Category: Instructional Technology

Games and Simulations in Education: A Resource List for Newbies

The following is in response to the requests several of you have made for more information about games and simulations in education.

The use of games and simulations in education is increasing. There is a lot being researched, written, blogged, and talked about on this topic. There are increasing numbers of presentations and discussions on the topic at conferences. The topic is also becoming part of the curriculum in more and more educational technology courses and programs. While I believe that the use of electronic games and simulations in teaching and learning is in its infancy, there are those that have had an interest in this for quite some time, and have acquired a respectable level of expertise in this area. I suggest the following resources to help you prepare to integrate games and simulations with teaching and learning in your classroom.

  • Mark Prensky – Prensky’s provocative nature has helped him become one of the biggest names in games in education. His book Digital Game-Based Learning is a must read for anyone looking to become knowledgeable of this topic. (Warning: He likes to be shocking for the sake of being shocking.)
  • Lloyd Rieber – Dr. Rieber’s understanding of rigorous research and development combined with his ability to easily communicate with classroom teachers has made him a well respected individual in the field of instructional technology around the world. His website, Nowhere Road, is full of useful resources.
  • WWILD Team – This is an “online community of teachers, parents, students, and software developers promoting experiential learning.” Be sure to especially look over the Homemade PowerPoint Games (think, “Webquest meets PowerPoint”) section.
  • Rick van Eck – He has become known for his research in instructional games and simulations.
  • Dennis Charsky – As an emerging researcher and practitioner in the area of instructional games, Dr. Charsky has the ability to communicate his knowledge of computer programming, game development, and graphic design to educators.
  • COTS – Integrating commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games with teaching and learning
  • It’s All Fun and Games until… – This is a partial compilation of resources (podcasts, PowerPoint files, etc.) from guest presentations given in conjunction with a special topics class I helped co-teach.

What resources would you add to this list? Please leave your suggestions (provide URLs when possible) in the comments below.

Rubber Duckies Heading for British Coast

I find this story to be interesting for several reasons. First, the mental picture I have of these toys washing overboard and floating around the world for the past 15 years makes me chuckle. Second, our children think this story is hysterical. Third, it’s cool that technology has made it possible to track these floatees as they’ve trekked the oceans of the world.

I know of examples of students tracking the migration patterns of whales, severe weather, earthquakes, sea turtles, sports teams, things in space, etc. but these rubber ducks bring an entirely new element of fun to such an activity.

What are your thoughts about this?

Rubber Ducks

U.S. Secretary of Education Requests Feedback on Technology in Education

The U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, is seeking input and feedback on the role of technology in education. According to the USDE’s Office of Educational Technology‘s site…

Secretary Spellings would like to hear your ideas on the integration of technology in education. Please take a moment to provide feedback on the following questions:

  1. In what ways has technology improved the effectiveness of your classroom, school or district?
  2. Based on your role (administrator, parent, teacher, student, entrepreneur, business leader), how have you used educational data to make better decisions or be more successful?
  3. In what ways can technology help us prepare our children for global competition and reach our goals of eliminating achievement gaps and having all students read and do math on grade level by 2014?
  4. What should be the federal government’s role in supporting the use of technology in our educational system?

I’m not sure that these are the questions that we need to be asking, but at least there’s the possibility of some dialogue emerging from this. I do think we are at an important juncture with regards to education and technology (and I’ll be blogging about this in the very near future) and I encourage you to please provide your feedback via the online survey.

Here are a few interesting conversation about this topic.

Steve Hargadon

Classroom 2.0

Around the Corner

COMING SOON: Moving the Discussion Forward

I’ve been wrestling with the idea of how to move the whole discussion of technology integration forward.  After 10+ years of work in this area I really haven’t seen much change in what people are talking about or how we are looking at this topic.  It seems like most are in agreement that technology should be integrated with teaching and learning, but here we are 10 years later and most still aren’t certain about how to proceed.  It’s almost as if we’ve all agreed to go to the bus station, but no one is getting on the bus.  I, for one, am ready for this adventure to begin!!!

