Game+Like+Learning

= **Game-Like Learning: An Example of Situated Learning and Implications For Opportunity to Learn ** = toc Article by: James Paul Gee Wiki presentation by: Genely Beleno, Sophia Hoang, Shari Russell, and Sandra Zaca

= **Introduction ** =
 * The word "know" is a verb before it become the noun "knowledge". Knowledge is obtained through a set of activities (special ways of acting and interaction) and experience (ways of seeing, valuing, and being in the world).
 * //Traditional view of education:// Education relies on teaching facts and information, then testing students on these facts and information.
 * //Why this does not work:// Learning have difficulty retaining and understanding information if they have not done the activities or had the experiences that the teachers refer to.
 * //Bad solution:// Expect learners to just engage in activities or past experiences themselves. They need guidance so they know how to start, where to look for the best leverage, and how long to pursue them before looking for different alternatives.
 * //Good solution:// "Post-progressive" pedagogies; pedagogies that combine immersion with well-designed guidance. For example: video games!

= **General Versus Situated Understandings ** =
 * //General understanding:// Ability to explain one's understanding in other words or general principles, but not necessarily apply the knowledge to actual situations.
 * //Situated understanding:// Ability to use or understand a concept in ways that are customizable to different situations.
 * When students generally understand but do not have a situated understanding, they may pass information-based tests, but do not know how to use this information to problem solve.
 * //Game-like learning:// Digital technologies facilitate situated understandings in the context of activity and experience grounded in perception.

= **Supercharged! ** =

//__About __//
Supercharged! is a computer game to learn physics, more specifically an electromagnetism simulation game. It was developed by John Belcher, a Massachusetts Institude of Technology (MIT) phycist. The game was developed though the Game-to-Teach project at MIT.

//__Goal __//
Supercharged! gives the learner opportunities to interact with electromagnetic phenomena. To help learners build stronger intuitions of electromagnetic concepts and develop qualitative understandings of electromagnetic phenomena, learners experience manipulating charges and interacting with electromagnetic worlds.

//__Gameplay __//
The players explore electromagnetic mazes. The spaceship used to explore these electromagnetic mazes has adopted itself as a charged particle. To affect the movement of the spaceship, the player has to place charged particles throughout the maze to propel the ship.

For each new level, the player is given a limited set of charges to place through the maze. There are also obstacles introduced at new levels that are common to electromagnetism concepts. For example, points of charge, planes of charge, magnetic planes, solid magnets, and electric currents are concepts that are used to affect the player's movement according to the law of electromagnetism.

Levels are won when obstacles have been overcome by spacial navigation, world interaction, or object acquisition. The game ends when the player runs out of energy.

//__Studies __//
A study had been done with three culturally diverse urban middle schools science classrooms to experiment using the computer game Supercharged! as a pedagogical potential. When given a conceptual exam, the experimental group outperformed the control group. The experimental group showed a more qualitative understanding through their experiences and challenges of playing Supercharged!. However, the control group had to rely on memorizing information and showed less of a qualitative understanding.

//__Post-Progressive Pedagogy __//
A problem was noticed when the students were playing the Supercharged! game. The students played without a good deal of critical reflection on their play. To solve this problem, teachers provided scaffolding and guidance to prompt deeper reflection on game play. For example, a teacher used a projector to display a game level. The teacher then encouraged the class to interpret the events happening on the screen and make predictions about how they thought the simulation would behave. This was considered the post-progressive pedagogy, a combination of embodied immersion in rich experience and scaffolding and guidance.

= **Full Spectrum Warrior ** =

//__Video __//
media type="youtube" key="uvqERSD7ZAI?version=3" height="360" width="640"

//__About __//
Full Spectrum Warrior is a game that teaches the players how to be a professional soldier. It demands that the player thinks, values, and acts like one to "win" the game. The game also carries messages, beliefs, and values about warfare, terrorism, cultural differences, and the role of the U.S. military and its army.

//__Goal __//
The goal of Full Spectrum Warrior is to distribute "authentic' professional knowledge to the player.

//__Gameplay __//
In Full Spectrum Warrior, the player uses the buttons on the controller to give orders to the soldiers, as well as to consult a GPS device, radio for support, and communicate with command. The instruction manual that comes with the game makes it clear from the outset that players must think, act, and value like a professional soldier to play the game successfully. The player is also scaffolded by he knowledge built into the virtual characters and the weapons, equipment, and environments in the game. The learner is not left to his or her own devices to rediscover the foundations of a professional practice that took hundreds of years to develop.

= **Implications ** =

//__Testing and Assessment __//

 * 1) Game-like learning will help students to apply-situate their learning of conceptual knowledge successfully.
 * 2) Based on Verbal/Factual Information-Hypothesis: Game-like learning will work for this because facts and information are effortlessly acquired through engaging in situated learning experiences. Students perform better on conceptual and traditional tests through situated understandings of words and information.

//__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Expertise __//

 * 1) Even if students do not gain expertise from game-like learning, it still will allow students to, "know why specific sorts of technical knowledge is important, how it really works, and will have sensed their own real capacity to fully understand and use that knowledge" (Gee 20).

//__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Exposure to Game-Like Learning __//

 * 1) Students Exposed to Only Verbal/Factual Information: Do not gain the same opportunities to learn/do well on traditional tests as game-like learners.
 * 2) Socioeconomic Status: "Privileged homes attain more and more activity-and-experience-based situated learning at home when poorer children do not get it at home or at school" (Gee 21).
 * 3) Improving/Enhancing Learning: Even though technology is supposed to do this, it could create a larger gap in achievement, "in terms of higher-order forms of understanding and even in the distribution of traditional test scores" (Gee 21).

= **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Video 1 ** =

//__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sonic Adventures 2 __//
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">media type="youtube" key="XCs42XSwI-c?version=3" height="360" width="640"

= **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Video 2 ** =

//__Steel Beasts Pro PE__//
media type="youtube" key="ts8yKBI-Qcs?version=3" height="360" width="640"

= **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">Class Assessment/Reflection Discussion Questions ** =
 * 1) Define general and situated understanding.
 * 2) Which video demonstrated a general understanding? A situated understanding? Why?
 * 3) After watching the videos, what are the implications/benefits of students learning from situated experiences over general ones?

= **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline;">References ** = Gee, J.P. (2009). Game-Like Learning: An Example of Situated Learning and Implications For Opportunity to Learn. 1-26. anton2maa (2008, June 7). //Full Spectrum Warrior//. Retrieved July 9, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvqERSD7ZAI PinkKittyRose (2007, August 21). //Sonic Adventures 2 - City Escape//. Retrieved July 9, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCs42XSwl-c blackmuzzle (2007, August 1). //SteelBeasts Pro PE//. Retrieved July 9, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts8yKBl-Qcs