ‘World Peace Game’

5/5/13







Friday, 12 April 2013

BA6 2000 Words Prep & Research

Right, now that I have a strong foothold on my studio project it is time to get started on my CS project.
After reading the brief, I have come to the understanding that I am able to write a plausible argument about the positive influences in video games.

Violence in video games have always been known to be one of the main causes of violent shootings, dangerous driving and crime. This is due to the fact that this particular person or group has been engaged in violent games so long, they forget the rights and wrongs of the virtual game world to the right, lawful real world. That's not a generalization, that's fact. In the past, games have been used as a scapegoat for some peoples disturbed lives and general stupid behavior, being the real reason behind such crimes, that stand out to be the cause from influence in violent video games.

Below are a number of articles I have found regarding the effects violence in video games have had on some people and why it used as a generalization or an excuse. Not an initial reason why the crimes were committed.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/video-game-violence.htm
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-violence2.htm

I have taken the quote below from a livescience.com article about video games violence:

http://www.livescience.com/3955-reality-check-video-game-violence.html

'Has the video violence resulted in an increase in violent crime? No; on Oct. 17, 2005, the FBI released figures showing that the U.S. violent crime rate declined again last year. In fact, violent crime has dropped significantly over the past twenty years'

A writer known as Richard Rhodes stated the following statement in an article for the 'New York Times'

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/17/opinion/hollow-claims-about-fantasy-violence.html

'In fact, no direct, causal link between exposure to mock violence in the media and subsequent violent behavior has ever been demonstrated, and the few claims of modest correlation have been contradicted by other findings, sometimes in the same studies.'

This particular argument is a pro and con debate about the influences of violence in video games:

http://www.debate.org/debates/Video-Games-do-not-increase-or-perpetuate-juvenile-violence/1/

'A 2004 US Secret Service review of previous school-based attacks found that one-eighth of attackers exhibited an interest in violent video games, less than the rate of interest attackers showed in violent books, movies, and writings. The report did not show any link between video games and school based violence.'

The debate continues on until the voted guest 'con' debater urges people to stand by the 'pros' side of the debate.

Although video games encourage a lot of negativity as I have stated. But, they also create a positive, enjoyable, relaxing environment for many others such as myself.
Video games target a vast audience of any age and gender, be it action/shooters and pick up and play puzzle games.

I aim to focus my 2000 word essay on how games can be used further for educational purpose, and serve a better use for people in the public community, be it a school, community home, youth group and even prisons. The idea is to give people of all ages the opportunity to engage with either one another or on their own to challenge themselves in a virtual, educational environment.

Below are a series of links providing current educational games amongst a variety of different subjects.

http://www.wateraid.org/uk/audience/schools?gclid=CMrJ-obQx7YCFc3HtAodqVUAvA#/fun-and-games

Water Aid is a company trying to change the world, giving people across the world clean, sustainable water. They rely on donations from the general public to sustain their work in suffering countries such as parts of Africa.

The site also includes a couple of mini games targeting young children. The games allow children to be aware of the value of using and saving water.
In the game the player creates a virtual family and is given a number of regular household tasks to complete using as little water as possible. If the player is able to save a certain amount of water and complete a series of small mini puzzles, they can be entitled to win an eco washing machine.

'To transform lives, we deliver taps and toilets, campaign for change and build the skills of local people.' - http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what-we-do/our-approach



















http://www.tenement.org/education_lessonplans.html
'We tell the stories of 97 Orchard Street. Built on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1863, this tenement apartment building was home to nearly 7000 working class immigrants.'

The site represents a museum, which teaches people about immigration. They hold a number of weekly activities and also include some of them online to get people involved. One of the games is playing the role of one of the many immigrants in many countries, emigrating to America. The game follows the challenges they follow, until they made it.





http://www.educationarcade.org/

'The Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play'




http://www.theesa.com/games-improving-what-matters/education.asp

'Educators increasingly recognize the impact of entertainment software and utilize games as a teaching device in a growing number of classrooms and business settings.'

This site talks about how games will be part of the future in the world of education. Results have proven that young students learn far more when engaging in educational entertainment software than a regular class room setting.





'Dr. James Paul Gee concluded that video games intermix instruction and demonstration, a more effective learning technique than the style currently found in most classrooms.'

http://www.lumosity.com/landing_pages/188?gclid=CLa1xNiKz7YCFYXMtAodKFsAPQ



This site provides a series of selected exercises to help keep your mind functioning at its maximum capacity. The site gives you a series of options in what areas of your brain you would like to exercise, such as reaction time, decision making, mental arithmetic and multi-tasking skills. It then asks for your email address to send you an exercise program personalised to how you want it.

