A Serious Game used for Learning

Last time, I looked at a simple game where the player must escape a room. In this post, I will look at a "serious" game where the player must escape a potentially dire situation. This game, 3rd World Farmer, has many more options to the point where a bit of strategy is required.

You start with a simple household: one head of the family, a spouse, and two kids. You have a hut and some land. What do you do?

Main Screen: Building up the farm resources with some acquired tools & a new family member has been born.

There are many options. You can choose what crops to plant and what tools to buy to increase crop yield many of which are not available right away due to their cost. You can also raise livestock and constructing certain farm buildings can increase the efficiency of your farm animals. Having wells can protect you from drought. The game then advances in one year turns, as in each turn is one year of in-game time. You plant your crops, set up your farm and hit "play" to go to the next turn, which begins by relaying you the results of your choices from the past turn. Many factors and events can affect the health, efficiency and value of your farm.

Good Events:

• Good Harvest - better than expect crop yield (+50%)
• Splendid Harvest - much better than expected crop yield (+100%)

Troublesome Events:

• Civil War - get plundered
• Theft - loss of tools or property
• Corruption - loss of tools or property, more than in simple theft.
• Bad Weather - poor crop yield, wells destroyed
• Bank Crash - less profit from selling crops
• Poor Markets - less profit from selling crops
• Refugee Wave - potential loss of tools or property
• Disease - death of livestock and/or family member(s)

Annual Report Screen: There's been theft! Also, results of the year's harvest and income are displayed.

Choices to Make:

• Host paramilitaries near by? Could get you caught up in war.
• Accept "harmless" barrels to be stored? Could poison your land.
• Accept to host a "native culture" festival. Get some money. This seems to be a good option, but it comes up rarely and only if your farm is doing very well.

Those are the big choices, however there are plenty of small ones. Such as, what crops to plant. Their cost changes year to year. Also, do you want to have more kids? Caring for young kids takes work time, thus the thus makes your year's crop less efficient. But this can be offset by purchasing tools. Then as as kids get older they can lend more of a hand to the farm. They could also get married and head the farm or leave the farm for a job in the city, but this only works well if they've had an education. Act briskly too! Once family members get older, they can die easier even if in good health!

Choices, choices, choices!

Admittedly the game gets more interesting the second or third time through, once you know what's possible and can build up a good farm. Though, the first time through is perhaps the game's strongest point: real life doesn't give you a second chance in this type of situation.

This brings us to classroom use.

By today's game terms, this game is quite simple: an internet flash game. However, in terms of education potential, it is quite potent and the overall simplicity can lend itself to focus within the classroom on the content without being distracted by explosive graphics and winding story plots, though those can certainly also be fit in somewhere! However, for the purposes of intermediate level ESL 3rd World Farmer is apt. For one, the students could write a simple narrative of their first experience with the game, which could be used to practice past tense. "I did..., I planted..., we bought..., etc..." Given the many forms of the English past tense, this could be useful. The teacher, having already played the game many times and familiar with all or at least most of the game's possibilities, would give the students a list of verbs to put into the past tense in their narrative. Select nouns could also be included and these could be linked to the appropriate transitive verb: "I plowed/ploughed the field."

Going by Kyle Mawer's task types this incorporates listing, ordering & sorting as well as a degree of storytelling with each student's run through of the game being their own short story. This first simple exercise can get the students familiar with the game and ready for their next play through. Now, that they know many of the games events and possibilities, especially after reviewing the short story in class with peer editing in the manner described for a simple game, the students can take the game to the next level.

They can play the game and take note of the events that take place, both good and bad (see lists above), and list their causes and effects. "I lost money because my pigs died from disease" or "I had a good harvest and earned more from wheat this year" and then these could be linked to events such as "and so, I couldn't (or could) afford medicine this year and so on and so forth. The choices ripple down through the turns and the students should be encouraged to take note of them and see the connections.

