G4LI Kurt Squire – Games and Assesment

No one assesment does everything
Observation, cognition, and interpretation
Claims, evidence, tasks

Theory
Cognition is situated
Video games are designed experiences
Learning comes through immersion in idealogical worlds
Participation in social worlds

In games, players move from newbie with little understanding, to basic knowledge to systemic expertise to desire to mod to scenerio design, to community creation and leadership
User–>Designer

Using Citizen Science game, Squire wanted people to … crap, do some stuff, learn and take action I think, about a lake, Lake Medota
Lake Mendota has an algae problem, could die
In the game you’re meant to save it, but you can transgress and destroy it worse
Game involves thinking about the whole watershed, not just the lake, building complex argumantes
Looking at expert/novice studeis…what can be infered from in game behavior?–lake experts playing games and kids palying
Found:
Finishing the game did not mean you were an expert
Novices learned from the system, experts did not–novices learned from observation/action/feedback, while experts did not move through those three stages
Did see significant thinking change with kids, the independently wrote letters to the editor and crafted a resolution for city legislatiure

Experts may claim game doesn’t asses well if experts don’t succeed at it–but that’s not how most assesments work
Theoretical problem solving isn’t the same as real problem solving

As students, we have no right to make a counter claim, if we’re assesed as unsatisfactory then that’s the law

Assessment Bill of Rights
My goals are reflected in assessment
I have the right to challenge any of your claims with counter-evidence
I have the right to argue what constitutes valid evidence for learning
I have the right to make claims and present my own evidence to bolster them

Not willing to compromise the successful “gaminess” of the game to cram in more scientifically valid info–playability/fun are fundamental to this experiment, and it is an experiment (may not teach well! but them’s the breaks)

G4LI Jaron Lanier Talk

Microsoft Research/Author “You Are Not a Gadget”
The human body has input/output capabilities.
Haptic feedback, in HCI/UI research is about touch feedback and force feedback.
We tend to think that all digital tech is improving exponentially, but in fact some of the most important improvements are simply crawling ahead–haptic feedback
The Powerglove showed up in the 80s, died and then haptics didn’t return until the Wii, and now Natal coming out at Christmas
“The haptic modality of cognition is capable of independent problem solving” Piano improve involves the body independently colving cognitive problems–chord modulation etc. This has great potential for learning, obviously.
“Can you learn trigonometry by mapping your body into a triangle in real time?” “Can you learn anything about dinosaurs by becoming one” “Can you learn about chemistry by mapping yourself onto a molecule and bonding.”
This is fun. Also, we’re narcissicistic and when you are the subject it’s more interesting, and haptic intelligence is powerful means of learning.
As technology improves it improves mental acuity–our ability to recognize fidelity, and potentially computers could improve our capacity to think (what? just gonna roll with this right now)
The crucial duty of anyone in games and ed is to make simulations that have high fidelity to systems being modeled.
One of the cruicial chalenges will be accuractely mapping haptic structures to logic structures
Hypothesis: There is something fundamentally different about having knowledge structures mapped/ingrained into your physical body
The tounge can be an incredibly acurate and useful output device, and with noninvasive senseors it could be an invaluable maens of controlling computers
We’re at a difficult time now because standards for games so high, the ratio between commercial quality and leanring quality is larger that commercial film to learning film–games are very difficult to make well
There has to be parity between commercial and learning games, must happen, no solutions for this

Advocates avatar that is the content–less of the fantasy avatar in edu games

Teaching for Justice Curriculum Fair

This Saturday i’ll be at the 9th Annual Teaching for Justice Curriculum fair in Chicago. It looks like a great event with a keynote from Association of Raza Educators, workshops on a  variety of social justice education related topics, and poster tables where educators like me will be offering new approaches to engaging youth in progressive issues.

I’ll talking about game-based learning and showing off some of the work I’ve done with Tiltfactor and Global Kids. Stop by if you’re in the area.

Orozco Elementary School, 1940 W. 18th St (Corner of Damen), Chicago, IL
Sat, Nov 21st, @10:00am – 05:00PM