Presentation for PLANE: Games and learning TeachMeet

1. LEARNING WITH GAMES
making learning irresistible
Cathie Howe
Professional Learning & Leadership Coordinator
Manager, Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre

2. Who Am I?
http://about.me/cathiehowe
Professional Learning & Leadership Coordinator –
NSWDEC, Northern Sydney
Manager, Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre –
a collaboration between NSWDEC and Macquarie University

3. What should learning look like?
Active Authentic
Fun
Self-directed Interest driven
Differentiated
Goal orientated Just-in-time

4. What could learning look like?
• Student centred
• Abstractness
• Independence valued
• Complexity (inter
• Agile relationships)
• Open & accepting • Variety
• Complex (rich variety of • Study of people
resources, media, ideas,
methods, tasks) Learning • Study of methods of
• Physical/virtual Environment Content inquiry
Where students What students
learn learn
• Higher levels of
• Real problems thinking
• Real audiences Product Process • Creative /critical
• Real deadlines /divergent thinking
Thinking
Result of • Open-endedness
• Transformations (rather processes
learning • Group interaction
than regurgitation) used to learn
• Appropriate evaluation • Variable pacing
• Variety of learning
• Debriefing
• Freedom of choice
Maker Model

5. Imagine having our students being so engaged in a
complex, goal orientated activity, that self-
consciousness disappears and time becomes
distorted and they do it, not for external rewards
but simply for the exhilaration of doing!

6. Video Game Facts
In Australia:
 92% households have a gaming device
 95% homes with children <18 have a gaming device
 47% of gamers are female
 Average age of video game players is 32
 57% of gamers play every day
 88% of parents who play games, play with their children
Key Findings DA12
Bond University/iGEA

7. Video games are
increasingly
recognised as
becoming the
literacy of the 21st
Century
Chris Swain
Associate Research Professor

8. What do players attain through video games?
Positive Emotions
Relationships
Meaning
Accomplishment
P.E.R.M.A
Dr. Martin Seligman

9. What do we learn when we play,
design & build games?
Judgement,
Problem
analysis & Communication
solving skills &
strategic skills & networking
negotiation
thinking
Improved
Narrative skills Non–linear attention,
& transmedia thinking vision &
navigation patterns cognition

10. Games and Learning
What if schools implement a learning model that uses
the intrinsic qualities of game design and play, to
reimagine what learning might look?
Would we harness greater human potential in
creativity, participation and effort?

11. Reimagining learning through games
Core principles of how games work that can transform learning.
They:
1. Create a need to know organising learning around solving
complex problems set in engaging contexts.
2. Offer a space of possibility through the design of rules for
learners to tinker, explore, hypothesise and test assumptions.
3. Build opportunities for authority and expertise to be shared
and distributed, i.e. learning is reciprocal among learners,
mentors and teachers.
4. Support multiple overlapping pathways towards mastery
Professor Katie Salen

12. Myth: Gamification is just about points
GAMIFICATION
Pointsification Ludification (Playfulness)
• Competitive • Social
• Badges • Skill-based learning
• Scoreboards • Self-directed goals
• Pre-set goals • Achievement based
• Status icons • Puzzle solving
• Collections • “Epic wins”
The first column contains many elements associated with gamifying but most of the
real and engaging benefits of gamification come from the second column.
Amy Jo Kim
http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/2013/5-myths-about-gamification-everyone-should-know/

13. Do games have the power to solve the
world’s problems?
What if we immersed our students
in designing games to tackle the
world’s most urgent problems?
What would learning look like?
active
self-directed
goal orientated
authentic
interest driven
just-in-time
Photo by xJason.Rogersx’s

14. Do games have the power to solve the
world’s problems?
Foldit
Solve puzzles for science through folding proteins
Foldit gamers solve
an AIDS puzzle
that baffled
scientists for a
decade.
http://techland.time.com/2011/
09/19/foldit-gamers-solve-aids-
puzzle-that-baffled-scientists-
for-decade/

15. Game Design Curriculum and QTF Links
Crafting a Deconstructing
Designing games Building games Reviewing games
backstory games
English English English English English
Metalanguage Science & Science & Technology Science & technology Science & technology
Student technology Maths
Maths PDHPE
direction Deep
PDHPE PDHPE Metalanguage
understanding
Engagement Deep Understanding Deep understanding Student direction
Higher order Higher order thinking Higher order thinking Explicit quality
thinking Metalanguage criteria
Substantive
Metalanguage communication Substantive
Metalanguage communication
Engagement Engagement
Student direction Student direction
Background Social Support
knowledge Knowledge integration
Knowledge integration Connectedness
Design Thinking Multimodal text
Creative Thinking Computational
Thinking
Systems Thinking
Critical Thinking

16. Pedagogical Implications: Inquiry Learning
Students:
• Pose own questions
• Explore answers
• Solve problems
• Jointly construct and share
knowledge
• Collaborate e.g. design
Inquiry learning allows students the
opportunity to develop creative
solutions to open
ended challenges, problems
and questions.

17. Project Based Learning (PBL)
• creates the need to know
• authentic learning activities
• begins with a driving question -
key to arousing curiosity
• engages and empowers students
• work autonomously (usually in
groups)
• construct their own learning
• culminates in realistic, student
created products
• Showcase product to wide
audience

18. Example: Invasion of the Shadow Plague
A narrative based online metagame teaching students to
design and build using Microsoft Kodu Game Lab
WILL YOU SAVE US?

19. “What will it take to move classroom literacy
practices and instruction into the 21st century?
It will take teachers who are skilled, excited, passionate about the
effective use of ICT for teaching and learning.
It will take a curriculum that integrates new, exciting
literacies and instruction.
It will take courageous and bold initiatives that include yet
unimagined information and communication technologies and
these will result in the development of unimagined new literacies.”
Associate Professor Kaye Lowe

20. Example: Game Design Boot Camps
Learning how to use technology is not enough; the heart of 21st century
learning is about becoming a proficient and independent lifelong learner.
deconstruct
Game design offers a unique platform to prototype
address essential skills for learning: review
iterate
design
• creativity and innovation
• critical thinking,
• iterative problem solving
• communication, collaboration
• information, media and ICT literacy
Shift thinking from that of
a player to a designer.

21. Summary: What learning
environments should look like
 Interactive
 Provide ongoing feedback
 Grab and sustain attention
 Have appropriate and
adaptive levels of challenge
 Multiple pathways to success
 Agile

22. Contact details
catherine.howe@det.nsw.edu.au
http://au.linkedin.com/in/cathiehowe
@cathie_h
@macict
www.macict.edu.au
Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre
Building C5B, Macquarie University
NSW, 2109
Ph | 02 9850 4310 | macictsupport@det.nsw.edu.au