This brings us to Performance Indicators (see full list here)

   Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.2:
   Students read, gather, view, listen to, organize, discuss, interpret, and analyze information

   related to academic content areas and various sources.

   May Include - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.2.MI:


   Sources such as nonfiction books for young adults, reference books, magazines, textbooks, the

   Internet, databases, audio and media presentations, oral interviews, charts, graphs, maps, and

   diagrams.

This is a good performance indicator of students at least an intermediate level. They have the basic understanding of grammar and have a degree of proficiency, however they are not crossing beyond the reaches of the formulaic textbook language into the realm of creative language. The serious game allows for this much more than a simple game. The 3rd World Farmer game was meant to be education and so the students can look up in the news events that are similar to those depicted in the game. Given the complexity of news language, this could be done in the students' L1 (much easier and perhaps only feasible) with the same L1 in the classroom. Either way, the teacher should know about the students' L1(s) and have several sources/web portals in each language ready for them to consult. The students could then write a summary of the events in the news and related them to the game in a short prose essay in English. Much of the above performance indicator's elements would be included in this assignment as would be thinking of English outside of the classroom.

A good harvest season. Lots of crops. Expanded family. Developed town.

Recap:

First: Play the game much like in the simple game assignment. The students can see how far they get with distinction being given to the winner(s) and then write a simple narrative in the past tense about their play through. Peer editing and handing in of the short essay follows.

Second: The students play the game and focus on the causes and effects within the game. Does hosting paramilitaries help? Are some crops better to plant than others? What tools and equipment is needed to sustain livestock? Does the outside world affect what happens in your farm? And so on. In advanced classes this could be quite open ended with questions such as these merely giving the students a start in shaping their second longer writing with the requirement being "examine 5 causes and effects." In intermediate classes, the questions may be more specific and the answering of each (or a certain miminum amount) can be made a requirement for the essay.

Third: The students look at real life news stories (in their L1, if they wish) about similar events in the real world and then write summary in English about the events and also say how similar or different the real events are to those of the game. The list of events to look for can be drawn from the game's "Annual Report Screen." After play the game through at least 5 times (as I did) most of the game's possible events are encountered.

To save on class writing and peer editing time, the play throughs where cause and effect is noted and logged may be assigned as homework. The teacher here takes the role of introducing the assignment and each step, though it largely in the background and available for reference for the duration. This is why much of the writing and the first game play through will be done in class as that's what the students will likely need help with.

My first successful play through: #3

A Small Game used for Learning

I recently played a simple online flash game, one of those room escape games. Very simple graphics even by flash game standards, and a small game space of four main screens with some sub-screens. This is Polleke's Blue Room. It took me a while to figure it out. The game provides a timer, actually, and I got right around 15 minutes. What I find most interesting is that the game reminded me of the first escape game that I played ages ago, which, if I recall correctly, was titled something like "Red Room Escape" which a similar theme to this game. However, that first game had a bit of a short intro - you wake up in a room without knowing how you got there... now find a way out! It's like the start of a riddle, and this makes it connectable to education.

NOTE: The game that I recalled was called Crimson Room. The game has a very interactive almost cinematic feel to it due to its animation. Recommended!

Let's take an intermediate classroom in which students have a basic understanding of English, though mainly out of a textbook. They are missing the "living language" element. Given Crimson Room's simple story and introduction, the students could think of a more detailed story, with some constraints. They then could write the rest by describing the escape. Lastly, they imagine what's outside the room or what happens after. The result is a short story. Now, more details about each step.

This assumes a 50-65 minute class time with intermediate students.

Class session 1:

1) Students are told: "Game time! Escape the room!" Each student plays individually. 10-15 minutes is given after which teacher begins to drop hints and to have the students finish.

Polleke's Blue Room screenshot. In game caption at top left. Found items at bottom screen.

2) The teacher introduces the assignment of writing a short story. The game is to be the skeleton of the story, as it has very little story of its own. Each student gets a step-by-step walkthrough as a refresher.

