Monday Summary: Video Games and Stealth Assessment-Sneaky Teachers

I just read the neatest little article.  Anyone reading bits of my blog knows I’m a critical thinking geek.  I also happen to love adventure video games.  They’re really great at developing critical thinking skills.  I’m even thinking of ways to incorporate some of my favorites from BigFish Games into information literacy courses as a way to encourage critical thinking skills in fun ways.  However, I never thought of the sneaky uses detailed in this article.

Article: Kaya, Travis. (2010). “A ‘Stealth Assessment’ Turns to Video Games to Measure Thinking Skills.” Chronicle of Higher Education, 57(12).  A13. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Kaya gets Valerie Shute (here’s her webpage), an associate professor of educational psychology at Florida State University, to discuss stealth assessment.  In order to test students’ thinking skills, among other things, without inducing test anxiety, Shute has utilized video games.  Students already grow up playing games.  They’re enjoyable and can reduce anxiety rather than causing it.  It also helps that video games can be used in the classroom without the students realizing they’re being tested.  It conveys more realistic results to professors. 

Shute sees stealth assessment as a way of modernizing teaching for groups of all ages.  Video games can draw students by increasing the desire of a student to participate.  It increases the relevance of some course projects by modernizing the instruction and gaining the students interest.

A couple of games in the article interested me right away. 

Shute designed a computer game (Smithtown) for undergraduates several years back.  It helped them learn microeconomics.  Think about that.  A game for learning microeconomics.  How cool is that?  Students had to alter economic factors and look at the results.  It ended up teaching important lessons about scientific inquiry.  If the students altered too many variables, they wouldn’t be able to determine the cause and effect relationship of their experiments.  Students learned to be patient, work with smaller numbers of variables, and dig out the actual cause/effect relationships. 

The second game is another game promoted for in-class use by Shute.  It was created by the University of Indiana’s Center for Research on Learning and Technology.  Taiga Park deals with ecology.  Students have to investigate the cause of a large scale fish die-off.  They get to interview witnesses and business owners and learn about basic scientific principles involved in ecological research.  It just sounds neat!

I think I may have to give Shute a hug if I ever meet her.  This is awesome stuff.  I love the twenty-first century.  I swear when I finally get hold of a librarian position, I’m going to be pushing video games for the info lit courses.  I cannot think a better way to engage college age students and still get them learning.

Monday Summary: Narratives, Games, and Learning Environments, oh my!

Here it is, after a two week break.  This week we’ll look at the following article:

Dickey, Michele D. “Game Design Narrative for Learning: Appropriating Adventure Game Design Narrative Devices and Techniques for the Design of Interactive Learning Environments.” ETR&D. 54.3 (2006): 245-263.

Michele Dickey is a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  She focuses on instructional design and technology and has several publications on games and gamers.  So, she knows a thing or two about instruction and video games.

Dickey’s main purpose is to look at the possible place of narrative structures and games in the problem solving process and learning environment.  This article focuses on adventure games, after briefly covering other genres and mentioning the overlap of genres.  Adventure games tend to have the most developed narrative structures.  After a literature review (with some wonderful resources I’ll be digging up later), Dickey moves into the theoretical framework section of the article.  In this section she touches on the idea of learning environment.  Basically, this is a more modern idea among educators that students learn best when engaged and have an interactive environment in which to learn.  Knowledge (unlike information) cannot be transmitted from the instructor to the student.  The student has to construct her knowledge within the framework of the learning environment.  The old notion of lecturing and mindlessly copying notes doesn’t cut it here.  Students can be approached individually in a learning environment unlike the old school approach of having “each student do the same thing at the same time” (249).

Again, Dickey focuses on the adventure genre of games because of the more developed narrative structures found in them.  They can overlap with other genres, such as puzzle, first-person shooters, etc.  The adventure genre of games can, according to Dickey, “be characterized as a problem-solving environment” (250).  Problem-solving environments require players to interact and synthesize the information.  They have to use the narrative structure and environment of the game to solve problems, puzzles, go on quests, etc.  This can mean interacting with and interpreting characters in the game, utilizing objects, solving riddles, etc. 

Dickey also discusses how narrative factors into motivation.  She does this by looking to the field of literature (my old stomping ground).  Narrative based games use plot hooks (what keeps you guessing, wanting to find out more) and emotional proximity (identification with the character the gamer is playing, investment in the narrative) to engage gamers.  Using literature again, Dickey looks at the idea of the quest as a draw to keep gamers engaged and interacting.

While motivation is important in gaming and to the narrative design, Dickey sees narrative better served in the instructional setting as a “cognitive framework for problem solving” (252).  What’s that, you may wonder?  Humans have a habit of using narrative to define boundaries when they’re solving problems.  If you’re playing a game where the character can use magic spells, you’ll put that into your cognitive framework.  Likewise if your character has the ability pick locks, sword fight, utilize modern technology, etc.  The cognitive framework aids you in developing categories and relationships to work with.  You become aware of the characters you can interact with and how you can interact, what objects are beneficial and not, what skills are likely to be relevant, etc.  The narrative allows you to “identify and construct causal patterns that integrate what is known (backstory, environment, rules, etc.)” (252).  You figure out what you can and cannot do in the game setting through the narrative and through some trial and error in that narrative setting. 