I’ve been/I’m currently trying to clarify and articulate my thoughts about all of this for myself.  It was time for my mission statement to be updated…if you will.  My plan is to share my thoughts on this topic in a series of posts.  Look for them soon…and please share your thoughts and feedback.

Another Example of the Possibilities of Technology in Education

Here’s another outstanding story. There are several things that this one makes me think about.

  1. There are people of all ages making amazing use of the Web 2.0 technologies on their own. There are folks that are blogging, producing podcasts and vidcasts, creating slideshows and presentations, producing movies, etc. about things about which they are passionate. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that they are often able to bring these tools and skills or their passion into the classroom. I’d really like to see what happens if students were routinely given the chance to do so.
  2. The Web 2.0 technologies potential impact on teaching and learning blows my mind and gets me pumped.
  3. Obviously this specific story occurred outside of the classroom, but couldn’t teachers easily design a project that resulted in this kind of experience?

13 Yr. Old CEO of Innovative Educational Gaming Company

Anshul Samar is the CEO of Elementeo, a startup company seeking to combine fun and learning. This article provides an overview of the company’s goals, video of Anshul’s CEO speech, and a description of the company’s first game which teaches chemistry through a role-playing board game.

This is interesting to me on many different levels. Watching the video of Anshul’s CEO speech gives me the impression that this may have actually been a class project. Regardless, couldn’t a student activity like this be the jumping-off point for effectively integrating technology with teaching and learning?

  1. How many content areas/topics/objectives/skills would this kind of activity include? I’ve noticed 1) math, business and economics, 2) science/chemistry, 3) art and graphic design, 4) language arts, 5) perhaps copyright and patents, 6) ……???
  2. If this was a class project, do you think that the teacher could have ever imagined that this would be the result?
  3. Elementeo is seeking to put the fun back into learning. Has education taken the fun out of learning? It seems that these students think so. What does that tell those of us that are teachers?
  4. If this is not a class project and Anshul and his friends did this of their own initiative then perhaps we, as teachers, should reconsider what it is that we have our students doing. I suggest that a traditional lesson/unit on entrepreneurship would likely not teach students nearly as much about the world of business (and the other aforementioned content areas) as this activity likely did.
  5. While students weren’t necessarily playing games but rather developing games, this could be an example of effectively bringing gaming into the classroom and integrating it with the curriculum.
    1. Let’s begin to consider all the elements of effective teaching and learning (according to today’s research) that might possibly be identified in a class project like this. Such an activity might include 1) problem solving, 2) discovery learning, 3) legitimate peripheral participation and/or authentic/situated/contextual teaching and learning, 4) communities of practice, 5) collaboration, 6) project management (for those instructional designers among us), 7) ……???

    I think this could be a rich discussion. Please, please chime in.

    iQuiz Maker for iPod

    Neil Hokanson has an interesting post about using iQuiz Maker to create your own quizzes to be used on iPods. The possibilities for use in the classroom are intriguing. What are some of the possible educational uses that you can envision?

    ITM’s Show and Tell

    The Infinite Thinking Machine has put together another compilation of “amazing examples of how students are using a wide-range of innovative tools in the classroom.” Here’s a blurb from this episode’s show notes.

    Dive into our Virtual Open House! We can talk all we want about “cool tools,” but it doesn’t mean much until we see how it impacts kids. So, this episode is all about students: what interests them, how they understand and generate knowledge, and the amazing things they can do when we give them the right tools and guidance. It’s time to let the kids show off!

    I encourage you to visit ITM’s post related to this episode to view all of the associated resources. There are some really outstanding ideas there.

    Technology Integration Blogs

    I’ve been looking around for blogs that discuss the integration of technology with teaching and learning. I’ve used a myriad of search terms, key words, categories, tags, etc. but have been disappointed with the scarcity of conversation in blogdome on this topic. Do you know of any? Please share suggestions in the Comments section.

    PIDT Conference

    I recently returned from the Professors of Instructional Design and Technology (PIDT) Conference.  An archive of some of the presentations and discussions from this year’s conference is emerging.  Documents, presentations, podcasts, images and more are available in the archive.

    Elizabeth Boling led a discussion about Moving the Field Forward.  She used an engaging instructional strategy to focus participants on three points: What are our fears?