3) Students play the game again and flesh out the details. Writing is to be in present tense: e.g. "I wake up in an odd room. I see a door. It's locked... etc..." Items needed to finish the game must be mentioned accurately. Teacher present in class to answer questions.

4) First draft is handed in.

Class Session 2:

5) Students are told to write, also in present tense, the intro and ending of the game. How did you get into room? What did you see after you got out?

6) Peer review. Students review each others' stories: is the present tense correctly used? Have all relevant details been mentioned? Afterwards, read over peer's comments.

7) Teacher asks for volunteer(s) to read their first draft to the class.

HW: Type up a final draft to hand in at the beginning of next class. Students may play the game again any number of times to make sure that they have all the relevant details. Adding creative details that do not throw the game series of events off track is encouraged.

Peformance Indicators (see full list here)

1) Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.6:
Students make and support inferences about information and ideas with reference to features in oral and written text. 

   May Include - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.6.MI:
   Features such as vocabulary, format, facts, sequence, and relevance of details.

2) Performance Indicator - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.7:

Students present information clearly in a variety of oral and written forms for different audiences and purposes related to all academic content areas.

   May Include - ESL.I.5-8.1.1.7.MI:
   Forms such as paraphrases, summaries, stories, reports, essays, posters, charts, and other
   graphics.

Given the game's minimalist story details, but specific sequencing, the students can make many inferences as to what is going on and draw on their current vocabulary to fill in these gaps. They should, of course, be encouraged to look up words as well. Noticing relevant details, such as an item needed to finish the game and/or its location can indicate high or low level work. Whether or not the essay is written clearly is another performance indicator. In fact, some escape game walkthroughs are formatted in prose form, thus the students are effectively writing one of those, with their own added details if they wish. However, the core of the assignment and baseline for finishing it is essentially an accurate prose walkthrough in the present tense. According to Kyle Mawer's task types, this assignment closely resembles the storytelling task with a little bit of the creative task in there as well.

The final draft will be then evaluated by the teacher, who for the duration of the assignment had a background role and was consulted for reference by the students.

Gamification: No Pain, No Game

Games seems to be an overlooked, or at the very least, a seriously underused educational tool. The very essence of a game, is learning the rules and then progressing by them, which sounds a lot like a school curriculum. However, it is probably due to only fairly recent video games managing to capture a satisfactory amount of the complex human learning process that games can be a serious supplement and even format for a class curriculum. There's only so much you can do with Jeopardy.

Video games are, above all, interactive. They change and react in real time or with each player/learner action. This, again, sounds quite a bit like our real world or curriculum. In the article, 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning, the author states that, "even simple game elements draw students into course content. More complex game mechanics can pique motivation through the acquisition of points, the urge to race against peers, or the personal satisfaction of learning things that they can apply outside the activity." Isn't that what teaching does? An interesting teacher draws students in and motivates them through points and activities. At least, that's how I remember many of my favorite teachers. The basic class rule of "participation" as part of a grade is an underlying reward system: participate in class, get points. It's an old model and video games have taken it to a much more attractive level by offering real-time rewards in return for real-time participation within the game world.

In class: voluntarily answer a question or make a good point, the teacher can nod, smile, even congratulate, then make a quick mark that today you participated, though you don't really get anything tangible and your progress is mainly implied. That can be fair enough for some things, but the monotony of it can get stale.

In game: voluntarily explore a new area, the game may reward you with either a big or small prize or... you may find nothing and get nothing! But you know that in optional areas there often are things, so you just go on to look for the next one, hoping your luck will be better! The reward for one bit of effort is immediate and of nothing occurs, there's the tantalizing prospect of one can be strong! Self-motivation is generated.

