This represents a 2-hour training for instructors of Quest2Teach, consisting of a 1-hour overview of the individual games, theory, Nexus, Network, Teacher Toolkit, research findings, and best ecology for implementation of these games. This is followed by a 1-hr facilitated gameplay by the instructors where they follow the curricula guides, login and play the games, create an avatar, navigate the virtual worlds, and post reflections in the network, just as their students will do.
1. Quest2Teach: The Impact of Games
To Bridge Theory and Practice in Teacher Education
ANNA ARICI, SASHA BARAB, ANNEMARIE COMES
ADAM INGRAM-GOBLE, JULI JAMES, MICHAEL GARCIA
SHERRY THURSTON & KAT DUTCHIN
CENTER FOR GAMES & IMPACT
MARY LOU FULTON TEACHERS COLLEGE
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
2. Awards and Accolades
• The Cooney Center (Sesame Workshop) chose Quest2Teach
as the first in their documentary series of the Top 5
innovations in Teacher Education.
• Presidential Award for Innovation at ASU
• Documentary on the Games & Learning website
• Featured innovation at New Media Consortium
• Featured curriculum at Institute of Play
• Featured curriculum at Game.Play.Learn.
• Top 3 at Games Learning Society’s International game
competition
3. www.quest2teach.org
Quest2Teach is a series of 3D video game-simulations and a professional
network designed for teacher education, to help bridge between educational
theory and classroom practice.
4. In Quest2Teach, students create a professional avatar, play out roles, solve
complex problems, fail safely, and see the impact of their decisions.
They become the protagonist in their own teaching narrative.
7. • ‘Learning by doing’ isn’t new, but technology is
giving educators around the world unprecedented
access and avenues to engage their students’ in
meaningful ways.
“a communicative action or
activity involving two
parties or things that
reciprocally affect or
influence each other—
changing both.”
Transactive Learning
John Dewey
8. Transformational Play
an experiential state that involves:
(a) projection into the role of a character who,
(b) is recruited into a partly fantastical problematic
context,
(c) must apply conceptual understandings,
(d) to transform the context,
(e) and, ultimately, oneself.
It involves positioning …
• Person With Intentionality
• Content With Legitimacy
• Context With Consequentiality
(Barab, Gresalfi, & Arici, 2009
Barab, Gresalfi, & Ingram-Goble, 2010)
11. One game per semester, embedded in a
related MLFTC class, guided by instructor.
12. Small “g” games
Our ‘video games’; self-contained and
completeable; optimized to engage learners in a
particular educational theory in a safe, simulated
and structured environment.
An open-ended, flexible ‘meta-game’ structure
and affinity spaces that foster locally-driven
extensions and adaptations in support of real-
world goals and outcomes.
• Data and Analytics Dashboard
• Social Communities/Affinity Spaces/Network
• Learning trajectories and gamification layers
• Smart/Modding Tools
Big “G” game
(A distinction from CGI co-founder Jim Gee)
14. Q2T Scope & Sequence
for MLFTC Major Maps
Two class periods
Day 1: Approx 30 mins, Intro and gameplay
Day 2: Approx 10-30 mins, Debrief and reflection
Materials Needed:
Students registered with Q2T logins, game
downloaded on computers, power cords, internet
connection.
20. • In-game tools
help learners
interrogate
and interpret
the scenarios
and theories
• No single ‘correct’
game interpretation
• Players can flag and
question the game
scores
• Means for deeper
discussion of the
theories
21.
22. Games for Learning aren’t software,
they’re curricula…
All of the games we create are maximized when driven by an
instructor, within a blended course framework, with some
elements student-directed and some instructor-guided, and all
being applied towards their real world experiences.
24. Quest2Teach International Network
for Pre-Service Teachers
Mary Lou Fulton
Teachers College, ASU,
Arizona
Dublin City University,
Ireland
University College
Copenhagen,
Denmark
University of Foggia,
Italy
The Joan Kanz
Cooney Center,
NYC
25. Research Findings
Our Teachers College Demographic data showed:
• Most common use of computers was for homework or
social networks.
• Only 9% reported that they only played video games 1-5
hours/week. (Compared with 70% nationally, across all
majors)
• 87% of students indicated that they rarely played video
games.
• Only 5% described themselves as a ‘gamer’
Digital natives are Not always Gamers
N= ~800 pre-service undergraduate students
26. Positive Results
• Significant learning gains and increases in engagement
across the board.
• 62% of students said the game helped them to see
themselves more as a professional teacher, not a student.
• 45% of students reported the game helped increase their
level of confidence in their future teaching ability.
• 52% of students
indicated that the
games helped increase
their commitment to
future teaching.
27. Research Findings
• Comparison study:
– Control group: “I learned a lot about
professionalism, and became aware of why its
important.”
– Game group: “This game allowed me to
practice how to be respectful in a
disagreement, it gave me skills in interpersonal
relationships and how to work better with
others.””
• Passive recipients vs Active protagonists
28. Findings: Authentic practice
Students felt better equipped to handle difficult interactions in the real world.
“I like how this game gave us scripts for
handling conversations. Sometimes we
know what we’re supposed to say but it’s
hard to find the words. It was great just
reading the various options and seeing
there are a lot of different ways to
approach it.”
Students said that the game felt more real than the role play they did in class
(around student mentoring) because they knew their fellow students would
basically follow a supportive and predictive script.
29. Findings: Identity as a Professional
Game role supported Identity shift from Student to Teacher
“This was a significant shift out of not being a student anymore, you know? We are
in the professional world now, and we need to see ourselves as teachers. This game
was like a shift into ‘the real life’, and people can relate to these struggles.”