Games like this are ideal examples of where educational gaming can go. 
'Brain Training' for the 'Nintendo DS' is another similar example to this site. 'Brain Training'  gives players of all ages a series of exercises, similar to the website above, but in the form of a portable video game. Players are able to plug in and play where ever they want. 




http://www.computerandvideogames.com/141413/reviews/dr-kawashimas-brain-training-how-old-is-your-brain-review/



'In fact, that's probably the game's greatest strength - presenting you with tangible goals to reach in terms of self-improvement and giving you enough incentive, through new unlockable games and features, to keep at it.'



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo_Pum6a6ko

'Brain Training' was commercialised on a massive scale, including all kinds of celebrities, engaging in the game, making it the ideal promotional campaign. The link above is an example of one of the many adverts that were broadcasted. This particular one is starring Ant and Dec, competing with some taxi drivers in a local networked (see BA5 Blog '2000 word essay') 'Brain Training'  competition. The advert ends by requesting people to visit 'Nintendo's' website, to view more information and find out who won the competition. Such marketing strategies like this is a good way to get people engaged in the game, as they feel that they are a celebrity too if they play 'Brain Training' . Like Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Ant, Dec and Steven Fry.

I have made a start on my first draft of my essay. I will be talking about how educational games could become a sustainable tool to teach people over teachers.

I have split my essay up into a series of questions I intend to answer, giving evidence of my findings and giving quotations from articles, which talk about the pros and cons of educational games.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_invented_the_first_educational_video_game

In 1986, a developer named Johnny Durango made a game called Jumpstart, was the first educational video game.
The only gameplay video I could find for this game was this short youtube video. However, there was another Jumpstart game released in 1994, called Jumpstart kindergarten.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anymore information on Johnny Durango, but I have some screenshots and gameplay video links of his Jumpstart games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHt8hZv6U7E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWI2s-2NeAw

Jumpstart kindergarten, introduces the player to a virtual classroom, in which they can engage in all sorts of activities and interact with everything in the classroom. Each item the player can see opens up additional information for them to expand their knowledge. for example. If the player moves the mouse cursor over the alphabet wallpaper a song is activated, singing the alphabet song. This is a great way for children to engage in learning theie ABC, as use of effective music is key to teach children at a young age, as the song creates a rhythmatic background melody. The child then remembers the melody and is able to sing their ABC's in co-ordination with the melody.

Another effective way of learning in this game is matching pictures, which represent key words in a sentence. The teacher gives you a sentence and the player has to select the images displayed, which best match the key words in the sentence to create a mental picture of what the words represent. For example; 'Mum tickles a hairy dog in a tree'. The player then selects a picture of a mother, a feather, a man with a hairy beard, a dog and a tree.

A third example is an activity to learn about numbers. In front of the player is a grid, filled with different numbers of items, such as flowers, teddy bears and pencils. the teacher gives you a number, and you have to select the square that fits the matching number of objects to the number given.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/26/pax-east-2013-steve-swink-says-video-games-can-save-education/


Release dates for games mentioned in essay:

http://uk.gamespot.com/uncharted-drakes-fortune/ - Uncharted: Drakes fortune
http://uk.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/ - Tomb Raider
http://www.jumpstart.com/ - Jumpstart
http://uk.gamespot.com/portal/ - Portal

I have been frantically searching the web for information on 1986's Jumpstart game, but the only information I could find on it was on Wiki. Sadly it is not recommended to mention Wiki links and references in my essay so I am unable to provide anymore proof than Wiki in my essay.

I found this really interesting essay written about education in games. It is written by Simon Egenfeld T Nelson 

http://egenfeldt.eu/papers/third_generation_JEM_egenfeldt-nielsen.pdf

The link above shows a PDF of the essay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_UTgoPUTLQ

TED talk by John Hunter in 2011, about a world peace game he set ups in his classroom to allow 4th grade students to gain personal awareness of the state the world is in today. He leaves them the task to fix the crisis  set up before them on the board.


Hunters aim for this game was to let the children take control of the classroom and solve world issues in their way. He was present in the classroom simply as an advisor.
This plays vital relevance to my essay because I believe that when playing an educational video game, the games setting should be something unique, replacing the boring setting of the classroom. This is so the child feels that they have a sense of freedom, not being surrounded by a school themed environment.
John Hunter however proved that the important thing is the activity the child is partaking in, and not the setting. The World Peace Game was setup in Hunters classroom. Even though this was the case, the children still managed to engage and enjoy taking part in the activity, fully unaware that they were in school and learning at the same time.



I went to a feedback session with a draft of my essay. I was able to pick up some really interesting points in what to include. Sophie also had a read through of my essay and gave me some articles, books and links to check out.
I looked into a number of TED talks relevant to my essay.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Sir Ken Robinson does a TED talk back in 2006, about how schools aren't flexible in the learning system to please every child's future aspirations. He talks about how subjects such as art, dance and drama aren't highly known subjects compared to maths and English language. His theory is that public schools simply prepare students to be university professors, and nothing else. Anything aside from becoming a professor after education would have to learn it in their own time.