This last bit is something high quality video games excel at and Tom Chatfield elaborates this point in detail in his presentation on TedTalk, 7 Ways Video Games Reward the Brain: "We also say there's going to be loads of other items of varying qualities and levels of excitement. There's going to be a 10 percent chance you get a pretty good item. There's going to be a 0.1 percent chance you get an absolutely awesome item" and if you do get one "they make very sure another one doesn't appear for a certain length of time to keep the value, to keep it special." I remember this in the card playing game, Magic: The Gathering, which I used to play. There was always a chance to get a really good new card in a 15 card pack, but the trick was, really good cards often required others to support them, thus there was a revolving door of incentive to get more cards and, needless to say, the game was a major seller. However, buying cards in random with some kids getting lucky and getting a lot of high end cards. Videos games, as Chatfield states, can get around this unfairness by not giving a player two great items within too short of a time span. This encourages more playing and playing can mean learning if it keeps students engaged in classwork that's given a game dynamic and structure. Chatfield further states that rewards themselves, be they money or game perks, are really secondary, and "the biggest neurological turn-on for people is other people. This is what really excites us. In reward terms, it's not money; it's not being given cash -- that's nice -- it's doing stuff with our peers, watching us, collaborating with us." Humans are a social species, so this makes sense. Thousands of years ago, people formed villages and communities out of the desire to collaborate, now we play games for the same reason!

In the article, Sculpting Flow and Fiero, which is from the realm of Magic: The Gathering, the author quotes psychologist and creativity researcher, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who states that, "the satisfying, exhilarating feeling of creative accomplishment and heightened functioning" is a way to describe "flow" or the point where the difficulty of a game is just enough for a player to overcome it with his or her current abilities. The flow experience needs "clear goals, rigidly defined rules of engagement, and the potential for measured improvement in the context of those goals and rules" the similarity of which seems to be readily applied to an educational context.

The critical element is that in this context students are much more engaged in their learning than in the traditional classroom. In this new classroom, the teacher provides possibilities and evaluates the students based on their choices, as does a video game.

This technique is still in its nascent stages, especially when compared to traditional education, however, it's growing just as the video games it seeks to emulate did. I played Magic: The Gathering in elementary school and already by high school, when I wasn't playing anymore, I could hope to keep up with the newly developed complexities. The difference between the arcade classic Space Invaders and the much newer World of Warcraft is analogous. People have been captivated by games primarily because games have a learning curve and offer "the flow." This has affected education with parents complaining why kids are so captivated by games that offer nothing for their future and the fact remains some games are pure entertainments, or casual, however serious game also exist and the field of education should do all it can incorporate them and their ideas.

Twitter: A Freeform Platform

As I mentioned in my last post, I found Twitter immensely confusing at first. It seemed chaotic and the type of thing you do for fun. However, I knew there must be SOMETHING else in there, and sure enough, there was. The thing is that Twitter is pretty free form, just in a way different from a blog, where you write essays and papers. Twitter is about briefly communicated ideas or just small ideas, one at a time. This may make it harder for those used to longer form platforms, however, the quickness of Twitter can appeal to the younger generation brought up on quick stuff - video games, music videos, commercials and all that garish alacrity.

This article, Teaching with Twitter, provided exactly what I was looking for: a structured approach to the platform from someone who has it figured out already. Point 2 on the list of 25 grabbed my attention as something very creative in the academic context:

"2. ‘Summing Up’ Ask students to read an article or chapter and then post their brief summary or précis of the key point(s). A limit of 140 characters demands a lot of academic discipline."

Summaries are a good way to teach students concision in language and while this may sound strict ("academic discipline") we find that colloquial everyday language is often quite concise, vast meaning may be contained in one short contextualized expression. Publicly displayed information is often concise. Hardly anyone says, "iced coffee with milk, cinnamon, chocolate and some foam on top," however a lot of people do say "iced mochaccino" which technically means the same thing. Learning the words from the first set may be useful, but learning their fusion into one (common) term is at least just as useful for a speaker of English living in a city where coffee shops are popular.

Another interesting Twitter use (point 5) suggested in the article is the idea of role playing by "Tweeting" as a famous person (e.g. Shakespeare) - this can help students reflect on what they read in a unique way and is not particular to just learning English. I remember taking a few "major figure" courses as part of my undergraduate studies and this would have been an interesting spin on the routine, with perhaps one cumbersome mandatory paper being stricken from the curriculum to make room!