30. Findings: Relevance to Real World
“I just want to say that I
definitely give a lot of points for
relevance, because a lot of
these situations were like things
that I’ve already experienced. I
was immediately able relate to
some of these situations.”
Unlike the real world, students really appreciate the ability to fail safely, play
again to see different outcomes, and gain extra practice and fluency in these
ideas before student teaching.
31. Lessons Learned: Ecology of Implementation
Some students initially need more support with Technology
• Reframing gaming as a ‘simulation’ (instead of a video game) went far in shifting
reactions from hesitancy to enthusiasm.
• We built in explicit supports in the 3D worlds, with tutorials initiated through player
inactivity, and guidance from in-game characters, but they quickly became adept.
Scope and Sequence in Program: ‘Just-in-Time’ vs. ‘Just-in-Case’
• Very different reactions from students in their 1st semester vs Student teachers when
playing the Professionalism game.
First semester student: “I would never have a
conflict with my mentor. I’m just going to roll
over and do whatever she says.”
Student Teacher reaction:
“I don’t think if we played this last semester or
last year, any one of us would have taken it as
seriously, but now we know, this is for real!”
32. Lessons Learned: Ecology of Implementation
Network was redundant
with their own
• They already had a (more
divergent) network
created in Facebook
• We needed to brainstorm
alternative network
services we could provide
to meet actual needs.
Instructor influence
• Instructors welcomed and embraced the innovation
• The few with negative attitudes passed those on to students
• Teacher support and training is essential, and they are eager for it.
33. Let’s Play!
• Log in to Toolkit for all links:
• http://research.atlantisremixed.org/arx_web
• Enter Q2T Network:
• Toggle between ‘Teaching’ and ‘Learning’ in right hand corner.
• In Q2T Network:
• Accept the Challenge
• Complete profile
• Break into small groups to play and look through Unit
Guides. Play Game!
• Return to your Network for Reflection
• Teacher Toolkit Overview
34. Let’s Play!
• Open the Quest2Teach software
on your computer
Username/Password: (Your ASURite ID)
Both Username and Password are the same!
• Create an avatar
• Use the arrows to navigate around
• Click on people and items to interact
37. Teacher Toolkit
• Registering Students
• Individually, use the ‘+’ symbol.
• Roster Upload: .csv files from blackboard
– Log in to your MyASU page (Http://www.asu.edu/myasu)
– Go to the ‘Home’ tab and your classes will be listed below.
– Click on the folder icon (see blue arrow in image below) and a grey pop-up box will give you 3
choices. Choose ‘View Class Roster’. Click ‘Download’.
38. Questions or Guest Accounts?
Contact: anna.arici@asu.edu or visit www.quest2teach.org
Notas del editor
Mastery approach, they can replay for better outcomes, not graded on final score, but up to instructor.
What’s exciting about these gaming technologies is that they can create nuanced scenarios, where you are the protagonist with multiple trajectories through the game.
Our students love this it’s a great way to engage them.
Games for learning aren’t based in any particularly new theory. Its really rooted in classics such as Vygotsky and being supported to act a head above yourself, and John Dewey with his ideas of Transactive learning. Chicago school- actually go build a structure. Students would see the outcomes of their actions immediately, which fed back into their understanding of the concept, but also their understanding of who they were in the world.
But you can imagine that was hard to sustain.
without the insurance liability of arming a classroom full of 10 year olds with hammers and nails.
To better understand the theories at work in games for learning, we’ve developed the Theory of Transformational Play. We design our games based in these theories.
So we decided, wouldn’t it be great to not only train teachers in these pedagogies, but to do it in their formative years of training? And also offer it as PD to in-service teachers. At that same time, the dean of ASU’s MLFTC, Mari Koerner was bringing together a stellar team of game scholars and learning scientists, with the goal of infusing innovation to the Teachers College. So 3 years ago, Quest2Teach began to form.
Massive collaboration with really bright people, all of whom bring their own toolkits, affordances and expertise.
Each game is related to a specific theory, which is already part of the teachers college curriculum and standards, and we embed these experiences within their relevant coursework.
Brought in content area experts for each of the games
And that’s really where the bridge from the virtual to real world takes place. Talking about applications, reflections on your own practice, and personal experiences from that local field placement, community and culture.
Badges aren’t just token rewards, but they unlock new learning opportunities, because you’ve demonstrated your expertise.
Give props to others, similar to endorsements in LinkedIn, to highlight that someone is doing really great work. Incredibly motivational.
Question the dynamics
We’re acting under the assumption that these games
These games are not meant to stand alone or replace anything, but instead to help instructors and faculty engage their students in more meaningful learning.
No matter how sophisticated the backend management system for teachers, and unit plans we gave them, many teachers would take their students into the computer lab, have them log in, and then they’d go get coffee. And these were really exciting, inquiry-based teachers, who just didn’t understand their new role in these technologies.
Another interesting finding, the teachers that typically came to us for games were 10-20 year veterans. Many were too overwhelmed in their early years of teaching to add something novel. The solution? Build these pedagogies and experiences into teacher education.
Really compelling.
design-based implementation research cycles were used to simultaneously inform both learning theory and subsequent design iterations, as well as uncover the best practices for reaching our students with these innovations. Uncovering the optimal ‘ecology of implementation’ to really help our preservice teachers.
The good news…. (on next slide)
What’s really exciting, is that inexperience with games doesn’t matter! They are so bright and capable of learning these new technologies, they just needed the opportunity. The MLFTC provides that now through immersing students in these experiences during their pre-service education.
What are the best practices for delivering these new innovations? We’ve uncovered an ‘Ecology of Implementation’ or best context and practices for maximizing the take up and impact of these games for our pre-service teachers.