Dickey points out that the narrative structure provides a “scaffolding for problem solving” (256).  Players develop skills for problem solving and “multimodal literacy” as they encounter problems, puzzles, and obstacles.  They have to use critical thinking skills in order to navigate the game and reach their goals. 

Dickey closes the article with a section on integrating adventure game narrative into the learning environment.  She points out that this is a framework not a “formula” for designing a course or learning environment.  She also points out the obvious notion that games are designed primarily for entertainment.  So, not all games will work for learning environments or as educational tools. 

Monday Summary: Riddles and Computer Games (1995)

Yes, this is an older article.  I still kind of, sort of, remember 1995.  Dr. John H. Doolittle published the following article way back then:

Doolittle, John H. “Using Riddles and Interactive Computer Games to teach Problem-Solving Skills.”  Teaching of Psychology.  22.1 (1995):  33-36. 

Doolittle’s main premise is that word tables, interactive video games, and riddles aid in the development of creative and critical thinking.  His focus is on undergraduate college students.  Students learn to think of multiple solutions to problems, instead of locking themselves into only one solution.  Along those lines, students also learn to let go of wrong answers or risk failing the task.  Students are required to think creatively because the expected answers with riddles aren’t always correct.  Flexibility in thoughts and problem solving patterns emerge.

Doolittle also points out something that should be obvious.  Those of us who read or listen to stories read aloud have more developed and active imaginations.  Movies and television can be interesting forms of entertainment but do not provide the kind of cognitive development that comes from an engaged imagination and interactive participation.

Doolittle offers some suggestions for riddles and games.  He also cautions against student frustration, which can halt the developmental process.  He closes with his empirical evidence for the effectiveness of these techniques, which is very preliminary but shows possible promise. 

So, this really is a fascinating article, and I’ll be following his citations and digging deeper for empirical evidence.  I don’t think many researchers take video games seriously as a way to encourage information literacy, creativity and critical thinking skills.  One thing that did bother me a little bit with this article was the fact that nearly half of his eighteen citations were to his own papers, books, and games he’s developed.  I can understand his reasons, but it still bothers me for some reason.  I need to track down his other resources and some more updated findings. 

This article did solidify some wonderful ideas I have for the classroom.  I have a syllabus and schedule emerging from the murky depths of my mind.  Perhaps, I will have to share these ideas with my readers. 

Am I weird or what?  I’m not employed at the moment and I’m still developing courses.  I just need some imaginary students and I’m set.  I wonder if I can get an imaginary paycheck?

Oh, look.  A link to the article!  

Monday Summary – Math and Libraries

I’m starting something new.  Monday Summary may not happen every Monday.  However, I’ll endeavor to summarize and offer my thoughts on a library science related article every week.  I’m starting with a simple article this week.  One from a more popular periodical, instead of something scholarly.  I’ll try to switch up sources every once in a while.  The purpose of this is to keep me up to date on my field and to find interesting tidbits of information related to information literacy, critical thinking, or whatever tickles my fancy.  A second purpose is to inform my readers (and I have stats proving you exist even if few comment).  Most of my readers are not information professionals, but they might be interested in what librarians find print worthy.  Feel free to ask questions or post comments or email me if you want.

 

Fleming, Dan.  “Let Me Count the Ways.” School Library Journal.  August 2004, 42-44.

This isn’t one of those peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles that I should be digging through, but it caught my geek-eye due to the MATH.  I work algebra problems for fun and relaxation (yes, I’m one of those people).

Dan Fleming’s overall argument is that librarians should integrate math into information literacy lessons and everywhere else we can.  He focuses mainly on k-12 because of his experience.  He doesn’t want librarians to feel intimidated by math integration and recommends looking at statewide math standards as a starting point and focus for math lessons.  Fleming summarized the math standards for Massachusetts in this article.  He recommends developing math resources through collection development and finding math in “non-math” subjects (and while collaborating with teachers in those subjects).  An insert on the last page of the article provides details on the “Links between Information Literacy and Math Skills.”  The article closes with encouragement of creativity and by offering example exercises.

This article was published in 2004, and I haven’t noticed an increase in math in libraries, which is depressing.  Fleming is onto a great idea here.  Math, especially through word problems, can develop critical thinking skills.  It may also encourage an interest in math and science among students.  At the very least it may encourage an appreciation of those subjects and the way subjects bleed into one another and overlap. 

Fleming quotes one of his former students, Theresa Conroy, as stating, “The school library provides a setting for students to take a second and third look at ideas presented in the classroom” (44).  I think this is a point many people miss.  Librarians can reinforce subject knowledge, understanding, and literacy.

I think Fleming’s ideas can apply just as well to higher education.  College and university librarians should take note when it comes to information literacy courses (whether general or subject specific).  Any way we can encourage math and science should be viewed as important in the United States.  We’re already falling behind in those subjects compared to several other countries.  And critical thinking skills need constant reinforcement throughout life.

I’m one of those “math” people.  I’m always playing with numbers and automatically get interested when they come up.  So, Fleming’s article speaks to me, especially considering I never thought of this approach before.  I’ll be trying to find ways to integrate math into some of my upcoming worksheets and lessons (look for those blog posts soon).