Another article, 25 Ways to Teach with Twitter, offers some classroom organizing ideas, instead of lesson activity ideas. This is just as relevant to teaching, so it's well worth considering. For one, Twitter's ready accessibility and quick post format effectively make it an online board for announcements. Posting assigned homework on a class Twitter feed instead of the classroom room whiteboard (or chalk board if you're really old!) is a logical step in the face of new technology. Students can check their homework right before leaving school so they know what books to take home and that's that. Without having to explain homework in class, it can give an extra 5 minutes of class work and/or breathing time during the lesson. An announcement board doesn't just need homework assignments, but can also have in-class birthday notices or holiday announcements or extracurricular reading or even extra credit work posted that the students can check whenever they check class Twitter feed in their daily routine.

All in all, it takes some time to get used to, but in the end, this platform can really add some pizzazz to a classroom. Smartphones are here to stay, so teachers must adapt and students too, as smart phones are not just for games, these will be tools with which they will work and play with their entire lives it seems. So, learning them early is better than late. Twitter can be a start to that.

Picking a Twitterchat

On Twitter, I join the #ELTchat stream. My initial impression was total confusion. Twitter's microblog format makes it so that users post short blogs, aka "tweets" and these may include links, pictures or simply be "re-tweets" of what another user(s) posted before. The result is an enormous flood of information with certain tweets being much more useful than others for your current search purposes. Once, a new user pics up on the dynamics of Twitter, the combing through the likely multitudes of tweets should get easier. The key is to use the appropriate search phrase, which may take some time to hone.

On the bright side, following as established user can greatly help in finding information and this is Twitter's strength. Networked users can share information particular to their field and/or interest. In fact, my first hashtag search led me to several Twitter feeds that I found interesting and it was from there that I started to search for actual information on the whole site. The building of the network really really helps with the organization and efficiency of the searching. In effect, by following others, you are customizing your own Twitter feed and what it receives. Think of it as a cable TV package, subscribe to channels of interest and the link, pics, articles, and videos that you are looking for will come your way, or at least you'll be in the right ballpark.

Ergo:

1. search for a Twitter chat (#____), go through a few to see what each one has
2. scan chats that looks good, pick out ones to follow
3. once you picked some (5-10), go back to your Twitter home and see what's there
4. add/remove chats as needed
5. there's your (first) Twitter network(s)

I would say that #ELTchat is pretty good. I found several interesting things there. However, I still have to explore Twitter more and join a live chat at some point. That way, Twitter's full potential will be seen.

ePals - The Human Network

The website ePals is one of many profession orientated social networks. This one focuses on teachers. Have a focused, on topic network is invaluable in the often chaotic world wide web where taking in information is just as important as being able to effectively comb through it. I was referred to this website by a teacher, thus I can't say I found it with my information sorting skills, however how one uses information within a given network does take that combing skill.

EPals is a pretty well organized site and clearly meant for a registered user to seek out possible colleagues and collaborators. The site's very specific filter system is main reason for this.

ePals screenshot - filters are at left with the results displaying on the main part of the screen.

Those filters theoretically allow a user to find a fellow teacher who is in almost the same exact situation as he or she is. Or in the type of the situation that the user is wishing to explore. The use profiles go into even more specific detail provided that they are filled out. It is this that makes this site stand out for me from Google+ groups where the starting point is shared content, however here it is the teachers' current situation. That said, there is no perfect network and in the course of a student and professional life, an individual will likely create a "human network" that has members in various content-specific networks. It will be the managing of this meta-network to suit the demands of one's field that will likely be the ultimate networking skill.

I see myself as possibly using ePals to find similarly situated to myself and having an online discussion to start. This could lead to finding some good content sharing groups for the actual practice of teaching. Through ePals, and provided the classes are close enough, some users suggest possible class cooperation in activities such as field trips. This seems quite interesting and it could be used to have the students start thinking about the actual networking themselves.

Selecting a Network to Join

There are a lot of networks out there. A lot. Even in fairly specialized fields there can be more networks than one person is able to keep up with. And so the question arises: which network(s) should I join?

The answer depends on where you are in your networking journey. If you're just starting out then I would recommend looking over and skimming as many networks as possible. Then join the ones that give you a good impression. A good impression here is similar to the impression a first look at a resumé would give you: does it look well organized? If so, dive into the details. Since Blogger is part of Google, I found it very easy to find some interesting Google+ groups. The first step here was actually to customize a Google+ profile, which you have automatically with GMail or any Google module, however until you edit it, it stays blank. So, I tossed on a picture and... that was that!

Now onto the group. I joined the English Language Teaching & Learning group. It has a lot of members and from a scan on the group feed it looks to be a fairly active group with decent content. The shared content is mainly teachers sharing individual activity ideas or things to use as part of an activity. From grammar point explanations to videos you can find all sorts of little bits to use in various points on your lesson.

For example, this graphic was shared in the group:

Original File Here

The original file is a bit bigger and the picture has lots of interesting details.

• The colors make it appealing to younger learners, it looks like a fun cartoon that demonstrates the target words with its images.
• The amount of words allows a vocabulary list for more advanced learners to tackle.
• And there is even a phonetic transcription for really high end learners and/or future language specialists. See the original file for a clearer version of this.

Given this one network shared file, a whole lesson can be made. Or even a smaller series of lessons for younger learners. Creating good class materials takes a lot of time and energy, however with effective sharing such as this, teachers can use a good deal of their time to simply search out materials. The key here is that at some point a creative contribution to the group is expected, though with the time saved by searching, there should be a good deal left for some creating and putting back into the group.

An Analogy of the Learner

"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet." 
Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Act 1 Scene 1

A lot of people talk about what love is like, however my question now is: What is learning like?
And more specifically, what is a learner like?

I would say that a learner is like...

  ...a river basin.

At first it was in its natural state much like a brain just born. There was a basic understanding of information in a simple system, however that system would soon begin to grow fast. Just as humans' settlement in river basins forever changed them with agriculture and irrigation and eventually industry, the human brain too changes once it settles in the world. Colors and sounds, people and animals, home and outside, city and country and everything in between is eventually classed and arranged there in a way particular to the individual brain and where it is. No two brains are exactly the same and no two river basins as well. Each has different connections and each got to its present state through its own unique journey. 

George Siemens in his online presentation, What is Connectivism, states that "Different types of networks with different type of attributes will serve different types of learning needs" (Slide 19). I think that this means that salient information is subjective, we remember and learn and develop according to what we consider important and this is largely dictated by our needs. Additionally, as Siemens states in his article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today." No surprise then that the slim Nile River basin developed differently than the lush and wide Yellow River basin. Different connections for different needs were made and "Learning is the formation of new neural connections" (What is Connectivism, Slide 11). The irrigation ditches and roads of the valley are the neurons of the brain that continues to develop with each passing experience.

A Madness most Discreet

In experiencing more, we learn more and, more often than not, want to learn more. This means making more connections and people have done this for ages. Most of the entire planet is now literally connected and even remote places can be seen from satellites and physically accessed quicker than ever before should the need arise. This is what Siemens describes as "Our desire to exceed our humanity through technology" (What is Connectivism, Slide 6). Apes seem to be content with being apes, however humans with that critically larger brain seem to never be content with anything. We have made connections all over our brain and within our river valley and finally all over our planet. It's nearly impossible to imagine what the world would be like without these networks. In the short video, The Changing Nature of Knowledge, Siemens states that "The Network becomes the learning." Here, Siemens is referring to what he calls the "external" network, meaning not in the individual's brain, but rather his or her colleagues. It is impossible to remember everything, thus we create a larger network or join a new network to be able to learn more.

Like Shakespeare's portrayal of Love, Learning is also powerfully motivating.